Gandhi and Kipling

*Update: Photos added

The first meeting of the Quit India movement was held here

The last two days have been busy but amazing.  Both days have had events from 8am until well after 10pm. On Monday we spent the day about 2 hours outside of Nagpur in a district called Wardha.  We first stopped at an engineering college (AVBIT) and they had a spectacular cultural presentation for us.  There was a yoga presentation, dancing, singing, a fashion show of the authentic womens clothing styles of the different regions of India and a short question and answer period.  We were given great gifts and we even got to ride in a traditional Indian ox-driven cart.  Tyler captured some great footage of the rides and the cultural program.  After the college we spent the afternoon at Gandhi's ashram at Sevagram.  Accompanying us was an amazing and passionate political science professor from Nagpur University.  He provided us invaluable insight and inspiration.We also stopped on the way home at the ashram of Gandhi's first disciple Vidoba Bhave which is located at a beautiful riverside location. A perfect sunset provided an excellent close to an inspirational day.

Gandhi's Seven Social Sins

Today we went on a jungle safari at Pench National Park which is about 3 hours north of Nagpur.  It is the jungle that Kipling wrote "The Jungle Book" about and it is so beautiful.  We rode in open top and open sided jeeps they call gypsies. We saw a lot of wildlife but unfortunately not the elusive tigers that they have in the park. We saw lots of black and pink-faced monkeys, two types of deer, peacocks and quite a few birds.  The other group of local Rotarians that were with us were lucky enough to see a leopard.

Indian Spotted Deer

Black-faced monkeys near a Ghost Tree