Home Sweet Home

So I guess this will be my last post, since I have just reached London therefore my Indian experience has now ended. I don't like goodbyes and I am not very good in closing statements, but I thought I should write something to conclude beautifully :), even if I am so tired right now that what I write won't probably make any sense - I got sick in Mumbai two days before leaving, of course, reason why I didn't post nor I have many pictures to show you. 


I can't quite realize how fast this whole thing has gone, I've been looking forward to it for years and yet it went so quickly I am again sat in my room in London like I was what it seems yesterday. 
Right now it feels like I barely noticed the time passing, but in truth every single moment was an experience which I will cherish forever. 

I don't think I have changed in any particular way, but I know I now look at things differently after having learnt something from every person I met and having reconsidered basic concepts such as friendship, fate, religion, love and many more. I'm not going to get too much into it since it's way too hard to put it into words, but I hope that if you read some of my past posts you got a little of what I mean. 

I met some wonderful people from completely opposite social and economic backgrounds who always made me feel the most welcomed person and made sure I was safe and good. I've seen places I could never imagine of before and felt helpless towards these people and in the same time lucky to be born in the conditions I was (will definitely think twice before complaining next time). I wish all of you could have seen, touched, smelt, heard and felt what I did because if everyone really did it then this world would be a much better place. 

In the same time it is reassuring to see that there are still some people out there who care, who gave up their lives (ok symbolically speaking, we're not all saints) to help the poorest, those people who just by fate were born in such sad conditions. 

I wish I stayed longer as it almost feels wrong being back, but I know I will go back one day and hopefully it will be sooner rather then later (check out Bollywood films' credits soon!). 

In the meanwhile, stay tuned and thank you all so much for having followed my adventures and having given me such support all the times, it really meant a lot.

Lots of Love

C.

Delhicious

So there was some last minute change of plans, and stopped in Delhi before coming to Mumbai. 

Had a really good and crazy weekend, although it was quite hard to get used to a complete different life style overnight - it really needed all of my adaptability skills!

In Mumbai now, can't believe in just a couple of days I'll be home...

Hampi

 

 

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

Haven’t posted in a while – sorry! 

So as you know last week I stayed in Koppal for a while so that I could do some field work interviewing girls and attending various meeting.

Well, there’s nothing much I can say really. I had the chance to hear about 20 individual stories or more, and they were all so far away from my mindset and our culture that I could barely believe to what I was listening. All of the tailoring girls were around my age, some of them a Devadasi, others married or soon to be married, one with two children – but most of all each of them had gone through some incredibly sad life experiences. And then we complain when something goes wrong with us, I just feel that our problems are so insignificant compared to what these people go through on a daily basis.

Yet they are still so nice to the others and always welcoming me to stay at their houses or to eat their food.

This time I also went with another girl who was my translator and turned out to be really cool, so it made the whole thing much more appreciable. I watched so many Bollywood clips on MTV I became addicted to this music, and I have now decided that I want to work in those films ;)

The title of this post comes from a movie I really want to watch, and it means ‘Won’t get your life back again’… so true yet not so many people really follow this advice, falling into a monotony of which aim only becomes to earn money.  I really fail to understand this.

Changing the subject, on Sunday we went to Hampi, how beautiful! Unfortunately we rushed it a little bit since we only had a day to see it all, but I got to see the most important bits and it was absolutely amazing. I always find it overwhelming to see these past populations’ sites where they had such a happy and rich life (for once!) but then destroyed by some outsider who looked only at his own wealth.  And unfortunately these actions are still present nowadays, although probably in a more subtle way…

Though Sunday was a bit spoilt by the news of Amy Winehouse’ death, such a sad story and what a loss for the music industry and Camden! Made me kind of wish I was home.

Anyway, the driver who took us to Hampi was just too cool. He told us all of his life story (I’m getting used to it), how he got married 15 years ago out of love, so him and his wife had to run away from their families… He even wanted us to see his house and meet his wife and kids, so we ended up in his home for a little bit before going to ours. In Hampi he also explained all of the sites to us and became some kind of a tour guide – all the others were really pissed off at him! [I’ll do another post with all the photos of Hampi soon]

At the moment I’m back in Bangalore working on all these reports, it will really take ages to finish. Then on Saturday morning I’ll go to Mumbai, I really can’t believe my time in Bangalore has already reached an end. It was gone just too quickly – probably also because I stayed only 4 weeks instead of the 5 I though I would! I’m such an idiot.

Ok no more writing, here are some pictures of the girls we interviewed, some meetings, the villages, Koppal etc. Will post some more another time.

 

Lost in Translation

Last week I had the pleasure of time traveling in the past. 

On Wednesday I had a very lovely day going around Bangalore a bit with Mr. R's driver, so I visited the famous ISKCON Krishna temple, went to a Safari and to the zoo, and saw some Bangalore by night - to be then dropped off at the station where I took the night train to Koppal.

Everything was very beautiful, although I was a bit disappointed by the temple: only about 20 years old, a mixture between modern and old, but worst of all too commercial! It starts off very religiously (you need to say the Hare Krsna maha-mantra a certain amount of times before getting in), and it finishes with loads of restaurants and modern shops of any kind, a complete commercialization of the God. Or at least that's how I saw it. I actually bought  out of curiosity the book 'The Science of Self-Realization' which I'm reading now and it's very interesting.  

Allige Alli, Pujege Puje

Quick post, since I'm leaving tonight for the Koppal district where I will stay for a couple of days to visit some villages and talk to some SHGs, and I don't know when next I will have a chance to write here.

