Friday July 12

Friday July 12

This morning a Sikh professor spoke to us about the diversity in Sikh society and about the demographics of the Sikh population worldwide.  J.T. Mundi and I are working on a presentation on this.  He and Reema Patel, W. F. West class of 2009 have been inspirational in getting me off on this trip and checking my understanding of the experience.

We also had two more great meals at our favorite hotel Hyatt Amritsar.  The people were very friendly and helpful.  We are in these great hotels for safety.  They check under the car, in the trunk and under the hood every time we pull in.  There are armed guards at the door and bag scanners and body scans.  The water is also cleaner, but we still drink the bottled water.  It appears to be very expensive to keep us here.  We appreciate the quality of our program in every way.  Our good fortune is reviewed each day.  It is like winning a teacher lottery!

There is quite a diversity in exciting experiences and it all depends on how you define exciting.  The car we were in last night to the border show did get rear-ended.  Very exciting.  We don't have seat belts to wear.  It appears we are safer than husband, wife in saari, and child all on a little moped whizzing around.  Today we had to do a hard brake for a herd of about forty cows that were being herded down the road.  Herds are supervised by herders of course.  When we see stray cows on the roads and cities it means their days of giving milk are over.  The Hindus won't kill them but they will release them to fend for themselves.  Animals have to do a lot of that.  The dogs are all over and may be rabid.  They are part of the "balance" though because their guts are literally full of street garbage.  Minimizes the rats. It is surreal when you go to the fancy hotels and shopping malls that could be from any place in the developed world to the areas without basic city services. 

We've just gone through a check point at the airport where machine guns were pointed at our heads.  Very discomfiting.  I am getting good at dodging the barrel of rifles in general as I enter and exit hotels.  I had to unpack my entire back pack because I have about 400 pens and pencils and ten books that are my gift for a school in Mumbai.  

Everything embarrassing also managed to fall out. They thought my pens/pencils  were little daggers.  I will be happy to give these things soon:). It will be twenty-five pounds off my back.  

We are bracing ourselves for Mumbai (formerly Bombay).  We of course are living in the utmost comfort.  In Mumbai sixty-percent of the people live in slums.  It will be equally overwhelming in Kolkatta( formerly Calcutta)and Varanasi (formerly Benares) as well. It is an interesting progression from New Delhi a city which is rapidly developing with a planned infrastructure, to Amritsar in the wealthiest state in India where life looks at least okay for most.  By okay I mean not living on a street under a black sheet of plastic.  At the Golden Temple the sick and dying are cared for and anyone and everyone can receive a full Indian meal morning, noon and night if they wish.  The meal includes two vegetable dishes, rice, Dahl (lentils), and chapati (bread) and water.  The only expectation is that you clean your plate when you take the meal.  The Golden Temple has a volunteer coordinator, but the rest of the staff including those in the kitchen are all volunteers.  They come for an hour or a day to give service.  At night volunteers wash the entire temple complex with milk and water as part of a sacred ritual.  

There are aspects of India that remind me of my travel to Turkey.  An important comparison is the love and pride of many in both countries for their new young democracies against the rich backdrop of thousands of years of rich history and culture.  In both countries the enthusiasm for new and modern nations is palpable and it gives you shivers down your spine, sort of a Les Miserable rush. Of course there are those holding on to the past and resenting the changing tide, you can see and feel those emotions as well. Turkey has their hands full creating a secular state with a diverse and multi-cultural population.  That scenario may even be more complex in India due to the religious plurality and a Constitution that respects the rights and practices of each group while at the same time trying to bring one-billion people forward economically.  A big debate goes on in both countries related to "copying" infrastructure of other democracies or building infrastructure designed for their particular way of life.  Just as in the USA and in world history throughout time innovations are needed to move nations forward.  In both countries as an American you see and feel the desire for a piece of "the pie", and it is a reminder that we need to build bonds and stay competitively strong.  We might have to pick up our collective work ethic a few notches to do this. In this sense particularly I would like to see every student I teach take advantage of the education put before them every day.  Lift those pencils people! In India thirty percent of the children cannot get into school even though they are constitutionally guaranteed the opportunity to attend.  They have to work in the fields, as house maids or on the streets to support their families.

We have had a little time to talk with teachers about curriculum.  They are basically using the British system with exams for progression to upper high school and to college.  It might not be as updated as the system in the UK today though.  Teachers can teach creatively through grade eight, but after that it is primarily lecture and rote memorization for the exams.  Critical thinking is the missing link.  Our program director Giresh Kaul is very intelligent, articulate and analytical.  The time he spends with us answering our questions is invaluable.  He won't be with us in Mumbai (don't worry, we have a full time guide and someone else from USIEF will meet us too) and we will miss the conversations and insights.

Giresh told a few of us his story this morning.  He grew up in Kashmir.  Kashmir had a small Buddhist population in the north, a large Hindu population in the central region and in a valley a small Muslim population.  Discontent and problems started brewing after the 1947 Partition when Muslims moved to Pakistan and Hindus to India.  India claims Kashmir on their maps and Pakistan claims a part of it as does China.  The area where Giresh lived is disputed territory today.  His family had been in Kashmir for generations, perhaps thousands of years. Muslim terrorists wanted to drive the Hindus out of Kashmir.  In 1989 the villagers told the Hindu families that the terrorists groups were coming and that they would try to help them but they could not stop the trouble. Sikhs have experienced this same kind of threat and actual attack.  The attacks are brutal; rape, murder and burning people alive in their homes - mob mentality. Giresh's extended family in Kashmir was over one-hundred and fifty family members who had all lived near one another.  In one night they had to load up their belongings in trucks and move south into official India.  The family was scattered and they lost their place, their family story.  City people could transfer their assets to a new bank in India, but the orchard and land owners lost everything.  He is mindful that his two daughters do not share the story and heritage that he and his wife do.  They tell them the stories and they remind him that they are children of Delhi now.  He wants to take them to Kashmir, but every time he has arranged that he has determined it is unsafe.

Okay, I am going to bounce around in monsoon cloud turbulence on one of my brother-in-laws Boeing 737's for awhile.