F.R.I. on Fri

I went to my first museum in India today: the F.R.I. on Fri(day). I like it.

The F.R.I. has some beautiful natural sculptural works (that you aren't supposed to take pictures of) that they label as diseases with latin names - trees, fungi, bugs... but it does make sense since the Forestry Research Institute is just covering their mandate.

Natural Sculpture on display

 The shapes and textures and colours... were amazing!

This beautiful area and stupendous building (not only a museum but a large campus with a few different schools and a University that has M.Sc and Ph.D. programs in forestry and environmental sciences) were a great early afternoon adventure!

F.R.I. building (one of three wings)

Fuls (Hindi for flower) in the garden posing for a picture

Fools (English for those who wear goggles*) posing for a picture
(*note: googles are the Hin-glish name for Sunglasses)

 It was already well over 23C degrees at 10:30am when we started our adventure to the F.R.I. but that didn't stop me! Oh no! I was definitely going to see the uhh... at that time I did not actually know what the place was called... uh... the... um... National Forestry... something... say "Department" was the only way I could help poor Banita as she asked for directions. But in our defense it seemed that two of the five guys who could indicate our course of travel thought it was called the F.I.R. and one of them had no clue what we were talking about (and we were less than 1 km away from the place).


NWFP = Non-wood forestry Products

What did I learn today? Well... there is a lot of great information, beautiful design and important history associated with the forests in India and, by default all over the world. As one sign I saw yesterday said "a Tree is an International Smile." Awww. But really, after seeing the "Social Forestry Museum" and the vast array of non-wood products I hadn't even considered when I thought of forests... I was amazed!

I think this poster says it best...



word.



St. Patrick's Day at the Hill Station

Ambassador

Helpful signposts

Hill Station view

The Library (aka. bazaar)

The Mall (aka. Main Street)

This and next year's Saint Patrick Days will be unique. This year will be celebrated with the least amount of fanfare possible. Ever. No green beer. No "Kiss Me I'm Irish" t-shirts. No four leaf clovers. No jigs or drinking songs.

I am frightfully sure that next year will more than make up for it. I'm sure I will be shocked.

However, today I am just waiting for an Ambassador (hopefully white!) to take me up to the Hill Station. How much more British Raj can it get? I will stop for tea and hope to brush up on my accent at the very least. Maybe I should also find a white safari hat and suit and ivory walking cane to tour around with? I think St. George* might be the closest I come to celebrating any Saints today...

Mussoorie here I come!

Former misunderstandings, busted:

NOT Missouri, USA

NOT a restaurant in Dehradun.

Fast facts I just armed myself with:

Altitude 1880m,

aka Queen of the Hills,

snow-ranges to the North East and the Doon Valley in the South.

In 1832 was intended to be the termination point of the great Survey of India to set up a new office for the Surveyor General (not the Surgeon General...)

The name Mussoorie is attributed to a derivation of 'mansoor', an indigenous shrub. As of 2001, there are about 26,000 people living there.

*Home to Woodstock (school) and St. George's college.

Camel's Back road is a point of interest along with Bhatta Falls, Nag Devta temple to Snake-God Shiva, the Municipal Gardens, the Library Bazaar and Sir George Everest's house (yes, the mountain was named after THIS Everest).

And the town is also home to India's largest roller skating rink.

Week off...from Vacation?

So this is Mid-Terms week at Doon School... and that means no classes. I am doing a bit more social service work but mostly art and trying to plan a few tourist-y portions of my India Adventure.

I have several exciting places to ponder but have no definite plans yet. Well, I guess that's a lie. I do have one train ticket booked, but I will save that for another Blog post (it's a solo-excursion for a few days next week). However, I am still enjoying things in Dehradun! Yesterday I managed to replace my alarm clock and this new one is definitely an upgrade! It has 9 different tones to choose from for the alarm sound, lights up and has a timer and thermometer - which means I can now tell you that's it has officially reached 30C degrees here (since when I got the clock back home it was 29.5C and that was already after 5pm).

Yes, it even has a "Birthday Reminder"

Back to trip planning for the post-April 11th (and then off to a day/residential program for children who are differently-abled for social service today).

Oh and on Sunday March 20th it's Holi. For those of you who kinda know... it's the festival of colour! Sounds like a good time :)