16 March 2011
My visit to Nepura on this day started with Mahesh coming to Nalanda to escort me to Nepura. He mentioned that he had not seen the university, so I took him on a brief tour thinking that he might be a potential student candidate. Walking from the university to the Nalanda Gate was very hot at 11:30 in the morning. I asked Mahesh if he wanted to stop and get a cold drink, but he told me that we’d stop in Silao for a cold drink. We then rode the bus to Silao where he tried to buy a lassi for me at a tea shop, but they didn’t have any. Instead he bought a bottle of 7-Up.
After having the cold drink, we couldn’t pass the kadja (Silao’s famous fried pastry) without having a taste. He bought me a salty kadja and then the Kadja stall owner gave me a sweet one to eat. Eating my kadja, we turned down a side street that I had never seen before. It turned out to be Silao’s market. Many wonderful shops and people were on both sides of the street selling everything from fresh produce to saris to hardware to shoes. Many of the shops had tubes of color or baskets full of the colorful powder for sale for the upcoming Holi festival. We turned on another street of wonderful shops, but we had to stand back and wait as a huge cart pulled by two water buffalo with horns tried to make the turn. I marveled that the attempt was even made. The cart owner yelled at one young man his bicycle to move his parked bicycle. The young man quickly moved the bicycle and the cart safely made the turn in the narrow, crowded street. I would have liked to have stayed and shopped, but I was due in Nepura.
Passing many shops, I realized that the street we were now on led right past the Maha Kassapa statue in the Shiva Temple. I told Mahesh I wanted to get some more pictures of the statue. Mahesh waited at the entrance of the temple, while I snapped some photos of the inscription on the statue. Then we headed down the familiar road toward Nepura.
Once back at the main road, instead of getting on the bus to go to the regular bus stop point, we walked down another dirt road that led right into Nepura. Mahesh pointed out the Lord Jesus Residential School and said that was his school. That prompted me to realize that this was a weekday, so I asked if he had school today. He told me no and then later admitted that he no longer attended school. He has completed Class 9 and now works as a weaver.
Entering Nepura, we briefly stopped at a very large Hindu Temple. I took pictures of the temple and discussed a picture of Ram, Sita, Lakshman, and Hanuman with Mahesh. Then we stopped at a house of a weaver named Tinku. His father was in the pit loom weaving a beautiful piece of silk, probably for a sari. I took pictures of the room which had silk thread hanging from the ceiling.
Shortly, I was invited into an inner room of the house where I met the rest of Tinku’s family. They offered me a cup of tea and Tinku’s sister fanned me to keep me cool. The process of dying and boiling the silk cocoon was explained and then I watched a woman pulling the silk from the cocoon. Tinku brought out many beautiful samples of silk, China silk and Indian silk, naturally dyed silk and synthetically dyed silk, and checkered, pattern and plain silk. They asked if I knew of any market for silk in the US. All I could think of was women’s dresses, especially wedding dresses. When I get back to the States, I’ll have to do some research in this area, since my knowledge is almost non-existent!
Narinder-ji called and said that he was waiting for me at the cooperative, so we headed directly to the cooperative. Manju showed me the napkins that had been beautifully hand stitched. Then she asked if I wanted the napkins hemmed by hand or by sewing machine. I told her machine-stitched hems would be just fine. She and another woman, Pinky, showed me the tredle sewing machines. I asked to try stitching and they sat me in front of one. I put my feet on the tredle and started the wheel, but I didn’t use enough force in my feet to move the tredle past enough. The “string” belt on the machine soon slipped off and had to be put back on. I think I will need lots of practice to learn how to use this sewing machine!! I wasn’t able to make any stitches because the needle was broken on that machine. Pinky showed me how they threaded the machine, anyway. I asked about the bobbin and they said ‘no bobbin.’ I’ll have to watch to see how they stitch without a bobbin!!
Narinder-ji turned on their computer to show me some pictures of the cooperative’s US trip. I asked him if they had an internet connection and was told that they didn’t. I thought that was too bad because it would be wonderful if they could join the global marketplace.
Renu was the representative from Nepura that made the trip to Los Angeles, California. She and other representatives from all over India, travelled to LA to sell their handicrafts. Narinder-ji pointed out one man who spoke neither Hindi nor English. He was unable to communicate with the rest of the group or the people of LA. I thought that would have been a very difficult trip to make and he must have been very brave to try.
Having been in the homes of many of these wonderful people of Nepura, I couldn’t help but wonder what Renu thought of the long plane ride to California and her stay at the 5-star hotel! Showers and bathtubs, huge comfy beds, and buffet meals were shown to me in the pictures. Narinder commented that Renu thought the food in LA didn’t have enough spices as compared to India!!
The Indian contingent then had a day at the beach (must have been Santa Monica or Ventura because I saw a boardwalk with some rides in the picture). I laughed at all the pictures taken standing on the beach as bikini clad American women walked past or laid in the sand. Some of the men pulled up the legs of their pants and the women pulled up the hems of their saris to stand in the Pacific Ocean for one picture! What a thrill that must have been to see the Pacific Ocean, which is so far from India!
