I have moved south to Goa to catch some heat. And to meet Betsy and then Harry. Goa is very different from the rest of India I have been travelling in so far. Hardly a cow and only rickshaws in the large towns. It is India’s smallest state and is green, lush and Portuguese. Very much set up for the tourist market with a wonderfully bright properties of historical European interest – well continental and not at all colonial. I love the vibrancy of the paints they use. And they seem to paint them regularly. Nothing seems tatty here like many buildings in the Gujarat and Rajasthan I have become used to.
Also it currently feels much more like a beach holiday and rather odd to be having this type of experience. I am certainly enjoying the heat and meeting some very interesting tourists but are these the type of encounters I was looking for? I have always railed against being yet another tourist – the usual angst with being different. But the great thing is I will have a further six weeks left of my sabbatical when Harry leaves on the 17th and go wherever I want!
Block printing
So, I decided I would use some of my favourite spirograph designs – I had drawn eight perfectly and found Rahul (in Pushkar) to make them for me. But he agreed to seven (auspicious) and did five in the end. For 2,500 rupees (£30).
I tested them with stamp ink and paint (better with stamp ink). Then I did brass rubbings using crayon, charcoal, coloured pencils and oil pastels. Additionally, I embossed them onto paper using a special tool for making dots!
They all worked reasonably well. I tried to do stamp them onto the cards I was making but they were pretty ropey so were consigned to the back of the cards.
I stamped them out and went to Sadri (nearest town to camel conservation centre where I was staying in early December) where I had seen some plain wooden simply carved construction toys. We went to see if we could commission them but to no avail.
On reflection this was not a particularly successful project. I think the idea behind these blocks is you design a series that are complementary and you use them one on top of each other with different colours and parts of the design to make whole. The process is explained here
https://www.unnatisilks.com/block-printing-process-1-indian-crafts.html
and for one overall design you can use up to eight blocks of different colours. I am not sure at the time I had commissioned them I had a firm idea of what I wanted nor was I able to design an entire set. Maybe something for the future. Or not!
Chanukiah
Chanukah is always a fun festival to celebrate and for this you need a Chanukiah – also known as a menorah. I didn’t bring one with so had to make one. Chanukah is a fun festival and gives you licence to eat fried foods like doughnuts. I was going to be in Devpur (Kutch) and Ahmadabad. And for some bizarre reason although all my kids are coming out to see me (separately) not one of them was going to be with me for Chanukah. When I was in Swad household department store in Bhuj getting tea lights for my shabbat candles I decided to get more bits to make a menorah.
This is the eight branched candelabra with a ninth extra branch for the candle to light the others. I got a load of small aluminium pots for the eight regular candles and a metal mug for the lighter which has to be of a different height (known as the Shamash). I decorated each of the small pots with random designs with my permanent purple pen and bought small bindi stickers and Toby decorated the Shamash with these. In Bhuj I had bought some antique hand sewn textiles and found one bright one with a Star of David and used this in the centre of my aluminium tray.
I could only find very lurid and colourful tea lights but that only added to the “Indian-ness” of my menorah. I lit it every night in Devpur and pulled always found a willing assistant to light the candles for me. Sometimes other guests and once the staff and one night all the boys who boarded at the White Eagle School – our homestay was part of the school premises – and taught them a bit about Chanukah. One of the smart boys asked why eight days and I could answer them! The owner Krutarth gave me a card signed by all the staff to wish me a happy Chanukah which was fabulous! Everyone was subject to my faltering rendition of the blessings in Hebrew and then my atrocious singing but they didn’t complain! I also cooked them a load of latkes and served them with apple sauce I made and strained yogurt (a bit like sour cream) that Avintika made. Delicious. They all said so – well they were polite and I enjoyed them anyway!
I was back in Ahmadabad for the final three nights and was invited after the Friday night service for a final night Chanukah party. I asked if I could bring my menorah and light it with them and they agreed.
