Kolkata and the Best Zero Waste Event Ever!

We are a bit backlogged on our blogging, but we wanted to write ab0ut K0lkata before our 10-day vipassana course that starts TOMORROW!!! Scary, 10 days of silence and about 10 hrs of meditation each day. If we can get through this though we think we can get through anything. Right now we are sitting in an internet cafe in Bodh Gaya escaping the tourist traps and little kids trying to get money out of us. I think we both have a hard time saying no to people, especially kids, and we have been swarmed the past couple days here from every angle.
Despite that, I think both of us can truly say we would rather Indians be over friendly than not friendly at all. We have been extremely lucky in terms of meeting people and being invited to events and homes everywhere. Our last day in Kolkata this worked to our favor when a Sikh friend we had made invited us to accompany him to the birthday party of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, a central figure in Sikhism. I made the mistake of thinking he was still alive and that we might see him, only later to find out he was born around 1469?! I think we both agree with the Sikh form of celebration, 3 days of continuous free food for everyone! We walked in to literally thousands of Indians shuffling in and out of the celebration and quickly covering our heads with makeshift cloths and hiding our shoes in a corner. Our new friend, Upender Singh, showed us around to the cooking area and we were allowed to "help" make chapati bread for a few minutes, which involved them correcting our mistakes more than anything!! It took me a bit, but after my second cup of chai in a reuseable mug, I asked Upender where the trash can was. He pointed to a tiny empty basket, which moments later was just filled with reuseable mugs (later handwashed for more chai).
How incredible, literally 50,000 people+ and over three days of continuous eating and NO TRASH!!! Not just was there no trash, but no recyclable bottles only, just compostable dried leaf plates, food and mugs. The food was made in huge tubs jointly, with the richest and poorest Sikh alike cooking side by side. The food was eaten with your hands and the plates taken into a huge pit and later fed to livestock and composted. The most incredible part for us was that not one event goer realized the significance of what they were doing, no one was touting their environmentalism, there were no Zero Waste signs, people just did it. It was like, of course, why should there be trash. This is not to say the hygenic standards (if any) were spectacular, but Ashley and felt good and the vegetarian food was pretty damn good! The welcome we received was very warm from everyone there as well. Hopefully throughout our trip we will keep falling into events like this and learning from the simplicity some have to offer.

Hi Everybody!

Hope things are well back in the U.S.! After a 40 min bus ride from Basudha, a little remote farm in West Bengal, we finally made it to an Internet cafe in Bishnapur so we can give you all an update. It has beena fantastic journey so far. We were out in the middle of a rice field inWest Bengal when we heard about Obama's victory we were ecstatic! Weended up celebrating the victory with a few glasses of Mahua a kind ofliquor fermented from the fruit of the local Mahuha tree!! Even Bengaliswere excited about the victory even though they know very little englishthey knew the phrase Obama Fever lol:)So on to our adventure. It has been a fantastic journey so far. Startingin Mumbai we were lucky to have 3 friends who work for CNBC India andwere able to show us around to some really cool places they knew. Ourfirst week was filled with crowded markets, racing taxis, screamingbollywood music, and the Diwali holiday fireworks day and night. The cityof mumbai never sleeps, and neither did we. We had a blast up until thevery last minute when our friends had to jump off of the moving trainthat would be taking us 36 hours to Durgapur, we pretty much traversedthe belly of India from west to east. The train ride was restful,sleeping, smoking Bidis out the side car and enjoyingchai tea and good indian food, it was very nice.Getting off at the Durgapur station we were immediately hounded bychildren, taxi drivers and shop keepers, we shoved our way directly tothe crowded square filled with beeping buses and cries of Bengali townswhere they were headed. After repeatedly asking several people forBeliatore (pronouncing it totally wrong of course) we found our bus andslung our tired bodies in the bus standing with our packs on in thecenter isle all eyes on us... lol. Eventually, a english speaking
passenger told us to throw our bags on top of the bus, relief... 30minutes later we were hurried off the bus into the streets of Beliatorewhere we took a taxi to Basudha. We have now spent 7 days in Basudha, asustainable agricultural research station, in the middle of remote ricepaddies of rural West Bengal. Along with us, the inhabitants of theentirely handmade adobe farmhouse includes Dr. Debal Deb, us and about 4 other guys who work there. It is a absolutely beautiful and serene. Wewake up with the sunrise every day, do research in the field when we canand just relax take in the beauty of nature and at night enjoying musicand meaningful conversations with the Dr and his friends. What they aredoing at Basudha is absolutely amazing, if you have a chance to check outthe website you should. http://www.cintdis.org/basudha.htmlWe are going to spend our day in Bishnapur today and then off to Kolkatatomorrow. After that we will be starting our Vipassana course in Bodhgayawhich will last for 10 days. We should have phone service in Kolkata sohopefully I can reach some of you then.If you want you can contact us at 091-9987747678, do it before Vipassanathough because we can't communicate while there starting on the 16th ofNovember.