Mystics and Mangoes

Today, Friday July 11, I will be flying to Mumbai and before then I have my weekly Urdu test. So why am I awake writing this blog post? Because so much is happening and I have to share it with you blog readers! First of all, my Urdu. In the past week I have found myself both dreaming and thinking in Urdu - basic stuff but still, as exciting as language learning gets! I can already express myself (albeit grammatically incorrectly) about topics such as the relationship between language and culture or politics and society. Reading and writing is going faster now too. In an intensive program like this, the language overwhelms and frustrates you at first, and then before you know it, it has woven itself into the fabric of your mind and become a natural part of your daily thought process. However, I have a long LONG way to go before I am at the level of Urdu where I feel comfortable just striking up casual conversations with native speakers or writing formal letters or reading newspaper articles. But we are only halfway through the program so who knows how my Urdu skills will be at the end of all this!

Now on to the fun stuff that happened last weekend: our meeting with mangoes and mystics (oh how I love alliteration!). The program took us on a field trip to a sufi shrine in a nearby village/town called Kakori. Sufism is a mystical form of Islam that developed its own character in South Asia. Kakori is also famous for its kebabs and mangoes, so it certainly has many equally warranted claims for fame. 

First let me introduce you to the girls who I live close to and therefore with which I spend a lot of time in rickshaws, at meals, etc., although I would probably hang out with them even if we didn't live close to each other. The two girls to the right are my housemates and Tiana, in pink, lives just a 5-minute rickshaw ride away. They are so incredibly kind, funny, and amazing and totally contribute to why I have had such a great time in India so far!

After the approximately 2-hour car ride to Kakori, during which we listened to lots of upbeat bollywood songs, we arrived at beautiful kakori shareef. 

We all sat down in a room with the pir, a Sufi teacher or master, to hear him discuss everything from the history of Kakori to Sufi philosophy. 

At one point a little murid (disciple) of his came to sit on his lap, and the pir helped his young murid write a number of general life advice. Here they are (with my comments in brackets):

• Soar your soul so high that evil cannot reach you (I like the imagery of the soul as a kite)
• Meet a good and sweet girl who is clever (or boy, depending on your personal preference)
• Dream noble dreams but don't dream them the whole day long

 You can also see the director of AIIS Lucknow, Ahtesham Sahab, giving a really sweet smile in the back of that previous photo.

After hearing the pir, we followed him to the shrines, where the Sufi saints who frequented Kakori were buried.

The buildings for the shrines all looked slightly different, and had different levels of ornamentation. The first one we entered had quite a few tombs, all for the Sufi Qalandar and his family. The walls were lined with framed pieces of Sufi poetry or Quranic script. 

 

At the shrines we were able to hear Qawwali, a special devotional music of Sufis that has its roots in South Asia. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was the man who made Qawwali popular internationally, and if you want to hear him sing one of my favorite qawwalis, click here. The Qawwali singer we heard  sang very well and the raw beauty and power of his voice just brought shivers down my spine, despite the sweaty heat.

After the shrines and the qawwali, we were put to the task of interviewing locals. I interviewed a man who is a musician. He told me that his favorite poet rests here. Although it was hard for me to communicate in Urdu to the extent that I wanted, I was excited to be doing the kind of thing I would be doing as an anthropologist conducting research in South Asia.

After that it was time for some kakori kebabs. These kebabs are unlike any kebabs I have had before. The meat is very nicely minced and cooked to the point that it's a silky smooth piece of meat. They say that this method was developed to please toothless nawabs who couldn't handle tougher meat. They were delicious but since my mouth was not on fire, I suspect that they toned down the spice for us Americans.

After the kebabs they set out crates of mangoes. CRATES! As a life-long mango lover, I was in heaven. However, it was the first time I was faced with a challenge of eating a mango without any knife to cut it with. Thank god for fingernails! One of the local men showed us how to eat the riper, more squishy mangoes, by punching a hole at the top with our finger and drinking it like very slushy mango juice. Most of us just peeled it though, which led to very sticky faces and hands. It was very worth it though!

After our meal we walked around the orchard to see what mango trees look like. We even spotted a jackfruit tree! Since I have come to India, I have had jackfruit as a main dish several times. It's an interesting fruit but I like it. I find the consistency to be somewhere between a banana and a potato, but the taste is quite plain so there is lots of opportunity for spicing it up.

 

Ok now I should really go to bed. I AM SO EXCITED FOR MUMBAI! But first, wish me luck on my exam. Oh and one more thing: if you want more frequent updates of my adventures in India, please follow me on instagram and tumblr. My instagram name is mariellzies and my tumblr is mindless meanderings (again with the alliteration, I know).

Shab bekhair aur khuda hafiz!

India: How and Why?

What is happiness?

