In India, I am often reminded of how good people are.
Every day, I need to rely on the kindness of strangers to help me out.
Tuesday and Thursday are City of Knowledge days. City of Knowledge is the school run by Deep Griha for children living in rural areas who otherwise would not get an education. I was supposed to be teaching drama classes there, but more often than not I end up being a substitute teacher for any of the classes, or an aide to the special needs children in the school. Teachers in India are not trained to deal with children who are 'different', so these kids are very often ignored and left to their own devices for the entire school day. The teachers at Deep Griha's school are very eager to learn a different way of teaching- but with my half a degree in psychology, I feel barely competent enough to teach a third grade class about science, let alone develop a program for children with disabilities! But I am the only contact they have to the huge pool of knowledge that exists about helping children who are physically disabled or have ADHD or Autism. So, with the help of Google and my Developmental Psychology class, as well as the patience and understanding of the teachers who are only a little older than me, I am slowly trying to help as best I can.
Anyways, back to the original topic.
Every day in India, I am thankful for the kindness of strangers.
Teaching at City of Knowledge is half the challenge- it's getting there which can be the tricky part.
Getting there involves running after and jumping on a local bus (sometimes coming to a complete stop is too hard for the bus drivers). As you are trying to get on, you also have to push through the lines of people trying to board the bus at the same time as you.
Since I can't quite bring myself to push over the old lady that inevitably is always in front of me, I am usually the last person to board the bus. At this point in the morning, I have been awake for less than 30 minutes. I imagine that to many people, it looks like I've wandered in to this death trap by mistake- I'm usually staggering under the weight of a few bags and trying to eat breakfast at the same time, while using my newly mastered technique of keeping my sleepy eyes closed for as long as possible without getting killed. The kindly conductors usually take pity on me at this point- they offer me the seat at the very front of the bus, next to the drivers.
As much as I appreciate that they are trying to be kind, getting this special privilege makes me very uncomfortable. Fortunately for me Ashlesha, the school's principal, has no qualms in taking this seat, allowing me to go and sit with the locals in the back.
Sitting in the back of the bus feels like sitting on a roller coaster. Every few feet the back goes up with a bang, and the last five rows of people get launched up in to the air. I always get entertainment out of seeing people wake up midair looking startled, and then promptly go back to sleep within seconds of them sitting normally again.
I love sitting at the back of the bus not only because it feels like a roller coaster, but also because it's a great chance to meet the locals. On the way to the village I meet lots of industrial workers and teachers- all of them delighted to expand my Marathi vocabulary. On the way back the bus is full of people coming back from farms, and I almost always get offered food ("Try it! I picked it minutes before getting on the bus."). It's rude for me to say no (and I probably wouldn't say no anyways!), so now I am well acquainted with many of the local foods. Fresh yogurt, custard apples, pomegranates, bananas, and cane sugar. Spiced potatoes, masala corn with lime, chai, and pickled mangoes. Some of it requires a bit of courage on my part to eat, and all of it is good.
As much as I love my work here, whenever someone asks me what my favourite part about India is I always reply without hesitation "meeting the locals!". There's such a feeling of community here, and I've never met a friendlier group of people. People who I barely exchange two words have no problem with inviting me in to their houses and their lives.
We recently went to a museum. The owner of the museum, determined that we should have a fantastic experience, adopted us as his family. He showed us around and then, at the end, sang us a traditional song.
All of us international volunteers recently planned a trip to the water park. After a long, but fun, day we sat in the parking lot waiting for our driver to arrive. It was getting dark, we had no idea where we were, and we weren't in a particularly nice area. A restaurant owner came out and invited us on to his patio. He chatted to us and gave us chai and fruit while we waited.
I know that it's been a long time since I've updated, and the blame for this can be put on many of the local volunteers. They are determined to show us around, invite us in to our homes, and help us experience every part of India. They've taken us to every touristy place in Pune, and made sure that we experienced the best that Indian street food had to offer: Vada Pav (my favourite thing by far- a deep fried, spiced potato in a fresh bun), Samosas, Pav Bhaji, and Paan (something which I can happily spend the rest of my life never having again, but was apparently 'essential for the true India experience').
For those of you who don't know what Paan is, it's a betel leaf which cardamom, saffron, different flowers, coconut, etc, according the user's personal preference. You are supposed to chew it, enjoying the flavours, and then spit out the red juice. Paan is very popular here- there's red stains all over the ground from the tobacco-stained spit.
