Christmas day is almost over in India, now it is time to share what I did my first Christmas away from home:
The morning was spent laying in bed watching a Christmas-esque movie “The Holiday” the only “Christmas” movie I had. At first it was depressing being so far away from and alone. I finally forced myself out of the hotel room to go explore more of the city. The other day I was recommended to check out Pune Camp. This is an older part of the city where the British settled when they were in power. I had no idea where Camp was. I just jumped into a rickshaw and said, “Camp, MG Road.” Zero idea what direction I was headed or how far it was. It was a mini adventure. I arrived into Camp and just started walking around and taking photo’s. It was definitely an older part of the city and the British influence was apparent in the architecture. Incredible old buildings that were in rough shape but still maintained there original beauty. I ventured into a small mall that had Christmas decorations and a pitiful attempt at a Christmas tree. The effort was there and it made me chuckle a bit. This area had a lot of poor people and beggers around, mainly children. As seen in the “Photo of the Day” there were babies napping on the side walk which to them was their home. Out of respect I tried to be as discreet as possible when taking photo’s of this. I didn’t hold the camera up to my face, I just held it by my side and snapped a few photo’s while walking by. Shortly after this a boy around the age of six was harassing the people in front of me for money. He was grabbing at the woman’s purse and everything. Stupid me didn’t move to the street to avoid this, instead I just walked past it. It was my turn to be harassed. The boy started grabbing at me, I continued walking moving him out of my way and covering my back pocket which had my wallet. The next thing I know the boy is wrapped around my leg. I continue walking trying to shack him off. Nothing was working. I had no small change to give and I was told not to give anything, once you do, they swarm you. After a crowd was drawn, I managed to shack the boy off and I just ran away to the other side of the road dogging traffic. I continue to wander around the area. I had a few locals wish me a Merry Christmas. A few people inquired about my lip ring and one man asked me to take a photo of his baby daughter. There were cows, goats, and dogs everywhere in the streets. One goat was wearing a t-shirt as well. It was nice area and I definitely will be returning in the future to explore some more (maybe with some locals next time.)
For dinner I met up with Nikita and Aditi for a nice Christmas dinner. We went to a rooftop restaurant in the newer part of the city. Christmas dinner this year was composed of roti, paneer and pepper, biryani rice, and long island ice tea. After dinner they brought me to try this thing called a BD. A BD is a single tobacco leaf dried, rolled, and then tied with a thread. Apparently this is very common in smaller villages. For a pack of 25 or so it cost 10 rupees which is 20 cents Cnd. Aditi then drove me back to the hotel. I skyped my parents, sister, brother in-law, niece and nephew. It was great to see them!!!!! I made a few phone calls and went across the street where out of no where I was given a complimentary Chai (served cold this time and was similar to a shack.) Nice little ender to a different version of Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone! I miss you all, especially my family! Love you!
P.S. I found an apartment and get the keys on Tuesday. Everything is falling into place and I am almost settled in!
