a note from roley!!!!

India India India!!
Kolkata, Chennai, and Goa

Hello everyone!!! It has been a while since I wrote about my adventures here in India soooo here goes yet another roley four pager!!!

Kolkata. What a place! After staying a while in Darjeeling- a great place by the way- Kolkata proved to be quite a change. From mountains and clouds to large, beautiful English buildings and diesel fumes. The heat and congestion was also something I needed to get used to… again hahaha. Regardless, what a place full of history, culture, and people.

From a touristy point of view, the Victoria memorial was interesting to visit. It was said that the British built this giant marble building as a way to ecplise the taj mahal. In my opinion, they weren’t even close. Sure its very large, made of marble, and dedicated to a woman, but it shows the pure power of the British. The Taj, however, is just freaking beautiful! The curves, the inlay of precious gems, the perfect symmetry (except for the location of the tomb of its creator Shah Jahan) I say the Taj outshines this memorial.

In front was a statue of Queen victoria in her older years. Our guide explained that she didn’t look very beautiful when she got older, as seen by this statue, so people refered to this piece as the “she-queen.” Yikes! Inside, however, was a statue of her in her younger years, ie the “she-queen.”

Inside were many paintings, drawings, canons, weapons, and statues of various prominent figures. In one wing was an overall display of Kolkata’s history. The Babus really stood out for me! If you want to talk about ballers, then the Babus’ were balllllin’! They got really rich because they were the middlemen for the British in terms of trade. One dude would even light his cigarettes with 10 rupee bills… like c’mon!

Another interesting place was the Botanical gardens, especially the banyan tree. This tree is sooooooo big… like seriously… HUGE!!!! The moment I saw it I thought to myself, “how sick would it be to have a tree house on that bad boy!?!?” hahaha. The trunk was like 15 m wide and its branches/ root-trunks stretched for 14 acres (basically 14 legislatures). O_O. HOLY CRAP!!! All from ONE TREE!!

Aside from the touristy sites (there’s a lot more but I have still have lots to say!) we also visited various schools, specifically Loreto Day School. Thise was an awesome experience for me!! The discipline, the enthusiasm… what a site to witness! We sat in for a class that talked about their individual dreams for India. Some said for more peace, others for helping the poor… some said education for the poorest of children and care of the elderly… what’s interesting is that this group of grade 6 students already do these!!

Every Thursday, the older students would go out to the villages and teach the students in other schools!! They often had more control over the class than the teachers!! And they’re still kids!! I had the lucky experience of witnessing this. After a long and VERY bumpy ride (blehhhh motion sickness) we reached a school. At first I thought the girls (Loreto day school is an all girl school by the way) were going to teach what looked like an all boy school… I was like, “oh dear…” I could see the guys in some of the rooms above taking pictures of the girls I were acompanying… Some of the girls I were with were really upset; I was soo ready to knock someone out (it really made me mad!). When were got in, the girls knew exactly what they were doing. They walk deep into the school building. I was surprised to see a “school within a school.” It wasn’t classrooms of junior high boys they were teaching BUT kindergarten to grade 4 boys and girls. Unlike the junior high boys, these students didn’t have uniforms. I sat in on a grade 2 class. These kids were soo cute. The room was about 20-25 kids full. When these girls walked, you should have seen these kids! They sat up straight and tall on the floor with their little backpacks in front of them… *cue awwwww.* Once the girls were set up, I was amazed with the confidence and discipline they enforced. They looked like pros! They really emulated the old school form of teaching I witnessed during their classes. There was one little girl that really caught my attention. She was a young and frail looking little girl who was coughing a lot. She was sick but the enthusiasm and will to learn was soooo bright in her eyes. Whenever the Loreto girls would ask a question, her hand always rose first. I know she doesn’t know this, but I felt inspired.

After a bit of this, I went upstairs to see another group. This time it was a grade 4 class. What I really remember most was not what happened during their class (again an impressive show) but after. Some of the Loreto girls (grade nine students) were asking me very interesting questions like what culture in Canada was like. The main topic, however, seemed to be about marriage and love (DO NOT GET ANY IDEAS hahaha). They were very curious, let me tell you that! I guess they were wondering about this because of arranged marriages. Many girls would be married at a very young age so I can see their interest. They asked me about divorce and what happened to the wives. I told them and they told me why they asked. They said that when a girl is married, they leave their family and become part of their husband’s family. If they are divorced, they said they would have nothing at all… they are, in a sense, dependent completely on this new family so divorce is a scary thought eh? There’s more to this convo but I wouldn’t be doing it justice by typing it all out. Hehehe. At one point, they said, “We’ve never been so frank with a foreigner before.” =).

Anyways! Kolkata was the last time the group of us were all together… *tear*. We ended it off with a dinner and celebration of Father Creamer’s birthday. What a great time! We all went to the airport the next day and separated our ways. A day of mixed emotions indeed: sad that our course has ended but excited to continue the next chapter of my adventures!

Chennai---------

Moving to the south was definitely a change too!! Yet another face of india! The south is a very beautiful place. Sooo many palm trees. The streets are busy but use environmentally friendly rickshaws. The streets are not very congested… oh and a 66 km long beach line with a 1 km wide sand zone lines this area too….. SIIIIIICKKKK!!!!!!!

We saw a LOT of things here!! Aside from the very modern places (i.e. the malls) we visited one of the Jesuit school’s here. The campus is absolutely beautiful! Lots of green space, numerous sports facilities, beautiful gardens, massive church, and the number one ranked business program. You have to see it to believe it!

