Up In the Desert

                We are back from our spring break travels up to the desert of Rajasthan in Northern India! I went with three other girls to explore Udaipur, Jaipur, Agra (to see the Taj Mahal) and Delhi. I loved Udaipur the most. It’s a city of lakes and palaces. We spent a few afternoons drinking lime soda in rooftop restaurants and one morning doing sunrise yoga! We took an overnight train to Jaipur, the Pink City, which I thought really exciting. They have little bunk beds that fold down and you get your own blanket and a pillow. We took a day trip outside of Jaipur to ride camels through a village; of course I was somewhat terrified of the camels, but it was still a good time. We also rode elephants up to the Agra fort in Jaipur! The Taj in Agra was absolutely stunning. It’s officially my favorite piece of architecture in the world. It’s fantastically beautiful, with carved marble flowers and inlaid stonework. We had a nice last afternoon in Delhi going to the Museum of Modern Art, where we wished we had even more time to peruse the paintings. All in all, it was an awesome trip. The perfect combination of relaxing and exciting. We had some funny moments with our driver Kumar, who only liked to drive us to the spots his tour company had a deal with. At one point he told us “You need three things to drive in India. 1. A good brake 2. A good horn and 3. Good luck.” Those were definitely all true, as we ended up in a few terrifying traffic situations, especially for the person who was sitting in the middle back seat with no seat belt.

                My classes are mostly over now, except for one that I have a few mornings a week. Now we’re all doing our internships full time. I’m working at an NGO called Deep Griha Society (means “lighthouse”) that works in slum and rural development. They have a ton of programs that they run out of their main center and others in the greater Pune area. Their employees lead women’s education classes, child daycares with a nutrition component, youth empowerment programs and HIV/AIDS awareness and family support. They have a clinic on one floor for members of the Tadiwala slum community to come in a get free HIV/AIDS testing. It’s an amazing NGO. The woman who started it, Dr. Neela Onawale, has an incredible amount of energy. I had my first full week there last week. I’m still trying to figure out what exactly I’ll be doing for them. I really enjoyed going on home visits with the HIV/AIDS counselors who visit families in the slum who are affected by HIV and encourage them to come in and receive free meals at Deep Griha.

                Overall, my India experience has been fulfilling and satisfying, but in the last few weeks I’ve started to feel the strain of living in a developing city. The traffic is incredibly frustrating. Today my friend was legitimately almost hit by a car that came up from behind her and sped across the sidewalk to turn into an alley. It doesn’t help that it’s now 100 degrees every day. I’m looking forward to coming back to the comforts of Western life- fluffy beds, clean water and a society where people wait in line for their turn. Living in India is like a constant struggle to get your share of the pie, when there is really not enough to go around.

                I have really been enjoying this pottery class I’m taking with another girl from my program. Once a week we go to a woman’s home and sit on her kitchen floor making pieces out of clay. She and her husband are both young artists. He paints and does some sculpture as well. It’s fun to see what another Indian household is like. They seem really happy in their cool artsy home and are both incredibly down to earth.

                Here are a few pictures from our travel week up North!

 Beautiful Udaipur!

Taking security pretty seriously...

Getting comfy on the over night train.

Lassi in Jaipur out of ceramic cups- when you're done you break the cup throwing it in the trash.

Camels in the Samode village.

Major traffic jam.

My new desktop background:)

My Big Fat Indian Wedding

I needed a whole separate post to devote to the wedding Viveka and I went to with Preeti last weekend! Preeti's daughter's friend's husband's brother was getting married, so naturally we were invited. Viveka and I each wore one of Preeti's daughter's saris. Here are a few of the pictures:

Preeti tying my sari before the wedding.

The bride, in the attire she wore for the actual ceremony. Indian brides usually have three or four wedding saris. She changed into another, simpler, but beautiful one to greet guests.

Our most festive wedding outfits.

Hall of the wedding right before the ceremony.

