June 2-8: Shri Krishna Bhawan

Shri Krishna Bhawan front gate entrance during a special event

Four interns and I stay at the Shri Krishna Bhawan in minimal dorm-like comforts like fans and toilets. During this period, a local vendor would bring us our three daily meals. It is important to note that Indians eat much later in the day than Americans: about 8:30am-10:00am for breakfast, 1:30pm-3:00pm for lunch, and 9:00pm to 11:00pm for dinner. We have on large common water jug to drink from during the day. At each meal, we would eat in Raghu and my room on the floor near the entrance to the bathroom; all this area we walk around in our bare feet most of the time. The eventual sickness of eating like this aside, I learned from the interns how to eat like an Indian with my right hand.

The four interns are friends, all from southern India. Jacob takes it upon himself to learn my accent in order to improve communication between the interns and me. He was the first to really enjoy Infinity Blade on my Ipad. Raghu and Mahesh were a bit harder to communicate with and mostly kept to themselves. Raghu's downloaded movies supplied much of the extra entertainment to keep the interns sane during our little break before the real work begins. There is one more intern, but he had left and quit without really telling anyone.

The Temple for Shri Krishna Bhawan

Like the name of our place of stay suggest, it has a temple connected to it. Throughout the day, you can hear a bell ringing at the temple. That is pilgrims coming to wake up a god who sleeps all day. I joked with the locals that this was my kind of god, but the only thing is that if I were that god, instead of giving blessings to those who woke me up, I would be angry. I am tired after all and it is rude to not to let a sleeping god lie.