This past Saturday 12 of us went on a day trip to the Karla and Bhaja caves. We had to be up early and ready at the program center by 7:30am. However, as we’ve learned to expect, time is irrelevant and waiting idly should be expected. By 8:30, with the help of good old Prashant, we had all piled into the bus accompanied by an Indian student escort, snazzy sunglass clad tour guide, the bus driver and his ‘apprentice’ son. I ended up sitting next to the Indian student (I regret to say I am currently at a loss for her name, probably because I never exactly got it and just bobbled my head and smiled at her in my tired morning daze when she told me….I’m pretty sure it started with a P) We chatted for a bit about what we are studying at school, the few Bollywood films I’ve seen and some she recommended, and some famous Indian singers. She is an environmental studies major in her third and last year at Fergusson College. Last spring she participated in the Alliance for Global Education program by enrolling in the courses. She therefore knows a lot about our program and told me about the girls with whom she is still in contact with from the U.S. After a while I, along with most everyone else, succumbed to the tortures of our early morning rise (I know it wasn’t that early, but I was tired) and pulled out our iPods and tried to relax for the remainder of the two-hour ride.
We first arrived at the Karla caves via an upward winding cliff side road. We climbed up some steps that were very reminiscent of my calf-burning walks up mountains in China. This is when I began to regret wearing flip-flops…but the walk up wasn’t too long and we reached the caves within 10-15 minutes. However, we did lose the Indian student on the way up, apparently it was too hot and she wasn’t feeling well so she went and sat in the hot, stuffy bus? Anyway, the caves were amazing! They are not just holes in the cliff walls, as one would expect caves to be. They were carved out the existing stone during the 3rd and 2nd century B.C. and are adorned with intricate carvings of elephants and religious figures. There was also a temple at the top that was emitting spiritual Indian music and crowds of chapattle-less (shoeless) people waiting to pray (Saturday was the start of a 9-day long Hindi festival called Dasara). Many pictures later, including one of me with an over enthused Indian hottie, we descended down the steps, past the colorful trinket filled stalls, bare-foot beggars, and flower/incense stands to the bus.
We then drove only about 20 minutes to the Bhaja caves. At the bottom of the steep stairway was a large cliffside waterfall where many women were scattered washing and hanging out brightly colored saris and printed cloth. On our way up about 15 goats with blue painted horns lazily flooded onto the stone path. Color is everywhere in India! The caves at the top were significantly different from the Karla caves. There were stairs up to carved out rooms and ‘balconies’. The view from inside the caves was absolutely breath taking. Despite the burning sun and our subsequent ceaseless sweat, I couldn’t help but to quietly sit in a secret nook of the caves and just soak it all in. But of course, fervent shouting from the other side of the caves soon distracted me. A relatively large group of Indian guys had come over the crest of the climb and were posing and hooting for the camera of their buddy from below. I have to admit, it was a really good photo, and yes, I did take one on my camera. After a while of exploring all the little rooms a few of us headed further down the path and came upon another smaller cave with large carved dome-like structures. We then came upon some more caves and a beautiful waterfall to which I reluctantly refrained from climbing down to due to the fact that I was wearing my flimsy American Eagle flip-flops.
Once we had our fill we trekked back down the stone steps and piled into sauna of a bus. A few minutes into the ride we had to stop at train tracks, the heat was miserable in that small cramped bus, but we made the most of it and tried to review for our upcoming Marathi quiz by singing the short nursery song we had learned the previous week about bringing rain. (Ye re ye re pausa, Tula deto paisa, Paisa zala kota, Pausa ala motha). However I think that only made the bus and the heat more miserable. And to our great surprise, India made us wait again and there wasn’t any train and the delay was unnecessary. After lunch in an air-conditioned restaurant we were driven up a precariously steep traverse to see a cliff.
Upon arriving we were greeted by young girls with flowers, shanty shacks selling sodas and snacks, a camel on a leash, and most importantly, a remarkable view! We walked to the edge of the cliff and were all amazed by the expansive scenery of luscious greenness. The outskirts of a housing development could be seen in the distance, small slum dwellings were scattered throughout the fields, but it was mostly overwhelmed with rice fields surrounded by lush green hills/mountains. Although we were standing among yellow, white, and purple wild flowers, both the dust and the trash were definitely still present. Three small girls came up to us trying to sell sodas, but I think they actually just wanted to see and speak to us. They picked a small bouquet of flowers for us, spoke the English they knew, told us their names (Lalita, Parvati, and Sonyali) and willingly posed for a few pictures.
After that we headed back to the lovely pollution and traffic of Pune. We were all sweaty and tired, but sat in Café Coffee Day for an hour or so and made plans to go out to Thai food for dinner. On our walk to the Thai restaurant there was a group of young boys banging on drums and clapping, presumably for the start of the festival, I was excited and took their picture and smiled/said Namaste to them while I attempted a few dance moves. After giving me strange looks, they smiled and I took their picture.
Sunday was Ajay’s mother’s birthday celebration. In the morning I drove around with Ajay and his father (driven by their driver) to do a few errands. On or way they showed me an old Fort built by Shivaji (a historically idolized Hindu war hero and leader) but repossessed by the British. Upon Ajay’s request we stopped at St. Mary’s church. Seeing as it was Sunday we were able to go inside during the service ands listen for a bit. Although I don’t go to church at home, it was an interesting experience. Also, St Mary’s school (affiliated with the church) is where my host mother and most of her sisters went to school from kindergarten through 10th standard. We then picked up a yummy chocolate cake at a local bakery, did some shopping at Dorabje, the large grocery store in the Camp area of Pune (at which Ajay of course slipped a bunch of sugar candies and gooey treats into his dad’s cart), and finally stopped at a favorite local Indian restaurants to pick up some specials for lunch before returning home.
The lunch celebration was a nice get together. A few other family members came over and we ate a lot of food, a lot of good food, a lot of spicy food, and a lot of chocolate cake with ice cream. I got to speak with some of the other family members about what they do and what I am studying while here in India. It was all very interesting and fun to socialize with the family. However, the dynamic of the party was very relaxed in that Spiderman was playing in the background on the TV, we sat around the living room eating with our plates in our laps, people were in and out of conversation, and of course, Crona, the dog, was barking with jealousy through the slatted window.
I spent the rest of the day finishing up some homework for Monday and reviewing for my first Marathi quiz, Ajay was somewhat enthusiastic about helping me memorize the song.
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