Friday, March 30, 2012

Exploring APV: Rethinking Education and Poverty

Sunrise at Chandra Badani, Uttarakhand

I sit upon the rustic swing held together by cracked wood and tattered rope overlooking a series of rolling, azure-dyed hills colored from the darkness that began to cover the landscape. Bold pastel oranges begin to wane into cool lavender blues in the sky. I try to hold in heat with crossed arms as the air cools. In the far distance, layers of blue-ridged mountainscapes stack against eachother, slowly dissipating into a foggy horizon. Small lights of distant villages flicker across the hills like hovering fireflies. I inhale a deep breath of dry, cleansing air and then release a thunderous exhale against the sheer silence. I observe the vast stretches of empty space beyond myself as sitar and flute rhythms hum quietly through the commune, converging with the earlier music of the children in school that still played in my ears. “Ryan sir! A jao!” young Babita, calls to me. We sit around a solid oak table next to the fire as we retell stories of the day over chai. These eight people are the entire school staff, housemates and APV family. Everyday together they meditate, teach, cook, maintain the commune and explore nature around them. An hour later, we sit with our eyes closed in lotus position and covered with blankets in a silent, pitch-black room. I struggle to focus as remnants of Mumbai from just twelve hours prior still stir in my mind.

Flashback: 24 Hours Prior
The auto-rickshaw bolts around an elderly chaiwallah. The driver abruptly brakes, honks loudly at a car and shouts obscenities in Hindi, “arrey kya karein?! Piche jao bem chod!” Ganesh overlooks from above the drivers head. Outside, buildings stack around shanty scrap metal huts, jewelry stores, open sewers and temples to compose the sprawling cityscape of Mumbai. Adjacent to us, a posh woman on her phone wearing glittering high heels, an elegant salwar-kameez and gold adornment crosses the street, missing a front bumper by a hair as thin as the lines of her kajal. A different woman dashes across the street in broken sandals and a faded red sari as she grasps on to her baby wrapped in torn cloth. Red light. Exhaust fumes from other cars and a nearby burning trash pile stir all around me like a thick cloud of cigarette smoke from a crowded bar. Horns blare, engines rev and the driver’s temper rages. Still red, we dart forward and the engine roars as we pick up speed until we arrive at crowded Bandra train station. Pushing, shoving and sweating profusely, I claw my way through heavy crowds to board my train and aggressively claim a spot against the wall crammed with dozens of other men. The train cuts right through the city, exposing slums, modern skyscrapers, polluted rivers and crowded markets. Smoke fills the sky of Mumbai today, leaving an unrecognizable grey. The moist heat sticks to my skin and hair. As I mentally recite my notes for a session on TB prevention, a man spits crimson-colored paan.



Planes over Mumbai and cars across Uttarakhand

Last week, I visited in Ashram Paryavaran Vidyalaya in Anjanisain, Uttarakhand for one week to experience a different, isolated life within India that goes unseen under the radar. The silence, the space and the solitude—I could not believe that I was in the same country at times after months in the megacity of Mumbai. The objective of the visit was to observe the unique pedagogies practiced in the school’s secondary education. I wanted to see how Magic Bus’ play-focused curriculum relates to APV’s practical approaches to education since both promote the idea of children “learning through doing”. Both are very different organizations, as Magic Bus is a youth mentorship NGO that works across India, while APV is a grassroots school based in one small community. I stayed a full week to understand the complete picture of how the school operates. Upon walking up the steep hill of steps that passes through the ashram and school, I arrived at the commune where teachers and the school’s unofficial leader, Anandji Dwivedi, live. I was warmly welcomed as a part of the community and felt immediately enchanted. After only a few conversations, I began to see the school as more of a radical social revolution than an institution: there are no titles, no visible hierarchy and no fear allowed. I would eventually learn of the absolute collectivity of everything, that teachers and students are friends and that true education should not be merely an end — but a means toward liberation. 

