We all took a bunch of pictures of him, and he was so cute in his little orange turban! I don’t think he was very rhythmically gifted because he stood there waving the flag while his classmates all danced to Jai Ho. And yes they did multiple dances to Jai Ho, unfortunately not the Pussycat Dolls version, which I thought would have made for a more interesting number. After the performance we went to Sinhagad Fort. The story of this fort is really cool and should remind you of a certain movie….
This fort belonged to Lord Shivaji, who was the ruler of Maharashtra about 600-700 years ago. He was away from his fort when 2,000 Moghul warriors attacked. There were a total of 300 of Shivaji’s men (here’s where the story becomes familiar) left to defend the fort. Sinhagad was the general in charge and he and his men fought off all 2,000 Moghuls. Lord Shivaji’s men won but Sinhagad died in battle. So Shivaji decided to name this fort after his brave general. Just like 300 the movie but the Indians did not all die like the Spartans did.
And here is what’s left of the fort
It is interesting that the Indian government let phone towers be built on top of this fort, but to each his own.
Now to get to this fort it is a 10k trip up a very large hill/small mountain. I was with 13 other people plus the taxi driver in a car that is the equivalent of a jeep. The roads were not paved very well, and the road was only one lane. I put my complete trust in that taxi driver going to and from the fort. Once we were at the fort it was cool to see Pune in the distance. There is also a village on top of this fort. People have made their homes there, and they cook meals and sell snacks to the tourists. Their food is also a specialty of Pune. I did not try anything seeing as it was 10:30 in the morning and I had already had breakfast. I hear it’s supposed to be really good though.
After the fort we came home, chilled a little bit, then we went with our host mom/hostel owner to a music performance in the evening. We were told he plays the water bowls so we were all excited about seeing a Sandra Bullock, Miss Congeniality water glasses performance type of thing but way better. This performer did no such thing. He was seated on the floor with different sized bowls filled with water in front of him, and he played them like they were drums. It was really interesting to watch because I have never seen anything like that but a few of us were so tired from the day that we could not really appreciate it. Also the mic’s were way to close to the bowls and certain notes, that he tended to play a lot, really hurt my ears.
The performance was supposed to start at 6, and in true Indian fashion it did not start until 6:45. They played a few songs and finally everyone started clapping and the EMCEE came out on stage and said a few words in Marathi and the curtains closed. We thought, “Yes! It’s over we can go home and eat dinner!” We said to one of the Indian girls “It’s over right?” She said, “No, it’s only intermission.” I looked at my roommates, Naani and Brynna, and we were like we have got to go home. We told our host mom that we were tired and needed to go to bed, so we got a rickshaw home. The rest of the girls from our program did not get home until 10:30. Good decision by us!
And the rest of the week continues with school, and the weekend will be filled with cover letter writing because I need an internship this summer!
Keep checking back! Sorry it’s kind of random when I post, internet in India is not as reliable as it is in the states. Also keep checking my flickr page (link is at the top of the page)! There are pictures on there that aren’t on facebook!
Peace out cub scouts!
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