Time flies like an Arrow

I am coming up on the end of my fourth month here in Mumbai, and I feel really blessed. I have learned so much and grown in many ways. The last couple of months have been jam-packed with activity for me, and I am painfully aware that I haven’t updated since September.

Since then, I visited a spectacular Buddhist pagoda, walked in a parade, learned a traditional dance, toured South India, and nearly deafened myself with Indian fireworks.

In the middle of September, I visited the Global Vipassana Pagoda. Completed in 2010, this pagoda contains the largest unsupported dome in the world. Compared the spectacular golden exterior, the pagoda’s interior is downright stark: a huge expanse of hardwood floor beneath a vast dome of concrete blocks. A guru sat with about 20 people in the center of the pagoda. People who wish to enter into the pagoda to meditate must stay for ten days, and they are forbidden from communicating in any manner, verbal or nonverbal.

Pagoda Exterior

At the end of September, I ventured with the other exchange students to Pune, a small town of about 3 million that’s four hours away. We went there for the Ganesha Chaturthi parade. Ganesha Chaturthi is one of the most popular Hindu holidays for Mumbaikars and Maharashtrans. The festival is celebrated with ten days of merry-making and worshipping Lord Ganesh. On the tenth day, the Ganesh idols—some no bigger than a loaf of bread, others thirty feet tall—are all immersed in a body of water. In Mumbai, it’s done at one of the beaches, but in Pune, Ganesh was immersed in a river cutting through the city.

All the exchange students wore traditional clothes for the occasion. The boys wore white kurtas and brightly colored turbans, and the girls wore a spectacular array of saris. We walked for four hours, a group of dancing women behind us and a line of enthusiastic drummers in front of us. Everyone wanted a picture of the foreigners in Indian clothes. I myself posed with a myriad of small children as their parents eagerly took pictures, and one of my friends gave an interview for the Times of India. It was a phenomenal afternoon!

Lord Ganesh

Me, doing the traditional Indian Tilt-a-Whirl dance

Dancers in the Parade

My computer battery is dying, so I will write about two other festivals, as well as my trip to South India, later.

Photo Credit--Miguel Ponce

I have really found my place here in Mumbai. It’s insanity, but it’s fun. Sometimes it’s frustrating, but life here is just so interesting and different, especially compared to my life in Wyoming. I can’t believe it’s almost half over…