We've been planning to go to India to teach at a school there for a long time. Somehow it never happened.... two months ago, we said, “let's go!” and found a place in Kumarkot village in Uttarakhand state of India.
Tel Aviv - on the way to India
November 15, 2024
We’ve been planning to go to India to teach at a school there for a long time. Somehow it never happened, you know life, Corona, Africa, war…. Two months ago, we said “let’s go!”. All that was left for us was to find a school that would be interested in us – an elderly white couple who don’t speak Hindi or any other local language. We insisted, we made connections, conversations, persuasions, and it turns out that it’s not that easy to volunteer in India. But there is a happy ending. We found a new school that is still being built, in the Himalayas in the area of remote small villages – Kumarkot– that not only wants us but is even enthusiastic. So… we’re traveling to the end of the world this week to teach little kids (who don’t speak English) and we’re quite excited. The couple who run the school are great, the school is on the edge of a hill with nothing but a 360 view, there is internet, and a lot of anthropology, Yet, we have no idea what we will teach there, yoga, carpentry, English, math, computers…, we don’t know how to live in such an isolated place, and we don’t even know what the bathroom looks like in the house we will live in (and in India, bathrooms are an issue) and how we will survive a winter in the Himalayas when all the heating is based on electricity that works 95% of the time, as the locals say. In short, wish us luck and we will report back.
Kumarkot village, Uttarkashi district, Uttarakhand
November 24, 2024
We arrived in India. We live in a nice valley in the Himalayas, about a 5-hour drive from Rishikesh and a 2-hour drive from the nearest city, Uttarkashi. In our valley (which is already ours 
) there are 7 villages, with the closest one called Kumarkot. Each village has between 500 and 1000 residents who live in stone houses (mud-coated bricks on a bed of hardened earth, flat stone roofs, the house is low and almost windowless). The dominant colors are blue, green, turquoise or burgundy. The men work in agriculture (rice and millet) and the women take care of the cows, goats and the family (on average 3-4 children). I will write about women’s work in a separate post. Some of the men work in the city, and during the pilgrimage season they serve as porters for pilgrims (there are holy sites in the area and people from all over India go to them). Those who have managed to work abroad support an entire family, and you can see that the family’s house is built of concrete, has two floors, and is decorated throughout. Since very few people know English, working abroad is quite a challenge, and only a few succeed (there is a demand for Indian cooks in Germany and New Zealand). It is wedding season now, and almost every evening in every village there are celebrations here (see one of the photos below).
One man makes the difference - Kumarkot village
November 25, 2024
The school we work in is part of a huge one-man project. A monk named Ram Ji is about 50 years old (who looks 30). He used to live in a cave for five years and when it flooded (in one of the floods that are quite frequent here) he decided to leave the cave and go down to the villages to help them and since then he has been helping in everything for about twenty years.
For example he has installed over 800 toilets in the residents’ homes (a toilet includes bringing water to the house and preparing a septic tank); he donated cows to widows (according to religion they are not allowed to remarry and they are left with children and no source of income), a cow provides them with food and the excess milk can also be sold; he has set up an open kitchen for the underprivileged; takes care of surgeries for young people (including donors to finance the surgeries); sends students to school (high school is not free here) and so on and so forth. Since the schools here are at a very low level, among other things, he established the school, including the building, teachers, equipment, and he dreams of turning it into a center including a clinic and vocational training. (The school is under construction; I will write about it separately). He established a trust – Kashika to support the activities.
The guy speaks really good English (which is rare here), and he himself raises all the funds for these projects (from Canada, Holland, Germany, etc.), establishes and runs them. Right now, as I write this post, he is outside plowing beds to sow mustard and flowers. It is simply amazing what one person can do. And it makes me think about the religious people I know.
About the food - Kumarkot village
November 27, 2024
Before we talk about studies, let’s talk about food – we live in a private house with a kitchen and dining room on the first floor; we live on the second floor (we have a bedroom and a yoga room – a real treat). The kitchen is actually an open kitchen, anyone can come and eat. The kitchen is also used by the monk and his assistant, who live in the house next door, so the kitchen is vegan (dairy products are allowed). There is another kitchen at the school where you can prepare everything, including meat, which we haven’t used yet. The kitchen is quite well-equipped, but there isn’t a single shelf in it, so all the dishes, products and spices (and there are a lot of spices) are on the floor or on the counter. That was true until Ira arrived, and shelves will be installed here this week. What do we eat? Lots of vegetables cooked in all kinds of combinations and Indian crepe (dosa), there is only fruit if they were picked in the area and currently there are none. They were puzzled when we returned from the market with tangerines and persimmons (because they are expensive – well, expensive India – with all the purchase we made, we would buy one basket of grapes in Israel). There is no table in the dining room (at least there wasn’t until we arrived) and no chairs (as above). You eat on the floor, there are no plates either – you eat from a stainless-steel tray, and of course there are no knives and forks (at least there weren’t until we arrived), only spoons – you eat with your hands. Much of the food is grown here – pumpkins (which are an important ingredient in every meal), honey (we have two beehives on the roof), various spices and some vegetables. Everything else is bought in bags – potatoes, rice, etc. We added pasta to the kitchen (which was received with astonishment and rejected after a short tasting). In short, you should start feeling sorry for at least some of us. Not only should you only eat vegetables, but they are also terribly spicy.
