Update from Delhi

Yesterday night was Mirko's last night in Delhi, so Suraiya, Ankita, Nate, Allison in spirit (she had to work late), Alexis, Mirko, and I went to dinner in Pandara Market. We were joined by Jordi Strom who has been working for the CDC Global Aids project in Chennai.

Being in Delhi for this past week has been wonderful. I am researching governance and primary education, and have had some interesting meetings with people working at the National Institute for Education Planning, the Centre for Equity studies, JNU, and the Delhi School of Economics. I decided to compare education policies in Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab, and then visit schools to try to get a sense of the quality of education at the government schools. I only have a month left, and I wish I had more time!

Saturday I went to a government school for girls in a poor community adjacent to the Red fort. I sat in on a grade 12 english class. Most of the girls' parents had not attended more than primary school and almost all came from very large Muslim families. It was impressive that they had made it so far through the system, and planned to continue their studies after grade 12 in order to become teachers. They said that many of their classmates had stopped coming to school because their family thought it was unimportant for them to be so educated.

After interviewing the students, I spoke with a few teachers about their experience at the school, and then went to observe a sixth grade class. The English teacher didn't show up and so Bubbly aunty (a family friend who taught at the school) told me to teach the english lesson. The next teacher also was absent so instead of the substitute teacher, I ended up teaching english for an hour and half to thirty eleven year olds. We read a story about a man named Gopal. Gopal had neighbors who were day dreamers. In particular, the couple dreamed of a day when they would have enough money to buy a cow. Caught up in her dream, the wife bought four pots, one for butter, one for ghee, one for milk, and one to bring milk to her sister. When she told her husband what she had done, he started to shout at her, angry that she had not asked his permission to buy the pots and bring milk to her sister. Gopal heard the shouting and aksed what the trouble was. When his neighbor explained that his wife had not asked permission to bring milk from their cow to her sister, Gopal accused his neighbor of letting his cow ruin his vegetable patch and started to beat him. Then they all realized that Gopal did not have a vegetable patch and the couple did not have a cow. It was supposed to be funny, but it took a while to figure out the joke :). I had to explain vocab words like 'day dream' and 'thrashing' but the girls knew most of the english in the story. It was a lot of fun.

On sunday Suraiya and I went to see Dus, the latest hit Hindi film. We had no idea what the plot was since niether of us spoke very good hindi, so we made it up as we went along. We think the plot centered around members of an Indian anti-terrorist organizaiton that was trying to prevent terrorists from bombing a canadian football stadium. The highlight of our experience was a seemingly endless commercial during intermission where this woman said over and over again that the solution to all life's problems was to 'drink good milk from the carton.'

Mountain views from Marta

Namaste to all!

Well, it was certainly a relief to return to Kalimpong after Darjeeling.
I had not realized how exhausted I was until I finally got to ITTM and
collapsed on my bed! It was so nice to be outside of noisy town again,
surrounded by trees and chickens, with electricity and occasional
moments when the rain let up.

We hired a jeep to take us back because we wanted to stop at a gompa in
the town of Mangpoo on the way. The gompa is special because the
rinpoche who used to run it was a trained allopathic nurse. He had a
hospital in the basement of the gompa to admister to the monks, nuns,
and local villagers, and they combined several different forms of
medicine. You could get an injection in the morning and then be
shuffled up to the gompa itself for healing rituals, and then brought
down again for some herbal healing!

Unfortunately, the rinpoche died 2 years ago at the age of 42 from a
liver infection. So the hospital was closed and the gompa itself was
quite derelict. Running the place is really a one-person show. The
monks we met there were just kind of hanging around--usually they are
serving and being taught by the rinpoche. They didn't even know
Tibetan. Everything has just kind of halted until the rinpoche returns,
i.e. he gets reincarnated and undergoes training again. Even though
they currently have a short-list of possible reincarnations, since these
boys are all under 2 years old, the whole process will take 15-20 years!
So a whole generation of monks at the gompa just spend their time
hanging out (although to be honest, depending on the dedication of the
monks themselves, this can happen even if there is a rinpoche at a
monastery).

This has also been an exciting week because it is the Dalai Lama's 70th
birthday (July 6), and there are 3 days of celebrations at any places
with Tibetan communities. The biggest celebrations are in Dharamsala,
where H.H. (his holiness, an abbreviation I'll just use from now on)
actually lives. Here in Kalimpong, we went to festivities at the local
Tibetan school, Barbara and I wearing chupas/bakus, the traditional
Tibetan women's dress. We brought with us khataks, special scarves that
one presents to someone as an expression of honor and respect. There
was a special throne with an image of H.H. where people would present
khataks and other gifts and prostrate (I did not participate in this,
but it was interesting to see).

