'The road less travelled'

The last week of term at Sri Chaitanya sped by in a blur. I still can't work out why, considering we spent the whole day supervising study and invigilating exams, but I guess the urgent computer work which was given to me the day before I left (I think the Sirs panicked a little that there would be know one to help them with technology!), the last minute altering of my new Punjabi and the reaction I had to the red cone which Haseena put on my arm all contributed to a lack of time. So when Gopi knocked on our door to tell me that the magic had arrived to take me to the station in Ongole, I was still speed packing. Of course, we still arrived over an hour before the train actually left and I even had time to have a quick catch up with some of the other volunteers, who were meeting Ongole before heading off on their holidays too.

First stop was Bharavi and Sugathi's apartment in Secunderabad because I had a full day to wait between my two trains - who knew that travelling from Ongole to Hampi, which are in line with each other, could be so difficult! Still, I had a lovely dad with my Indian mom and dad, who took me to their house on the edge of the city. It was lovely to leave behind the bustle of Hyderabad and relax, listen to classical Indian music and share a picnic (of curry). But all too soon it was back to travelling and probably one of my worst nights in India. My train to Hampi was from a station on the edge of Hyderabad very late at night and involved a ride on Bharavi's moped and two long bus journeys to reach the station. By this time it was dark so I quickly found my train on the information board and headed to my platform to wait. Slowly I became acutely more aware of the lack of women until I was searching to find a single other female around me. With my heavy luggage, I didn't really want to have to get up and move, but slowly I noticed men coming closer and closer and paying more and more attention to me. In the end, I quickly grabbed my bags and headed back to the busy entrance area to check my train. Lucky really, because my train had been moved platforms. A phone call to mom helped to calm me down (although was slightly selfish of me, sorry mom!) but I still couldn't help but notice the jeering boys and staring men. Over two hours late my train finally arrived, and somehow I made it through a rather sleepless night. Looking back, the situation could have been a lot worse, but it has certainly made me reconsider ever travelling alone.

On a more positive note, after giving a fake facebook name to an Indian man and dashing off the train before he realised that he wasn't going to find me, I found Nuala and Caitlin, the two volunteers who stayed with me at the beginning of my year, waiting for me at the train station. It's so strange to think that we hadn't seen each other for eight months and made me realise how quickly my time is running out - only about twelve weeks until I return on August 1st. Nevertheless, we've got a jampacked six weeks ahead of us and Hampi was such a good place to catch up, unwind and start our holiday. We were lucky enough to catch a festival too (although I'm still unsure as to which one!) which involved multicoloured carriages being pulled by crowds of men, which everyone was throwing bananas at in an offering to the Gods. Adding the drumming, swarms of people and paint throwing to that, made it a slightly surreal spectacle to watch from the rooftop of our hotel. After the excitement was over, we wandered around the various temples, which were surrounded by boulders left from volcanic activity. I think we could all have easily spent a week taking it all in. Unfortunately, we had to move on to more travelled paths; next stop Mumbai.