De prin lume... (Ghidul-1)

"The world is awesome" spun filmuletele promo a celor de la Discovery Channel, iar eu :D, ca un adevarat cautator de comori globale, asemeni celor de la Discovery, m-am gandit sa va pun la dispozitie franturi din minunatele culturi ale lumii, cu care am si eu tangenta desigur, sa ne bucuram de ele impreuna (pentru ca am invatat ca "sharing is caring")
De la aceasta idee va lua nastere urmatorul tag baban de pe blogul papillonesc...care nu va spun cum se cheama, il veti gasi la locul special marcat pentru taguri de pe blog.
Si ca sa n-o mai lungim prea mult, de aici am sa va las cu draga mea prietena indianca Zahraa si una dintre povestile ei "de vis " din Incredible India :)

An idiot’s guide to an Indian wedding

The following is a documentation of a typical Indian wedding for the purpose of educating my non-Indian friends. Hopefully, this will scare you enough to:

a. Never to get married, especially in India or

b. Never get married to an Indian

Unlike their western counterparts, Indian weddings aren’t a one day affair. Actual ceremonies last anywhere between 7-10 days, while the preparations begin months in advance.

Although, this is a documentation of an Indian Muslim weddings, most people irrespective of religion pretty much have the same ceremonies, albeit they might call it by different names.

So who the hell am I? I’m Zahraa (pronounced the same way as the store ‘Zara’), a twenty year old living in Bombay, India (google it- it’s a million times bigger than Timisoara). Last year, I visited Timisoara and positively fell in love with it. I loved that I could ride a bike without drivers wanting to kill me. Over those two months that I spent there, I became friends with Oana. Its strange, she wants to live in India, and I want to live in Romania!I come from a big family, we are four sisters and a brother. Four years ago, my eldest sister got married to an American, now its my brother’s turn.

A little background information about him. He wasted four years of his life to get a degree in Computer Science. Went along to work at EMI Virgin (which was excellent for me, as I got numerous free music CD’s). Finally, he got an MBA and now works at an advertising firm.

My to-be sister-in-law is equally strange. An Indian born in Kuwait (a tiny speck of a country in the Middle East). She went along to study in America, and stuck there for another couple of years, before she realized that Bombay is where she was meant to be. Now, she works as a stylist with one of India’s leading fashion designers. Sadly, this does not mean free clothes for me. However, it includes front row tickets at every fashion week in Bombay.

Numbered below are the ceremonies we will have during the wedding. They are 8 in all, spanning 13 days.

· Mangni (formal acceptance of the wedding)

· Bridal Shower

· Bride’s Mehendi (henna party)

· Groom’s Mehendi

· Sangeet (music/dance night)

· Haldi (literally meaning ‘turmeric’)

· Nikah (actual wedding)

· Reception (same evening as the nikah)

In India, most people either have an ‘arranged’ marriage or a ‘love’ one.

An ‘arranged’ marriage is a situation where your parents find you a boy, and boom you get married to him. Earlier, there were problems where the girl would have no say in the matter, but now this has changed to a great extent. Also, this sort of marriage is usually prevalent in rural India. What’s shocking about arranged marriages is that the divorce rate is so low 1.1% (the lowest in the world). In any case, hardly any Indians get divorced. I just know one divorced couple in my 20 years of living!

A love marriage, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. You find the boy yourself, and get married. No parental involvement in the selection process.

In the age of the internet, my parents still insist on personally delivering the wedding invitation. Indian weddings turn out to be a little circus, anywhere between 2000-3000 people being invited. This invitation business was exhausting. Since I was on vacation, my mum would drag me everywhere with her. Every house we visited, they would offer us tea and cookies. Bah, I ate so many cookies in 4 weeks. So much for my diet.

In the next few weeks, I will attempt to de-mystify an Indian wedding for you. I would like to say that it’s not stressful, but who I am kidding? Oh, and I don’t claim to be an authority on Indian culture. I cannot even speak Hindi coherently! These situations are written from personal experiences. Hope you like them.

Da-i cu erlainu'

