Getting a Little Too Friendly?

I posted a while ago about how I felt my how my co-teacher, Yogesh, and I were really starting to get along both on a friendship and professional level. We had this conversation earlier today. I'm not exactly sure what it indicates.

Yogesh:(seeing some of our students walking across the courtyard) Look, those are some of our kids.. OUR STUDENTS! I meant our students!
Me: Yes, our students. We are not married.
Yogesh: (laughs and sticks out his hand for a high-five)

Maybe this is why people keep saying that it's better to keep your personal life out of the workplace...

Monsoon Season's Scorching Exit

I'd been looking forward to this time of the year for months, when the monsoon rains come to an end and temperatures gradually start dropping to more reasonable levels. I was unaware, though, that for the last couple weeks before the monsoons bid their final farewell, temperatures go through the roof! Right now, temperatures are steady around 38-40˚C (100-105˚F), and they'll get up to 43˚C (110˚F) by next week!

Summers growing up in Georgia have taught me a few tricks that are coming in handy: pillow-flipping, t-shirts in the freezer, and wet towels to cover my face to name a few. Does anyone have any other suggestions or a free air-conditioning unit they could offer?

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

Ganesh Chaturthi is a 10-day long festival honoring Ganesh, the Hindu god associated with wealth, success, and the removal of obstacles. In the weeks leading up to the festival, idols of Ganesh are constructed all over India, some as small as an inch tall and others as tall as 25 feet! The celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi ends on the 10th day when the idols of Ganesh are taken to be submerged in bodies of water, symbolizing a sending off of Ganesh to his home in Kailash while also taking with him the misfortunes of his worshipers.

I came back to Kadod just in time for the last day of the festival, otherwise known as Ganesh Visarjan. In Kadod, there's a road that stretches down to the bank of the Tapi River, making this town the most convenient place for Ganesh Visarjan to take place within a 10km radius. From noon until 7:30pm today, more than 60 Ganesh idols were brought in on ornately decorated carts pulled by tractors and vans. With each procession, the devotees of that particular idol would dance to music booming from loudspeakers, throwing handfuls of pink-colored powder at each other and at bystanders, like me.

When I was asked several times by friends and familiar students to dance with them and play dodgeball with globs of colored powder, I felt so relieved to be back in Kadod where, unlike cities like Jaipur, I feel people make genuine efforts to make me feel like a part of their community. I was happy today being able to comfortably call Kadod my home away from home.