I spent five days attending classes and group meditation (4x a day—with two 1-hour sessions starting at 4:30 A.M.), teaching, playing music, cooking, hiking and trying to understand how a school with no grades, tests or syllabi actually functions. Speaking with Anandji, I was told about the vision of the school and how they chose to steer away from the norm of Indian education that focuses mostly on dictation, memorization and competition. Supplementing the government curriculum, teachers employ a holistic approach that includes lessons on the ego and self-imposed limitations. Children at APV are taught for free to learn from the world around them, their own innate inner knowledge and from each other. Students learn collectively as teachers use practical methods to convey lessons to kids about complex subjects ranging from math to geography through dance, music, drama and nature. 

There are three important results that I picked up on while at APV: freedom, happiness and praxis. Why are they important in school? At a very practical level, removing academic pressure, enabling children to learn at their own pace and encouraging mindful reflection allows for fuller range of cognitive reasoning. This increases a child’s success at school and professionally in the future. Recalling conversations with young students in Mumbai, a primary problem that keeps many poor students in India out of school is often the education system itself as it proves to be too strict, competitive and alienating. Conversely, the APV model guarantees a child’s success in school since they are not completely dependent on test scores. More importantly for Anandji and the school staff however, is promoting creativity as a means to solve problems at home and within their community. This reinforces a bottom-up alternative to the often inefficient top-down development model as it emphasizes the betterment of the self as a repairing mechanism for society rather than the counter. Although it is too early to test the results since the school is less than a decade old, the teachers themselves serve as examples on how mindful living has improved their living conditions. Similar curriculums that include meditation and mindfulness have proven successful in developed countries like the USA, even in low-income neighborhoods.

When I showed the kids my pictures of Mumbai many of them asked, “are those slums?” Their concern and curiosity were surprising to me since these images were a daily sight in most urban Indian settings like Mumbai. They asked me questions like, “why would they move to such a sad place?” “Where do they see nature?” “Why don’t they stay in their villages?” I had no answers to such complicated questions, but it highlighted a paradox of the world that I have difficulty grappling – a perpetual system that pushes people into cities with promises of opportunity to inevitably trap them in poor, unnatural and even more dangerous living conditions that humans have ever lived. At Magic Bus, we work with underprivileged children from slum communities, the majority of whom have migrated from rural areas. Many of them have left villages through will or force, but many other have left farms where they grow food and live off their land for slums of Mumbai in search of a better life. It is a demented irony that their “better life” in the middle of the economic centers instead delivers unpleasant, socially subordinated and immobile realities. APV’s model of enlightened education may offer a promising alternative to the rural-ruban continuum by teaching children how to use their creatively support make important contributions to sustain their own community. Looking at their shining faces, it saddened me to imagine any of them have to move to slums in a city.
Math Class with Anandji - Folded Paper and Beads

Science Class - An Interactive Lesson on the Solar System

Of course everything is complex though. Not all aspects of life at APV are idyllic. The dark side of health and social problems do impact the lives of the kids significantly. There is more to be done and hopefully APV can continue growing to do so. I was able to help with some curriculum development that was instant gratification since all of my ideas and efforts were immediately valued, supported and appreciated. It really delightful to feel such strong mutual benefits!

The efforts to raise children to heightened awareness of their own powers, overcome insecurities and to teach them practical lesson that society does not is indeed a common ground that both Magic Bus and APV seem to share. After a week of bonding with incredible people, clearing out some mental baggage and witnessing breathtaking Himalyan views—I felt calm, rejuvenated and did not want to go back to life in Mumbai. Upon returning though, it did not take long to remember the double-edged sword: there are definitely a few great things about Mumbai that I could not get up in the mountains!

APV in Action


For more information on APV, please look to APV’s Official Website and here.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

10 Reasons Why I Can't Leave India

India has a way with people. You either leave and never come back, or you’re like me and you keep coming back (Unless of course you’re Indian and have real reasons to come back). There are many reasons that I love this country, a few things make me angry and a ton that I still don’t know much about. With half my Fellowship over, I thought it would be good to make a few goals. Let’s see what I can get done in five more months!

