Already two weeks into February and I’m still thinking about just how to round out the India Blog, something that with endless school obligations and scarce internet access got pushed to the wayside. My apologies if I’ve kept anyone on the edge of their seat wondering if I was lost to the sea of saris, traditions, and incense. In fact I was, but alas the schedule of IHP is constantly keeping us rolling along.
But let me trace back to December in Pune. As a little Christmas spirit enhancement, my Hindu homestay grandmother, her eyes alight with the prospect of shopping with girls (our homestay father being a bachelor conservation biologist who stays too busy to bother with women and concedes to stay at home with his parent s between his contracts in Oman), took Moriah and I out to the silk market. Color, embroidery and white Christmas lights abounding, the market was a sight to behold. A couple relatively painless trips to the tailor, a fitted blouse and petticoat later, and so is the story of my very first sari. Now if I could only manage wrapping myself in it…
We moved into our vacation time after sad goodbyes to our families, and scattered around the country on various planes trains and busses; from the Himalayas to Kerala, and even as far as Bangladesh. Me, I went back to Vasant and Karuna’s farm with Riva, Emma and Michela. I figure if it’s the occupation of 68% of the population, there has to be something bigger to learn. Our time was well spent: five days of casual farm life, from learning bio diesel, drip irrigation, composting, and cooking (!), to drawn out chats about non-violence, cash crops, and Gandhi. We even had a New Years Eve bonfire where we danced around to some American classics, made a gooey dessert with Cadbury chocolate, Parle-G biscuits and bananas, and fell asleep at promptly 12:05. Farm life does not start at 10:30am afterall.
A couple of days in Mumbai felt like too long after that, but allowed us to finish off our Chapter 2 for the big year-long writing assignment at Internet cafes, a novelty. Before long the group (together once again) jumped a 2 hour train north to Dehanu for retreat and wrap up.
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