From here you wind your way up through the beautiful but crumbling Victorian architecture of Landour Bazaar. The small shops here are home to, among others, several silver smiths and many tailors. You pass clusters of old men sitting on collapsing porches playing cards. Horns blare as cars, motorcycles, scooters and pedestrians make their way up and down the narrow lane.
From the top of Landour Bazaar it is another ~2km steep climb up to the Landour Language School and my hotel. My hotel, Devdar woods is named after the towering pines (devdars) which cover the mountain. The building itself is a converted house, and has a homey feeling.
The people of Landour and Mussoorie are amazingly friendly and welcoming. As I have said, I think I will float away on a river of chai, as anybody will take any opportunity to invite you to sit and have chai.

I am of course drinking chai and watching the activity around me. Two men are reading a Hindi newspaper at the next table. Three women in bright green, pink and purple saris are hauling loads of cement in flat metal bowls on their heads. The loads are heavy enough that they can’t hoist them up, but need help. I have noticed a lot of women involved in construction.
An Ambassador (a popular Indian car) taxi squeezes past my roadside table, belching black smoke. There are no sidewalks here, and much less division between space for people and for vehicles.
The weather changed today. It is the first day without rain. The weather here changes by the minute: at the moment it is sunny and hot, in a moment the fog has rolled in and you are cold. In this way it reminds me of Berkeley. Everybody here says that the weather in October will be beautiful, with views of the snow capped Himalayan peaks.

From where the taxi dropped us off, we crossed the river on a bridge, and headed upstream to one of the main temples, the Lakshmi Mandir. We took a dirt path which wound its way through the woods, passing Sadhus (ascetic holy men) at every turn. I visited my first Hindu temple here, and received a blessing. The temple was cool and calm in contrast to the heat and bustle outside.
The real turning point of the day came when we made our way to the bank of the Ganges to bathe our feet. The river has an amazingly powerful presence. Sitting with my feet in the stron current, watching the water rush past me, I could understand how people worship it as a god. As a friend said, “The Ganges has all that weight of human history.”
I would like to relate a small incident which occured on our way back to the taxi. We stopped on the path to have a chai at a small cart. There were several sadhus there, one of whom appeared very stern and quiet. He watched us intently, and barely responded when spoken to (in Hindi). When the chaiwala handed my friend Antoine his chai, Antoine yelped, “hot” and passed the glass back and forth in his hands before giving it back to the chaiwala. Everybody broke out laughing, including the serious sadhu. It was a very human moment.

On Saturday morning I got up early so I could make the 30 min. trek to the Gurudwara by 8. I spent the morning helping in the kitchen (peeling carrots, radishes and potatoes), and then serving lunch. At the end of lunch I was recruited to be the photographer for a group of bangra (Punjabi dance) dancers who had come all the way from the Punjab. They were lots of fun, and I got to watch them getting their costumes on.
Next came a parade through town to take the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh holy book) through town to the other Gurudwara. The procession consisted of a very loud band (in which brass instruments and drums seemed to compete with their own sound system), the bangra group (who were amazing!), a group which danced and fought with weapons, mounted flag bearers…
At every turn thre were people giving away chai and prasad (food offerings). It was certainly the slowest parade I ever saw. Every 100 ft or so, groups would stop to perform, give Prasad, etc. It took three hours to get to the end of Landour (about 1.5 km). By then it was 6 PM and they had 3 km to go. I decided to bid my friends farewell, and head up to my hotel.
Sunday I again made the early trek down to work. This time I only worked for a couple of hours, and then dragged myself home. As I told a friend here, it is work that is good for the soul, but hard on the body. So, I’m happy but tired!