Take a walk on the wild side

Take a walk on the wild side

What an eye-opener! It started out as a walk to the archeological museum, but then we decided to follow some monks who looked like they knew a shortcut. Technically they did. But what a shortcut it was! We found ourselves amongst kids, goats, dogs, cows and everything else we are now used to. However, the road led us through the residential neighborhoods that are well off the tourist path.

We witnessed women washing clothes together, threshing wheat or something else I’m ignorant of and almost everything else that a “normal” day in Bihar might entail. Just for the record, you should know that Bihar, the state/province we are in (at Bodhgaya) is one of the poorest in India. The fact that the people can smile, play and work so efficiently is a mystery and constant source of admiration for me. They seem to lack every aspect of infrastructure that I thought was necessary to function. But they manage well and for the most part are modest, friendly people who freely gave permission to be photographed.