nothing could have prepared me for today.....it was really *special*

My adorable Mars remedial students: Ashwini in the first photo, in the second photo from left to right is Navyea, Ashwini, Divya and Nirmala. And drawings they made.

Photos with my Earth remedial students. In the first photo is Anjua and Kiran. On the bottom right hand corner, the photo was taken outside the computer room. We all barely fit in the shot.

My last time having lunch at school. I must admit I didnt have too many lunches there over the two months because I was always at home catching a power nap over lunch break. lols. But when I do, I have great eating with the kids.

During the last period, I took my favourite class (shh no one heard me mention favourites), Mars to the Jungle Gym. My last time playing there :( When the kids get psyched up, they run everywhere and would inadvertently kick up the sand making the air very dusty! Im actually fearful of the slide. The kids made me go down and I was fully clinging onto the sides. Its steep, honestly!

More photos! The kids took over the camera and started snapping away.

Photos with the Parikrma staff and office people. Top left is Bernadette who is in charge with writing up child profiles for child sponsorships etc. On the right side, is Anu (her name is a lot longer, but thats what I call her) akka. She is the teacher for Venus class. I loved to sit in on her classes the most. She is an amazing story-teller. I got to listen to Cinderella and Little Mermaid...ah child memories. On the sofa is Savitha and Kavitha (sisters) who work in the office. Savitha is in charge of accounts and Kavitha works as the secretary (admin)/everything lady. Any problems I have, she is the first person I turn to whether its obtaining flight details, postage fees, where to buy this or that :) On the bottom left corner, is Bharati and Kalpana akkas. Bharati is the headmistress of the school and Kalpana is in charge of all three Parikama schools. They are great teachers and have a huge heart for teaching. They really care for these children and are so dedicated. Every night, Bharati will get home from school around 8pm because of the after-school program which she stays for and the fact that she lives so far away.

More photos in and about the school. The photo in the middle is Jupiter class. I love this class. Okay, so there isnt any class I dont love. But I have great fun in their classroom, they are so cheerful. There was one time we were reading a story book about kids bringing peanut-butter sandwiches in lunch pails/boxes to school. We asked them, if any of them had tried peanut-butter. Only one or two put their hands up. So the next day I made finger sandwiches with crunchy peanut-butter filling. They loved it! Next time, it shall be nutella. Oh or peanut butter and jelly. My goal is to Americanize them...lols. j/k.

I had never planned to visit Calcutta. But Im glad I did because I found it to be such a vibrant city. I would definitely come back here and spend more time. If I had to live in India to work, Calcutta would be one of my choices to live in. There and Bombay :) It is very busy, and the traffic is horrendous. Taking the bus was an experience in itself. It took so long. I was tempted to get off and walk but the bus conductor was going to tell me when to get off for Victoria Memorial. So I stayed. The buses are...how can I even begin to describe it. Its not that its shabby but its old...its really weird. the interior is all made out of wood. I wish I took a photo of the bus. Its definitely not your regular bus. Anyways, Calcutta I think is the only city with an underground train system. So I took the opportunity to try it. It was fun, a bit stuffy but interesting lols.

The Bengali people are so friendly. I befriended these two guys as I was leaving Swabhumi, a cultural complex. We walked some 20 minutes to the nearest bus stop and exchanged contacts. I find the locals here very proud of their heritage. They kept asking, so what do you think of Calcutta? Do you like it? Well, I just told them the truth....yes, for sures !

Goodness, sorry for the dark photo shots. I took them while the sun was setting over the Victoria memorial. The last photo if you can make it out at all is the train station. I was ready to board the train to Varanasi.

First two photos taken at the train station at Varanasi. I spent a good part of the morning running around the station trying to sort out my onward journey (I was still on the waiting list for the train to Agra! which was leaving that night) and looking for the place to store baggage. Next two are random photos of alleyways (often lined with shops). The last two photos are taken at the bank of the Ganges. The locals lives are so involved with the Ganges, the most holy river in India. They bathe in it, wash their clothes with the water, drink the water, etc.

