The Last Days in India

In April I finished teaching my Environmental Science students, and they have been so much fun to work with this year.  They were taking my class as a supplemental certificate course and did not have to be there to earn their degree.  I really appreciated their hard work and I think I learned as much from them as they did from me.

This was around the time the weather started getting really hot.  In fact Gujarat has been under a severe heat advisory since the end of March.  It makes it difficult to do anything outside so Gregg and I planned a few trips to other regions in between my last few workshops in order to stay sane.  

First we went to Goa, a stretch of beach just south of Mumbai.  Even though it is further south and still just as hot there, at least we could play in the ocean.  We drank fruity drinks and ate fresh-caught fish on the beach.   

We swam over to and hiked around the small island in the distance and kayaked through the mangrove forest.  If the internet had been faster it would have been paradise but it was hard for Gregg to try to work from the hotel there.  He also got food poisoning just as we were leaving so I think I enjoyed this little trip more than he did.

We got back and I conducted a three-day workshop for students at my university who were studying to be future English teachers.  It was a lot of fun to be with them and try to teach them some of the things I have learned from my years in teaching.  Very few of them had ever taught a class before so I tried to give them opportunities to give short teaching demos.  They were eager to learn and I hope they are able to keep that enthusiasm and passion all throughout their teaching careers.

A few days after finishing the workshop we flew up to Dharamsala and stayed in a little Himalayan town called Dharamkot.  It is just above McCleod Ganj, where the Dalai Lama and most of the exiled Tibetans live today.  We wandered the same circular trail and spun the same prayer wheels that my friend Tammie and I did back in 2005 when I came to India for the first time.

 

We took a cable car and rode past the building where the Dalai Lama lives.  I even went to some of the free drop-in meditation classes at the meditation center there.  I've heard meditating can increase your happiness level in your brain, but I'm sure it takes more than a few sessions to really see results.

Since the Dalai Lama often hosts a lot of important foreign visitors, the internet infrastructure in this area is actually very well developed.  We stayed at a hotel that was also advertised as a co-working space for digital nomads.  When the power went out (as it often does in India) they had back-up generators to keep the internet going.

During the day we found various trails and roads to hike on and enjoyed being in cooler weather and high mountains.  We were both able to work from there (I was doing some online workshops) but our big hiking plans got thwarted when both of us got sick from food.  

Luckily the sickness didn't last long and honestly it was worth it not only for the hiking, but also to be in a region where I could find non-spicy food.  

The next week after we got back was the local election for Gujarat.  India is now the most populous country in the world and also the world's largest democracy.  It is no easy task to get information out to almost a billion people, many of whom live out in villages, and some of whom are illiterate.  On one of our flights they even had voter information guides in the seatback pockets on airplanes leading up to the election.

Since I work at a government funded public institution, the professors at the university had to move their exam schedules around because they had to be available to help with the election process.  Finally on May 7 it was Vadodara's turn to vote.  Because so many voting stations were set up, it didn't seem like a big event in the city, but we did see a few people voting near the local high school. 

It takes weeks for the election results come in, and when they finally came in I was conducting a workshop in a city called Bhubaneswar in the state of Odisha.  Nobody was surprised when the incumbent, Narendra Modi and his BJP party won, but there was some surprise that he didn't get as much of the majority in congress as some had predicted.  During my workshop everyone kept checking their phones watching the final tallies come in.  Despite the small distraction, it was a fun workshop called "Communication Skills for Young Climate Warriors" that I did with some of the young adult members of local NGOs such as The Young Climate Leader's Action Project, The Bakul Foundation, Youth4Water, and UNICEF.

 When the workshop finished one of the NGO directors and some students offered to take me on an evening walking tour to see the city and its many ancient temples.  We passed by the state's BJP political party headquarters where they were celebrating Modi's presidential win.

I had never been to the eastern part of India so it was nice to see another region of the country and have some local tour guides.  The Lingaraja Temple was all lit up at night.

Since it is a working temple with worshippers going in and out, I was not allowed to go inside this one.  Luckily they had built a viewing platform to look down into the grounds.  The oldest remnants go back as far as the 7th Century AD. 

While I was there everyone said I should go down to the coast and visit Konark Sun Temple.  This temple is no longer in operation and the main building no longer stands, but it is known for its intricate carvings.  Many of the figures are of ladies dancing, and the local dances that exist today actually come from these poses.

It is also famous for the 12 chariot wheels carved along the base of the temple, which is featured on the back of the 10 rupee bill.

Here you can see one of the carved horses pulling the chariot.  It was a fun little day trip but way too hot to spend very much time outside.

Since I was all done with all my teaching duties but still had some time before coming home, I decided to extend my trip and travel down to Kerala, on the southern tip of India.  I said goodbye to Gregg just before I traveled to Odisha for the workshop, so he wasn't with me for this trip.  I booked a couple of nights on a houseboat to see the backwaters around Alleppey.

I got to just sit back and enjoy the jungle pass by.  There was a chef onboard who was very knowledgeable about all the local foods and spices.  There was another couple from Mumbai onboard and he would make sure I knew which dishes were spicy or not.  His local dishes were amazing.  This one was served on banana leaves instead of plates.  I think I ate more fiber on that trip than at any other time in my life.

My room even had A/C and an attached bathroom.  It was fun to sleep on a boat.  Even though we would pull over and dock for the night I always sleep soundly when I'm on the water.

They asked me what kinds of activities I wanted to do while we were exploring the backwaters and I said I like swimming and kayaking.  The water wasn't really clean enough to swim where we were, but we did find a place to rent a kayak.  

We also stopped and visited one of the oldest Christian churches in the region.  The Basilica of St. Mary goes all the way back to 427AD and is connected to the first churches said to have been set up by St. Thomas who came to India.  

We passed by quite a few Ayurvedic medicinal herb shops because a lot of the herbs and plants grow here naturally.  It's interesting to think about how many medicines come directly from the earth.  That said, I do still enjoy having access to modern medicine when something stronger is needed.

It was a relaxing tour and a nice end to what was often a noisy, chaotic, dirty, but fun year in India!