Translation of Hindi dance article

Old Ivanhoe Grammarian, Salil Pachare, a former student of mine and now a Yale Graduate working in the United States, has kindly translated the Hindi newspaper article for me.  See below the photo for the text

Indian dance performed by Australian students in Daly College on Thursday

Article by City Reporter, Indore

Australian students performed an Indian traditional dance in a cultural programme that took place this Thursday in the Daly College Auditorium. 16 students from Australia are on a visit to Daly College as part of the Round Square Exchange programme. This special programme was created to orient them in Indian Culture. The students of Ivanhoe Grammar School from Australia performed a group dance together with the students from Daly College. Along with them, the students from the Deaf and Dumb Institution also performed. Following this, Manoj Bawra, Music teacher from Daly College, presented a Sitar recital. Praveen Sharma , a flute performer also played a tune. On this occasion, three performers from the institution “Chandak”, performed an Odissi dance. A Kathak dance was presented by the students of the “Naadayog” institute. Aveeka Parekh coordinated the overall programme.

Group photo

Hi everyone.  Here is a scan of the Taj Mahal group photo and also a PDF of the Hindi newspaper article about the folk dance folkdance

Final day at Daly

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Today was our final day at Daly College.  We’re all feeling a little sad about it for lots of reasons.  We’ve made some good friends among the students who attend each of our classes and also those in our dance item.  In between activities there’s been a great deal of laughter and banter amongst the extended student group.  We’ve also grown to love the teaching staff who’ve given so much of their time to us.  In particular, Dr Vijay Rajopadhyay, our host and coordinator of the cultural certificate program, who has been our constant companion throughout the week, teaching us, patiently answering all our questions about India and taking care of our every need.  The students have quickly developed great affection for Vijay and they’re going to miss his smiling face in the coming days.  He, in turn, is already talking about looking forward to the next visit from Ivanhoe in a year from now.

The students returned from yoga feeling quite pleased about the way they had made progress with holding their poses and maintaining their balance.  We joined the students and teachers of Daly for their weekly morning assembly in the assembly hall.  The Principal, Mr Sumer Singh, led the assembly.  He opened with a welcome to all of the new students who had entered Year 7 this week and spoke to them of the character building opportunities that taking on new challenges can offer.  He is an impressive man and his words gave us all food for thought.

The Principal then spoke about democracy and how important it was to modern India.  This was the introduction to three passionate speeches from the shortlisted candidates for the position of Head Boy, prior to the student body electing one of them in a secret vote immediately following the assembly.  The second candidate perhaps left the biggest impression on us, even if none of us could ever imagine voting for him.  ‘The revolution is coming,’ he shouted, and later on we got ‘I have a dream!’  It was no surprise to learn that he had won numerous drama prizes.  He may not become Head Boy at Daly, but a career in turbulent Indian politics appears a likely pathway for him.

The Principal then spoke of Daly’s relationship with Ivanhoe, which he values highly.  It was at the Round Square World Conference hosted by Ivanhoe in 2005 that Daly was awarded membership of the organisation.  Matt Nakulski and Eliza were invited to the stage to address the assembly.  Eliza spoke to the Daly students about life at Ivanhoe, then Matt told them of the activities we had undertaken in India since our arrival.  They both spoke very well and each deserves credit for the manner in which he or she represented our team.

Our students were then called up onto the stage by name to receive their certificates for successfully completing the cultural heritage course.  Vijay was beaming with pride in the wings, happy that every one of our students had scored A+ marks for the majority of the course assessments.  We were each also presented with a Daly polo shirt and a book, The Birds of Daly College.  Indians are noted for their gift giving.  Earlier in our stay we had also received another book, An Aussie in India, authored by Sumer Singh, the Principal.  Following the assembly he invited us around to the front of his office for a group photo and at this time he signed every student’s copy of his book.

We returned to the Resource Centre for our final three sessions.  The first lesson was on the Mahabharata, an Indian epic of over one million words.  Vijay tried to summarise it in about 20 minutes, which was no mean feat – this lesson was shortened as a result of the lengthy time taken by the three Head Boy candidates’ speeches.  I have no idea what our students could make of a 20 minute summary of an epic that is much longer than the Lord of the Rings trilogy, especially when it had so many characters with unpronounceable names – nevertheless, they were a good audience and most scored A+ on the test afterwards!  The final lesson of the cultural course was on Indian Philosophy, which tied together many of the threads of previous lessons.  It covered reincarnation, karma, the death of the earthly body while the soul lives on, the importance of living a good life, and moksha – the liberation of the soul.  In this instance, the summary Vijay provided helped to make sense of so much of the mysticism of India, because although there are many religions and sects within them, although there are many gods and people choose to venerate them in multiple different ways, the common thread seems to be related to living a good life and performing honourable actions, which ultimately will determine your destiny. We finished with a brief session on what to expect in Jaipur, Agra and Delhi.

