Holi Easter, Batman!

Last weekend, I decided to introduce my new family to yet another of our crazy American traditions, the wonder that is Easter Eggs. Since we’ve got three little ones in the family, I thought some easter egg dying was in order. Afterall, that’s what you’re supposed to do on Easter, right? But this presented a unique problem. How could we color easter eggs without commercially available dying kits, complete with egg drying racks and bunny stickers? At first, I thought I’d try to make homemade egg dyes. But once I’d done an internet search and found some recipes, I realized that would be totally impossible. For one thing, all of the dyes required that the eggs soak for at least 12 hours, which with three year olds, is an impossibility. Second of all, they all required ingredients which would have taken some hunting to find in the US, let alone here in Nepal. And finally, I have been trying to dedicate more and more time to writing up a few articles. And so my Easter Extravaganza was defeated, or so I thought.



The Thursday before Easter I mentioned my crushed plan to one of the other teachers at school. She immedieatly came up with a remarkably novel solution. “Why don’t you use those colored powders that everyone throws at everyone else during Holi? The color won’t come out of my clothes, so I’m sure it could stick to an egg.” I wasn’t sure it would work, but it was worth a try. So I sent Buffalo to Pashpatinath, the biggest Hindu temple in the country, in search of colors for my easter eggs.
When he returned home, he tossed me a small bag filled with little envelopes made of newspaper. Each one contained a teaspoon full of colored powder. There was powder in bright pink, a deep turquoise, purple, two shades of green, a bright yellow, and a beautiful saffron orange. I dissolved a pinch of each powder in cold water, and in seconds had a table full of easter egg dyes. And the dyes not only managed to stain our easter eggs, the two kids and I (one wee one wasn’t able to come over to play) pretty easter hands for the whole day. I think the powder even worked better than the stuff we used to use at home, because the color stuck to the eggs almost immediately. Of course, as this was our first easter, and I’d only boiled about a dozen eggs, the kids decided to re-dye each egg several times, and we ended up with a batch of brown/black eggs anyway. But at least the eggs looked the way I hoped they would for a little while.

So in addition to perfectly blending two often very different cultures, I think I’ve managed to discover a new dye for the silk yarn I’ve slowly been spinning.
And yes, I know what you’re all thinking. “If you didn’t spend so much time playing with little ones and yarn, you’d probably have a lot more articles written, and maybe even a few more blog posts.” But I’m going to have to quote my mentor on this one. Whenever anyone asks how his dissertation is going, he proudly points to his little girl and says, “There’s my dissertation.” All the same, I do hope to have some articles finished very soon. Especially considering that now I have to tell you all the very sad news, that none of the graduate schools I had picked, picked me back. Which means that Buffalo and I have to postpone our homecoming to November, and that I have to work, work, work, and re-apply next year. But not to fret, back up plans are in the works, and I’m sure by next year, grad schools will be begging me to join their departments.

And in the meantime, I’m going to go start dying that yarn!