India.. . .

Tourists in the mist

kylabg — Tue, 2 Aug 2011 22:44:00 GMT

Picture it: a beautiful lake in the foothills of the Himalayas. The lake is surrounding by brightly painted homes situated in the hills and every so often groups of prayer flags stretch across bits of the hill. Do you have it in your mind? Then the fog rolls in more quickly than one would think and your picturesque view has been swallowed by this slow moving creature and you are left standing in the mist with the monkeys. This is was Nanital. Beautiful lush forests, consumed by a lingering mist. It was quite gorgeous and cool compared to this sticky hot Delhi weather I am barely tolerating as of right now. The group of us spent two beautiful, but damp, days in Nanital this past weekend. It was a great way to close out my Lucknow stay with my friends and tour guides, Anand and Vikas.

A group of us packed on a sleeper car of a train headed to Nanital on Saturday night and 10hours later we were in a lush and beautiful mountain forest. I will speak more about this sleeper car and Nanital adventure later as I am dying of heat exhaustion in a non AC internet cafe in Delhi and must go before I pass out. Yet know this, I had a relaxing, picturesque time in Nanital with amazing people. Google Nanital as I can't upload any pictures and mine probably won't even do it justice. So coming soon, tourists in the mist, pedal boating, trekking, sinus infections, monkeys, momos, and sketchy train rides. Are you ready?

Oh and I'm off to Khajurho, Agra, Jaipur, Delhi, and Rishikesh. I will attempt to email more along the way!

Sleeper cars are interesting, sleeping in a sleeper car is impossible, standing by the open door of moving train staring into blackness and feeling the wind on your face is awesome. I'm am glad though I got to experience traveling through India on this car because it is something I wouldn't have been able to do alone. Once we got to Nanital we trekked the mountain side, observed monkeys on rooftops, ate some delicious Momos (dumplings), paddled around the lake on paddle boats in the shape of swans, and watched the mist envelope the valley at least 5 times a day. Despite the sinus infection it was incredibly beautiful and the company fantastic. When it came time to leave a short 30 hours later it was with a heavy heart that I left my friends to make my way back to Delhi to begin the rest of my holiday.

On Tourism in Lucknow

kylabg — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 13:33:00 GMT

Well as my time in Lucknow draws to a close I find it difficult to reflect on the amazing time I have had here. The teachers at Vidyasthali asked me what I liked about Licknow and what comes to the forefront is the unending kindness I have been shown here. Everyone—students, teachers, staff, people I meet in auto rickshaws, etc.—have all welcomed me to this city in a multitude of ways. I will never be able to truly thank everyone for the kindness they have shown me. But before I depart let me try to document the last in a series of adventures I’ve had in Lucknow with the dynamic duo Anand and Vikas!

On Sunday Anand, Vikas, and I attempted to make the most of the tourist stuff in Lucknow. They kindly picked me up and before heading to Bara Imambara we made a quick stop for breakfast. We had idli which is a South Indian kind of rice cake, almost a polenta texture, in a spicy curry. (I think I described that right, otherwise boys please correct me J ). It was delicious! So far I have really enjoyed all the food in Lucknow. After our stomachs were full (I could only eat ½ and felt like a wasteful westerner, but they assured me it was okay), we moved to Bara Imambara.

Bara Imambara is a huge Nawab palace/religious place/shrine. There are 4 buildings in the one area, one of which is still used for religious services. They were constructed in the Islamic style that I’ve spoken so much about. Beautiful scalloped arches and vaulted ceilings. The main building has old pictures of Lucknow throughout and small alcoves or stages that are now used to house different exhibits or shrines. Upon entering I once again relinquished my camera to Anand since he, as previously stated, has become my official Lucknow photographer.

