rishikesh, rafting...

just got back from a fabulous weekend in rishikesh. went up to see my friend eamon for the diwali holiday 4 day weekend back to the camp where I went with my middle schoolers a month ago.

diwali is a fabulous hindi and nepalese holiday celebrating the return of king rama from his 14 years of exile in the forest. "Divali/Diwali" come from the Sanskrit word "Deepavali" . Deepa/dipa means "light of the dharma", and avali means "a continuous line". The more literal translation is "rows of clay lamps" (thanks wikipedia).
nonetheless the holiday was celebrated on the beach by lining the tents and the shoreline with candles, and heaps of fireworks being blasted off. it was lovely to be out of delhi where the same thing happens...reeking havoc to the environment and such.

so i spent the weekend in the sun, playing cards, rafting, enjoying campfires at night. eamon and i were able to head into rishikesh a few times too and saw the aarti ceremony, we lit some candles and floated them down the river with our sins.
to the left are veejay and eamon at the camp.

back to the valley now. marveling in holiday bliss. anticipating the next holiday and doing good work in the meantime. lots of love, b