If you guys ever go to Chennai, you have to see Fort St. George and then go for a beach walk. Inside the fort was a statue of Cornwallis, the same dude who also made a fort in nova scotia, canada!! There’s a also a church that a man named “Yale” (a famous university in the states) funded. Sooo much history here! The beach walk was sooo fun! Except… well, my tan will speak for itself XD.

During one of our stays, we went to Pondicherry. Here we saw many of the colonial buildings that French established. This too was by the beach… man, beaches rock!!

The highlight, for me anyways, was Mahabalipuram, home of the giant stone temples. First we visited some of the giant monolith stone temples dedicated to Shiva, durga, parvati, and others. What’s crazy is the size of these buildings, made from a SINGLE boulder, and carved from the top down! Imagine standing up and making a 5 m high by 20 long, by 5 m wide building from your floor down… absolutely crazy!!!

After visiting these giant stone temples, we went to the sea… ahh the sea… apparently it has swallowed 4 or 5 other temples during this cities lifetime. It use dto be a very busy port city soo having many hindu temples allowed for places for many to go and worship. Anyways, all that remained, from what I could see, was just one temple… and let me tell you, its one BEAST of a temple!! Soooo large and full of character. Its now a unesco heritage site too. Sometimes I think its not fair that Winnipeg has nothing like this XD hahaha. The grandeur of it all; it must have been quite the site back in its day.

Once we got back along a road full of flags (there must have been some bigshot or movie star in the area), we packed our stuff, said our good byes to our new friends, and we went to Goa.

Goa-----

The first I have to say is…. Palm trees, white sands, and blue waters… one of te nicest places ever!!! The resort we stayed at, Taj village, was absolutely ridiculous!!! I can recall walking from my mini house to the cliff side where I could see the Arabian sea (in Chennai was te Bay of Bengal) and the powerful waves rising out of its bed only to crash against the old portuguse fort just opposite where I was staying. To my right was a giant ocean liner that hit ground and abandoned. AHH!!! TOOO COOOL!!!! Now in Goa, one thing you will notice is the Portuguese influence. The Portuguese were here way before the british so the Indian culture and people here are heavily influenced.

I went to many places here. Old Goa was one of them. This side of India looked completely different from everthing else that I’ve seen! Instead of highrise buildings or old british buildings, I saw brightly coloured Portuguese style homes during its colonial days! This one area in particular with all te churches looked just like Europe. Imagine Assiniboine Park but full of massive basilicas, cathedrals, and formation houses just a stones throw away from each other. Apparently these churches were soooo close to one another that one cleargy man wrote to Rome saying that “their bells and our bells, their choir and our choir” were so loud that it created cacophony or just too much noise! Of course, each church would try to out do each other.. hehehe. One of the places we went to was st. Xaviers or “Bom Jesu.” Here was the OLDEST Jesuit church and OLDEST/ FIRST Jesuit noviate ever!!! Inside, the intricate wood work was quite astonishing. To my left were relics from various martyrs and saints. To my right was the tomb and body of St. Ignatius’s closest friend, St. Xavier! What’s crazy is that Father Creamer, one of his Jesuit friends, Christian, my travel buddy, and myself had a mass right on the marble on his tomb! How crazy is that?!? We also visited the Jesuit residence and met with one of the Superior generals of the order. Coooool.

After our tour here, we went to st. Francis of assis’s cathedral and to another church that had a wedding. I must say, these Indian weddings are amazing! I mean, we were in our travelling clothes and the parents of the groom gave us food and invited us to come to the reception… talk about hospitality!!!

One of the most interesting churches we saw was the Ruins of St. Augustine. There wasn’t much of a church left except for broken walls and a massive TOWER that Christian climbed… half way. XD. You have to see just how HIGH this thing goes though!!! Spiderman, spiderman lol. Its so interesting and kind of myseterious in the sense tat I wish I could have seen what was here before. At one point the Portuguese were told to leave Goa so this church was abandoned and is now in ruins.

What I really like about Goa is how it looks like home back in the Philippines. At one point I was riding on a motorcycle, feeling the wind through my short, 1 cm high hair, the sun burning my already tanned face (noooo!!!), looking at the beautiful palm trees and the watery, green rice fields. I must say, I got super nostalgic that day… what topped it off was going to the markets and the Jesuit retreat house that showed me AWESOME views of the beach and sea. The market was on a cliff and I could see the sea eroding the red stone at the very bottom, washing away the red sand, turning the water itself rusty in colour. From the retreat house I could peer out into the sea, watching the black stones hold back the strong waves. After a short walk from the retreat house was a beach full of life. There were lone fishermen casting their nets in knee high water. There were also groups of fishermen hauling their catches off their boats and neatly folding the nets. There were parents holding their little kids hands as the child ran from the waves, only to to playfully scream when they got wet… too awesome!!!

Overall, goa was awesome!

Anyways, these were the last three places I visited!! I’m currently in Mumbai and back from visiting elaphanta island. I narrowly excaped some super ferocious evil monkeys that actually stole two peoples bags in front of my eyes and wrecked havoc to us tourists… AHHH!!! In an attempt to save his bag (the popcorn already eaten by the monkeys unfortunately) this dude bought some bananas and a big stick. He through his banana like a grenade and made a dash to save his belongings. I swear, the guy who created family guy MUST have been harassed by one of these monkeys!

Hope you enjoyed reading this super long note again… hahaha! Miss you all!!!