Then after ditching our shoes outside and looking around the inside of the main building we made our way to the Labyrinth. First you have to climb a steep set of stairs to the top of the main building and from here you are allowed to explore the narrow hallways and dark passages ways that make up the top of the building. As is the case in many countries, except the US, the safety of the visitor is not a huge concern. One is allowed to climb about the top wherever one pleases. In the US this would never happen. So of course I tried to take full advantage of climbing about whenever possible. The three of us continued to tramp about the labyrinth. Vikas and Anand sporadically cracking up about the apparently ludacris information they overheard from the “guides” people had hired to take them around. This made me happy that I had the “best” guides in Lucknow—even if they didn’t really have any information for me besides “unconfirmed” facts. We eventually grew tired so we sat in the opening of one of the windows and simply put—enjoyed the view. Upon our descent Anand told me I had to find the way back, which translates into us wandering around, and crawling through windows for an extra 15 minutes before I eventually managed to get us back.

We then moved to another building in the same set of monuments, Bauli, it was a medium sized structure that surrounded what once was a well. Creepy hallways encircled the large dried up well, but what was most fascinating was the amount of Lays potato chip bags littering the ground inside the building. You could almost hear the muffled cries of the UNESCO World Heritage committee as we wandered over the empty remnants of those who passed before us. From the Imambara we took a Tonga ride (Horse carriage, and super touristy) to Chhota Imambara a smaller shrine. There we took more pictures—shock! Checked out the royal toilet, literally a massive bathroom with about 4 different sized built in tubs. Then proceeded to the ghat to ponder the gomti river and when we had tired and were fully touristed out we made our way back to Bara Imambara. Along the way we stopped at a roadside vendor to drink coconut milk straight from the coconut and then watch as a man hacked the coconut open to serve us the coconut meat from inside our respective coconuts. Yum!

To continue my education into what really defines Lucknow we went to Mint. Mint is a lounge with a surprising amount of young people, all flashing as many name brand items of clothing they possible can and trying to look cool while smoking hookah. Now I say a surprising amount of young people, because a lounge is something that people in Lucknow don’t quite know what to do with. Last week for example, we peeked our heads in Zero a family lounge, which is essentially a club where you will find men, families, and the occasional woman. Club culture hasn’t quite made it to Lucknow, but they are trying and so it becomes a strange hybrid of family hangout/makeout spot/bar. Yet out of all 3 the Lucknow dynamic duo took me to Mint was by far the best. We relaxed on comfy couches, the boys watched cricket, and I tried to understand cricket. I had a drink with ice! Don’t worry I asked ahead if they used purified water to make their ice, and we had a meal of pasta. I know also weird that they serve main courses in a club.

From here we moved on to an area near Hazrat Ganj and had chaat. Chaat is essentially street food in different configurations of fried goodness. First we had aloo tikki and then moved onto these thin hollow fried balls filled with a spicy water and topped with yogurt and tamarind. You have to eat them fast before they get soggy, so good! We had three different kinds of chaat the names of which I can’t remember, but all were equally delicious. In an attempt to seek out the night life we moved on to Lucknow University. Anand and Vikas’ alma mater. Turns out there is no night life there either. J But it is a beautiful campus, I really love the Islamic architecture in Lucknow. We then went to a fairly new coffee shop for tea and surprisingly met two of Anand’s friends one of whom it was her birthday, so we all celebrated with a delicious chocolate strawberry cake. By the end of our cake we were all tired and touristed out and so made the trek home. Once again a great last day of tourism for me in Lucknow!

I will try to update more, even though I will be moving on from Lucknow today. I don’t know how much internet access I will have, but know that if you don’t hear from me all is well and I will let you all know when I arrive safely back in the US on 16^th of August!

Bye for now!

