August 13 and 14 were busy days at our school in Bodh Gaya, even though there were few classes. The students and teachers, and a couple of assistants, were excitedly decking out the school for India’s Independence Day. The preparations included decorating and erecting a long, thick bamboo pole to serve as the flagpole. (Construction workers in India, where frugality is the norm, often use this kind of bamboo to construct scaffolding.) The students nonetheless took the time to join us in indulging in some handstands, cartwheels and other physical shenanigans. Good thing it wasn’t a competition — they might have beaten us hands down, as it were.

In the afternoons, we continued our explorations of the fascinating town of Bodh Gaya, which seems to alter a little day by day. The monsoons had brought some reprieve from the swelter, but they left mud puddles to negotiate. And the mud was sometimes blended with the output of the cows that ruled the streets all over town. It amazed us to see how so many businesses, including barbers, operated beside the road in the open air.

We also spent some time getting acquainted with the children of our host families and relatives, who spoke varying degrees of English — the older boy was most fluent. He told us that a year earlier, they had found (and killed) a cobra in their front yard. Apparently, it was (so we hoped) a rare occurrence. But we couldn’t help but admire the bravery of the workers who toiled in the marshy rice paddy beside us, with nary a shoe or boot among them.

On Tuesday the 14th, we were sitting in the travel agency owned by our host, getting some work done on our laptops, when an Independence Day parade passed by. It included an Indian flag that was, honestly, about a block long. The parade wasn’t as loud as a typical U.S. Independence Day celebration (no fireworks), but it was — and forgive us if we overuse these words — quite colorful and fascinating.

Aug 13-14, 2022