Salwar Kameez

A Salwar Kameez is a a pants suit worn by women in Punjab and Haryana ( and all over India) But these participants wanted to see us dressed up. It is funny to wear the traditional clothes. One gets a million compliments and then some finishing bindhi touches with much discussion. Normally an Indian woman will only wear a bindhi, bangles and toe rings if she is married. They made an exception for me and told me that single women can wear very tiny bindhis. It was sweet. However the compliments were needed after the week of questioning. For much of the week I was interrogated about my weight ( I asked if they would inquire this information from an Inidan woman....it was not asked again haha), and "why do Canadian women not use beauty tips?" I think they were curious why I wasn't wearing make-up....Kit found this quite funny. Five men staring at my face and asking where my make-up was! I made a point to not wear bangles and toe rings and put some make-up on for the last day.

However, it opened the door to many questions on why I was not married haha!

And then one of the ladies discussed getting a sari. Sarjeet informed me that Suresh would send me a red sari. I was very excited and told them that the red ones were my favourite...I did not realize that I was once again being teased that I should marry an Indian man. Apparently the red Saris are wedding dresses. I remebered the bride at the Hindi wedding was wearing a red one and then we passed another women when we were at the Lotus Temple that was wearing one with extravagent beaded and mirrored wedding sari. Wedding or no wedding I would love to have a red sari..they are beautiful.

This morning was a little unnerving, as Suresh and the others from Haryana left for home last night. They had called to say good-bye and invite me to see the Golden Temple in the Punjab state. This morning the news was covered with a train bombing on the express train in Haryana. It was on its way to Pakistan. The line it runs is called the friendship express...quite the opposite with up to 68 persons having been killed. It was supposed to improve the the communication and relationship with Packistan. It was terrorist activity, there were many Packistani National Ambassadors on board.

We have since found out that it would not have stopped in Haryana, had it not been on fire from the bomb, and we are quite sure that the men were not on that train. Suresh is going to call the office tonight, so we should no more details later. I have been having a rough time with the whole thing. It is different to watch and hear about bombings in Canada and see the streams of smoke and people. It is much different when you are asking yourself who you might know on the train.

Aside from this sadness, the end of my work time is nearing. We have an evaluation day tomorrow and then I am off to see the Taj Mahal in Agra. It is a full day trip and they are trying to decide who will accompany me. Kit has already been there and is not up for the long drive again. My hosts are insistent that I be accompanied by someone! My Mom and Dad will be happy that there are people here that are more protective than they are!

Upon request from Al Blanke, I interrogate my farming buddies from the northern states. So he was correct in his assumption that the teachers were also farmers. They have planted a lot of wheat, rice and cotton..and all of the crops are looking quite good. As for lentils...well there just wasn't a lot of lentil farmers that could speak English well enough to answer my questions. I will find out about the southern crops in about 2 weeks :)

I fly out of Delhi into Bangalore, and then from Bangalore to Madurai. I will probably hire a car for the rest of the trip to Trivnelvi. I will spend the week with Nallasivan and his family before making my way to the Kerala state and than up to Goa.

I will try and keep updated after I leave Delhi,

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