Recent

Pictures are of river rafting on the Ganges.
Hey everybody,
I am going on the South India trip today so I can't write. I just want you to know I am keeping busy. I have the tabla drum classes twice a week but I am still terrible, I think I was born without the ability to play music. I also have been doing more of the volunteer work with a NGO which helps educate slum dwelling kids, it is rewarding but sometimes it feels like a chore. The kids don't listen. On Wednesday this week the main teacher phoned me and said she was sick so I along with another volunteer had to take the class, it was frightening but went fairly well. Six hours of yoga a day in March then I want to do some meditation course in April/May, you should expect me to be floating when I get back.
I wish a Happy Valentines day to everyone.
I will be posting again in March!

North India 2 and recent times

Pictures are the Lotus temple in Delhi, Qutb Minar in Delhi, a couple Taj Mahal pictures and a photo at Fatepur Sikri. Check out my Facebook for more.
I left you a little more than half way through the North Trip and will continue with that along with describing what I did for New Years/ Christmas and what I am doing now.
So after Jaipur we went to Sawai Madhopur. That is a place between Jaipur and Agra and is supposed to be one of the few places where you can still see wild tigers. We went on a safari in the afternoon which continued till the early evening but didn’t see any tigers. We did see tiger footprints but we were joking around that they pay people to go out with a tiger footprint making stencil and place fake prints around. We did see lots of deer, monkeys, peacocks, wild boars and other birds. It was interesting how they tried to find the tiger, as they used the alarm calls of the other animals to try and find the tiger. Too bad it didn’t work. The next day we went for a drive to Agra and we stopped along the way at a place called Fatehpur Sikri which is an ancient abandoned city of a king which is carved entirely from red sandstone. It was interesting to see the history of this place but it was not amazing. The king embraced all religions so he had 3 wives, one Hindu, one Muslim and one Christian. Each of his wives had their own palace within the city. There was also a Mosque there and some thing where if you have a wish you tie a red ribbon to a holey holy wall and then your wish will come true. We left there and proceeded to our hotel in Agra. Our hotel had a revolving restaurant so that was cool, we ate there. The next day we did the sightseeing of Agra and drove to Delhi. For the sightseeing first we saw the Agra fort which was similar to what we saw the day before at Fatehpur Sikri but it had more marble with Marble inlay work. It was also a fort which belonged to that same king. One thing that I found interesting was that both the Agra Fort and the Red Fort in Delhi are both still used for military purposes. From the Agra Fort you could see the shadow of the Taj Mahal in the fog. On a clear day you can see the Taj Mahal well from the fort. The Taj Mahal was our next stop. I know what you are thinking, I am going to say something about being one of the wonders of the world, and you would be right. I don’t think I have seen something so wonderful and spectacular in my life. Nothing can prepare you for the sheer size and magnificence of the Taj Mahal. When you get your first glimpse of the Taj Mahal towering over the masses of people you still think that it is a photo. It still looks like a picture until you actually touch the cold clean marble. The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal who died giving birth to their 14th child. The Taj Mahal took 20,000 workers 22 years to complete. The thing that amazed me about the Taj Mahal was how symmetrical it was. It looks the same no matter where you look at it from; it is exactly symmetrical from all sides. There is, however, only one garden which stretches from the front entry of the Taj Mahal which has a long narrow pool and many plants which have been maintained exquisitely. Another thing that amazed me about the Taj Mahal was the Marble inlay work. Semiprecious stones had been inlayed into much of the marble which the Taj Mahal is made from. The work that this requires is intense, you need to carve a hole in the marble the size of the semiprecious stone you are going to inlay then trim the stones minimally but precisely and then use special glue to inlay the stones. Amazingly this glue has held up for centuries without fail. There is so much more I could write about the Taj Mahal but I don’t want to bore you. After Agra our next stop was Delhi. New Delhi is the Capital of India and had good sights to see. New Delhi was very clean for a big city and the roads were big although there was still an excess of cars. Old Delhi is a different story I’ve heard it is dirtier and not as tourist friendly. The sights to see in Delhi included a cool temple (which was too modern for my liking), a big ancient tower which was erected by a sultanate who built the tower to honor a victory or himself or something I don’t remember. I know the tower was very nice and had carvings in the sandstone all the way up the 70m tower and some other interesting ruins in the surrounding area. The complex was also interesting in the way that it mingled Islamic and Hindu decorative styles. Also we saw the India gate, the Parliament buildings and an interesting temple for the Bhai religion, which I didn’t completely understand. The religion was like they didn’t The temple was the called lotus temple and looked a lot like the Sydney Opera House but more like a flower. In the evening we did some shopping and also saw a sound and lights show at the Red Fort which is in Old Delhi. The sound and lights show gave a history of the area, India in general and the fort. The fort was very similar to the Agra Fort and was built by the same guy who built the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan. This guy truly shaped the Mughal empire in India. In the evening we did time pass together and went to bed. One of the most confusing things in India to me is time pass, people use this phrase very often and could mean anything. People text others stupid questions and wait for the answer as time pass, argue with others as time pass, look up useless stuff on the internet as time pass, think