As Narinder-ji needed to go to Bihar Sharif, he told me he’d accompany me back to Nalanda on the bus. As we left the cooperative building, I saw that some of the village is getting a cement sidewalk and other people were standing near two huge barrels. Upon getting a closer look, I was told that the barrels had kerosene and that with coupons from the government, these people were getting ladles full of the necessary kerosene. Having experienced power outages in Nalanda and seen the kerosene lamp being used to light the kitchen in order to finish cooking dinner or to allow a child to keep reading, I understood the importance of this for these people.
My visit to Nepura on this day started with Mahesh coming to Nalanda to escort me to Nepura. He mentioned that he had not seen the university, so I took him on a brief tour thinking that he might be a potential student candidate. Walking from the university to the Nalanda Gate was very hot at 11:30 in the morning. I asked Mahesh if he wanted to stop and get a cold drink, but he told me that we’d stop in Silao for a cold drink. We then rode the bus to Silao where he tried to buy a lassi for me at a tea shop, but they didn’t have any. Instead he bought a bottle of 7-Up.
After having the cold drink, we couldn’t pass the kadja (Silao’s famous fried pastry) without having a taste. He bought me a salty kadja and then the Kadja stall owner gave me a sweet one to eat. Eating my kadja, we turned down a side street that I had never seen before. It turned out to be Silao’s market. Many wonderful shops and people were on both sides of the street selling everything from fresh produce to saris to hardware to shoes. Many of the shops had tubes of color or baskets full of the colorful powder for sale for the upcoming Holi festival. We turned on another street of wonderful shops, but we had to stand back and wait as a huge cart pulled by two water buffalo with horns tried to make the turn. I marveled that the attempt was even made. The cart owner yelled at one young man his bicycle to move his parked bicycle. The young man quickly moved the bicycle and the cart safely made the turn in the narrow, crowded street. I would have liked to have stayed and shopped, but I was due in Nepura.
Passing many shops, I realized that the street we were now on led right past the Maha Kassapa statue in the Shiva Temple. I told Mahesh I wanted to get some more pictures of the statue. Mahesh waited at the entrance of the temple, while I snapped some photos of the inscription on the statue. Then we headed down the familiar road toward Nepura.
Once back at the main road, instead of getting on the bus to go to the regular bus stop point, we walked down another dirt road that led right into Nepura. Mahesh pointed out the Lord Jesus Residential School and said that was his school. That prompted me to realize that this was a weekday, so I asked if he had school today. He told me no and then later admitted that he no longer attended school. He has completed Class 9 and now works as a weaver.
Narinder-ji called and said that he was waiting for me at the cooperative, so we headed directly to the cooperative. Manju showed me the napkins that had been beautifully hand stitched. Then she asked if I wanted the napkins hemmed by hand or by sewing machine. I told her machine-stitched hems would be just fine. She and another woman, Pinky, showed me the tredle sewing machines. I asked to try stitching and they sat me in front of one. I put my feet on the tredle and started the wheel, but I didn’t use enough force in my feet to move the tredle past enough. The “string” belt on the machine soon slipped off and had to be put back on. I think I will need lots of practice to learn how to use this sewing machine!! I wasn’t able to make any stitches because the needle was broken on that machine. Pinky showed me how they threaded the machine, anyway. I asked about the bobbin and they said ‘no bobbin.’ I’ll have to watch to see how they stitch without a bobbin!!
Narinder-ji turned on their computer to show me some pictures of the cooperative’s US trip. I asked him if they had an internet connection and was told that they didn’t. I thought that was too bad because it would be wonderful if they could join the global marketplace.
Renu was the representative from Nepura that made the trip to Los Angeles, California. She and other representatives from all over India, travelled to LA to sell their handicrafts. Narinder-ji pointed out one man who spoke neither Hindi nor English. He was unable to communicate with the rest of the group or the people of LA. I thought that would have been a very difficult trip to make and he must have been very brave to try.
Having been in the homes of many of these wonderful people of Nepura, I couldn’t help but wonder what Renu thought of the long plane ride to California and her stay at the 5-star hotel! Showers and bathtubs, huge comfy beds, and buffet meals were shown to me in the pictures. Narinder commented that Renu thought the food in LA didn’t have enough spices as compared to India!!
The Indian contingent then had a day at the beach (must have been Santa Monica or Ventura because I saw a boardwalk with some rides in the picture). I laughed at all the pictures taken standing on the beach as bikini clad American women walked past or laid in the sand. Some of the men pulled up the legs of their pants and the women pulled up the hems of their saris to stand in the Pacific Ocean for one picture! What a thrill that must have been to see the Pacific Ocean, which is so far from India!
As Narinder-ji needed to go to Bihar Sharif, he told me he’d accompany me back to Nalanda on the bus. As we left the cooperative building, I saw that some of the village is getting a cement sidewalk and other people were standing near two huge barrels. Upon getting a closer look, I was told that the barrels had kerosene and that with coupons from the government, these people were getting ladles full of the necessary kerosene. Having experienced power outages in Nalanda and seen the kerosene lamp being used to light the kitchen in order to finish cooking dinner or to allow a child to keep reading, I understood the importance of this for these people.
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