1.) I Don’t Know How to Cook Indian Food
Street Food: A delicious treat that comforts my taste buds and the enemy that keeps me from cooking more Indian food. Can you blame me? Afterall, this side of the world does have some of the best street food. In India, it's the variety, flavors and enthusiasm of eaters that draws the crowd. The range is endless. Some of the spiciest and sweetest food I have ever had has been on the streets of India. And the prices? Unrivaled. How can such delicious and creative street snacks like chaat or dosa be so cheap? Everyday I plan to cook dinner, until I pass the sevpuriwallah. And then the juices. By the time I hit Mughal kebabs, I'm over cooking. Watch out though, there are risks!

2.) Monotony Is Just Too Adventurous Here
Even though the daily grind is not my thing, there is always something happening in Mumbai on the way to work that makes me laugh, feel very uncomfortable, get totally confused, become super angry or almost cry. Like I said in my last post, I appreciate it whenever pondering or just a bad day. Check out this short video to see how even commuting to work is an adventure that never gets old!


3.) Learn Proper Hindi
“Khana khao!”
“Sidha jao aur phir vo nukkad se bayain lena.”
“Yeh hai Hindustan meri jaan!”
“Kya pachaas rupiye bhaiya?? Bahut mehanga hai! Sabse sasta price do, please.”
“Sorry, main samajta nahi hu, aur dhire bol sakta hai?”

These are the basic conversations that I have everyday. Although I give myself credit, there is a lot of room for improvement given that my Hindi sounds similar to that of a rickshaw or truck driver. A lot of what I learn is Mumbai’s version of Hindi, or Bambaiyya - a pidgin form of Hindi that is mixed with so many other Indian languages. I love pure Hindi and would really like to master it. Speaking the slightest Hindi as a ferung will get you a lot of respect (and loads on uninvited attention) since so many foreigners here just don’t make the effort to learn it. Language breaks down barriers and I’ve always believed it gives you more insight into the culture.

4.) A wave of the hand, a nod of the head – Mastering the Nonverbal
Nonverbal communication is found cross-culturally, but Indians master it. I have taken auto-rickshaws and used as little as 1 word, coordinated lunch with a colleague sitting across the office without any words and have even bargained prices down 50% or more with mere sounds, gestures and stern eye contact. Whether it is a half turn of your hand with slightly curled fingers (think of the Bollywood ‘lightbulb’ dance move), a nod up of the head to say ”kya?” or “how much”, someone blinking twice to gret you, a faux slap pose to tell a friend he’s crazy, nodding your head from side to side for almost anything or the dreaded point to warn someone they’ve messed with the wrong bhai, yaar. It is a whole other language here and it a craft.

5.) Finish A Project
Being abroad is never enough time. My first time leaving the US was 4 weeks in Europe when I was 20. I remember thinking, “Wow, four whole weeks, everyday waking up in Europe and experiencing life there!” Then I graduated on to 4 months backpacking in South America after. It felt like a lifetime and impacted me tremendously as a person, but within a couple of months after returning, all of the South America was disappearing from inside of me. Between trips to India, a stint in Ghana for 6 months finally gave me perspective on really building an engaging project and how to make my work sustainable.

Now I have a year in India and I want it to finish work that leaves an impact. Between cancelled meetings and delays, I am about 700 chai breaks away from this goal. The learning curve has been steep. I mean, after 5 months I just found a subziwala who does not rip me off! Luckily, there is so much to do for Magic Bus and my mentors are beginning to give me even more meaningful work – including redesigning health curriculum, creating community reports that would map out our impact and mapping out sports ground across Mumbai. All of them would require some Ethnographic work – which is exciting. The biggest challenge is getting community and team members on board.

Here is a photo story that I recently finished on Sarita, a peer leader and 19-year-old that has been in the Magic Bus program since a child!


6.) Too much Urban. Not enough Rural.
Living in Mumbai is tough and it’s turning me into a city slicker. I love what it has to offer, but really crave more nature and rural excitement. I don’t even use an Eastern Toilet! How boogie is that? Luckily, this guy reminds me how to use it. My goal is to travel to the North-East Region and next month visit APV School in Uttarkhand. Time for some Himalayan adventure!

