The ashram you see here is called the Pagal Baba ashram. This one had more traditional, Indian style architecture and was reached by wandering narrow, labyrinth-like allies crowed by cows, motorcycles, people, monkey, rickshaws and the occasional car and camel. After this experience I am even more disgusted with American's inability to see that nearly every so-called one way street that we designate (especially in SLC) can actually hold at least two US cars and a handful of bikes by European standards, and by Indian standards that would be two cars, a motorcycle in between, a couple bikes, a cow or two and a handful of people. We Americans are far to wasteful of most things, but space in particular.
After the Pagal Baba ashram we went back to the other ashram, which is known as the Chitanya ashram. Maitri has actually taken over full management of this ashram (which I believe I mentioned at some point) and so there was a lot of administrative work being done by Mr. Jolly, Anita, Priyanka and other Maitri staff. Some important ministers and such showed up, but I was far more interested in the widows and some new staff, around our age, that were hired on to do the day-to-day running of the ashram.
I don't have to much else to say at the moment, so I will let the pictures do most of the talking.
Snake being shown off
by a little boy on the side of the road.
Widow walking at Chitanya ashram.
Me, Preeti, Niki, Shaloo, and Yvette at
Chitanya ashram.
Widows in their dorm at Chitanya ashram.
Today we were able to visit Aashirwad, a small, extremely nice, old-age home, also run by Maitri. We arrived after lunch so there were not a lot of people about--only three of the ten residents--due to post-lunch naps. But the men who were out were pleasant to talk to and we hope to go back soon. Plus the food was great, they have a well traveled and professional chief on hand to prepare the meals.
Nobody is commenting. I will comment so you don't feel like you're shouting into a vacuum. I liked your paragraph about wasted space. After this I'm going to use the internet to divine what sort of thing an ashram might be. Maybe you mentioned it earlier and I missed it somehow.
ReplyDeleteAlso, staying true to the commenting traditions on blogspot blogs, I am contractually obligated to offer you discounted Mexican off-brand pharmaceuticals
You take some great pictures! Nat Geo shiz right here!And Hey, don't give snake charmers any money if you see them, it is a cruel practice. Also, I feel bad about your space wasting comment... I need to learn to ride a bike now. Thanks alot! :)
ReplyDeleteWow! That widows' dormitory looks great! I mean ... compared to the images we see in the movies White Rainbow, Moksha, Water, and so on ...
ReplyDelete