Lungi, Henna, and Gulab Jamun
The last two entries captured most of our Indian experience, but there are a few things to wrap up.
On our final day in India we set out with a final goal each. For Kim it was a Henna tattoo. There were a lot of our fellow voyagers who had been returning to the ship with their designs but we hadn't yet found an artist on our outings.
For Ender, he had been trying to find a place that sold the "lungi" a solid colored wrap that about half the adult men we saw seemed to be wearing, but that mysteriously was sold nowhere we ever went. In fact, we went to one store specializing in the garment and found they actually sold a "dhoti" which is the same thing except in white with gold trim and is used as a ceremonial wrap men wear at a formal occasion (you can see them worn at the temple wedding in our last blog entry). At the dhoti shop they had a 40 foot long wall of white dhotis, but when Ender tried to buy one they refused (in a really confused but friendly way) to show him anything except a pre-sewn one with a Velcro waste band. When he asked what about the others, the ones with colored stripes, or made from different material they just sort of shook their heads and said this was the one he needed. Eventually we decided they assumed he was a foreigner buying something for a formal occasion to which he had been invited, and that was the only possible explanation and therefore they were making sure he bought the thing someone had surely sent him there to buy. Remember this, it will be important in a blog two months from now.
For Jacob, we were searching for Gulab Jamun. During our pre-port seminar we were told of many delicious looking things, but this one stood out as the one we had to try. They looked sort of like donut holes covered in some kind of syrup. So we did what any U.S. American would do: we had dessert for breakfast.
We found a local bakery that was rumored to make Gulab Jamun. We entered and looked at the pastries on display which looked...okay, but couldn't see anything that looked like what we were looking for. So, we asked, and the proprietor ducked behind the counter and produced a large unremarkable Tupperware container which he opened to reveal over a dozen of the shiny syrupy treats. They were SO GOOD.
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| Not sure how to describe them, other than "schwetty" |
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| Jacob and Ender having a spiritual experience |
Since we were already on a roll, we went ahead and ordered more treats.
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| So good they deserved two angles |
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| Make that 3 angles |
Kim was able to find a someone to do her henna tattoo which meant she couldn't use her hand for 2 hours while we walked around. Upon reflection Kim now thinks Henna is more of an "end of the day" thing to do.
We walked along the shore of Fort Kochi again, and managed to load up on souvenirs before planning to return to the ship.
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| Someone pointed out that many buses and trucks were named for religious figures and that you could find Hindu, Muslim, and Christian names on trucks around town. |
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| It's a bird on a cow |
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| Which came first, the tree or the cobblestone? |
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| We weren't allowed to pet any dogs or cats in case of disease, but this little puppy resting from the heat was pretty tempting. |
It seemed Ender was the only one who would not be successful in finding the thing every man in Kochi seemed to own. He had asked a few people throughout the week what they were called and where to buy them and the one answer he had received was "textile shop." After googling "textiles" he continued to be somewhat perplexed and finally concluded that since the wrap was basically a flat piece of fabric they were probably sewn at home or something.
Then, we ran into a tuk-tuk tour guide waiting on a street outside of a shop. He saw us walk up from the beach, holding some souvenirs and, we swear, literal dollar signs appeared in his eyes.
He asked if if we could do him a "favor" and look in his friend's shop. He said that if he can get people just to visit the shop she will give him a coke. It looked like a dress shop and Kim wasn't keen on buying anything, but we did see the word "textiles" written on the shop marquis.
Long story short, the driver got his coke.
Since we had already determined we were doing him a favor, Ender insisted he return a favor by teaching him how to properly wear the lungi.
Considered a success we made it back to our ship and went through the process of immigration again.
I don't have photos to illustrate two cultural norms in India that took some getting used to:
1) There are no lines. If you politely wait your turn at a store or ticket counter, you don't get one. It is literally necessary and expected to push your way forward, insert your money into the cashiers hand, even if it is through the shouldered bodies of people who were there before you, to buy your items and leave. Once we realized this wasn't rude, it was kind of fun. Not pleasant, but interesting.
2) Indians, as you may know, have a 3rd way of nodding there head that we are used to. Most readers of this blog will be familiar with a nod that means "yes" and a shake that means "no." I'm not sure what to call it, a side to side wobble, which we were taught means "agree" but the eyebrows accompanying the wobble is really what indicates the enthusiasm behind the agreement. No eyebrows with a wobble is sort of like "okay" while raised eyebrows means, "hell yes bro!" The reason this stood out to us so often as significant is that despite knowing this fact, we realized that we impulsively felt something else when we saw this gesture. The most common "okay" without raised eyebrows felt like a disappointed annoyance, no matter how many times we reminded ourselves that it was the equivalent of a thumbs up, and the raised eyebrowed "hell yes" felt like they were somehow saying, "I wouldn't do that if I were you!" when in reality they might be saying, "I would so do that if I were you!"
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