Task force group for North Indian members!

Dear IL'ites,

Wondering why this task force group particularly for North Indian members?
You might be aware, we already have a few North Indian members in our community. As we grow, we are thinking of ways to get more North Indian members too to our community, that way there will be more discussions related to North Indians that will make them active and feel home.

The exposures we got so far in the press, referrals of friends, discussions in our site, etc. attracted more South Indian members here relatively. This does not mean we care less for the majority, it is just extending extra care to the minority to make it "more the merrier!". In fact, we are looking at exposure of this community to N, E, W and S Indians, that way IndusLadies is really a "Global Indian Ladies Community".

One of the ideas we have come up with is to form a group called North Indian task force group. Poonamjoshi9266 and Roopadadia are the lead persons of this group. They are going to focus on more North India based discussions in the different forums that will be interesting and useful not only for North Indian Ladies, but informative for all of us. The discussions will be about North Indian festivals, customs, rituals, weddings, cookery, about places of attractions in North India, etc.

While they focus on taking lead in initiating such discussions, I request the other North Indian members (also South Indians) to come forward and share more information on that subject and provide your support to keep the discussions lively. Also, please feel free to share other information that will be interesting and useful to North members. Do not forget to wish each other for your special festivals, share what's the special food in your home for the festival, what you wear and what you do as part of the festival.

Let's our lead persons and support them in this initiative.

Looking forward to more North Indian friends joining and participating in our community.

Dear Malathy,

Thank you for placing faith in us and appointing us to drive the task force group of Noth Indian members.

Hi Poonam, Congratulations and all the Very Best to both of us :)

Warm regards
Roopa.

Dear Malathy,

Thanks a lot for appointing me and Roopa for the task force group for North Indian members.

Looking forward to help IL to grow.

Hi Roopa,

Congrats and all the best wishes to you also.

regards,

Poonam

Hi Roopa,

I already see you have started a couple of discussions in Travel forum relating to NI places like your trip to MP, about travel to Bhutan, etc. Great!

Also, you seem to have participated in Malspie's thread on Chithale Bandu / Bhakarvadi. Wonderful!

Hi Poonam,

I see that you are yet to start. I had a few suggestions for both of you, so that you too can get started with discussions focussing N, E and W India.

1. Many ladies are interested in participating in Games. Not sure if there is already a game thread on Hindi movies exclusively. Poonam, you specifically being one the most active participant in Games forum, why don't you start a game based on Hindi movies exclusively? Like 1 or 2 lines of a Hindi movie song, should be followed by another Hindi movie song starting with the ending letter of the previou song. Like Hindi movie punch dialogues, Hindi movie top heroines, etc.

2. I am sure many NI ladies are interested in watching Hindi TV Soaps. Think of starting a discussion about the most famous Hindi Soap in 'Indian TV' forum and discuss about it.

Just to let you both know, one of our Local Champion, Malspie, she is from Navi Mumbai and has agreed to help out with more NI based discussions in the Mumbai/Navi Mumbai forum and in other forums. Please participate in the discussions she starts and she too will be doing the same in the discussions you gals kick-off.

Let's make this task force a success and get more NI to be active within our community.

Malathy

Dear Roopa and Poonam,

Congrats and way to go!! I'll also pitch in on the NI related discussions that you ladies start and post there...I'm from Varanasi btw (have lived most of my life in Lucknow, Allahabad and Varanasi along with a smattering in Calcutta and Madras). My mom belongs to Bihar so have half my cousins in Patna and related areas...

I'm going to check out the travel section now...

All the very best!!

love,
Aarushi

Hi Malathy,
this is really a good idea. I for one, am very much interested in knowing about different cultures and traditions and about people in different parts of the world, particularly India, I welcome this new section whole heartedly.
NI members, please do share your experiences etc with us.

Hi All

It would be interesting to get the North Indian perspective also. I am from South Africa and if you read my post in "Indians in Africa" Who is my relative? SA Indian you will see that many SA Indians came from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh Region (perhaps even Bengal).
Because of distance and lack of much contact with India some traditions evolved over time and I think some have been maintained here while in India it may have changed! When I look at mainstream Hindi cinema I don't see some of our particular traditions.
For example we used to have all the older ladies singing songs at the wedding or hurdhee evening and these can even be some naughty songs and even critising certain relatives - I've never seen it in Indian cinema but I've read that its Bhojpuri custom. Also at weddings we have the matkor (mattikor) ceremony. Please tell me if you have similar customs.

PS: I'm 50% Tamil and 50% Hindi (mum is Tamil and Dad is Hindi) and I'm totally comfortable with both cultures.

Best wishes
Neesha

Dear Neesha,

Bollywood weddings in general do not show the realistic way a wedding is performed in UP or Bihar. Also most of the rituals that they show are north Indian in nature but belong mostly to the Punjabi culture...e.g. the golden chuda hanging from the wrists, the karwa chauth etc. Some of the ones like Mehndi and haldi are common.

The tradition of older ladies singing naughty songs is still there in the UP, Bihar area. They specially sing these songs when the Dwarpooja (when the groom arrives with the baraat) is being performed.

During the wedding also, the bride has to wear a yellow sari (and not the bright red lehengas that one would expect from a hindi movie) and not that much jewellery... In fact the varmala (the garland exchanging) ceremony is not really a traditional one. It started happening in UP only in the last couple of decades...I guess the reason was that it looked good and gave the guests a chance to bless the bride and the groom and leave without having to wait till early morning (when the regular wedding ceremony takes place).

We also have more emphasis on Teej (rather than karwa chauth). If you are in Bihar, then Chatt is a pretty big festival. For Teej, the fast is even harder than karwa chauth as you have to keep off food and water for 24 hours. Unlike karwa chauth, where you can eat after looking at the moon in the night, this one requires fasting till the next morning. I used to keep it till I got pregnant. Since then I gave it up...and after the baby I do not have the energy to do it...

I'll give more info as and when i recall them...

What other ceremonies and rituals do you have in SA that belong to North India?

Looking forward to hearing more from you...

love,
Aarushi

Originally Posted by Neesha

For example we used to have all the older ladies singing songs at the wedding or hurdhee evening and these can even be some naughty songs and even critising certain relatives - I've never seen it in Indian cinema but I've read that its Bhojpuri custom. Also at weddings we have the matkor (mattikor) ceremony. Please tell me if you have similar customs.

PS: I'm 50% Tamil and 50% Hindi (mum is Tamil and Dad is Hindi) and I'm totally comfortable with both cultures.

Best wishes
Neesha

Congrats to Roopa and Poonam, i am very much intrested to know about the rituals and traditions of NI.

Thanks Malathy for creating this Task force Group.

Aarushi,

Wow! you seem to be a big source of information about NI weddings, festivals, rituals and culture.

Please feel free to share all this info. by starting threads on these topics in the relevant forums. This will get the NI members already in our community to participate by sharing the info. whatever they know. This will also be a way to get more new NI join our community.

Great Going!

Neesha,

Glad to have a South African Indian friend amongst us in our community. I browsed your thread 'Who is my relative? South African Indian' after you mentioned about it here. Got to learn a lot about Indian ancestors who migrated years back to SA. I can understand how desperate you feel trying to trace your relatives back in India. If only you find any of your relatives via IndusLadies, that will be one of the achievements of this community. Wish you loads of luck!

In spite of being far off from India and with lack of connections with India, you seem to know lots about both Hindi and Tamil cultures. Kudos to you.

Do share more information on those North Indian (also South Indian) ceremonies that you follow in South Africa.

Looking forward to your photo taken in the Gandhi Ashram to be posted in our community.

Malathy