At the assembly hall once more, we had an opportunity to practise our dance item two or three times.  Although we all felt that we needed lots more practice, the dance teacher came away smiling, declaring that we were ready to perform before an audience.

Some of the Daly art teachers drew henna tattoos on our hands in the early afternoon.  Smelling strongly of cloves, the henna paste was applied quickly and skilfully.  The patterns were beautiful.  The girls received the most intricate patterns, both on the back of the hand and the palm.  The paste had to remain undisturbed on the hands for a long time while it dried and it could not be washed off for two hours.  When it eventually crumbled off, an orange stain remained.  Over time this darkened to a chocolate brown colour.  It’s going to be there for a couple of weeks now, so we’re hoping our respective campus heads don’t mind a bit of body art when our students return.

The dance teacher, her staff and some of the Daly students helped to dress our girls in the colourful traditional costumes of neighbouring Gujarat state.  They applied make up and lots of jewellery that jingled and jangled as they walked.  They looked stunning.  The boys joined them, also dressing in Gujarati folk costumes and gathering their rhythm sticks.

Newspaper reporters took some of our students aside for photos and interviews as the assembly hall filled for the evening’s performance.  The cultural assembly is an annual event that showcases some of the finest examples of Indian culture.

A brass band played Advance Australia Fair to commence the assembly.  The opening item was an instrumental piece played on sitar by the school’s music teacher, accompanied by a second musician on tablas.  Our item followed.  Four Daly girls began the dance, to the rhythm of a traditional Gujarati Holi folk song.  I don’t have the proper words to describe a dance, but when the Ivanhoe students entered the stage we were treated to a swirling mass of colours and movement – the girls’ bodies were swaying as they moved their hands, arms and legs in time with the music, and the boys kept the steady beat with their rhythm sticks.  Despite the doubts they had expressed that they weren’t yet ready for this performance, the dance was superb and everyone performed his or her role just as the dance teacher had instructed.  The performance drew generous applause from the audience.  As I was filming the dance, there are no photos, but if you missed it yesterday – Click here to download the movie

There were other highlights to follow.  A trio of dancers performed two traditional dances originating from Orissa in the east.  Their graceful movements and postures, hand motions and facial expressions transformed their dance into a work of art.  The tabla player returned to the stage and was joined by a musician on Indian flute for another instrumental piece.  A dance troop of deaf students performed a spectacular item, always keeping one eye on their tutor at the side of the stage whose gestures indicated what was happening with the music.  The remaining act was a group of young dancers who had recently won India’s Got Talent.  Ethan and Kevin took the stage and delivered a vote of thanks to Daly on behalf of our team to bring the assembly to a close.  Their brief address was very well received.

We didn’t get back to our rooms until quite late.  Once there we had to pack our gear in readiness for a morning departure.  This proved quite a challenge for those members of the team whose gear had been strewn from one end of their room to the other for the past week!  Alarms were set for 4.30am the following day, as we are being picked up at 5.00am and taken to Indore Railway Station.  From there we will take the 6.00am Ranthambore Express on its long, slow eleven hour journey north to Jaipur to begin the touring component of our India trip.

Dance movie

Unfortunately it was not possible to post a blog entry last night.  I will cover yesterday’s events when we reach Jaipur.  Here’s something to entertain you in the meantime.

Last night the students performed a traditional Gujarati folk dance at Daly College’s annual cultural assembly.  They were joined by a small number of Daly students.  You can download the video of this performance (size is approx 200Mb).  Hope you enjoy it

Click here to download the movie

This morning we are leaving at 5am to catch the train to Jaipur.  We’re all a little sad to say farewell to Daly and its staff and students who have made us feel so welcome.