7.) Praxis
Studying Global Poverty and Practice at UC Berkeley, I remember my professor Dr. Ananya Roy saying that while working in poverty alleviation – theory without action is useless, and practice without theory is hopeless. Before joining the Fellowship, this sentence blended in with a ton of academic one-liners and around economic development stories that always felt abstract and distant in the comfort of the Bay Area. Now, I it stands out to me. What used to be theory or distant stories in an article are now on right at my doorstep. Naxalites fighting in Jharkhand, farmer suicides in Maharashtra, Western frameworks in foreign development contexts, slum residents fighting for their homes, overcrowded cities and mass rural exoduses proliferate, a failing public sector and the continued spread of dangerous diseases like TB. Being in India allows me to get closer than ever to the issues that I care about. My work provides me a platform to combine all this theory and action into Praxis. Economic development is not glamorous and not always fun or efficient. But these challenges are part of the daily process toward progress. As we are swim against the tide as ordinary practioners trying to make small differences, it is the sum of our parts that build the strength of this machine. I can’t do that from anywhere else, but right here!


8.) Bollywood
Whoever says they don’t like Bollywood is lying. I will not leave India until I get into a Bollywood film!

9.) Addicted to Chai
Sometimes without even trying, we just start to fit in to a foreign place. I don’t always understand what is going on around me and I never blend in. Yet, over time I have found myself haggling prices, holding hands with guy friends, nodding my head sideways, modifying dance moves to include my hands in the air. Most notably, I know have stamina to drink 5+ cups of chai a day.


A business closer, relationship builder, a stand in for coffee or cigarettes, a heat-breaker and even a starting point for political conversations: Chai is powerful. And no better place to enjoy it than with spicey Bombay Masala Chai. Chai gives me time to think, while simultaneously speeding up my heart rate in case (don’t mess with me when I’m on my 3rd cup of chai). What will I do without you?

10.) I still don’t get this place
There is no generalization or stereotype that works for all Indians. There is no expectation in India that you can have that will pan out. Not even “no expectations.” The shorter you stay in India, the more you have to say. The longer you stay and the more confused you are. India is Hindu, but also has every other religion on earth. There is rural, urban and every in-between; there are Zoroastrians and Goan Christians; those with traditional family backgrounds mixed with all the disfunction of an American family; love-marriage, arranged and divorced; there are even those who still follow the caste system and those who despise it. You just can’t classify this place – which is what I love about it. I can keep coming back and I will never know it all, but it will still shock me.

Sri Aurobindo, the great Indian Rishi, wrote of भारत माता in 1905: 
‘For what is a nation? What is our mother-country? It is not a piece of earth, nor a figure of speech, nor a fiction of the mind. It is a mighty shakti, composed of the shaktis of all the millions of units that make up the nation.’

I suppose that’s it: the daily strength and struggle is what characterizes India for me.

*This Post is also posted at the AIF Clinton Fellowship Blog here.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A Lot Can Happen Over Chai


The Juxtaposed Skyline of India
Check out my new AIF Blog post, "A Lot Can Happen Over Chai: Analyzing the Extremes, Appreciating the (Indian) Monotony"

After 5 months with the fellowship, chai has become a good thought stimulator on how to analyze what has happened, what to look forward to, and how to enjoy the monotony as Mumbai passes by with every sip. Let see what else comes up during chai time!
The View from the Office Window at Magic Bus

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

What is S4D?

Want to know more about my work with my NGO Magic Bus and what exactly their method of Sports for Development (S4D) is? Check out my new blogpost for work @ the Clinton Fellowship blog: "India and It's Youth: Maneuvering Sports to Empower."





To know a little more about the fellowship I am on, the William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service through the American India Foundation (AIF), check out their respective websites.


