Recharge

We headed off to Ram Nagar bright and early in the morning as usual to teach English, but ended up dancing there instead! They are having a program next week because it has been 3 years since their abhyasika started so the kids are doing plays and dances. I didn’t really expect to be doing choreo this summer during YFS, but hey, it definitely helped me bond with the kids more. They look absolutely adorable when they dance and I can’t wait till next week when they perform!

Afterwards we headed to the office to get some work done and then ended up doing more choreo so we could teach the kids tomorrow morning. One of the other volunteers called me over to see something, and I went expecting that it would be work-related. But then I see him holding a stick out of the window and a little bucket to catch the ‘zambhla’ which are this yummy little, purple fruit. I’m a fruit fanatic, and eating freshly picked fruit off a tree is just so much more fun :) After this lovely afternoon snack, we headed over to visit another vasti and got to see the initial stages of how an abhyasika is started by talking to local volunteers. Oh and I don’t know why I haven’t mentioned this already, but riding on motorcycles in India is so much fun, and equally nerve-wracking. It takes some real skill to maneuver those roads at high speeds.

But while we were at someone’s home, we find out that there’s supposed to be a ‘Bharat Bandh’ (literally translated as ‘India closed’) the next day. This is basically where shops and public transportation are closed for most of the day in protest for some sort of change all over India. In this case it was in protest of the hike in gas prices. You would think that we should have been told about this earlier, since sometimes there’s violence on the streets and safety is a concern. But thankfully we found out early enough to get water bottles for the next day!

However, we did not realize that we should have also figured out a million different ways to keep ourselves entertained for all of Thursday. We basically spent all morning/afternoon to ‘recharge.’ This meant staying in the hostel, sleeping, reading, and working on my project. This relaxing day will definitely keep me charged for all the work I have to do starting tomorrow! 

Cravings

So I’ve had plenty of interesting experiences on the bus but this was probably one of the scariest ones ever. We actually got seats on a pretty crowded bus on our way to the Sewa Sahayog office this afternoon. I looked up and saw this man looking back at me. And every time I looked up I would see him looking back at me. That wasn’t the scary part; it was that he looked exactly like Bob Biswas from the movie Kahaani. For those of you who have seen Kahaani you can understand how shocked I was. But if you haven’t seen it, Bob Biswas is this ridiculously super crazy and creepy hitman. I basically sat there frozen with fear until he got off the bus.

But we made it to the office and I actually had a very productive day. I’ve been planning out more details of my project after getting a better idea of their needs. The two main aspects I’m focusing on right now are improving the teaching of science in abhyasikas and generating interest in the kids about science. I’ll eventually explain more once I’ve figured out more details and tried out some of my ideas :)

After an exhausting day at the office and finding a bus that goes directly from the office to our hostel, we decided to get some ice cream. I had this yummy thing called a ‘Black Forest Swirl.’ It was basically like the most magical thing ever with fluffy vanilla ice cream, chocolate chips, crumbles of chocolate cake, strawberry syrup, and chocolate syrup. Now that I list out everything that was in that, I’m not really sure how I actually finished it. We decided to walk off all that sugar and when we were halfway back to the hostel we got a whiff of pav bhaji from this restaurant. I tried to fight off the immense craving that I had, but we turned right back around and ate this amazing pav bhaji. I’m still trying to figure out how I managed to eat all that, but hey, I only come to India every few years so I might as well indulge, right? :)

Pasta in a Slum?

 So there are these crazy birds who live in the tree outside our window and they just love to be as loud as possible early in the morning. After waking up because of the interesting squawking we headed to Ram Nagar to teach English again. We teach in a room smaller than the size of a regular freshman dorm room using a blackboard and broken pieces of chalk. Although there’s a fan in the room it still feels like a sauna in there. Despite these conditions, it’s been so enjoyable to teach and spend time with the kids! We tried to teach the entire class in English so that they would become familiar with the language, but they just had so much trouble understanding our accents that we switched back to teaching through Marathi.

Afterwards we grabbed lunch (I had wada pav again, no surprises there!) and headed to the Sewa Sahayog office to get some work done. The rest of the YFS interns are coming next week and we planned the schedule for their orientation.  The intense planning session got me super pumped to meet everyone in a few days :) Then we went to an area where various projects are just getting started and the abhyasikas are not as established. We went with a local Sewa Sahayog volunteer and it was interesting to see how new volunteers/teachers are created from the slums. It’s one thing for an outsider to come into an area and teach the kids, but it’s much more effective when the teacher lives in the slum itself because the people feel a stronger connection with the teacher.

