A Day with Yogeshbhai

After the half-day of classes on Saturday, I was invited to go to Bardoli, where my co-teacher, Yogeshbhai, is from. I was really looking forward for some time away, and I couldn't have asked for a better host than Yogesh. The first thing he did was sit me down in his house and have lunch with him. He brought out the plates, and I thought my eyes deceived me. It was FISH. I showered his mom over and over again with compliments on how delicious the meal tasted, and every time, she would just flick her hand at me, laugh, and say that I needed to stop talking and keep eating.

After eating to our heart's content, we stepped over to the living room, and Yogesh said, "Now, we rest." With a cricket game playing on the TV, he took out collections of pictures he had of his family, his sister's wedding, and his friends. I told him that he hardly looks any different now than he did when he was little. Regardless, every time I flipped to a picture with him in it, he would point and say, "There, me."

Together with his parents and cousin, we spent time talking and getting to know each other. His cousin, Wilson, is in the 11th standard in the science track at his high school, and he got really excited when I told him that I was studying for the MCAT at the moment. After sharing chai, I said my goodbyes, mixed in with a few more compliments about the lunch, then Yogesh took me to the Sardar Patel Museum in Bardoli. The museum was constructed in honor of Sardar Patel, one of the prominent freedom fighters during India's struggle for independence. The museum curator gave us a brief tour, highlighting the many ways that Gujarat was possibly the center of the movement toward independence with Gandhi's Salt March and the Bardoli Satyagarha being two notable events happening in the state.



Our day ended in a dessert store having mango lassis with a few of Yogesh's friends that he wanted me to meet. He told me that his "day was really happy" because I came to Bardoli with him, and I said that the feeling was completely mutual. On the bus ride back home, I realized how grateful I should be to have a co-teacher that makes such an effort to extend his friendship to me. It's because of people like him and others here that I have yet to feel like I'm all alone halfway across the world from everything I was familiar with. Here are some more pictures I snapped from the day in Bardoli!