HOLI BABY

Tomorrow (6th of March) is HOLI.

For those who don’t know the meaning of this day, please find below a short but interesting explanation I found on internet :

« Holi is an ancient festival of India and was originally known as 'Holika'. The festivals finds a detailed description in early religious works such as Jaimini's Purvamimamsa-Sutras and Kathaka-Grhya-Sutras. Historians also believe that Holi was celebrated by all Aryans but more so in the Eastern part of India. 

It is said that Holi existed several centuries before Christ. However, the meaning of the festival is believed to have changed over the years. Earlier it was a special rite performed by married women for the happiness and well-being of their families and the full moon (Raka) was worshiped. 

Celebration of the various legends associated with Holi reassure the people of the power of the truth as the moral of all these legends is the ultimate victory of good over evil. The legend of Hiranyakashyap and Prahlad also points to the fact that extreme devotion to god pays as god always takes his true devotee in his shelter.

All these legends help the people to follow a good conduct in their lives and believe in the virtue of being truthful. This is extremely important in the modern day society when so many people resort to evil practices for small gains and torture one who is honest. Holi helps the people to believe in the virtue of being truthful and honest and also to fight away the evil. »

Source :www.holifestival.org

This day is a national day in India and everyhting is closed. In addition, this is also known as a « dry day » so you can’t buy any alcohol in the country which is a shame because it’s a day of celebration !

Holi is very special in the Indian culture because as said above, its the victory of good above evil. It’s a very happy day, people celebrate, throw colours at each others, and also drink BHANG.

HAHA ! but what is exactly BHANG ?

BHANG is basicaly a drink where you add an ounce of marijuana and yes, everybody has it during holi ! its part of the culture and as surprising as it can sound, grandma, grandpa, teenagers, all the family can drink this receipe !

It is funny how people talk about it because in France it would be completely forbidden because of the effect of the drug but here, its a delicassy that you can even enjoy into pakora(salted kind of donut) or ladu (indian sweets).

Here is a receipe that I found on internet if you are curious : (or even if you want to make it ! crazy you !)

Ingredients

2 cups water

1 ounce marijuana (fresh leaves and flowers of a female plant preferred)

4 cups warm milk

2 tablespoons blanched and chopped almonds

1/8 teaspoon garam masala (a mixture of cloves, cinnamon, and cardamon)

1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger

1/2 to 1 teaspoon rosewater

1 cup sugar

Method

Bring the water to a rapid boil and pour into a clean teapot. Remove any seeds or twigs from the marijuana, add it to the teapot and cover. Let this brew for about 7 minutes.

Now strain the water and marijuana through a piece of muslin cloth, collect the water and save.

Take the leaves and flowers and squeeze between your hands to extract any liquid that remains. Add this to the water.

Place the leaves and flowers in a mortar and add 2 teaspoons warm milk. Slowly but firmly grind the milk and leaves together. Gather up the marijuana and squeeze out as much milk as you can. Repeat this process until you have used about 1/2 cup of milk (about 4 to 5 times). Collect all the milk that has been extracted and place in a bowl. By this time the marijuana will have turned into a pulpy mass.

Add the chopped almonds and some more warm milk. Grind this in the mortar until a fine paste is formed. Squeeze this paste and collect the extract as before. Repeat a few more times until all that is left are some fibers and nut meal. Discard the residue.

Combine all the liquids that have been collected, including the water the marijuana was brewed in. Add to this the garam masala, dried ginger and rosewater. Add the sugar and remaining milk.

For my next article, I will post some of the pictures of the holi I spent in Delhi !

BYE PEOPLE ! and stay connected 

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

For this article, I thought it would be relevant to tell you about my cultural experience in India.

When I say cultural experience I mean the different kind of «cultural shocks » I had to face while staying in Delhi.

Indian culture is nothing like French culture and if you want to survive, you definitely have to adapt. I always say that being in an indian city is like being on a wave. You have to surf with it or it will literally crush you.

In order to prepare you, or at least to make you aware of what you can expect from Delhi, here are my stories/recommandations.

1st story : the organized chaos

Its simple, if you experience being in a car in Delhi trafic, you simply think that you will die in that journey. The rule for driving a car = no rule.

