Sunday, August 27, 2006

India Day Two

We're back from our second day in India - a day full of history, and more and more of the drama of everyday life here.

Our first stop was at the mansion, now a museum, which was the home of India's first prime minister, Nehru, followed by a visit to a museum about Gandhi - India's legendary hero of the fight for independence (and the proponent of fighting for change through non-violence. Gandhi's museum featured a state-of-the-art multimedia presentation - while Nehru's was somewhat ragged at the edges - like most of India's infrastructure.

We also spent a couple of hours at a religious festival featuring dozens of craft booths - we all came home with a load of goodies....the dollar goes incredibly far here. We had dinner tonight for five people for ten dollars - and it was a lot of food. We ended the day at a fairly primitve, but nonetheless interesting sound at light show at the Red Fort, a huge, ancient military fort that has been the center of several critical events in India's long history, including the announcement of India's indepence in the 1940's.

Some of India's infrastructure seems like it's crumbling, while there's numerous improvements road improvements underway.

Still, the streets are teeming with people, and we are constantly pursued by beggers.

Tomorrow, we begin what we came here for - teaching teens filmmaking, and taking the first steps in creating an international connection with young filmmakers in America.

More tomorrow!! I'm offf to sleep.

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