How do you define happiness? Maybe it is getting an email from the US State Department that you have been awarded the highly selective Critical Language Scholarship to study Urdu in the distant country of India. YES I'M EXCITED!

What is the Critical Language Scholarship?

Let me explain what the Critical Language Scholarship is. It is a US State Department-administered program that offers intensive summer language institutes for 13 languages in countries in which they are spoken. By administered, I mean that the State Department covers airfare, accommodation with host families, tuition cost at the institute (which can be transferred as college credit issued by Ohio University), a stipend for added transportation and living costs, meals, field trips to local sites, etc. In return, scholarship recipients are to dedicate themselves to continue learning this language after the program ends and use it in their future career (which the State Department obviously hopes will be in their service). The main criteria is that you have to be a full-time student at a US institution of higher education. Since I am moving to London in the fall to start at LSE, this was my very last chance to apply to this program! This year they got 5,500 applications, of which only around 550 students were selected - a 10% acceptance rate! We will be 35 students studying Urdu, ranging from beginner to advanced, and with all sorts of academic and personal backgrounds and professional goals. I can't wait to meet my fellow program participants!

Why study Urdu?

Many have asked me why Urdu (and also what is Urdu, which I will cover in a bit). After all, I've been studying Arabic for the past three years - why didn't I apply for the Arabic language institute offered? I've actually been fascinated by South Asia before the Middle East captured my interest. India and Pakistan caught my imagination both as a child and a young adult as a place of beauty, complexity, extremity, and emotion. Here is an (edited) excerpt from my application essay:

The confluence of water politics, unresolved border tensions, and cultural diversity draw me to the Urdu-speaking regions of South Asia. Suzanne Fisher Staples’ acclaimed children’s books set in Lahore and the Cholistan desert and the enchanting language of the great Urdu poets, such as Muhammad Iqbal and Meer Taqi Meer, had introduced me to the religious realities and gender debates of the region early on, but it was through my study of the Kashmir region that my burgeoning interest blossomed. My first in-depth paper in high school focused on Kashmir, and my position at the first Model UN conference I staffed in college focused on Kashmir and India-Pakistan relations. When I later learned about the water aquifers underneath the disputed territory of the West Bank, I recognized that, like Kashmir, water was an implicit source of political conflict. My long-standing passion for the culture and politics of Pakistan and India could finally be connected with my academic focus in Arabic and the Middle East through the topic of transborder grassroots solutions to the life-threatening issue of water scarcity. The advanced proficiency I achieved in Arabic during my time at the George Washington University and in Jordan will help me learn to read and write Urdu nastaliq script. However, my interest in the region warrants deeper research that requires a more formal study of the language.

You may also know that I have a Pakistani boyfriend and think that I am studying Urdu only because of my relationship. He would not let me pursue the study of Urdu if it was only for him. Although he has helped introduce me to the language and the culture of the subcontinent, my pursuit of the language is based on a passion to understand more about a part of the world so often misunderstood - similar to my inclinations to explore the Middle East.

What is Urdu?

Urdu is historically associated with the Muslim population of the Indian subcontinent and has an extensive literary heritage in the region. It emerged as a "camp" language of the Mughals, who blended their Arabo-Persian linguistic origins with the Sanskrit languages native to the Indian subcontinent. Urdu is still perceived in the region as a language of sophistication and poetry.

Centuries-old Urdu satire found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

As I mention, Arabic will help me master the alphabet faster since the script is very similar and several Urdu words are taken from Arabic. However, conversationally Urdu is nearly identical to Hindi. It will be a quite a change from Arabic, for which reading and writing can generally be understood by all Arabic speakers but speech is highly localized, with dialects possessing very different grammar and vocabulary than the written Arabic. Urdu, in contrast, can only really be read and understood by other Urdu speakers, while spoken Urdu can be understood by the millions of people who speak Hindi. I am very fascinated by the similarities and contrasts between Arabic and Urdu, and consequently the interrelationship between South Asia and the Middle East. 

Why study Urdu in India?

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. Then why would we study Urdu in India? Urdu is the language affiliated with the Muslim minority in India, and has over 50 million speakers in the country. It is an official language of six states, of which Uttar Pradesh, the state I will be in, has the most speakers (numbering more than 13 million). Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, has a substantial Muslim shi'a minority, since there are significant shi'a shrines in the city. I will write a post at a later point about the history, demographics, and geography of Lucknow. We will be studying at the American Institute for Indian Studies in Lucknow, which has been hosting American university students to study India through its diverse languages since the 1960s.

This is where you will find Lucknow

In the next few weeks I have a few planned posts, including a more extensive profile of Lucknow, a list of things I am packing for India that I have heard are essential, and a list of books on Urdu language and culture that I am reading or plan to read. But now I need to go to bed!

Shab bekhair (good night in Urdu)!