Trains to Temples

kylabg — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:45:00 GMT

So trains in India are an experience in and of themselves. We arrived on the platform of the Lucknow stations well ahead of schedule and waited for the Bareli Express to Varanasi well past the scheduled departure time. That was probably our fault if you think about the kind of schedules Indians keep in general—by that I mean no schedule. Once on the train it took some physical adeptness to squirm/launch myself into the middle bunk. The AC3 car of the train consists of 3 berths on each side of a compartment which is closed off by a curtain. AC 3 is a luxury apartment compared to the other seating on the train, where people are literally crammed into every nook and cranny. It is an amazing site to see, really. So after the initial giddiness of simply being on a train wore off I attempted to sleep. Which as most of you know I don’t really sleep well to begin with so let’s just say I laid in my bunk (no sitting up or you hit your head) for about 7 hours. It really sounds a lot worse than it was. I would not be averse to doing it again let’s put it that way J After a night of “rest” we were awoken by the train conductor saying we had arrived in Varanasi, good thing Varanasi was the last stop or we could have ended up only god knows where! So we sluggishly removed ourselves from the train and shuffled towards the auto rickshaws. After a bit of haggling by Shibani we were on our way. We arrived at Palace on the Ganges (by the grace of god, these rickshaw drivers really are insane in Varanasi) on Asi Ghat around 7am, had a delightful breakfast of aloo parathas, quickly showered, and were out of the hotel by 9:30am.

Once out we walked along the ghat as far as we could before the height of the river forced us to higher ground. There we met two locals who proceeded to take us through the twisting streets of Varanasi to the many temples that lay among them. History break: Varanasi is the oldest city in India it has gone through 3 name changes: Kashi, Benaras (Banaras), and Varanasi. Our “guides” told us the city itself contains over 2,500 temples. It is an extremely holy site for Hindus and Buddhists. Sarnath, which we visited on Sunday, is apparently were Buddha first delivered his 8-fold path message of enlightenment to his followers. The Ganges, or Ganga, River holds significance for Hindus, it is believed that if you die here you basically go straight to heaven—no pit stops.

Back to our walk. We saw so many temples they all seem to blend together, but I’ll do my best to separate them. First we saw the Water Temple (Temple of Fertility—it has these steps leading down to the river and women who are having trouble conceiving walk down the steps and bathe in the water—I stayed out of that one. Also the water is said to wash away your sins). From there we followed our guides through the streets to the Tulsi Temple (for the gods Ram & Krishna), the Durga Temple, the Hanumaan or Sankata Mochan or Monkey Temple. The Monkey Temple was crowded with people and monkeys. At this temple you buy sweets called La dulce and offer them to the god, the are blessed and then given back to you to eat. At this temple old Indian women nearly plowed through us to have their offerings blessed while others sat cross legged chanting amid the chaos, and monkeys walked around ignoring the humans. After Hanumaan we walked the dark, narrow streets of the Sham Shan ghat or cremation ghat. The “untouchables” (lowest caste in India) cremate people along the river here. There was a pyre burning while we were there and you felt a kind of heaviness about the air, that wasn’t due to the humidity. From there we moved on to the Shiva temple on Kadar Ghat, there was no electricity and we made our way through the puddles to little rooms receiving blessings and delivering offerings to the god of destruction. I will say I found the temples to be the most interesting part of my trip to Varanasi. At almost every turn there is someone with a red or white dot on their forehead that he or she received from a blessing at a temple. It is almost as involuntary as breathing for the people there. There is a great amount of ritual involved and I will say that I tried to keep up and be sensitive to people’s religion (like entering a temple only with your right foot, touching statues and receiving offerings only with your right hand, donating a sufficient amount of rupees—no religion is without its “charity”), but it was the most alienating and accepting feeling at the same time. There go the Indian contradictions again. Alienated because of how foreign the customs were to me and accepted because of the willingness of strangers to include me in their faith.