about stuff as time pass or just hang out together as time pass. Time pass could mean anything to pass the time but it is still confusing why the phrase time pass is used. Instead of trying to justify what you are doing you just deem it time pass as it has no other purpose other than to pass time. Ok that was my rant for the day, I feel better. Spending time with the exchange students is really great they are like the family we miss back home. The next morning we saw a Mahatma Gandhi memorial which has a fire that has been burning since his cremation, his last words, an important quotation and a bunch of trees that have been donated by various world dignitaries. We then drove to Haridwar which is a holy city, one of the seven holiest places to Hindus. It is the place where the Ganges descends to the plains and is holy because according to Hindu mythology, Haridwar is one among the four sites where drops of the elixir of immortality, Amrita, accidentally spilled over from the pitcher, in which it was being carried away by a celestial bird. We arrived after a 6 hour drive and did time pass around the hotel and had dinner. The next day was a better day though. We got up early in the morning and drove an hour and a half into the foothills of some mountains then went river rafting on the Ganges. It was incredible; we went through some pretty good rapids, went swimming at various points on the river and also jumped of a small cliff into the river. The water was pretty cold but I had definitely swum in colder water. We were allowed to swim down one set of rapids which was amazing and at one point we stopped on a small beach to play Frisbee with my Canada Frisbee. The whole experience was so awesome. In the evening when we got back we attended an aarthi of the river Ganges, it was like some prayers and rituals then people would set a candle afloat or bathe in the water. It was really interesting to see. I took some water from the Ganges and will bring it home to Canada. One funny thing was that when I was descending the steps to get the water from the Ganges I slipped and fell in the water. Luckily the steps continued into the water so I only got my right leg and upper body wet. It was pretty terrible but a cool story to tell back home. We went back to the hotel in the evening for a pretty bad dinner and hung out together. The next day we drove back to Delhi and took the train home. The trip was absolutely amazing, it allowed me to see the side of India you read about or see on TV as opposed to experiencing the big city life, which I also love. My next trip starts in 11 days and we are going to South India. I am sure it will also be incredible. So that is it for the North Trip but I could have written much more, now I will talk about New Year’s birthday and recent times.
Ok for New Year’s what happened was a bunch of us exchange students went to a BBQ and sleepover at one of the German girl’s houses. It is very rare to actually have a house in Mumbai but she is out in the Suburbs in a colony so she had one. We hooked up some sweet stereo, on the terrace and had a BBQ up there. That is where the party happened. I know you probably think India BBQ is terrible but the family was Parsee which is a religion and they are originally from Iran so we had beef. The beef was actually really bad because they steamed it before BBQing it but the thought of eating beef in India on New Year’s was priceless. Everyone pitched in and brought something for the party. I made pancakes in the morning which were actually pretty bad, except the syrup which is always good. For my birthday I rented a room in a sports club and it was all you could eat and all you could drink it was awesome. 23 people came and it was good times. In India for your birthday people feed you cake so lots of people fed me cake and it was all over my face after.
In the month of January I, along with the other exchange students, trained for dancing every day for 2 hours. We were training for a presentation we had to make at the Rotary District Conference. The dances we trained for were a folk dance/prayer from South India, a Bollywood remix and dancing to the national song (not the national anthem). The bad thing was I was fooling around and I seriously hurt my toe one day before the dance, I swear it was broken because it was not straight and I went into shock after it happened. In the evening I iced it and taped it up then the next day I taped it up more, sprayed some special athletic spray that numbs the area, and popped 3 advils then I was ready to go. The first dance was good; we spent a lot of time on it as it had very intricate hand movements and such. The Bollywood remix was a blending of 3 one minute clips from 3 different Bollywood movie songs, it was very upbeat and fast but was very fun to dance to. The next dance was to the national song and passed along a very important message of unifying India and putting an end to terror. In the dance there were 4 couples who preformed 4 different dances from different regions of India. I preformed a Bhangra dance which is from North India (Punjab) with a Brazilian girl, and then there were also dances from South India, East India and Western India. Each of the 4 couples dressed differently to match with their region. Overall the dancing went really well I feel and because of the importance of the message we passed along we got a standing ovation. I really want a copy of the video that was taken because I haven’t seen how we actually looked, you can’t tell from up on the stage.
I think that is pretty much it for now. I have started Indian drum classes and will be going on that South trip pretty soon. I can’t believe how fast time is moving. I will have been here 7 months on February 10th. I will be doing a yoga teachers course in the month of March and might post before the South trip but I doubt it.
Anyway take care and enjoy the increasingly “warm” weather wherever you are in the world.

Pictures

A blog will be coming in the next few days Indian time (so about a week) but here are some pictures to wet your appetite.
First is of a snake charmer in Jaipur, next is me with a nice water palace in the background, followed by a good assortment of (not so typical) street animals in Jaipur, next is the biggest sundial in the world in Jaipur it is accurate to within a few seconds, lastly is a palace in Jaipur.

