Welcome to our “Cultural Connections” blog. Our family invites you to join us on our experiences and wonders of our trip from NZ to India. This blog is for all our friends, family and amazing people with whom we come in contact with. A huge shout out to the “Hautapu Globe Trotters”, who through their encouragement, have inspired me to start this blog. Their excitement and curiosity is driving this shared experience.
An exceptional week tontje build up of this festival. The last time I experienced this was in 1984! Music, good food, happy times, competition and family time.
Here is info from Wikipedia!
The festival of Uttarayan marks the day when winter begins to turn into summer, according to the Indian calendar. It is the sign for farmers that the sun is back and that harvest season is approaching which is called Makara Sankranti. This day is considered to be one of the most important harvest day in India. Many cities in Gujarat organize kite competition between their citizens where the people all compete with each other. In this region of Gujarat and many other states, Uttarayan is such a huge celebration that it has become a public holiday in India for two days.[2] During the festival, local food such as Undhiyu (a mixed vegetable including yam and beans), sesame seed brittle and Jalebi is served to the crowds.[3][4] Days before the festival, the market is filled with participants buying their supplies. In 2012, the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat mentioned that the International Kite Festival in Gujarat was attempting to enter the Guinness World Records book due to the participation of 42 countries in it that year.[5]
Hello/Morena Globetrotters and Hautapu Kura. Today we go to the orphanage to help feed and share your beautiful taonga with around 40 children. Last night Shivali and I organised the gifts into groups to make it easier to give out as some are individual and some group based for sharing.
We have one of the cars to Radar a little boy who lives in our complex (his mum helps in our home). This is his dad beside him 💖
3:50pm
After a very fun and rewarding morning came many questions from both Shivali and I. We wish we had more time to play show and share some games and just have a chat with everyone. They loved the gifts and on reflection I wish we had got them more games. Something to think about for the future.
I hope they get to keep the bits and bobs as it took alot of persuasion to be able to hand them out personally. We were told that the children might miss use them so they wanted to keep them and hand them out as and when. But my Aunty warned me that it may end up else where, and reminded us that it wouldn’t be fair for our community back home and our children if they missed out on this.
I was so busy getting to know them and talk to them (being in the moment), that my coverage of the experience wasn’t good. PLUS we were racing with time as the kids had to catch the 11:00 bus to school!
Excuse my broken Gujrati, but I am trying!
Maheshmasa (my uncle/translator) and Shivali ready to enter the Ashram
Shivali serving lunch
Enjoying nerv ball
The children
The bedrooms
The library and heritage - my great, great grandfather Lallu dada was before the age of cameras. Ghandiji visited this place many times.
Arriving
GREAT NOTES FROM DAD
When you talk about "Gandhi' one should refer him as " "Mahatma Gandhi" or "Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi" or "Gandhiji"
In one of the photos taken at the Ashram, the person next to Ganghiji is "Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel" the one after whom the Vallabh Vidyanagar is Named. Vidya means Education and Nagar means City nagar means - city of education.If you Google him, you will find how important he was. He was dubbed as the "IRON MAN OF INDIA He was a Patidar of our sect from anther village called "KARAMSAD"which now a town next to Vidyanagar. You will see his Statue in every City, Town and Village of "Charotar" a belt of Gujarat where most Patidar including us come from.
There is a statue of him in Kanisa Village, you should take a photos some with you and Shivali besides it when you visit Kanisa again.
There is a memorial Statue of his in Nadiad. Ask masa to take you there. It not far from the station... waking distance from home,
Vallabhabhai was from Karamsad but was born in Nadiad, the town of his mother, like I am from Kanisa but was born in Sayama, the village of my mother.
There if plack on the memorial in Nadiad, which you should read and also photograph. Likewise you should take photos of a memorial or two of Gandhiji if you come across them.e. Again you will see his statues in most places in India .
Pappa
(Thanks pappa for helping me learn, and being part of this journey xox)
Hello! Kia Ora koutou, what a treasure this day was! We woke up laughing in Nadiad, with very little sleep but a common understanding that we were were all experiencing a very special day today. 35 years ago I came back to our hāpu and I was very excited yet apprehensive about finding how my dad’s home was doing.
In a nutshell, I was very proud! There have been a lot of people in our village who have contributed after leaving. The well has gone, the fields have been developed, growing tabbaco is still a main source of income and the kund, (scaredwater well for healing) and temple is still there. The school has totally been redeveloped, both primary and secondary together, 1400 children. Wow! So proud! Looking forward to coming back here!
I will keep adding to this post as I get photos from all camera’s.
Outside the village - we needed to be blessed and do before entering.
Virendrakaka and the Braham
The famous and sacred kund for healing- 80 feet deep
Kanisa in the distance
Building donated by our grandfather
Next Generation
Going to the temple in kanisa first.