Mandu

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We set our alarms to wake at 5.30am, only to discover that the power generator had broken down some time during the night.  We couldn’t turn on the lights to find the bathroom and those of us who wanted showers discovered that the water was icy cold.  The Hotel Jahaj Mahal was quite new and looked quite impressive at first glance, but a second closer look would reveal that there was no toilet paper in the rooms, the power came on and went off again at regular intervals, the night manager slept on a mattress in the hotel lobby, and essentially the building was only half finished.  Parts of it still looked like a construction site, but to all appearances the builders had packed up their tools and left it as though the job was complete.  The friendly staff seemed to be totally at a loss as to how to serve the guests, but to their credit the food they served up was first class.  I hope those travellers who post reviews on Trip Advisor are kind to these people – they are trying hard and deserve our patronage.

Rani Roopmati was Baz Bahadur’s Queen in the mid 1500s.  She grew up near the Narmada River.  When she married Baz Bahadur she requested a place where she could go each day and look upon the river she was so fond of.  He built her a pavilion on the top of a high cliff, and she would go there every day to sing and view her river glinting in the sunlight in the distance. We could barely make out the silver ribbon of river far away, but we did enjoy the view over the small farms of central India nevertheless.  The sun rose in a golden ball against a pink-orange morning sky.  A cool wind blew over us.  Everyone enjoyed the visit to Roopmati’s Pavilion.  We returned to the hotel for breakfast and showers.  The lights were now working but the water was still cold!

Our next stop was the ruined city of Mandu, with its majestic fortress, the Jahaz Mahal reputed to be designed to resemble a mighty ship.  Sometimes it is known as the Ship Palace, as it also is situated between two large bodies of water.  The Ship Palace is a very large building and we took our time exploring it.  The two symmetrically shaped swimming pools were popular with the students

There was plenty to see here.  We visited the tomb of Hoshang Shah.  He was a Moslem ruler who built the first marble mausoleum in India.  Shah Jahan sent his Afghan architects here to study the design in preparation for building the Taj Mahal.  Right alongside this Moslem masterpiece was a hall of pillars, built in the 10th century, featuring classic Hindu designs.  It’s just one example of religious tolerance in India that allows Hindu and Moslem architecture to stand side by side in a temple complex.  The Hindola Mahal may have served as a harem for the ruler who had 1500 wives.  The fat ones were made to run up and down stairs to lose weight and those with grey hair were sent to bathe in a lake that essentially put a colour rinse through it.  If you look at the photos you will see some of the beautiful architecture from Mandu.  You’ll also see some of the langur monkeys who paid us a visit when we stopped at Echo Point.

The drive from Mandu back to Indore was uneventful and much quicker than the previous day’s long journey.  Some of us slept.  We arrived much earlier than we had planned, so this afternoon for the first time our students had some relaxation time.  I think they were ready for it.

Tonight we were invited to be the Principal’s guest at a dinner party on his lawn, surrounded on all sides by a lush green garden.  The staff who have taken our lessons were also invited.  We all had a good time.

The road to Mandu

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Our day began once more with yoga in the pavilion.  The yoga instructor is building our capacity slowly, introducing a few new poses from day to day.  The students are managing to hold the poses more steadily, and for longer periods.  It’s the perfect way to begin the day.

Daly’s history teacher presented some background information on Maheshwar and Mandu, the historic places we would travel to later in the day.  Vijay followed this with a session on Hindu rituals.  He has planned our time here in such a way that we don’t only hear about India’s culture, but we also experience it whenever possible.  He invited us to the temple to participate in a yajna (pronounced ‘yagya’) which is a ritual where Vedic mantras are recited around a fire while offerings are made.  The mantra on this occasion was a prayer for world peace.  Upon the recitation of the word ‘swahah’ the students all threw a herbal mix into the fire and clarified butter was also poured onto the flame. The ritual then continued with fire being passed over offerings and flowers being placed on the altar.  Every part of the ritual was explained to us by Vijay and we were made to feel most welcome to take part.  Like all Hindu rituals, the sharing of sweets brought it to an end.  I’m afraid my description is in layman’s terms and does not do justice to the practice we took part in, but it was a special thing to be part of and left us all with a good feeling.

We left Daly for the first time since our arrival, visiting the old City Palace of the ruling Holkar Dynasty of Indore.  Vijay’s father was once the Royal Priest here and he too has performed rituals here with the current Indore royal family.  Vijay told us the story of the much revered Devi Ahilya Bai, the former Queen of the Malwa kingdom.  After losing her husband and others close to her in battle, she led the armies herself.  She was a great social reformer, doing much to improve living conditions for her people – one of Indian history’s great women.  Her image is to be seen everywhere around Indore and Maheshwar, where her influence remains strong to this day.

