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Laos, Literacy, Philippines, Vietnam
How kids in Vietnam, other countries embark on extreme journeys to school (photos)
September 7, 2015 admin
As the world marks the 48th annual International Literacy Day on Tuesday, have a look at how children in Vietnam and several Asian countries go to school in this photo feature provided by World Vision Vietnam.
Millions of children across Asia returned to school this month, pursuing their right to education. The new school year in Vietnam officially kicked off on September 5.
While many have schools in their own communities, others have to go on long and difficult journeys to access their education, which is a major challenge in Asia and the Pacific.
In remote villages, schools are often far away and difficult to reach. The distance from home to school is one of the reasons why 26.3 million children are out of school in Asia and the Pacific, according to UNESCO.
"On World Literacy Day, we are celebrating the children who embark on extreme, sometimes dangerous, journeys to school, so that they can learn and continue their education," World Vision, a global relief and development organization, said.
Here is how kids in remote areas in Vietnam and some other Asian countries make it to pursue literacy.
Vietnam: Every day, Linh and her friends wake up at 4:30 in the morning to walk to school. It is a three-km journey from her house to school. She has to pass over several streams and steep slopes. In the flood season, the stream current is very dangerous. Photo: Truong Cong Thanh
Vietnam: Linh and her friends walk over a steep slope. In the rainy season, the slopes become slippery and dangerous, often causing them to fall down. Their school books get drenched too. Photo: Truong Cong Thanh
Cambodia: These two grade 3 students endure a four-km walk to school every day. By the time Sreyneang (right) reaches school, "[she] has been tired and [her] legs have been tired too." Photo: Vanndeth Um
Myanmar: Aye Aye and her friends walk across a rice field on their long journey to school. Photo: Khaing Min Htoo
Indonesia: Melvi, a ten-year-old boy from a rural area in East Sumba, Indonesia, passes over a wide river to reach school before climbing the steep chalk cliff. Photo: Rena Tanjung
The Philippines: Jenel is one of hundreds of students who live in the mountain ranges of the Philippines. He treks two hours – up and down the hills and across a river – to walk from his sugar cane farming village to school. Photo: Mong Jimenez
India: Parmila, 8, and her friend Armu, both in third grade, walk across a desert in western India in order to reach school. Photo: Tiatemjen Jamir
September 8 was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO in 1965. It has been celebrated around the globe annually since 1966, with an aim to remind the international community of the status of literacy and adult learning globally.
The theme of the 2015 International Literacy Day is "Literacy and Sustainable Societies," according to UNESCO.
World Vision, which is dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the cause of poverty, started working in Vietnam with emergency relief assistance in 1988 and opened an office in Hanoi in 1990.
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Localized Innovation in Laos, Guatemala and Ghana Shows Us What Quality Education for All Should Look Like
I left a 30-year career in for-profit education with hopes of changing the future for the world's most vulnerable young students. Bringing quality education to all, the mission driving Pencils of Promise, may be the most challenging work with the highest stakes I have ever taken on.
Yet, as the name of our NGO alludes, there is promise.
Later this month, the United Nations will convene to celebrate its 70th anniversary, working toward a compelling vision for sustainable development as articulated in its goals (SDGs) for people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. By necessity, the group's policy lens will focus on the highest level and set inspirational goals from which individual countries can begin to shape more specific targets.
Thankfully, this broad, diffuse light brings attention and awareness to a pervasive need — 250 million children worldwide lack basic reading, writing and numeracy skills. One in three of our planet's youth fall far short of achieving literacy levels necessary to complete primary education, progress to secondary education and rise above a subsistence economy.
If children are indeed our future, then our future is at risk. But, there is abundant evidence suggesting that now is the time to achieve both systemic change and local impact.
Achieving SDG 4 — "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" — requires two breakthroughs. First, we must define and achieve higher quality. Then, we must find effective means to reach every child, to satisfy the "for all" component.
I lead Pencils of Promise (PoP), a small, innovative NGO focused on bringing quality education to rural communities in Ghana, Guatemala and Laos. We live and breathe education, especially "for all." Impact and return on donor's dollars necessitate that we adopt a rigorous, hypothesis-driven, trial-and-error approach to identifying what works.
And here, too, there is good news.