To see past posts on service work across India that all fellows and I are up to, check out the blog homepage!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Holidays in India

When people say that India is a very festive society, it is definitely something you have to see to understand. Colors, music, lots of people, crazy beautiful idols and food. Even though I constantly feel the exuberance of celebration for all sorts of festivals I have never heard of, the holidays that I do know and usually look forward to have been spent in completely mellow and nontraditional settings for myself. These landmarks of the year for myself have totally disappeared, leaving me with no idea what month it is anymore. Instead, I am marking time with holidays I have never heard of before (and most of them run on a totally different calendar - the Lunar calendar for many). It feels ironic, sort of like always walking into someone else's party, but not being able to show up to your own. Despite the challenge of being far from home and family though, it's been a good experience to let go of the calendar that I am used to and find other days to jump completely into random celebrations!

The Hindu Wedding: Far away from white dresses and Bride-zillas!
A friend's wedding, 12/18/11
Hindu Wedding Celebration - So many colors!
The walk of commitment -
one foot step together for every life time together
The road to my office is prime location for crazy festivals and parties. In the crowded lane off of Lower Parel station, one has equal opportunities of being ran over by a speeding motorcycle, a mass crowd of people, a taxi or a ox-drawn wooden chariot with a life-size statue of Sai Baba. Randomly, I will arrive on the small roadway en route to the office or home to encounter some new festive surprise -- ranging from big transient temples, LOUUUDD hindi mantra music blaring, towering animatronic figures of Hindu deities, a parade, tribal children performing a huge makeshift drum ensemble, wild chickens running loose, firework mayhem, five cars blocking the way as they wait for cows and a big dance show to break up, or even a whole group of Sadhu's congregating in everyone's way. A lot of the time, they are not even formal holidays and most people have no idea what is going on. For some reason, there has been an equal amount of chaos late at night in Dadar and other near by neighborhoods to mine with massive festivals and wedding celebrations. This has been the scene too often this past month around Mumbai.
Going to work. . . 
Going home from work . . . 

Thanksgiving? Christmas? New Year's? Well, let's just say they were a little different.
Thanksgiving Day - just another day in the trains
Thanksgiving was pretty calm. For some reason, I did not have any desire to make a big fuss out of it and do much other than share a small meal with a few friends at a restaurant. I have never really had any Thanksgiving traditions besides eating with my family. The past few years, Thanksgiving has been spent in so many different ways -- from catching mussels on some rocks in front of my house in San Diego with my roommate and best friend, to eating feijoada and dancing in Rio de Janeiro, congregating with friends in Berkeley over a makeshift dinner, to eating turkey tostadas in Merida, Mexico. Believe it or not (I am no longer surprised by global Americanization, despite the shame. . .), I could have paid a crazy price and had a fancy Thanksgiving dinner at one of many restaurants that were serving it all over Mumbai. Instead, this year was spent with cheesecake and a salad (I vegged out with some familiar food) at some restaurant in Bandra - my hood in Mumbai. Most of the people were from the fellowship, so we opened up a little bit about what we miss about home and what we are most thankful for this year. It was pretty simple and short lived.

Jump to Christmas. After a month of accidentally walking into festival celebrations and see wedding ceremonies, I was excited to see what Christmas offered here. I became really excited and nostalgic since this was the big holiday that marks the year for me back home, and there are actually a large number of people who celebrate it here. A few days before Christmas eve, my friend Nadia Espinoza arrived in town. Some awesome local friends of mine, Karun and Vasu, had a really fun Christmas party on the 23rd that involved so much good food and dancing. I was beginning to feel the Christmas cheer that I was used to and missed, even though it was still 90 degrees outside in Mumbai. And then Christmas Eve? An 18 hour bus ride. We were headed to Rajasthan. Through the night, I laid in a bed on the bus thinking about my family, friends and this crazy year that I've had. I stared at the roof of the sleeper and began feeling the cold air of the desert seep in from the broken window that somehow reminded me of home in the wintertime (both the broken window and cold air). Christmas day, I arrived in Udaipur and had such a nice day in bright sunlight exploring the City of Lakes, until the evening when our host, Megan, had a small Christmas gathering at her house. I made some hot toddies to spark the feeling of Christmas time, and we all sat and enjoyed amazing food and talking about our lives in India.
Udaipur for Christmas