We also visited the Lal Baag Palace of the Holkars.  No photographs were allowed inside, but once you enter this palace it would be easy to believe you were in Europe.  All decoration is grand in the manner of classical French and Grecian styling – the direct result of a number of the Holkars being educated in Europe before returning to Indore to take up their royal duties.

In the afternoon we left Indore on a road trip in air conditioned vans.  We travelled through rural areas where farmers in their fields were still working with hand tools harvesting grain.  The road was busy with trucks and there was much tooting of horns – most trucks, in fact, have the words BLOW HORN PLEASE painted across the back of the vehicle.  You soon get used to the constant blaring of horns.  The villages we passed through became more and more rustic.  Often the dwellings were little more than four mud walls and thatch roofs.  Goats and cows wandered around the dwellings and grubby children sat with grandmothers by the road and watched us pass by.  It’s hard not to be moved by the poverty we witnessed.  It’s becoming obvious that one of the great contrasts in India is that while some people live very well indeed (one of the students we’ve been spending time with has his own driver), there are many, many others who live in abject poverty.

At Maheshwar we were honoured to be welcomed personally by Prince Richard Holkar.  He invited us to his private garden and balcony in the Ahilya Fort overlooking the Narmada River, one of the four major holy rivers in India.  He spent a little time speaking with our students and joining us for a photograph.  The students in turn spent a bit of time playing with his dog Ruby.

The royals of Indore moved their home to the fort at Maheshwar at one time.  Many pilgrims visit the river here and bathe in its sacred waters.  A Hindu priest lit candles for us in a ceremony to honour the river which brings bounty to all the people of Madhya Pradesh. His infectious smile helped us all to enjoy the occasion.

We drove on to the historic ruins of Mandu in the late afternoon, climbing steadily until we reached the hilltop that provided views of farmland and villages as far as the eye could see.  Our hotel was new and much better than we anticipated, although the power generator kept cutting out constantly and plunging us all into darkness.  The hotel staff set up loud speakers on the lawn and their thumping rhythms continued long into the night after lights out.

Heroes and heroines

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What a memorable day this has been – our first Holi celebration.  Here’s a bit of a recap of the rest of the day.  It began, like yesterday, with an early morning yoga session in the cricket pavilion.  There was a little more suppleness, flexibility and balance on display today – these kids are fast learners. Once again, the sunrise was quite spectacular, aided rather unfortunately by the smoke haze that’s currently hanging over Indore.  After breakfast we had a lesson on Hindu symbolism.  The most famous is Aum (or Om), which was the sound made at the creation of the universe and is included in Hindu and Buddhist prayers.  It is often found painted on or attached to the front of an Indian home in order to bring good fortune to the inhabitants.  The other symbol we learned about is the swastika, which predates the one used by Nazi Germany by several thousand years.  The Indian swastika includes 4 dots and its arms point in the reverse direction to the Nazi symbol.  The Indian swastika means ‘all is well’ and you will see it painted in many public places, especially when there are celebrations.

After morning tea we were issued with our bags of coloured powder for Holi.  Our girls joined the Indian girls for their celebrations and our boys joined the Indian boys.  One purpose of the day is to promote peace.  The powders are organic – made from coloured earth and also flowers.  It is more often smeared on, rather than thrown, at Daly, but they told us that out in the streets of Indore there was likely to be a mob of several thousand using water hoses and throwing fistfuls of colour over complete strangers.  Needless to say, we had a lot of fun.  It must officially end by 3pm, but we ran out of powder well before that.

After lunch we had a quick lesson on the Hindi alphabet, and Vijay began teaching us how to write our names in Hindi.  Then we returned to the classroom, where Vijay recounted the Indian epic story of Ramayana, which has been told to children for many centuries and which, in many ways, teaches the values that Indians try to live by.  We returned to the art room to finish our artworks, which we’re hoping to be able to bring home with us.