Kaka Kaki Braham with the original statue brought in 500 years ago by the Revenda’s when kanisa was first settled
Clock tower
Main Streets
Swami Temple in the background
Sunday School
Little tuck shop
Outside our grandfathers house
Tobacco planting
Getting ready for Atram
Our host family- Hital guided us on our tour and his family provided a lovely lunch gor is
It is 7:55pm and we are on the plane ready to fly home to our ancestral homes in Gujarat. It has been a wonderful experience learning about India and all the other parts that make it the whole as a family. But as we are discovering-the more we learn, we realise, the less we know and the more questions we have. There is so much to the Indian history that we had no idea about.
Having a some what bigger picture than what we arrived with, it will now be an experience to unravel my mums birth city and my dad’s birth village. This is where we will be going to the orphanage, I hopefully will get to visit schools and places that are important to my family, and on al bigger scale make connections with family, past and present Gujarati leaders from other places we will visit, like Ghandinagar.
We will be arriving in what is known as a dry state. Not only here but in Kerela we found alcohol hard to buy. Here in Gujarat you need a permit and it has a ration of a certain number on bottles you can buy over a three week period. Also, the diet is vegetarian. Eating meat is not something that is common in the state of Gujarat. This is all linked to having a healthier life style and belief systems within the religion of Hinduism - having a better mind and body. I am impressed that the government enforces restrictions with regards to alcohol. The age for drinking is 25 years.
I am very excited and wonder how our children will reflect on this experience when they get there. Here are a few family photos that we will always cherish.
Today was a “super shock”, as we found out more about the Hindu religion and the history dating back 8 000 years. All of us were in awe as we realised just how little we knew and the fact that this Ashram has been built in our time and is one of the seven wonders of the modern world. It was built in five years and pulls together volunteers from all over the world. It couldn’t have ended on a better note! Today bought a calmness and a knowingness in me, combined with connections of Gujrath (where our family is from, Ghandi (who came from Gujrath) and the new prime minster of India who also comes from India. He is strict, disciplined yet well liked for being clean and green. In other words ‘what he speaks is what he is’.
There are no photos of us today in the Ashram as it was restricted, but instead one outside, and the experiences and feelings that we will cherish as a family. I urge all of you to visit this place of miracles and divinity as it shows what a united group of people from all religions can achieve, if the belief is there.
This place has taught me a lot about religion and politics. The biggest highlight for me was how the temple feeds up to 20,000 people everyday for breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner, for 365 day’s a year and this has been going on for the last 300 years! I saw the most amazing technology in the kitchen-enormous gas hobbs, pots and quantities of food, INCREDIBLE and so heartfelt by all of us. We couldn’t video or photograph.
Here are some facts picked up by our tour guide Bickrum.
Population 22 Million. 4 languages. Hindi, English, Urdu, (spoken in Pakistan), Punjabi. (plus 22 languages and another 6 religions.
Hindu (Hindustan came to be - known previously as Barathkan). Janism - vegans, no animals - only natural (wear white clothes), Buddhism ( from Nepal, but Buddha got enlightenment in India). Varnasi city is 8000 years old. Two other religions such as Islam, since 11 century. Then christainity came which helped break down the caste system. Therefore, 99 percentage go to school in Kerela since the missionaries and Catholics are there.
India has a multi religious and cultural foundation which is why it is said that because they are born in this mixed culture, “Indians are good learners”.
There are16 ways of wearing a sari. Capital used to be Calcutta. India used to be a continent. A multicultural continent. National game is hockey since 1935.
Tata Nano a smalll car is Aussie $2500.00
Ramayana, and Mabarth. “Delhi” pronounced as with heart.
Ring roads combines old Delhi And New Delhi together. There are 2 ring road, and now building 3rd ring road.
Chankya series is a must watch👍
Red fort is 3.5 km is a replicate of the one in Agra. Shah Jahan built this and others through his empire in India.
Highlights from the day:
*Old India - visiting a spice market, a genuine pashmina home, trying a sweet dish from the road side
*Parliament Buildings
*GHANDI’s MEMORIAL-the father of the nation for unity ‘the great sole’.
*The Golden temple (Sikh)
*First casualty of the trip for Delhi Belly = Shivali. She had to communicate to the bus driver that she had to get out and he looked at her in puzzlement... Shivali desperate to get. Out! When she finally got out it was a mad rush to the side street beside a truck, and her projectile vomiting! Thank goodness te was dark! Poor poppet the. Had to endure an hour and a half to get back to the hotel. She was a real Trojan!
SMOG BROS! Masks on as we find our throats affected by the smog
Old Delhi
Spice markets
An antique tea pot- onevthat you put charcoal into to boil the water