Shopping - Uttarkashi
November 29, 2024
Our first project here is to set up a carpentry workshop so the students can do carpentry. We found a space at the school, we are currently renovating it (more on that in a separate post), and now we need to buy equipment for the carpentry workshop (saws, hammers, screwdrivers, etc.). We made a list… We’re going to the big city, which is only 50 km from here, but it’s a two-hour drive on winding roads.
There’s no Home Depot in the big city, but there are plenty of stores. A store is usually narrow, so two people can’t fit through it comfortably, but it has hidden corners. The owner (who usually understands English) employs 3-4 boys who are sent to bring the next item on the list. For example, we want a brush to clean a workbench, the boy is sent with explicit instructions and comes back with a brush to clean the toilet, we explain that we need a brush to clean a workbench, the boy is sent again and comes back with a broom, we explain again, the boy comes back with a brush, not the right size, the boy is sent again and comes back with the right brush, now we need 2 of these, okay, the second one is in a different warehouse… and so on for each item on the list. The impressive thing is that if you’re in the right store, they have everything, but you need to explain. After you’ve finished shopping, it’s time to pay the bill. The owner sits down behind the counter with pen and paper and starts writing down item by item, it’s not clear where the prices are taken from, but sometimes he picks up the phone, not clear to whom, and after some discussion, he adds the price of the item to the list. All this, while the owner of the house takes care of the bill for a few more customers who come in, has to send a boy to bring the product and then receive payment (in cash, of course).
That was just one store. To complete the entire list, you have to go to ten different stores, we got 80% off the list. But the day is over and there’s still a two-hour drive back. We’ll order the rest of the list on Amazon (which is a completely different story – because Amazon doesn’t come to our magical corner).
Adaptation - Kumarkot village
November 30, 2024
It’s interesting to see how each of us adapts to the new place. Ira first adapts the house to our needs – shelves, carpets, table and chairs, forks, fruits, etc. The next step is for Ira to learn by heart all the names of the people, students, and places around us. She also learns how to prepare the local food and starts making dosa and chapati… Then she opens Duolingo and starts learning Hindi and throws out a bunch of Hindi words to the students, and finally she starts teaching the students yoga (which is like selling ice to Eskimos). I, on the other hand, run to the bathroom all night… everyone has their own way of acclimating 😊.
For the people by the people – Kumarkot village, Kashika school
December 1, 2024
The place we are in is run by Swami Ji, to whom a separate post was dedicated, and by the couple Sandhya and Suraj with their 11-year-old son Dhru (a gifted child who grew up in homeschooling and is definitely an active part of the school’s management). Sandy and Suraj are both mechanical engineers (Sandhya has a master’s degree and Dr. Suraj was, among other things, a professor at a university in Mumbai). Both have lived in the US for 13 years, worked for large companies, returned to India, and about two years ago decided to go up into the mountains with the intention of helping to develop the area. They set up a trout farm and then met a monk who convinced them to set up the school. They left everything, moved to a place above the school, and here they are.
At the school, they are developing a unique pedagogy in the style of an open school (which I will address in future posts – when I get a better grasp on it). Their goal is not to raise an educated generation that can leave this godforsaken corner for the big city, but on the contrary, to educate a generation that can stay here, establish small businesses and empower the place, as there is a lot of untapped agricultural, tourist and business potential here (while people here are still stuck in the past). Sandhya and Suraj work here voluntarily, without government support because they are not yet a recognized school, and not only that, but they also invest their own money in the project.
There are many superlatives that can be said about them. In addition to the fact that they are very intelligent, dedicated and with a lot of giving, they create an atmosphere of pioneering.
Luckily for us, they have adopted us (from trips to the area to cooking meals that are not allowed in the monk’s kitchen where we live ) and we, who are older by a generation, are treated as if we were their children and feel part of something big (huge!). Rare people!
Perspectives… – Kumarkot village
December 2, 2024
Proportions… Perspective…
Anyone who has visited remote villages in India already understands and knows .
Life is not easy here. They work mainly in agriculture from morning until sunset, there is no concept of a weekend or a day off. Women do hard physical work bringing food to the cows, chopping and bringing twigs for cooking and heating, and of course taking care of the children and the household. The clothes are washed in a river where the water temperature tends to zero, the same goes for washing the dishes. Men work in agriculture and construction. It would never occur to a widowed woman, God forbid, to marry again, it is unacceptable.
