A Serious Relief.

On Saturday the 14th we all gathered in the hotel lobby at 4am to load up the vans and head off for Mamallapuram, a sea town that we had been reading and talking about all week. 

There's something quietly exciting about rising hours before the sun and loading up a car to head off for an unknown destination. It's kind of a nostalgic feeling for me, I get the same little sleepy butterflies that I used to have when my mom would stir me and my sister from sleep to transfer us into the back seat of the car while my dad would load up the trunk for whatever camping expedition we were embarking upon. 

This time, it was the beeping of our dinky little indian cell phone that brought Alexa and me to our senses at around 3:30am so that we could change, brush our teeth, grab our backpacks and head downstairs. Even at that time in the morning it was steamy with heat outside, not in a way that was bothersome but in a way that warmly reminded me how epic it was that I was going on an Indian field trip. 

After double checking for passports, cameras, cash and our text books, we loaded up the van. From nowhere, Archana appeared with these big auspicious looking boxes. "Hot Breads," they said.... Maybe 30 seconds after the engine started, the Hot Bread Box in my van was open. Big beautiful pastries were passed all around and a Bollywood film was popped into the van's DVD Player (we're fancy, huh?). Road trip Bliss.

Helena, holder of the Hot Breads box!

We arrived in Mamallapuram right as the sun was rising and were greeted by The Great Relief, something we had been adamantly studying all week. It's got more allusions, intentional ambiguities, religious iconography, political statements, and farce in it than you can even imagine. This is why going on a school trip to India is actually a super cool way to see the country- it's nothing like going on a tour or going with friends and family but rather a living, breathing, readable version of a textbook. 

After analyzing grainy black and white images of the Great Relief and so many other fabulous cave reliefs that are scattered around Mammalapuram, seeing it all in person felt almost like a magical experience. 

Stoked on the elephant.

Practicing Aestheticism. Serious Business. 

Running around Mamallapuram really was like running around the pages of our book, and Archana was reading aloud to us the whole time. We got there so early that no one was there to tell us not to scamper down to the bottom of the Great Relief so we could touch it with our own hands, and we continued to really take in the art, beauty and significance of the surrounding caves for quite a while. 

Archana knows everything about everything. 

The sun was just coming up, we were so happy to have 'Hot Breads' in our bellies, the weather was supreme, and the religion and history of the place seemed to dance before our eyes.... India made a home in my heart that morning. 

Sonia, Mitchel and Michael climbing things.

Really beautiful Pallava Script.

Chillin' with Becky in a little meditation nook.

Climbing Visnu, nbd.

Stoked on the auspicious life. (Please ignore my pants.... ahhh indian clothing is stressful... more on that later.)

Alexa and I overlooking Mamallapuram and the Bay of Bengal.

So stokedddd.

Lovin' us some Visnu.

Group meditation sesh turned yoga tournament turned album cover photoshoot.

This all happened before 8:30 in the morning. We had yet to have breakfast (Hot Breads didn't count, apparently), see the Shore Temple, take a nap, have lunch, go to this wonderful little craft village, have dinner, and finally head down to the beach to put our feet in the water before going to sleep. 

How auspicious is my life right now?