Sona Pani – 9/5/14

                After spending a few days in Delhi sightseeing and shopping for kurtas and dupattas, we took a six hour train ride to Uttarakhanda, the state where we will be living for the next month or so. The eco-lodge where we are currently staying is called “Sona Pani” or “Golden Water” (the surrounding area is known as “Chandi Matti” or “Silver Dirt”). The ground here gets its glitter from an abundance of mica in the soil and it’s made all of my clothes and shoes look like they are covered in fairy dust. Our little village of cabins overlooks a huge expanse of Himalayan foothills that leads to the towering mountain, Nanda Devi, which is about 25,645 feet tall. The forests mostly consist of pine or oak and they remind me a lot of Flagstaff or Colorado.

                We start our days with 7 AM outdoor yoga on a ridge that overlooks the valley. Hemant-ji, our Hindi guru until the end of September, is also a yoga master and instructs our yoga sessions. After an hour or so of yoga, we have chai tea and eat breakfast. Two or three hours of Hindi lessons come next and are followed by one or two hours of free time to journal, wash laundry (using only a single bucket), or just hang out and play games (ping pong, telephone Pictionary, and bananagrams are group favorites). We break for lunch and then usually take a hike to a temple or local village. When we come back we play cricket, Frisbee, or kabaddi (pronounced kuh-buh-dee) in a field near where we do yoga. Kabaddi is kind of like a mix of tag and rugby, all while you hold your breath. It’s really hard to explain it in a way that makes sense and I would suggest you just look up videos of it to figure out what I mean. Anyway, afterwards we have another chai break and then eat dinner. We cap off the day playing board games and telling stories.

                I like Sona Pani much better than Delhi because of its breathtaking views and beautiful weather. Every day has been about 70 degrees and not too humid. I can already read Hindi in the sense that I recognize almost all the letters and can spell out words that I hear (thank goodness for phonetic languages). We aren’t learning any grammar rules until we get to Banaras, so for now my speech is limited to nouns, a smattering of adjectives, and a few conjugations of “to be.” I have found that it is very hard to transliterate Hindi words into English because the Hindi letters have such specific sounds that can all be put under the umbrella of a single English letter. For example, there are four versions of t, four versions of d,and two versions of r that all sound very similar to my American ears.

                On a side note I would like to wish my wonderful madre a very happy birthday!