Paud, as seen at 60 km/h (and other exciting news).

Some days ago I noticed that I always talk about the things that happen to me while I'm at school, and even though I've mentioned Pune & Paud a couple of times, I haven't really talked much about the place in which I now live. So, today's post will be about that. 

My school is located in Khubavali, a small village located in the middle of some smaller communities, which are in turn close to a bigger village called Paud. The photos below are of some of the things I see while traveling to Paud. 

Paud is about fifteen minutes away from my school (by car), and that's where we sometimes eat dinner or buy fruit (and ice cream!). We also have a post office and an ATM. I made a small video so that you guys can see the place where I now hang out in the afternoons (not really, I just go there sometimes because the food is nice).

To watch the HD version, click here.

I obviously had to include a totally-pointless and totally-random Bollywood song into the mix, because if I can't publish my guilty pleasures on a personal blog, then life isn't worth living.

Oh, and I have some exciting news! 

For the next 9 days, I'm going to be out and about in Tamil Nadu (that's down South) spending my time at Madras Crocodile Bank hugging lizards, handling snakes and fighting carpenter ants (it's on the beach!). I will be off the blog for all of next week, but I promise to share 20 thousand photos and make a big post on it when I come back. Wish me luck! 

Diwali (not to be confused with Christmas or anything of the sort).

India and all of us Humans of the Hill have been partying hard in this corner of the world, because it is Diwali!

Diwali, or the Festival of Lights commemorates the return of Lord Rama after fourteen years of exile in which his wife was kidnapped by the King of Lanka, Ravana. When Rama & Sita arrived at the capital of their empire, after Rama defeated Ravana in a memorable battle and rescued his wife, the people lit up the streets with diyas, a kind of oil lamp. Today homes are decorated with candles, lamps and fairy lights. Indian households also endure some thorough cleaning during Diwali, great food is cooked, and people make Rangoli, a sort of drawing on the floor made out of color powder. 

I have heard some misconceptions about this celebration, and the only thing I can say is that Diwali is not Christmas (or its equivalent). Christmas is also celebrated in India (2.3% of the population is Christian) and Diwali is completely different.

The magnitude of the celebrations varies according to the State, and both Maharashtra and MUWCI celebrated accordingly! We had Bollywood music and girls wearing Sarees. And if you think men look good in suits...you should see them in kurta!

 Me & my gorgeous second-year roomie, Ritwika

 The Mexicans: Daniela, Ana (2nd year) & myself.

With Mawada, my favourite Sudanese. 

Apart from food and freshly squeezed sugar-cane juice, we had performances, a mehndi tattoo station (like the one I used in this post) & palm readings.  

Me & my friend Lana from Armenia getting a palm-reading from Sonia, our Wada Parent.

(Thanks for the photo Adityajit!)

Ajanta & Ellora, a paradise made of stone.

This is the first of many great views that I had the chance of seeing last weekend when I went with my Art class to visit the Caves of Ajanta & Ellora in Aurangabad.

The trip took about 9 hours on bus. We left school on Friday afternoon and that same night we were having a midnight snack in Aurangabad. On Saturday morning we drove for about two more hours to get to the Caves of Ajanta, the first ones on our list.

The caves of Ajanta were built during the second century B.C.E., and they contain Buddhist images & sculptures. They have been part of India's World Heritage according to UNESCO since 1983. There are many interesting facts surrounding the caves, but one of the most relevant is that they were re-discovered by an English officer in 1819, after centuries of being abandoned! To this day, they remain in their original (and magical) state. They are truly impressive.

Ajanta has about 36 caves (each more impressive than the one before) which include what once were meditation rooms, teaching halls and cells for monks, among other things. The ceilings, walls and columns are (or were) all painted with ink made out of various kinds of plants and flowers, and they have very detailed carvings. 

There is a statue of Buddha in pretty much every cave. The sculptures tell his story and that is why in the last cave (Cave 36), Buddha is in a horizontal position (as if he was asleep), which means he has  reached Nirvana.

Apart from having caves, there's a river that runs through the site, as well as a small park and even a lookout. 

