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.