Over the past year in Ghana, we implemented programming — including teacher training and e-readers for every student — designed to boost literacy rates. The results showed that 89 percent of sixth-grade students receiving PoP programming achieved benchmark literacy proficiency, versus 56 percent in a control group. This coming year, we will scale this programming to reach more communities and further validate outcomes.
Achieving these gains required a methodical and customized approach to addressing conditions in Ghanaian primary-school classrooms. These programs will not be easily transferable to Laos or Guatemala. There are few economies of scale in this work, at least until broadband internet access is ubiquitous.
What we can share, however, is that a custom approach to promoting quality education includes the following essential ingredients:
Partnership. Faced with deep need, there is a tendency to act. Instead, we ask first, act later. We ask governments and people what they need most, where and why. We trust but verify — with frequent visits to validate need and evolving conditions. Teachers, students and communities are receptive to PoP because of our authentic, equal partnership with local communities, national Education Ministries and regional governments. We do together what no one partner could achieve alone.
Accountability. We don't believe in handouts. Instead, we hold partners accountable for their contribution to a school, before we make ours. PoP builds primary schools for entire communities, for all students and parents to share and feel ownership.
Transparency. We continue working in communities after we build a school to implement water, sanitation and hygiene programs as well as literacy-boosting technology and teacher support. Being there allows us to frequently collect data and share it with our stakeholders. As a result, 100 percent of the 304 schools that we've built are operating — no incomplete builds, re-purposed buildings or failed schools here.
Gender Equality. In Guatemala and Ghana, we require Promise Committees comprised equally of men and women to lead our projects from beginning to end, helping further engage the community and providing vital linkage to our staff.
Local. At PoP, we empower and encourage local staff. Each of our Country Directors knows their country best — our role is to support their visions, not impose our own. PoP team members speak the native languages of communities, spend months there during the school builds and visit at least monthly thereafter. Quality education takes time and persistence.
On September 8, Pencils of Promise is lighting the Empire State Building yellow, like a pencil, to celebrate International Literacy Day and raise awareness of the 250 million children who lack basic reading and writing skills. As we look up at the NYC skyline, we will reflect on our own privilege of receiving a quality education.
This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post, "What's Working: Sustainable Development Goals," in conjunction with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The proposed set of milestones will be the subject of discussion at the UN General Assembly meeting on Sept. 25-27, 2015 in New York. The goals, which will replace the UN's Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015), cover 17 key areas of development — including poverty, hunger, health, education, and gender equality, among many others. As part of The Huffington Post's commitment to solutions-oriented journalism, this What's Working SDG blog series will focus on one goal every weekday in September. This post addresses Goal 4.
To support One Million Words Asia Literacy Organization work in Laos please donate at www.onemillionwords.org/donate.html
Laos, Literacy
Literacy helps break lLanguage barrier
They work long hours…before, during, and after school days. They are about 8,500 miles from their native country of Laos, a small country in Southeast Asia.
But Bounthane, nicknamed Bonnie, and her husband Leut Keochanthanivong, who moved to Altus in 1997, enthusiastically come to the Great Plains Literacy Council for their English lessons with volunteer tutor Jennifer Stanley at the Altus Public Library.
The Lao language is so different from English. Bonnie and Leut fled Laos as refugees in the mid-1970s to Thailand. Then after a few years, US sponsors provided their separate arrivals to Lawton, Oklahoma, where they met each other. The sponsors helped them with their legal paperwork and in finding jobs, even though they didn't know English.
Bonnie, center, and her husband Leut, right, receive helpful reading and writing tips from Great Plains Literacy Council tutor Jennifer Stanley at the weekly lessons in the Altus Public Library. GPLC is a nonprofit providing free tutoring to local adults.
"When we moved to America," Bonnie recalled with a laugh, "we could not understand the people. Even asking to go to the restroom was difficult!"
In 1981, they married and moved to Florida and later to California. In 1992, they obtained US citizenship in California where immigration classes helped them pass the examinations. So how did they end up in Altus, Oklahoma? They had lived in big cities and wanted to come back to southwest Oklahoma. Turns out they had friends at Hobart who helped them find work here.
"It wasn't easy as all our employers always spoke English," remembered Leut. "We relied on hand signals or they would show us what to do."
They raised their two sons and two daughters in Altus, who have all graduated from Altus High School. It was difficult not being able to help them with school work, but they encouraged their children to do well at school. It was important to both Bonnie and Leut that their kids learn the English language as well as their native language.