The children walk to school a considerable distance, regardless of the child’s age, on a narrow road that is also shared by buses, cars, motorcycles, monkeys and cows, and let’s not forget that this is the Himalayas, which means a lot of climbing! The houses are heated only by open fires or bonfires near the house, and again we must remember that this is the Himalayas – already now at night the temperature is close to zero and we haven’t even reached real winter yet (January-February).
No central heating, no washing machines, no dishwashers (there is electricity and running water of course). And despite all this, there is no sense of misery here – all the people we met are super nice. People who just pass you on the road will always smile and greet you. In principle, people smile a lot here – it is not uncommon to see women chatting among themselves energetically and laughing while carrying a weight that the national weightlifting champion would respect, or bent over in a challenging yoga pose while doing laundry in icy water .
Proportions…
Our life – Kumarkot village
December 3, 2024
We are asked how life is in the East. Spoiler alert… great.
What scared us the most is the cold. So… our room is heated 24×7. The house is not. Therefore, leaving the room for the bathroom or the kitchen in the middle of the night requires courage.
We are in winter, but the locals say that it is not like the real winter yet.
When there is sun, it is really pleasant and even a T-shirt is enough… but it is enough that a smallest cloud comes to drop the temperature from pleasant to very cold, so a T-shirt is not really an option.
Since we are in a valley (at an altitude of 2,000 meters) surrounded by mountains on all sides (at an altitude of 3,000 meters), the sun rises late and sets early, so the day here is short and allows for a long sleep for some of us.
Another issue that may bother some of us is food (if you ask Ira, Indian food is the best thing that happened to her). I, on the other hand, do not like spicy or curry, and by that I eliminated 90 percent of the local cuisine. But after almost two weeks, I admit that I’m not hungry – soups, pasta, salads, toast, chips… and every now and then Sandhya and Suraj invite us for a delicious meal of eggs, chicken and fish… we’re fine.
Now, shower and toilet. We have both European (rare) and Indian toilets… guess what we use. There’s a shower with hot water all day. Since the water comes directly from the mountains, the flow is more of a trickle than a stream. There’s only hot water in the shower, so washing your face in the sink is reminiscent of an Eskimo in the Arctic. And most importantly, we have a washing machine in the apartment, so you don’t have to feel sorry for us.
We mentioned stoves, hot water, a washing machine… everything requires electricity. The electricity here is backed up by a battery, so there’s lighting and communication most of the day.
All of this is true when the weather is as great as it is now, we can only imagine what will happen here in the monsoons.
Transportation. Cars of Sandhya and Suraj, and the monk, and a bunch of scooters are available to us. So far, we haven’t taken advantage of it but it’s good to know it’s there.
Ira does yoga on the front porch, and I even found a fairly flat walking path.
So as mentioned, overall, all is great.
Carpentry – Kumarkot village
December 5, 2024
As we mentioned, we are building a carpentry workshop for the students here. The space we have is large, without windows or doors, so we need to build a partition, a table, windows and doors, and for that we invite the carpenter. Indeed, the next day a skinny guy with a shy smile, who goes by the name Kirti, arrives, and we explain our needs to him.
First, we travel to the big city (a two-hour drive each way) to buy wood. After a negotiation that is all smiles, the wood plates are loaded onto the van for us and the first stage has been successfully completed.
Kirti’s carpentry shop is too small to accommodate the wood logs, so most of the work is done on site. Although he has a number of power tools, most of the work is done by hand using a chisel and hammer, and hand saws. Perhaps this is why the work is so precise and fit for the specific place it is intended for. Each joint between two planks is made like a work of art and I could sit and watch it for hours (if only there was a chair nearby).
Two interesting phenomena. First. The work is done in an active school and if a student comes and wants to “help”, Kirti patiently includes him in the work, until the student gets fed up and goes about his business. And second. Since Kirti is here from morning to night, if we say we need to move a few sandbags from place to place, Kirti is drafted into the effort and helps with a smile, even if it takes two hours.
I wish my plumber was that nice.
Speaking of professionals (regardless of Kirti), ‘They are here when they are here’. You can’t really set a day or schedule, when you set a date they don’t come and when you don’t set a date they just show up, as mentioned they are here when they are here .
Roads - Kamad
December 7, 2024
There is a village nearby called Kamad. It is the main village in the area, and you have to pass through it to get almost anywhere. The road that runs through it is designed for one vehicle and is several hundred meters long. Every vehicle coming from the opposite side requires to maneuver with the help of all the passers-by, and, of course, all kinds of honking (in India, a vehicle whose horn breaks down is considered a total loss, and it sits there until the honking is fixed). Let’s say a truck is unloading goods, wait…, a herd of goats passes by, wait…, a wedding passes by, wait… (we are in wedding season, there is a wedding every day), a cow decided that this is the best pasture, wait…, a scooter is refueling, wait… (here you buy bottled petrol from a grocery store), and there are endless other scenarios that you can’t predict, so those few hundred meters can take half an hour easily. Then we remember the Ayalon Highway and relax… it could be worse.
