Update #3
Hello mentors!
A video showing excavation of the school site using a JCB excavator is being uploaded as I write this . I will update this post with the link to that video as soon as possible (update: this is done, video is shared above). We have excavated a leveled ground for the rooms for the school. We can create about five 20 x 25 square feet rooms in the excavated field.
Yesterday in the evening, (I write this on February 10, 2020), I walked through the village and ended up talking to a few kids who were happily playing cricket in a more populated part of the village. This part is surprisingly out of sight from the road. I told them I am here to start a school. A young father was also nearby and we started chitchatting about who I was and what I wanted to do. Then a couple of granddads passed by and offered me to sit with them in their home which I gladly accepted.
I had a nice conversation with them about the school and my ideology for the school.
I must say I made friends. I told them I am their neighbor now! I am gonna stay here. This is home for me now! This made them smile happily and all of us had nice hearty laughs during the conversation which veered into the spiritual!
They told me that they were happy that someone was planning to run a school here. They said that they would help as much as they can. They informed me that there was a good potential for students here especially from the low income households and scheduled castes and tribes. I was sitting in the scheduled caste section of the village. Villages here tend to be divvied up into two or three broad sections - one belonging to the "suvarnas" or higher castes and the other belonging to the scheduled castes. If my school is "seva" (service), I sat with my masters yesterday.
Since I moved to Batgal Rautela/Bhatt, I have felt a strange relaxation and sleepiness come over me. It's like how you feel when you let relax a tightly closed fist. I have enjoyed sleeping here, the room feels and smells like a nice room in a posh area in a city5, even better. The room is made of stones although the mistry (mason) covered it with plaster. Because of the stones, it gets warmer at night and remains nicely cool during the day time.
Birds of different varieties are always around and making soothing sounds. A dog visits me every day from a distance and then barks happily and goes away. There are two cats here. The evenings are blissful.
This place is sunny and has ample water for me.
I still haven't been able to start doing my daily homa, thanks to my beautiful night sleep and getting up later than usual, and unless that happens, I cannot truly say that I am settled here but I know it'll happen soon.
Alright. Please revisit this post for photos and videos that are uploading as I write. My internet connectivity is poor in the new place. Or shall I say poorer. I had to drive up to Sitalakhet to write this post and upload videos. I am trying to get a Ubiquiti device up at the home.
A video showing excavation of the school site using a JCB excavator is being uploaded as I write this . I will update this post with the link to that video as soon as possible (update: this is done, video is shared above). We have excavated a leveled ground for the rooms for the school. We can create about five 20 x 25 square feet rooms in the excavated field.
 |
| Excavating a leveled ground for rooms for the school |
Yesterday in the evening, (I write this on February 10, 2020), I walked through the village and ended up talking to a few kids who were happily playing cricket in a more populated part of the village. This part is surprisingly out of sight from the road. I told them I am here to start a school. A young father was also nearby and we started chitchatting about who I was and what I wanted to do. Then a couple of granddads passed by and offered me to sit with them in their home which I gladly accepted.
I had a nice conversation with them about the school and my ideology for the school.
I must say I made friends. I told them I am their neighbor now! I am gonna stay here. This is home for me now! This made them smile happily and all of us had nice hearty laughs during the conversation which veered into the spiritual!
They told me that they were happy that someone was planning to run a school here. They said that they would help as much as they can. They informed me that there was a good potential for students here especially from the low income households and scheduled castes and tribes. I was sitting in the scheduled caste section of the village. Villages here tend to be divvied up into two or three broad sections - one belonging to the "suvarnas" or higher castes and the other belonging to the scheduled castes. If my school is "seva" (service), I sat with my masters yesterday.
Since I moved to Batgal Rautela/Bhatt, I have felt a strange relaxation and sleepiness come over me. It's like how you feel when you let relax a tightly closed fist. I have enjoyed sleeping here, the room feels and smells like a nice room in a posh area in a city5, even better. The room is made of stones although the mistry (mason) covered it with plaster. Because of the stones, it gets warmer at night and remains nicely cool during the day time.
Birds of different varieties are always around and making soothing sounds. A dog visits me every day from a distance and then barks happily and goes away. There are two cats here. The evenings are blissful.
 |
| Magh Purnima Moon on the horizon above Almora |
This place is sunny and has ample water for me.
 |
| Fresh natural spring water piped from the spring directly |
I still haven't been able to start doing my daily homa, thanks to my beautiful night sleep and getting up later than usual, and unless that happens, I cannot truly say that I am settled here but I know it'll happen soon.
Alright. Please revisit this post for photos and videos that are uploading as I write. My internet connectivity is poor in the new place. Or shall I say poorer. I had to drive up to Sitalakhet to write this post and upload videos. I am trying to get a Ubiquiti device up at the home.
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