Aurangabad And On The Way To Amaravati, Maharashtra - 1st Feb 2011

We got up really early for breakfast and it was the sweetest thing – Fr. Savio came to me and handed me this nice bracelet which I had noticed on our teams wrists the day before. Apparently, they had gotten them at the beginning of the session with the seminarians when I was busy setting up. I didn’t ask much about it. But now, in the morning, Fr. Savio in his goodness came personally and gave me a bracelet. I was really touched.. It was so thoughtful of him..

Before leaving the seminary in Nashik I got to meet the cutest dogs Jack and Ginger who live on the roof. The building was not very tall, just about 15-20 feet or so. Father Savio was explaining that if anyone was observing their activities, they could easily attack at night time and climb the walls and enter. He said that the dogs were raised on the roof since their puppyhood and lived there all the time. If anyone new approached then they would bark and it would be like an alert system. That was so cool. Ingenious even.

Today we travelled a whole bunch. Around lunch time, we stopped at this school in Aurangabad for a program, and some of the kids had prepared a dance for us. There was such a warm welcome with garlands and flower petals thrown all over us.. They made our whole team feel like VIPs who’ve come as chief guests for their function. And their dance! Such young children, you’d think at that age they’d be uncoordinated and raw in their movements, but wow! What precision! And such synchronicity! Left us spellbound..

 We were taken to a place closeby for lunch. Met some really nice people there.. Normally it takes time to connect with people in the first meeting, but meeting Doncy, Jade & Teresa was like bonding right off the bat. And it’s not like we’re the same age or anything. Jade was in 2^nd year college, Doncy was in 1^st year and Teresa was finishing off with her 12^th. I’m a lot older than that, but it didn’t feel awkward or disconnected. Friendships like these are rare and I’m gonna make sure we keep in touch. This is one of the best parts of a journey like this – getting to meet some really amazing people, learning about them, learning from them.. Sharing with them.. Wish we had more time to spend there though, and see the place and meet people, but we needed to press on and reach Amaravati by night, so we left soon after lunch.

Snippets:

I was sitting behind Ravi in the bus and someone gave him a center fresh chewing gum. He was struggling with it trying to open the wrapper for like 5 minutes and it wouldn’t open. Out of frustration, he shoved the whole thing in his mouth, wrapper and all, and started chewing on it.

I thought he must have taken it out at some point, but it was like half an hour later that  he pulls it out of his mouth and says, “Plastic utaar dena chahiye.. Hai na?”

Once, on the way somewhere, we stopped at a roadside dhabba for dinner. Everyone ordered channa masala and naans. When the food came, Joice takes 2 bites and her face crumples up and she says, “I dont like..”

She calls the dhabbawala who happens to be a Malayali like her, so they speak in their native language and ho goes back to the kitchen and gets her some dal and vegetable. So Joice gets really happy and she shouts to Sister (who’s sitting on the other side of the dhabba), “See Sister, Malayali lowe.”

Sister says, “What?”

“Lowe lowe, Malayali lowe!”

“What you are saying?”

“Arre sister lowe!! Malayali lowe!!”

Sister asks Prashanth next to her, “What?”

“Sister, she is saying Malayali love.”

“Arre then she should say that only.. What lowe lowe she is saying..”

I lowe Joice.