Our last few days in India were spent in Delhi.
We went on a street walk with the Salaam Baalak Trust who look after street children and give them shelter, food, education and aim to reintegrate them with their families. Some of the children continue to work with the trust as adults and give guided walks, showing the streets through the eyes of street children. We walked around the railway station and one of the main tourist areas and saw the streets in a whole new light. The stories were touching and poignant and we learned a lot in the few hours we spent with them.
In Delhi we saw the film 'The life of Pi' in 3D a few days after its release in India. We spent quite some time relating the film to our experiences. We all felt the film perfectly validated our questioning we had done in India. We have heard different stories across different faiths all seeking to enlighten us about the divine within and reasons why. The stories may be different, but it seems that the underlying truth of what makes us human may be shared.
We stayed in another homestay in Delhi. It was the home of a retired colonel and his wife. Neither of them seemed to ever go into the kitchen, but would ask "the boys", 2 live-in servants, to look after us for breakfast instead.
Through staying in different homestays, we have seen several different families, Hindu, Muslim, wealthy and poorer, some with servants. All the households would hold extended famillies, causing us to look at our own experience of families scattered over hundreds of miles. We have seen grandparents doing puja for Ganesh whilst the rest of us ate breakfast, mothers and grandmothers fashioning fuel blocks from cow-dung, and watering it down to use as a floor-covering, heard tales of the challenges of trying to find the right wife for a 30 year old son, celebrated the merits of 3D television with a lady who collects her milk every morning direct from the cow, and been firmly schooled on the error of letting children with a virus drink chilled drinks when it is "cold" (28 degrees celsius) outside for fear of causing chest congestion.
We went on a street walk with the Salaam Baalak Trust who look after street children and give them shelter, food, education and aim to reintegrate them with their families. Some of the children continue to work with the trust as adults and give guided walks, showing the streets through the eyes of street children. We walked around the railway station and one of the main tourist areas and saw the streets in a whole new light. The stories were touching and poignant and we learned a lot in the few hours we spent with them.
In Delhi we saw the film 'The life of Pi' in 3D a few days after its release in India. We spent quite some time relating the film to our experiences. We all felt the film perfectly validated our questioning we had done in India. We have heard different stories across different faiths all seeking to enlighten us about the divine within and reasons why. The stories may be different, but it seems that the underlying truth of what makes us human may be shared.
We stayed in another homestay in Delhi. It was the home of a retired colonel and his wife. Neither of them seemed to ever go into the kitchen, but would ask "the boys", 2 live-in servants, to look after us for breakfast instead.
Through staying in different homestays, we have seen several different families, Hindu, Muslim, wealthy and poorer, some with servants. All the households would hold extended famillies, causing us to look at our own experience of families scattered over hundreds of miles. We have seen grandparents doing puja for Ganesh whilst the rest of us ate breakfast, mothers and grandmothers fashioning fuel blocks from cow-dung, and watering it down to use as a floor-covering, heard tales of the challenges of trying to find the right wife for a 30 year old son, celebrated the merits of 3D television with a lady who collects her milk every morning direct from the cow, and been firmly schooled on the error of letting children with a virus drink chilled drinks when it is "cold" (28 degrees celsius) outside for fear of causing chest congestion.
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