An epic Bollywood movie, Jodhaa Akbar, took us through to dinner time.  It told the story of the Mughal emperor known as Akbar the Great, who, despite his Muslim origins, highly valued Hindu culture and even took a Hindu wife.  Such was his respect for her that he allowed Hindu practices to be performed inside his court.  This was the beginning of the religious tolerance of others’ belief systems that is widespread across India today.  We enjoyed the movie, although, with a running time of over 3 hours, we got the ‘cut down’ version with a few steamy love scenes, bloody battle scenes and the obligatory Bollywood dance sequences removed to get us to dinner on time.  In Bollywood, the heroes and heroines are made to look larger than life, and we certainly had plenty of posturing and pouting by the main characters in our movie – Akbar and his bride.

We finished the day with a cooking class in the kitchen again.  This time we learnt how to make samosas.  Tomorrow there is unlikely to be a blog post, as we are travelling to Mandu for an overnight stay.  It is quite a rural area and I don’t anticipate we will have any internet access.

Happy Holi

We’ve just returned from Holi festivities.  The pictures can tell the story.

Anyone missing from the group shot at the end was already in the showers!  All very happy!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Saris, turbans and sacred fire

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Today we rose early and made our way to the cricket pavilion for yoga with one of the Indian yoga instructors. As the sun rose over Daly College, we spread out on mats and did our best to assume the poses as they were explained and demonstrated to us.  It’s fair to state that the physical flexibility of our students varied greatly from one to another.  Some toppled over, some became tied up in a knot, and some just couldn’t bend far enough.  Nevertheless, they tried.  Others handled most of the poses with competence.  It was a good start to the day. We’ll be back for more in the morning.

We had two early lessons today. Gods and Goddesses was the first.  Hindus believe in only one God, the supreme spirit – this is an impersonal and ‘attributeless’ god.  However, they explain that whenever man tries to think about the infinite God he unknowingly projects the limitations of his finite mind and therefore projects human characteristics onto the god.  This form of the god becomes personal and finite, with attributes.  Just as the sky can be either blue or red while always remaining the same sky, so the personal god and the impersonal god are one and the same.  In Hinduism the personal god can assume many different forms.  You may have heard of some of the forms the Hindu god can take – Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu (the Trinity).  Vishnu has ten different incarnations, two of which are Buddha and Krishna.  It was a fascinating session and we learnt a great deal about the different forms of Hindu gods and the mythology that is associated with them.

The next lesson covered some of India’s major holy festivals, one of which we will participate in tomorrow – Holi, the Festival of Colours.  Our third lesson for the morning covered Indian history from the early Indus civilisation through the Mughal emperors to the British Raj rule of the East India Company and Queen Victoria and eventually the civil disobedience movement led by Gandhi which brought India its independence.  The lessons were dominated by some of the Indian students who called out answers and finished the teachers’ sentences for her, such was their determination to show our students how much they knew about their country.

Returning to the Cultural Centre, we spent a leisurely hour painting decorative works inspired by early Indian art.  We’ll be back to finish these art works tomorrow afternoon.  Upstairs in the same building we had our second dance session.  It’s remarkable how quickly our students have learned all the movements for this Gujarati folk dance, a celebration of Holi.  They will perform it in full traditional dress with jewellery and makeup at an important school assembly.  I’ll try to get some video footage to bring home for you to watch.

The ‘turban man’ arrived and proceeded to wind and twist the nine metres of cloth around each boy’s head in turn, creating a traditional Rajasthani ceremonial turban.  The boys were wearing the kurtas they purchased in Indore and some also wore traditional Indian pajamas.  The girls went to another room with some of the Indian women teachers and were dressed in saris.  The two groups met on the lawn for photos.  We were all quite impressed with how everyone looked.  Though the moment was brief for the girls, who had to return the saris, the boys stayed in their kurtas for the rest of the evening.

We were honoured guests at the lighting of the bonfire, known as Holika Dahan, the ritual that begins Holi festival.  We were seated only metres from the priests as they chanted and performed puja.  Sacred objects were cleaned and blessed.  The fire was lit, then the priests circled the fire.  We were invited to do the same, followed by the boarding students who also attended.  We’re all looking forward to throwing the coloured powders at each other tomorrow when the festival is in full swing.  We can hear the occasional fireworks in the city tonight.

Before eating dinner, we attended cooking class.  Tonight we learned how to make chicken tikka, a potato and cauliflower dish, dal and paratha bread.  Naturally, this was served up to us for dinner.  It was another busy day, but also a relatively early night.  The students should all be able to get a good restful sleep tonight.  You’ll be pleased to know they’re all in good health, all working well and all enjoying what India has to offer.

