Aga Khan Palace

So, Education for All ended yesterday and half of the participants left that day. It was hard saying goodbye to such a great group - one of the best in my time here so far. But since the event was over I got some much needed time off! We spent the evening out with the rest of the participants who were still here and all the staff at Sizzlers, a restaurant that actually has beef - something I have been seriously missing out on! (Dad, when I come home you're gonna need to BBQ me up some fantastic meals!) The meal portions are so large that they really should be split with others, but since we had been looking forward to this for a week we all ate our own meal. Big mistake! haha. It was the most painfully delicious meal I'd had in ages. After a good meal with good friends and good beers I called it an early night. I had been reading Shantaram, a brilliant novel by Gregory David Roberts for the last few weeks (it's almost 1000 pages), and finally finished it! And there was one quote that was so good I wanted to share it,
"This is not like any other place. This is India. Everyone who comes here falls in love - most of us fall in love many times over. And the Indians, they love most of all. Your little friend may be beginning to love you. There is nothing strange in this. I say it from a long experience of this country, and especially this city (Mumbai). It happens often, and easily for the Indians. That is how they manage to live together, a billion of them, in reasonable peace...more than any other people in the world, the Indians know how to love one another". It's so true, its something you find time and time again - when people welcome you into their home, offer themselves to you easily and genuinely. It's something I've managed to find here at Sangam especially with the local staff. It has been slow getting them to become comfortable with me, but whenever I manage to have a joke with one of them, or one of the ladies notice when I am missing it reinforces the fact that India is a place ruled by the heart.

Anyway, today Christa and I had decided we would use our days off this week to discover the places in the city we had been wanting to see. So we started off at the Aga Khan Palace, which is where Gandhi was held and his ashes remain. It's this gorgeous building only like 15 minutes from Sangam, so I can't believe I didn't make the time to go see it until today.

The building had been converted into a museum that chronicled the life of Gandhi. It was really interesting to read about it, and see pictures and paintings depicting his life. There were personal affects of his wife left behind in the museum, and quotes from Gandhi were on plaques throughout the museum. It was really interesting walking through the grounds and reading the signs saying "Gandhi walked this path to the samadhi daily"...really cool but eerie at the same time. It was strange to be in the same place that someone so brilliant and influential lived. It made me think of this quote I once found of Gandhi's "I do not want my house to be walled on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible." It was a quote I saved a year or so ago because I thought it was a beautiful concept, but only after coming to India do I think I really get what was meant by it. Tomorrow I'm hoping to check out the Pataleshwar caves in the city. And I promise to post pictures soon, I lost my USB cord so until I find it you're outta luck...