July 8, 2013

Monday July 8, 2013

Blog readers have asked me about the weather and what impression of India stands out most in my mind about Delhi.  With the weather I think I am lucky.  It is between 80 and 90 each day and that is much better than the typical 100 degree plus temperatures accompanied with book descriptions of "blinding heat".  The humidity today was 89%.   By 10:30 we are soaked through, clothing and all with sweat. It is much like a summer day in the American Midwest and yesterday our first monsoon, and one much awaited for by the locals and farmers was like a Midwest thunderstorm.  Just like at home in warm states people seek air conditioning.  Locals without AC at home head to the very modern shopping malls they now have here, complete with the Hard Rock Cafe.  The trouble for our group with the AC is that we come in from sightseeing and then hit rooms that are actually too cold.  We are soaking wet and feel very chilled.  It's definitely an extreme situation.

The other question related to impression made me think.  Old Delhi and the noise, smells and crowds there are probably what I expected to see more of.  That's really just Old Delhi.  There isn't as much begging as I expected.  You see poor people living in slums and picking trash, but you also see them sitting on the sidewalk playing a game with a child, visiting with friends, going about housekeeping duties around a shanty.  Maybe they are even sitting and washing TV.  Isaw a cluster of about 100 shanties yesterday doted with at least 30 satellite dishes. People want to be in Delhi even when life is hard.  Our director said there are over 60,000 apartments sitting vacant in the area we were in yesterday 25 minutes away from the city center.  People didn't want to move that far.  There is a lot of green vegetation including beautiful trees similar to those found in Hawaii.  They have Mina birds and parrots flying through the trees.  Life looks hard for laborers and the lower class; men laying fiber optic cable with a pick ax, people lining up with bottles for drinking water when it is released by cell phone text messages, other manual labor.  They don't have sad looks though.  I think the heartbreak is all the health risks they have that are inevitable parts of an infrastructure without public sanitation and water for all.  They are working on it, but it will take time.  It is tough to see.  It hurts the heart.

We encounter a lot of middle class people on our journeys and there are a lot of them everywhere.  The women and girls are beautifully dressed.  The men and boys neat and clean in the same style of clothing men at home wear with the exception of the occasional Nehru collared shirt.  Sunday is a big family day and people go to the parks, the men play cricket, they dress up and go to the sights we were at and pose for joint family pictures.  They eat ice cream, pretty much what we might do with our families on a day out.  We look at them, they look at us.  If we are posing for a group picture they come stand or sit with us to get their own pictures of them with the Americans.  There is noise and it is constant when you are out, horns of every type blare as warning to pedestrians.   

The subways are clean.  We finally discovered the first car is for women only and that is great!  It's like a fashion show in the women's subway car. Spitting and littering are outlawed and perpetrators lose subway rights.  No cameras are permitted in the subways and our bodies and bags are always screened.  There is always a men's line and a women's line for this.  Once outside the subway, litter is in the main streets in the old neighborhoods, men spit and urinate against the walls.  That's just everyday relief. Other neighborhoods are posh and British with tree lined boulevards and large houses.  

It's a big sprawling city.  I don't always feel comfortable walking alone downtown Olympia.  Here I am never alone, but the culture shock reaction is diminishing.  Sometimes I am intensely aware of my surroundings and I've been followed once by a young pick pocket who I had to dodge, but other than that the feelings I have are like those I've had in other cities of varied sizes at home and abroad.  I think overall people are helpful, interested and kind.  There are far fewer vendors and hawkers than I  experienced in Istanbul. We can't even find souvenirs for sale.  Adjusting has been more of a psychological process though than usual.  I think we've all felt there was much unknown and still is. 

Five of us dove back in to Old Delhi tonight and we were like old pros. Practically strolling across the four lanes of traffic complete with cows and goats.  We went to a Sikh Temple and the oldest mosque in the city.  We had to wait to go into the mosque during the prayers so we sat on the steps watching slum kids play with sticks on a garage roof which was also dotted with goats.  There was a good deal of begging at the mosque and it does break your heart to see little children come up to beg.  We can't give, because the Slumdog movie had it right.  The money is given to people who basically traffic the children.  It isn't as bad as I expected.  I think the city is really working to clean things up, find housing, etc.  The government policy is two children per family and that is enforced through education programs and individual conscience.  Tomorrow we take the train to Amritsar and the Sikh Golden Temple.  This will be our only train ride so its an experience to drink in.  

My big impression of India happened today though.  We split into groups of four teachers and were taken to government schools.  Most students go to private schools, they call that type public.  We walked into an open courtyard with five hundred students in white or lavender uniforms singing hymns in Sanskrit as they stood.  It was so moving tears were flowing down my cheeks.  We asked the students questions and they asked us questions.  One girl asked me if I sang and would I sing for her.  We looked desperate, but Catherine and I came through and sang a rousing rendition of Take Me Out To The Ball Game.  They loved that.  One girl asked me how I combed my hair.  She was the same girl who asked me to sing. I smiled and told her that I didn't.  There were big gasps, but I did let her know that I did comb it when it was wet and then we had a laugh about the humidity and the curls.  

These were students whose parents were servants of the current President who also lived on the grounds.  That explained why we had been met by armed guards and had the engine searched.  There is security everywhere.  If I had a dollar for every body pat down I've had so far.......Anyway, the school spends a lot of time on grooming and health and nutrition.  These students receive two healthy meals a day at school.  They were wonderful children.  I wanted to stay and teach them for a year.  They asked how to get  in to MIT and Columbia University.  They are motivated.  They are the first generation in their family to receive this type of education and the chance to work hard and succeed.  They don't take that for granted.  Everything they have is basic, their school library was small but they were reading books and newspapers in both Hindi and English.  The older children said they did two hours of homework a day.  The school system was based on the British system and was familiar to me since I taught in England back in the day.  There is something nice about having students stand up and great you "Good Morning M'aam as you walk into the room.  

We had an opportunity after the school to ask an Interfaith panel questions about The Indian Constitution and religious practices.  Religious pluralism is the focus for our curriculum writing project.  We wrapped that session up by hearing prayers of love from each faith group.  Also tear provoking.

Okay, on the train very early tomorrow and probably no blog for a day or two.  It's an amazing country to be in.  It's an experience sight as opposed to a tourist destination.  I can see why it grew on the characters in the Beautiful Exotic Marigold Hotel.  It is the people more than anything that makes it compelling.