New Year's Eve @ a Gujarati Wedding Celebration
New Year's. After a week in Rajasthan - Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Jodhopur - we headed to Gujarat for a wedding. We were excited to be involved in something festive for New Year's Eve, but were a little bummed out that we wouldn't be doing any sort of countdown. The Gujarati New Year happened after Diwali two and a half months back, so there was not going to be any recognition for the western NYE. It was ok though since we had such an awesome week. We had no idea what we were in for though. We made it for the last two days of the wedding. January 30th was a big day in the village that the groom's family was from, with so much dancing and parading. It was really fun, and even this day seemed a little fancy for us. And then, we went to the final day of the wedding ceremony on New Year's Eve. Wow - I can not even describe what we saw. . . All outdoors, it looked like some sort of mix between a Las Vegas hotel,  a posh NYC club and a space for Indian Royalty. It looked outrageous -- Hindu opulence manifested into shaadi form (Just look at the photo's below). I had heard all the stereotypes of Gujarati festivities, but I never imagined them to be this extreme! Already baffled by how beautiful and extravagant it all looked, I could not think of what the actual cost of it all was. Then, the father of the groom came to reassure me of what I already knew: it was a $700,000 wedding. And once again, the world is crazy.

The Bride to be
This is what a $700,000 wedding looks like
Fireworks at Midnight
This is what a $700,000 wedding looks like - part2
Gujarati dancers watching the bride's procession
One thing about India that is so crazy to me is all of the people and their cultures. Even Hindu culture is not homogenous, but filled with all sorts of different subcultures. Although there are often misunderstandings between groups of people here (like anywhere), there is still this tolerance for everyone that makes it a pretty unique place. All last month, I saw all through the streets various people celebrating such different things: bright Hindu weddings, Eid Al-Adha & Ashura, and even Christmas. Celebrations do not even have to be in the calendar either, as people are constantly celebrating something. All space becomes public, too, with little objections to loud music playing super late or a wedding parade stopping traffic. It has been an interesting experience to let go of my traditions that I feel so emotionally connected to and opening up to new festivities that make me realize more and more how similar humans are with their desires and customs, yet how differently we all express them.
Getting caught in a Jodhpur Festival
Running into Festival Traffic - Jodhpur  
More Rajasthan coming soon. . . .

Monday, January 2, 2012

A Sandy Christmas and a Shaadi New Year

I just returned from an incredible journey through Western India. For Christmas and New Year's Eve, I traveled to Rajasthan and Gujarat to see the desert, a wedding and as many different beautiful cities as I could fit in. Here are some of the highlights!

Rajasthani Temples

Rajasthan is a wild place. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations for foreigners since it is a very flamboyant place with lots of colors, traditions that are centuries old and so much ornate and old architecture to see. Within a few hours of leaving the modern city of Delhi, you find yourself in the middle of a village surrounded by desert that is reminiscent of Arabia three hundred years ago. For all these reasons, along with ubiquitous bright-colored turbans and camels, a lot of people find themselves enchanted by Rajasthan. On the other side of the picture, it is also a state with high amount of poverty and intense developmental issues, including very poor infrastructure and an extremely high infant and maternal mortality rate.

Jagdish Temple, Udaipur
City of Lakes - Udaipur


Udaipur was our first stop, a beautiful introduction to Rajasthan. We arrived on Christmas Day and toured around what is often referred to as the "City of Lakes" to witness stunning architecture of temples and the Udaipur Palace all pressed together within a sprawling maze of winding alleys and bridges. The history reminds you of the long legacy of wealth disparity in this region as you come across remnants of the royal family and stories of poor peasants that do not seem to far from today's reality for most of India. The trip also gave me a chance to spend Christmas day with another AIF Clinton Fellow Megan. The weather was much colder here than in Mumbai, which means we actually had to wear sweaters! This gave us more of the Christmas spirit than we felt back home in Mumbai. For the celebration, we had a huge dinner that included hot toddy masalas and a makeshift "masala chai pumpkin pie" from a pressure cooker with people from all over the world.
















