Sports Day at GDGoenka World School

This past Friday was Sports Day at school. I think they are using the term "Sports Day" loosely, since there was actually very little of what I might call sports. It started with Opening Ceremonies, a parade led by horses and marchers from each of the four "houses" (like in Harry Potter!) Alex was a marcher for her house. She hates marching, especially since it has meant no horseback riding for the past 6 weeks. After the march-by, there was some singing and oath-giving etc. The Chief Guest was a world-class cricket player of recent fame - if you follow this sort of thing, he bowled the winning pitch in the T20 final against India's long-time rival Pakistan. And that is an example of my skill at spitting back information that I really don't understand. I heard it, and I realize that makes him a big deal, but since we don't follow cricket, or even understand it, who cares. And I would love to tell you his name, but don't know it. Here is a photo as he awards the medals. Maybe you recognize him...?Anyway, due to weather and traffic, he was delayed, and they held up for awhile waiting for him, but finally went ahead. After much ceremony and many superlatives from the commentator (and I must digress a moment. There is no "truth in advertising" in India. Reality means nothing. Everything is bigger, better, and more fabulous than ever. The marching was fantastic. The students' enthusiasm was overwhelming. The displays of skill were inspiring. The singing was like angelic choruses of magnificentness. You get the idea. I so wish I had had a piece of paper to record some of her more eloquent turns of phrase - it was really something! I spent most of the time either laughing out loud or wondering if she and I were watching the same event! OK I am done with the digression.) ...where was I? oh yes, after all the superlatives, the sports began. That is, footraces. The kids ran 100 metres and 4x100 relays. And that is it. With no starting blocks, and a couple pieces of wood to clap together for a starting gun. Here is Miranda's race. She didn't win.

Alex ran the 100m and in the relay. She didn't win. She did better in the relay altho she said she hates the baton (or BATen, as they say here). The kids pretty much stopped and passed it, then ran. Even the high schoolers. I was NOT impressed with any athletic prowess. I am sure Randy could have outrun ANY of those kids (grade 12 boys included) and I suspect I could have given some of the girls a race! (and as I am no speed demon myself, that may give you some idea. I swear one girl was in slo-mo. I was waiting for the Bionic Woman music!) And everything was won by Koreans and Chinese students. Everything. I suggested to the kids there was a lesson in there somewhere. Anyway, between races were displays of other sports , like tennis (notice Miranda's Serena Williams backhand), karate (which was supposed to include Isaac but he didn't tell his mother he needed money for the uniform rental so he had to sit out) and aerobics.

The aerobics team was actually very entertaining. There was about 50 girls, and they actually were synchronized and altho it barely resembled aerobics (more Bollywood dance number than anyone getting sweaty) they did put on a pretty good show. The best part of the karate was a demo by the instructors - they broke tiles, leaped over 4 crouching kids in a single bound, and looked like they knew their stuff.

Then came the good stuff... the DANCING!! oh, Sam was sooooo not happy to be involved in this! She didn't sign up for an event, believing she could sit on the side and read a book, but she was WRONG! The teacher chose her to learn and perform a Kashmeri dance WITH A BOY! She tried everything to get out of it, and was very close to faking her own death to escape the torture. I was merciless, however, and the show did go on. It was NOT a warm day, and they waited a long time to perform, while dressed in light cotton clothes and bare feet. Notice in this photo her smiling countenance and happy attitude. NOT.

Here are the three odious boys that she actually had to TOUCH! YUCK!!! I tried 4 times to upload the 55 seconds of torture Sam endured, but it kept having issues. Just imagine. I am sure Kashmeri dance is much more beautiful than this when not danced under duress.
There were other dances as well, from other regions of India, some done very well. I enjoyed this one with three boys who were leaping and twirling all over the place. Look closely, I know the background is distracting. The other photo is of another group, whose dance was not so interesting but their costumes were great.

As I was leaving Isaac found me and introduced me to his friends. This is BomSue, Doonahdi and Lemming. I am sure that is not the right spelling, but I am going with phonetics. They were very polite. I hear about them all the time.

