A a short video on identity by A.P. Boys Residential School

[vimeo vimeo.com/2995855]

A news package on disease in Nalgonda by A.P. Boys Residential School

[vimeo vimeo.com/3039415]

Happy Holidays from Hyderabad! Though we are both far from home, Dave and I have found our holiday season to be filled with warmth (from people and from the climate), friendliness, generosity, and of course, good food.

We are nearly finished with the news video at Vijaynagar Colony, and are beginning to get their wheels spinning on their third video, which will focus on “oral histories”. We are hoping to have them pick a specific event or issue in India, and interview their elders who can help them tell the story on video.  We will not be resuming classes at APRS in Nalgonda until they return from their winter holiday at the end of January.  However, we are very pleased to post both their first and second videos here today!  The first is a short video on identity.  In class they each filled out phrases about themselves such as, “At home I see….”, “I wonder if….”, “I feel that I am…” “I am concerned about…”  The second video is their news package on disease in Nalgonda.  The faced some challenges in finding people in the village who were willing to speak on camera, but this project gave them good practice, especially for their third video, which will have a documentary format.

Dave and I were not sure how much of the population here in Hyderabad celebrates Christmas, but were surprised to find that many businesses and people here-if they don’t celebrate it-they at least observe it.  Many store fronts were decked out in lights and tinsel, and we were approached by vendors on the street selling santa hats and (very creepy) santa face masks.  We were invited to accompany Salomi, one of the teachers at Vijaynagar Colony, to her church’s Christmas service.  It was held in a large open-air hall, and the sermon alternated between English and Telugu. The congregation was enormous!  After the service Dave and I attempted to get tickets to see Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, a popular Bollywood film that is out now.  Little did we know just how popular this film is!  We have attempted to get tickets for this film at least five times, at three different theaters and have found the show to be sold out every single time.  On Christmas the tickets were sold out for every single showing the entire day!  Never have I seen such immense popularity for a single film!  Much of our Christmas afternoon was spent trying to find tickets but alas, it wasn’t to be.

Although they don’t celebrate it, our students were very open and excited to acknowledge the holiday for us.  On Christmas day, our mobile phone rang continuously throughout the day with calls from different boys at Nalgonda, calling from the 1 rupee pay phone at the school.  Some would call on their own, holding long conversations with us, while others would call in a large group, so all we could hear on our end was a lot of shouting and giggles, a quick and loud “merry christmas mona and dave!”, and then an abrupt click of the phone being hung up.  On Christmas Eve, we had a little celebration shindig with our students at Vijaynagar Colony.  We made paper snowflakes, snowmen, and paper link chains, and played an assortment of Christmas music and Indian pop music (including “Yamaho Yama”, their favorite song, which they play every single class, and which will stay in my head long after I leave India), which eventually ended in a wild rumpus of a dance party 🙂  We also brought some treats.  Dave made stuffing and cranberry sauce, to give them a taste of what we eat during the holidays in the States, they received mixed reviews.  He also shared the chocolate chip cookies sent from his parents in Massachusetts, which were quickly devoured.  I attempted to make halwa and ladoo, which are Indian sweets.  I think they also received mixed reviews.  The students surprised us with a lovely heart shaped “Merry Christmas” cake, which they had pooled money together to purchase, with Prithvi’s help.  The celebration was a huge “success!” (this is the catch phrase of Shiva, our resident class clown).

Whether it has been the students’ enthusiasm and friendliness, a Christmas morning spent at the welcoming home of a fellow teacher, a funny conversation with a talkative auto-rickshaw driver, shouts and waves from the roller-skating neighbor children in our building who like to call me “Monica”, packages of biryani sent over from multiple friends who want to make sure we are well-fed, a day spent touring around Hyderabad with a friend and her family, or a spontaneous dosa and chai with a new friend met on the street, this holiday season has been full of adventures and friends, and we are indeed feeling the love.  We hope everyone out there is having a lovely holiday season as well.