Bal Ashram

I was able to spend a short time at an ashram in Varanasi for orphaned and abandoned children.



It is situated in an area where the roads were quite muddy due to recent unseasonal rain, but once through the gate one encounters an oasis of serenity.


Kamala welcomed me with tea and then a tour of the library/music room, kitchen, dining room, children's rooms, and staff/volunteer quarters. The children were already in their classrooms next door.




What a treat to see "in person" a nonprofit partner of the Center for Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa, where I serve on the board of trustees.

A small world: The tour group I am traveling with, Overseas Adventure Travel, uses the Radisson Hotel in Varanasi. Kamala told me in an e-mail that the ashram has a "friend," Gita Singh, in charge of the travel desk at the hotel. Imagine my surprise when Gita arranged for a driver and a hotel car to take me to the ashram with the compliments of the hotel (I tipped the driver, of course). Not only that, Gita is a director of Bal Ashram!

-- Posted from my iPhone