Either you show that you are the biggest horner and people will let you go through the trafic because they will get tired of you horning like a mad person or you just try to go with the flow without getting hit by the cars around you.

So don’t worry, take a big breath, and tell yourself nothing will happen in that big car you are into in the Delhi Streets. Indians drivers are used to chaos!

2^nd story : no access to toilets

a big amount of indian population don’t have access to toilet and that fact creates some weird situations as people making poo on the street. Yeah, you read well : POO !!! My god, one month after my arrival in India, I was nicely walking on the street and then, this child came out of nowhere in front of me, took down his pant and started to poo. Mmmmmh WELCOME TO INDIA !!

So, as a tourist or even a new inhabitant of any city in India, you should get prepared to see and experience such cultural surprises. Those people aren’t freaks, they just don’t have access to toilet and this represents one of the biggest problem of the country.

3rd story : the manners

If you want to adapt to India, forget everything you know about manners.

Let me explain : saying good morning, thank you, please, etc, is not relevant at all over there. People just think it is not useful so they won’t take time to be polite as we know it.

Don’t get me wrong, if you go to a nice restaurant or shop people will take care of you and try to make you fell good but in the daily life there is a tendancy for people not to be polite in the way we know.

So don’t think people are rude just because they didn’t say thank you when you held the door for them or they didn’t say good bye to you or whatever. Its just something people don’t do here. I was pretty upset by people’s manners when I first arrived in India because I expected people to be and act like in France but now I got used to it and I don’t pay attention any more.

4th story : the starring

As crazy as it can sounds, Indians are obsessed with white skin. Its a sign of beauty over here (well if it would be the same in France, I would have been a beauty queen ! I am real mozzarella myself) so if you are blond with blue eyes, let me tell you that you will feel that you are the main attraction in India. People will stare at you and even ask to take pictures of you. So don’t be afraid but know that being white will attract a lot of attention here.

5th story : money baby

In terms of cost of life, things are cheaper here. You can go to very nice indian restaurant and pay 5 euros for your meal ! Amazing !

For a foreigner, staying in India for vacation is really cool because it is so cheap. The problem when you actually live here and have to pay for daily products (milk, fruits, etc) is : « how to pay the good price for goods where prices are not fixed ? »

Some shop owners in Delhi have a tendancy to try to cheat customers. As long as you don’t look like an Indian, people will try to increase the price and make you pay more than you should normally do.

This is true for the rickshaws for exemple. I have to negociate each and every single days the fare of my trips with the rickshaws drivers and sometimes it can get anoying especially when you know the fare and the driver asks you to pay three times this price. This is a characteric of Delhi but in Bombay for example, drivers put directly the meter as soon as you enter their vehicle.

Also, I had this habit of buying coconuts for their juices. I was in the line and i noticed to price was different for me and for other people. So Indian natives had to pay 30 INR (50 cents)and I had to pay 40 INR. The difference is really small but day after day it starts to count.

So, each time you buy a product in a market, always negociate the price because you can be sure people will give the biggest amount they can give you.

THÉ A L'INDIENNE OU MASSALA CHAI

Today, I decided to give you my receipe of the indian tea so called « chai massala ».

Chai massala is known all around india. People have an habit to drink it all day long. With the sweet or salty lassi, I would say that it is the most famous drink in India.

Eventhough the chai is very simple to make, there are lots of different receipes and I’ll give you today my version of the indian tea.

Personnaly, I like it tasty and not really sweet. Most of the indian people I met like it very very sweet, so the firt time I tasted this speciality, oh my god, I almost choked it !

Please find below the ingredients for two tea cups :

2 cup water

1 cup skimmed milk

2 tea spoons of white sugar (don’t use sweetener because you will not be able to taste the flavor of the tea, I tried it and it was a disaster)

2/3 thin slices of Ginger depending of your taste

2 green cardamoms

1 pinch of cinnamon

the receipe :

Put on high flames 2 cups of water in a sauce pan and add step by step 2/3 slices of ginger,2 green cardamoms, and a pinch of cinnamon. Make it boil for three minutes and then add  two tea spoons of white sugar.

Stir the preparation for 5 minutes.

Then add the cup of milk and stir for 5 more minutes. If you like it very gingery then stir for 5 more minutes.

Use a filter, and serve your chai into two different cups.

You chai is ready !