North Trip Photos

Here are some more photos from the North Trip.
First is a typical street in Jaisalmer, next is shadows of the camels and the moon raising in the desert, followed by me jumping off one of the sand dunes, fourth is a cannon at the fort in Jodhpur (note blue city), and lastly is the blue city sprawling beneath the fort in Jodhpur.

North Trip

Pictures are of the Child Beer, an amazing ceiling design at the Jain temple, pillars at the Jain temple, one of a few lakes in Udaipur, and a temple in Udaipur.
Also check out my Facebook photos if you can there are a lot more. I will be adding more to the blog though.
I would like to say making a Facebook group to guilt me into writing my blog didn’t work but it did to a degree although I had already started writing a blog. Here it is anyway.
Ok so I haven’t written for a while but I have been busy. So this blog will tell about what I did before the North trip (briefly), and what the North trip was like (amazing).
Now I will zip through what I did a month prior to the North Trip. I was inaugurated as a guest member of the Rotaract club affiliated with my Rotary club, I went to a MS walk (which was only about 300m and then speeches) then I saw a circus. I have stopped yoga for the time being but I will start doing it in my house as I have learned a lot. On my way to yoga in November I had to walk by like 10 Garbage trucks every morning so that sucked. I saw another Hindi movie but still haven’t seen enough. Went to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), which was great. It was a full weekend of activities with groups, and they split up all the exchange students so we were forced to make friends with the Indian youth. My team was very friendly and allowed me to open up more than I would even in Canada. I did a dance on the stage with 2 others in front of like 250 ppl to a Hindi song and I also preformed a Hindi song it was insane. I would never do that stuff in Canada. The activities included teamwork and individual activities, such as valley crossing, a marble game, rappelling, flying fox, water games, yoga, maze games, feet tied together game, rope bridge, imaginary river, milk crates, rifle shooting, jumbering, speaking training, tennis ball, and listening. I never realized how hard listening is, most people don’t actually listen, especially me and the person conducting this session really proved that. I also have been volunteering a couple times a week at a NGO which uplifts slum children through education. Then there was the terrorist attacks mentioned in the last post. I also sent a package and some post card home.

