Reason to Party

Life has been pretty quiet lately, but this weekend is sure to get exciting, namely because of birthdays. Didi's 80th birthday is tomorrow. Phillip, the Austrian volunteer at Nishta, is also turning 20 tomorrow. Add me to the mix, turning 23 today, and Anya's grandma whose birthday was on Wednesday, and there's plenty of reason to party.

Didi is throwing a huge party tomorrow with as many as 100 guests expected. She has, however, thrown all the rest of us with birthdays around now on the bill of guests of honor. Druv, another one of Anya's neighbors, planned to throw a young people birthday party tonight for Phillip. Upon finding out that he was throwing a party for Phillip on my birthday, it became my birthday party too. Wanting to do something special myself, I invited some friends to join me for dinner at a delicious little Japanese restaurant up in McLeod Ganj last night. It wasn't much of a party, in a sense, but it was still a lovely evening.

Stepping backwards, since I teach today but had yesterday off, I decided to get all my lesson planning done the day before and give myself a fun day. First, I went up to Dharmsala with Roni to go fabric shopping. It was super fun to go from shop to shop and see what each had in stock. After about an hour of this, I came out with makings for two new suits and five meters of an ugly yet cheap fabric to make a mock-up of a costume I am planning. (Finally getting some thread, I turned the hem of the dupata that the tailor had surged in white. I forgot just how calming hand sewing is for me and I look forward to having a project to work on.)

I had never been fabric shopping myself before, so it was a fun adventure. The first suit makings I got were already in a set. It's sage green and sort of straw color. Very pretty. The second suit was at a store that had some by-the-meter fabric. I found a very nice sky blue with gold swirls on it to make a cameez (tunic shirt) and a matching sheer fabric that faded form that blue to purple and fuchsia for the dupata (scarf). The salwar (pants) fabric that went with it had rather ugly flowers on it, so I decided to play mix-and-match. I found a really nice light lavender fabric that I liked, but there wasn't enough on the bolt to make a pair of salwar. The shopkeeper then tried to convince me to pick all sorts of pink and blue fabrics instead, but none of them really fit with what I wanted. After arguing with him for quite some time, he finally left the shop and shortly returned with a full bolt of the same lavender. “From my other shop,” he explained. Why didn't he do that to begin with?

After that, I went up to McLeod Ganj to meet Anya's grandparents. They just arrived up here on Thursday night, and, since Anya had to teach yesterday, she suggested that I go hang out with them for the afternoon. They really are wonderful people, over eighty years old and in fantastic shape from doing daily yoga and long walks. Her grandma almost out-walked me. Her grandpa is Indian from Mumbai, a retired engineer, and her grandma is a retired art historian. Between the two of them, I got great explanations of the temples that we visited, historically, artistically, and religiously.

We had lunch at a little coffee shop while we hunted through their travel guide for something to do. We eventually settled on a nice walk to the next town over, Bhagsu. It was about 4km round trip and very pretty. We wound up at a Shiva temple that was partly under construction, but it did have a swimming pool (for ritual washing, I assume). There was also a waterfall on the mountainside beyond the temple. We didn't walk all the way up to it, but we did get a pretty good look from the exit of the temple. Upon returning to McLeod Ganj, we bought some postcards and sat at another coffee shop, drinking lassis and writing postcards until Anya arrived after work.

Once Anya got there, we ran into Phillip at a book store and headed to the Japanese restaurant Lung Ta (definitely not a Japanese name). Vandana and Roni met us there later. The food was absolutely delicious and Anya's grandparents treated us all, since it was a birthday celebration. After dinner, we moved onto Nick's Italian Kitchen for dessert where we had a nut brownie with ice cream and chocolate sauce (the best thing on their dessert menu, I think.) By that time, it was late, so we got a taxi and headed home. It was a great way to spend my pre-birthday.

Today, to celebrate, I decided to wear my nice suit. It is a special occasion after all. I've come to realize that it's really up to you to make your birthday exciting, so I'm doing well so far. Vandana and Devika came over this morning to wish me a happy birthday. They had made me breakfast and gave me a box of tea bags as a gift. It was all delicious. Vandana also stuck her head into my class this morning and announced that it was my birthday, prompting congratulations from my students. I really am growing to love my students and teaching their classes.

So far, the weekend is off to a good start. We'll see how the rest of the parties go. In the mean time, I need to make some cards for Phillip and Didi.