After a series of speeches by school officials and local politicians,
which were either in Tebetan or Nepali or really really boring English,
the cultural program began.

This was fantastic. It consisted of 5 hours of traditional song and
dance and theater in traditional costumes (yes, I took photos). It was
all prepared by the students and their teachers but was remarkably well
done. The costumes must have been horribly hot, consisting of colorful
thick fabric, fur, and masks more suited to the Tibetan mountains than
sunny Kalimpong. One girl in the 45 minute theater part was visibly
exhausted under her multicolored headdress. Most dances were only
accompanied by percussion instruments, drums and bells. The dancers
would do amazing weaving motions with their hands and feet. The
audience would cheer every time they started doing a round-house jumping
move. There were several dances where the teachers/women's association
members would stand in a line singing and waving multicolored khataks.
There was also one traditional Nepali dance and one Hindi dance, which
were so energetic and fun! And after each dance, each dancer was
presented with a khatak.

There was a really wonderful sense of community at the gathering. Most
people were sitting on mats on the ground and sharing tea and momos. I
started out sitting in some shaded chairs, but a Tibetan woman invited
me to sit with her and fed me with some milky tea, cookies, and breath
mints. I was the only one from our group to stay until the end of the
festivities, and walked to town with Lamu, who does data entry at ITTM,
and Shentrup (not the correct spelling of his name), a teacher of
Tibetan who was visiting from a town near Calcutta. Lamu invited us to
her house and I had my first experience with traditional Tibetan butter
tea, which was delicious.

The festivities continue today (Thursday) at the school, and tomorrow at
the local temple. I will hopefully attend the latter. THe whole
program is dedicated to the health and long-life of H.H. There are also
free medical clinics where Tibetan medicines are distributed at no cost,
again in his honor. I'm so glad that I am at ITTM because otherwise I
might not have had any idea of all this going on.

Speaking of ITTM, we have 3 new guests: Stefan, an Austrian
Anthropologist, and Marco and Heidi, biodynamic gardeners from Finland.
Last night was Dan's last night here, so we had a little party for
him. He and I, however, missed most of it because we were at O.B. Das's
house for dinner--he wanted to reciprocate our having him over, and this
was really the last night it could happen. And if we didn't go, he
would have been insulted. So we went.

The past two days have been absolutely gorgeous, which everyone here
attributes to H.H.'s rainmakers, who have performed rituals to stop the
monsoon rains. I have taken advantage of the weather to take photos of
ITTM and Kalimpong, so that my family will stop reminding me to show
them where I'm living! I cannot believe how little time I have left
here (2 1/2 weeks), with so much I still want to see and do!

Namaste,
marta

Yay for Pictures!

Go to www.flickr.com/photos/87302152@N00/ to see some pictures from our trip. I am still trying to figure out how to post the rest of mine, and my camera battery died in jaipur, so thats why there are so few. If anyone else posts their pics online, add the link below.

06/03/05

I am blogging because Elena forced me to. And since i am using her account, i'll have to oblige her.

So we just completed an 18-hour train ride from mumbai to Delhi. we had the sketchiest rickshaw experience ever. An old man accosted us once we stepped off the train and hailed a rickshaw for us...then he got in with us and tried to lure me into a different hotel. ("only 100-200 rupees a night!" he whispered, confidentially and knowingly) He must have charged the auto-rickshaw driver commission. The moral of the story is: commission sharks are rampant in Delhi. be wary of freckle-y old men in white who smile a lot at you and try to be helpful.

The plan for the day is to go to the Greater Kailash Area after South Extension (where we are right now). Elena wants to go to Mango..surprise surprise.

We just went to mcdonald's. yum.

What else is there to say? since i was supposed to blog about Agra, i guess i'll do that right now.

I chose to write about Agra because that was where we saw the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal was an exciting experience for me because I have always been inspired by any creation inspired by love. So, the Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife who died. She was a common person, but apparentely, did many great deeds for the poor of the country. Shah Jahan managed to win her by being a cross-dresser. (no joke.) He dressed up in a lady's veil and walked around the market, stalking this woman who would become the love of his life. They got married and were very happy together. Then, she died in childbirth, and as a result, the king's hair turned grey overnight. That is the first miracle. The second miracle was that he managed to get the Taj Mahal constructed to commemorate his wife. it took 22 years with 20,000 workers, i think. dont' quote me on the fact. my memory's a little fuzzy. The general point is that it took a lot of effort from a lot of artisans.

