This is one of our India friends teaching me how to tie a veshti (while they're traditionally worn by men, they're super comfy and since it's pretty much just a big sheet you can wear it any way you want). The lesson took about 45 minutes since for just a big rectangle of cloth it can be pretty tricky to arrange. I was first taught how to wear it long (much easier) and then short which would be how workmen would wear it. I never had an official sari lesson since Archana is a master at sari arranging and took great joy in dressing me up like a life-sized Barbie (I come complete with bindi, jasmine, and jewelry accessories!)When it came time to leave India it was bittersweet, but perhaps more sweet-bitter. I had a wonderful trip in India and as my first travel experience it left a definite stamp on me. Seeing so many temples, peoples, and places, along with eating a great deal of Indian food I was on experience-overload the whole time I was there. It was quite the life changing trip. However, 7 weeks of sickness, crowding, complete strangers touching my hair, hands and face and just sitting and staring at me, witnessing the heart-breaking poverty every single day, having children thrust into my arms to bless or to take, and series of emotionally draining interactions with some of the most remarkable people I have ever met, all of it left me drained and done. I returned to the U.S. disbelieving the huge trip I had just undertaken, ready to see my family, and also ready someday to return to a country that is at once both beautiful and very, very ugly.
Thus ends India week, here comes Ireland!
4 comments:
Fun. It's nice to see what you look like up close. It is harder to see in your other photos.
yeah, I look different now since before I went off to India I cut off all my hair and dyed it brown. My mom requested that I never do that again, haha.
I understand your mom right now! While a couple days ago, I would have said oh well... just hair. It grows back. Have fun with it. I like mine better shorter. But my daughter's hair has taken FOREVER to grow since she was born and was finally around her shoulders and then she went on errands w/ her dad who decided to get his hair cut and let her too and they stupid people cut so much off! Like 3 or 4 inches and now she looks like a baby again. I cannot get back these precious toddler years. I am VERY upset. It is so sad. She is almost 4 and looks like she did at 1 1/2!
Oh that is so sad! My Mom has similar stories about that from when my sister and I were little. Except my Dad actually gave my sister a pair of scissors and let her cut her own bangs, guess how well that turned out! I hope her hair grows back fast!
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