I sat just a few chairs away from Mr. Big-Shot Cricket Hero in the VIP tent. I was served cookies and juice (against my will, I might add - they were VERY insistant!) and had a great view. Now, you may wonder why. Well, I was the only parent there. Yup. As I have mentioned before, this school is tight on security and loose on welcoming parents. The kids said I was not able to come (oh, really?) but I rented a car and off I went. At the outer gate the guard was suspicious and took my name in case I caused trouble. Inside the gate, I signed in and got a pass as usual but when I tried to go onto the field area, everybody freaked. I was made to go to reception where I stated my intention to watch my kids and the lady (probably assuming this interest in my kids' doings is an American affliction) was shocked at my mistreatment and got me an escort to get past the guards at the field gate. Of course, I was escorted to the tent so I didn't get to find and talk to the kids until after, but I WAS there, and I DID see Sports Day. Again, score one for me. I have determined that the best method is just to act like what I am doing is normal and let them work it out. Usually, the guards don't have a reason for resisting, they just have always done it that way, and if you push against the rules they bend them. Especially if no one has ever showed up for Sports Day before and they are not sure how to handle it! At any rate, it was a show. A fabulous, unbelievable display of unparalled sportsmanship and .....oh whatever. I can't even do it!!

This photo is from the driveway out, showing the field and the tent and some dorm buildings behind.

ok this is NOT the video I wanted to post - this is before they started dancing. The video I wanted to post is 57 seconds long and I guess that is too much to upload. So watch this and imagine the dance!

Republic Day means a PARADE in Delhi...

Republic Day is a BIG deal in Delhi. January 26 is the day they celebrate the signing of the documents that made India a Republic. To see the parade along the main route (along the road that runs by India Gate), you must buy a ticket. There is 3 prices - 50 rupees, 150 rupees, or 300 rupees. We opted for the pricey ones. The good news is that the seating is reserved and there are risers. The bad news is that security is VERY tight and there are many restrictions on what you can take: no water, no food, no cell phones, no wallets, or bags, and NO CAMERAS!!!!! torture. Most of these photos came off the internet becasue of that. On the plus side, the press had a really good view so their photos are better than I could have gotten anyway. There was a rehearsal on the Wed. before and it was a gorgeous sunny day. On Saturday, it was overcast and smoggy. You can probably tell which day each photo was taken on! Mornings are quite chilly, and I was worried, so we wore many layers and took 4 wool blankets with us. Good thing! It was not warm. I guess you pay most for the tickets closest to the dignitary viewing area. It meant that the announcer was talking about stuff we had just seen go by. At the far end the information would be kind of a waste, wouldn't it? There were speakers all along the route to hear the speeches and descriptions of the floats, etc.
This is a military parade, so no candy was thrown, and no clowns, but there were tanks and mobile bridges and missiles, lots of marching and bands, and guys on tiny motorcycles. No, they weren't tiny motorcycles but there was a team of trick riders. That was cool. The parade began with a 21 gun salute (very cool- I had never witnessed one, and I thought feeling the shock in my chest was cool) which Isaac slept thru (???) then the arrival of India's Prime Minister and President (I think. Sometimes the announcer spoke in English and sometimes Hindi, so we can't be sure) and the President of France, Nicholas Sarkozy. He just married a model/singer and everyday on the front of the newspaper is something about them. Who cares?! Anyway, after the dignitaries, then some military helicopters flew over and dropped rose petals on the crowd! SOOOO cool. Then came the military display of strength. There were floats of each branch of the military and they were VERY elaborate. Then there bands and marchers from each branch. Their uniforms are very bright but their hats were just bizarre. There was also a float from each state, and a few bonus ones from the Education dept, the water dept. etc.
My very favorites were the elephants and the camels. How cool is that?! We had seen the camels on the highway once, returning from a practice. I guess. That is something you don't see everyday, even here - 100 decked out camels on the highway :) Some of the elephants carried kids who had receieved medals for bravery. Randy was saying, yeah whatever to that, but I had read about these kids and they really did do some amazing stuff. One kids had saved people from a house fire, another had saved a kid from drowning, and another had pulled 4 or 5 people from a burning bus.

This is India Gate, a war memorial. It is part of a huge park area with grass. It is always busy with tons of people on the weekend. This is the trick motorcycle group. Too bad they only made one pass, they were really neat.