Now the North Trip. First we took an overnight train journey to Udaipur which is in Rajasthan. Rajasthan is a state in the North West part of India. Udaipur was a very nice city it is called the lake city as there are a couple lakes within the city. Part of the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed at the lake palace in Udaipur which is a, you guessed it, palace on a lake. Throughout the trip we did mostly the touristy stuff so there were lots foreigners but you can’t call them noisy foreigners because everywhere here is so noisy that you can’t complain about the tourists. This being said there is a lack of tourism throughout India because of the terrorist attacks so the places we went were not too overwhelming. For the entire trip we took a small bus around, which looked like a van. We spent way too much time in the bus but as others said before I remember mostly the stuff I saw not the bus rides. So in Udaipur we saw a nice Hindu temple, the city palace (which still has a royal family living there), and a garden with over 700 fountains. The next day we drove to Jodhpur which is another city in Rajasthan. The thing that amazes me about India is how every city has so many people, you come to a city expecting a population of maybe 50,000 and it has 500,000 people. I went to a city in Maharashtra that I had never heard of and it had 2 million people. Just something that is a little different from Canada where such a city would be one of the biggest in the country. On the drive to Jodhpur we stopped for a couple hours in Ranakpur to see the most amazing temples around. The temples were Jain temples you may remember the Jain religion which I mentioned in a previous post. The Jain’s can’t kill anything you are normally not allowed to wear your leather belt into the temples but this one was a big tourist hot spot. No words (or even pictures for that matter) could ever do justice to how amazing the temple was. It had 1,444 marble pillars each of which were carved differently. The ceiling also had amazing designs which often used different layers for effect. There were too many amazing things about this temple to start naming a few but I will try. There was a huge basement where they would hide the gods during the Mogul attacks; there are two 108kg bells which were not ringing when we went but can be heard a very long distance away, the temple construction started in 1446 and took more than 50 years to complete, and the temple was nominated as one of the final 77 new wonders of the world. Every time I turned around I was amazed again. Although I could never describe how awesome the temple was I hope you get the idea. We drove to Jodhpur and stayed the night there. In the morning we visited the palace in Jodhpur which again still has the royal family living there but it has also been converted to a hotel. We visited the museum there which was interesting but also boring. It gave us an idea how the royal family actually lives from playing polo to sipping on French wine they have a pretty good life. After visiting the palace we drove to Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer is a really cool place it is right in the desert like 80 km from Pakistan and has some really cool sights, sounds and smells. The sights we saw include a water tank surrounded by important buildings and temples, the Golden Fort which is the only fort in India which still has village people living there, and the city sprawling at the base of the fort. Other notable sights that we saw which were funny were the couple shops that were advertizing ‘CHILD BEER’ not chilled beer, also some little girl who did an insane tightrope act, and all the camels which walked through the streets with ease. The sounds included people trying to get our attention so they could show us crap we don’t need, shrieks after jumping into the ice cold swimming pool at the hotel, and complaints after receiving the sub par meal at the hotel restaurant. Smells were mostly bad but not always from the seemingly endless supply of cow dung to the fresh aroma from the German bakery which we had lunch at. The afternoon we arrived in Jaisalmer we went for a swim and also visited a silversmith and saw how they make the jewelry. The day we visited the Golden fort and Jaisalmer city we also went for a one day camel safari which was incredible. So we left Jaisalmer in the afternoon and took the bus for an hour to the Thar desert in the far western part of India like 50km away from the Pakistan border. We were so close to Pakistan that every couple of hours you would hear and often see an Indian Air Force fighter jet patrolling the border. I think the Air Force patrol was more for show but the relations between India and Pakistan are not the best right now and it was really weird actually seeing the effects of that. So we took the bus to the desert and immediately went on a camel ride for about an hour we rode to some very nice sand dunes and stopped. During the halt we all played in the sand for an hour or more, it was so much fun. Jumping off and running down the sand dunes. We then watched the picture perfect sunset together and rode back. It was an amazing experience. When we got back to the camp we had a surprisingly good meal and watched a cultural dance/music program put on by 5 village people who lived a 5km walk away from the camp. In the evening there was also a campfire. The desert gets pretty cold at night actually and I had to put on my tuque. The next day we woke up early and I had a hot shower then watched the sunrise. The next day we drove much of the day but when we went back to Jodhpur and visited a pretty cool fort known as Menrangarh Fort. It had never been captured and was really interesting in general. Information was given on how the royal people spent time, to the design of the fortress, to the history behind it and finally to how prevalent opium was used with the royal family. Also from the fortress you could see one of the marvels of Indian architecture known as the Blue City where all the houses which were owned by Brahmans (which is a caste of Hindus) were painted blue on the walls which faced the fortress. Also, being modern times, many houses which weren’t owned by Brahmans were painted too so it gave a really amazing effect looking down on this blue city. In the evening we got time for shopping and came back to the hotel for dinner and sleeping. The food throughout the trip was very good generally as it was at hotels for breakfast and dinner. The next day we drove to Jaipur. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan and was a pretty cool city although it was pretty busy. Like many Indian cities there is a new city and an old city the old Jaipur is known as the pink city as most of the city, including the surrounding walls, are painted a pinkish orange colour. There are many theories for the pink colour some say it goes back to the architect of the city who was devoted to Lord Shiva (a Hindu god) whose favorite colour was the 'terra cotta' colour which is there at present, and another theory is that the city was painted to welcome the British king Edward VII as pink is the traditional colour of hospitality. Jaipur was the first city in India to enjoy rigorous town planning and it shows in the wide straight avenues that divide the city into nine sectors which reflect the nine divisions of the universe according to the Indian horoscope. We stayed two nights in Jaipur at a nice hotel. The first afternoon we arrived and then went to an ethnic theme park called ‘Chokhi Dhani’ for the evening festivities. There were lots of cool things there like what people normally associate with India if they don’t know how advanced the country actually is. For example there was an elephant ride, mendhi (the brown designs on girl’s hands and my bicep), magicians, traditional dance, a contortionist, and a head massage. The head massage was kinda painful, the elephant ride was ok but the guy hurt the elephant and the whole atmosphere was great. We also ate a traditional dinner there which many people didn’t like but I didn’t mind it. The next day we did the sightseeing of Jaipur. We first saw Amber fort which was interesting even after seeing so many forts. It had a few palaces in the fort one of which was covered in mirrors and coloured glass another of which was cooled by the presence of marble walls and channels which water flowed through. Royal people sure knew how to live and it is genius what the people could do so long ago with such little technology to make their lives more comfortable. Also in Jaipur we saw Jantar Mantar a medieval observatory, it was absolutely amazing how the solar and lunar measuring devices were and still are so accurate. One Sundial, which happens to be the largest in the world, was accurate to within 5 seconds. Your watch may be wrong but this sundial isn’t. There were also some other crazy other lunar measuring devices and some devices which apparently measure how hot the summer will be and when the monsoon will arrive. I didn’t understand most of what the guide explained but whatever it was very interesting. We chose not to go to the city palace as we had already been to a few palaces which were apparently very similar. This palace did have the two largest silver objects in the world though and we missed those but whatevs. The silver objects were massive urns (760lbs each) which held water from the Ganges so the king had a constant supply of Ganges water to drink. We went back to the hotel in the afternoon and had some time for shopping. I went with another German exchange student and some guy talked nonsense to us for at least ½ an hour and wasted a bunch of our time by taking us to his overpriced silver shop. It was a terrible time. We came back to the hotel by bicycle rickshaw for an amazing dinner and bed.
I have gone a long time on this post but still have more to cover so I will post this followed by pictures and in the next few days I will continue with the North Trip and beyond. I still have to describe the Taj Mahal, Delhi, and river rafting on the Ganges so stay tuned.
Also Mom, please don’t give me such big guilt trips about not posting so often I am having the time of my life.

Family Switch and Terrorism

The Pictures are of the Trident-Oberoi (the big tower and the little tower just to the right) after the attacks with broken windows, my new host parents (host dad standing)and I in Pune with my host mom's parents and another relative (who is actually from Vancouver), the Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai, me infrot of the Taj a couple months before the attacks, and CST a main railway terminus in south Bombay which was attacked by terrorists on the inside (800,000 people travel through this terminus every day).

