Today is one of the last days of Navratra. There is a Navratra in the Fall and in the Spring. It is a nine-day-long festival celebrating the nine forms of the mother goddess in Hinduism. Durga (the mother goddess) is a huge deal up in the mountains. I was in Dehradun for the Fall Navratra, but you wouldn’t have known that anything special was happening there. Up here in the hills, women go all out.
Firstly, almost everyone goes to the Durga Temple at least once during Navratra. They also hold kirtans, which are large, ladies-only singing and praying sessions. I passed one on the way to Sarita’s house outside of the Kali Temple by my house. Kali is one of the incarnations of Durga. There were about six women in a circle. One of them was playing a drum and the others were clapping along. They invited me to sit down with them and play the drum, although they didn’t care for my rock-inspired technique. It is a hand drum that is played in a very monotonous, hypnotic way. After that we talked about many things, including when I’ll get married and that I should marry an Indian man. I usually tell people that I’m married, but recently I’ve stopped because I’m tired of people asking me about babies and implicitly the actions that lead to babies.
I went to the Durga Temple myself earlier this week. There was a fair turn out there. The thing to do is to stop at every shrine in the temple and leave an offering. People leave money, incense, fruits, and other foods. I saw some people leaving oil, although that seems a bit impractical to me. When I was there I met two young girls who were very excited to meet me. They were very fluent in English, because they had attended the Christian school in Joshimath until they were about twelve. Christian schools are often the best English medium schools in rural India. They asked me a lot of questions about America, which was cute, except that they clearly were disappointed when I told them that I just studied all the time when I was their age.
Today is Abishek aka Lucky’s birthday. I started off in a bad mood, because yesterday I did some of the most intense hiking that I’ve done yet for my survey. So I was tired and frustrated today. Then at 7:30 AM, Monika started knocking on my door and bringing most of her family’s living room into my room in order to make space for the celebrations today. She said that it was because it was both Lucky’s birthday and also Navratra. Me being the feisty little spitfire that I am got upset that Monika didn’t have such special attention on her birthday. But I still made a cake for Lucky with Monika, because I am a good person.
Turns out, Monika was just being nice. The celebrations had nothing to do with Lucky’s birthday. In fact, they had nothing to do with men. Women sat inside in a large group on the floor and sang Gahrwali songs about the goddess, clapping and playing a drum. Aunty, by the way, has very good rhythm. Abishek had to stand outside awkwardly with his male cousin and occasionally do something to be useful. I think they ended up making and pouring out all the chai for the ladies.
One of the girls who I previously met at the Durga Temple was also there. She wanted to seem very cool and kept saying how horrible and boring the Durga kirtan must be for me. I said that I was enjoying it and then she pretended to also enjoy it. She said something about how she doesn’t like when women cry during these things. I guess it is very much like how kids don’t like to go to church. I wonder if these girls might actually like church because it is so different from a Durga puja.
I didn’t understand the songs that were being sung, because they were all in Garhwali. But I did understand much of one because it was singing about all the important rivers and mountains in Garhwal. Garhwali culture is vaguely animist in this way. While it is certainly Hindu, important geographical features are associated with goddesses. Other Hindus might acknowledge that the Ganges is a goddess, but in Garhwal they really go with this theme. Nanda Devi is the second highest mountain in India and also a very important local goddess. The rivers here aren’t just the beginning of the Ganges, they’re also alive to a certain extent. I cannot impress upon you how much people love their rivers and mountains. Monika proudly showed me a water bottle filled with the water from seven rivers in Garhwal that is used for puja. When Sarita and I go hiking and go high enough to see Nanda Devi, she usually does a quick bow and pray to the mountain.
Today I largely lay in bed and waited to get called into different religious celebrations or to help with some preparations. India is tiring. I can’t explain it. I have run much harder than I hiked yesterday, but I felt like I would never move again when I got back home. Maybe it’s that the sun is so bright at this high an elevation. Maybe it’s because I never feel completely relaxed here at all, so exercise isn’t as much of a release as it normally is for me. I’m not complaining. I love going for hikes to complete my research. Nevertheless, I feel worn out. I’m going to try to pace myself these next few weeks. I think my new interpreter wants to push through these high altitude villages, but I’m more than happy to drag things out.
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