Satya-da buying veggies, Laxmipour 

Rickshaw-walla, Laxmipour 

"Dad" 

Village school, Laxmipour 

Esty and Satya-da on the back of a cycle-rickshaw enroute to his village Laxmipour 

Villagers bring milk to the city via Sealdah Train Station 

"Pirate Patches" 

"Mom"  

The IPSL 7 on our last day at Loreto College, Kolkata 

Esty hiding from the cold in Darjeeling 

Buddhist prayers in Gangtok 

Buddhist monks enjoy the view at a monastery in Darjeeling 

Unknown Hindi film actress posing at overlook in Gangtok 

Waterfall in Gangtok, Sikkim 

Steven (the Australian) with young monks at Enchey Monastery, Gangtok 

Nepali girl at Botancal Garden in Gangtok, Sikkim 

Monks at Botanical Garden in Gangtok 

Pink snow-covered peak of Mt Everest! 

Sunrise from Tiger Hill 3 

Sunrse frm Tiger Hill 2 

Sunrise on Tiger Hill 1 

The end is near

It is late morning here, and though the sun is doing its best to exhaust me and keep me locked in doors under a cooling fan with a glass of Electrol (home-made gatorade) in my hand, I am fighting it :-) My host parents finally let me leave the house yesterday to spend the day with my family friends. Dr. and Mrs. Bose took all 7 of my friends out to the Tollygunge Club, a beautiful and world-renowned golf club, for an afternoon of swimming, strolling and dining. To relax after our hearty lunch we took a drive around the Salt Lake neighborhood of Kolkata so that we could see firsthand the product of all of the Development and Globalization that we have been studying. The area was full of futuristically designed building housing an array of impressive institutions including Law schools, IT centers, and more. Salt Lake seemed to be the perfect place for young professionals to live and work, although the neighborhood is some distance from the entertainment center of the city.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me about India is the constant juxtaposition of old and new, traditional and Western, and rich and poor everywhere you look. Even in the ritziest neighborhoods it is not uncommon to find a cow wandering the streets undisturbed, or see a few children with threadbare clothes barely covering their bodies running around. After spending 3 months here, the experience of peering out the window during a smooth ride in an airconditioned car and seeing an entire slum composed of scrap pieces of metal and plastic across the street from the manicured lawns of an Information Technology firm has become less disturbing and more realistic. Rather than causing me to feel as much pity and guilt (though avoiding sadness in a developing country is impossible), I instead see adversity and strength and "progress" and hope and growing pains and reality, and what I come away with (aside from some confusion) is motivation.

I'm not quite feeling like new, but I am much recovered from my 5 nights in the hospital, and from my position of health I am now able to look back and laugh at what seemed to be a true comedy of errors. It never occured to me that all I needed to do to imporve my Bengali skills was to enclose myself in an environment where I was at the mercy of a staff of individuals who spoke no English, and upon whom I had to rely to have all of my basic needs met. I was so lucky though, because for most of the times that I was conscious (and not drifting in and out of a feverish sleep), I had people taking care of me. The nurses were incredibly affectionate, almost to a fault. Every time one of them thought to pass by my bed, whether or not I was sleeping, they found it necessary to caress my forehead; perhaps they were checking my temperateure, or just trying to let me know non-verbally that they cared, they succeeded is startling me awake several times per day. All of my classmates came to visit me, as did both of my host parents, and even Choto-da, our big brother and cook, came to visit me! Umma, my mother surrogate Aunty came to visit, and brought me fruits and drinks, and helped to decorate (and imporve the smell of) my hospital room by bringing me gorgeous flowers! Her husband Dr. Bose even made an appearance to help me understand what on earth was going on with me medically!

Tomorrow Luke will leave for his travels around India (he is going to visit Darjeeling for a view of the Himalayas, Bhodgaya for some meditation, Veranasi to see the most holy city in all of India, and then head west to enjoy the beach at Goa, and the big Bollywood city of Mumbai), I'm not ready to say goodbye yet! Anna and Zach will also leave tomorrow for a 2-day trip to the Sunderbands where they will hopefully catch a glimpse of some tigers while on their boat tour, and then Zach will head of to travel around India as well (in addition to the cities that Luke is visiting, Zach will also cram in Chennai and Hydrobad!). The 3 girls will all head home on Saturday, but before that we are going to visit Choto-da's village on Thursday! Esty and I are headed to the Royal Jordanian office and the travel agent to radically change our itineraries (due to my newly weakened health status), so I will send updates soon about what I will be doing, and more importantly, when I will be returning home!!!