Every time a festival happens, the local volunteers take us to the celebrations.
Festivals and celebrations happen here extremely frequently- as soon as the 10-day Ganesh festival has wrapped up, we had a rather festival-free week (only one festival day!) before the next major festival: Navratri, the festival worshiping dance and Shakti. For nine nights everyone gathers and dances late in to the night. The tenth day is a day of family and worship- gifts are exchanged. This festival also happens to be during the time the Ram defeated Ravana, as narrated by the Hindu scripture, Ramayana. I think it also celebrates many other things, but this was as many as I could remember!
Our friends Prateek and Gavrav took us to a Dandiya celebration during Navratri. Everyone dresses up in their best and meets to dance together. Friends of theirs taught us some of the dance steps used, and we all danced in a circle together until we were completely soaked with sweat. Everyone kept joining our circle, and at one point our circle took up nearly the entire dance floor!
It was an amazing experience- one that I don't think I would have been able to have had I just been traveling around India. The costumes that people wore were absolutely mind-blowing... apparently this 9-night celebration causes the highest fabric sales in India. In my best clothes, I felt way under-dressed and not nearly colourful enough. The costumes of the men and women were brightly coloured, covered in embroidery, and had mirrors, sequins, jewels, beads, shells, and other flashy materials sown in.
There are really no words to describe the mish-mash of all the things that have happened since I last updated. Instead I will leave you with a few pictures from the last week (stolen from Olivia and Naveed... thanks guys!!), and the promise to update soon sometime next week. A lot is going on at Deep Griha now, and I'd really like to fill you in on everything I do there. I'm off to a hill station for the weekend, hence the quick update now,
Every day, I need to rely on the kindness of strangers to help me out.
Tuesday and Thursday are City of Knowledge days. City of Knowledge is the school run by Deep Griha for children living in rural areas who otherwise would not get an education. I was supposed to be teaching drama classes there, but more often than not I end up being a substitute teacher for any of the classes, or an aide to the special needs children in the school. Teachers in India are not trained to deal with children who are 'different', so these kids are very often ignored and left to their own devices for the entire school day. The teachers at Deep Griha's school are very eager to learn a different way of teaching- but with my half a degree in psychology, I feel barely competent enough to teach a third grade class about science, let alone develop a program for children with disabilities! But I am the only contact they have to the huge pool of knowledge that exists about helping children who are physically disabled or have ADHD or Autism. So, with the help of Google and my Developmental Psychology class, as well as the patience and understanding of the teachers who are only a little older than me, I am slowly trying to help as best I can.
 |
| My monkeys |
Every day in India, I am thankful for the kindness of strangers.
Teaching at City of Knowledge is half the challenge- it's getting there which can be the tricky part.
Getting there involves running after and jumping on a local bus (sometimes coming to a complete stop is too hard for the bus drivers). As you are trying to get on, you also have to push through the lines of people trying to board the bus at the same time as you.
Since I can't quite bring myself to push over the old lady that inevitably is always in front of me, I am usually the last person to board the bus. At this point in the morning, I have been awake for less than 30 minutes. I imagine that to many people, it looks like I've wandered in to this death trap by mistake- I'm usually staggering under the weight of a few bags and trying to eat breakfast at the same time, while using my newly mastered technique of keeping my sleepy eyes closed for as long as possible without getting killed. The kindly conductors usually take pity on me at this point- they offer me the seat at the very front of the bus, next to the drivers.
As much as I appreciate that they are trying to be kind, getting this special privilege makes me very uncomfortable. Fortunately for me Ashlesha, the school's principal, has no qualms in taking this seat, allowing me to go and sit with the locals in the back.
Sitting in the back of the bus feels like sitting on a roller coaster. Every few feet the back goes up with a bang, and the last five rows of people get launched up in to the air. I always get entertainment out of seeing people wake up midair looking startled, and then promptly go back to sleep within seconds of them sitting normally again.
