Festivities

"No region in the world is more colourful or picturesque than India. Its ancient monuments and buildings designed by master-craftsmen of bygone days, its customs, festivals, religions, philosophy and art testify to one of the oldest and richest civilizations and are of absorbing interest!" The Handbook of India 1958
Well said, Handbook. There is indeed no shortage of absorbing and picturesque festivals of bygone days to be found in India. In fact, with the dozens of religions and hundreds of deities around, it's sometimes hard to keep track of every big holiday. We've been hearing for weeks now that the event of Teej was approaching, so I tried to seek out some information. Like most things here, at first it was a little difficult to get a straight answer. I asked one of my teachers, "Rakesh Ji, what is Teej?" "It's a festival," he said. "What happens for the festival?" I asked. "Oh...festivities."

I turned, instead, to Wikipedia which told me that Teej has to do with the monsoon and Shiva and Parvati and swings.

On Tuesday a few classmates and I ventured to an arts center here in Jaipur to find the festive festival festivities. What we found was a big open-air fair with lots of vendors selling traditional Rajasthani handicrafts and foods, wandering performers, and lots of lights and music. While snacking on some tasty food we heard, from the other side of the building, some enchanting sitar music. We followed the music to find a huge amphitheater with two handsome young sitar-playing twins and two drummers. Have a look at the video.

I returned to the festival last night for more greasy fried foods and more traditional music. This time no sitar twins, but a whole family band. I apologize, I don't know what the instrument that they were playing is called. The best description I can come up with would be a little drum with a string that makes a sound like a cartoon, but I realize that's probably hard to visualize. Luckily, I have another video.
Tonight is supposed to be the big culmination of the Teej festival festivities with a big parade processing through the city. I intend to go and from what I understand, I'll either have a great time or be trampled by massive crowds. Either way should be interesting.