The title is a bit of an exaggeration, but the past couple days we took a trip to Shantiniketan, which was quite nice. The city is in rural Bengal, which if you’re unfamiliar with rural Bengal, looks just like the Jungle Book. Less jungle though. Not the jungle part so much, but the man village part. Rural Bengal looks like the man village in The Jungle Book.
Lots of straw huts, lots of rice, a handful of monkeys. The funny thing about the countryside is that even though it was the first time we got fresh air and saw open space in the last month, it was still crazy (in a congestion sense). Driving through a village is almost the same as driving through a big city, except you add a few cows and goats to the village road. I’ve given up on the idea of a leisurely drive in India. It won’t happen. (sigh)…and now I can finally begin to learn this place. That was my final hurdle.
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| These monkeys were wacky. Jumping around like kangaroos. Through rice fields. I don’t know. |
Shantiniketan was the city designed by Rabindrath Tagore, who is a BIG deal here. He’s like the Superman/Jesus/Emilio Estevez of West Bengal. He was a poet and Nobel Laureate from Kolkata. We visited a school he made, the homes he lived in (he had five in one complex, because he got sick of the same home after awhile. He would just build a new one across the yard and move in there. Much like Luke Sleeper trying to find new shoes.), and some more schools that we made in his honor/tradition. Coming out of the trip, here are my thoughts:
· I still don’t understand Tagore, but mostly because he was super bizarre and I couldn’t understand most of the speakers accents.
· Rural Bengal was totally worth the trip. We saw rural India in between Delhi and Jaipur, but it was much more desolate. This was quite picturesque.
· What were those monkeys doing in that field?? I still don’t get it. There weren’t even trees nearby.
· Cows are a nuisance to society. The mere fact that Indians put up with them just goes to show that they are truly afraid of bovine retribution.
· There is so much India to see, its ridiculous.
Highlight: A baul (pronounced “bowel”) band came to play where we were staying. It’s a tradition Bengali form of band music, and it was fascinating. Culture.
If this video doesn't work, then I apologize.
Now back to homework (P.U.!!) and the city (equally smelly).
That is all. Thank you.
Disclaimer: I would like to formally apologize for my previous blog posts, which have made light of and focused exclusively on the issue of poverty. The poverty in India is something I feel that everyone needs to see, but is certainly not all there is here to see. I fear I have not been treating the people of India with the respect they deserve. The poor deserve to have privacy, to have dignity, and should not be a face-less indicator of how different it is on the other side of the world. India too deserves a greater respect; it has more to offer this world other than a lesson on how good you have it at home. I will continue to talk about the living conditions, and strive to understand them, but I wish to do so with the utmost respect for both the poor and the rich here in India. If you feel passionately about this, and I tell a funny story about some amenity that was sub-par or a person doing something wacky, please don’t be offended.
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