Today I miss:

• My morning ritual of yogurt and a glass of V8
• Soyburgers
• Drew’s homemade Italian bread
• Curling up on the black armchair in the library and reading books.
• Being able to call friends and family whenever I want.
• Playing around with my mac

While out with the girls yesterday, I was attempting to try on bangles in order dress up my Salwar in the traditional Indian style. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any of them past the 2nd knuckle of my thumb. My hands are way too big to fit into the standard size Indian bangle. Many of you who’ve seen my hands and feet, know that in these areas at least, I’m small compared to the average North American. I have the hardest time finding shoes in Canada because most womens shoes do not come in such small sizes. I’m often forced to purchase childrens shoes, which often aren’t as well made as the adult ones. In India, finding shoes to fit my feet is a much simpler task.

In a few hours, Bindu and I are meeting to pick up a few more things I will need before I can wear my Salwar and Saree. I need a special slip that ties tight in order to drape my Saree properly, along with material to take to a tailor in order to make the blouse. Because of the festivities, many shops are closing at 2pm and re-opening later in the evening. Bindu and I have approximately 1.5 hours to complete our purchases before heading home. Anything we can’t complete today will be completed on Monday in the early afternoon.

We also stopped off at the Shopper’s Stop in order to pick up the pants for my Salwar. They were a tad bit too long, and I needed approx 3 inches cropped off the bottom in order for them to fit properly. It is common for most womens pants (and even Levi’s jeans) to be 34 inches in length. Most shops offer free pant hemming as part of the purchase.

Pants retrieved, we headed to Fourth block, another commercial sector in the city, to purchase the slip, bangles, earings, and bindi. The slip was easy to find, and we were in and out of the shop in a matter of minutes. Then we headed off to a material shop in order to pick up the silk required for the Saree blouse. As with the slip, finding and matching the blouse material was a quick and painless process.

Material and slip in hand, Bindu and I had to cross the road in order to reach the next shop on her list. Crossing the street in India is an experience that can’t really be described. Cars speed down the lanes with no indication of slowing down. Despite walking attempting to walk along a painted cross walk, no cars, motorcycles or bikes made way for pedestrians. Crossing is taken a vehicle width at a time, continuing on as the way clears in front of you. I know I’m not going to attempt this again anytime soon without a guide to direct me. There are no pedestrian crossing signals in this area but I doubt it would have made any difference had any existed. Motorists here pay little attention to many of the road rules we’re familiar with in Canada.

Picking out the accessories was a different story. The shop we visited had 3 levels. The first floor contains mainly cosmetics and perfumes. On the second floor, there is a large assortment of traditional India costume jewelry. Bangles, bracelets, chunky earings, and necklaces were available in an assortment of styles, colours and sizes. I found a number of bangles which made it past my thumb, and purchase a number of them in shades of blue, brown and red. After selecting the bangles, we trotted off to the back of the room where the earings were on display. Since I normally don’t wear earings more than once or twice a year, I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle the traditional style of earings worn with a Saree. They are very long and heavy, and dangle ½ way to the wearer’s shoulders. They are often ornately decorated with coloured glass, seed beads, and wire. After viewing hundreds of pairs of earings, Bindu and I settled on a few smaller earings that won’t be as difficult or as heavy for me to wear. The styles are also traditional, but are normally worn with casual wear, and not a high Saree. With earings selected, it was time to pick out the bindi. Bindi is a decoration worn by a married woman above her nose and between her eyebrows. The decoration is self sticking, and comes in a variety of styles and colours – large, small, simple or intricate designs. The prices vary from a few Rupees a package (packages normally have a minimum of 5 bindi each), to well over a hundred Rupees. Bindi’s are symbols and are worn by married women, similar to how a gold wedding band would be worn in North America. It announces, with a quick glance, that the woman is no longer single. The third floor of the store contained wall to wall packages of bindi and after some debate, we picked out a few packages containing smaller styles and simple decorations.

It’s time to go back to the hotel. All we have left to do is to take the material to the tailor and have my blouses made. Bindu and I will be meeting on Monday afternoon to drop off the material at the tailors and when the blouses are complete, I will be able to wear a Saree for the first time.

This evening, I met Faisal for dinner and we went to one of his favourite restaurants. Instead of Indian food, we had what he described as continental fare – Quesadillas and Chicken Parmigiana. I’m sure Drew and Gin will appreciate the humour in that. Travelling half way around the world to eat Quesadillas for dinner!

The highlight of dinner wasn’t the food or the restaurant. It was actually the trip in the auto to get to and from the restaurant. Autos (or Auto-rickshaws) are wobbly 3 wheeled motorized vehicles most citizens use to get around in the city. Basically, autos are used as the local taxi service. Their drivers zoom in and out of traffic, often cutting off cars and motorcycles in their haste to get to the passengers destination as soon as possible.