Now they both are custodians with the Altus Public School System. A friend, Kimly Pang, an ESL adult learner in the local literacy program, directed them to the library to learn through tutoring. They followed that advice and started with their weekly tutoring with Jennifer Stanley in October 2013.
"Both have been studying English and making progress," summarized Mrs. Stanley. "Learning to write, speak, and comprehend another language takes time and practice."
It hasn't been a road without obstacles, but Leut and Bonnie know how fortunate to be in America as citizens. Leut is quick to pull out his cell phone to show pictures of his grandchildren. They both have starting writing stories to be accepted this summer and published in a statewide literacy book, written by adult learners.
"We want to keep learning more English," they both exclaim. They have been thankful for their GPLC tutor Jennifer and the literacy services.
Anyone interested in becoming tutors or needing assistance with reading, health literacy, citizenship, or other literacy goals, can call the Altus Library at 580-477-2890 or the Hollis Library at 580- 688-2744.
Also upcoming programs for the public on naturalization information will be held on Tuesday, March 24, at the Altus Public Library, 421 N. Hudson. US Citizenship and Immigration Community Relations Officer Jesus Ramirez from the Regional Office in Dallas
will be conducting "Naturalization Information in English" in the west meeting room at 1 pm. Then at 5 pm he will present "Naturalization Information in Spanish". Both of these meetings will focus on questions often asked by immigrants and their families.
Citizenship literacy is supported by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, and the Rural Oklahoma Community Foundation.
China, Laos, Literacy, Philippines, Vietnam
Regional overview: East Asia and the Pacific
The past decade has seen mixed progress towards Education for All (EFA) in East Asia and the Pacific.1 More children are participating in pre-school education, many countries have achieved universal primary education (UPE) and more are moving from primary school to secondary education. Gender parity has been achieved at the primary level in a majority of countries and adult literacy rates are improving. However, challenges remain. The Pacific subregion has seen a 7% decline in primary enrolment rates, and 7.9 million children are not enrolled in school in the region as a whole. Some 105 million adults are still illiterate and levels of learning achievement are low in many countries. East Asia and the Pacific spends a lower share of national income on education than the world average. On the other hand, external aid to basic education has increased in recent years, despite stagnation in overall levels.
UNESCO Regional overview: East Asia and the Pacific
Goal 2: Universal primary education Over the past decade, progress towards UPE has been uneven across East Asia and the Pacific. While many countries in the region have relatively high primary enrolment rates, some are registering increasing numbers of children not enrolled in schooling. Progress towards UPE is limited. From 1999 to 2008, nearly 30 million fewer children enrolled in primary education in the region, partly due to declining fertility rates in some large countries. The regional primary adjusted net enrolment ratio (ANER)2 remained about the same over the decade and stood at 95% in 2008. However, the Pacific subregion is moving away from the UPE goal, as its primary ANER declined from 90% to 84% between 1999 and 2008. Progress towards UPE was particularly marked in Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Tonga, where the primary ANERs increased by five to eleven percentage points between 1999 and 2008. In Tonga, the indicator increased from 88% to 99%. The situation remains critical in several countries, including the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste, all with ANERs below 80% (Figure 2). Numbers of children out of school are declining, but at varying speeds. Some 7.9 million children of primary school age in East Asia and the Pacific – 61% of them boys – were not enrolled in school in 2008, down by nearly 3 million since 1999.
Progress in recent years has been particularly remarkable. The number of out-of-school children increased by an annual average of 203,000 between 1999 and 2004, but then declined substantially, with reductions of nearly 1 million per year between 2004 and 2008. Some countries with large out-of-school populations, including the Philippines, saw their rate of progress slip over time. The out-of-school number in the Philippines fell by nearly 23,000 per year on average from 1999 to 2004, but by only 16,000 annually from 2004 to 2008. By contrast, progress has accelerated in some countries, including the Lao People's Democratic Republic, in recent years. Many children in the region will remain out of school in 2015. Trend analysis can provide plausible scenarios for the numbers of children out of school in 2015. In the Lao People's Democratic Republic, a continuation to 2015 of the trend from 1999 to 2008 would see the country's out-of-school number fall by 4.4% to some 135,000 by 2015. The out-of-school number in the Philippines would be roughly unchanged at 961,000 in 2015 based on the 1999–2008 trend, but the country's recent slowing in progress towards UPE means a continuation of the more recent 2004–2008 trend would lead to an increase to just over 1 million.
