"Mera nam Asha hai"

Dehradun is a quaint city at the foothills of the Himalayas. During the day it gets to be very hot, but in the morning and at night the city offers a quiet, chill breeze. I have been waking up at 530 each day to walk to yoga down the street and witness the magic this city has to offer along the way. This is my favorite time of day in Dehradun. It is so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

The other day Aman introduced me to a 12-year-old girl who lives nearby. Her name is Asha. Asha knows very little English and wants to improve, though she has no reinforcement at home as her parents, brother and sister do not speak any English. The first day we met I could sense she was nervous to communicate with me. Her legs were shaking and she did not say much at first. The best way to learn something is by actively engaging in it, so I decided it would be a good idea to take a walk with one another. We planned to meet the next day at 10 am, and we were going to walk to get shampoo. She helped me ask for the shampoo in Hindi, and then we walked back to the house and sat down to look at her school books. She showed me her English, Hindi, Math, History, and Geography books. We both decided we liked Geography best so we opened up the book, looked at several maps, and talked for an hour or so. At the end she said, "Tomorrow at 10?" I said, "Deal."

We have since been meeting up each day at 10 to take walks and practice English (and Hindi) together. Ankieet had let us borrow his camera, so yesterday Asha and I walked around Dehradun taking pictures. She had never used a camera before and so she was pretty excited. We strolled the city for awhile taking different pictures. She walked me to town and showed me the different shops. In India there are practically no road rules, so it is very common to see a road scattered with cars, rickshaws, bicycles, motorcycles, people, cows, vendors, taxis, etc., each of which honking at one another every few seconds. Here, honking is not considered to be rude. In fact, it is absolutely necessary (which makes a walk through town quite a noisy experience). Asha walks through town rather fearlessly, and her knowledge of direction is very great and helpful.

We are meeting again tomorrow to continue talking with one another. It amazes me that she was nervous to meet me the first day, as there is probably more I can learn from her than she could ever learn from me.

Here are some of the pictures she/I took:

 The street to the yoga studio

 Ankieet's father

 Strange vegetable

 The back to the kitchen in our home

 The Pranic Healing Center at our home

Asha

 The kitchen

 Outside the Vipassana house

 Asha and her house

 Asha said I had to take a picture in this tree

 Picking a lychee from the tree. There are lychee trees and mango trees everywhere in Dehradun

 Outside Asha's house

 Asha and her sister Rika

 This city has a jungle feel

 Morning traffic

 Asha

 My bedroom

My desk

 It is sometimes easy to forget you are in the mountains here. So I climb on the top of the roof for the best view of the city. Surrounded by the Himalayan mountains and a beautiful town

It is so relaxing on the roof, and the breeze is so inviting. I think I will sleep here tonight