The trip will include two nights traveling on a train, I'm very curious to see how it will be! Not only that actually, I really don't know what to expect from Koppal. But then again, I like surprises :)

But before taking the train, I will go to a little tour of Bangalore since I'll also leave the office a bit early. This will include a Krishna temple of which I don't remember the name, and a Safari! Can't wait for that, will take loads of pictures and upload them as soon as I can.

Here everything is going well, I have a daily routine now and feel very comfortable. I even see some foreigners around sometimes, I am shocked all the times just as I guess the natives here are when they see me!
During the past few days Mr R's cousin came to visit and last night we had a really good chat - he explained me a lot about the Hindu religion and I found it very fascinating. Also we talked about their believes in past lives and reincarnation (in which I actually believe as well), and he said that nowadays there are kinds of hypnosis that let you find out who you were on your past life. I don't really believe in hypnosis, but it is still an interesting story.
Then before saying goodnight, he asked me 'So why India?', I replied 'I don't know!'. So he joked 'Maybe in your past life you were Indian!'. I laughed, but thinking about it I realized that it would explain many things!!

Anyway this is kind of a lame post, but still shows I'm alive and doing well, at least for now! Will update you soon on my experience in Koppal.

C 

PS: If any of you was wondering, the title is referred to the agricultural labour migrants that from their villages move to Koppal district to work during the right seasons. It means 'From here they go with empty hand without money, after three months they return with empty hand'. This is due to the fact that all their profit goes to food, rent, clothes and other basic tools for survival while they are away. Zero to zero stage.

A Little Care Makes Accidents Rare

Yesterday I've been in heaven and hell in one day.

I did again one of those 1 day tours, which was absolutely amazing. We visited three temples in Shravanabelagola, Halebeedu and Belur, with a such a beautiful landscape that I felt like I was in a film - never seen so many palm trees in my life!
Also, I met once again a lovely family with whom I spent the day: an Indian lady, her mother, brother, her Dutch husband and their two daughters.

Government's Work is God's Work

The title of the blog is officially wrong, I booked my ticket to go to Mumbai on the 30 of July to visit a friend of mine that lives there, very excited!

Besides that, nothing much has happened in the past couple of days. Went around quite a lot alone yesterday because I had some commissions to make, amazed I am managing to do it by myself!

Today it was the opposite instead.

A couple of days ago I was supposed to move in a women hostel, much closer to the office than Mr R.'s house, but before taking any decision I wanted to talk with them and see what they thought. Mr R. and his wife were leaving that very night to go on holiday in Greece, leaving me with their daughter Madhui and granddaughter (the four years old I told you about). They all said that it was a pleasure to have me here and that they would love if I stayed longer, so since I also kind of got used to this place and like everyone I decided to stay here.

They leave me very free to do whatever I want, although it's not quite the same of being proper alone... So this morning for example I went 'shopping' with Madhui, her daughter and a guy that works here (who by the way is 22, been working here for 7 years, and will get married in 3 months): she basically took me to the Oxford St of Bangalore, when all I wanted to see was Brick Lane! If you know what I mean :) There's also way too many Levi's shops here, it's following me!!

We didn't stay long also because I wasn't very interested in doing any shopping, so they just showed me around and I took some pictures. After lunch I felt a bit unsatisfied so I decided to take a stroll

alone in the area around here, where I saw there was a lot going on and seemed very interesting. But then again, they didn't trust me to go all by myself and sent someone to follow me!! ahah I really didn't like it, but I admit I felt a bit safer to take my camera out. Recently when I am alone I never know if I can use it or not, also because being a foreigner is usually enough to capture everyone's attention and the various beggars wanting money. I'm coping much better now with that though, and everyone is always very helpful and nice - yes I ask for informations a lot.
It's probably better this way, I might be a bit dangerous to be left alone around, although I am perfectly conscious at all times on what I am doing and for sure would never put myself in any problematic situation - maybe only to get a good snap ;) .

Besides everything, I'm glad I stayed here, they always make me feel very welcome and make sure that I am happy. The family is simple and they're all very close to each other, I got to talk a lot with Madhui recently and although we have very different takes on life we get along well.

Anyway, I'll stop bore you with my randomness and upload some pictures I took today or recently.

Crèches

Some Visuals

So, finally everything is (almost) crystal clear. I am starting a small research project with Sampark, and I will focus on 15 women, part of the 'Untouchable' caste or from the Devadasi system, who all live in the Koppal district. These young girls, all aged around 15, have been selected last year to be trained in tailoring for nine months while being payed until next June. So my job will basically be to go there and interview them so to see what progress they've made thanks to the training and how they aim to sustain themselves after next year. I just read their profiles and they are all very sad stories, in particular for those girls that just by bad luck were born under the Devadasi tradition - some sort of 'legal prostitution', put very simply, but with such deep roots in the Indian tradition that although it is technically illegal, it is still accepted.

Otherwise there are other projects I could undertake, more involving kids' education and in particular the lowering of drop out rates so that they don't end up into child labour. I will visit some schools next week when I go to Koppal for a couple of days .

Anyhow, I have finally uploaded the pictures into my USB stick, and unfortunately looked at them... I am a bit ashamed! The focus in my camera is messed up and although while I take the photo I don't notice it, it doesn't come out very properly.
Whatever, here's some of the creches and the children, I'll upload some others next time :)



These are the ones of the first creche, who by the way asked me when I went there to sing a song or say some rhymes... I got caught so off guard I had no idea on what to say and no song came up in my head, besides Rolling In the Deep by Adele I have no idea why. So I actually started singing that one and even teaching them the lyrics (Adele you owe me one!).


These others are from the second one, where a girl complimented me for what I was wearing, only to follow by saying that she didn't like the way I tied up my hair. I tried to explain her my issue with humidity, but sign language didn't really help.

This system is super slow and I have to go now, so I'll try to upload some more tomorrow.

C