As we were walking on the small stone pathways between the houses in the vasti in the evening, for some reason I smelled marinara sauce. Yummm :) Obviously, no one was making pasta there so the only explanation I could come up with is that I’m clearly missing home! A big shout out to everyone back home, I miss ya’ll :) 

The kids at Ram Nagar.

Work Hard, Play Hard

I just realized that I’ve written about almost everything else except the details of my project. The project area I chose to focus on is education because of the significant impact that education can have on shaping a person’s life. I’ve spent the past week interacting with kids, parents, and other volunteers from various slums where Sewa Sahyog projects currently run trying to understand the current views and problems faced in slums related to education.

Kids grow up seeing that finding ways to get money quick leads to less stress. So the concept of education being an investment that will lead to greater financial stability later is not explained. One major way that Sewa Sahyog is working to keep kids in school is through abhyasikas. Abhyasikas (study centers) are run by older students from the slums and volunteers every day of the week. It provides a good environment for the kids away from the distractions in their homes so they can focus on their homework and spend time with other kids.

It’s been so much fun going to visit various abhyasikas and interact with the kids and teachers. We’ve been going to Ram Nagar to teach English the past couple mornings and while we teach them how to have a basic conversation in English and sing the song “head, shoulders, knees, and toes…” to learn body parts, I’m pretty sure they secretly giggle at our silly sounding American accents. They all come running up to us with their notebooks and pencils ready to learn, but kid’s attention spans can only last so long. We’ve played chess, carom, badminton, and cricket with them and I noticed that my skills in all of these are clearly not up to their level. We visited Jay Prakash Nagar and Ekta Nagar after that and played some of the same games. I think I’m going to be really good at chess and carom by the end of the summer :) Cricket on the other hand is something that might take me a lifetime to get good at. But baseball is something a bit more familiar and we taught the boys at Ram Nagar how to play baseball with a cricket bat and ball.

Today we got to go to an event part of the schoolkit drive currently going on to provide basic school supplies for the upcoming year. The volunteers were all from IT companies in Pune who helped to pack notebooks, pencils, crayons, and drawing books into backpacks for the kids. The assembly lines we formed worked so well that in a few hours hundreds of backpacks were ready to be distributed to the slums. It was fun to work with everyone but it made me even happier thinking about the smiles on the kids faces when they got their backpacks filled with school supplies getting ready to work hard this school year. 

Unity in Diversity

I walk through the streets with half my attention focused on avoiding getting run over by motorcycles, dogs, carts selling street food, and other pedestrians. But the rest of my attention gets bombarded with the colorful diversity around me. People from a wide array of jobs, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds mingling together on the same roads with the bright sun beating down on the colorful clothes. Over 1.2 billion people squeezed into a landmass 1/3 the size of America thus eliminating the concept of personal space. Small roads and disregard of rules leading to constant traffic jams. Bargaining for everything from buttons to food to furniture. Kids playing cricket in any open space they can find. The mad rush to jump onto a moving bus.  Smells of food, pollution, incense, and dirt all mixing together.

Growing up with the happy upper middle class in the stereotypical suburbs of America you never get to see such diversity and people from different lifestyles on a daily basis because of geographical distance. But in India there’s not enough space to separate these various conditions. You see beautiful shining apartment buildings towering over the city and right next to it is a slum with houses made of thin metal. Someone comes out of the IBM building after work in his suit and walks right past a man who makes his daily wages selling cheap shoes on the side of the road.

For some reason that none of us will ever know, India functions through this diversity and frenzy. As the days go by I look closely and realize that there’s actually order in this chaos. I really can’t find any words to describe it, so you’ll just have to come see Incredible India for yourself :) 

Exploring Pune

I’ve been to India 5 times before this and I usually spend most of my time in Pune because my closest relatives are here. I know the major areas and famous places in Pune but traveling around the city without people who actually know the city is seriously an interesting and different experience.

Our exploration began right after the shibhir on Sunday with a friend (Shrish Dada). For those of you who know him and his spunky personality, you can only imagine how enthusiastic he is about making sure Rhucha and I visit like every place in Pune and eat as much as we can. Despite our post-camp exhaustion we decided to go out to avoid being bored out of our minds at the hostel. Our splurging began with pav bhaji and a mixed fruit milkshake which just happen to be my favorite foods in the whole wide world. This was the first time in a while where I had been so full I was sleepy and just didn’t want to move.

