Of Sarees and Silk Weaving

Greetings to all! Don't always expect this rapid fire pace for blog posts- we've just had a lot of down time lately and I've been feeling super unproductive, so here we go!

Friday, we took a day trip to Kanchipuram, known for its silk sarees, and Cheyyar, a village near Tambaram. After packing our group of 20+ people into two vans, we headed out on our day adventure, only to be stopped by masses of people waiting for election results. World's largest democracy indeed! Throngs of people were waiting outside of the MCC gates where votes were being tallied and there were even police officers, both male and female, making sure that the crowd wasn't going to get out of hand. After we finally got out of that traffic, we stopped to buy some sarees for Diwali, which is rapidly approaching. Diwali, or Deepavali in the South, is the Hindu festival of lights, celebrating the new year. Most of the girls decided to buy sarees and really get in the spirit for the festival, but we had no idea what exactly we were getting into.

Simply going inside was sensory overload (generally the theme of India), as there were masses of both people and types of sarees. Polyester, silk, silk blends, synthetics, cotton. Reds, blues, golds, embroidered, embellished, bedazzled. Overwhelmed wouldn't even begin to describe it. According to our fearless leaders Drs. Khandke and Suresh, saree shopping usually takes around 6 hours. We bought sarees for about 8 people in 1 hour. Enough said. First of all, there are three pieces to a saree: the cloth itself, the skirt, and the blouse. Selecting which type/pattern of cloth that you want is by far the hardest part and as all Indian saree advisers were saying, if you don't love it, keep looking. Keep in mind though, that there were tons of Indian people pushing past us in this store as well, and it wasn't exactly well air conditioned. So there we were, overwhelmed and out of sorts, but beyond excited to take part in a mode of clothing so unique to India. We did manage, and had an hour and a half saree party last night so that we could learn how to dress ourselves for Deepavali (help is still badly needed).

That was just the morning, so by lunch, most of the girls were pretty exhausted. Buying a saree is no joke, that's for sure. We then had lunch at this awesome place and hit the road again to visit traditional silk weavers and potters around Cheyyar. In the evening we watched a performance of the Mahabharata on someone's rooftop and ate dinner, arriving back at MCC around 12:40 am. A long day, but definitely one of the most experience filled and most rewarding since we've arrived in India.

I always think that I'm not going to write much, but that never seems to happen...if you are reading this, thanks for your patience! You will be rewarded with pictures at the end. One of the most interesting aspects of our Friday trip was the interaction with the villagers. For the first time on such a large scale, we were enthusiastically greeted by both village children and adults whenever we stopped and exited the vans. Having been only to east Asian countries before, I never really knew what it felt like to be arbitrarily adored by people because I was different from them. It was a strange experience and one that I definitely missed out on during that semester in China. I had several children just link arms with me or hold my hand and I ended up talking to a group of girls with ages ranging from 12-19. They understood a little bit of English and I'm pretty good at figuring things out based on context, so we managed to have a sporadic little conversation going on. They taught me how to say "eat" in Tamil, though I've already forgotten it. One of the things that struck me the most was when they said that I was beautiful because I was so fair. It made me pause for a moment and I felt incredibly unsettled by such an innocent remark. If a 12 year old already has the concept that fair skin is equivalent with beauty, how will that perspective ever change? We all want what we can't have, but I wanted so badly to convey to her that her skin was just as beautiful, if not more, than mine.

This was one of the first moments that I really felt that we were experiencing India- not through a giant tour bus, not through resorts, but on the level of the people themselves. Don't get me wrong- this has been a fantastic trip so far and I'm incredibly grateful for everything we've been able to experience, but I have a growing hunger to experience India on a much more personal level.
Here are some pictures!

Saree Shopping

South Indian Sampler Meal

Cheering with Masala Chai

Silk Weaver

Hand Spun Silk Cloth

Rice paddy worker

Alexa and the village potter

Policemen/women on election results day

Rolling traditional Indian cigarettes

With our new friends

Acting out a scene from the Mahabharata