Auto Ride through the City in Udaipur
Christmas Party!
One of the highlights was camping out in the desert near the Pakistani border.

Jaisalmer
Camel Ride to the Dunes!
After a looong 16 hour bus trip on one of the worst roads in India, we arrived in the Golden City of Jaisalmer where we almost immediately jumped aboard a car ride that took us all the way out to the middle of nowhere to find some camels to mount for the next two days. It was epic. The actual camel ride was less interesting since it really hurt my ass and there was not much authenticity (since no one really rides camels anymore long distances through deserts), but it was still fun to imagine myself in some Rajasthani caravan on a desert journey. The really amazing part though was the environment and the people. The land was so dry. As beautiful as it seemed, I could see how the peaceful open spaces could easily transform to desolate and scary isolation. Seeing the conditions of the villages and their landscape opened up my eyes to the realities of living in a deserted land with little hope for adequate water and food production. My crappy Hindi was really taking off around that time for some reason and somehow I managed to talk a lot with some of the guys that were taking us around. At first they gave me the impression that they were going to ask for money, which made me put my guard up. As the conversation went on though, I realized that they really just wanted to know more about the rest of India, and what they really wanted was to know how to make more opportunities for themselves. Their biggest desire was building a school for their kids.







It is hard to go so many places and hear so many needs of people - so many people that are continually ignored and geographically or socially disadvantaged. I recognize my own privilege of mobility, but it almost feels like a curse since you are exposed to so many problems with little to offer. The least I could do is listen, and hope that things work out. What I really wanted was to stay and build them a school, but all of my work with NGOs and in development have made me realize how hard this actually was.  We made a fire and hung out in the rolling sand dunes, watching the sunset turn the sand a luminous ochre color until the light disappeared and gazillions of stars crept out from the black sky. We slept under the stars in the sand, covered in blankets as the desert cold crept in. The next day we visited a few villages, the homes of our guys and met some extremely jovial and exuberant kids that made me miss being a kid. Then we left. I don't know if I will, but I hope to go back.




We raced around Jaisalmer when we got back before catching a bus onward. Jaisalmer sits in a huge pile of sand, with most buildings made from golden sandstone, giving it a real interesting look and feel. It was so cold compared to Mumbai, but the city's charm enchanted us to stay out through the night. We rented motorcycles and even sampled local "Bhang" until we had to bid farwell to the Golden City as we headed onwards to Jodhpur, the Blue City.


Motorcycle rides through the fort!
Temple Roofs inside the Fort

A Glimpse of the Real City Outside the Fort
Jaisalmer Fort by Night
This place is one of the coolest cities I have been to in India just because of its random beauty. It was colorful, random and beautiful in a very crazy, polluted sort of way. So many things to check out! From gorgeous houses, forts and clocktowers, to crazy festivals with elephants and marigolds being dropped overhead from a helicopter! No joke! Rajasthani food was the best here and I need to get back since it was some of the spiciest I have had so far!
Rooftop Breakfast in Jodhpur
Jaswant Thada Mausoleum


Bangles

Marigolds being dropped overhead by a helicopter




Jodhpur - The Blue City
Opulence is how we ended the trip. After seeing some of the poorest people living on the edge of India near the Desert National Park, after some of the worst roads, after so many houses haphazardly stacked on top of one another -- we wound up in Gujarat where the roads are smooth and the housing societies are nicely planned and spaced for front yards. We headed to Baroda for a friend's wedding and it was an outrageous experience. From village parades, to drinking with 20 uncle Patels, to massive flower composed statues of peacocks and boats, it was full sensory experience. It was also one of the most beautiful and colorful things to witness, with a firework show better than most I have seen back home for the 4th of July. The pictures will have to do most of the talking for this $1 million wedding (check out my last blog post "Holidays in India" in addition to this one for more photos and stories on the experience).
Me - never blending in - at the Wedding outside of Baroda
The Procession for the Groom in the Village


Dancing the Night Away

Entrance to the Wedding, Final Day of Celebration
Amazed!

Chalo, now back to work! Happy Friday the 13th!