Besides exploring and snapping photos, we had the chance to sit down and sketch for a long time. This has probably been the most creative trip I've ever been in, and I have never felt as artistic and professional as I did when I sat down to draw. Even though it was only for half an hour. And I drew two wobbly lines somewhere in my journal. 

On Sunday morning we went to visit the Caves of Ellora. I thought that after spending a day in Ajanta nothing was going to be impressive anymore, but I had no idea that two places could be just as magnificent and genuinely beautiful. Ellora is fantastic.

Ellora has many more sculptures than paintings and the caves are a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu religions, so there is also a wider variety of sculptures, and carvings have a greater importance.

This is one of the first few photos of a cave from the inside, and even though it looks simple, when you are standing in the middle of that enormous hall, you feel really small. But everything is so beautiful that it doesn't really matter. And the peace that can be felt in that place is another story entirely. 

Even though the caves seem to have an average size, the truth is they're HUGE!

Ellora also has a temple which is famous for being built from top to bottom instead of viceversa, which is how everything is usually built. 

The temple is possibly the most gorgeous view in all of Ellora. 

One of the things I liked best was that although Ajanta & Ellora attract thousands of tourists, both places are clean and well preserved. Not all the guards were nice, but some of them gave us really small tours and random facts, so I had a great time. 

I couldn't have enjoyed this trip more. It was worth every second!

Thanks for the photo, Mawada! 

To look at the photos in their original format, click here.

Lost & Found

A few days ago I shared my most recent (and failed) attempt at an adventure in this post. 

My goal was to find the Sacred Grove, but after walking and getting to see another (yes, another!) beautiful sunset, I ended up a little lost...(and very happy). I kept looking and after asking around, I finally found it!

It turns out that said Sacred Grove is actually pretty small...and it looks more like the kind of forest you would see in a horror movie, than the green & magical space I was hoping for. Even then, there's something quite unique about it.

My favourite part was definitely the small hike it took to get there. I can almost state without fear of being wrong, that all the views in this place are gorgeous. Even more so with butterflies flying around all the time.

Just as you can see in the pictures, fall is starting to be felt in India too (although we still get rain!). I'm definitely going to miss waking up and seeing everything eternally green & alive, although to tell the truth my heart sings with joy every time I hear the little leaves crunching under my feet --the laughter of the forest. 

You can view the pictures in their original size, here.

Looking for the Sacred Grove.

Even though I love living in India, there are many things that I haven't gotten used to and which bother me to the point of madness. Yesterday, my roomies and I went to the supermarket. We spent about an hour shopping, and more or less the same amount of time waiting in line to pay. No one else seemed to mind, but I was furious. Who's going to give me back that hour of my life?!

Something that also bothers me is that although the housekeepers come and clean every day, my room is really dirty! All sorts of insects live at home, and the other day I even found cobwebs under my desk. I decided to join in the housekeeper's efforts and clean on my own during the weekends. Things are getting better...but with homework, weekend activities, afternoon lessons, having to do  laundry (considering I find an empty washing machine...), having to go to Pune to buy whatever I  need for the week, the urge to explore & the need to rest...cleaning my room doesn't sound very appealing.

When Keats was having a rough day, he put on a clean shirt. I tried it too and failed miserably, but I did discover that moving around helps me relax. Besides, after having discovered how good it feels to explore (which I wrote about in this post), my sense of adventure kicked in again. Someone told me to go to the Sacred Grove, a clear in the forest that is of special importance to the hindu religion (as well as many other religions & cultures throughout the world), and I decided to go for it.

I don't know where I ended up, but I didn't find it. I walked for about an hour and I just went back because it was getting dark and technically, I was still off-Campus, although I don't think I went far. I didn't discover any new territories or something of the sort. What I did find out was that the sunset from here also looks amazing. 

Life is beautiful (although it is harder to notice when you're standing in line at the supermarket...).

My only hope is that these amazing sunsets never cease to surprise me.

Some people have been telling me that the images in the posts are too small. If you want to see them in their original size, you can visit my new Flickr account, here. I will be uploading all the images that appear on the blog. Remember you can also see my Instagram, here. If you're getting bored of seeing photos of the sunset, don't worry, I will be blogging about some other stuff soon!