Just had my first day back at school after a four day weekend...
The four day weekend was unexpected but a nice surprise. Schools and other public places all over the state were closed on Thursday because of a decision the court was making. It was a precautionary measure in order to keep peace between religions. Nothing happened at all but people were mostly out of the streets by 2 and it was an unusually quiet night. There's been a dispute of a place where a mosque is built. It is also the supposed birth place of a Hindu god. Thousands of years ago there was a Hindu temple there at one point it was replaced with a mosque by Muslim invaders. For an extremely long time, the Islamic population had been worshiping there. Hindu's have been demanding that they be able to put a temple there now as it's maybe the birth place of a god and they were there first. The court decided on Thursday who the land belonged to and who could worship there. The decision was supposed to be made a week previously but the decision was postponed to this past week. Saturday was also the holiday celebrating Gandhi so there was no school then.
I've been reading the international page in the paper everyday to see what is said about the US and other countries. Almost articles directly about the US are from the Washington Post. There was one the other day though from Islamabad reporting on American interaction there. It's also interesting to see what is reported on, which of the Washington Post's articles are used. I have a feeling that they use any international article they can that involves India. Right now though, the news is mostly filled up with the Commonwealth Games which are taking place here. It's a really big deal and most of every section of the paper has something about them.
Saturday night my host father took my host mother and I to the movies. We saw Anjaana Anjaani which was about a man and a woman living in New York City during the stock market crash. The movie starts with them meeting as they both attempt to commit suicide (the man had worked for an insurance agency). The rest of their movie is their adventures together. They also travel to San Francisco and Las Vegas. Though the duo is Indian and the movie has in Hindi it was easy to tell where the Indian idea of Americans come from (the other day when show my friend, Hannah, and I a VERY small and backless top that's meant to be worm over another shirt my host mom said, "But in America they were stuff like this without anything under it all the time" I laughed and explained that, no we don't actually dress like that her response was that everyone thinks that's the way Americans dress though). From the red necks to the club goers the movie had many extreme stereo types of America. According to the movie, we wear skimpy clothes, party a lot, have very little family values, and can be very crude. Very much like the Hollywood depiction of Americans actually. It was cool to watch the movie and say "I've been there!" when looking at the Golden Gate and all the buildings in Vegas. It was a very fun movie but I don't think my host father was too impresses. My host sister liked it though.
On the way home my host father said, "That's not what the US is like at all is it?" and we had discussion about the Indian perceptions on America but the truths in the movie as well. For example, it's not that we don't have family values it's just that we express them in a different way than the people here. For example, when we get married or leave home for school and work we don't stay as close to home as possible.
It was really interesting to see the Indian version of NYC though.
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