The combination of being drained of energy from the camp and being really full from amazing food Monday an extremely slow and lazy day where all I did was plan out details of my project and blog. Around 2 p.m. we decided that we should eat, but didn’t feel like going down to the mess/cafeteria outside our building or find a restaurant. In these lazy situations, Maggi is the best thing to eat. If you want more details on exactly how we made these noodles with our very, very limited resources you’re going to have to ask me personally :)

After the ridiculous lethargy of Monday, I decided that Tuesday was not going to be the same. If you think going shopping in America is fun, you’re quite mistaken. The real shopping happens in India; and in Pune specifically on Laxmi Road and Tulsi Baug. Laxmi Road is a very long street lined with a variety of shops on both sides and Tulsi Baug is this market sort of thing packed with shops and street vendors. Both these areas for some reason are always filled with people. It’s always been an enigma to me how shops in India are constantly bustling with people. But pushing through these crowds, sorting through piles of colorful clothes, bargaining, and looking at shiny jewelry hanging from carts creates the most exciting and tiring shopping experience ever.

After my shopping spree, we met up with a friend and went to a carnival near Deccan. The stalls that were set up had everything from toys to clothes to kitchen supplies to typical carnival games. We finished our cotton candy (which is apparently called candy floss here) and decided to take some rides. The first ride we wanted to take was one that swung like a pendulum and rotated at the same time. There was one problem though, the gears needed to be oiled and a maintenance guy decided to climb up the ride while it was running and pour oil. I’m not sure why he didn’t anticipate this but oil spilled all over the people on the ride. All I could do was stand and laugh at this sight. The sketchiness of this should have been a huge warning sign to avoid riding anything else. But instead, we rode 3 other rides which were so much fun!

We got back to Karve Nagar and had about 2 hours to kill before meeting up with a friend. Our first stop was Domino’s. I’m pretty sure we got a lot of incredibly weird looks there because we ate that pizza like we were eating for the first time. But it was just so comforting to eat garlic breadsticks, pizza, and a Coke after what seemed like forever. Now that we were ridiculously full we still had some time to kill and walked off that amazing dinner for an hour. One of my favorite things in the whole wide world is to be walking outside in India in the evening. There are still lots of people on the streets, no hot sun beating down on me, the entire city is lit up, and a nice cool breeze just makes the entire atmosphere peaceful. It was the perfect end to a day of adventure around the city :) 

The broken ride being oiled with people still on it.

An Eye-Opening Camp

Well it was time to see how this 3 day camp (shibhir) was going to work out. The kids were coming from 19 different slum areas (vastis) where there are afterschool programs called abhyasikas every day run by older kids who are also from the slum. We got to the campsite in the afternoon and about half of the kids had already arrived. Mass chaos. Kids running all over the place, whistles blowing, people yelling. I paused for a second and laughed to myself at this sight, this was actually going to be so much fun! I absolutely love working and interacting with kids, but I also realized then that handling 300 kids aged 10-16 was going to test my limits. But flexibility and enthusiasm were essential to ensure this camp was a great experience for the kids.

After interacting with the kids and listening to their discussions during various sessions, I was very shaken by hearing about the conditions that they live in and the issues they face. Imagine being the oldest sibling in a family. Your dad drinks and is unemployed. Your mother is the breadwinner of the family and always has to be out working and comes home exhausted. You must take care of all your younger siblings and all the household tasks. This very common situation robs children of their childhood and often their education as well. Boys may be influenced by their peers and fall into bad habits and stop going to school. Girls are married off at around 14 or 15 and stop going to school. They may face harassment from men from the community and even from their own household. But that’s not all, due to lack of education and awareness there are poor hygiene habits, malnutrition, dirty water, and trash strewn all over the place.

In one session where the kids were split into groups by vasti, they were asked to talk about the conditions they live in. The kids spoke about all these things so casually because it’s all that they’ve ever known. I was sitting in a group holding back tears just listening to them describe this. It hit me that for them to come to a camp like this and run around, play games, and socialize with their friends was a treat. They got the chance to be who they really are. When they were all out on the field playing games, joking around, and laughing, you would never be able to tell whether they were kids from slums or the suburbs.

The weekend went by so quickly, and before I knew it they were all waving and saying “Bye Tai! Majhya ghari naki ye!” (Bye big sister! Make sure you definitely come to my house!). Little did they know how much their words and big smiles had pulled at my heartstrings. It took a little while to process what I had experienced this weekend and I was so thankful for everything that I have. Suddenly the hostel, traveling by bus, washing my own clothes, and having to spend so much on bottled water seemed like petty issues. It just takes one weekend to put your life into perspective. 


