July 16, 2019
This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending the 2019 Bruhan Maharashtra Mandal (BMM) at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Downtown Dallas. This biennial conference is a chance for the North American Marathi population to congregate every so often and share Marathi culture.
I see my relatives relatively often, so for me this was less of a family reunion and more of a chance to practice my Marathi speaking abilities with a crowd that spoke majority Marathi. Obviously, my speaking abilities aren't near how much I speak English good, but I felt comfortable communicating with the various uncles and aunties around me. (Besides, speaking even the most basic Marathi around age 60+ people gives you instant shiraa points.)
We drove up to Dallas on Wednesday and settled into our hotel room, first stopping at Chipotle in Waxahachie for dinner (veggie bowl with sofritas and two tortillas on the side). It was raining a little bit so we sat in the lobby and played cards. Unluckily, we could not convince my younger cousin to play Mao with us, so all was lost. (I did manage to put together a game of Mao on Friday night with a handful of Mao novices and noobs, so all was not actually lost).
On Thursday, the conference somewhat officially began (Thursday was Day 0 and this has nothing to do with "arrays start at 0" shenanigans) with the Uttarrang program, a discussion panel about aging and elderly living. Baba talked a little bit about osteoporosis, regarding how we can maintain healthy bones and decrease our risk of fractures.
Friday we began our day at the Inauguration ceremony. I got up relatively late but managed to sneak into the program and catch the most important parts. It was a good opportunity for me to practice my Marathi, as the organizers were speaking at a faster cadence than I am used to. Immediately after the ceremony, the Dallas Marathi Mandal performed an exciting Indian classical / Western hip-hop crossover dance and singing routine. I was nourished by the beautiful music, which mitigated my lack of breakfast and held me over until lunch. Post-lunch I went with Shalin to the Dhol Tasha drum competition, and from there we went to the room to nap for a little bit before playing cards.
Saturday was the most important day of the conference for us. The Houston Marathi Mandal (as well as its two honorary San Antonio members) was putting on a show to commemorate the 100th birthday of three Marathi musicians who contributed much to the Marathi music scene. As part of the opening number, I participated in an ensemble along with seven other kids - I played violin and they played an assortment of other Western and Indian classical instruments (sitar, tabla, harmonium, viola, violin) as well as sang. We played three well-known songs for the audience and then exited the stage as the actors transitioned from dancing along to our songs to their dialogue. In the evening, Dilip mama took Seva and wolverine and me to the attached but unaffiliated Cafe Herrera for Mexican food for dinner. We went back to the room and sat around for a little bit. Next up, I sat alone (by choice) and watched the first hour of Infinity War during "Movie Night" (my sister and cousins didn't want to stay). I stayed for all of the meme quotations but eventually became bored and left to go to my room.
Sunday was the last day of the conference, so we said our goodbyes, packed up, and drove back to Richardson. We did our laundry and then took a Lyft to DFW to fly Alaska Airlines (not Alaskan but Alaska) from terminal E (by far the worst terminal) to Seattle-Tacoma Airport.
Writing it down, numerically we didn't actually do that many unique things, but I had a great time spending time with my cousins. I was both busy with lots of events and free and able to relax and watch TV and play cards.
I don't know if I would come back to a BMM the future, but I am definitely open to the possibility. However, location is an important factor, because we only came to this one because it was in-state. My one piece of constructive criticism for the organizers was that I felt it was both too disorganized and too organized.
More specifically, I felt like part of the point of the conference is to meet people, but there were too few explicit chances to actually do that. Instead, the activities seemed to be run by 14-year-olds from Dallas who knew very little about organizing group activities for their age group (to be expected). Maybe my criticism is due to me being at the top of the age bracket (13-17) and thus not being the intended target for the programs.
On the other hand, I felt like the time slots for the activities and programs were too rigid and back-to-back-to-back for there to be any time to hang around in the youth lounge areas and meet people without being under the scope of a structured activity.
So. Many. People. Named. Joshi.