Sunny weekend and family bonding

  

Namaste Poland! It's already one week that we are in India. Till now we had an incredible time. There wasn`t even a minute that somebody felt unhappy or bored. Although the week was intensive specially the trip to Agra and Jaipur, we had a lot of fun. We've visited wonderful places and got to know their histories. Every thing in India happens for a reason, behind any building, holiday, festival, person stands a story. Sometimes it's caused by the will of people, but most often it's the act of gods. It can be easily seen that after the 3days trip we feel more comfortable with each other. Any differences have been terminated :) we started to understand better distinctness of our cultures. Seeing Taj Mahal, Jaipur and it's City Palace was an awe-inspiring experience. Moreover an elephant ride was a perfect crowning for the end of the trip. The time we spent together in Rajasthan is unforgettable, but we still have one more week in India and i'm sure it's going to be likewise amazing. 

The Holi festival which was today (Sunday) has already been kept up with our Agra&Jaipur trip. As we all know Holi Festival also known as festival of colours or festival of love is one of the biggest and most famous Hindu religious festival that is loved by the people all around the world. Unfortunately this year it was celebrated on 6th of March, so a week before we came to India. However our lovely Indian friends decided to recelebrated it for us. That's why today we've all met at Kavia's house and had best time of our lives playing with colourful powders and refreshing water. This was more that we had ever expected from this exchange. I can truly say that we all felt in love with India, it's culture, food and above all with Indian people. 

Gosia Majczak & her great host Richa 

 

Active weekend

Saturday 3/21/2015

Saturday started from a long journey back to Gurgaon. With break for very tasty lunch it took around six hours. Most of the way everyone was sleeping. After we arrived at Delhi Public School in Gurgaon we got back to our families. Then I had a few hours of rest.

At seven o’clock I went to a local market to buy new memory cards, because I’ve used all ones during trip to Agra and Jaipur. Later on we’ve visited Shubham’s grandfather brother who’s living nearby. Most of Sharma`s family lives there. We were welcomed with amzing guava juice. A Long time ago the home temple was built there, so they can pray to gods not moving from the flat. It’s a really nice place.

Sunday 3/22/2015. Today I woke up lately for local standards that is eight o’clock. After nutritious breakfast we went to Kavia’s place to play Holi, traditional festival of colours. It was organized by our Indian hosts, because we were late for the real one for one week. It was a lot of fun. When we washed ourselves we had delicious lunch on which I tried green pepper. It burned my throat.

 Pictures taken by Marcin Radwan

After this I went to Suleiman’s National Park. It’s a big lake with lots of birds living there. Including these which migrate from Poland, like ducks or white storks. I took some awesome photos there.

In the evening I went to grand shopping mall to buy traditional outfit called kurta for a cultural evening. Fortunately we did it fast so we could go to the restaurant and eat golgappa, Indian snacks. They were very good. And that was all for weekend which I enjoyed very much. As it was very active I’m very tired and have to go to sleep so goodnight everyone ;) By Marcin Radwan

The super Sunday blockbuster

Day 7 (22/3/2015) of 1^st Rhythm  of Indo-Polish Exchange-2015                                                           time:2130 hrs

Hello!!Dear reader

 Since ,today was the only Sunday available to us ,I  wanted to capitalize every moment of the day. While writing, I am happy to say that we did full justice to the time given to us, utilizing almost every second .(emphasis on the word ALMOST,you will see why)

The day started with me waking up at 0700 hrs(obviously),after which  I read the newspaper page to page (after 5 days!!!,due to this program). I found (surprisingly)an article on  Krakow and was wondering about coincidences, when I noticed how much time  I had been spent and went off to do my personal errands.

Today, we had planned to do varied  things, like writing the  blog, and  playing holi at Kavya Pasricha and Kasia Moskalska’s house. On the way to their house Marcin and I  were practicing each other’s languages and then I found(to his dismay and my joy) that he couldn’t properly pronounce the –da sound in “bada”(big in hindi).later, I found that the polish people cannot  pronounce the “ta-varg” of our script’s alphabet correctly. I was really happy because I was having great  difficulty in learning the words so  much so  that I almost gave up on learning Polish, where as Marcin was having a field day with our Hindi.  However the Polish fortress had been breached and there was something(finally!!) which they couldn’t pronounce.

We reached Kavya’s  house by 1100 hrs, we started playing holi. Earlier it was just applying colours to each other’s faces but it soon turned into what holi really is, a very colourful water fight. With Vrinda and Richa being the main protagonist of the transformation, who periodically threw water on everyone, so that they could get a feel of the festival. Everyone enjoyed the event!!!!! All  were dancing, singing ! This festival  had definitely increased the bonding between us,but the sad part here was that the Polish group had already played a similar ‘festival of colours’ which is  annually held in Krakow and started by an Indian(who else can!!!)to promote the culture of India. This took out the novelty value which I thought was in store for them but  since we had enjoyed it very much, I think I should keep quiet. We  then went to Sultanpur bird Sanctuary,near Gurgaon. Since Marcin likes to take  photos,I told him about this wetland  and the birds .Listening to my ideas he decided he wanted to come see place and  we went. Just as we entered the park, and my-my!!! there were dozens of birds ready to be captured by my eyes and Marcin’s camera- Kingfishers, Parrots, Crones ,Crows,Storks and so many more.,  The place was a  paradise. We just could walk and cover  15% of the area but in those 2 hours, the 5 rupees fees we had paid for us Indians and 40 rupees  for Marcin was nothing to the beauty of birds and nature that we had found there. We from the Sanctuary  went home for an hour and then we went towards the shopping mall.We went  to the mall to  show Marcin India’s growing culture and economy and  to buy some traditional clothes for him and to get him to  taste  our famous gol gappas. He liked the kurtas but gave an interesting nod to the ‘modi-jacket’ and yes, he gorged on the gol gappas and wants to eat it whenever he possibly can.I would like to conclude by expressing my gratitude to Mr and Mrs Pasricha, without whose  support, hosting this kind of event would have been impossible, to Anna ma’am and Mamta ma’am,who encouraged us to write this blog and to my parents for tolerating me I could have done much more  today,but I am satisfied that I have done something.

Dobranoc!!!

Regards

Shubham Sharma