#24 - Delhi, Week 2


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October 18th 2010
Published: October 18th 2010
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Hello Hello,
Our last 10 days or so have certainly picked up a bit! Laura is making some progress with her Phd applications and I have been doing a bit of exploring. We went to mens field hockey games, mens doubles in tennis, and rugby sevens of the Commonwealth Games. The whole idea of the commonwealth games is a bit odd to me. Basically England and Australia beat up on the Oceanic, Carribean, and African countries that used to be English colonies in various summer olympic-like sports. This year at least India finished ahead of England in the gold medal count but way behind Australia. Going to the games was still a ton of fun, and the consensus is, I think, that our Indian friends were happy that Delhi got to host this iteration of the games. We had a ton of fun watching them!

2 weekends ago we went to Vrindavan, where Krishna was born. Allegedly he was quite the prankster in those days. We were kindly hosted by the Rotary Club of Delhi, of which Asthas dad is the president. Last weekend I went to Rishikesh to a bush camp on the Ganges river. It was crazzy warm and I am fairly burnt but we went white water rafting, played a ton of beach volleyball, a good bit of cards (and Indian game called Flash), and enjoyed the hearth of a bonfire on the sand. The sand had the consistancy of sifted flour. It was really wonderful. The tents were flys set up over 2 cots per tent with the natural soft sand floor. The river actually had sort of waves to it, so the soft water noise rushing in and out was amazing. I slept like a log!

On the way back we stopped at a giant effigy burning. Basically in about 1500 BCE Ravana, the leader of Sri Lanka, came up to Northern India and kidnapped Sita, the wife of Rama and brought her back to Sri Lanka. Rama went down and got her back. Each year a 30 meter effigy of Ravana is burned. It is stuffed with fireworks and gunpowder so its burning is quite a loud and colorful sensation. I was super happy to see Eat, Pray, Love here with Julia Roberts but the movie was really a dud. Town, with Ben Affleck, on the otherhand, I highly recommend. It was really great!

Next up: Thursday I am going to Pilani to a college music festival, Saturday Laura and Baan will fetch me and we will all go to the Rajistani International Folk Festival in Jodpur for 2 days, followed by a 2 day stop in Jaipur on the way back. This will at least give us a little Rajistani flavor in our trip. Our last day at our home stay is next Saturday after which we will relocate to a hostel near the train station. When I can find a wireless internet connection I will post pix; for now youll have to enjoy my short descriptions.





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