Starting school at the right age is a challenge in some countries. Getting children into primary school at the right age, ensuring that they progress smoothly and facilitating completion are key elements to advance towards UPE. Many countries in the region are struggling to get children into primary school at the official starting age. In eight of the ten countries in the region with data, less than 70% of children starting school were of official primary school age in 2008, and the figure went as low as 38% in Vanuatu in 2007. However, rapid change is possible. In Cambodia, the share of children starting school at the official age increased from 61% in 1999 to 79% in 2008. Progress in survival to the last grade of primary school is mixed. Once children are enrolled at the right age, the challenge is to get them through school. While more than 92% of children starting primary school reached the last grade in East Asia in 2007, school survival remained an important issue in some countries, including Cambodia and the Lao People's Democratic Republic with survival rates below 70%. Nevertheless, several countries made significant progress in improving survival rates. In particular, the rates in Fiji and the Lao People's Democratic Republic have risen by twelve percentage points each since 1999. Prospects for entry, progression and completion of primary school are closely linked to household circumstances. Children who are poor, rural or from ethnic or linguistic minorities face higher risks of dropping out. In Cambodia, completion rates for the richest 20% of the population are more than three times as high as those of the poorest quintile. Tackling school dropout requires action on several fronts. Dropout profiles vary enormously by country. In Myanmar, with a first-grade dropout rate of 12%, and the Philippines at nearly 13%, children have trouble negotiating their way through the early grades. High dropout rates in the last grade in other countries, such as Indonesia and Vanuatu, are associated with late entry to school. Evidence from many countries shows that the risk of primary school dropout increases with age, thought the strength of the association varies. Lowering the risk of dropout requires a broad set of policies aimed at reducing underlying vulnerabilities, including poverty-related factors and problems linked to the quality of education.
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Idhu Nijama () is a 1948 Tamil-language thriller film directed by Krishna Gopal and produced by S. Soundararajan Ayyengar. The film dialogue was written by V. Seetharaman. The film script was written by S. Balachander as well as the music, an asset to the film. The film starred S. Balachander (as twins), Sarojini and Kumari N. Rajam, playing lead, with V. Seetharaman, Manuel, Pattammal and A. S. Nagarajan playing supporting roles. This film was inspired by the American Classic film Wonder Man (1945). Decades later, Kamal Haasan's Kalyanaraman was heavily inspired by Wonder Man and Idhu Nijama. The film was ran successfully in many centres.

Background
S. Balachander made a grand reentry in cinema with Idhu Nijama in 1948/K. G. Productions. The film based on the English classic Wonder Man in 1945, produced by Samuel Goldwyn. Wonder Man had Arthur Sheekman's story reworked to a riveting screenplay by Jack Jevne and Eddie Moran, and directed by H. Bruce Humberstone. Wonder Man had Danny Kaye playing the dual role of Edwin Dingle and his twin Buzzy Bellew. Idhu Nijama was financed by S. Soundararajan Ayyengar and directed by Krishna Gopal, who was acclaimed as a technical wizard those days. S. Balachander watched the movie repeatedly and observed all the finer points of the film. He came up with a brilliant screenplay suitable for an Indian milieu. The set of London City such as the famous Westminster Bridge was so realistically designed and impressively photographed (Krishna Gopal) that many movie goers thought the sequence was shot on location in England. The film was shot at the famous Ranjit Studio in Bombay.

Plot
The twin brothers are Madhavan (Madhu) and Gopal (S. Balachander). Madhu goes for higher studies in London city and Gopal runs a Musical instrument shop in Chennai. Madhu was killed in London because of love matters, whose ghost comes back to his house and reveals the reasons of his death. Madhu was only visible to his twin brother Gopal. When Gopal spells the word Ma, who enters the body of Gopal and how Gopal goes about avenging the murder of Madhu fills the rest of reels. Kumari Rajam played Madhu's pair while Sarojini played Gopal's sweetheart.

