July 4th

I’m excited to write this post because for the first time, I’ve actually taken a decent amount of pictures the past few days, so they can go in as part of my post, instead of awkward and over captioned at the end!

It’s been a busy few days. On Thursday, first thing in the morning I took a train up to the northern suburbs, where I met Dipti from work. We went to a local elementary school (something International School), where I watched and took a few pictures as Ditpi did the standard Kids For Tigers presentation to a class of 10 year olds. (See right). I had helped make the powerpoint, and my main job at Sanctuary seems to be helping Dipti, so it was a good chance to see the whole picture of what goes on.

We also went to an older class and showed a video on tigers, after which the lame kids just left, and all the cool ones swarmed Dipti and asked her a ton of questions. Culturally, Indian kids aren’t supposed to ask to many questions, apparently, so when Dipti asked for questions after the movie, it was silent. But as soon as the presentation was over and she started packing up, they all came up to her and started chattering (see left above)

That night, some more people from work came over to Dipti’s apartment to hang out. We played with her cat, Grau (I think, although it might be Growl. I tend to have trouble hearing the last consonant of peoples’ names.) a lot, played some excellent Taboo (see Purab, Swati and Kavya in the photo) and a little bananagrams. It was a ton of fun, and good to get to know my office a bit better. I have to give a shout out to the JYP for teaching me the dance for the Indian pop song Tekh Ta Naah (that’s not ever close to right), because it scored me a lot of points with Dipti, Kavya and Swati, and they’ve asked me to do it on command regularly ever since.

Oh, also!!!! I started singing Benny Lava under my breath at one point, and Swati recognized it, and was really excited that I knew it. Apparently they also think it’s hilarious, (along with Tunak Tunak Tun), which makes me really happy. If you don’t know what I’m talking about (and you’re under 25) shame on you, and you should Youtube it immediately. If you’re older than 25, don’t worry about it.

On Saturday, I was planning on sitting alone at the hotel (still Sassoon, until Monday), doing research and sleeping. Instead, Dipti convinced me to come on a trek with her and a group that leads people on hikes. So I woke up at 4 AM, made it to Dadar Station by 5, then spent the next three or four hours on buses and trains (usually standing) on the way to the town of Roha on the Konkan coast. It was definitely worth it. The hike was gorgeous, green, and a welcome change from the noise and air in the city. The hike to Avchitgad, which means Hurry Fort, because it was made quickly, was really cool, and the view from the top was incredible. At top, most people sat down to rest for a bit, but being the athletic young man than I am, I took the opportunity to explore by myself a little. There was something really empowering about being 1000 ft up by yourself in a foreign country. Plus, I saw monkeys playing in the trees right below me on the hill, and a snake dashing through the grass, which was pretty awesome.

We didn’t get back to Mumbai until 11:00 PM, and I was completely exhausted. The end of the journey took a little longer than expected, since just as we started back down the mountain, it started to monsoon. It was only a light rain while we were hiking, but in the city it was pretty intense. As I was in the taxi on the way back to my hotel, the other side of the street was completely flooded, with water up to the top of the cars’ tires. My side happened to be fine, which was good, because I didn’t want to get out of the car to push, like the people on the other side had to. This was partially because I was only wearing boxers, since my pants had soaked through and I hadn’t brought a spare pair. I tried to get a picture of the water, but when I rolled down the window, a car passed my taxi and splashed a huge wave into the car. The taxi driver and I shared a good multi-lingual laugh, and I quickly put my camera away. You’ll have to make due with this one, which is terrible I know, but I didn’t want to use flash, and well, you’ll live.

Happy Forth of July, everyone! Go eagles, western toilets and potable tap water (unless you’re Boston in May)!