Life's Luxuries

July 10…I woke up to no running water…all of a sudden I began to appreciate the cold morning showers. The entire neighborhood was without water supply. People gathered at the water pump to fill their buckets and jugs. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes for water, I was finally able to take my first bucket shower. It actually wasn’t so bad…the thing that bothered me the most was the toilets weren’t flushing. The rest of the day consisted of sitting in front of a computer documenting the research and on-site observations we had made. Later that evening, our water situation got even worse. The water pump had been turned off! We would be without any water until the next morning. After dinner that night we found ourselves having to fill up water bottles from a natural water source about 15 minutes away.

The next morning, our water pump was back on and I found myself feeling fortunate to be able to take a bucket shower. This day again consisted of sitting in front of the computer compiling our information as well as visiting an internet café to do some research on future structures we would be analyzing. I was shocked at how little information was able to get on the fort we would be visiting the next day, Kotla Fort. The most detailed information consisted of a description of the structure being located in the Kangra Valley…and that was it.

On Thursday, we woke up early in hopes of having a productive day…however, as usual things went slow…our driver was over an hour late, our lunch took longer than expected and before we knew it, it was past noon and we were just arriving. Once I saw the fort from a distance I understood why I couldn’t find any information on it. It sat on the side of the mountain, looked completely abandoned and was not easily accessible. We had to walk across a shallow river and hike up a trail covered in moss to reach the main entrance. It felt as if we were on a jungle safari…the air was hot and humid, we were surrounded by vegetation, huge bugs were crawling and flying everywhere, and monkeys surrounded the fort. Most of the fort was in ruins. It seemed as if it hadn’t been visited for ages….although we did see some locals hanging around nearby. After our site visit, we headed back home and to our great surprise, we had running water!!! I couldn’t believe how excited I was to take a shower that didn’t involve filling up buckets! Just as we were celebrating our electricity went out….so there we were…working on our laptops under candlelight…that only lasted a couple of hours so it wasn’t so bad.

Friday we decided to work at café in McLeod Ganj, the nice little town up the mountain. This ended being a great success since we were able to get out and work at a café where we had everything easily available....and we could work while we waited for our food! Usually taking the time to stop work and going out for lunch wastes so much time. The service is usually so slow and something always seems to go wrong that going out to eat becomes such a hassle. While sitting at the café we met a Tibetan refugee named Dawa. He was quite nice and recommended some restaurants and places to visit around the area. After working for hours, we walked around McLeod Ganj with our new friend and had dinner at a Tibetan restaurant where we enjoyed some delicious apple wine, a specialty in the area.

The following day we worked most of the day and decided to hike up to the temple where our good yogi friend lives, Vinod. Our hike up was so nice…we met a nice Indian family during one of our rests and a couple of cute little Indian girls up at the temple. We sat around the shrine, enjoyed some tea and watched Vinod and some local Indians perform rituals and sing religious chants…one local played along with some bongo-like instrument and Vinod joined in with some other percussion instrument called a chitar (?). After dark, our driver came to pick us up and we found ourselves having to walk through the side of the mountain using only two flashlights! We all had to hold hands while trying not to fall off the side of the mountain...this was quite a sight :).

Sunday we enjoyed working at a laid-back café near the waterfall we had visited the previous week (I forget the name of this area...). The rest of the day consisted of working at other cafes and finally having dinner at nice, cozy restaurant.

Overall, our work has been improving, however, our list of buildings to survey has not been finalized. There seems to be some confusion and disagreement over what type structures we will be evaluating. So far we have looked at temples and forts...I was hoping we would be able to look at more residences since I feel it is imperative to understand how people are building their houses in order to even begin to give ideas of how to implement safer construction practices. Tomorrow we will meet with a PhD student who apparently studied earthquakes in the Kangra region....I am hoping he will have valuable input in terms of recommending important structures to study....and hopefully, he will recommend some residences. So far we have completed surveying four structures, three of which the documentation is mostly done.

On a personal note, I feel myself gradually becoming accustomed to life around here. Running water, electricity, internet access, fresh fruit, vegetables and a clean toilet have all become luxuries. Cows, monkeys, dogs, flies, dirt roads and horrible driving have all become part of my daily life. Although my time here has been somewhat rough at times, I have not at any point regretted coming. There are moments throughout each day that I stop to think about how fortunate I am to have this opportunity. This experience has already changed much about my mindset on life and I feel that it will continue to do so.