The New Suakholi

This afternoon, our trusty Honda Unicorn took us 10 km to a place called Suakholi where we each enjoyed a cup of chai. Our indulgence cost us a total of Rs. 20, or about 33 cents.  Suakholi was a fairly frequent chai stop for Paul when he was a boy in the 1960's, and for both us when we lived here in the 1980's. 

In both the 60's and the 80's, there was only one shop in Suakholi where chai could be had--in an aging mud plastered building. The situation has changed dramatically since we left India in 1990, and the new Suakholi at the junction of two roads, boasts at least a dozen shops where chai and other refreshment are available. This change reflects other significant changes that have occurred in the state of Uttarakhand.

Hundreds of kilometres of new roads have been built, connecting villages to towns and major centres. The vast majority of villagers still can't afford their own vehicles, but jeep-taxis, motorbikes and buses have proliferated. Villagers who formerly had to walk, can now travel great distances with relative ease, and for minimal cost. As well, the emergence of an Indian middle class, now more than 300 million strong, has led to exponential growth in the Indian tourist industry. The mountains of Uttarakhand are a huge draw.

There is still far too much desperate poverty, but on the surface it seems to us that standard of living and quality of life have improved considerably for most people here in Uttarakhand.

Just for fun, here's a set of slides showing the range of watering holes available in the new Suakholi.

Writing at GEMS

This week Paul has been back to GEMS, the school where he has the delightful privilege of helping out. He has now set up 4 laptops with special software that enable the children to listen to what they write. They can even listen in a special Indian English voice. 

Today, the 4 laptops with the special text-to-speech software were introduced to classes 6 and 7. The children in both classes are working on stories about their mothers, and the children are taking turns using the computers to write final drafts. They can listen to their work to help edit what they have written.

It is evident that the students of GEMS love their mothers very much. They are completely engaged in this project, and producing great work. Paul will visit the students' villages to take pictures of the moms, so the photos can be included with the stories. The finished stories will be shared online, and perhaps published on paper. Stay tuned...

Paul travels 23 km each way on his motorbike to get to end from GEMS. Here are a few pictures taken along the way to and from school today.

The Magnificent Garhwal Himalaya

This past week we enjoyed a marvelous opportunity to explore some of the spectacularly beautiful 'Garhwal Himalaya'. A major highlight was a hike beyond the tree line  to the summit of Chandrashila, above the Tungnath Temple. Chandrashila is at an elevation of 4090 metres (13,419 feet), and the panoramic view from the summit was awesome in the truest sense of the word.

The "trail head" for Chandrashila is the village of Chopta, which is the beginning of a major rock-paved walking road that has been built for Hindu pilgrims.The ancient temple is situated about a kilometre below the Chandrashila summit. Although there's an elevation gain of nearly 1,400 metres (4,600 feet) between Chopta and Chandrashila, the hike did not seem overly strenuous. The scenic payoff would have been worth far greater effort. 

We've included just a few pictures in the slide show below to give you an idea of the tremendous beauty we experienced--along the trail and on the summit. (You may need to view the slide show in full screen mode to see the captions, especially on a handheld device.)

The two minute video below shows just some of the panoramic view from the summit of Chandrashila. We were delighted to learn that the Youtube video editor allowed me to slow down my rather rapid video pan!