(I apologize for not having updated sooner— yesterday was incredibly long, and once I returned to my hotel I didn’t have the energy to write a blog post!)
The day began with going to church with some Indian women from the community. Our hostess’s name was Sapna, and she also had with her her daughter and niece as well as my new friend Karishma. We attended St. John’s UMC, a very small church that was probably smaller than the whole of the ground floor of my house. We were introduced to the congregation and were also given flowers, which are currently settled in a coffee pot in our hotel room. Everyone was very excited that we were there— they fed us some very good food and insisted that we were introduced to nearly every person at the church. We were even invited to a wedding occurring next month, an invitation I was quite loathe to have to decline. Going to an Indian wedding is certainly on my bucket list.
For our actual lunch we went to Sapna’s home, where she taught us to make chipote, a type of flat bread that is a necessity at every Indian meal. We didn’t eat the chipotes that my mother and I made because they were too raw, although they did insist that they were great for our first time. While lunch was being prepared, the four of us (not including Sapna) watched an Indian movie called Robot and talked about normal things that people in America would talk about, like movie stars and music. It really drove home the fact that even though we live different lives, we are really not all that different.
We really didn’t want to leave Sapna’s beautiful home, but we had to in order to arrive in time to go on a tour of Lucknow. We started at a place called the Residency, which was an important British stronghold during the Sepoy rebellion. I can’t wait to tell Mrs. Webb about it— the whole time we were there I was telling the other members of the team about the rebellion, very proud of what Mrs. Webb had taught me. We also went to a prayer house, as well as La Martiniere school. It was beautiful— the roofs were adorned with statues of lions, and when the school was first built they used to put torches in their mouths to light the campus. The school was built by a French general for his beloved, who ironically never stepped foot in the country of India. We had a tour guide with us, but Karishna became rather annoyed with him because he was not telling the facts correctly. Luckily she knew what she was talking about, so I was able to get the real facts from her.
We capped off the day by going to Karishma’s house to eat dinner with her family. All of them were incredibly gracious, and all of the feat that they prepared was delicious. Before we began they had told me that they had used as few spices as possible because they knew that I didn’t like spicy food, and I was very grateful. Once I bit into it, however, I realized that no spice for them is different than no spice for me. Do you know in cartoons when the character eats something hot and their face turns red with steam coming out of their ears? That’s how I felt with one particular dish that I must have gotten too large a bite of. Karishma’s family found it slightly amusing, and Karishma herself ate a bite of a dish that I had thought rather spicy and told me that she didn’t taste any spice at all. We have different perspectives, to be sure.
I am so pleased to have been able to meet these wonderful people, and it is my hope that I can keep in contact with them long after I leave India.
The day began with going to church with some Indian women from the community. Our hostess’s name was Sapna, and she also had with her her daughter and niece as well as my new friend Karishma. We attended St. John’s UMC, a very small church that was probably smaller than the whole of the ground floor of my house. We were introduced to the congregation and were also given flowers, which are currently settled in a coffee pot in our hotel room. Everyone was very excited that we were there— they fed us some very good food and insisted that we were introduced to nearly every person at the church. We were even invited to a wedding occurring next month, an invitation I was quite loathe to have to decline. Going to an Indian wedding is certainly on my bucket list.
For our actual lunch we went to Sapna’s home, where she taught us to make chipote, a type of flat bread that is a necessity at every Indian meal. We didn’t eat the chipotes that my mother and I made because they were too raw, although they did insist that they were great for our first time. While lunch was being prepared, the four of us (not including Sapna) watched an Indian movie called Robot and talked about normal things that people in America would talk about, like movie stars and music. It really drove home the fact that even though we live different lives, we are really not all that different.
We really didn’t want to leave Sapna’s beautiful home, but we had to in order to arrive in time to go on a tour of Lucknow. We started at a place called the Residency, which was an important British stronghold during the Sepoy rebellion. I can’t wait to tell Mrs. Webb about it— the whole time we were there I was telling the other members of the team about the rebellion, very proud of what Mrs. Webb had taught me. We also went to a prayer house, as well as La Martiniere school. It was beautiful— the roofs were adorned with statues of lions, and when the school was first built they used to put torches in their mouths to light the campus. The school was built by a French general for his beloved, who ironically never stepped foot in the country of India. We had a tour guide with us, but Karishna became rather annoyed with him because he was not telling the facts correctly. Luckily she knew what she was talking about, so I was able to get the real facts from her.
We capped off the day by going to Karishma’s house to eat dinner with her family. All of them were incredibly gracious, and all of the feat that they prepared was delicious. Before we began they had told me that they had used as few spices as possible because they knew that I didn’t like spicy food, and I was very grateful. Once I bit into it, however, I realized that no spice for them is different than no spice for me. Do you know in cartoons when the character eats something hot and their face turns red with steam coming out of their ears? That’s how I felt with one particular dish that I must have gotten too large a bite of. Karishma’s family found it slightly amusing, and Karishma herself ate a bite of a dish that I had thought rather spicy and told me that she didn’t taste any spice at all. We have different perspectives, to be sure.
I am so pleased to have been able to meet these wonderful people, and it is my hope that I can keep in contact with them long after I leave India.
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