Submitted by Dimple Swain on the 2024 Winter ENGL program in India)…
How has a week flown by so quickly? Landing in Guwahati brought us warm weather and a warm and friendly environment. We all reached our homestays and while I was excited, I was nervous about what our host families would be like. Me and my roommate definitely have the coolest one. Thursday morning, I was so happy to see that our homestay mom had made us kaju katlis (diamond sweets), which are my absolute favorites. We got picked up by our bus, picked up the rest of the girls, and met up at Dr. Barua’s house, where we had class. After, we had a traditional Assamese thali khana, consisting of various dishes native to the state. Following the super-filling meal, we were taken to Parijat Academy, a non-profit organization that offers education to children from less privileged tribal communities in Assam. This is also where we would be doing our service projects.
Friday was a day unexpected to us all. In the morning, we visited the Kamakhya Temple, a place where devotees come to worship the fallen yoni (womb) of divine world mother Goddess Sati which is in the form of Kamakhya, and worship that Goddess Sati’s womb as the cause of the creation and rearing of the world. Unfortunately, we could not go inside because the line to enter was around 3-4 hours long, but being there and understanding the story made all of us understand how powerful she is to womanhood. After the visitation, we were taken to one of the homestays that some of the girls were in. Their host family owns a very well-maintained private school, so they were able to set up a dance teacher for us to learn some Indian dances. The same night was the Bihu festival at the school, which is a festival held in Assam to pray for blessings and prosperity to lead to a bountiful harvest. It is very similar to Thanksgiving. This festival consists of many dances, food, and a bonfire at the end. As we were taking the dance class, something told us that the dance we were learning was going to be performed in front of hundreds of people at the festival that evening…. and guess what? IT WAS!!
We performed a Rajasthani folk dance, Ghoomar, which means spinning around. All of us had so much fun with it. When the festival time came, the dance teacher, Arpana, told us to go on stage. We danced in front of the students from the school and so many other guests. After that, instant fame rushed our way. The local news channel, NewsDaily24, interviewed all of us and we were on live television. So many of the school’s students came up to us for pictures. It got very overwhelming. To conclude the night, the girls and I were given the honor of lighting the hay rick on fire, and then we danced around it. It was CRAZY!
The next morning was a bright and early departure for the Kaziranga National Park, one of the largest tracts of protected land in the sub-Himalayan belt, with species including one-horned rhinos, elephants, tigers, and several species of birds. As soon as we reached, we were given lunch and an elephant walked right passed us. It was such a crazy experience. The food was amazing and the rooms were boujee (we found out later that Prince William and Kate stayed at the very same resort: Diphlu River Lodge). After lunch, we took off for a safari, where we saw numerous rhinos and learned about the pink spider flowers that grow from rhino dung. We saw a Mom rhino with its baby and she began to chase us. It was such an exhilarating experience, but it did not last long because she only wanted a little bit more space for her and her baby to cross. The one-horned rhinos are commonly found in Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, and in Assam, India. It is confined to the tall grasslands and forests in the foothills of the Himalayas. I felt so lucky I was able to see so many of them and learn that over 2500 reside in this national park.
Sunday reset? More like Sunday’s 4:30 AM wake-up call. We were woken up by banging on our room doors, which literally made me jump out of bed because I thought we were getting robbed. No robbery though, just a signal to let us know that it is elephant riding time. We were taken in the jeep to a ground where elephants stay mostly. We rode elephants at 6 AM in the foggy morning. Later that day, after lunch, we were taken into the safari again, to see if we could find tigers. No luck though, but my jeep got chased by another rhino who did a whole 180-degree turn and began charging at us. I thought I was going to die, but I
trusted our guides to keep us safe. We saw the same rhino get chased by a water buffalo and forget about us… So that was pretty cool. That night, we had a great dinner accompanied by a traditional Bihu dance. The ladies looked lovely and it was so interesting to see the different instruments used during the dance, especially the gogona, a type of jaw harp, a vibrating reed instrument made out of bamboo, which is used by folk dancers as a hair stick as well as a musical instrument during Bihu festival of Assam, India. It had the strangest noise but left the biggest impression.
On Tuesday, we visited the school to start our service project. My group has the topic of helping the school expand its handloom business. We learned about the different silks they use and how they try to make it a teaching school for some of the female students. Here, we learned how we needed to structure our project to help the school out. We are going to continue our service project from here on out.
Overall, I wanted to thank our host family for giving us such great meals. We had Thukpa, a Tibetan noodle soup, sweet and savory sticky rice, fried eggplant, the best crepe-like food, and so much more. We have only been here for two weeks and it has felt so long since we have been on the go doing the best activities. With two weeks left, I know there will be more adventures awating. (Submitted on January 17, 2024)