Mumbai

I just got back from five intense, amazing days in Mumbai. I feel like I saw a condensed version of all the aspects of urban India in those five days. We spent Wednesday- Friday with the Alliance program, going on some really interesting, educational visits and then Friday night to Sunday morning we explored on our own.

The program staff took us to the Gandhi museum where Gandhi’s great-grandson spoke to us about India’s position today in relation to Gandhi’s message. His calm, centered demeanor was exactly what I think Gandhi must have been like. He talked about how people shouldn’t look to others to be their leader; they need to organize themselves around what they care about.

We went to the Bombay high court and sat in on two cases. After, we talked with the chief justice and another judge about the Indian justice system. In the 1970’s India abolished the jury system, which was striking to learn about for most of the Americans. The female judge told us that the jury system just doesn’t work in India. The country is too big and juries tend to put their own moral views about legal facts.

On Friday, we went to Dharavi, Asia’s second largest slum, which holds 1.2 million people in less than 1 square mile. We stood on top of an apartment building in the middle and looked out over the shacks. There, we asked questions to a Dharavi resident who is working for development in the area. Then we went down into the slum to see the recycling center that the Dharavi residents have developed. They make huge grinders that they use to grind up random pieces of plastic (everything from house appliances to toy cars) into tiny bits. They sell the bits back to manufacturing companies and manage to turn a large profit. After the recycling center, we went to the home of potter who makes clay pots to sell; a business started by his grandfather. At the end of the afternoon, we talked to Raju Korde, a political leader of Dharavi, who is part of a committee of community members who are working for improvements in clean drinking water and sanitation, which he told us are the main concerns in the slum.

I was surprised at how connected the Dharavi residents feel to their neighborhood. I would have expected that people would treat the housing as temporary and look for a way to get out as soon as possible. But in reality, most families live in Dharavi for generations. The people we talked to weren’t looking to leave the slum, just to development the living conditions. There are so many issues that we talked about I can’t possibly sum them all up, but what really hit home for me was when we talked about government and international intervention in the rehabilitation process. Raju said that he hadn’t seen anyone come into Dharavi to help who didn’t have an ulterior motive. All the schemes that have been proposed end up giving more space and money to the outside housing developers than they do to the slum residents.

At the end of the evening on Friday, I went out with some friends of a friend who live in Mumbai. They took us to a swanky cocktail patio that overlooked the water. I think that was one of the craziest days I’ve ever had. Hours before I was sitting on a white couch drinking a margarita I had been walking through mud, covering my nose and mouth to keep from breathing in plastic fumes. What kind of city has these extremes?

Saturday, Viveka and I had an awesome time wandering through the Mumbai markets and bazaars. We sifted through fabrics in the cloth market and dug through treasure in Chor Bazaar, the antique market. I swear we walked through miles of just shops. We also went to Haji Ali, a mosque situated on an arm of land that stretches out onto the water. I think this is the most satisfied I have felt with India so far. I feel like I’m really seeing it for what it is.

More to come,

Catherine

National Geographic article about Dharavi: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/05/dharavi-mumbai-slum/jacobson-text

 View of Dharavi from roof of an apartment building.

The inside of one of the shops in Chor Bazaar, the antique market.

At Haji Ali, the Muslim mosque, people tie strings on the trees to make wishes, and then are supposed to come untie the string when the wish comes true.

The complete Indian thali dinner plate! Sooo good

(Spicy) Food for Thought

There has been a lot going on here so I have been slacking on the blog a little bit. I am starting to feel like I actually live in Pune. I saw my host mom’s friend at the gym today. We waved and said hi, which made me feel like this is actually my neighborhood!

                                                      

We have been going on lots of weekend trips a few hours outside of Pune. Two weekends ago the Environment class went to Mahabaleshwar, a hill station known for its amazing, no-chemicals strawberries. We mostly traipsed around seeing random things like a bee farm that sells its own honey and some pretty waterfalls. The coolest part of that weekend was when we stopped at an organic farm owned by an older couple. They had lemon trees, which I had never seen before, and medicinal herbs and vegetables growing on their land. In their backyard they had a homemade solar panel, which lit up a small light bulb when you switched it on.

