Join the Fight Fortnight & World AIDS Day

Since we returned from our trip north things have been insanely busy in Pune with our Join the Fight Fortnight leading up to World AIDS Day.  And the fortnight somehow kept getting stretched into over three weeks of activities.  Every day since November 17 we’ve held HIV bootcamps, awareness and fundraising events, live installations and street plays in various parts of the city.  I’ll just describe some of our favorite events below such as attending the NH7 Weekender music festival.  It was a 3-day long music festival in Pune and Wake Up Pune was lucky enough to get a table in the bazaar and got to talk to lots of festival goers and spread awareness about HIV and Wake Up Pune.  We also got to see Basement Jaxx and Imogen Heap perform which was awesome!  I had to hold a press conference with Avinash about our activities because Becky got sick and (conveniently) lost her voice that day… It was definitely a good experience though.  Another fun event that we did was hold a conga line flash mob.  We had about 30 people dancing in a conga line up and down MG road in what may or may not have been Pune’s first ever flash mob.  We definitely attracted a lot of attention from curious shoppers and store owners and I think Naveed may have had too much fun leading the line (see pictures below).  The day before World AIDS Day we had three giant rangolis created in different parts of the city and they were all so beautiful.  Then on the day, December 1^st, we had our big rally with over 400 people participating as we marched through the streets of Pune.  In addition to these events we were invited to present a few bootcamps to different groups, rehab centres and corporate offices as many wanted to be educated about HIV/AIDS around World AIDS Day.  It was a hectic three weeks and I’m happy it’s done and we pulled off a successful bunch of activities and events! 

The DISHA ladies held a party at work for us on our last day at the office and there may have been a few tears shed, even though we will be returning in two months once our visas allow us back into India.  It has been a wonderful 4+ months working with these amazing women and Naveed and I are looking forward to coming back and spending more time with them. 

On our last day in India we took a train to Mumbai with the whole gang and spent a lovely afternoon stuffing our faces at high tea at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel once again.  Naveed had successfully hyped the tea since September to all the other volunteers and no one was disappointed. 

We flew home with a stop in London to visit Taraneh and then to Florida for our friend Jeff’s wedding and a trip to Disney World!  Now we’re spending a few weeks in Michigan and Victoria each to visit family.  Let’s see if Naveed’s Indian head bobbling will hang on for the next two months until we’re back!

Love,

The Wandering Two

Naveed leading the conga flashmob with much enthusiasm

All the local and international volunteers who participated

Our booth at the NH7 Weekender music festival

Naveed enjoying Basement Jaxx while I was busy working and spreading awareness...

Sari day at the office!

The dreaded press conference

Beautiful rangolis created for World AIDS Day

It really is an amazing art

Gregor from Scotland and I at the World AIDS Day rally

Over 500 people showed up to support the rally

The Wake Up Pune and DISHA teams

Wake Up Pune coordinators, Becky and myself, breath a sigh of relief after Join the Fight finishes successfully!

On the train to Mumbai on our last day in India

Enjoying high tea @ the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai

A quick stop in London to visit dear Taraneh :)

Hogwarts Castle at Islands of Adventure in Florida!

So excited to meet Cinderella hahah!

The Magic Kingdom

With friends Negar and Sarah at Jeff & Fere's Wedding

(No) Tigers, a Taj and the Ganga

Prior to our weekend in Delhi for the 25^th anniversary at the temple we spent a week doing a little bit of traveling with Farshad and Yeeteng.  After flying up to Delhi we took a very crowded train up to Ramnagar to go to Corbett Tiger Reserve.  Upon reaching Ramnagar we found out that our hotel that we had booked was a further 16 kilometers away and the safari driver who had met us to arrange for our morning safari and drop us at our hotel did not want to take us that far so we called the hotel to arrange a pickup.  They came 45 minutes later, and 5 minutes after we left we ran out of gas.  We then waited an hour for their friends to come by with gas they had siphoned out of their motorbike to give us and then thankfully made it to the hotel.  It is MUCH colder up north than it is in Pune, especially at night.  So a few hours later we woke up to go on our safari at the tiger reserve.  The safari driver who booked our passes for us booked them for Indian price and upon meeting us realized that half of us were not Indian.  He said Naveed would be fine passing as Indian if he just kept his mouth shut and told me to wear Indian clothes and cover my face with a shawl as if I were sleeping when we went through the inspection gate.  Luckily we sneaked through just fine and drove around the park for over four hours.  We unfortunately did not see any tigers but saw lots of paw prints and some deer, peacocks, lemurs and monkeys and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. 

