27 August

Over a week has passed since my last post and I have so much to write about. I shall start off with the sad news, concerning my family, here. My host-grandfather died on Thursday. My respects to you, Ajaid and may you find peace. I didn’t go to school on Thursday because of this. The whole day was really exhausting. I must say that Indians put a lot of energy and time into their mourning. Our house was filled with people, with women crying loudly over Ajaid’s body and men quietly speaking. This crying and gathering lasted until about mid-day, when the body was washed and after that cremated. The cremation was done the “old way” which means, the body was placed on dry logs and covered in grease and cloth and layers of wood.After the pile was set on fire, we went on for prayers in the cremation place. These prayers were, of course not enough, so we went on to Gurdwara. After all those things, we had langar in our house. By the end of langar, it was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the ceremony had lasted for 8 hours and everybody was exhausted. Still, our house remained full of people till the evening. And the closest relatives even stayed the night.

I went to school on the next day and therefore didn’t see the gathering of ashes from the cremation place and dropping them into a holy river. However, Sukhbir’s sister told me that they held one place empty the whole time, while driving there (about 3 hours drive) just as he had been there with them. When they had dropped the ashes in to the river, they said to the ghost of Ajaid that this is his final resting place and he will not come back with them anymore.

The next following days were the time when the majority of friends, relatives (and the friends of relatives relatives) came to share our family’s grief. On Sunday, about the entire family went for a lunch at Sukhbir’s grandmother’s relatives place. For now, the major rush of guests is over (although we still get some 3-4 visits a-day) and only Harleen’s mother and Sukhbir’s elder sister have stayed with us.This is about to change quickly because from Thursday to Sunday, we will have a priest with a Guru Grand Sahib in our house. He will be reading (or actually singing) it loudly continuously till Sunday (if I have not misunderstood, 24 hours a-day). One of the family members will always have to sit there and listen

As always, there are positive sides of every event, even an event of such tragedy. I have met n number of very interesting people. I met Harleen’s brother Ajit (Bobby) and his wife for instance. Both of whom are very nice and intelligent people. I became very friendly with Bobby almost instantly.

Another person I met is Sukhbir’s elder sister Raj who flew over from US, I really like her and we have had several very interesting conversations.And last but not least, today I met Sukhbir’s “uncle” who is actually the father of one of his best friends. We had a nice conversation and he promised to take me to his golf club. I shall look forward to that. Today I had my physics practical. It was kind of fuddhu. I think I made some mistakes in calculations (we are not allowed to use calculator here) and therefore, the written part of my exam was not so good. On the other hand, my oral examination went perfectly. And one more thing: there will be a dance workshop in our school, in which the best choreographers will be teaching us. Our dancing will be a mixture of classical dances and traditional dances and pop-dances. I’m sure, we will have fun and I’m eagerly waiting 13 September, when the classes start.

I cant think of anything else to say, so I’m going to say good bye!