The endless day

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It seems like the day that has never come to an end.  It began somewhere around 5 or 6am on Friday Melbourne time and now in the early hours of Sunday morning (or 9pm Saturday for us here in India) the day is finally nearing an end.  From leaving Melbourne until touching down in Indore we were travelling for about 26 hours.  We spent a long and restless night huddled on the benches in Mumbai Airport and then a frustrating hour or so dealing with mixed messages and confusion from domestic airlines staff as we tried to make our way over to the domestic terminal for the flight to Indore.  When we reached the terminal, the queues were long and the officials were processing everyone at snail’s pace.  We had to backtrack to sort out a boarding pass issue.  Then someone on a gate decided that the tag on one piece of luggage wasn’t stamped to his satisfaction, so a couple of us had to return to the scanner and jump the queue to get the bag scanned again and the tag stamped more clearly the second time round.  I think we probably had to show our boarding pass five or six times to get on that flight, often to bored officials who demanded to see it, then gave it a cursory glance and waved us on.  Getting in to this country is never easy, but thankfully there is plenty of fun to be had once we’ve jumped all the hoops to their satisfaction.

Eventually we boarded our third flight and in just over an hour we touched down in Indore.  All three flights and landings were excellent and all team members travelled well.  We arrived just after 7am feeling very tired, but also looking forward to our Indian adventure.  Our smiling host Vijay was there to greet us.  Vijay is the coordinator of Daly College’s Indian Culture and Heritage Certificate Course.  He is the son of the former Royal Priest to the ruling Holkar family of Indore and Vijay himself is the Indore royal family’s religious advisor.  He is also Daly’s head teacher of Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language. Most important of all, he is the man who’ll be looking after us during our stay in Indore.

We arrived with the knowledge that Daly College had a full Saturday program planned for us.  There was going to be little opportunity to crash on our beds and catch up on missed sleep.  So here’s a quick recount of what followed – if I can keep my eyes open long enough to finish it.

Breakfast in the mess hall was pretty good.  The omelettes were a favourite.  We were then taken to our accommodation in the boarders’ quarters of Daly’s Business School.  The rooms are sparsely furnished, but very secure, spacious and comfortable.  They also have wi-fi access.  We’re all within very close proximity of each other.  Vijay gave us about an hour to freshen up.  It was most welcome.  Quite a few of us were happy to shower with cold water because we couldn’t wait the 15 minutes it would take to fire up the hot water service.

A quick tour of the campus and the historic administration building followed.  We were joined by a couple of Daly’s final year student guides.  Then it was back to the hall for morning tea.

On the upper floor of the resource centre building, past the massive tiger skin stretched on the wall, is the classroom where Vijay delivered the first two lessons of our course – India’s Major Religions and Indian Weddings.  Vijay explained how India’s arranged marriages work and how the majority of Indians place their faith in their parents to select a marriage partner for them.  In Vijay’s time, you could only marry within your own caste, but he explained how modern India now tolerates people marrying outside their caste.  If you’re planning on hosting an Indian wedding, the absolute minimum you should invite is 500 people, though only 300 need show up on the first of four days of the ceremony.  Our kids all have to complete a short test at the end of each lesson – we are expected to pass them in order to gain the certificate for this course.

After another feed in the dining hall, we walked to the cultural centre to learn how to throw ceramic pots on a wheel. This was followed by an introductory folk dance session.  The folk dance will be repeated several times in the coming days  as our kids learn their steps for the big assembly performance that marks the end of our stay.  We stopped by for a short session at the shooting range, then returned to the dining hall for a refreshing cup of chai (tea).  But there was still no time to rest as we piled on to the college bus and headed over to a clothing store where the boys each bought an Indian costume for use later in this week.  From there we headed over to Treasure Island, the local glitzy shopping centre.

Shopping at Treasure Island was not much fun.  We all had to pass through a security check when entering the centre, check in our backpacks when entering stores, and have our receipts stamped multiple times before we could leave a store.  Even the haven of the kids’ party room at McDonalds gave us a headaches as the store manager did his best, but with little success, to get 22 orders correct.  In India, a Big Mac contains no beef as cows are sacred – your choices are basically chicken, chicken or chicken. It was a relief to leave Treasure Island and head back to the school.

So now we’re all hopefully asleep in our rooms at the end of a long, long, long day.  Everyone is well.  Goodnight.