It’s definitely an experience every non native needs to participate in at least once per visit.

I’m off to sleep for the evening. Hope everyone back home had a weekend as fun and eventful as mine.

I have multiple questions today, courtesy of Mom and Dad.

You keep talking about the Indian food and I was wondering where they grow their spices, what is your favourite and will you be allowed to bring some home with you?

I haven’t learned about where spices are grown and how yet, so I’ll have to return to that point in a few days. Many of the dishes I’ve eaten have had coriander in them and I think it’s my current favorite spice. Cumin comes in a close second.

Canada Customs is pretty restrictive when it comes to bringing plants and food into a country. I don’t think I’ll be allowed to bring any spices back with me, but most of the ones I really like are available in Canada. I’ve even got a number of them in my kitchen at home. What I really need to find are a few cookbooks (in English of course) which outline traditional North and South Indian food so that I can learn how to use all of the spices properly.

As a breath freshener, many restaurants serve Fennel seed (often coated in sugar) in a bowl after a meal. You place a small amount of the seed in your mouth, then chew it to freshen up. It’s a pretty tasty treat and I’ve grown quite fond of it.

What are the sunsets and sunrises like? Does nightfall (dusk) fall quickly like in Canada or is it more gradual like in Britain.

I’ve been awake to see a number of sunrises and sunsets since my arrival and have noticed that they are extremely quick in Bangalore. The sun rises in less than 10 minutes and sunset seems to be even quicker. You blink, and the sun is up or down.

How many hours of daylight are there in your day?

The sun is usually up by 6am, and from what I can tell, goes down around 5:30 – 6pm. There are about 12 hours of sunlight in the day and normally at this time of year, Bangalore is very hazy. People have told me the weather is very unusual for this time of year, as it’s very hot and humid and the sky is often clear instead of coated in a haze similar to Toronto’s smog. From what I understand, the haze here isn’t caused by pollution. Instead, it’s due to the humid climate and very low lying clouds. There are fixed points in the year where the haze appears in the sky, often throughout what we would consider the autumn in North America.

This afternoon I went shopping for traditional Indian clothing with Bindu, Divya, and Ancy. I’m not sure who was more excited, me or the girls.

To a westerner, we would not be easily able to tell the difference between a set of Kurta pajamas and a Salwar. Kurta’s are shirts of varying lengths which are then worn with jeans or pajama type pants. The pajama pants have two leg designs, wide and slim. The tighter ones are worn bunched up at the ankles, similar to how leg warmers were worn in the 80’s. A Salwar is a fancy pant suit, with a flowing top that comes in a variety of sizes and a set of matching pants. Salwars also come with a matching scarf, so you get the complete outfit for one price. Depending on the fabric (cotton, polyester, silk, etc.), the price ranges from approx 10$ USD to approximately 100$ USD. They are often ornately decorated with bells, sequins, embroidery, or beads.

Many of the popular traditional clothing colours in India are very bright. We have unanimously decided that I look horrid in pink and many of the brighter yellows, but I am surprised that I don’t look too hideous in the reds and purples. These are normally colours I wouldn’t even bother to try on at home, but at the urging of the girls, they made their way into the trial rooms at the Shoppers stop and were drapped over me at the Mysore Silk saree shop. Drew will be thrilled that I am not bringing home clothes in my traditional navy blue and brown, since he’s been trying to get me to expand the colours in my wardrobe for quite some time.

After picking out a Salwar – the girls decided, not me – we trotted off to the costume jewelry counter to accessorize the outfit. It took a bit of time to warm up to the experience, as I rarely wear earings, bangles, etc. and when I do I tend to stick to small, plain styles. The girls enthusiasm is contagious though, and soon I am trying on many different styles of necklaces and poking through earings to match.

As I mentioned before, much of the traditional Indian daily wear jewelry is very large compared to what we would wear in North America. It often contains beading, large chunky pieces of coloured glass or semi-precious stones, and the earings are about 10x the size of something you’d get at your local Zellers or Walmart. This isn’t to say it is not pretty, it’s just different and takes some time for me to get used to.

