Today is day 6

Sorry for the late post guys!

Day six (Thursday) was a busy one; we went shopping for dresses for the festivals! It was so amazing, all the colours and fabrics – it was hard to know what to get.  I ended up with two salwar suits, a long tunic top and the long baggy (almost harem pant) trousers. We got the bus back at 7pm and grabbed dinner – which was delicious, Indian style pancakes stuffed with potatoes and veg! After dinner we decided to play dress up…funny as it was, lots of laughter, I had my usual problem…one top did not go over my boobs – I squeezed into the other for a photograph! The trousers are huge and fall down; the top will not go below my armpits!

Luckily Hannah and I decided to go get a bottle of water from the café style place on campus, we met students there and got chatting, they are so sweet and helpful, Chetam, one of the guys from the jewellery course here, has offered to do our henna tomorrow morning and then take us back to the shopping district and sort out our clothes!! (Hannah’s makes her look slightly…err…manly!)

I am looking forward to all the preparations for the festival (which starts tomorrow night) and photographing the market tomorrow.

Hannah has taken some photos of us, so I will get them off her later to upload!

Tomorrow will be another late post I am afraid, as the dancing will not finish until 1am, so will not be back to PG campus until 2 or 3am.

But will get things up asap!

Much love,

C xxxx

The lizard in our room!

Today is day 5

Today was a good day to catch up on some missing hours of sleep. Having so difficult nights, some exhausting days, and my mind racing, almost from the second we stepped off the plane meant that the chance for a lie in was one I jumped at. Knowing that we are here for a month meant that I did not feel guilty for missing the morning.

We hopped on the bus to Ahmedabad at 2pm, after yet another lovely lunch on campus (the food is always new, different and there is always something I like).  Going in later meant that it was not quite so hot, we could still feel the sweat gathering on our brow, but it was not as unbearable as the height of the day.

The plan was to do a loop of the old city, but we met the boys at NID, and we decided to book our tickets to an upcoming trip to Diu, a beach town about 10 hours away.  Hannah and I will be joining the boys out there and we do not want to miss Dussehra or the last nights of Navratri so will be leaving one week on Sunday, and come back on Tuesday night, arriving Wednesday morning. We are hoping this short break will give us a chance to relax away from the chaos of the city.

The upcoming festivals are something I am looking forward to immensely. They take my mind off home, and the people I am missing. The evenings here are pretty quiet, leaving the mind to wander far too much.

For those back home, Navratri is a 9 night long festival. The celebration starts with the sowing of seeds, which at our campus happened today (there is an organised plot of seedlings near the volleyball court). The celebrations are for the Goddess Durga, Vijayashtami and Mahanavami. The day after Navratri, the 10^th day, is Dussehra - the celebration of Rama defeating Ravana. On this day there is an effigy made, stuffed with fireworks and set alight, the effigy burns until the fireworks explode. I am so excited!

Each night in this 10 day celebration there is tradition dancing well into the night, the girls dressed in traditional Guajarati clothing, Hannah and I will be going to Law Garden tomorrow to see about getting some of the traditional clothes, the girls have recommended we get some bits – which is so cool!

I shall post some more photos tomorrow :)

C xxx

Today is day 4

Another early start today, as we had a meeting with Dr. Deepak John Mathew, the head of photography at NID.  We had a tutorial style conversation about the work we plan to do whilst here in India, it was a really helpful and immensely interesting morning. Deepak is a well of knowledge and fascinating stories.

We all decided to head back on the 1pm bus for lunch back at the campus we stay at, I have to say, it was one of the more interesting journeys, purely because of one incident:

There I was, on the bus, window open, head partly out to enjoy the cool wind and to take photographs. The bus stops at a red light and the waves and smiles start as usual. What wasn’t usual was the man sat on a step about 9ft away, eating nuts that then decides to throw them at me and starts to gesture for me to open my mouth so he can try to get them in.  Brilliant! Of course I start laughing, and he throws some more.  Which, of course, prompts Hannah and Adam to start making jokes about the man and his nuts! It was a rather funny bus ride, that is for sure!

Once we got back, we had some lunch in the mess, and headed to InfoCity for a swim in a hotel. While we were there we could see the grounds being prepare for the up coming festival – I am really looking forward to Dussehra Garbha, it is a huge festival in Gujarat and the preparations start 9 days before, ending with dancing through out the night of the last day. We have seen the start of these preparations, girls are going into town to buy their traditional dresses, dances are being practiced in the evenings and statues are being made.

As today was a relatively chilled day, there is not much else today, tomorrow we will be spending the afternoon in the city, so will hopefully have much more to tell! 

Today, I took some photos for Rob McDougall!

Today, we went to NID :)

Another long night of not sleeping much ended up in a late trip round the campus with the camera for a play.
I was hoping for a better nights sleep as I knew we had to get up early to get to NID. Fortunately there is a free bus that runs the 30km between the campuses - so I was saved from another tuk tuk ride for a while :)

As we arrived at NID, the sudden change in atmosphere is immeasurable. Not 3 feet from the gate to the campus cars whiz past, tuk tuks honk, shouts can be heard, motorbikes rev their engines, the chaos is imaginable...you step past the gates and you are in a tranquil environment, peacocks wander past, students laugh the noise level drops and calm takes over.

We were shown around the facilities, and met several students and members of staff - and given our timetable, which makes the number of days here seem a lot shorter than the time span that I have been imagining.

