The first night we arrived at Tepantar it was ten p.m. and we were all exhausted.  I was not sure what staying at an “ecovillage” would be like – even though I had seen photos on the web – but we discovered it was just one step up from camping.  That didn’t phase me much, I grew up camping.

In any case, I could have slept on rocks that night, I was so tired from a long day of visiting craftspeople and a set of incredible historic terra cotta temples.  I just wanted to crawl under the heavy, scratchy woolen blanket on my bamboo cot and fall into dreamland.

We stayed three nights in this small rural oasis run by the Ebong Amra theater group, and it became one of my favorite parts of the trip.  The theater group not only performs plays they adapt from traditional tales (which they did for us the last evening we were there) but the members also maintain the ecovillage, do the cooking, and raise chickens and fish, working toward self-sufficiency.

It was wonderful being away from everything, eating under the trees in the morning and the stars at night, gathering around a campfire singing and telling riddles and jokes, and sitting on a rough wooden bench beside the pond in the early morning writing in my journal, to the music of doves and rooster crows.   Who cares that some critter chewed a hole through my canvas camera bag or that there was no hot water in the semi-open-to-the-elements bathroom?

For three nights and mornings Tepantar was home, a safe and welcoming place to return to after adventures in the larger and busier world, and I was sad the morning we had to pack up and climb back into the van for our trip back to Kolkata.   Even though, I have to admit, I was looking forward to hot water and a softer pillow when we got there.