So, I don't have too much to write about India. I decided to take a break, and not travel. I stayed with my family in Chennai. I have been to India several times and have seen a lot, but that's a story for another time. I do have a story for the first day, however. After getting off the ship, Achal and I met my uncle and we headed to my family's house for lunch. I met my grandparents, who flew in from Mumbai to see me, and we had lunch together. After lunch, we had to come back to the port for a trip we were doing with my biomedical ethics professor. We go onto the bus, and headed to the Mother Teresa orphanage. Upon getting there, we had to walk around for a while to find the entrance, and walked in. We met one of the nuns, and she gave us an introduction to the orphanage. They had a large group of orphans, most of whom had cerebral palsy (spelling?). Then, we went to see the orphans. It was very disheartening. Most of the kids could not function properly, and had body deformities. We talked to some, and held their hands, but many could not hear us. They looked so vulnerable, but at the same time they were so beautiful. There were also older kids there, and they LOVED bubbles. We brought a few bottles of bubbles and they loved them. Seeing happiness on their faces really made me smile. After about 30 minutes, Achal and I walked to the office, and sat down with the head nun. We each gave a small donation, and we talked to her for a long time about the orphanage, the kids, her background, etc… It was pretty amazing stuff.
After the orphanage we returned to the ship, and waited for some others to get back. I had invited Achal, Rory, Michelle, and Z to my family's house for dinner. We got together and left around 7 and met my uncle just outside the port entrance. We drove to his house, talking along the way, and I introduced all my friends. Once at the house, we sat in one of the rooms with A/C (it was soo hot, even at night), and ate lots of snacks. Dinner was ready after that, so we sat down to eat. They made idly (steamed rice dumplings) and sambar (spicy South Indian soup). It was delicious and everyone else agreed! We really enjoyed our meal, and my friends loved interacting with my family. After dinner, Michelle went to the kitchen and sat down inside with my grandmother, and my 2 aunts, who were making some dessert…cutting up a huge, juicy watermelon. I sat down in the room with my uncles and talked for a while. It was pretty late by now, so we had to drop my friends off at the ship, since they were all going on trips the next day. Everyone had an amazing time and didn't want to leave. They could not believe how hospitable my family was, and were sad to say goodbye. We dropped them off at the ship, and I came back and fell asleep.
The next few days, I just relaxed. During the day, I went on the internet for some research, talked to friends and family back home, and at night went out with my uncles for dinner. The last night we all went out and celebrated my birthday a day early! On the last day, before I left (March 9th) my family made me a birthday cake and we ate it right as I left. It was very nice, and I waved goodbye to everyone, promising to come back soon. Some of my uncles joked that next time I came, I would be much older, and I would be a married doctor! Hehe…who knows what will happen?
By the way, while I was in India I updated my Picasa website completely through Mauritius. All the albums are there by country, and you can look through them. I tried to face-tag and geo-tag all the photos, so you know who is in the photo as well as where it was taken. Check it out! It took a lot of work to put everything up. Once again, comments on my blog are greatly appreciated. Even if you don't know me well, please send me an email at yjbhatt@semesteratsea.net We feel pretty disconnected from the world on the voyage…it would be pretty cool to hear from you readers, especially if I don't know you well, or maybe we have never met before. Feel free to email me your thoughts. This is Yash, signing out until Thailand, which I will have LOTS more to write about.
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