We find ourselves in Kerala for the last week of our 3 month stay in India. It was difficult leaving our 2 month volunteer placement at the NGO in Cuttack Orissa. We made some good relationships and experienced Indian culture on a day to day basis in a way that eludes tourists who are just passing through. My head is still filled with the sights, sounds, and voices of Cuttack- cows merging with traffic, the vegetable hawker in the morning, saris of all colors and designs, the occasional sound truck, hopelessly narrow streets built for a few carriages and walking people [View Full Entry]

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I can recall seeing a great Indian flic about an Indian Hindu wedding a few years ago - Monsoon Wedding - but never did I imagine that I would actually be at one in my lifetime. But lo and behold. I was. A friend of our host family invited Stan and I to his daughter's wedding celebration. First came the personally delivered invitation in glitter and gold, and then came the exuberant celebrations. At about the same time, we were also invited to the 2nd Death Anniversary of the wife of our NGO's Founder. Both of these rituals exposed us to [View Full Entry]

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Not really but it's a great image! So why did we choose these three concepts to highlight in this blog? Bicycling because we have been amazed watching the array of activities carried out on bikes every day in India. Elections because India is in the midst of an election with non-stop loudspeakers and rallies under layers of threats, violence, and malaise. Gandhi because he can always put everything in perspective so we can focus on what is most important in life. So why not? India is filled with contrasting ideas, sights, and happenings competing for our attention. And so this blog [View Full Entry]

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The $64,000 question: When is the Hindu New Year? As with most things in India, it depends where you are and which calendar you are following. There is no one Indian New Year’s day. The numerous cultures that are part of Hinduism follow independent calendars (about 30) and the New Year Day in these calendars is based on seasons and the agrarian economy of the region. As a result of these cultural variations, festivals are celebrated at different times and in different ways. We happen to be in Orissa so the Hindu New Year fell on April 14 but there are [View Full Entry]

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What do all these sites have in common? They all involve people searching for peace, holiness, and the spirit. After all, we are in India. They are different in their spiritual orientation from Sun Worship to Buddhism to Hinduism to Asceticism, some are well known, others are obscure, but they are all in the province of Orissa where we are living for 2 months. As part of my journey, I accidentally wiped out most of the pictures I took of these places. So I borrowed some from fellow travel bloggers (allowed with appropriate credit) to add to the commentary. However, [View Full Entry]

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So what is it really like to be in a volunteer project in India for two months? Funny you should ask. Just so you don’t think we are not doing any work in India, we are sending this blog to friends and family so you can get the real scoop on our volunteer project and daily life. For purposes of privacy, we left out identifying names. This blog is replacing the private blog which was difficult to access. WARNING: This is rather long. So if you don't want to read it and just look at the pictures, that's fine. This content [View Full Entry]

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Think of Halloween and Purim rolled into one big celebration and you start to get the spirit of the unique Hindu festival of Holi. Holi is steeped in legends of love and romance, observed in different ways throughout the country, but one main ingredient of the festivities is that everyone gets painted with colors as you walk along the street or visit family and friends. Stan and I did not escape the powdered and liquid colors which were thrown on us by friend and stranger alike and the phrase accompanying this bold act is “bura na mano holi hai” which [View Full Entry]

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The training for our service project took place in the town of Lucknow, which is the capitol of the province of Uttar Pradesh. The northern province of Uttar Pradeshi is India’s most populous state with 166 million (2001 census) and is referred to as the cow belt or Hindu belt. Lucknow has the sprawling congestion that comes with 3 and ½ million residents, but there are some real gems of history tucked away in Lucknow. One such gem is the Bara Imambara, built in the 1780s by the Nawabs who took control of this area after the fall of the [View Full Entry]

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The Taj Mahal is indeed impressive with its massive marble structure looming large against a blue sky backdrop and looking different depending upon the light of day. The Taj was built on the banks of Hinduism's second holiest river, Yamuna, by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his second wife who died giving birth to their 14th child in 1631. Construction began in the same year and was not completed until 1653- 22 years later - and took over 20,000 people to build. Pictures don’t do justice to this overpowering monument, but hopefully you will get an idea of [View Full Entry]

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A long but fairly comfortable flight transports us from Newark, New Jersey to Dehli, India. Our continuous14 and ½ hour flight eastward resulted in a loss of 10 and 1⁄2 hours so we had some serious jet lag to make up. However, everything went smoothly - our taxi was there and we got to our hotel before midnight ready for a good night’s rest. We woke up to a different country and culture in a city of 17 million people. We are in Dehli which is the capitol of India since 1911 when the British shifted the capital from Calcutta. [View Full Entry]

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