The pictures from the camp can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/101205498181339945161/ChildrenSPersonalityDevelopmentSummerCampMay2012

New Lifestyle, New Experiences

After over 1 week of adjusting I was ready to tackle anything that India threw at me. Well, except for a few things like crossing the street without getting run over or yelled at. And freaking out every time I sat in a car or rode on a bike because traffic laws basically just don’t exist here. And weaving through masses of people while trying to figure out where I am. Actually all these things sound pretty funny and make me love being in India even more :)

We were told yesterday that there is a shibhir (camp) this weekend for boys and girls from the Surajya and Samutkarsh projects here. There were about 300 kids that we had to organize activities for and about 50 shikshaks (teachers) to help with the various activities. I’ve been to and organized a lot of camps before this, but never ever for this many people. But I’m actually really excited to see how everything works out! Rhucha and I went to visit the Rani Laxmi Bai Mulinchi Sainiki Shala (a girl’s military school) in Pirangut where the shibhir was going to be held.

Today was actually full of a bunch of firsts, starting with taking the public bus. I’ve always heard about how squished and crazy the buses can be, and it’s definitely an experience I will never forget. We had to get to the Sewa Sahyog office which is in Model Colony, quite a distance from where we were staying and the most efficient and cheap way to get there is by bus. Everyone I asked gave me different suggestions on which bus to take so I was already confused. We literally jumped onto a bus and then asked to make sure that the bus was going to Deccan. We got to the office from the stop by rickshaw and then worked for a little while. Then began a day of unhealthy eating. First we went to the famous Joshi Wadewale’s and ate my favorite street food ever, wada pav. I definitely should not have eaten the chilies on the side and had my mouth sizzle. So totally worth it. Then we went back to the office, finished up our part of the planning for the shibhir, and took an ice cream break. I don’t know what’s so different, but Indian ice cream is so crazy good and might just be better than American ice cream.

We came back to the office to find that some Sewa Sahyog volunteers had conveniently decided to come back when we were taking our break. I had assumed that the shibhir was all planned out and they were just there to straighten out a few minor details. But no. It was quite the opposite and they appropriately called themselves the ‘crisis management team.’ But after a couple of hours, amazingly everything was figured out! Never have I ever seen a camp being planned like that. And after all that hard work we all ate wada pav…again :p

Rhucha and I got dropped off at a bus stop about 3 kilometers away from our hostel and instead of trying to figure out what bus to take again we walked the entire way back. And the best part was we actually had no clue exactly how to get back. It was dark outside, there are no street signs, and we knew no landmarks. So we asked at least 7 people for directions and actually made it back :) The day ended with drinking cold coffee (which is also so much better in India) with a friend.

Traveling like the common man, crazy eating, and chaotic planning definitely made this day the best I’ve had on my trip so far :)

Girl Power

Took me about 1.5 hours to fall asleep last night, and then woke up sweating this morning because it’s just so hot in India. But I think I’ll get used to this room soon enough. We went to go see the museum here to learn about the historic Karve Stri Shikshan Saunstha (http://www.maharshikarve.ac.in/index.php). The actual museum was really nice; it was laid out in a timeline format of Maharishi Karve’s life and a timeline of other world events going on at the same time. It was helpful and surprising to see how recent his work for the women of India was. We watched a summary documentary of his life and work and it was disconcerting to see what kind of social issues women had/have to suffer. His first work was with widow re-marriage. Widows were required to shave their heads, stay inside the home, do menial housework, and suffer physical and verbal abuse from others in their home. Karve fought for the rights of these women and said that they should be allowed to remarry and he himself remarried to a widow after the death of his first wife. He then created a safe home for these women where he focused on women education.

After seeing the situation that widows and women had to suffer through, it made me really thankful for the education and rights I have. I feel that my generation often takes these rights for granted, and it’s quite unsettling to know that women still have to suffer through these conditions in this day and age. Seeing things like this just light this fire in me to help those in need fight for their rights so they don’t have to suffer. 

Blending In

I woke up the next morning ready to use everything that I’ve observed over all my visits to India and blend in with the rest of the almost 2 billion Indians. Which is actually quite difficult seeing as for some reason they can just take one glance at you and realize that you don’t live in India.