After going to the Taj Mahal, we were taken to a very touristy shop where they were selling the transparent marble that the Taj is made of. Everything was ridiculously overpriced, but the trinkets and tables they were selling were undeniable beautiful.

I think that covers Agra. I'll be staying in Delhi for awhile longer alone. now that i won't be surrounded with white people (i'm asian), i wonder if peopel will still take pictures of me on their cell phones.


PS. We also went to Fatehpur Sikkri. (probably spelled that wrong). I am including this fact because Elena made me. She just read my blog, and said "Honey! you forgot about Fatehpur Sikkri! AT least mention that we went there!". So here it is. I'm mentioning that we went there. the coolest thing there was the table in the middle of the courtyard where the king would play chess using his wives as gamepieces. good thing i didn't live back then in India and i wasn't Akbar's wife. If i were, i would never have consented to being his gamepiece. who would, in over 40 degree celsius weather? i would have gotten a ridiculous-looking sari tan.

PPS. Elena read my revision and was still not pleased. she said "Victoria, these are historical Indian sites...please respect them! At least mention that they were nice!" So here it is, AGAIN. Both the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikkri were very nice. Or to use Elena's words, "say 'spectacular!'" (she is looking over my shoulder as i am typing). yes, it was SPECTACULAR!!!!!!

happy, elena?
um... her response is : "Whatever, man. i don't care anymore."

The end of the trip 6/2

It's Thursday June 2nd, and only seven of us remain. On tuesday, Amelia and Giovanni left. On Wednesday, we said goodbye to Allison Guy. Today, four more went off: Imane, Ankita, Elena, and Victoria. Our group is thinning out and people are moving off to destinations around the world. It's a little sad, but the goodbye's only for a few months. Plus, we're all leaving with some excellent memories.

As soon as we got into Bombay, Matteo and I befriended a street beggar named Madhu. He's 19 but could pass for 16. We've had some adventures.

We also visited the tomb of Haji Ali, which is 100 meters out into the ocean. Steps lead away from the tomb right into the ocean. There were a lot of people there.

Today was cloudy, and soon enough the monsoons will be rolling in to cool off the extreme Indian heat. We didn't do much today, being that our numbers are half, but in the last few days in Bombay we've visited with the TATA institute, Somaiya Trust, MMRDA, and ICICI bank. It's been a lot of fun.

Now, Matteo, Allison, and I are going to sneak into the Taj hotel swimming pool.

5/25 quick update

Yesterday we arrived in Jaipur after a five hour bus ride of thrills. We watched in amazement as our driver cooly passed between trucks, cars, autorickshaws, carts, and cows and happily drove on the wrong side of the road if that made it easier (or more deathdefying). We played mafia and charades/taboo to pass the time and also had a stop at the Mcdonalds in gurgaon which was delicious. When we arrived in Jaipur we visited the wind palace and also an ancient astronomical site where it was possible to tell the time within two seconds with sundials. We then went back to our surprisingly luxurious hotel for a swim in their rooftop pool with beautiful views of the surrounding area. Jaipur was really hot (above 40C for sure) so the pool felt wonderful. I was exhausted after the long day so I went to sleep assuming I would wake up for dinner. I woke up at seven the next morning and felt great :). Others enjoyed the hotel bar/restaurant and we were ready for another early morning going to Amber palace the next day. We rode an elephant up to the palace(more later from Imane on this) whcih was spectacular. We then tried to do a littel shopping before heading back to delhi, and peple picked up a few bedcovers and pillowcases. Now back in Delhi, some people are watching star wars and others are at a restaurant. Allison and I are off to meet them now to enjoy our last night in Delhi.

Last night in Delhi, 5/24

Quick Update:

A few days ago, I pumped water out of a toilet and drank it to prove that my water filter worked. It tasted like old porcelain.

Yesterday we visited the Taj Mahal. Later, we saw a beautiful ghost town, a forgotten city built by Akbar the Great as a palacial compound. Then we ate at Pizza Hut.

Today we spoke with Development Alternatives. The main presenter was a former Colonel in the Indian army. They served us good food.

We saw another monument, the Qalb Minar, which is a giant sandstone tower. People are tired, but having fun. We're almost adjusted to the time.

We then shopped. I wanted to sneak into the Hotel Imperial's large swimming pool, but there wasn't time.

Soon, we're going to dinner with Ankita's family friend in Delhi.

Tomorrow, off to Jaipur to ride the elephants!