Let's Go Fly a Kite

Yesterday was yet another national holiday, so once again we had no classes (I still don't officially know what all my classes are so I'm not going to tell you about them yet. Be patient.) The occasion is known as Pongal, and if I understand correctly, it is a celebration of the beginning of the rice harvest season. Families celebrate by flying kites and making colorful designs on the ground in front of their houses (like the picture on the left). After eating a really delicious holiday feast that the cafeteria prepared for us, three friends and I ventured out to visit Golconda Fort.

The fort was in use from the 14th to the 16th century. I won't bore you with all the details, but if you want to know more you can read about it HERE. We had visited Golconda briefly during orientation, but we didn't get to do much exploring so we were eager to go back. Yesterday turned out to be a great day to go too because the view from the top was really spectacular with all of the kites flying all over the city. Unfortunately, the kites don't show up very well in pictures, so use your imagination.

There were a lot of visitors at the fort yesterday because of the holiday but my three friends and I were literally the only white people around. We didn't really think much of it, but the locals certainly did. Within five minutes of entering the fort a little boy and his mother approached us and asked if the boy could have his picture with us. "How odd! How cute!" we thought. A few minutes later a little girl stood by us while her father took pictures on his cell phone. Then again, as we began climbing to the top of the fort a whole family asked us to pose with them. The first five times or so it all seemed very silly and fun, but it all lost its appeal pretty quickly. Little children were cute enough, but we were less interested in posing with groups of teenage boys. Even as people walked by us we saw them slyly whipping out their cameras or cell phones. The whole experience was a little baffling. "Ah yes," they'll say as they pull out the treasured photo album, "Here is the day we visited the fort and saw those sweaty Americans!" They'll fondly remember the day that they text-messaged their friends saying, "OMG white grlz at Glcnda"


The climb to the top was long and tiring in the 80 degree heat, but really worth it. Climbing on dangerous rocks is also much more fun without those tedious American-style hand rails or danger signs cluttering your path. The view was beautiful, exploring the caves and corridors was fun, we got treated like celebrities, and the rickshaw driver didn't even try to rip us off on the drive back--best Pongal I've ever had!