I've Got My Salwaar Kameez

Yesterday, Saturday, was an absolutely amazing day! It was the first time that I felt like I truly had a handle on myself here in Mysore. I am beginning to feel more at home. Not only did I pick up my first Indian outfit as you can see to the left, I went shopping and crashed an Indian Wedding.

The type of dress Taylor and I are wearing is a Salwaar Kameez. It is quite comfortable. A tailor made them so they fit us perfectly. Many of my friends remarked that they felt more white in their outfits. For me, it was the opposite. (Of course, I never feel white!) Something simple, like putting on traditional dress allows one to integrate herself further into the culture. You get to examine what it feels like to wear their clothes. Simple things feel different: the breeze flows through this traditional dress unlike my sticky jean capris. You begin to appreciate how Indian women keep these shawls on while riding a motorcycle or simply walking. I had enough trouble keeping the shawl on merely standing.

Prior to picking up our outfits, a group of us visited St. Philomena's Cathedral. As a Catholic, it was interesting to visit a cathedral in a completely different culture. From the outside, the cathedral looked like any other cathedral but inside the colors were much more vivid. It didn't have that dark and gloomy feeling. What was most exciting was that there was an Indian Catholic Wedding going on which we got to witness. Like any Catholic wedding, there was a mass. But the music was much livelier. Secondly, people walked around quite a bit throughout the service. There wasn't the fear like we have in the states of what to do when your child throws a fit in church. Here in Mysore, you can simply walk with your child around the church during the service. Another thing that was surprising about the service was that people showed up throughout the service. Even three quarters of the way into the wedding, people were still showing up.

The night was topped off with Dominos Pizza and Cokes while watching the movie, Gandhi. Even something like Dominos is different here. Instead of parmesan and crushed red pepper on one's pizza, you put oregano and chili powder. The cheese pizza is less cheesy. It was pretty good.

As I was watching Gandhi, I realized how little I know about this icon. We grow up hearing about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his relationship to Gandhi, how Gandhi inspired him. Yet we never learn what Gandhi did for his people. I did not realize Gandhi's work in South Africa with the Apartheid system. The longer I am on this trip, the more I realize how uneducated I am. Americans, especially its youth, think that we know so much when we simply know the surface. We know who Gandhi is but not what he did. We know that Hinduism exist in India but not what the Rig Veda is. I saw a beggar on the street, a child, and he told me that he could recite the capitol of every country in the world. I wanted to test him but realized he probably knew all the capitols and I didn't.