New Year’s Eve in Jaipur was nothing short of incredible. We spent half of the day at S.O.S. Villages where I had one of the best days I can remember. As we entered and hung out for a little bit and were led around by a guide, the children weren’t quite sure what to think of us. As our group of about fifteen walked down the sidewalk, I remember one boy, probably age four, just standing still a hundred feet from us, trying to decide what he thought. After a couple minutes of a quick tour, the guide said, “Okay, go ahead.” Many of us were kind of scratching our heads, because the children still weren’t quite sure what to think of us yet, and many of us went different directions.
After about a minute, one little boy came over and started to throw ball with me, and quickly, about a half dozen others joined in. After a couple minutes of that, they said, “Football?” and then (> to get a soccer ball. About twelve of us played soccer in the main field for a about an hour, and it was amazing. They taught me Hindi words and I taught them handshakes. After the soccer, many of the kids played around with my point-and-shoot camera, taking pictures of myself and themselves (a type of visual sociology that I will address in a bit). Then, a couple of the kids led me up to their “house” where their house mother made me a cup of the best coffee I’ve ever had in my life, and they walked around and took pictures and we all danced to some Hindi tunes on the radio. The rest of my time was spent trying to learn how to fly kites, playing hand games, running around endlessly, wrestling, or spinning them while they latched onto my back until they were uncontrollably giggling and I was near a state of puking. The day ended with some quick camera lessons, hugs, a kiss on the cheek I received from 4-year-old Mori, and lots of happy new year wishes.
That evening, after some time at the Observatory (where we heard the beautiful sounds of the Muslim call to prayer in the air), we went to a Bollywood film at one of the best movie houses in India. The lobby was very ornate and decorated, much like the theatre inside. Most of us bought cokes and popcorn, all for 40 rupees, the U.S. equivalent of about 80 cents. I also bought a KING TAT bar, very closely related to its cousin, the Kit Kat bar.
The whole set up and vibe of the movie house was so much different than it is back in the United States. First of all, no one is let into the theater until literally 5 minutes before the film starts, to which we all walk in to find our assigned seats. The few ads are already running, mixed in with public service announcements from the traffic police. The seats all reclined some, and it is really easy to get your knee knocked if you’re not expecting the person in front of you to move theirs! Also, throughout the first twenty minutes of the film, every one was still filtering in, laughing, talking, and answering cell phone calls. Throughout the movie, everyone would laugh, cheer, or collectively moan at different points in the movie. Everywhere you looked, kids were running up and down the aisles screaming, giggling, everyone talking to each other. Yet, throughout the whole thing, if you felt like tuning your ears into the movie, it was quite easy to do. It was amazing!
The rest of the evening, to celebrate the coming new year, some of us class members hung out in the hotel restaurant/bar, where a group of local boys (backed by a piano and drum machine) were playing Enrique Iglesias covers. All of the workers in the restaurant invited us outside to the front parking lot where they were shooting off “crackers” to ring in the New Year. After all the fireworks, some of us in the group tip-toed into the dance party with the rest of the crowd and avoided the twenty dollar or so cover, to which we all danced and danced until nearly 2 AM. We met quite a few students from the University of Arkansas and some other schools were there studying abroad as well, to which we all chimed in to the mix of Hindi and American tunes, like an interesting mix of Linkin Park’: ”In The End” around 1 AM.
As I said earlier, New Year’s Eve was nothing short of incredible, and I’d like to discuss briefly about the Visual Sociology encountered in the orphanage. There is a form of understanding culture that we encountered in our readings for this course called “autodriving”, one of many approaches used by visual sociologists and visual anthropologists as a means of empowering people outside of the ‘intellectual’ community by having them record life the way they see it, especially those with no formal photographic training. In this case, I let some of the kids run around with the point and shoot camera, taking pictures of themselves, me, their environment, etc. And upon analyzing those photos, you can get an insight into their world. A lot of us tried these techniques and were able to see some really great images and gain small insights into life as a child at that orphanage.
We’re on our way to see the Taj Mahal now, and we wish you all a Happy New Year!