The students – Kumarkot, Kashika school
December 9, 2024
Today, children, we will talk about students. Education in India is compulsory from grade 1 to 12. And most children do go to school and complete 12 years of study. Government schools are free, and in remote areas they also provide meals, uniforms, books, stationery…
The school where we teach is a private school, the fee is not high, but it is not free and the children bring their lunch from home, this probably means that at our school the students come from homes for which education is important.
The students come to school willingly, they would be happy to stay long after school hours, there are no discipline problems at all, and they study diligently. For example, Ira gives them an hour-long yoga class and they maintain their concentration throughout the entire hour (from experience in similar classes in Israel – this does not happen).
The class (the only one currently in the school) is with students from the ages of 6 to probably 10 (we do not know clearly what the age of the students is). The focus is on studying math, Hindi and English. The school day is from 09:30 to 15:00 six days a week (Saturday is half a day and it is more about games and fun, no school on Sunday).
The children hardly speak English, but they know how to read and spell in English, and if you talk to them slowly, after breaking the barrier of shyness they understand what we are talking about.
Finally, two anecdotes: We built a sandbox here, and they didn’t really know what to do with it, we went into the box and started building castles to teach them. We installed swings here and it turned out that they don’t know how to swing on their own (we are still working on it ).
Soon we will start the carpentry workshop, and, I am sure, that they will teach us there.
Women – Kumarkot village
December 11, 2024
In the village near where we live, the men work the land, while the women take care of cows (who live on the first floor, while the family lives on the second floor). Since it is the dry season and the cows have no pasture, this means that early in the morning the woman takes the cow out, cleans the cow’s room (round 1 – carrying out the cow manure to the field).
Then the woman heads to the nearby forest and takes a pile of pine needles to line the barn because the cows are cold on the concrete (round 2), she will remove the pile with the cow’s manure the next day.
Then she goes up the mountain to pick fresh grass for the cows because there is no grass for the cows in the village area (round 3).
And finally, she goes to the forest further away to gather wood (because there is no more in the nearby forest) since all the cooking and heating is done with wood (round 4).
The basket she carries around is huge, and I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to lift it.
Apart from that, she takes care of 3-4 children (that’s the average here), does laundry, cooks, works in the fields (in the relevant months). She does all of this from the wedding (around age 20) to the elderly years. By the way, in every meeting we have had with the women, they are curious, laughing, and look good.
What fun it is to be a woman 
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The children - Kumarkot, Kashika school
December 13, 2024
Continuing Yoav’s post about the students… there are all kinds here . The age range is between 6 and 10 (approximately) and it’s amazing to see how they get along without fights (in three weeks here so far I haven’t seen anyone cry) and without cliques (at least that’s how it seems to a foreign eye that doesn’t speak their language ). The only “fights” that exist here are who will be first in the game of ‘hangman’ or whose turn it is to go to the carpentry workshop. Their knowledge and abilities are also diverse and not necessarily correlated with age.
There is a 6 (or 5) year old boy here with sparkling eyes and the energy of a demon who less than a year ago didn’t know how to hold a pencil in his hand and today reads and writes in English, knows how to spell and composes two-digit numbers in his head.
There is a boy (who only has sisters and therefore acts like a prince) who must be the center of attention, expresses an opinion on every subject, and provides answers even if he wasn’t asked.
And also an 8-year-old girl who was born to be a manager and organizer, she is smart and sharp, the first to manage to break the barrier of shyness and speak English, and somehow she arranges the entire world around her and her will – every time we come she is on the swing even though there is always a line of at least 5 kids 
.
Another little girl, quiet and without bells and whistles, with English handwriting that would not put a calligrapher to shame and all the exercises in her math homework are precisely done.
Two brothers (probably 9-10 years old) are serious and dedicated (in yoga class they take every pose seriously) and even in subjects they have difficulty with you can see that they are ‘on it’.
And on and on… The education method here is individual – everyone receives homework according to their ability, and personal study time as needed. In general, they really like games (like Hangman or guessing games) – today I tried to teach them in a standard frontal way how to construct questions in English and after about 20 minutes they told me (in English!) – this game is boring 
.
Carpentry – Kumarkot, Kashika school
December 14, 2024
The carpentry workshop opened with great pomp and splendor. Today was an introduction day for the entire class and tomorrow we will start small group sessions. The first step is for each child to build a simple toy for themselves, and then we will move on to more advanced products according to their abilities and desires.
At this point, the children are enthusiastic and queuing up to go to the carpentry workshop. We will update progress later.
We are still under construction of the carpentry workshop. Setting up a carpentry workshop is not an easy task, it took us three weeks, which is a world record .
The electrician disappears every two to three days – as of now there is still no electricity in the carpentry workshop – we have brought electricity from the nearest house.
The carpenter actually comes every day but there are power outages… That is why the room still does not have windows and doors (a significant thing when you are in the mountains with a wind at minus temperatures) – so we closed the windows and doors with plates and continue to pray to the God of electricity 
.