On the boat down the famous Ganges river. The water was as dirty as I had anticipated! I didnt see any floating corpes though....thank goodness. The photos does not do justice to the architecture and ghats along the Ganges. What I really needed was a panoramic photos. Instead, I had to make and do, so I amateurly took a series of shots consequtively...So these photos are meant to sit side by side :) and um..overlapping at parts...hehe.

The first two photos are of the burning ghat from afar. I was actually sitting in the ghat moments before I got on the boat, but it was too disrespectful to take a photo at the scene. I was told to take photos when I was on a boat...which I did. As I mentioned before in a post, that burning ghat I witnessed is called Manikarnika, one of the oldest and most auspicious places for a Hindu to be cremated. If you look at the second photo closely, you would see two bodies covered by an orange silk cloth. They are about to be doused in the Ganges river before cremation. It was really a surreal experience watching it all from close-up.

The first two photos is of the main central ghat, Dasawamedh. It is here where the night pujas are performed (photos further down).

A cute kid wanting to be in my photo. More random alleyways. A local market which I passed following the procession of people carrying a dead person on a bamboo stretcher. Okay, the photo in the middle right are giant scales. They serve to weigh the amount of log needed for the burning process to calculate the price of cremation. I was shocked when I realized what it was.

Here are the pujas performed in the evening at the two central ghats. It went on for about an hour. Pujas are religiously performed every evening with the entire display of rituals, chanting, sprinkling of water, lighting the candles and so on. As this ceremony went on, the locals would approach the river bank, cup the hands and scoop water and drink it and sprinkle the excess on their heads.

Agra

Photos of the famous Agra Fort.

More photos of the interior areas of the Fort

Aha, the Taj Mahal

The first two photos are of the most narrowest bridge I even been on. There are two lanes, going opposite directions, and you see all sorts of vehicles on this bridge. From donkeys, to vendors pushing their carts of peanuts, to your tuk-tuks, motorbikes, cars, rickshaws, bicycles, everything! it was fun to roll down my window just to see what passed me. Sam and Rahul (bottom right hand corner) took me to the other side of the river. Tourists normally view Taj Mahal from the front, but a more spectacular view that mainly locals know about is from behind (i.e. the other side of the river). In fact, I liked it so much I went there again a few days later to read a book as the sun was setting. Soo nice.

Ali and Jay flying kites on the roof. We were joining all the kites in the sky. It was good fun. Lols the middle photo on the right is doddles done by a brick I found. I decided to draw on the terrace. Bottom left corner, is Jay and I on his motorbike. That day we biked on the road towards Delhi (we went one third of the way) about 50 km distance

I was watching the kites in the sky one afternoon on the terrace. And I noticed a young boy on the roof of the next door building flying a kite. We got acquainted and he invited me over to this house and introduced me to his family. The boys name is Sagar and his sister is Nidwin. Their grandmother is soo cute.

Nights in Agra was cold. So huddling around a fireplace was really nice at night. In the middle left, is Soni. hehe actually a girl from Sumungali gave it to me as I was leaving Parikrma. Her name was Soni so I decided to name the goat Soni. Below, is a photo of Rahul playing with her. The middle right photo is Sam smokin away. He is actually Nepalese. I was pleasantly surprised when I first met him and he told me that. You all know how excited I get if anything is remotely about Nepal :P And Jhon dozing away as we were on our way to Delhi by car.

Wow, that is the round-up of photos I took. I didnt post them all up here, but I did post photos of most of the places I went to.

I never had a more enriching experience than I did in the last three months. I am already planning my next trip back to this vast country. If you are reading this, and you know me personally, then I apologize in advance because for the next few months or so I will be going on and on about India. lols. It will be "India this...India that". My family already had enough from Day 1. Now my brother wont even let me play Hindi music in his presence. oops. lols