I arrived to a full house of Jews who had been in Ahmadabad for generations. They all knew each other and were unbelievably welcoming to me. I cajoled some poor boy to light my menorah whilst I said the blessings and took photos of their beautiful menorah.
I met a number of the community including the famous novelist Esther David – I have since ordered two of her books to read on Amazon which have just arrived! They were intrigued by my hat I had made that afternoon. I watched a dance display but the children and the women who were all wearing red! Well nearly all were…..
Then of course onto the food. They are pretty much vegetarian as it is very hard to get hold of kosher meat – the community is 140 people. They speak Guajarati to each other and I had a typical meal there with chapatis, rice, dal, poppadums and curries as well as some Indian sweets. To say thanks for having me I gave them the book I had been using – called 101 things to do in Ahmadabad. – put in photos. This was a really special end to my time in Gujarat.
Hair Decorations
The problem with having a colour scheme is that it can become not only a burden but an obsession. I am drawn to everything purple here. Like toilet brush cleaners, dish pads, cloths and of course clothes. I don’t need any of this. I bought quite a number of hair slides and clips in the market in Bjuj. Later on, in Ahmadabad I was wondering through one of the busy markets – Manek Chowk. Believe you me it is pretty manic and particularly on the weekend. Trying to get through Teen Darwaza (one of the old city gates) I was at at standstill and then a man appeared and got the people queues moving – phew. I was drawn to a load of hair bobbles and some more slides. Of course, purple is not really best seen in my silvery hair – ok it is grey – let’s stop playing pretend.
So best to persuade someone else with lovely, long, black and luscious hair to model. I was planning to ask all the women in Devpur to model them but actually I rather liked the idea of a single model and so I asked Avintika. She didn’t think I was mad and rather enjoyed the experience. She then ran off with my camera and took a load of photos of the staff so everyone benefited.
When I was later on back in Ahmadabad staying at the historic and thoughtfully decorated and designed Mangaldas ni Haveli ii (https://houseofmg.com/mangaldas-ni-haveli-ii/) there was this wonderful silver (or some other silvery metal) and he (or she) did the honours for me to display all the hair slides I had brought.
I did feel a bit bad having to put something with teeth on his trunk but it was all in the name of art. And I did stand him on a lovely silver tray decorated with pretty flowers. Not at all bad really? Better than a sandy floor or dirty carpet!
Red, Gold and Chocolate
So, this is not my theme or my colour scheme but hey. Betsy bought me a Chanukah present. And she knows l love Ferrero Rocher chocolates. This was a giant one and what with the astonishingly melting heat I felt I must open it up the moment she gave it to me. No self-control whatsoever!
And then the chocolate was getting melty so we devoured it.
Totally yum. Wasn’t sure if there was something I could do with the gold orb contained within the large chocolate sphere but it was sticky and painting it was another issue. I had done this recently with a spiral terracotta garden chime set I had bought but it didn’t work. This actually fitted the theme – hand made and spiral but the paint isn’t good enough – or my patience or skill and I left it in Ahmadabad. So rather than wasting time and effort on a fairly non-descript orb I decided it was to go the way of things we don’t want – off to recycling.
But back to the chocolate. It was delicious. At first we thought it was going to be a giant load of air with a few routine sized chocolates. And I had had some chocolate once on this trip to India. It was so out of date or poorly stored it had that white film and was a pretty horrid experience. But the large orb was lovely and melting helped the enjoyment. There were two small spheres for later – well not much later. Thanks Betsy. A lovely treat and some cool photos to boot. She tells me it was on sale after Christmas – well she is a student!
Here I am in 2020 up at the crack of dawn to pull together this blog. I woke up at 0520 and have sat in the empty restaurant at Beach Street Eco Resort looking at the sea. I have always found the waves and the ocean to be so restorative. Over this last hour the day has dawned and some brave souls are doing a yoga class on the beach. I am off now to take some photographs of purple yoga mats I have found!
