Today was a national holiday on campus because today was the
much anticipated Sports Day Celebration FINALLY arrived! And when I say national holiday
on campus, I mean it. It may not make sense to those outside of campus, but
this thing has been SO huge-definetly bigger then Independence Day was. We are talking weeks and weeks of preparation, the
school all but shut down four days prior to the event because every single
student was using all their free time to work on decorations, practice their
marching drills and of course practice for whatever event they were
participating in. One Sports Day eve, the main entrance of the school
was filled with staff and students, working into the night on an intricate
rangoli, several different kinds of garland, balloons, coloring badges for all
the event’s guests and I’m sure several other things too because there is always more behind the scene's work.
This rangoli was made out of colored salt. They were super serious about this one, they even barricaded it during the night. I got scolded while trying to get a good pic of it because they were afraid I would fall on it and mess it up.
This rangoli was made from chalk dust-they make it look so easy. I have never tried but I'm pretty confident that mine would look horrible.
Because it was such a special occasion we all wore Saris. I
decided to sport the fancy one I got a few weeks ago in Pondicherry. We asked
the cleaning ladies to wrap us the morning of and it was so hilarious! I wish
we could of recorded it. We had one or two of us being wrapped, up to three
ladies working on one or both of us at the same time all amidst the constant
chatter, giggling and consulting of one another in Tamil. I don’t think I have
ever had that much fuss made over getting me ready for anything, and I’m
willing to bet the only other time something like this may happen is on my
wedding day.
It was all very Olympic like. There was a ceremonial opening
of the games by singing the national anthem, letting two white doves go, the
running of the torch to light an erected caldron, oh and also the raising of
both the Indian and Olympic flag. As per usual, the Indian flag was wrapped with flower petals so there was a nice little shower of them as the flag was hoisted up the flagpole. I seriously love that they do that.
After the games had officially started, each of the
“houses”, Topaz, Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire completed their unified marching
around the track and past the Special guests of the games. We joked that they
looked like the hyenas marching past Scar on the Lion King. Obviously, Dr.
Susan is nothing like Scar, but the seriousness and attentiveness of the
marching matched that scene pretty darn close.
After the students presented
their warming up drills and human pyramid building skills, the events started
full throttle. There were running races, relays, frog leaping races and water drop races—which was ironic considering the theme for this years Sports Day was water conservation-which we all signed the banner pledging to practice. After the races were done we were entertained by dances from the students. Watching these kids dance is one of my all time favorite things to do.
Intently listening to the instructions
And of course the ever entertaining frog race!
There was a pretty intense game of Pass the Ball (hot
potato) among the staff and volunteers, although It was so rigged
because the kids in charge of the music were watching everything and had total
control over who got out, but it was a blast anyway. Look how enthralled the crowd was.....
Down to the final four......
Final two......
Kavita dominated!
Surprisingly, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards weren’t Gold, Silver and Bronze, but the kids didn’t care, they were all beaming with proudness. VICTORY!
Sapphire House was the overall winner
The closing ceremonies were pretty somber. Which is impressive for these energetic little humans.
Despite all the fussing over the saree wrapping, I had a little wardrobe malfunction, aka the back wrap of my saree kept falling down resulting in some showing of my garments. Luckily, Dr. Viji came to my rescue and repined some things for me. She was asking me, “Ashley, why did your wear this petticoat under your saree?” I politely answered and said, “Oh it’s not a petticoat, it is something I wear for my religion to symbolize a covenant I have made with God.” She looked so confused, and then all of a sudden her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, “Oh, YOUR religion. Not my religion.” Apparently, that covered all the confusion over my “petticoat”. I wanted to mention that even if I didn’t wear the petticoat it would still look like I was wearing it because my skin is the same color as the petticoat, but whatever. They are so obsessed with white skin here it probably wouldn’t of made sense anyway. I really love Dr. Viji. She reminds me of the younger version of Grandma Henderson because she is always teaching the kids different kinds of craft projects. She was the mastermind behind all the decorations for Sports Day. She was also responsible for the posing of these pictures. I think we look batgirl-ish but whatever. I guess that is the cool thing to do here.
And last but not least, wherever there is a camera there is a Velu posing-wearing his sunglasses of course.
