India 3

India 3 - Guntur & Surrounding Areas

After the ILBS was over, Steve was invited to give what turned out to be a BIG deal seminar (see below) at Acharya Nāgārjuna University in Guntur. Prasad was kind enough to tour us around the university and take us to a bird sanctuary, a Hindu/Buddhist museum and a Buddhist temple (that was unfortunately closed for construction). This was the end of our stay in the Vijayawada/Guntur area and we were put up in a very nice hotel in Vijayawada before our hop flight back to Hyderabad for the remainder of our trip.

This is a shot of La-orsri and her two graduate students at the entrance to Acharya Nāgārjuna University. Acharya Nāgārjuna was a famous Buddhist thinker, which explains the figure of Buddha behind La-orsri. Interestingly, although Buddhism started in India (the Buddha was an Indian prince who shunned the caste system and went off to meditate and became enlightened), Buddhism is quite rare in India today (<5% of Indians are Buddhist)!

Prasad arranged for us to visit a local Buddhist temple. Unfortunately, it was being renovated and thus we couldn't get in. Nonetheless, it was interesting from the outside! Note the ever-present group of goats!

Here you can see the crowd that Steve was presenting to! It was literally "standing room only" with ~150 people in attendance! They included the President of the University, the Provost (Prasad), the Dean, local dignitaries, plus all the faculty and students in Biology! It was quite the experience, to be sure, and by far the largest group that Steve had ever lectured to!

After the ILBS, Prasad arranged for Steve to give a "special lecture" at Prasad's university (Acharya Nāgārjuna). This is a shot of Steve giving his seminar. If you look closely on the right of the poster behind Steve you will see a GIANT picture of Steve's head! It turns out this "special lecture" was a MUCH bigger deal than Steve realized!

After the seminar was over, it is apparently customary in this lecture series to treat the speaker like a major BIG deal! Here is a shot of Steve being presented a brass Ganesh by the President of Acharya Nāgārjuna University. This is after he had been draped with a ceremonial shall and given a ceremonial hat (that was too small for his HUGE head), and a large bouquet of flowers! It was a real HONOR to be treated in this way, and you may note the stunned look on Steve's face after being showered with such niceties! (Also note the partial view of Steve's HUGE head on the poster behind him on the right!)

As in Thailand, one of the best aspects of India was the FOOD! Steve and Claudia LOVE India food, and we have PLENTY to choose from. After Steve's seminar, Prasad took he and Claudia to a very nice restaurant in Guntur. This was an appetizer that was served by one of the 4 "servers" that hovered near our table to do everything short of pre-chewing the food!

After the meal in Guntur, Prasad took Claudia and Steve to a 4-star hotel in Vijayawada. We had an excellent room near the top of the 10-story hotel. It was quite a nice treat after the long day of meeting with various dignitaries and University officials. The above is a view from the window of the hotel. Vijayawada is a city that is in the process of modernization. They still have open sewers that run along the streets, but you can see huge sewer pipes all over the place and lots of construction, so they are clearly dealing with this problem. You can see one of the open ditches running along the side of the road on the right of the picture above.