Park Life and a religious lesson
on Roundabouts in Delhi (India), 30/Jan/2011 18:07, 34 days ago
I headed to Lodi Gardens this morning full of good intentions to spend a day intensively working on my Hindi. My first mistake was packing a sketch book,‘just in case,’ I wanted a break from studying. My second mistake was thinking that Lodi Gardens would be the ideal outdoor study environment away from distractions.I found a spot on the grass looking out over the park towards one of the Lodi tombs and decided to do some sketching for five minutes before getting down to my studies. About fifteen minutes in and I’d been spotted. A large group of school girls were making a bee line for me, phone cameras at the ready. I still don’t really understand the fascination with my skin, hair and eye colour and the paparazzi frenzy it causes. I’m too British to tell people to go away so instead I just smile awkwardly at the camera when prompted whilst a group of strangers gather round me as though I’m their long lost friend. Eventually after many calls, of ‘just eck (one) photo more madam,’ I was left to resume my sketching. About an hour more passed during which I was interrupted for a couple more photo calls from school children and then just when I thought the coast was clear I saw someone sidling up to me, sketch book in hand. He gestured to his female friend and explained, “We are just beginners. I can see that you are a professional artist, can you teach me how you draw?” I tried to explain that I too was a beginner and that I probably didn’t know any more about it than he did but this didn’t seem to matter and suddenly I found myself running an impromptu art lesson.So two hours later and still no Hindi homework done I drew the art lesson to a close and observed that my pupil’s drawing was decidedly better than my own. A conversation then ensued with the two friends when I explained why I was in India and I was heavily quizzed by them on how much I knew about India, its culture, religion and political system. It felt like an on the spot test that I had not revised for, “What is the Hindu bible called? Name some Hindu gods. Where is Krishna’s birthplace?” and I could see their heads shaking sadly every time I gave a wrong answer. I was then given a lesson on all of the Hindu gods, with illustrations provided by the sketch book and suggested reading materialfor a more in depth understanding of all of these.Their reasoning was sound as they explained that in order to really understand India and the Indian people I must first understand the religion, in this case Hinduism. Of course by that token I must also improve my knowledge of the Sikh, Buddhist, Islam, Christian, Jain and Zoroastrian religions as they are equally intrinsic to the makeup of the country. They were perfectly right in making this point though as the more time I spend here the more I become aware of how much religion really is the foundation of so much in India and crucial to understanding the country and its makeup better. So, as I promised my art pupils turned religious teachers, I will go away and do my homework, hopefully slightly more successfully than I managed with my Hindi on this occasion.