Yesterday, we drove all the way from Agora to Vyas Ghat, the famous confluence of the Nayar with the Ganges. It’s a storied place on the world’s holiest river. Big fish have been caught here – including the likely world record for rod and reel caught mahseer. Local communities use the area for funerals because it’s a big, open beach right next to the river. Wild animals come here to drink and relax. The river meanders in the shape of Om, the most sacred mantra in Hinduism and Buddhism. We’re just downstream of the first major confluence that forms the Ganges proper, Devprayag, where the Alakananda and the Baghirathi come together. There are a lot of reasons to be where we are.

For the rest of the day today, we’re going to battle the heat (the heatwave has lingered and we’re expecting temperatures around 110 F despite our elevation and proximity to cool water) and explore the major ideas that make this place so interesting. We’ll do some fishing. We’ll interview laborers living just upstream from our comfortable eco lodge to learn about their stories and what they bring to the area. They’re here to work on a major train project that includes massive tunnels through these sensitive mountains and tracks right along the river. They often poach fish and wildlife from the forests to supplement the meager meals they’re served by their employers. They come from Bihar and Nepal. We’ll visit a few temples and religious sites in the area to get a sense for the scale of the river’s spiritual significance. All of these things – religion, development, and environment – will be complicatedly interconnected.

The students are excited to be somewhere new but are also clearly missing Agora already. Some of the things at this pretty upscale spot are familiar – the coffee, the omelettes on order, the air-conditioning. Some of them feel strangely unfamiliar after being as rooted as we were in Agora for 10 days. It’s a bit disorienting. The kids wore puzzled faces at breakfast. There’s a lot of thinking going on.

We’ll wake up tomorrow and make the most of another 2/3 of a day here. Then we’ll move further downstream to Rishikesh, where the Beatles wrote the white album and millions of pilgrims come every year to interact with the Ganges and visit temples and holy men. That will be another puzzling stop as we work our way with increasing speed towards Delhi and the end of this adventure.

Suman stayed back in Agora to be with his family for another day or two – mom’s request. Praveen has taken his spot as the local leader of the trip. There’s a lot for all of us to learn as we take on new roles and think about things from new perspectives. It’s fun to watch that in our students but also to recognize it in the lives of people like Praveen.

Several students owe blog posts at this time and are working to finish them right now. I promise you’ll get to read their words soon!