We just got back yesterday from a visit to a few tribal villages. The 6 hour bus ride both ways was kind of brutal in the heat, but it was so worth it. We stayed a retreat center run by one of the tribes. We got to visit a primary health center that is responsible for serving about 35,000 tribal people. The services were actually pretty impressive. They pack child vaccines up in these little ice coolers, which women employed by the government walk over to villages to make sure new babies get vaccinated. The next day we visited over to another village and talked (with translators) to the people living there. In a small group I went into the cow dung house of one family. We spoke with a young man who is attending college in a neighboring town. His family grows rice on their farm land, but only enough to feed themselves.

               

We waved to the little kids in their school classroom, which probably caused a huge disturbance. I tried to talk to one little girl who was standing with her mom, but she got really scared. Apparently there is a rumor going around that people are coming into villages and stealing children to harvest their organs. The little girl looked terrified of me- so sad!

I also peeked in the center for children under age 6 that the government has established for a supplemental nutrition program. It’s a national program put in place in most villages. In the middle of the room there was a scale hanging from the ceiling to weigh the kids, which was kind of weird, but I guess makes sense.

It was interesting to hear what everyone thought about the village. What I first saw was an urgent need to bring the living conditions of the tribal people up to my level of comfort. But I talked with other people on the program that left the village wondering why we are spending our time the way we are. If these people are happy living life so simply, why are we running around making ourselves crazy? Every time I walk out the door in this country I feel like I learn something and come home with big questions that Viveka and I try to answer as we get ready for bed.

I’ve started buying an orange everyday from the little stand underneath our apartment building. We definitely live in the best location. Viveka and I are good friends with the guys who man the ice cream section of the Tasty Corner underneath our building. The oranges from that stand are the BEST oranges I have ever eaten. They are so sweet and delicious. Preeti says they are actually a type of lime, but I'm not so sure.

Our other new friend is the pigeon that comes up to visit at the open kitchen window. We’ll be sitting in the other room having our tea and all of a sudden we’ll hear a racket in the kitchen. Today after shooing the birds outside, Preeti ran back in and told us, “The pigeons were trying to make romance in our kitchen!”

Aga Khan Palace and Trekking with Monkeys

What an awesome weekend!

Friday afternoon our whole program took a trip to Aga Khan Palace, where Gandhi was imprisoned for two years by the British. It was so quiet and peaceful. The palace has become a national memorial for Gandhi. Inside, we walked through a few of the rooms where he stayed with his wife. The Indian people have so much respect for Gandhi. There's a reason his picture is on all the currency.

Then, from Saturday morning to Sunday night, six of us from the program went on an overnight camping/hiking trip with the outdoor adventure club at Ferguson College (where we are taking our classes). It was pretty random that we ended up going; one of the guys just saw a sign for it in the middle of campus. It was QUITE the adventure. The Indian guy who was running the trip said it was going to be a two hour long "pretty flat" walk. The hike ended up being up this huge mountain where you had to climb up these ladders and rocks at the end. But the view was amazing! The hike was out in a really rural area outside of Pune. We walked through the fields of a farm village on the way up. The villagers make money by selling snacks and serving lunch to hikers who come to do the trek.

At the top of the mountain was Fort Ratangad. We slept in caves that overlooked an amazing view of other huge rock mountains and lakes. We had some company up top- wild monkeys. They seemed cute until someone opened a packet of crackers and one monkey scrambled up to the group and jumped on one of the guys. Another guy kicked it and it ran away, but for the rest of the time we were all wary of getting too close to the monkeys. They were all over and came by the campsite frequently to grab little pieces of trash.

It was so nice to be outside and away from pollution! On Sunday we climbed around the top of the fort and explored other parts of the mountain. All the Indian students were so friendly to us. Indian culture is definitely more communal than at home. When people pulled out their lunch on the first day, everyone shared their food with everyone else. We hiked back down on Sunday afternoon (down the somewhat sketchy ladders) and ate lunch in the village at the bottom. I had the freshest rice I have ever eaten in my life. I'm pretty sure I was sitting about ten feet away from where it had been grown.

