Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
The Wondering Wanderings of Bryony and Nick
Kemcho everybody
We left Mumbai to spend a week with Ginas family in the state of Gujarat.
Arriving in the city of Surat we were welcomed by Ginas aunt, grandmother and great aunt and uncle. In Gujarati ( and I think in most Indian languages) there are specific words used to denote each relation eg aunt and uncle including whether they are from the paternal or maternal side so as to avoid any confusion - a very sensible idea especially when Indian families can be so extensive!
Stealing from Wikipedia a few examples are:
Father: Papa or Bapuji
Mother: Ba
Brother (also applicable to male cousins): Bhai
Brother's Wife:Bhabhi
Sister (also applicable to female cousins): Bahen
Sister's Husband: Banevi or Jijaji
Father's Brother: Kaka
Father's Brother's Wife: Kaki
Father's Sister: Foi
Father's Sister's Husband: Fua
Mother's Brother: Mama
Mother's Brother's Wife: Mami
Mother's Sister: Masi
Mother's Sister's Husband: Masa
Paternal Grandfather: Dada
Paternal Grandmother: Dadi or Ba
Maternal Grandfather: Nana
Maternal Grandmother: Nani
The name is also put before the title rather than after. Eg in English I would say 'Uncle Alastair' where as here I would say 'Alastair Mama'. Surat is not on the tourist highway and as such we were the only white faces everywhere we went, which didnt go unnoticed! Here we were approached frequently, quizzed intensely and stared at constantly. It was wonderful to spend some time in an Indian kitchen and witness the preparation of different foods. Ovens dont feature in Indian kitchens at all as everything is made in either a pressure cooker, frying pan or over a naked flame. Whereas the food from Southern India included plenty of coconut, sweeter flavours and seafood; Gujarati food is dryer, fully vegetarian and with simpler sets of ingredients while in northern India plenty of hot spices and buttery sauces are used ( much like in UK based Indian restaurants.) The staple drink all over India is Masala Chai ( tea) made with a varying list of ingredients. Masala tea usually includes half milk, half water, fina black tea, lashings of grated ginger and generous sprinklings of masala, pepper, cardamon and sugar. These are boiled in sequence and then strained through a fine seive. This is one thing I can never get enough of and using Gama's ( Ginas grandmother) superior recipe I will definitely continue to make this when I get home. The meal that brought out the child in us was the delightful 'pani puri'. Literally meaning water bread it involves hollow golf ball sized, fried pastry ( similar in consistency to a poppadum) which can then be filled with veggies, pulses and chutney of choice and then topped off with mint water. Each one has then to be immediately popped into the mouth before anything can escape through tiny holes in the casing. Great fun, if a little messy for the novice pani puri eater! A diamond dealing district can be found in the crowded alleys of old town Surat. Without any street names, the diamond district is a melee of motorbikes and men. Wearing an unspoken uniform of pale shirt and dark trousers, these men examine, haggle and trade their sparkling ( or not so sparkling as the case may be) wares from out of battered leather pouches carried in their pockets. Walking around with hundreds of thousands of rupees worth on their person semed perfectly normal to them and it was the presence of two whites and an Indian foreigner that aroused the most curiosity. After a few days we headed an hours drive away to the town of Bardoli where Gama lives. Bardoli is also known in history as the place where Ghandi started a lot of his civil disobediance such as the non payment of salt tax. In Bardoli I witnessed the protracted process of sari buying as well as the all important matching bangri ( bracelets) and bindi ( stickers for forehead) for each particular sari. Gina and I both had mehndi done ( patterns drawn in henna dye) on our hands and feet . Usually reserved for wedding celebrations, we sat for several hours while the intricately detailed patterns were expertly laid. Then another few hours were needed for the drying, scraping off and oiling of skin to make the patterns stay for up to a month. Nick was doubtful of the result on me as my much paler skin made the patterns show up blood red leaving me looking like, in his opinion, a heavily tattooed Maori warrior. What happened to the woman he married just weeks before!?! Needless to say he was much relieved when it finally wore off 3 weeks later. There was a steady flow of distant relations popping in to visit Gina and welcome the foreigners. Some typical Indian candour came when, after a non-english speaking aunt had become comfortable chatting amongst us said, while watching mehndi being applied to my feet, " She has lovely white skin despite all those strange brown spots, and a thin top half - so why are her legs so big?" Uproarious laughter followed, which I was able to join in on following my translation. Gina's unmarried status was under constant scrutiny and debate amonst the family, or indeed anyone we met who realised she was over 25. This level of pressure is not in any way uncommon and was made more intense by the fact she is the oldest cousin borne by the oldest of the children. Traditionally it is not acceptable for anyone else to marry until the eldest is married and so the pressure on her was very evident. She bore the questioning well, however, and also remained resolute in her vow to one day have a destination wedding in the hopes of hosting perhaps 200 guests rather than the usual 600 - 800. We learnt a few words of Gujarati too, and after the usual hello ( Kemcho) and goodbye ( Aavjo) the only other ones I remembered were ( phonetic spelling only) Ratnakapra ( pyjamas) and Chuhdi ( underwear). Gina's family were incredibly kind and welcoming to us and after a week of copious quantities of delicious home-cooked meals, and a typically epic 2.5 hour bollywood movie at the local cinema, we headed on our way via overnight train to the historical city of Udaipur. Aavjo Bryony- comments
Gina I have definitely been in giggles reading your blogs :) even the train blog despite the unpleasantness of it all...love you guys both and can't wait to see you both in the new year!
Gina I have definitely been in giggles reading your blogs :) even the train blog despite the unpleasantness of it all...love you guys both and can't wait to see you both in the new year!
Gina also funny that the only words you remember are the ones that I taught you 10 years ago!