Cast
 S. Balachander as Madhavan/Gopal (Twin Brothers)
 Sarojini as Nalini, Gopal's Sweetheart
 Kumari N. Rajam as Nirmala, Madhu's Sweetheart
 V. Seetharaman
 Manuel
 Pattammal
 A. S. Nagarajan

Soundtrack
Music by S. Balachander and lyrics were written by M. S. Subramaniam. The playback singers consists of S. Balachander, Radha Jayalakshmi and P. Leela.

References

External links

1948 films
1940s Tamil-language films
Indian black-and-white films
Films with screenplays by Javar Seetharaman
Films set in London
Films set in Chennai
Films shot in Mumbai
1940s thriller films
1940s romance films
1940s crime films
Indian remakes of American films
Indian ghost films
Crime in film
Indian horror films
Films scored by S. Balachander
Films based on short fiction

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
historical region, France
Alternative Title: Guienne
Guyenne, also spelled Guienne, former region of southwestern France, merged with Gascony for the last centuries before the French Revolution in the gouvernement of Guyenne and Gascony (Guyenne-et-Gascogne). The Guyenne region corresponds to the modern département of Gironde and to most of the départements of Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne, Lot, and Aveyron. The region was under English control during much of the later European Middle Ages.
From Roman times until the Middle Ages, the region of Guyenne was simply part of the region of Aquitaine (q.v.), of which the name Guyenne is a corruption. Historically, the name Guyenne first became important through the Treaty of Paris (1259) between Louis IX of France and Henry III of England. By this treaty, Louis IX accepted Henry III as his vassal for Guyenne and also for Gascony, which the English had held previously. (England had received both Aquitaine and Gascony in the 12th century through Henry II's marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine.) Guyenne was retaken by the French at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War, but the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360 restored it, with the whole of the old Aquitaine, to the English. In the later phases of the Hundred Years' War, France reconquered all these areas. The last attempt by the English to retake the territory was repulsed at the Battle of Castillon (1453).
Louis XI gave the duchy of Guyenne to his brother Charles de France, duke de Berry, in 1469, but, after the latter's death in 1472, it was reunited to the French crown. During the religious wars in the 16th century and during the Fronde in the 17th, Guyenne was the scene of bitter fighting.
France: Louis IX
…lands and reversionary rights in Guyenne in exchange for renouncing all claims to Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and Poitou. Similarly, by the Treaty of Corbeil (May 1258) Louis himself had abandoned ancient claims to Catalonia and Roussillon in exchange for the renunciation of Barcelona's rights in Gévaudan and Rouergue. Meanwhile,…
France: Recovery and reunification, 1429–83
…and in 1451 most of Guyenne fell to the French.…
Hundred Years' War
…his realm, maneuvered to confiscate Guyenne in 1337, Edward III renewed his claim to the French throne and brought an army to Flanders.…
Aquitaine, former région of France. As a région, it encompassed the southwestern départements of Dordogne, Gironde, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, and Pyrénées-Atlantiques. In 2016 the Aquitaine région was joined with the régions of Poitou-Charentes and Limousin to form the new administrative entity of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The present-day région of Nouvelle-Aquitaine roughly matches the…
More About Guyenne
history of France
In France: Louis IX
In France: Recovery and reunification, 1429–83
In Hundred Years' War
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Septimania
Narbonensis
Comtat-Venaissin
Lugdunensis
Gévaudan
Saintonge
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Pearl Harbor attack
Pearl Harbor attack, (December 7, 1941), surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor…
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In March 2011 Syria's government, led by Pres. Bashar al-Assad, faced an unprecedented challenge to its…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A new friend was interested in our schedule, and so we are going to be sharing it. But we wanted to first have some introductory comments, lest anyone get the wrong idea. So, we will post these comments first.
First off, we are not "natural schedulers", but rather, we NEED a schedule!
We were blessed many years ago by the Lord bringing a book into our lives, Managers of Their Homes. It provided the practical, SPIRITUAL information we needed to convince us of the need to budget our time. Really, time is more valuable than money, and may of the same principles apply to budgeting time as money. In fact, many years ago, Dave was in a Christian men's group where a brother suggested that everybody bring their checkbooks and lay them open so they could be accountable for how they spend their money! It is by looking at this record that our real priorities are seen. Same thing goes for how we spend our time; it shows our priorities.