After the trip to the Shopper’s stop – a department store similar to Sears – we visited Mysore Silks to look at the sarees. The patterns are amazing and picking out a saree is not an easy decision. When in the saree shop, we take off our shoes and sit on a cushion similar to a futon mattress while the sales clerk picks out sarees that will fit the price range and will not be too heavy or bulky to wear. In order to determine which ones look nicest, she first unfolds the material in order for us to view the patterns. Then, the saree is draped over me, so that we get a good idea of what it will look like on. The sales clerk promises she will give me instruction papers so that I know how to properly wear it. After picking out two sarees for myself – a high saree for special occasions in what Bindu tells me is a wedding colour (Reds and Greens are often worn at traditional Indian weddings) and a daily wear saree in orange with a white patterned section, we toddle off out of the store. I will return to pick up the sarees on Tuesday, as the shop needs a few days to put netting over the back of the material to make sure that the material isn’t pulled or damage with use. Before I can wear it, I need to get a blouse. For the special occasion saree, we are given a small cutting from the fabric to match to a ready made blouse. The daily wear saree comes with a small section of fabric which is cut away and will eventually become the blouse. We need to find a tailor to stitch a proper blouse before I can wear it.

Buying a saree is definitely hard work!

We’ve decided that I will come to work in my new Salwar on Monday in order to surprise the rest of the group at work. Also, on Monday we will set the date for everyone to wear traditional Indian dress. Depending on when the blouse will be ready for my saree, it may be as soon as Wednesday. Everyone has suggested I tuck my saree a little higher than usual to make sure I don’t trip. Traditionally, it is worn to cover the shoes and all of the girls have at least one story of tripping over the skirt and taking a tumble.

Later in the evening, Bindu, Divya and I went to dinner at a local restaurant on Commercial Street. Since there were few descriptions of the meals, Bindu ordered a number of traditional vegetarian dishes from North India on my behalf and I must say I enjoyed all of them. The rice mixed with raisins and apples and spiced delicately with curry was especially good.

After dinner, we did some window shopping, then headed to Divya’s house where I met her family. She lives in a blended household, with her sister, 2 brothers, their spouses and 3 children, and her parents. Imagine having 11 to 12 people living under one roof! Her family is large, friendly and welcoming. I have been invited to lunch at their home later in the week and am looking forward to it. After leaving Divya’s, we went to Bindu’s home, where I met her family. Bindu lives with her parents and sister – a much smaller household – and her family has also invited me to lunch with them next week. It appears I have a very busy social calendar next week!

Today we celebrated Ayudha Pooja at work.

According to Hindu mythology, a powerful demon king named Mahishasuran thought that it would be impossible for a woman to kill him. He prayed for and received a blessing that only a woman would be able to kill him. As he then considered himself to be immortal, he proceeded to become very cruel to his people. The suffering citizens prayed to goddess Durga to rescue them. After an epic battle that lasted nine days and nights, Mahishasuran was killed by Durga.

To celebrate this mythological freedom from oppression, India observes the festival of Dasera with pomp and glory for nine days and nights.

Dussehra or Dasara is a 10-day festival which ends on Sunday. It’s celebrated by Hindus across the country – celebrating the victory of good over evil. In the South it’s called Ayudha Pooja. In the North it celebrates the victory of Lord Rama over the evil demon Ravana.

At businesses small and large, the eighth day of Dasara is celebrated as Ayudha Pooja. Traditionally all the machines used in the organization are cleaned and smeared with sandalwood paste (Chandanam) and vermilion (KumKum) and adorned with flowers. In India, during Ayudha Pooja people thank the machines for helping them be productive and make a living.

During the Pooja (Puja) we witnessed a Hindu priest chanting and burning incense. At the end of the Pooja, the priest walked around the room with a gathering of burning plant leaves and the Hindus waved the smoke over their heads and bodies. This is considered to be blessing from the gods. When the Pooja was completed, everyone was given a blessed sweet to eat. The ceremony was similar to a Native American Sweetgrass ceremony.

Today, tomorrow and Sunday (the final day of Dasera), many cars will be taken to temple to be blessed, and my driver informs me that the Pooja for his car is taking place on Sunday. When blessed, the cars are decorated with flowers and have banana leaves tied in position close to or in front of the headlights.

— Moment of Silence —

On October 2nd, 2 Canadian Peacekeepers were killed in Afghanistan and 3 others were injured after their Iltis was destroyed by an explosive device. As always, the news hit close to home. Closer still this time, as before joining the Air Force, Drew spent 3 years as a member of 3 RCR.

We often take for granted the work our soldiers, sailors, pilots, and techs do overseas with inferior equipment and overwhelming dedication. They deserve our appreciation, respect, and a similar dedication from the citizens of Canada. After all the work they have done domestically and internationally, it’s definitely time for all Canadians to stand up for our troops – who have done so much with so little for so long – and demand the government re- evaluate their spending and equipment purchases. We owe much to our troops. It’s time we supported them fully, rather than sending them off on mission after mission with little or no decent equipment, and made our voices heard to all members of the Canadian Government.

Should you wish to send a message of support or sympathy to the Canadian troops at home and in theatre, please do.

Soft wind, gentle landings. Pro Patria.