I love sitting at the back of the bus not only because it feels like a roller coaster, but also because it's a great chance to meet the locals. On the way to the village I meet lots of industrial workers and teachers- all of them delighted to expand my Marathi vocabulary. On the way back the bus is full of people coming back from farms, and I almost always get offered food ("Try it! I picked it minutes before getting on the bus."). It's rude for me to say no (and I probably wouldn't say no anyways!), so now I am well acquainted with many of the local foods. Fresh yogurt, custard apples, pomegranates, bananas, and cane sugar. Spiced potatoes, masala corn with lime, chai, and pickled mangoes. Some of it requires a bit of courage on my part to eat, and all of it is good.
 |
| So much good food!! |
As much as I love my work here, whenever someone asks me what my favourite part about India is I always reply without hesitation "meeting the locals!". There's such a feeling of community here, and I've never met a friendlier group of people. People who I barely exchange two words have no problem with inviting me in to their houses and their lives.
We recently went to a museum. The owner of the museum, determined that we should have a fantastic experience, adopted us as his family. He showed us around and then, at the end, sang us a traditional song.
All of us international volunteers recently planned a trip to the water park. After a long, but fun, day we sat in the parking lot waiting for our driver to arrive. It was getting dark, we had no idea where we were, and we weren't in a particularly nice area. A restaurant owner came out and invited us on to his patio. He chatted to us and gave us chai and fruit while we waited.
 |
| In the really, really safe-looking ferry on our way back from "Asia's largest water park" |
I know that it's been a long time since I've updated, and the blame for this can be put on many of the local volunteers. They are determined to show us around, invite us in to our homes, and help us experience every part of India. They've taken us to every touristy place in Pune, and made sure that we experienced the best that Indian street food had to offer: Vada Pav (my favourite thing by far- a deep fried, spiced potato in a fresh bun), Samosas, Pav Bhaji, and Paan (something which I can happily spend the rest of my life never having again, but was apparently 'essential for the true India experience').
For those of you who don't know what Paan is, it's a betel leaf which cardamom, saffron, different flowers, coconut, etc, according the user's personal preference. You are supposed to chew it, enjoying the flavours, and then spit out the red juice. Paan is very popular here- there's red stains all over the ground from the tobacco-stained spit.
Every time a festival happens, the local volunteers take us to the celebrations.
 |
| Navratri- doing some folk dancing (Dandiya) |
 |
| Learning the dance moves- as you can see, we were really good at it |
 |
Festivals and celebrations happen here extremely frequently- as soon as the 10-day Ganesh festival has wrapped up, we had a rather festival-free week (only one festival day!) before the next major festival: Navratri, the festival worshiping dance and Shakti. For nine nights everyone gathers and dances late in to the night. The tenth day is a day of family and worship- gifts are exchanged. This festival also happens to be during the time the Ram defeated Ravana, as narrated by the Hindu scripture, Ramayana. I think it also celebrates many other things, but this was as many as I could remember!
Our friends Prateek and Gavrav took us to a Dandiya celebration during Navratri. Everyone dresses up in their best and meets to dance together. Friends of theirs taught us some of the dance steps used, and we all danced in a circle together until we were completely soaked with sweat. Everyone kept joining our circle, and at one point our circle took up nearly the entire dance floor!
It was an amazing experience- one that I don't think I would have been able to have had I just been traveling around India. The costumes that people wore were absolutely mind-blowing... apparently this 9-night celebration causes the highest fabric sales in India. In my best clothes, I felt way under-dressed and not nearly colourful enough. The costumes of the men and women were brightly coloured, covered in embroidery, and had mirrors, sequins, jewels, beads, shells, and other flashy materials sown in.
There are really no words to describe the mish-mash of all the things that have happened since I last updated. Instead I will leave you with a few pictures from the last week (stolen from Olivia and Naveed... thanks guys!!), and the promise to update soon sometime next week. A lot is going on at Deep Griha now, and I'd really like to fill you in on everything I do there. I'm off to a hill station for the weekend, hence the quick update now,
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| Sinhagad Fort- left to right: Gavrav, Sholeh, Prateek, Becky, Naveed, and me! |
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| The view from Sinhagad |
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| The girls (minus Jemma) |
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| No one else could bring themselves to try the fresh curd... it was interesting! |
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| Power outages are pretty normal here- I heard a rumour that there are a lot of strikes going on right now, but they're not being publicized |
I guess the pic u refer as Shaniwar wada is Sinhagad.. Do check dat..
ReplyDeleteOther than that ur blog is really interesting.. I get to see India with a different perspective...