My Life is My Message - Gandhi

"I do not want my house to be walled in 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. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any." - Gandhi

Kankaria Lake

I just love this quote because it reflects my desire to travel, see new places and to learn other cultures. Gandhi gets me! And I could not help but think one of his other famous quotes, "My life is my message", would make an excellent tattoo, except it's such a strong statement to live up to!

Last weekend we visited Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat. A driver picked us up and took us all around. First, we stopped at Kankaria Lake, which is a large man-made lake with amusement parks around. It was a scenic place to run and for families to come and play.

Then we went to a mosque built in the 1500s. We had to take our shoes off and they would not let women even approach the structure, so we looked from a distance. We were also not allowed to take pictures.

Gandhi's house

Then, we went to the Gandhi museum and saw the religious living community, called ashram, where he stayed while in India. Here, he paid Indians to spin cloth in support of the Independence movement. There was a lot to read, but not many artifacts, as he was a simple man. He was involved in many national and international political issues, and often went on long fasts until a favorable decision was made. It sounds like Gandhi, and many people here take pieces from different religious and stitch them together to form a belief system. They read the Vedas as well as the Bible and Quran.

The next stop was Akshardam Temple, a Hindu place of worship. Again, quite the process to get in. We had to leave everything-purses, cell phones, shoes, etc. to enter. The architecture was stunning, so intricately detailed. Inside, there was a huge idol and many other idols of gods surrounding for people to pray to.

Adalaj Stepwell

My favorite stop was the Adalaj Stepwell. It’s structured in a way that the rainfall collected in this bath, were people would come for religious cleansing. There were spiral staircases and passageways leading down. The stone was carved so beautifully that we just stopped and stared for a while.

This weekend we saw Bahubali, a popular Hindi movie, at a new theater. We went with Kaushayla, a Hindi teacher at the school. She helped translate what was going on every so often. Our snack of choice was popcorn and Pepsi, but you can also get Indian chat, or snacks. There is an intermission during every movie.

Sunday, we went to one of two Christian churches in the city. It was a dual service-Hindi and English. Everyone was very kind and welcoming. We went to one of Andrea’s student’s houses for lunch. Andrea has been informally teaching Spanish to a group students during their breaks. They practice with the handy DuoLingo app at home, so we helped two of her students learn animal vocabulary. This is what they do on the weekends for fun!

These girls (6th grade) are so studious—one is also trying to learn French, German and Spanish. This is in addition to the languages most Indians have. Usually they know 1) Their local language (here is Gujrati), 2) Their home language (if they grew up in a different part of India), 3) Hindi, 4) Sanskrit (similar to Hindi), and English.

Sammy gets a digestive system.

In other school news, we have started the “Our Body” chapter in Science. The school has a skeleton, but we cannot bring it into the classroom...so I made a foldable one! Sammy the Skeleton received a muscular system and digestive system, and soon a nervous system. The kids loved the activity I found—taking a piece of bread and squishing it in a Ziploc bag to simulate digestion. I added juice and squished it some more (they were surprisingly not grossed out). I explained the intestines absorb what is needed and then drained the “waste water” in the sink. I threw out the solid waste in the trash. Science is so cool, right?!