Wednesday Fun Day Run Day : )

Hello friends,
I write to you on this fine Wednesday evening. I actually went to class today, it felt weird since I haven’t been since last Thursday. With Fridays and Saturdays at field placement and then Monday we had off because some student got high ranks and then Tuesday was Republic Day.
Republic Day was my first official holiday in India, although it was less exciting than I expected. I woke up and went to my field placement at Vishwas Trust where they were doing the flag hoisting. There was about 15 of us there, a few elderly and a lot of youth who worked there or had come with friends. We stood in a circle around the flag. Someone sang a prayer in one of the many Indian languages and then it was time to let the flag fly high. Someone had come over earlier that morning to put the flag up and wrap flower petals in it. This way, when they tug on the flag rope, the flag opens up out of the wad it was in and orange flower petals fall out. Everyone salutes the flag. Then they gave a few messages about Republic Day although most of it was in Kannada it was nice. You could tell by the way they were talking and gesturing that they loved India all the way through. It was cool to see and hear. Then they asked me if I wanted to say anything about America and it’s Independence Day or India and Republic Day….I choose not to. After that they closed with another prayer and then had little refreshments. People were mingling and eating but all in Kannada since most of the elderly speak kannada and not very much English but then they asked me to play that board game again. I am not very good but it was fun to play because it was me and three elderly men. They talked in Kannada for most of the time but occasionally they’d try and give me advice on where to flick the pieces or whatever. The one man was funny because once he found I was from America he said his ABCs and he started spounting phrases they teach you in school “WhatisyourfathersnameWhatisyourmothersnameWhatisyourname”? All in quick succession like that to. After that I relaxed for most of the day. I did go to the market though and the fellows outside of it tried to sell me chicken again. You can see all the chickens sitting out there in those cages just waiting to be dinner…or lunch or breakfast or snack, since Indians seem to eat a lot of the same foods for all meals-spicy stuff.
Oh yeah, on Sunday something a little unusual happened as well. A group of Hindu fanatics, mostly youth I believe, had a rally. They had a big parade down a lot of the streets. I sat on our terrace for a few minutes with Emily and Alison and we watched them ride past. They had orange flags all over the place and the day before they had put orange flag streamers up and had a loudspeaker in a rickshaw driving around shouting things in Kannada. Annie nad I found out it about it at church that morning luckily from the guy who had picked us up for church. He told us to stay in our house that afternoon because these youth were all riled up and didn’t like Christians, Muslims or basically anyone but Hindus. I am still trying to figure out information on this group and their exact beliefs. From what some people were saying it sounded like they were racists but with religions, but I’m not totally sure. For pictures and a little information, you can check out this website: http://www.mangaloremithr.com/news/story.aspx?News-ID=7121&Cat=Regional-News&Loc=Mangalore&Title=Hindu%20Yuva%20Samavesha%20pulls%20in%20massive%20crowds
Another interesting thing with this group pertains to Valentine’s Day in India. It has only been a controversial topic for the past few years but it is a hot topic for some conservative Hindus. For one, Valentine’s Day encourages public displays of affection (PDA) and hand-holding whereas traditional Hinduism is against PDA. Here is part of an article I found on another part of it:
“In 2004, militant Hindu nationalists threatened to beat the faces and shave the heads of those who participated in Valentine's Day customs. "We will not allow westernization of Indian culture as St. Valentine was a Christian and celebrating Valentine's Day would be a violation of Indian culture," said Ved Prakash Sachchan, of the militant Hindu organization Bajrang Dal, in Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, a leader of the radical Hindu group Shiv Sena has condemned the holiday as "nothing but a Western onslaught on India's culture to attract youth for commercial purposes." Members of the group have stolen Valentine's Day greeting cards from a store and ceremonially burned them”.
And this, it’s from Wikipedia but I read the same thing a few other places. They will make them go to the Temple right away and get married. It’s slightly different than how I think of Valentines Day…“Those who violate this are dealt with harshly by baton-holding brigands of Shiv Sena who lurk in public places especially parks, chasing young people holding hands and others suspected to be lovers. In many parts of south India couples who are found in parks and other public places are immediately forced to marry on the spot by the Shiv Sena and other similar activists”
And today I went to the track again and ran the most laps consecutively that I've ever run on the track. 28 laps...lucky number. There is a possibility of running a race in India sometime in February and so this is motivating me and 2 of my roommates to train. I don't want to talk about the race until I've run it because I don't want to get my hopes up-too many things can go wrong here. I am in charge of getting all the details figured out (i.e. train ride, taxi ride, race registration ect.) and then my roommates said they'd run it with me if I figured it all out. So that is my mission right now. Imma try real hard :)
Tomorrow is traditional day at college and so all the girls will wear sarees, I'm not sure about the guys. I don't know if I will be wearing one or not-depends on if a girl can find one for me and it fits. It should be neat to see all the girls dressed up though!
Love you all!!!
Mmmk, that’s it. Happy Thursday! : )