So after our 3 ½ hour journey we were ready for lunch. We politely dismissed our guides, offering them payment which they would not accept (they said they believed in knowledge transfer—I choose to believe they were telling the truth. They bought me flowers for my birthday so I will erase any possible ill intentions on their part J ), and headed to Orchids for lunch. Our rickshaw driver got lost in terrible heat and humidity, poor guy, but we got a mini tour of the crowded city along the way which was kind of nice. After lunch we went to BHU (Banaras Hindu University) a sprawling campus that used to be one of the top universities in India. We made our way to yet another temple before heading back to Asi ghat and our hotel for a bit of a rest before heading out for the 7pm Aarti on the ghat. Well rested, more or less, we made our way to the rivers edge where Shibani patiently haggled with boat operators for 30 minutes before settling on Rs 300/ person to take us to the Dasashwamedh Ghat to watch the Aarti. The boat ride down the Ganga was quite beautiful with some incredible architecture along the way. I’m afraid the pictures really do not do it justice. We arrived at the ghat just before 7pm and made our way to the steps just past the shore to light candles and set them adrift on the river. We then settled in to watch the ceremony. The Aarti is a 45 minute prayer ritual performed by Brahmin priests paying homage to the river. They sound conch shells and light these metal objects that are shaped kind of like snakes and chant while swinging them around. Their chanting is quite moving even from an outsiders perspective. Yet the moment you begin to feel the “spirit” you are distracted by boats crowded with tourists facing the ghat only a few meters away from the shore and sporting advertisements for Vodafone and Tata Dacomo (cell phones). Not the most spiritual sight. Nonetheless it was overall an amazing sight to see.

After the Aarti people go up to receive offerings from the priests (little sweets, cucumbers, guava—all objects that were blessed during the ceremony) its similar to receiving communion. We weren’t fast enough for all the offerings, but in another show of Indian hospitality a woman saw me and offered me some of the sweets she received. We then made our way up the steps to a throbbing market place (Times Square, but without the neon light lights and cows) and found Raju a quick talking rickshaw driver to take us back to our hotel. He gave us the Indian price because Shibani is Indian J He proceeded to show me all of these laminated cards which were reviews people had written about him all in Spanish no less! He was quite amusing and persistent, but made for an entertaining ride home. Once back we had a delicious meal at our hotel, due to sheer exhaustaion, shared a warm beer and called it a night! Overall it was a most enjoyable 30^th birthday!

Kebabs not Shish

kylabg — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:02:00 GMT

Chowk is this intense market place/bazaar in Aminabad in “Old Lucknow.” Anand, Vikas, and Shibani took me there the other night. Its kind of like taking people that visit New York to Times Square, but actually cool. It was a Thursday which means most of the shops are closed, which translates into less of a chance for the American to be completely overwhelmed on her fist visit.

We walked the main path into the middle of Chowk in search of “the best kebab” in Lucknow. What do you think of when you think of kebab? Meat on sticks, is what most Americans would say. Wrong. As we approached the restaurant the sound of people grew louder and the smell of charcoal grew stronger. It smelled almost like camping—ahhh. Then before you knew it we had arrived. There is a huge iron skillet atop burning coals and what looks like brown balls flattened out and clustered covering the top of the pan. Not the most appetizing sight to be sure.

In front of the restaurant there is a man sitting next to the fire and people crowded around him. Some are packing orders of kebab and roti, and others are placing orders. There are small children wandering between the legs of the adults. We walked past the crowd to a table off to the side of the restaurant, and placed our order. Kebab and roti—you don’t even have to order that’s all they serve and they bring it to you basically as soon as you sit down. So back to these delicious blobs of meat. We were served our tin plates of dark brown, squished flat blobs of meat and some plates of roti (a kind of flat bread). Like I said before not the prettiest of food, but definitely the tastiest. You use the roti to pick up the meat and pop it in your mouth. The meat is so tender it melts in your mouth. Killing cows is against the law so this beef is Water Buffalo. Everything I’ve eaten in India is flavored so nicely. It makes you realize just how bland what we would deem American food can be. So after stuffing ourselves with kebab and roti we walked back to the main “entrance” to Chowk.

On our way attempting to take night photos of beautiful scalloped arches at which point I gave up completely and gave Anand my camera. He, of course, had a much better working knowledge of it than I, despite the fact that I have had it for about 6 years now. . .sad. So even though I’d love to take credit for them most of the lovely photos of Chowk are courtesy of Anand, whom I have deemed my official Lucknow photographer. Back at the main entrance, Shibani, Vikas, and I indulged in Kulfi (saffron ice cream and rice noodles) and strolled around a bit more. Overall it was such an interesting and beautiful night spent in great company!

