In case you're wondering where I'll be for most of the next two years

My program starts off on Aug 15 (yes, the Indian Independence Day) in Ahmedabad, the western state of Gujarat. After a month of orientation with all the other fellows there, I move onto my project site in Bagar, Rajasthan. It is close to the district headquarters (Jhunjhunu). The nearest famous city is Pilani, famous for the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS).

To get a better feel for where I'll be, check out the following map on MSN Encarta. Bagar is just north-east of Jhunjhunu (spelt Jhunjhunun in Encarta).

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/mapcenter/map.aspx?TextLatitude=39.45&TextLongitude=-98.907&TextAltitude=0&TextSelectedEntity=39070&SearchEnc=false&MapStyle=Comprehensive&MapSize=&MapStyleSelectedIndex=0&searchTextMap=jhunjhunun&MapStylesList=Comprehensive

About the Havelis in Bagar, Rajasthan

One of the other people on my project in Rajasthan forwarded this article recently. Definitely worth a look.

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2005/04/03/stories/2005040300110100.htm

If the link is down, you can access the pdf from here: http://www.box.net/public/qmx124opfk

Anybody have any other articles to share. Kali, any first-hand experiences?

Hi Everybody,

Welcome to my blog from India. As I am about to embark on my two years of community service in India, I hope to use this blog as a way to communicate and update all my friends, family and well-wishers on my experiences, my struggles and my successes.

You can track my progress in the coming months (and learn more about the organization) at the Indicorps website (www.indicorps.org). In case you're wondering what i'll be doing while I'm there, here's the project description (http://bigmuthuwarrior.googlepages.com/ashish%27sindicorpsproject)

Do stay tuned!

Update: Here's me posting a picture to my blog. Because apparently that's how you can upload a picture to your profile in blogger. So far it seems to be pretty HTML intensive - which I can definitely handle (and I like, coz it's you, tinkering with code). Wonder how the normal "junta" deals with it...