One thing that was not so great- the water situation. Me and the other Americans brought two or three bottles of water each because we knew we couldn't drink the water there, but it was not enough. The hike up on Saturday was really hot, so we drank a lot of water then. The Indian students were drinking water from a stream at the top of Fort Ratangad, but we were all worried we were going to get sick. We were also concerned about drinking the non-filtered water in the village on Sunday, so we all got on the bus home so thirsty. At the first town we went through we made the whole bus pull over so I could run out and buy six liters of water; one for each of us. When I got back on the bus, one of the Indian guys asked if I was sure I had gotten all the change back from the guy selling water. All together the six liters cost less than a dollar. I would have paid ten times that for each bottle. Moral of the story: Being dehydrated in the middle of rural India is not fun.

Other than the water, the trip was amazing! I realized I miss hiking and camping. Here are some the pictures:

 Me and Harmony on the way up.

Sushant and Ashna.

Sunday morning sun rise.

Village at the bottom of the mountain.

Pune

Here are a few pictures from around Pune!

My host mom, Preeti, and me buying Indian flags on Republic Day last Thursday. Republic Day is the Indian version of Constitution Day, but here it's a much bigger deal!

Temple to the God Ganesh that Preeti and I visited on Ganesh's birthday or "Ganesh Ganma." The line to get into the temple was crazy long, but it was really beautiful inside.

Preeti buying a lotus flower from a woman on the street outside of the Ganesh temple.

Vegetable carts are all over Pune, which helps make the congested streets a little more colorful. People lay fruits and vegetables for sale out on blankets on the sidewalks too. They look so tempting, but we've been told a lot of them are not safe to eat. It's funny to see people wheeling these carts down big hills in the middle of traffic to set up shop in a new spot!

Viveka and I with our new friend.

Elephant Crossing

I am in a place where more people stare when I walk down the street than when an elephant walks down the street.

I am here with my American roommate from the program, Viveka, in our host mom’s apartment in Pune. We spent one night at a hotel in Mumbai when we first arrived and then left the next morning for orientation at a nature retreat in Durashet, which is halfway between Mumbai and Pune. Durashet was beautiful and calm. There, we learned culturally appropriate behavior, like how to eat with only your right hand, and a little about our classes and our host families. It was really nice to get to meet the other thirty five people on the program before being thrown into the insanity of Pune. The other kids are great! Everyone seems to definitely have an adventurous, positive spirit and I think they will be excellent travel companions.

Our first night with our host mom, Preeti, was last Friday. Preeti is absolutely wonderful. She drew Viveka and I a detailed map of our neighborhood and wrote down directions to and from Ferguson College in English and Marathi (local language) for the rickshaw drivers. She took me to the tailor to get my new clothes altered (for 70 rupees = less than $1.50) and found me a new laptop charger when mine broke. Her food is to die for. We’re eating lots of cooked vegetables, dal, curry, chipati (like a flour tortilla, but more delicious), and interesting new sweets! Turns out I have a sweet tooth in all cultures. I also realized that “Three Cups of Chai” is the perfect title of this blog, since Viveka, Preeti and I sit down and have three cups of chai tea together multiple times a day!

Everyday Viveka and I risk our lives (not really, Mom) taking a rickshaw to and from Ferguson College campus. The roads are crazy here; no lanes, motorcycles, buses and cars everywhere. It’s a little stressful to walk down the street.

Some people have gotten frustrated with being constantly stared at wherever we go, but it doesn’t bother me too much. Everyone is probably just wondering what I’m doing here- and for good reason! I have never been somewhere where just looking at me I seemed interesting and exotic. When I went for a short run today around the neighborhood, I just tried to smile and nod at people in a way that said, “Yes, I know I am making a huge spectacle!”