Sorry it has been so long, my internet hasn’t been working for a couple weeks and I really have no desire to write this but here it is anyway. When I left you I had just been to Goa.
I had a few average days then I changed host families. My new family is great. They like a 15 minute walk away from my old house in a very large but old flat. They also have their own terrace and a dog. We live less than a 5 minute walk from Dadar station, the busiest station in Bombay. Dadar station has 1 million people pass through it every day, if you are near the door at Dadar station you will get pushed out with everyone else because chances are everyone within 3-4 meters of the door is getting out at Dadar. I had trouble sleeping the first couple nights with the trains but now I barely hear them even when I am awake. There is one not so good thing about the house though, there is a vegetable market around the building so it is always so busy and there are vegetables everywhere. I have to walk under a bridge on the way to the station and it smells so strong of coriander and peppers that your eyes squint and no matter how many times you have walked through there you start coughing. I do like the location and the family is great.
The family consists of my host dad Girish (who is the secretary of the Rotary club), my host mom Supriya, my host grandparents and my host dog. My host family is Maharashtran so they speak Marathi at home. They are Brahmites or Brahmans so they eat mostly vegetarian food but will prepare meat for me sometimes. Usually breakfast is North American style so I like that. Lunch is some sort of vegetable, chapatti bread, dal and a sweet. Dinner is much of the same. We eat dinner at eight which is early for Indians but I like eating at that time which is a little closer to my 6-7 Canada dinner time. My host dad works with Whirlpool bathroom accessories and supplies these products to consumers along with assembling them and doing other bathroom work. I don’t know many particulars about my host dad’s work but will find out.
I recently looked at the weather in Calgary and would like to let you know the weather here just so you can feel bad. Next few days are highs of about 35-33 and lows of about 24-22, the humidity is also crazy bad and it is sunny. I will tell you one thing though, I miss the cold. I miss scrapping ice off my car in the morning, waking up only to dread the first cold foot on hardwood, shoveling snow, skiing, and playing football with fingers you can’t even move. I miss the feeling.
Another feeling I miss is unwavering security of Canada. As you may have heard Bombay (my city) was the recent victim of a terrorist attack. I will let you know I was safe the whole time and never felt at risk but I definitely view the city in a different way now. Terrorists who had been training for 4 months in Pakistan and were told to go to Bombay to raise as much havoc as they could landed (by hijacked boat) on the 26th of November. They were armed with AK 47 rifles, hand guns, grenades, dry fruits and other provisions. Ten terrorists in groups of 2 attacked different locations all over south Bombay. They were targeting the rich and foreigners. Notable places that were attacked include: Leopold café, CST (a main railway terminus in South Bombay), Taj Hotel, Oberoi-Trident hotel, Nariman house and a few more places. There were hostage situations at 3 locations which proceeded for a maximum of 60 hours (at the Taj Hotel). In total about 200 people died including 26 foreigners and 14 police men. Nine of the ten terrorists were killed and the one who was captured has been questioned rigorously. There is no telling how many terrorists actually landed in Bombay and there are rumors that terrorists are still around. When I first walked out of the house after the attacks the first thing that struck me was the lack of energy in the people. Normally the city has so much energy it can not contain itself but when I walked out of the house I immediately noticed the lack of noise, the decreased speed of walking and the general somber mood. The country is not used to this kind of terrorism; they are used to the bomb blasts so dealing with this was an entirely different ball game. The government needed to bring in the National Security Guard commandos and even they had a hard time with the well trained terrorists. The situation ended but the Taj hotel will never be the same to me again and I will always view the city in a different way now. The attack was very well planned but could have been much worse. The terrorist claims that they meant this to be India’s 9/11 as they were to kill up to 5,000 people and blow up the Taj hotel. Thankfully they didn’t. Recent news has disclosed many other things about the attack including the training of the terrorists, which was very interesting, other explosives found, and lots of claims that the city was warned. The terrorists were trained to be able to stay up for a week with sleep deprivation training and they were also told to take human shields to a boat to take them out to sea where they would meet a getaway boat. If that didn’t work the ability to swim 15km out into sea was also included in their training. Can you believe that the terrorists believed that they would live through this whole ordeal? Explosives were found at the Taj in bags and yesterday a bag which was in the unclaimed baggage left but those who fled the railway terminus was also found to contain 8kgs of explosives. Like I said they are finding out more every day. The people here are essentially blaming the government for allowing this to happen and criticizing their response to the situation. That is probably enough news for you.
Now my story (which really isn’t all that interesting): I went to a volunteer organization in the afternoon from 2-6 and was home by 8. I ate dinner and was just reading at about 11 when an Indian friend called me and asked me where I was. I said I was home and he informed me of the terrorist attacks in south Bombay. I was shocked to the max you know that feeling when all the blood rushes to your head when you are stressed or get caught in a lie. That is what happened to me. I was fine after a minute and proceeded to watch the news till 2am phoning my mom in Canada during a break. The next morning I woke up at regular time and went to yoga, but there were only 15 people there of 50. I came home and watched news all day. I got a phone call from my districts IYE chairman and he said ‘where are you?’ I said ‘home’ and he said ‘good stay there.’ He had informed an exchange representative in Canada of the situation and just wanted to make sure I was fine. I spent much of the next couple days at home watching the news unfold before me especially with the hostage situations. The stories did get a little repetitive after a few hours though. My mom wanted me to phone every 12 hours or so to check up on me so I did that for a couple days. On the whole she handled the situation very well, or at least it sounded like that on the phone. Unfortunately 2 Canadians died in the attacks. My host family and I went to Pune on the third day of the attack which was a Friday. Pune is a city which is a 3 hour drive from Bombay. We woke up on the Saturday to find that the terrorists had been killed. We had already planned this holiday so it wasn’t like we were fleeing the city.
Some other stories of people I know. I have a few friends in south Bombay so they heard the gunshots/explosions and saw the fires. Also one exchange student went through CST (the railway terminus) a little more than an hour before the attack and the terrorist they captured alive said they planned to attack the station an hour earlier in rush hour. Another exchange student was in Leopold Café at a window seat, at the time of the terrorist attack but he was there 2 days earlier. As I said earlier I never really felt at risk but it does make me view the city differently, like when I see the places which were attacked and visualize what happened there you can never believe that this happened. I suppose if I really thought hard I might become worried but I am not really the thinking type. I often say I should just sit and think then after about a minute of thinking I realize something I would much rather be doing or something that needs to be done. This lack of thought can be beneficial though, such as when I don’t give a second thought to leave the house when someone else might convince themselves that it is too dangerous. Thankfully the city shares most of my feelings towards the situation and so it is pretty much back to normal now. People often talk about how you can not break the spirit of Bombay, for example after the 2006 train blasts everyone rode the train the very next day, and I am seeing that spirit first hand.
This was a life changing experience and aside from the obvious down points this will be a very good story to tell one day. Like at party, ‘so what you can bench press 300 lbs, I was in Mumbai during a terrorist attack.’ I am very glad I don’t have to go home but am worried about the India-Pakistan relationship and I really hope it does not intensify. That is my terrorism story, I know, not too interesting on my part, but it was really weird to live 10-15 kms away from attacks after I have been living in my little shell of security in Canada.

