From Brahma to Buddha, Fall 2006

With Guarav at the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi

All's well here in Delhi. We have students sending blog updates presently, so I'll keep it brief in regards to yesterday other than saying the first ever 'Gandhi Day' was a smashing success. It began with a morning discussion of Gandhi, his legacy, and nonviolent civil disobediance led by Jordan and Tracy; this was followed by a visit to the Gandhi Smitri Museum and the interactive multi-media installations there which illustrate Gandhi's life and teachings in the very home where he used to stay in Delhi, and by the garden in which he was assasinated; after a short, reflective writing exercise we went to the Andhra Bhavan for a South-Central India buffet lunch and then to the bustling Pahar Ganj bazaar, only to find it closed and our shopping assignment postponed due to a Gandhian solidarity movement in which all store owners shut their doors for the day, paralyzing business city-wide in protest of new government policies; from Pahar Ganj we went to Raj Ghat, where an eternal flame burns over Gandhi's resting place (as well as Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi's); after a short diversion to the ISKCON Hare Krishna temple, we went to an excellent screening of Manni Bhai, the latest Bollywood smash hit which is uniquely Gandhian in its premise and purpose, featuring the Mahatma himself as an apparition summoned by a hallucinating Manni during his conversion from gangster to humanist. A Chinese-Indian dinner in the food-court outside the theater wrapped up an excellent day, and already this morning we've been to the US Embassy in order to register for absentee ballots and are now back in Pahar Ganj for yesterday's delayed project. Off to Ladakh tomorrow morning, and ready for it.