After our safari we took a bus to Haridwar with the intention of then getting another bus to Rishikesh which is where we planned to spend the next two nights.  Upon arriving in Haridwar we found millions and millions of pilgrims coming to the Ganges and the banks of the river were set up with thousands upon thousands of white cloth tents for the pilgrims to stay in.  There was a massive traffic jam and long lines for the bus so we gave up, hired a taxi to take us the rest of the way and got the heck out of there!  It was madness!  We spent 2 days in Rishikesh, which is a beautiful town divided by the Ganges flowing in between and surrounded by mountains.  Unfortunately both Naveed and I got sick with a flu-ish bug while we were there so we spent most of our time sleeping and being sick… We did get to go white water rafting one morning though which was a lot of fun. 

We were then supposed to take the train from Haridwar to Agra and had a waitlisted ticket which normally you can still get on with because people cancel but because of the 100 million pilgrims we did not move up on the waitlist enough to feel confident that we’d make the train so we had to hire a car to drive us to Agra through the night instead.  Visited the Taj Mahal and rested a lot to recover from being sick so we’d be ready for the celebrations on the weekend.  The next day we had booked a train to Delhi called the Toofan Express.  Upon arriving at the train station we found that the train was delayed by 3 hours.  After speaking to three different people who worked for the railways and hearing “toofan express is VERRRRRY BAD…. It’s a verrrrry bad train!” we got a little afraid.  It was then showing on the monitor that it was going to be delayed a further 2 hours so we decided again to hire a car to drive us to Delhi instead since all the other trains were booked that day.  We will always wonder about the Toofan Express and what about it made 3 Indians tell us that it was verrrry bad. 

Love,

The Wandering Two

On the train to Ramnagar from Delhi

A tiger was here

Our safari vehicle, I was convinced a tiger was going to eat us...

peacocks!

 

Beautiful Corbett

Ready for white water rafting with feverish Naveed

Clearly excited...

Rafting on the Ganga

Nearing the end of the trip

Beautiful Rishikesh

The Taj Mahal

25th Anniversary Celebration of the Lotus Temple

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to attend the celebration of the 25^th anniversary at the House of Worship in New Delhi.  The celebration last for two days and was full of wonderful dancing and music, inspirational speeches, videos on the history and impact of the temple and prayers. Mr. Sahba, the architect of the temple, was also there to say a few words about the occasion.  Over 5000 Baha’is from all over India and the world attended the event and we ran into a few friends that we had served with in Haifa; everyone was dressed in their most colorful and beautiful traditional outfits.  I was also able to see some of my relatives from Dubai which was great.  Having now been to three of the Houses of Worship, I can say that the one that took my breath away the most is the Lotus Temple, particularly at night when it’s all lit up, it really is a magnificent sight.

After the weekend at the temple, we spent 2 more days shopping and sightseeing (but mainly shopping) in Delhi.  There’s an amazing underground bazaar where you can buy practically anything.  The shopkeepers were pretty pushy, some even came up and put belts around my waist to try to sell them to me while others lit wallets on fire to prove to me that they were real leather.  So I bought a wallet…and a belt…

We will update later about the rest of our trip prior to our time in Delhi soon.  Time is going by so fast and we have just over 2 weeks left here in Pune and they’re going to be very busy.  Our Join the Fight Fortnight leading up to World AIDS Day on December 1^st is in full swing with awareness events, fundraisers and bootcamps planned for every day. 

Love,

The Wandering Two

The beautiful Lotus Temple

From Maharashtra!

Me with my dear crew mate Gajanan from Haifa

Inside the temple, so beautiful

Olivia with the Baha'is from Ramtekedi

Banghra dance performance, the crowd loved it!

Olivia in her beautiful sari, the second day