I am going up to North India on a Rotary organized trip starting on December 7th and extending till the 22nd. We will be in Rajasthan (cities include: Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Jaipur), Agra, Delhi, and Haridwar. Notable things I will be seeing include: the Taj Mahal, jungle safari at tiger reserve, various famous temples, museums, a theme park, a cultural performance in the desert along with a camel ride, parliament buildings in New Delhi, river rafting on the Ganges River, and many other things.

One other thing I have to mention is I went to the Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai and had an amazing time listening to music, eating beef steak (which was amazing) and just savoring every moment.

This kind of went on much longer than intended. Next blog I will say what I’ve been up to but it won’t be for a few weeks unless I get an incredible urge to write. Hope you are well back home and getting prepared for Christmas or exams if you are a university student.

-Allen

Goa, Diwali and 4 months

The pics are me on the beach, the church which has St. Francis Xaviers body, some coconuts and a scooter, the temple, and me lighting fireworks.

Hello everyone,

This one will be a really long one so if you want to read it over a few days feel free.
Yesterday was my 4 month anniversary in India. I am sorry I don’t write very often but I, along with many other exchange students, feel that this is like a job which I don’t get paid for until many years from now when I look back and read the post. Then the feeling is priceless but right now it is a chore. This post will tell you what I’ve been up to while also exploring the festival Diwali and religion. At the end I will answer some questions.
Oh ya and I just figured out Sunday that I am moving host families on Friday.

I left you just before I went to Goa. Goa is a really nice place it is like the Hawaii of India. It was a Portuguese settlement till 1961 when they were finally kicked out but the Portuguese still left their mark in a major way in the form of religion and architecture. Goa is the party place of India and is where you go to relax on the beach. Some of the best beaches are Goa. Due to the Portuguese settlement there are many Christians in Goa it is very surprising to see all the crosses set up on the side of the road for a quick prayer and all the churches in a county which I expected to be predominantly Hindu. Although the population is generally Hindu most of the country is tolerant of other religions in particular Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and Parsis. This being said religion is the main cause for civil unrest in the country the most notable conflict is probably between the Muslims and the Hindus. Speaking of unrest, there where more serial blasts in India which killed 75 people and injured at least 300 more in a state called Assam. This area, which is close to Bangladesh, is generally not that stable but this was the most deadly blasts of the year. So far there have been blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Assam and a couple other small places since I got here. I only really know about the Hindu religion as my host family is Hindu so I’ll give you a brief overview.