I was amazed at the marching - white gloves so you can really see their swinging arms. The Muslim regiment could really swing - one guy's hand went HIGHER than his head on the backswing. Don't try that at home!

There were a few school groups in the parade too, and even some groups of girls marching, wearing salwar kameez uniforms.
There was another flyover, of jets this time. That is always cool. They flew over us then straight up and disappeared. These photos are from Wed. On Sat. the sky was so grey we couldn't see them coming and they disappeared fast. Too bad. But it was still neat.

The security was ridiculous - park in seperate areas and walk forever to your designated spot, where you jam up in a shapeless queue 20 people wide to funnel into a single metal detector. Then the men get patted down and wanded out in the open but the females have to get in another line so they can be patted down and wanded behind a curtain. That way, it takes 3 times as long. We all went into the same line, but then we had to turn around to go back. The longer it took the longer the line got of course, and when we were done it was nearly time for the parade, and the line of women behind us had mysteriously disappeared. hmmm. We should have done it too, but we are trying to impress upon the kids that we obey the rules even when they are stupid. And they often are stupid. :) Our area (the 300 rupees area) was filled with probably 30% white foreigners. We really notice that - hearing English, seeing western clothes and blond hair.
Soldiers were everywhere in the area, and we saw many of these little fortresses, usually with a machine-gun-toting soldier behind it.
It takes a long time to disperse a crowd of that size. There were still many people along the route when we drove by after. I can't believe I couldn't get photos of the seating and the people and all that. I probably could have smuggled in a camera, but what if they took it away? not worth it. Ajay waited with the car but he told me later he climbed up on a pipe and could see pretty well.

Afterwards, we went to KFC at Connaught Place in the heart of Delhi. It wasn't opn when we got there (it is illegal to do business before 1 pm on Republic Day) so Randy and Miranda and Alex went for a walk around the circle. Miranda was chasing the pigeons and saying she wanted to catch one, when suddenly WHAMMO one hit a big window right in front of them. So Randy told her now was her chance! So she did. It was very dazed I guess. She held it for quite awhile, then even after putting it down, it wouldn't go away!






We learned after this, that Republic Day is a good day to go home and stay there. We tried to go shopping and the crowds were unbelievable. Really. Such a crush you cannot imagine. Not very fun.

Back to the Twilight Zone....

The flight back to India was uneventful. We slept as much as we could. We found the jet-lag harder coming this way than going home. The kids had gotten little pillows in their stockings, and I was wishing I did too - I have a hard time sleeping on the plane.

The airports were still festive. We ate at McDonald's one last time, getting that last burger in...

Ajay was at the airport to meet us, but of course we had waaaay too many bags, so three kids and I and some bags came home, then he went back for Randy and Sam and the rest. I wonder what Ajay was thinking when he unloaded all those suitcases. Probably that we are crazy. We were one bag short at the airport- the black duffle with all the clothes. It was the best one to be lost, since there was no meat or cheese in it!
It did show up the next day, looking pretty rough - Randy's theory is that it fell off a conveyor belt somewhere. It certainly looked like it had fallen and been dragged! Luckily, the pancake mix inside was fine.
This is most of the food we brought. 20 lbs of cheddar, 40 lbs of pancake mix, tuna, bbq sauce, salami, beef flavoring, chocolate chips, spaghetti, goldfish crackers, instant oatmeal, HP sauce, microwave popcorn, hot chocolate powder, peanut butter, bisquick, kraft dinner, gravy mix, mini wheats and honeynut cheerios, parmesan cheese, tortillas, pringles and mustard. These are a few of our favorite things! It is either impossible or very expensive to get these things. I also brought pizza pans, muffin tins, spatulas, tongs and a can opener. Hardly anybody owns an oven, so baking items are hard to come by.

We were severely jet-lagged. It took the entire week before school started to get everybody back on schedule. And it was cold and we don't have any heat in the house. Grandma Brooks gave the kids their birthday presents for the year, early so they could enjoy them. They each got a "mink" blanket. I had bought wool blankets for the couch, and they are warm, but NOT very cuddly, so these are great. Sam's has a wolf, Alex's is dogs, Isaac's is an eagle with a teepee below, and Miranda's is tigers.

Because Isaac's room is downstairs, his is handy, so he sometimes has to share with me!