So, one of the biggest benefits of scheduling for us was not the schedule in itself. It was the benefit of prayerfully setting our priorities before creating a schedule. It was not a mom thing either. Both of us parents were involved (though one did more pencil pushing than the other), and that was also a huge blessing and help in being on the same page, so to speak. When we look at our schedule, we recognize that we have reasons for everything on it. So the exercise of putting our schedule together has been by far one of our most profitable accomplishments, because it forced us to compare what was on the paper with what is in God's Word.
Our schedule, and our adherence to it, is far from perfect. In our early years, we would detect deficiencies in the schedule, and lapse for weeks at a time intending to revise it. Then in desperation, we'd go back to the original schedule and find it wasn't that bad after all. Now it is far more ingrained in all of us, though we still need improvement in self-discipline and there are certain parts of the schedule that are still challenging for us. But, we really are thankful for God's wisdom and his Word for helping us to establish priorities.
The real problem with our schedule is when we get distracted by things that are not really contributing to doing what God wants us to be doing! In reality, it's the time wasting distractions, the bunny trails, and our lack of discipline that really mess things up! But God is merciful and we can always just repent, refocus and get back on track! When you have a schedule, its a lot easier to get back on track, because you have a track to get back on!
Anyway, our current schedule (which we will include in the next post, Lord willing) has been overhauled quite a bit since our first one 12 years ago. Things that bring about changes in our schedule include: having more children, having different aged children, shifts in priorities, our increasing ability to realize our goal of having the older children working with the younger (and vice versa!), a desire to teach our children as much as possible using real life tasks and events rather than those which are contrived and even the size and configuration of our house.
So next we will work on posting our current schedule, with some explanatory notes. (It takes a while for me to be concise in writing!) We hope that by posting this information, it will be an encouragement to someone.


"What does it mean to be a 'Hoosier'?" - I'm glad you asked.
A Hoosier is one that is native to Indiana. It means traditional values and fair dealings. It means honesty, respect and integrity. It means supporting your neighbors and community. It means dependability and a hard work ethic. It means all of these things and so much more.


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Yesterday we popped to the supermarket to buy some paneer (I made paneer tikka last night!). During Navratri, we have visited some of the hundreds of pandals in Nagpur. A pandal is a tent type structure, built with bamboo and fabric, which holds an idol inside. I guess you could call them temporary temples where Lord Ganesh is worshipped during Ganesh Chaturthi, and Goddess Durga is worshipped during Navratri.
Last night we came across a Bengali celebration called 'Durga Puja'. I have heard so much about Durga Puja, I really needed to see this! Durga Puja is celebrated during the last four days of Navratri, this festival is all about good triumphing over evil! Last night, Durga puja began!
During Durga Puja, Mother Durga is a worshipped in her opulent, ten armed, warrior form! The Bengali way of making idols is beyond breathtaking and, unlike the Marathi style, she is accompanied by Goddess Lakshmi, Goddess Saraswati, Lord Ganesh and Kartikeya (the second son of Parvati and Lord Shiva). The small details, the huge eyes, the ornaments, the long curly black hair… spectacular! Durga Puja for Bengalis is what Diwali is for the rest of India, prior to the festival there are months of excitement, anticipation and preparations!
Mahishasur, a Buffalo Demon, persistently prayed to Lord Brahma for many years. Lord Brahma saw his devotion and granted him his biggest wish, to become invincible Once he got what he wanted, he started a ravenous rampage across the world, destroying everything he came in contact with. Once the world was ruined, he wanted to kill the Gods themselves. The Gods created a force more powerful than Mahishasur, the divine feminine, Goddess Durga. In each of her ten hands she carried the most deadly weapons on heaven and Earth, and she destroyed that undestroyable demon.
Goddess Durga later blessed Lord Ram, in the Hindu epic The Ramayana, just before he killed the demon Ravana who has holding Lord Rama's wife hostage. On Friday, there is another festival (yes, Hinduism has a lot of festivals!) to celebrate Lord Ram's victory! Here in Nagpur, a huge model of Ravana is going to be burnt to the ground!
There is usually a flurry of excitement when people see a foreigner among them, but this time we got a little more than we expected. As we were worshiping the idols, one of the men in the pandal asked us to offer some coconuts to Goddess Durga. I love Goddess Durga, so I was enthusiastic to do so! We then found ourselves dressed up red material (I don't know if it has as special name), which had been blessed by the Goddess, and our photograph being taken by several people!