The welder who had to build a railing (we are on the third floor and the external staircase has no railing), arrived, took measurements and disappeared for two weeks. Yesterday (the day before the opening) Suraj went down to the village, grabbed him by the ear and dragged him here to build a temporary railing (which will probably remain here permanently ).
Wood for the workshop – we drove to the big city the day before yesterday (two hours away) and there we chose the wood.
Despite everything, the grand opening took place in the presence of all those involved 
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On the road – from Kumarkot to Uttarkashi
December 15, 2024
We live a two-hour drive from the nearest city (a total of 50 km). At first it seemed to us like a punishment to go there, but as we have made this way few times, we began to fall in love with the idea and going shopping became a fun time, even for me.
First, it is a winding road between the mountains (every 30 meters a turn), in the landscape of the Himalayas, with terraces and snow at the edges, villages in blue and villagers. But that’s not all, every trip has an anthropological aspect and here are some examples:
We travel in a small double-cab truck owned by Swami Ji the monk (the back seat is cramped and can comfortably accommodate two 6-year-old children). When the local people signal us to stop, we do so and offer a lift. It starts with one and adds another and another, and at a certain point there were eight people in the vehicle, sitting on each other’s laps. When we drop off a passenger, another person immediately appears and gets in the vehicle, we suspect that they just like to drive back and forth .
Additional example. Once a day a bus passes between the villages, which is beyond our understanding of how it drives there since we can barely manage with a small truck – there are turns that we have to take several times. The bus does not arrive at regular times, so one stands on the side of the road and waits for it. When the sun goes down it gets really cold, what does one do? He lights a fire. Then the bus arrives, of course one leaves the fire alone and gets on the bus, as if we are not in the middle of a forest.
Another example. The road on the mountainside is quite steep and every now and then a rock breaks off the mountain and rolls onto the road. When the rock is small, you simply bypass it, but when the rock is large, what do you do? A man arrives with a 5-kilo hammer (it is not clear who it belongs to) and starts breaking it.
We could go on with stories and posts… and all of this is just on the way there.
Sem Mukhem Tehri, Garhwal, Uttarakhand
December 16, 2024
Sunday, no school, time for a short trip. Swami Ji (the monk) suggested going to the Jai Sem Nagraja Temple – a beautiful place in the Himalayas. He just forgot to mention that to get to the temple you have to climb 3 km on a crazy incline stones path…
When halfway through you start to seriously consider giving up, a woman with a child in her arms, another woman with a huge bag on her head and a few other old people pass you energetically. So, your ego mixed with a slight shame doesn’t allow you to turn back and you continue… stopping every few dozen meters to catch your breath (after all, we are over 2,500 meters high) and remembering to have a serious conversation with the monk about travel recommendations … and you continue.
As a reward, on the way we met cool people, and everyone was curious about where we were from and very excited that we were from Israel . Some even wanted us to give them a blessing, we didn’t really know how …
The road to the temple is amazingly beautiful – the Himalayas at their best!
Urbanization – Kumarkot, Kashika school
December 18, 2024
The movement of young people from villages to cities is not a new phenomenon; it began with the industrial revolution and continues to this day. Here, in the Himalayas in India, young people who have acquired an education will also prefer to move to the city where there are employment opportunities and services available.
The school we teach at aims to change this trend, that is to get educated and high-quality young people to stay in the area and develop it. There is a lot of potential here, but the place is stuck in the past.
How do we do that? A good question!
First, developing love for the place – there is a lot to love here, the amazing views, the climate that is suitable for certain crops (for example, ideal for growing salmon), the peace and quiet, air and water of a quality that is disappearing in the world, and hardworking people who are willing to help.
Secondly, education for entrepreneurship – there is tourism and business potential here (for small businesses) that even receive encouragement from the government.
And another issue is opening the school to the community, who can use the teachers and facilities (for example, today we helped a high school student build a model in our workshop).
Of course, all this requires as broad a general education as possible (from English to agriculture).
Will the school succeed in keeping the young people? We don’t know but it’s definitely worth a try.
Kumbh Mela
December 22, 2024
It turned out that there is a two-week school holiday at the beginning of the year that we didn’t know about. By inexplicable coincidence, we discovered that around the same dates the world’s largest festival takes place, which happens once every 12 years for a month and a half. This is a few days’ drive from here and is attended by people from all over the Indian world – the Kumbh Mela. So, we rented a car and we’re off.
How big, you ask? Last time there were about one hundred and fifty million people. 150,000,000, you read that right. This year we’re expecting two hundred million plus. We have no idea how they house or feed such a large number, but we’ll try our luck (in the worst case we’ll sleep in the car and eat crackers).
It seems that I, who can’t stand more than five people in a row, am looking for trouble …. We’re leaving in a week; we’ll keep you posted.
It’s cold here… – Kumarkot village
December 24, 2024
It’s cold here – well, what did we expect? We went to the Himalayas in the winter – it’s clear that it will be cold. So, in principle, most of the time the cold is bearable, in the morning there is sun, and it’s pleasant in the sun, and at night the room is heated and quite pleasant in it. So, what’s the problem?