Just try to blend in. . .

kylabg — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Sunday Anand took me around the city. The “real” part in his words. We scootered over to Hazrat Gunj which is a large street lined with shops. The shops run the gammet, from Puma and Coffee Day (Indian Starbucks) to tiny hole in the wall stationary shops and your very own roadside temple. Anand, being a Hindu himself, believes these temples to be a ridiculous joke. I think they’re kinda pretty. After parking the scooter we walked along the street stopping in various places to eat. What else do you do with guests in a new city? J

All the restaurants have a sit down area in addition to a stand in front where you can get food “to go.” We went to the Royal Inn Café (the walkup) and had Aloo Tikka Chat. This is a tangy potato (aloo) snack that comes in a kind of cup, its made with potato, chat massala, and yogurt. Really good! It has the same flavors as Aloo Kachoris (the roommates will know what I’m talking about). Again along our walk we stopped in a restaurant and split a kind of lamb sloppy joe. Which with all the healthy food I’ve been eating at home (Urvashi’s on a diet) it really hit the spot! Also it was the first meat I’ve had since I got here.

We continued our walk and then hopped in a rickshaw and ended up in Aminabad. This is an area of Lucknow with a huge market/bazaar. This area of town is more what I thought India would be like. It is teeming with people, cars, rickshaws, and cows. There we had Kulfi which is a saffron ice cream with pistachios and rice noodles . The texture is pretty interesting, but not bad. And most of you know how I am with textures J We continued our wandering through the crowded market place. There were tons of fabric stalls, shoe stalls, cane furniture stalls, and so many more that I was gleefully overwhelmed. I told Anand I don’t think I can ever buy anything in India because every time I turn around there is something I like more in the next stall. Sensory overload I tell you!

On the way back to Hazrat Gunj we rode past a bunch of Nawab palaces. They are these huge beautiful buildings built by the Nawab’s. The nawabs were Shiite muslims that were known for enjoying the finer things in life and not being too intense politically or religiously but just really liked nice things. So the architecture is very Islamic with vaulted spaces, huge domes, horseshoe scalloped archways, and repeating decorative arabesque patterns. They also built many gates/entry points into the city. I pass one on the way to Malihabad (Land of Mangoes—where the village school is).

Throughout the day I was met by interesting glances, outright stares, and greetings of “Hello” in an Indian’s best American accent, and laughter on Anand’s part. Being the only white person in a wide radius can have that affect on people (although I did see another white person in the market we shared an unspoken moment of kinship together). So I was reluctant to take pictures at first, but then I decided I already stick out so why not just go all out? Forget blending in! Also I included some more photos, I remembered to harness my inner Asian and take pictures of food. I hope you enjoy the photos, need less to say they are not the highest quality considering the car/cow/rickshaw/mass of people dodging you have to do to take a photo in India, but I hope a little of the brilliance of this city comes through.

Also I don't know if it comes through in these photos, but the caste system in India is still very much in place. The Chief Minister of Lucknow is Ms. Mayawati and she is from the lower caste of India. This sounds promising enough right? However, it is very apparent that she has done nothing to help her constituents. She built them a huge park, Gomti Nagar Park, a sprawling place of marble and sandstone with huge sculptures that takes up a large portion of the city center, but for what? "Her people" are still uneducated, ill-cared for, and unable to move up in the caste system. In addition, she even built a statue of herself holding a Gucci handbag, that she tore down and rebuilt because she didn't think it was big enough. There is so much corruption in the Indian government it isn't difficult to see why people like this are so easily elected into office. I went to the park at night so its difficult to tell just how much land it uses up, but Idrive by its empty shell everyday on my way to work. There is never anyone in it. . .Some more political food for thought folks :)

Lots of Love,

Kyla

Rickshaws and Water Buffaloes

kylabg — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 23:58:00 GMT

Urvashi was out of town this weekend which meant I needed to fend for myself in terms of transportation to and from school. Which translates into pedal rickshaws and auto rickshaws. A pedal rickshaw is basically a tricycle with a little seat on the back that has a hood if you want it up or it can be down so you can look around. Some pedal rickshaws have intricate designs painted on them and brightly colored hoods. All are driven by a tiny man usually with the seat ripped in his pants (probably from riding this

bike all day) that you think could not possibly lug you 4 km up a hill. Oh but they can! They can not only lug you, but probably an entire family of 4 as well. Now granted a family of 4 in India is comprised of usually very tiny people, but still! Its suffocating heat and humidity and here this tiny man is carting people up a hill. Its impressive to say the least.

