The entire 4th week (June 6-10, 2011)

Sorry folks about not posting anything for the past number of days. There were a lot of minor setbacks this week. The monsoon has finally arrived here in the western front of India particularly Mumbai and Pune. The monsoon hasn’t swept into Delhi or Varanasi yet. So far the rain has been steady in Pune...it isn’t bad like the ones I have seen in Aurangabad...but it brings with it power outage...internet outage...and all kinds of other outage. The internet was down for about an entire day on Thursday. The temperature has been in the upper 70s to low 80s even with the rain and so there’s this kind of tropical rainforest humidity when I step out of the building to go to Bhandarkar. I don’t even bother to wear a jacket anymore, actually shorts and a long sleeve shirt would do just fine in this kind of humid temperature--the only problem is that I only brought one pair of shorts. Wearing a white lungi is kinda of a bad idea b/c there are pools of mud and rain water and since there are hardly any sidewalks...a lot of times I have to walk out on the streets and with cars driving by, the mud puddles splashed all over my clothes and body. The locals seem to be fine...the women especially still wear saris and such. Not sure how they keep themselves clean...then again they don’t wear white saris but very colorful ones.

Maneeshi is the 15 year old maid for Aradhana. She doesn't go to school, her mom & dad are both gardeners and they just migrated from a place in Maharastra where there was a really bad earthquake. I learned from Aradhana that the mother is reluctant to send her to school. She's really a beautiful girl and always seem quite happy. I really wish her the best.

Maneeshi's sister...very shy and almost burst into tears when I wanted to take a picture of her. I was really touched by both children.

The plight of poor people...children and women can be overwhelming. It is sometimes hard for me to see so much suffering here in India...but there is also so much beauty and happiness even in people who really don't have anything. It's really quite inspiring to see how the poor people, both young and old work so hard for so little.

I’ve been going to Bhandarkar everyday to study for a few hours before heading home. Our cook is back from his trip on Tuesday; meanwhile, Vikas and Bhavesh had gone to Madhya Pradesh for a small wedding on Thursday evening--they won’t be back until Wednesday afternoon. The house has been quiet. I’ve decided to take this weekend off instead of going anywhere because I felt that I needed more rest this weekend before I venture off again next weekend.

I tried to capture the intensity of the downpour for you guys back home so that you all believe me when I say that in India...it doesn't just rain alone, it comes down in buckets...but it is actually quite hard to do so. This comes pretty close. But actually in Pune, it's really not that bad compare to some other places. Then again, the only time that I got really scared in Pune was that motorbike ride to the bus stop for Aurangabad...when I saw a flash of lightning followed by very loud thunder.