When the temperatures drop to around 5 degrees or below, the electricity also drops with it (this has happened twice since we arrived), and the electricity drops for many hours and then there is a double problem – it is cold and when the electricity returns it takes the room a day to warm up. By the way, all the electricity here is backed up (except for the stoves), so there is light and communication… just cold.
Tomorrow it is supposed to snow, we’ll see if that helps .
Few mysteries solved… – Kumarkot village
December 26, 2024
We solved a mystery – a few posts ago we wrote that sometimes large stones roll onto the road and then people come and smash them with hammers. Today we figured out who these people are.
Well… they smash the rocks into quite large stones and place them on the side of the road, porters with mules move the stones to a pile near the village, where several women from the age of 10 to 70 sit with smaller hammers and smash the stones into gravel, which in turn is transported by mules for construction purposes.
And on another topic – there is not a single garbage can in the entire subcontinent. And surprisingly, the villages are quite clean (we are not talking about the cities – there the story is different), you can see everywhere people cleaning the area in front of their house or business with a stick of twigs that is not intended to clean but to move the dirt from place to place (and in the end, miraculously, the dirt disappears).
In principle, there is no garbage here. We bought things that came in a cardboard box, when we asked where to throw the cardboard, first they gave us a look of disdain and then they took the cardboard and put it aside for future use.
The same goes for food. Every seed, shell or other leftover food will be used for something else. They only cook for one meal at a time here – there are no leftovers, the food comes in reusable boxes – no leftover packaging… That’s why there are no garbage disposal services here either.
But we have garbage (and even a trash can), so what do we do with the garbage? We don’t know! Maybe we burn it, maybe we dump it, or maybe it too would miraculously disappear 
.
When we find the solution, we’ll tell you.
The importance of electrical power… – Rishikesh, Uttarakhand
December 28, 2024
A few months ago, there was a power outage in Tel Aviv, lasting a few hours. I don’t remember exactly why, but I remember that the next day they reported it in the newspapers.
In India (and most of Africa) if a day goes by without a power outage, they’ll write about it in the newspapers the next day. It’s raining, it’s windy, snow is expected, or it’s just a sunny day. Every few hours the lights flicker, and the power goes out.
Usually, the outage is for five minutes, but we’ve had outages that last a whole day (since where we live, there’s a battery backup, the light and communications usually continue – but the heating doesn’t(!)).
Power outage is not the only interesting phenomenon in this regard. There are times when the “current is weak”, just like that, you can’t turn on a washing machine or other electrical appliance because the current is weak – everything seems fine, but the machines don’t work…
We said to ourselves, well, we live at the end of the world, surely this doesn’t happen in a big city. Well, we arrived in Rishikesh today, and within the first two hours there were three power outages. (Each one lasts from five to fifteen minutes). Luckily, the hotel has a generator that starts working and within half a minute the power is back on.
And we haven’t even started talking about the instability of communications, but we’ll talk about that another time.
Well, maybe it’s because it was cloudy and rainy the entire day today …
On the way – from Kumarkot to Rishikesh, Uttarakhand
December 30, 2024
This is not the first time we have driven in India, last time we rode a motorbike from Mumbai to Kerala and back, and it is amazing how simple it is to drive in India 
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Why simple? – because there are only 3 rules. 1. There is a hierarchy here: cow, bus, truck, private car, rickshaw, motorbike, pedestrian. If you know your place in the hierarchy, there are no problems. 2. Everywhere drive as fast as possible according to the road conditions. 3. Always blow a horn.
Everything else is a recommendation, how many passengers in the car, which side to drive on, what color traffic light to pass… everything is a recommendation.
And on another topic. Yesterday we were in Rishikesh at a show for tourists (Aarti) – the sunset, the ceremony, the clothing, the singing, the lights… only one strange thing is that apart from us there was not a single tourist there. And like always in India, a million people passing flowers, singing, taking pictures and praying for good.
Besides that, we took a dip in the Ganges (almost ).
Big bucket, small bucket - Kashipur, Uttarakhand
January 1, 2025
Big bucket, small bucket. Anyone who has been to India knows this bathing method. You fill a big bucket with lukewarm water and pour the water over yourself with the small bucket. In every shower, even the most modern one with a faucet, a bathtub, and a bidet, there will always be a big bucket and a small bucket.
And why are we talking about this? Because we are in a luxurious hotel and of course there is a big bucket and a small bucket in the shower. And how do we know that the hotel is luxurious? Because at least 5 employees plus a manager arrive for each task. To clean the room, to take an order in the dining room, to bring a towel to the room, as mentioned, at least 5 employees plus a manager. Indians really know how to indulge you.
Here is a true story. We were walking in the market near the hotel (basically India is one big market, so you don’t have to make an effort to find one), the shift manager from the hotel (who happened to be passing by) stopped by us and asked how we were doing, then offered us his motorbike for the rest of the trip… Indian service!!!
