A quick note on social order in India

If I was in the mood to be concise, the text of this post would consist of the following: "social order" constitutes an oxymoron in this part of the world. But, as you've already learned, I naturally lack the ability to be succinct; therefore, I'm going to delve into a "short" anecdote.

Today is a holiday in India - specifically, the celebration of Shiva's birthday (something to think about: what would be economic state of this country be, if there was a public holiday for the birthday of every god and goddess? Thank goodness this isn't the case!). As this dictated that we didn't have to go to school, Jared and I decided it would be a good idea to take a gander over to Motidungari Fort, a massive colonial-era structure that dominates the skyline of Jaipur. This fort is somewhat unique, in that as well as containing the massive walls, guard towers, etc. that structures of this type are usually characterized by, it also houses a temple. As it happens, Mahashivaratrii (the birthday of Shiva) is a special day for this temple, in that it is the only day of the year which it is open to the public.

Think about what that means. A Shiva temple that is only open to the public one day every year.

Alright - if you didn't get it already, I'm elucidating pure, utter chaos. As has generally happened in various instances throughout this trip, Jared and I quickly made friends with a couple of guys at the bottom of the line (which was ginormous) to get into this place, and they invited us to stand with them in what quickly became apparent was the girl's queue (this type of segregation is common over here). From the relatively calm and serene domain of the fairer sex, we proceeded to observe the insanity that occured in the boys lines. Most notably, the guys would wait calmly in line for about 5 minutes, chatting amongst themselves normally, and then suddenly start yelling and pushing each other further up the path in what resembled some kind of schizophrenic fit of ADHD. After a few seconds, they'd revert back to civilization, and repeat the madness soon thereafter. In the end, this pattern proved conducive to Jared and I getting past the security check: when a cop finally told us to move out of the girls line (how'd he tell?), we proceeded to flow into the guys' line during one of these outbursts, and blend in as much as any pasty-white Canadian can hope to.

I'm sorry to say that this story doesn't have an overly happy ending - Jared and I didn't even end up going to the temple. Becca and Leah, a couple of friends from our study group, had managed to somehow "convince" the guards to let them pass the queue altogether, and after wandering up to the top of the hill to the temple, came back and informed us that we had at least a couple more hours to wait. So we made like bananas and split, before even coming close to our final objective. At the very least, however, the experience proved to be an informative lesson in how Indians "get-er-done". For that reason, I think it was worth it.

Oh, a quick note on my host family, although I'm sure a short summary can hardly do them justice. They are the Mathurs, and they live in really sweet digs - a wicked old early-20th century behemoth of a house. It's a non-nuclear type of family, in that a few extended family members all live under the same roof. Kind of like a granny-flat type situation, but just x3 and with younger people. We live with a sweet housekeeper named Anjana, who makes delicious food, and that man of the house is a freakin retired colonel!

More on the family/city later. Better get back to this paper that I've been procrastinating on for 3 weeks, and by that I mean I'd better go look at Facebook for the umteenth time.

Cheers
Tom