But I made it back to Pune alright and then spent the rest of the packing and getting ready to move into the hostel that the Yuva for Sewa interns will be staying at. I should probably explain what that is because that’s what the next 10 weeks are going to be about! Yuva for Sewa is basically a volunteer internship offered by Sewa International. You get the opportunity to focus on a project in the area of education, healthcare, women’s empowerment, rural development, or environmental awareness for 10 weeks. Read more at http://sewausa.org/yuva-sewa-appeal. I visited a slum In Yaroda where these projects are run in the summer of 2007 and saw the conditions that they live in and got an idea of how important and effective these projects can be. I’ve always been very passionate about volunteer work and I’m excited that I get to volunteer 100% of my time and efforts to a project for the summer!  

On Tuesday, I left my aunt’s house to go live in the hostel that Sewa Sahyog had arranged for the YFS interns to live in called Maharishi Karve Stri Shikshan Sanstha. But Rhucha (another YFS intern) and I are starting our internships 2 weeks early since we’re going to VSSV right after so we’ll be the only ones staying here until the rest of the interns come.

The entire hostel campus is a really nice environment with lots of people talking and playing outside. We walked into the room and it was just like a typical hostel in India: old furniture, a fan and windows for air, and normal Indian bathrooms. I’m not so sure how well I’ll be able to adjust in these living conditions. I feel so stuck up for even thinking this, but it’s only naturally do so if I compare these conditions to what it’s like back home.But I have to think of everything in a positive way. It’s all a learning experience. 

Our lovely room...don't pay attention to the mess :)

Week 1: Finally in India

Well I probably should have decided to blog about my India trip this summer like 2 weeks ago. But that’s alright, better late than never! Here's a quick summary of what I did during my first week! 


After 32 hours of hectic packing and shopping for a 3 month trip I started my journey to the other side of the world. After saying bye to my mom and brother and entering the security line, little did I know I was about to endure the most boring 22 hour journey. The unfortunate combination of not being able to sleep at all on the flight + no tv’s on the backs of the seats + unsocial people on the seats next to me led to having too much free time to think. It finally hit me that I was leaving my normal life for 3 months to travel in a foreign country alone. All I could think about were the things I was leaving behind: my family, friends, lots of space, quiet surroundings, and of course nice bathrooms. But I slowly began to get pumped about seeing all my relatives, finally being a Yuva for Sewa Intern, and VSSV! Then massive wave of heat, humidity, and a plethora of smells hit me as I walked out of the flight. I was finally home :)

My dad had already been in India for 2 weeks and thankfully our trips overlapped for a week so he, my cousin, and a family friend (Dineshji) came to pick me up from the airport. I can’t even describe how great it was to see familiar faces and finally talk to people after a day of traveling. We got to my aunt’s house at around 4 a.m. and I woke up my grandma with a big hug while yelling in her ear and then she gave me 2 besan laddus to eat (yummm my favorite). The first of so much yummy food I will be eating! Now began a few hard days of getting over my jet lag. We spent all of Tuesday distracting me with driving around Pune, Sarasbaug Ganpati, vada pav, visiting relatives, and packing. We left for Solapur really early in the morning and used the 34 hours we had there so efficiently. But visiting family and friends and going around Solapur is incredibly exhausting in that heat. Despite the heat and dehydration I still love the famous Solapur bhakri and spicy shenga chutney!

Back in Pune on Friday and I went to my first live cricket match (Pune Warriors vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore) at the new Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune! Being in a crowd of 55,000 was absolutely crazy and loud. Don’t get me wrong, cricket is an awesome game and pretty fun to watch once I started understanding it, but I don’t know how people can stay so enthusiastic and cheer for like a slow 3.5 hour match. By the end I think I was more entertained by people being crazy than the actual match.  

Saturday afternoon we left for Mumbai and went straight to Tunga- Regenza. It was so ridiculously nice to be in a nice hotel after a few days in India. And the best part was there was toilet paper there! We went to my cousin’s reception that night and a big shoutout and congratulations to them! Weddings always make me realize how fast time goes by. The next morning we got complimentary massages at the hotel and then went to Fashion Street and ate amazing street food with family friends! But that night we went to drop off my dad at the airport and I realized that I was actually going to have a fantastic time living a new lifestyle in India alone!

It took me a week, but I finally adjusted to life in India. The loud noises, crazy traffic, yummy food, loving relatives, unsafe driving, fantastic shopping, crowds, and rich culture. Everything that makes me love my country :)