Punjabi Dances, Shaking It to Shakira and Marching Like the Saints

I have decided that I unintentionally picked the best time to come to India and the Carman School. I initially chose the months of September, October and November because it was post-monsoon season, and I was getting kicked out of my apartment anyway. October happens to be the month of the Dusshera and Diwali holidays allowing me both a fascinating glimpse into the festivities and time off from school to travel more. But at the school, I've also been fortunate to witness the season of dancing and singing competitions as well as the annual sports day.

Lively dancing and music are such engrained parts of the traditional and modern culture here. You can't walk down the street or ride a bus without hearing Hindi music blasting (I think my favorite is Punjabi). And everyone's always in the mood to start shaking their hips, waving their hands and shrugging their shoulders. Right before Dusshera we had a folk and modern dance competition at the school, and let me tell you, there's nothing cuter than seeing eight-year-olds decked out in traditional garb. The older students put together dances to Shakira, Ricky Martin and the like. A week ago, we competed in a dancing and singing competition against a several other schools. These kids are such excellent dancers. One of our students could definitely put Senor Martin to shame. I love that the male students take get as into the dancing as the girls. I think you'd be hard pressed in America to convince high school boys to put on sequined tops and shake their his to Shakira. One group of girls put together a dance to Michael Jackson, and they came out in skirts so short that even I blushed. You can imagine the reaction of conservative Indian parents. They completed their dance to stripping off their tops, leaving only sports bras, and little applause. I felt a little embarassed for them.

Sports Day is a competition between the four houses in the school. They compete in running races, tug of war, swimming and badminton. The event with the most weight in the final scores, however, is the march pass. The students had been practicing since before I arrived at the school for this event. Each day the march like little soldiers to the beats of the drum or static-filled recordings of "When the Saints Go Marching In." As we got closer to the main event, the teachers began to fine-tune the students' marching. I heard one teacher barking over and over at the KG class to keep their elbows straight. Really, the kids are five and their English is very limited. They don't know their elbow from their ear. It all came together in the end though, as these events usually do, and the kids had fun and looked like perfect little marching saints.