Travel Diary | Day 10 : The Night Out

16.10.2014 [ Thursday ]

I woke up super early today.  There was plenty of time before the morning circle at 6. So I took my camera and went for a morning stroll. The moon was full and that was the only available light. Of course that wasn’t enough for me to focus perfectly. But I still tried. I pushed the ISO to its limits. The pictures were grainy and I started to love those grains. Again attempting to embrace the imperfections.

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The different view of the dorm hut in the morning. Hope you will like the grainy views.

The early day moon

And it was a pleasure to witness how a day was unfolding in that forest.

Slowly and steadily the day brightens up

And making everything around it lively

And it is a new morning..to start anew..

It was time to join the wonderful people. Another day at Sadhana started.

First seva and till breakfast was similar like previous days. But seconds seva I opted ‘Bees and Termites’. it  was a  very interesting seva.  The entire hut is made up of bamboos, wood, dry coconut leaves and stuffs. So these termites can damage the bamboo and wood. It makes holes in the wood and destroys it in a course of time. In order to prevent this happening, we need to find the holes and seal it. The holes made by the termites can be differentiated by the look of it. But spotting the holes are the fun part. For that one need to climb up each nook and corner of the hut, searching each inch of the bamboos. I really enjoyed climbing all the way up and going to the very top of the hut like Tarzan hopping from one branch to another. And believe me it was a bit scary too. But it was an adventure that I enjoyed. Later that day I had decided that this was going to be my second seva for the next days to come 😀

Soon it was time for lunch. There wasn’t any particularly interesting thing after the lunch, except that it was our’ Night out’ day. On Thursdays there won’t be community cooking for dinner. Those who are interested can use kitchen and cook for themselves or in small groups. But all others are allowed to go out and enjoy themselves. So everyone was free to go outside of Sadhana that day after the lunch. As I had no moped or bike, I had to find someone who was willing to give me a lift.  So my new friend Tabea happily agreed to give me a lift.  Our plan was to go at around 6 and have our dinner.

So it gave me some time in the evening to go for another walk to capture the evening hues of nature.

A bit of experiment in the evening

Sun didn’t wait for me that day too.

An evening at Sadhana

But I found some red sun like things.

Colourful Nature

And it was time to head out for dinner. Soon  one of my dreams were going to realise!!

Soon we were ready to go out. One more guy was also coming with us. But when we tried to start the TVS Moped..

Ok, for those who are thinking what is a  Moped, it  is a very compact motorbike. TVS is an Indian company who is the main manufacture of Moped.

Mopeds

So when we tried to start the Moped it wouldn’t start. It was raining all day, and water might had gone inside the spark plug or something. But luckily our moped started and that of the other guy didn’t start. So We tried to ride the Indian way 😉 all three together on one bike.  But the moped wasn’t very powerful enough to carry three of us. It never made to the next corner. So the other guy decided to come later with some one else. Thus we two head out for dinner.

And thus my dream came true. 😀 I always wanted to ride a moped!! But I never got to ride one as It wasn’t very common near where I live. I always wondered how people can sit patiently on a moped and travel at a constant painstakingly slow speed 😀 But I soon realised that I was wrong. Riding a moped was fun, even though it doesn’t give any break neck speed. Just kick-start and vroooom. Just accelerate and go. In earlier models, it has got pedals to start it instead of kick-start, thus the name MoPED. And the strange noise of engine, especially at high revs gives the moped ride a different charm. No one can forget that noise if you have ever ridden a moped.

We enjoyed riding the moped at night. We had dinner from a restaurant after rejecting a plenty of other restaurants. I guess, not being a native can restrict your choices while in India for someone from outside of India.  She is German and didn’t like many of the restaurants where I would happily go and have food if I was alone.  I was learning many of the problems, foreigners facing while in India!

After the dinner we rode back to Sadhana through the forest. Yet another interesting day came to an end.  See you tomorrow.

If you miss the previous day

Travel Diary | Day 9 : The Non Talent show Night