Namaste from Kailaji! Here blogging about our time in Calcutta and our transition into Bodhgaya.
We spent 11 days in Calcutta, and looking back trying to figure out what to write about, I realized we defiantly made the most of our time! We spent the first half of our days spread out through many of Mother Teresa’s houses, as Tully covered in the last blog. While we all walked away with very different experiences, we each did similar things. All of us worked with other volunteers from long term placements to world travelers passing through. Our jobs included things such as laundry, helping the patients take their medicine, change clothes, eat, bath, etc. In Prem Dan however, where I found myself most helpful was comforting the patients by holding their hand, talking to them, and doing what ever I could to make them smile. It was an amazing experience we will never forget!
On another note, last Wednesday the Calcutta metro station had a record breaking amount of people ride the metro adding up to over one million! – Eight of those one million – yours truly, Carpe Diem Shanti group.
At the beginning of our days in Calcutta, we created a list of places we wanted to see and things we wanted to do to fill up our afternoons and evenings, both with the group and individually. A few things we managed to cross of the list: Millennium park, Victorian Memorial, Museum, Flower Market, New Market (Shopping), Bollywood movie, Flurry’s Bakery, live music, drinking water from a street coconut, take as many different types of transportation as possible, etc.
One of the first things we did was see live music. Danji called about an ad for a live Indian Classical Fusion music by a band called Bikram Gosh with the most amazing guest singer I have ever heard in my life. The man Dan called ended up meeting us there and allowed us to sit up front. I found a link unfortunately not with the singer and I am at an internet cafe with no sound so I don’t know how this is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVpz2DWWO9M
Friday night we made it to our first Bollywood movie in India and the opening of ‘Student of the Year’. The movie turned out to be the High School Musical of India. The experience was one of my favorites! The movie was about three hours long with an intermission in between. The outfits were amazing! The music was incredible! And unlike any American movie theater where you have to keep HUSH, the audience was very much apart of the experience. They cheered, they screamed, they laughed, they sang. While the movie had only very few lines in English, there was enough dance numbers and emotion for us to understand exactly what was going on. I hope to make it to another before the end of this trip. Here is a trailer for the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fivOhPjX9YM
All the girls with the exception of myself and Greta managed to find their first Sarees before we left Calcutta, and they are all so BEAUTIFUL! The shopping was quite the process for some, but half the fun is looking through all the unique, beautiful handmade fabrics and designs. My search still continues.
One thing I will miss in Calcutta is the amazing street food, defiantly some of the best street food we have had so far! We ain’t afraid of no egg rolls.
Our time in Calcutta was coming to an end the last day as we finished last minute things to prepare for out late night overnight train ride to Gaya, when the moment we all feared and dreaded… The double dragon snuck up on two of our group members. (For those reading who don’t understand this term, please refer to the group member you know). Ellen and Alice had not been feeling well the last few days in Calcutta, and it only worsened somewhere in the process of taking the taxi to the hot and crowded train station, and then finally into the hot and crowded train. The double dragon won the fight against the two poor girls in the train all the way through first day of Bodhgaya. Unfortunately the girls had to stay in the first day to fight battle against the dragon, however they were lucky to stay at such a relaxing and peaceful monastery that was our home for the three days in Bodhgaya. The rest of us spent the first two days exploring the small area, as well as the Mahabodhi Temple. This is where Buddha attained enlightenment and lost all his hair, which drove some people in past groups to shave their head at this site. Because of this, some of our group members were on thinking about doing this too. On the third day we all woke up early to the monks at our monastery chanting, walked behind the building in a grass field with the view of a large Buddha statue head looking over us; and with a pair of scissors and a beard trimmer, Sterrlingji and one girl who would like to remain anonymous, were both enlightened and lost all the hair on their head.
We left Bodhgaya with a slayed dragon, two shaved heads, and some souvenirs on a three hour train to Varanasi where we will be staying for the next 10 days. I am so excited!!!!
Ellenji says: What’s this a circus???
Sarahji says: 😀 Hi mom and dad! I miss you! Happy Birthday mom!
We all miss and love all of you reading this! And HAPPY HALLOWEEN!