We had just popped to the supermarket to get paneer, I hadn't a speck of makeup, my hair was a messy (luckily they wanted to cover my head), I had even forgotten to put on a bindi before going out! I guess you should always be ready for anything, life in India is a lot of things, but boring? Never!
Once we were back in the car, with our coconuts and blessed material, my husband said how awkward it was because he didn't know what was going on, these traditions are Bengali and he is Marathi. The confusion and attention hadn't bothered me, then I realised that the majority of my life in India involves: awkwardness, too much attention and utter bewilderment! I guess I have become accustomed to it. Progress!
'Welcome to my world', I said.
It's now one of my dreams to spend Durga Puja in Kolkata, Bengal! The birth place of Durga Puja, Kolkata is where the festival really comes alive, with over two thousand pandals, street lights and parties. Hopefully next year! Happy Durga Puja everyone!!!
So lovely that the response to your presence was to embrace you and make you a part of the puja… rather than all the "Where are you from? What are you doing here?" stuff.
Ha! Yes.. many times I had that experience in India of going out to do a simple thing and it becoming a whole adventure.
Why are you making your life with your husband and intercultural love in general seem like such a cakewalk? Life as a married couple is no walk in the park, no matter how wonderful your husband is. Why is it so important to you to advertise yourself and gloss over the regular difficulties, misunderstandings and resentments that are only natural in an intercultural relationship? Especially when you are a foreigner who chose to go to India for love. Why are you so fascinated by Hinduism? Is there nothing in your birth religion that gave you meaning? After all, all religions were born out of the same insecurities and human needs. Is it the exoticism that makes all these new traditions fascinating to you? You are not Hindu unless born into it. Are you ok with women not being able to enter the kitchen and participate in puja because they are menstruating? Do you wake up at 5 to prepare puja and the whole family's lunch from scratch? Are you proud to be judged on your capacity as a wife by the roundness of your chapattis and your forgiveness? Do you know to what extent your opinion matters? I do not mean this as any disrespect whatsoever, but do you actually know where loyalties lie? Do you know yourself dear? Do you know what makes you happy, do you know your limits, do have a life plan? Contrarily to what you would have most of your readers believe, Love is not everything…. At least not the way most girls think about it…. Real Love needs to be learned, and the way is not easy. Love is not just an infatuation, but a decision. And before you judge me as a troll, I have been married and living in India for the past 3 years, after a LDR of a year and a half. You just sort of pissed me off with your endless seemingly "happy ending" stories, whose ending is actually only the very beginning. You make everything sound so easy when it is lying and false information. Nothing in life is easy my dears, and I think God does not judge our piety but rather our mettle, our maturity and our resolve. Despite our "faith", we are what we choose to make of ourselves, and it is our soul responsibility….
Let me just tell you this… these are the happiest months of my entire life!! Before I met my husband I suffered from depression for over a decade and I was in a physically and mentally abusive relationship for two years. If you read my whole blog you will see that I wrote about how I suffered to adapt to India and the culture, as well as my depression and anxiety disorder, but these last couple of months I have been extremely happy. Maybe I am writing about my life as if it were a 'cake walk' because for us, it really is, especially compared to our lives before we met.
I am not going to write about intercultural problems because me and my husband don't have any between us, yes with his family (which I have written about) but not between us! That is one of the many reasons I decided to allow others to write about their intercultural love, so readers could get a broader perspective. I am not responsible for what they are writing, but I am glad I can share a positive side to intercultural love. There are plenty of other blogs which really assess the problems that can arise, but as they have not arisen for me, I am not qualified to write about them.
I found my happiness, and I am really sorry that it pisses you off. I hope that you find yours. My husband and I don't have any resentments or misunderstandings between each other. We have the same opinions and values, we work together. I am thankful to have found my soulmate, I am sorry if you feel it is false. If you do feel that way then you don't have to read my blog. After being in an abusive relationship, he is like my angel.
