Midd Alumni: Cave Hunting

I love finding out what cool stuff Midd alumni are up to. OK, this isn’t an alumni blog or even the Middlebury Magazine, but this is awesome:

Will Hunt ’08 is traveling the world on a Watson Fellowship “exploring and narrating subterranean spaces.” He writes on his blog, “things happen down here,”

One of my last cave excursions in India was to the Karla and Bhaja caves, outside a small town called Lonavala. Both Bhaja and Karla are Buddhist, dating back to 2nd century BC. I went to Bhaja first. I befriended a shopkeeper in the village so he would take care of my bag fr a few hours, climbed a hill that nearly killed me in 100-plus heat, enjoyed the view over scorched Maharashtra landscape dotted with clusters of straw huts and the occasional Hindu temple. In the caves, I found a group of Indians performing a puja (prayer) ceremony. Lots of colorful body paint, a man with a whip, the remains from some sort of sacrifice. India is unfailingly photogenic. One man was so excited to have his picture taken, he climbed on top of the stupa in the main cave, which I can’t imagine wasn’t some form blasphemy. The stupa is the domed cylinder at the back of the cave. It’s a shrine: the representation or avatar of whatever god they are worshiping.  People throw coins on top of the stupa as offerings. The guy monkeyed his way up on top of the dome and started pocketing the coins, while everyone laughed. Later, a group of older women showed up dressed in matching vivid green saris. With them was one beautiful younger girl in yellow. Between not terribly discreet sidelong glances to make sure I had my camera on her, she started dancing and twirling, moves straight out of Bollywood films. I approached her later and she acted shocked, ‘You took pictures of me?’ While her elder escorts glared at us, she made me flip through every one, requesting that I zoom in on the ones she liked. See Bhaja Cave pictures here.