Chaos? – Lucknow to Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh
January 5, 2024
When you look at countries like Syria or Iraq, countries created by Europeans with a map and a ruler, and to this day chaos never leaves them… and you look at India, which was created in the same way, and ask how it escaped this fate (at least until now). The answer may be that chaos is the way of life here in India. The huge amount of people everywhere, the mess, the dirt, the state of the infrastructure, the driving, everything is in chaos all the time.
Yesterday we drove on a highway that they haven’t finished building yet. About 20% is perfect, three lanes in each direction, everything is brand new. But the rest (as mentioned 80%) is paved alternately (sometimes on the right side and sometimes left and sometimes not paved at all). That is, you drive on one side of the road and there is traffic in front of you, and that sounds fine. Except that this is India, no one tells you which side to drive on and when there is traffic in front of you. You have to guess based on the traffic flow. And so on for 5 hours. And is anyone worried? No! This is India, chaos is a way of life.
We were in the city of Lucknow, which we had never heard of until the day before yesterday, over 4 million inhabitants, a modern subway, McDonald’s and Marks & Spencer… But even here, on the main street that has the best shops, there is no sidewalk, gaping holes in the area where there is no sidewalk, exposed electricity, and of course, the deafening noise of the beeping, and crowded, crowded, crowded…
We arrived at the Kumbh Mela – the largest festival in the world, reports to follow (hint, chaos).
The land of contrasts – Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
January 7, 2024
India is a country of impossible contrasts… Anyone who has been here knows this, and although it should no longer surprise us, we still never cease to be amazed . Indeed, to the Western eye, it seems that there is chaos everywhere here – on main roads, in streets, in shops. But this does not prevent the fruits and vegetables in the market from being arranged in precise geometric shapes, and in the confectionery all the balls, cubes and triangles stand in exemplary pyramids.
You have to navigate very carefully through crowded streets between the cows, their feces and yellow puddles that probably do not come from apple juice , but next to all of these there are temples and you are required to take off your shoes if you want to go inside. And then a couple arrives for a series of photos on the Ganges River in luxurious and sparkling suits and I wonder how they managed to make it without a single small stain on their long clothes.
There is quite a bit of dirt on the streets and the bins are not necessarily in use, but we saw many people sweeping the floor before the entrance of a house / shop / office, or simply the street…. Well, it’s not really called sweeping in the usual sense, more like moving dirt from the place to another direction, for example towards the next house or the road, and then they sweep there in the same way and so it goes in an endless loop .
In every restaurant there will always be a place to wash your hands… usually without soap (and this is also true in the McDonald’s we visited).
Most of the residential buildings in the city are old, not maintained and sometimes look half-built or half demolished… but on the walls you can see nice paintings, usually of gods.
The streets are full of noise and endless beeps (it’s not really clear what the purpose is because most sirens are ignored by everyone, including pedestrians), but this does not indicate any nervousness, on the contrary people seem calm and by the way always ready to help you out if needed.
Kumbh Mela camp – Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh
January 8, 2024
It took us a while, but we finally figured it out. Kumb Mela is like a summer camp for scouts.
First, the pioneer arrives and sets up a huge gate made of straw and bamboo, with rope spoons, wrapped in colorful cloth. Then they build a fence around the tribe, then they build a kitchen and living quarters for the privileged (gurus), and tents for everyone else, and most importantly, they set up a hut where you can just sit and stare (meditate). After the construction is finished, they walk around the camp to see what the other tribes have been up to.
Then the whole tribe arrives and stays in the camp doing nothing for a few days and returns home dirty but happy…
A summer camp… just multiplied by tens of thousands .
Anyway, we found some differences. The pioneers (monks) don’t really work, there have plenty of workers for that, and the tribe members don’t sleep in the camp either, for that they set up tent cities a few kilometers away from their guru (the area of the place is the size of Tel Aviv). Beggars, tightrope walkers, food stalls, tea vendors, camels to ride, snake charmers, and other forms of entertainment in impossible quantities… and full of weirdos.
Shree Ram temple – Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh
January 9, 2024
The Lord Rama is one of the most important gods in Hinduism, he is an avatar of the supreme God Vishnu (avatar is a word in Sanskrit). According to tradition, Rama was born in Ayodhya and this is where we visited today.
There used to be a temple here, on which a mosque was built, then the mosque was destroyed, and now the new temple is being built (I summarized several hundred years in one sentence). The fact that the temple is under construction does not prevent anyone from coming here and we, along with millions of Indians, came (in the first half of 2024, 120 million people visited here). The whole event is free, but the lines are endless.
