Namaste to our dear Family, Friends and Backers!
Well, after nearly 24 hours of travel, 2 flights, 4 in-flight meals, seeing the sunrise over Paris and enjoying a tour of the Swiss Alps from the sky, we arrived in the 2nd most populated city in the world, Mumbai late Friday night. From there we drove 3 hours to Pune where we finally reunited with Annie and stayed the weekend exploring the city with our couch-surfer hosts, Aniket and Chaitanya, and their friends.
Well, after nearly 24 hours of travel, 2 flights, 4 in-flight meals, seeing the sunrise over Paris and enjoying a tour of the Swiss Alps from the sky, we arrived in the 2nd most populated city in the world, Mumbai late Friday night. From there we drove 3 hours to Pune where we finally reunited with Annie and stayed the weekend exploring the city with our couch-surfer hosts, Aniket and Chaitanya, and their friends.
Luckily for us, these guys really knew how to show you their stomping grounds. We had an adventure-packed weekend that started at the largest Ganpati festival procession in Pune. There were thousands and thousands of people gathered at Lakshmi Road for this event, and our savvy new friends led us straight inside the barricades where the press was able to enter. We were basically in the parade when it came time for the performances that stopped directly in front of us. After Maggie and I got our fill of filming and photographing (about 3+ hours later), we toured the city on the back of motorcycles, stopping for coffee and dinner, meeting back up with our hosts’ diverse group of friends.
Aniket, Chaitanya, and crew were the best group of people to have spent our time in Pune with. They treated us like family. And leave it to Annie to be apt enough to randomly find us the two perfect hosts: one who actually is doing a project similar to Photovoice with the children of street sweepers in Pune (Chaitanya), and the other who actually owns his own cycle outfitter and tour company. Aniket started his own company out of the top floor of his Pune apartment called Cymour, which provides a different avenue for entertainment and a new and sustainable traveling experience for both locals and tourists. So on Sunday morning, we woke up and biked 20km to the base of Sinhagad Mountain and hiked up to the fort on top before our departure to Jamkhed later on that night.
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The experience was a tad demanding for me, since I had fought a rather disappointing battle with Jet Lag the night before, and got only about an hour of sleep, but the weather was perfect for a hike and the views going up and at the top were totally worth effort. Luckily when we reached the top we were able to enjoy a nice glass of the homemade Indian equivalent to Gatorade called Ninbupani. You can learn to make your own here…ours lacked ice and was a bit saltier in flavor (so Maggie clearly loved it).
Overall, this weekend was the perfect start to our time in India, where the seeds of the Look Out Loud project were unknowingly planted. When we arrived in Jamkhed on Sunday evening, we almost felt as if we had come full circle, to the place where this project all really began over 9 months ago. It's great to be back- surreal, but great -as Annie, Maggie, and I are back together at the CRHP campus and ready to start the first round of Look Out Loud. We are meeting with Ravi, the Director of Operations at CRHP, tonight to discuss Photovoice logistics, and we’ll keep you posted with developments!
Meagan
Overall, this weekend was the perfect start to our time in India, where the seeds of the Look Out Loud project were unknowingly planted. When we arrived in Jamkhed on Sunday evening, we almost felt as if we had come full circle, to the place where this project all really began over 9 months ago. It's great to be back- surreal, but great -as Annie, Maggie, and I are back together at the CRHP campus and ready to start the first round of Look Out Loud. We are meeting with Ravi, the Director of Operations at CRHP, tonight to discuss Photovoice logistics, and we’ll keep you posted with developments!
Meagan