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO READ ABOUT RELIGION SKIP THE NEXT COUPLE PARAGRAPHS

No one can be a Hindu except by birth but anyways there are over 800 million Hindus world wide. Hindus believe in a god called Brahman, but there are three manifestations of Brahman which symbolize three aspects of such. These include Brahma, who is the creator, Vishnu, who is the preserver and Shiva (my family’s god) who is the destroyer. There are also other gods and gurus they worship such as the elephant god Ganesha, the guru Sai Baba, the monkey god Hanuman, and others who come from the Hindu epics. There are two Hindu epics, like the bible in Christianity but they have very different stories and purposes for the readers. Hindus pray in temples which are everywhere and you must enter the temple without shoes. There are also the laws of Karma and Dharma. Dharma is the obligation to accept ones condition and perform the duties while Karma is the law of consequence or fate. Karma governs the cycle of rebirth in which individuals are reincarnated on earth according to past behavior. Hindu’s don’t eat beef or if they do it is not cooked in their kitchen and they are very liberal Hindu’s.

I don’t know much about Muslims other than they don’t eat pork and there is a god called Allah, maybe Meaghan can help me out. Buddhism started in India but a very small portion of the people are Buddhists (less than 1 %) so I don’t know much about it other than followers try to achieve enlightenment. Sikhism is a religion where the followers are very recognizable because they have uncut hair and wear a turban. The Sikhs see their religion as modern and practical as they do not fast but do stress qualities such as honesty and courage. Jains are a small religion but a powerful force. I have mentioned them before they refuse to eat any meat, eggs, potatoes, ginger, carrots or anything grown in the ground. They believe in the attainment of Nirvana in life. Parsis are one of the oldest religions in India but it did not develop in India. Parsis came to India as refugees from Persia and settled mainly in Bombay and Gujarat. Truth, goodness, and charity towards others govern their way of life. The Parsis adapted very quickly to the British ways and were often employed in British companies, therefore they are usually westernized and are generally wealthier than most.


Anyway back on topic Goa is a good place to relax (or how they say in Hindi araam se) so I did a lot of that. My host family has a lot of family in Goa so we did a lot of visiting and not a lot of spending time on the beach like I would have liked but it was still a very enjoyable trip and it was a good change of pace from the big city life.

In an attempt to reach Goa before the sun set we got up early in the morning on the 29th to take the 9 hour drive. But that was not ever going to happen, as like most other things in India it took a lot longer than expected for two reasons. The road we took was a very curvy road and our tire burst 4 hours in to the drive. So this 9 hour drive took more than 13 hours including stops. When the tire burst we had a spare but, due to Murphy’s law, not all the part to fix the tire so we waited around till someone got the parts from a nearby town and he didn’t bring the right part so he needed to go back and get the right part. I just waited around in the car. When we finally got to Goa, to the family’s house we were staying at, (Margao was the name of the town we stayed but I also saw Panjim, Barga beach and some other places) my host dad and I went out for a snack. I think I take after my Canada dad when traveling I always want to be doing something so just relaxing around is not really my cup o tea but maybe I will learn the beauty of relaxation in India. We defiantly did a lot of hanging around on this trip.

The next day was my mom’s birthday so, just like back in Canada, I sat in my room and thought about how much I love her all day…just kidding. She doesn’t make me do that but Happy Birthday anyway. This day I went with my host family for a walk around the town we were staying in and then had a nap. In the evening (after the sunset) I went to the beach with my host dad and had some beer and a special dish that was prepared for us. The sun had already set so the beach was dark but I could see how beautiful it would look in the day. Anyway back to the special dish, I found out on the drive home that the dish was frog legs which are banned in India but my host dad spoke the local language to the waiter and he hooked us up. He called it jumping chicken and I believed it was chicken when I was eating it. Keep this on the DL though because that restaurant could be in serious trouble if they are caught serving frog legs.

The next day was Halloween but they do not celebrate Halloween in India so it wasn’t actually Halloween. I did phone my mom in the morning, her birthday night our time and it cost me many rupees but not many Canadian dollars. Like $2.50 for a 9 minute call from out of station to international, not bad. They were very surprised because I didn’t warn my dad. On this day we checked out a couple resorts, which were nice, very similar to Mexico resorts but not as big. I then went with my host dad to do the regular routine with relaxing in a restaurant with a snack and a drink. This time one of my host dad’s friends came and he was an interesting character. He was a judge in Goa and he wore a wig I didn’t understand what he does now but he does know a little about astrology and palm reading so he read my palm. It was pretty cool, we also philosophized together. He was asking me unanswerable questions like why do we live? and what is happiness? When he read my palm he said I will have a very long life, I don’t like education but don’t give up on my studies, I make decisions with my heart, I am very kind hearted, I will face obstacles to reach my goals (who doesn’t?), I will have one boy and one girl child, I will become more spiritual later in life, I am unsure about my goals right now, and some stuff that wasn’t true like I am an artist. Although I know what I like in art I have no idea how to create it. He also says when he comes to Bombay next he will tell me what I was in the previous life and what I will be in the next life with the reincarnation and all, that would be cool to know.