Even before we reached the first checkpoint, we caught the eye of a nice policewoman, she approached us and said, “You are VIPs”, “No, we are not”, “Yes, you are” (VIP is the only word she knows in English). “What should we do?”, we asked, “Wait here”, and she ran off to look for an escort, and indeed, after a few minutes she returned with an escort, who turned out to be not qualified to escort high-ranking people like us (or at least that’s what we understood), “Wait here”, this time she returned with a replacement for herself and set out on a journey to escort us. At the first checkpoint, they thoroughly checked our passports, took photos, copied the details by hand into a separate notebook, and then the question comes “Where are you from?” (as if they didn’t learn the passport details thoroughly a few minutes ago). Here we need to open parentheses. Most of the Indians we meet don’t speak English at all, but they all know how to ask, “Where come?” which is the alternative to small talk, so when the officer asks where we are from, he is actually signaling that we have moved from duty to entertainment. Let’s go back to the first checkpoint, after the whole procedure, a new escort was assigned to us, and we said goodbye in tears to the policewoman who discovered us. Then to the second checkpoint, once again passports, careful study, photocopy, copy into another notebook, “where did you come from” and change escort. And so on, about 10 checkpoints (we stopped counting at five).
Now two questions are asked: The first is what the point of the inspection is – someone decided that it was forbidden to take photos of the statue and therefore the searches were aimed at finding a phone, camera, headphones, smart watch… They set up a mechanism here which includes hundreds if not thousands of security personnel looking for cameras. And the second question, was it worth being a VIP – well yes, yes and yes. Indians have no awareness of personal space and so in line everyone is close to everyone else like a flock of sheep in the rain, more than that everyone passes you, not maliciously or cunningly, just the man behind you moves you to the right and stands in front of you and the man behind him moves you to the left and stands in front of you. I think this is due to the fact that there are so many Indians that they simply do not see each other.
If the description reminds you of Disneyland queues and the VIP – it is not far from the truth… only in India.
Then we arrived at Rama, it is difficult to gauge holiness, people are really excited, shouting, praying, (we did not see anyone fainting, but we would not be surprised), and especially donating quite a bit of money to God. Each person has about 5 seconds to stand in front of the statue before the police push him away…
And the statue itself? Well, we saw more impressive ones, so, as you can see, we were impressed mainly because they made us VIPs.
The temple in the picture is not the main temple – because taking pictures is prohibited, and the monkeys – they are simply not afraid of humans, and we even saw a monkey trying to snatch a plastic bag from a man’s hands.
Prices – Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
January 11, 2024
Let’s talk about prices in India. In our opinion, after visiting several countries in Africa, South America, Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, we haven’t found a place as cheap as India. Examples:
Replacing a flat tire, including dismantling, repairing, and reassembling the wheel, takes about half an hour (because everything is done manually) – 1.5 euros.
There are hotels here with a score of 9.5 on Booking.com, a separate shower, a large room and parking for 4 euros per night. We didn’t try it because we don’t have enough courage, but it looks good in the pictures.
A meal for four with plenty of dishes and drinks (without meat) – 9 euros for all together and it is not customary to leave a tip. For those interested, we didn’t have an upset stomach following the meal (a clear sign of its quality).
A subway at European level costs 10 cents per station (in any case, there aren’t many stations and there is only one line).
A SIM card for a phone for a month with 1.5 gigabytes per day and unlimited calls – 4 euro per month (the more expensive option).
And the biggest surprise, medicines here cost a penny (8 rupees for 10 pills, which is 10 cents) and are sold per pill. And we’re talking about Western medicines like paracetamol or Imodium.
Ira usually evaluates the cost of living in the country by the price of a cup of coffee and a glass of wine. Well, coffee is less common here, but a cup of tea with milk (with sugar or salt of your choice) costs 25 cents, can’t talk about wine here but, instead of wine, a cup of squeezed sugarcane juice – 25 cents (you can get it with a teaspoon of salt for the same price).
And it’s important to add that throughout the entire trip we never had the feeling that there was a special rate for tourists or foreigners (by the way, the word for foreigners in Indian is – British).
In principle, with 20 rupees (about 25 cents) you can buy everything here.
That’s what it’s like when you have a billion and a half potential buyers – oh, the good life.
On the road again… – Lucknow, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh
January 12, 2024
One could write endlessly about the roads and driving in India… but it’s impossible to truly understand it until you experience it for yourself .
We, who have already been on the road for two and a half weeks (and spent about two months on a motorbike a few years ago), are still trying to define the algorithm by which the traffic system works here. In the meantime, we have identified two main basic assumptions:
The driver must always be guessing the intentions of the drivers around him – this is critical (!)… otherwise…, and the second thing, all drivers (including bicycles, peddlers and horse riders) are counting on you to know what to do according to their future intention, i.e. brake, swerve, slow down, let pass, and therefore enter the intersection, take a detour or simply drive in the opposite direction, without looking at the traffic – the traffic will already regulate itself around them .
And one more thing. All Indians are constantly busy moving things from place to place – everyone is carrying, pulling, dragging and tugging all kinds of things on every possible vehicle with wheels . And the cutest thing is that Google Maps, after an hour of driving when every twenty seconds there is an event on the road – a cow, an accident, a roadblock – displays a message on half the screen “Object on the road” 
– we searched, we didn’t find it.
HE 
