Nameste everyone,

Its me again, well what can I say, it has been 5 weeks since my last blog, I have been so busy volunteering and visiting new places that time has just flown by. I started teaching English in a local school in Bedla (a village just outside Udaipur), I had a class of 10 who were 4th and 5th grade students with very basic knowledge of English. A typical day for me would be waking up to see if we had any hot water that day, having breakfast prepared by Meenaji (a wonderful cook!), getting ready for school and making sure I had all the resources needed for teaching. The children in my class came from very poor families and most of them didn’t even have adequate clothing or footwear. I found teaching very enjoyable and my students were a pleasure to teach. The biggest challenge for me was trying to teach students with varying degrees of ability, being a mixture of grades it was difficult to maintain a consistent pace and ensure all the children felt involved in the class. We would begin and end the day with a song, it was a wonderful experience and I’m missing the children already!

During my free time, me and the other volunteers would visit the market, go shopping and eat in rooftop restaurants watching the sunset, very relaxing indeed! During the week I had yoga lessons at 7am everyday, which is something I will continue when I return home and I had the opportunity to learn Hindi as well…I’m getting better by the day. Each day two volunteers would be assigned to evening school, this is held at the home of a local family who allows the children in the local community to come together to be taught for one hour in their garden. These children are not sent to school and their parents will expect them to start working soon, there is no desire to educate their children and for me seeing this was very upsetting.

On my last weekend in Rajasthan, me and a few of the other volunteers decided to make a trip to Jaipur (the capital of Rajasthan), known as the pink city for the colour of its buildings, it is very busy and there is quite a few forts and palaces to see here. We stayed in a lovely guest house called Karni Niwas Palace Hotel, the owners were very friendly, I can’t tell you how nice it was to finally have a hot shower after so many weeks of barely having any water. The food was delicious, especially the banana lassi! One night we had dinner in a lovely Italian restaurant (Mediterraneo), which was amazing, I had a Marinara pizza which tasted just like it was from Italy! In the evening we went to Raj Mandir cinema (considered the best cinema in India) to see Delhi 6, the cinema was very extravagant and it was nice experiencing a hindi film with the other volunteers…I was their translator throughout the film.

We returned to Udaipur just in time for Holi, which is the festival that welcomes the arrival of Spring. On the eve of Holi we ventured into the market and the atmosphere was lively and friendly, the locals were setting up straw men that would be set alight later on and on the roads people were painting ‘Happy Holi’ with different coloured powder. We managed to find a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Jagdish Temple (the centre of Udaipur) and watched the celebrations take place from there. We managed to see an array of fireworks and dancing, it was a fantastic evening! The next day (the actual day of Holi) we dressed up in white and ventured to the rooftop of the apartment with powder in our hands ready to begin the festivities. Within 10 minutes everyone was covered from head to toe in different colours, it was a wonderful sight! Neeraj, one of the local coordinators then decided to bring up buckets of cold water and pour them all over us! The rest of the day was spent eating and drinking masala chai, followed by dancing and playing with the children from evening school. It was an unforgettable day filled with fun and frolics, it makes me smile just thinking about it :o)

The next day, I boarded a 7 hour train journey to Ranthambore for the tiger safari. After settling in to our hotel, we boarded a safari jeep to Ramthambore National Park. I managed to spot crocodiles, deers, a variety of birds including kingfishers and peacocks! Unfortunately, on this particular day we didn’t spot any tigers but there was still hope for day 2. In the evening, we sat outside and took part in folk dancing, which was so much fun, the music was infectious! On day 2 we visited a fort and on the way we were lucky enough to see a tiger! It was wondering around in its natural habitat and everyone was taking photos, hoping to capture this beautiful creature at its best. I can’t tell you how excited and happy I was, I have never seen anything like it before. Unsurprisingly, this was the topic of conversation for the rest of the day! We also visited a temple worshiping Ganesha (the God of new beginnings and good luck) and had blessings given to us by a priest. Later on we boarded another 7 hour train journey to Agra to see the magnificent Taj Mahal. What can I say…this is by far the most fascinating place I have seen so far on this trip, it is so beautiful and I sat looking at it for hours, it is truly mesmerizing and I can see why it is considered to be a wonder of the world. It took 22 years to build and it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it…

Having arrived back in Delhi, I joined my tour group who I would be touring North India with for the next two weeks. I will sumarise this trip because I could go on for hours telling you about the wonderful places I visited but I know how busy life is back home so I will keep this short and sweet…

I visited Shimla, Mandi, Dharamsala, Dalhousie, Khajjiar, Chamba and Amritsar! My favourite place has to be Dharamsala, the home of the 14th Dalai Lama, it is such a spiritual place and it opened my eyes to Buddhism. It was so nice being here and seeing snowcapped mountains, I managed to speak to a few monks and learn more about Buddhist philosophy at the Namgayal Monastery (residence of the Dalai Lama). I visited the Tibet museum, which summarises China taking over Tibet and the life of Tibetans both in Tibet and those in exile. This was very moving and it brought a tear to my eye just thinking about all those people who are still suffering.

My second favourite place has to be Chamba, we stayed with a local family up in the hills for three nights here. Prakashji, the head of the house welcomed us with malasa chai and onion pakoras…yummy! We met the rest of his family, his grand daughter Rupashi is 2 years old and she so cute and adorable. She kept me entertained and having her call me Poonam didi (sister) in her cute little voice was wonderful. The home cooked food was delicious and the mountain spring water was full of goodness. Prakashji has a lot of land on which he grows pretty much everything, from lemons, plums, pears, herbs and cinnamon to name a few! He was kind enough to let me plant a tree in memory of my mum in his garden and words can not express how much I appreciated this. On day 2, four of us decided to go trekking up the mountains to 2250 feet and we picked a day when it rained all day! When we reached the top we sat around a fire and had lunch...I found it difficult to eat because my hands were numb. I don’t think I have ever been so cold, the views were amazing and even though I slipped twice on the way back down…the experience was unforgettable. Prakashji also showed me the art of meditation and he was kind enough to share his wisdom on religion and life…it was eye opening to say the least.

Finally, my third favourite place has to be Amritsar, home to the Golden Temple (the most sacred place of worship for the Sikh religion), we managed to see it at night and during the day. It is very peaceful and spiritual, at the east end of the temple is a massive communal kitchen that can feed up to 10,000 people everyday…anyone is welcome! We visited Jallianwala Bagh, which commemorates the 2000 Indians killed/wounded by the British in 1919 during India’s fight for independence. The final stop was the Wagah border closing ceremony (the only road border crossing between India and Pakistan), each evening splendidly uniformed guards on either side of the border perform a bizarre but proud performance to lower their respective national flags at the closing of the border. The ceremony attracts spectators on both sides and is a poignant reminder to the Partition of 1947 when Punjab was divided between two nations.

I am now in Delhi and on Tuesday I visited Akshardham Temple, which is the largest Hindu temple in the world. It is phenomenal and I sat for hours just reflecting on my time in India, it is handmade and took 5 years to build by 11,000 people…magnificent! The number of marble elephants was astonishing, each one telling a little story…it was like a dream.

I fly to Nepal on Saturday to begin my four week volunteer project at an orphanage. I am really looking forward to it and I will update you again shortly. I apologise for the length of this blog, I hope you can find time to read it.

I hope you are well
Take care, miss you all
Love Poonam :o)