Sankrant

[note: I wrote this a few days ago, but was unable to post due to internet issues. Post on the rest of the week/overnight in Pune coming soon!]
This post is about the happenings of this past Saturday, the Hindu harvest-related holiday of Sankrant.

woman selling kumkum and sankrant supplies on the street in Jamkhed

Sankrant is a holiday celebrated only by the women, who buy a new sari, little pots and tiny white candies in preparation. On Sankrant women of all ages flock to the two temples in town. Inside the temple, in addition to praying, women put red and yellow dots on the foreheads of the women who are younger than them, throw sesame seeds or other tiny grains on the top of their heads, and give them the little white candies to eat. All these supplies are kept in the little pots bought for the occasion, which they carry on a metal tray with a hand-crocheted cover.

people lined up to enter the inner shrine of the temple


All seven of us got our saris back from the tailor on Friday night. On Saturday morning, we had class in the morning and then brought our saris to the dining hall, where two of the women who work in the kitchen helped us dress. With just one safety pin, lots of pleating and a big tuck into the slip, a giant rectangle became an entire outfit that held together all day. We were running late so we got a ride into town in the CRHP van, but along the road we saw women walking toward Jamkhed dressed up in bright new saris and extra jewelry.

group of women who requested a photo (and then covered me in red, yellow and sesame)


The first temple was pretty packed. We were swarmed by older women dabbing red and yellow on our foreheads/parts, throwing sesame seeds in our hair and giving us more sugar than we’d eat in a week. There were lots of requests for photos from random people who just want to have their photo taken (I still don’t understand this phenomenon, but it happens every time we go into town/to a village). As we walked through Jamkhed to see the other temple, which happens to be across the street from the store where we bought our saris and most of our salwar kameezes, we attracted a lot of attention and elicited giggles from many passers-by due to the ridiculous amount of color all over our foreheads/T-zones. We usually stick out anyway just due to our skin tones (with the exception of Samira, Syeda and Tauhid) and language, so I can only imagine how amusing we looked in saris. After checking out the second temple, which was less busy, we headed back to campus, washed our faces and took an extraordinary number of photos. Probably more photos than we took at prom.

Tauhid: Guys! This would be the perfect time to pretend to be in a Bollywood movie! Me/Samira/Syeda: Ummm we'll just cover our heads.

Eventually we stopped the photo session and, while still in our saris, watched the movie “Outsourced.” Though much better than its TV series, it did not live up to all our professor’s hype. We were able to appreciate a bunch of parts of the movie that would’ve fallen flat had we not come to India, but it fell far short of the hilarity we expected.

Tomorrow we leave for an overnight trip to the city of Pune. We’ll embark on our 4 hour drive at 7:20am, and need to be at breakfast with our bags before 7. It’s nearly 1am, so I’ll leave the post about Sunday through today for another time.
When you’re trudging through snow/slush, try not to think about the perfect weather in Maharashtra, India!

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