The next day we went to a big temple that was pretty stellar and we also went to see a church where St. Francis Xavier’s body is kept. That was pretty cool. You couldn’t see the body or anything but it was interesting to see the church. We then did a family visiting extravaganza where we saw three families in fours hours in different parts of Goa. They all fed us something, boy howdy am I fat. I hope my next family doesn’t fees me so much, hint, hint, if you are reading this Supriya. I then saw a Bollywood movie called ‘Golmaal Returns’ it was not that great because it was a comedy and the jokes didn’t really make me laugh because I didn’t understand them.

The next day we saw the touristy side of Goa which I liked, so we went to the beach and had a tropical mocktail by the beach, along with some seafood. It was good. My host dad bought me a t shirt then we left for home. We didn’t actually make it all the way to Bombay because the drive was long and it was late so we stopped in Pune on the way home, and stayed with family.

When we got back the next couple days I just hung out. It is still holidays right now, this is truly like Christmas vacation for Indians. A couple times Red Bull representatives (who were foxy) gave us Red Bull, so I guess being a foreigner does have some benefits. I also went running a couple times last week, it felt good. I also saw Obama become elected as the next President of the USA so that was really great seeing his speech live. I will never forget that moment.

The next day I went to tabla (drum) classes but I am not sure when I will start the classes in full because I will be away much of December and stuff. The drums are like bongos but the two drums are different and you have to strike the drum perfectly to get a proper sound. The children in the class were all very young (10 or so) but could play really well, except for the one like 5 year old I was better than him. Is this what I have become comparing myself to a 5 year old?

The next day I was sitting watching the sun set on Marine Drive with a couple IYE friends and some really old guy was creeping us he had already talked to us before and wants to take us for a swim or something like that. We had to be pretty mean with him but I swear he is up to no good. I also have another RYLA in a couple weeks and we had the orientation there were so many rules for the RYLA. RYLA is a program designed to develop leaders of the future so there are activities and lectures and stuff and we are foreign so we go. There are so many rules for the RYLA but at the RYLA orientation there was an open bar so the Rotarians said that we should do all the drinking there so we don’t do it at RYLA so we obliged.

I wasn’t feeling too good the next day so I just hung around most of the day.

The next day I saw the new James Bond which was good but not quite as good as Casino Royale. Part was filmed in Siena, Italy where I had been a couple summers ago so that was cool to see on film.

Diwali is like Hindu Christmas. It is actually celebrating something to do with one of the epics like the return of Rama to his village after he completes his goal or something. It is the festival of light so people burst many crackers and they have lights (just like Christmas lights) to decorate the apartment. This is the main time to see family or go back to your village or travel with family. Schools and offices close and there are even Diwali office parties. The people are supposed to get up early for reasons unknown to me other than to wake me up from my beauty sleep with firecrackers. People give gifts and say Happy Diwali all the time during this 4 day festival. Any questions ask. I think it is technically celebrating the Hindu New year also, although the western calendar is used for business, the Hindu calendar is used for festivals. I really don’t know a lot about the festival but you do get special food and there are a few rituals (poojas) throughout the festival. That was actually the last festival for a while so no more crazy festivals for me till next year :( (2009)

NOW QUESTION TIME

Samantha: Did you eat at the German Bakery by OSHO?
-No unfortunately I didn’t but I know a German Exchange student who did. He said it was the only place where you can get a cold salad. If you have a salad here it is boiled so it is no longer a salad it is just veggies. I will go next time!

Dad: Have you been able to participate in any sports?
- I have played soccer a few times and went running three times but other than that I just walk tons every day.

Trevor: how is the cricket??
-The cricket is good but I haven’t really played much. Batting isn’t too hard but bowling is really tough. You need to buy all the special pads and stuff if you want to join an academy. It is on TV all the time and the people always talk about it.

Carlann: Have you had any other things happen to you that could have happened here in Calgary?
-I will get back to you on that one I haven’t really thought about it. Many of the clothes are the same which are for sale, especially for the boys. It is just so different in general though so I will think about it.

Mel: Is your host family observant? Of the fasting.
- No, my family is Hindu so they are not observant of the Ramadan fasting. They might have some other fasting thing I am unaware of though. I will get back to you. I really appreciate your comments and questions Past President Mel.

Lesley: What do they do for Christmas over there? Do they celebrate Christmas?
It seems like there is always a festival happening, does everyone just kind of know where to go and when or is there like... the Indian Festival Users Guide?
- I don’t think they do much for Christmas over here other than just get a little time off work. There are Christians so they celebrate it but it is not a huge festival. I think I will get together with the other exchange students to celebrate something. Everyone just knows when the festivals are basically but I got info on the internet and a book.

Aunty Rhesa: Are you still practicing and learning about yoga?
- Yes I still go to yoga every weekday morning if I can get up.

Aunty Wendy: nce it's hunting season, we have two deer carcasses hanging in the garage already. What would your host family think of that? Do they hunt anything there? Maybe gnu's? I dunno... Let me know what the great hunters are stalking out your way!!
- I don’t think they do a lot of hunting here, maybe in the south. My family is liberal but may be a little shocked by the carcasses. They don’t really hunt much here but I wouldn’t know as I am experiencing big city life. Maybe they hunt wild pigs, ducks or buffalo. I don’t know though I will ask.