The timetable includes day trips out, museum trips and cultural walks, along with the more course based days, reviews, work discussions and the such.

After getting our GBP changed to Rupees, we waited for the uni bus to take us back....which we were told was at 5pm, we soon found out it was at 7, so Hannah, Adam and I jumped into a tuk tuk for another interesting experience on the Indian roads.

Tonight, we have been invited to a party, and to film night, lucky the film starts at 10pm and the party at 12am, so time for both!

I am missing everyone at home. Love you all!

The campus where I am staying - in the building to the right.

The aftermath of celebrations, instead of confetti they use flowers!

Part of the NID building

Cows literally wander across the roads, nap in the roads, they rule the roads!

Another example of the cows!

Sheep being driven down the road at sunset.

Sunset over the campus.

Oh! I have a have seen so far list!


- Elephant walking down the road.
- Monkeys in the trees,
- Camels,
- a snake,
- a lot of cows,
- GIGANTIC BUGS!

Today, is day two in India.

It was a bad night for sleeping, the heat in our room is crazy, and with no wind to speak of it became very difficult to sleep. So after a fit full 3 hours of rest and the remaining night spent trying to sleep it was breakfast time, and the morning of our first visit to Ahmedabad. It was a day of many firsts, to get into the city it is a 45 minute ride on an auto rickshaw. 3 of us squeezed into the back seat of what is essentially a 3 wheeled motor bike with a small cabin, and set off, weaving in and out of motorbikes, cars, buses and cows – at a distance that I can only describe as ‘by the skin of the teeth’. Literally. Chris was laughing at my gasps and “Oh god” s, telling me that we would get used to it. I don’t think that I will get used to the cars driving against the flow of traffic, the cows wandering or sitting in the middle of the road whilst the rickshaw swerves and brakes attempting to avoid crashing. I say attempting, as the rickshaw did drive into the back of a trailer at one point.

They say that you should do one thing a day that scares you – this was most certainly mine.

We arrived in the city centre and grabbed some traditional Gujarati snacks, I had Dataka – potato and vegetables in a ball, deep fried – so good! After a brief wander we escaped the relentless heat and dived into a hotel to use their pool. We spent most of the afternoon relaxing and swimming, before heading off to Law Garden, a park, which reminded me of a London park in ways, families and friends relaxing, eating and filling the grassy areas. Of course, the six of us wandering through was met with plenty more stares, waves and hellos.

Around the edge of the park were market stalls, selling a range of jewelery and clothes. The colours, noise and smell (of roasting nuts) were a lot to take in, but nothing could have prepared me for the tap on my arm. I turned around to see a beggar, and his sibling. Who had no eyes. I have never seen the inside of eyes before. I knew that beggars with deformities being reasonably common, but up until this point had not seen anything of the sort. The experience caught me completely off guard. I think it was true for most of us, and we soon jumped back into the rickshaws for the journey home to NID for dinner.

I will post some more photos soon, but I have not been taking many so far. It is difficult not to feel as though I am pointing the camera at the 'others', which is odd, as I feel like the other so constantly.

Today, I made a very long journey :)

We left for the airport ay 615am. Not a pleasant time in the morning, that is for sure. After some difficult goodbyes, at home and with the parents at the airport we were on our own. Until we found Adam that is. We did the airport breakfast and soon found it time to go to the gate - Qatar airlines are very strict on punctuality, and we were told and check in to be at the gate at 9am sharp.

It was time for the long and first leg of our journey, to Doha, Qatar, settling in was easy, the airline is fantastic. The economy seats are relativity roomy and they have a great on demand movie and TV selection – making the 7-hour flight seem a little shorter.

Doha airport – well, Hannah and I have a delightful 19 hour lay over here on our return journey, so we were interested to see what there was – the answer? Not a lot….at all. It will be a long 19 hours.

After a brief wait in what can only be described as a small holding pen, we were off to Ahmedabad, and on very little sleep we were all itching to arrive.

We touched down at 4.40am, local time (approx. 12.40am GMT), and joined the endless queue at passport control. We hurried out of the airport, eager to meet Deepak (the Indian equivalent to Anna Fox on the scholarship and principal of NID) or meet the taxi to take us to NID, and the hope of a nap and change of clothes.

We had no such luck.

We were not greeted by anyone from NID.

None of us had any Rupees.

The adventure begins.  Due to the lack of local currency, a taxi was impossible, and with Deepak not at NID and unable to reach us we had a small struggle on our hands. Andy (one of the others in the group) managed to get back through customs – where there was a currency exchange booth, only to find it was closed.  Meanwhile, the five of us remaining outside were entertaining ourselves, Ollie was skateboarding, much to the amusement of the locals, Hannah and I were bug spotting, and Adam and Chris were chatting and exchanging disapproving words about the lack of transport/organisation.

All of which came to a swift halt as a young girl approached with her even younger brother and asked to take a photograph of Hannah, which turned into group photos and a couple with her little brother. As the day continued, this was a common thing, as we stare out into the vast unknown, trying to absorb this other world, there are ten thousand eyes staring back, as if we are rare animals in a safari park. Often smiles, waves, a cheerful ‘Good morning’, or the loud honking of a passing tuk tuk, van or car accompany the stares, making them less uncomfortable and much more humorous!

After wandering to InfoCity, a near by complex that has shops and ATMs we returned for some much needed sleep.

Hannah's and My room for the next month.

After the walk to InfoCity...my feet were a little more than dusty!