Last night, it rained. And rained. With thunder and lightning. It was great. But I was amazed at how quickly the streets become rivers and the sidewalks islands. Chennai floods so quickly. Certainly, this has quite a bit to do with the drainage. I had not realized that it was so inadequate before. The rain wasn't that different from what I've seen back in Ohio, but the streets... wow.
Last night, I also went to a party. I enjoyed myself. It was sweet because all of the Indian and Miami students dressed in traditional Indian clothing. All of the women were in saris and the men in dhotis. It was very lovely. We spent the evening socializing with a bunch of Fulbright scholars. They are all teachers from the Philly area who teach about India. Appropriate. In addition to that, we had some of India's greatest musicians come to perform. We also had India's greatest composer stop in. (A.R. Rahman). It was such a shame because there were so many people at the party who didn't realize who Rahman was, and so they didn't quite know how to be respectful of him. For instance, one of the teachers has a "Flat Stanley," which is a photocopied cartoon man. He is doing some sort of a journal with Flat Stanley that follows him as he travels. As cute as this may be for his 4th grade class, he asked Rahman to hold the paper for a picture. To be honest, I'm not sure that I would be willing to do that; it was fairly humiliating. Oh well.
How difficult would it be to find a dhoti? How expensive are they? Is that what you had made for Mendon?
Dhotis were everywhere in India. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to find one in Israel. Good luck. : ) I didn't look for any while in India because they're just big pieces of fabric. The nice ones are white with gold trim and the everyday ones are usually plaid. THey're wrapped around the waist like a towel and difficult to move in. Often, men who don't wear them often will rip them when they do decide to wear one. Men will also pull up the bottom edge of the dhoti and wrap and tie it around their waist, but this is informal. I didn't look for any of them because of how difficult they are to wear and manage and because they look at best like towels, at worst like skirts. So, yes, that's why I don't know how much they should cost. That's my run down on dhotis. Oh, and I just had an Indian suit made for Mendon. It's not a sherwani, it's not a western suit, it's a suit with nice embroidery and a Nehru collar. And it fits him very well. : )