Blogs from Gujarat, India, Asia - page 3

Our next destination on the tour of Gujarat was Ahmedabad, the main city & textile centre and also the former capital of Gujarat. En route we stopped at the Modhera Sun Temple, built in 1026, which consisted of a large “stepwell tank” with steep steps leading down into the turbid green water. Two small sandstone temples, decorated with multiple carvings of Hindi deities, elephants and intricate designs, were situated nearby. After a further hour of travelling we stopped at another spectacular 11th-century stepwell, in the shape of an inverted Temple which plunged deeply down steep steps into the depths. Numerous shrines and elaborately carved statues were present on the walls and steps - a most unusual and interesting structure. That evening we enjoyed our first Gujarati Thali - a meal consisting of many small dishes of ... read more

The “Beast from the East” almost prevented our wanderings as heavy snow showers resulted in our Heathrow flight being the last plane to leave Newcastle that day. We felt very lucky to be able to meet our friends at Heathrow and make the connection with our overnight Jet airways flight to Mumbai and then transferring to a small domestic flight to the city of Vadodara in the Indian state of Gujarat. We noticed an immediate difference, -4c suddenly changed to a sweltering 36c!! What a first day in India – next morning the colourful Hindi celebration of Holi was in full swing - as Hindus of all ages celebrated the festival by throwing multi-coloured paint powder over themselves and their friends ending up in a myriad of rainbow colours accompanied by much shouting, laughing & merriment ... read more

A few days ago, it was Shivaratri, another special day in the Hindi tradition. Kids had no school and I found out that most staff members were fasting that day, so I decided to join them. However, I soon found out that it wasn't a complete fast. In the morning, we had our very sweet chai, which is almost like a meal! After chai, I joined the boys and staff on a beautiful walk to a nearby village where we went to small temples. The temples were interesting, but the real treat was just once again to witness "normal life", totally out of the beaten track. I would have liked to take some pictures, but my hands were quite busy holding small hands! Once we were back at the home, it was the girls' turn to ... read more

It is marriage season in India, and I knew that one of the staff members who worked here until recently was getting married today. I also knew I was invited. But that was all I knew. So as we got closer to the date, I tried to get a little more information such as if I were really invited, where, when, etc. But as usual, the answers I got varied a lot, so I resorted to my usual technique: just wait and see. So this morning, like every morning, I got up and went to the dining hall with the kids for their morning soy milk, had chai with staff, and went back to my room to wash some clothes. Around 8 am, one of the staff members knocked on my door: "Sister! Are you ready?" ... read more

Now that I described a typical day at Child Haven in Gujarat, here are some random events that change the routine... Yesterday, I was sitting in the sun with one of the staff members, as we were waiting for the kids to come back from school. All of a sudden, Nita grabbed the sleeve of my shirt and pulled it up as high as she could towards my shoulder. Without only a few very basic words to communicate, I was once again silently trying to figure out what she wanted... Then she looked at another staff member and said "my room". So, still not understanding what this was about, I followed her to her room, and there she got her nicest sari out of her trunk and "told" me to try it on. All she wanted ... read more