So, you ask me why I am fascinated by Hinduism? Several reasons. A couple of years before I met my husband I was in severe depression, really bad, and I came across a copy of the Gita in a bookshop. Reading it really helped me cope and find a way to smile again, years later when I first spoke to my husband, we both spoke about how that book changed our lives. Second reason, I live in a Brahmin household, Hinduism is very important here and I am really enjoying being a part of it, it's helped me build relationships with my new family. When you marry a Hindu, you also become a Hindu, that is a fact. I would classify myself as a Christian Hindu because me and my husband also attend Church as well as temple, but I haven't got around to blogging about that yet. I think each religion is a path to God, it's your choice with one you follow. My personal belief. Thirdly, when I first came to India I still had depression and anxiety disorder, attending temple every day not only helped me get out of the house but gave be solace and comfort. I felt more connected with my spirituality and it helped me heal some of the issues in my past.
Spirituality is individual, I don't expect to understand your spirituality and even though I have tried to explain mine, I don't expect you to understand mine either.
As for the menstruation thing, my family is full of priests and they see these rules as outdated. Back in the day, before sanitary towels, it was necessary. But now (thankfully) we have ways of dealing with our menstruation. Do I wake up at 5am and cook the entire families lunch from scratch? No, I wake up at 6am and walk my dog, then make breakfast for my husband and I. You ask about my round rotis? My family laugh about the fact that my roti is awful, so I don't make them.
I don't know what you mean by 'where my loyalties lie', I guess you have had an extremely different experience to me. But YES, after so much tragedy, sadness and introspection in my life, I DO know myself, I know myself VERY well. I am really loving my life right now, I am grateful for everything I have. All these problems you are talking about are not present in my life, if they are, I would tell you about them!
Love is everything to ME, it might not be everything to you… but to me, love is the meaning of life (I'm not just talking about romantic love, I am talking about all types of love; family, friends, nature, God). I don't judge you for feeling differently, it's just my opinion and you have your right to yours. Like I said, I suffered so much before I met my husband but I don't want to wallow in my past, I am looking forward and discovering this new country day by day.
I am not writing false information, I really am not. I don't think you have the right to claim that I am because you haven't come to Nagpur and met me or my husband. 'We are what we chose to make ourselves', you are right. I have chosen, after years of misery, to be a positive and happy person. The strength I get from love, Hinduism and Christianity has helped me overcome my demons.
I am honest, I speak from my heart. I have written about the good times and the bad times, it's just lately… I have had a lot of good times. I THANK GOD FOR THAT!!
I was curious if you know where, why, how the multiple arms on gods and goddeses came from?? Indeed beautiful and colorful works!
The red fabic material is called Chunri which is offered to Goddess Durga along with sindoor, flowers and other items. It is more like a blessing of the goddess Chunri is more of a north indian thing. Bengalis offer sairs to the goddess. That you and your husband got the opportunity of wearing is very auspicious. This is because you had the great desire to see Goddess Durga. The goddess found a way to reach you.
You husband was rightly bewildered because he is not aware of bengali customs. Hindus all over the country worship the same gods, follow the same customswith slight variations here and there, but differentiate between communities. This is a collective problem of Indians I guess. We ar similar but also very different.
Mahisaura mother was a buffalo and his father was a demon. Thus, he had the ability to change himself into to a buffalo. Mahis actually means buffalo in Sanskrit. Actually, it was a marriage of two people belonging to two tribes in reality. More like the world's first inter cultural marriage. When his father died in battle, his mother jumped into the funeral fire out of grief. She was carrying him in her womb at that time. Out the funeral pyre of his parents, Mahisaura rose up and roared. Since he was demon, he quickly grew from a infant to a full adult rapidly. However, these are all fascinating mythological stories. I saw this particular event in a TV serial.
Mahishasure actually got the boon that he cannot be killed by any man. He said that "If a man cannot kill me, then I have not threat from a weak women". Thus the ignored the power of the women at his own peril. When all his army was killed, he realized that durga is not an ordinary women. He remembered his boon, and realized that his end was near. He said "I recongize you, Oh goddess!!!, but I will fight you anyway, as I wish to attain salavation at your hands". Goddess Durga gave him boon that he will be worshipped along with the goddess. Thus, you see his idol with every durga idols. He is indeed worshipped along with the divine mother.
Yes! I felt very blessed to be given these Chunri!!
WHAT AN INTERESTING FACT, the world's first intercultural marriage, hehe! Shame it had to end so badly. I really really love mythology and thank you so much for sharing an indepth description!!
Wow, thank you so much for this comment friend!!! I hope you are having an amazing Durga Puja!!
If you wantto witness the sindoor game do visit the bengali pooja tomorrow in the morning. Might as well apply some on your husband.