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| Sunday, 16 January 2005 |
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Student life in an alien world : Burn's Supper by Jeevani Mantotta We all return to college in the new year brimming with knowledge and raring to go. Students arrive at Oxford in the week before term starts and sit exams (known as Collections) on the Friday or the Saturday. Once those are out of the way, we rush round to see our friends to swap news and then, inevitably, come down with a cold. As people return from all over the world, they bring back with them the cold and flu germs local to their home. Students pick up each other's germs to which they have no immunity and fall ill. It's rarely anything more serious than a nasty cold of a 48 hours flu, but the first time it happens - away from home and swamped with work, it's quite miserable. The Siddhalepa and Samahan packets really come into their own at this time. I realised how much of Amma's advice I had actually absorbed when I found myself voluntarily holding my head over bowls of steaming water (I hate doing this) to clear a blocked nose. January is generally a pretty dismal time. The sun doesn't come up until about 7.30am (this isn't really a problem as students tend not to get up until after 8) and darkness falls by 4.30pm (this IS a problem - you have to walk home in the dark!). It's cold, but there's no snow yet. With Christmas and the prospect of a holiday left behind, us students need something else to look forward to. To the rescue comes Burn's Night. 'What's that?' I hear you cry. Burn's Night celebrates the life and works of the Scots poet Robert Burns (the Scots pronounce it 'Rabbie Burrrns'). The celebrations involve a meal of Haggis with 'tatties' (potatoes) and 'neeps' (mashed turnips). Haggis consists of (hold on to your lunch folks) seasoned sheep or calf's offal, mixed with suet and oatmeal, boiled in a bag made from the animal's stomach. When people find out what it is, they usually opt for the vegetarian version (made from tofu, presumably). Personally, I quite like Haggis - although I can't eat a lot of it. Whiskey, integral to Scots heritage, is also consumed in large quantities by those who can stomach it. (I can't - I'd rather have boiled sheep guts). The Haggis is brought into the room to the accompaniment of bagpipes and someone recites Burn's 'Ode to a Haggis' and makes the first cut. More of Burns' poetry follows - it is written in Scots dialect and is completely incomprehensible for non-Scots. The best thing about Burn's Night is the Scottish dancing. The band's caller explains each dance and talks you through the various steps. The dances start off simple enough so even a mal-coordinated person like me can take part. As the night wears on the steps become more complicated and it becomes less like dancing and more like kicking to music. All in all, it's good fun. There's nothing like a good meal and a bit of a dance to cheer up a long Winter's night. |
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