Noh ca am mai facut una....una lata, sau cel putin asa pare a fi pana acum.
Imi pare rau ca tot caut oportunitati in afara tarii, dar daca in Timisoara nu ma vrea nimeni, ce sa fac? Asa ca am aplicat acum ceva vreme (fara sa gandesc prea mult in acele momente) la un job in cadrul unei mari companii aeriene, in domeniul Customer service (ca doar asta fac de cand am terminat "fantasticele" studii universitare) Si ce sa vezi, saptamana trecuta pe vremea asta primesc un mail cum ca am fost acceptata pentru interviurile cu reprezentantii companiei, la Bucuresti. Va dati seama ca in 2 zile am fost la Bucuresti, la hotelul cu pricina. Habar nu aveam ca urmau a fi 4 zile de cosmar, cu stres cat casa si nopti abia abia dormite.
Pe scurt, am dat mai multe teste si interviuri decat ma gandeam ca s-ar putea cere pentru un job (insa nu ma plang, consider ca se respecta oamenii, de asta procedeaza asa)...si nici nu am terminat inca. Ideea e ca le-am luat pe toate pana acum (atentie, engleza, matematica, geografie, skill-uri de prezentare) si ma asteapta un (sper) ultim interviu pentru a doua limba, respectiv spaniola (acea spaniola invatata in filme, practicata vreo luna in Spania si aprofundata acum in scriere :D ) In cazul in care trec si de acesta, va spun cu mandrie ca postarile mele vor veni tocmai din Dubai pentru urmatoarea perioada de timp (nedeterminata)
Ce a contat foarte mult pentru ei? Faptul ca am experienta internationala (traiasca AIESEC si cele 6 luni in India), ca vorbesc o alta limba pe langa engleza (traiasca telenovelele), ca m-am aratat foarte sigura pe mine in timpul prezentarii in fata tuturor candidatilor (traiasca voluntariatul din nou) si ca se vedea ca imi doresc foarte mult jobul.
Concluzie: tarile exotice nu ma lasa, ma vor acolo, poate ca am ceva sa le ofer, ce sa spun. Si cel mai tare, am sa fiu la 3 ore de zbor de Bombay-India :X:X:X
Cum am ajuns aici, cand s-a intamplat totul, vag, dar nu conteaza, conteaza ca am permis sa se intample :) Dragi cititori, fiti nebuni, dati-va drumul la emotii si faceti lucruri de care va e frica, pentru ca merita. Atunci va traiti cu adevarat viata. "Walk the extra mile" asa cum m-au indrumat sa continui sa fac, oamenii de la interviu :D

Let's do Yoga

As one of my friend would say...why the hell start Yoga in Romania, when you didn't start it in India...Well because in India I had other priorities and other activities (kind of weird doe) and here in a way because of missing India I started an activity that will bring me closer to the Indian culture, until I get back there of course :D
Do not imagine the kind of Bivolari yoga : ))) with a guru, with rituals that involve urine or animals or whatever else. I'm talking here about Sahaja Yoga, a spiritual Yoga that teaches you how to find yourself through your inner energies. Energies that we ALL have but do not know about them.
You may call me weirdo but I am into these things :D
So here is me, in Libertatii Square, looking at a small poster that was saying about this Sahaja Yoga, with an Indian lady with a bendi on her forehead. One day, one certain hour, free for public (wow), just be there. So I decided to go. And it seems I did good.
Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi is the woman in the poster (of course not this poster). I will not tell about her cause you can find her on wiki. She is the founder of Sahaja Yoga. A good yoga that brings all that's good from you inner:D
The awesome thing is that the sessions are free, precisely because Shri Mataji preached that people should not pay to find themselves, so the women who are holding the sessions do not charge for this. Hoe cool is that? And they are Romanians : )))))
So I went in that room, I've been explained how this yoga helps the person and how do you get to the certain energy, we did a small exercise to see how we feel, an exercise that includes a small meditation, and we saw a movie. Actually in every session we see a movie with Shri Mataji talking to the people, movies that present different speeches she had in the world. And when I say world I mean from Amertica to Asia, cause she is quite famous for this.
Conclusion I kind of like it, I feel good when I'm there, and I also get to listen to old Indian music, which is nice :D

Vine vine...

primavaraa :D
Sau cel putin mie mi-a ajuns cata iarna am simtit. Mai ales dupa un weekend de schi si vant nebun in falca si soare care-ti arde fata in acelasi timp.
Deci da, am fost la schi la Straja, si a fost minunat, si as mai merge da sa mai adun oameni :D Si ce e si mai minunat si ma face sa ma simt "utila" e faptul ca am invatat (impreuna cu prietena Celine) un brazilian (pe Matheus) sa schieze. Da domne o romanca si o belgianca, profesorii ideali de schi. Una statea cu lugu lugu langa om, alta striga din mijlocul partiei (GOO IN V, BODY IN FROOONT) stiti voi, tacticile alea prin care nu cazi ca bolovanu' cand te dai cu schiurile, adica "plugul" si corpul in fata cand schiezi, nu drept. Asa ca, un om care nu a vazut in viata lui zapada (decat prin filmele de actiune montana sau romante winter-oase), a invatat sa schieze sub indrumarea MEA si a CELINEi :D:D:D Sunt mandru de mine, ce sa mai spun.
Oricum ideea e ca acum imi vine sa ma arunc intr-un lan cu flori, nu mai vreau frig, nici zapada (poate un schi asa in cate un weekend mai merge), nici sanie, nici fulare si caciuli si manusi. Astept cu nerabdare primavara, care in unele locuri deja da semne ca ar veni. Vreau un peisaj care sa arate cam asa.... :))))



PS: Zahraa please use the google translator :D