So to get to school I have to take a pedal rickshaw to Golf Club (Kalidas Road but no one knows names of streets just landmarks, so you say Golf Club because that’s where the Golf Club apartments are, though I’ve yet to see a golf course. . .). That’s about Rs 20 (50 cents); from there I take an auto rickshaw to school. (I just say Study Hall and everyone knows where it is which helps, when I say Golf club with an American accent no one understands me at all, it takes some creative talking to get there). The auto rickshaw is this little taxi that’s like a motor scooter but with an enclosed shell and looks like a little green and yellow beetle from the outside. Some have fancy curtains on the sides, others peoples legs dangle out the sides, because like I said it’s tiny. They are all painted with sayings like, “Go Green!” or “Please honk!” Which I really don’t think people in India need to be told twice to honk, the sound of horns blaring has become the soundtrack to Lucknow for me J I was confused by the “Go Green!” painted on some of the Auto Rickshaws, but I figured it out! They run on CNG, compressed natural gas, which is a cleaning burning fuel than petrol (gasoline). The first day I squished into an auto that had two people in front, including the driver, and 3 girls in the back. The girls apparently had never met another woman American, and so flooded me with questions on our ride. I asked if they had met other Americans in Lucknow, and they said yes but they were men so they did not talk to them. Running theme. . . After the girls got off the driver took me to Study Hall for a grand total of Rs 10, so my total trip (about 25 minutes door to door) was Rs 30, less than a dollar. Amazing.

On Saturdays school ends at 2pm so I decided to run some errands. Vikas (technology and outreach guy at school) told me about Fun Republic, which is basically a mall, but he said I could find everything I needed there. So with my new found skills at hailing an auto rickshaw (which basically takes no skill at all, being the only white person here I stick out like a sore thumb, the autos are lining up to pick me up) I made my way to Fun Republic. This is a huge mall with an arcade, McDonalds, cinema, and a plethora of shops and ice cream vendors. People really like their ice cream here! I’m still nervous about dairy so I haven’t tried it yet. Although I’ve been eating homemade yogurt and have been fine, so maybe I’ll try it next time. I went to Spencers, like a huge supermarket with everything, and bought the essentials (hair products and Q-Tips). Then wandered about the mall, got stared at—a lot, ate a spicy paneer sandwich at McDonalds and a coke with no ice, and then haggled with some guys to get a good deal on an auto rickshaw ride back to Golf Club. From there I decided it was still early I would walk the 4km back to Santushti Apartments (home). I also just feel terrible every time a little man has to lug my butt up the hill in a pedal rickshaw! It was a nice walk—a little muggy, it had just rained, but not too bad. The road goes past all the government housing. There are all these tents outside the wall where armed officers walk up and down the road, or sit in chairs lounging with their feet up. We have cops in NY, but seeing armed military in red burres is something else, intimidating to say the least. I didn’t want to take a picture of the tents or the military guys, I tried to sneak one, but I really don’t want to be thrown into an Indian prison my first two weeks here. J

As I continued down the street I passed a cow, or bull, eating some garbage on the side of the road. This had become commonplace, cows are literally everywhere. They share the streets with the rest of the community where they ignore the people and the people ignore them. So I walked on up the slight grade through some mud, then as I was taking a picture of some men pedaling bags of rice that weighed at least 200 pounds up the hill I glanced to my right and behold lumbering down the street were 3 massive water buffalo. The men in front of me on the bicycles even stopped to stare at these shiny black beasts. There horns curve down the sides of their heads and tip up at the ends, and on all fours they have to be at least 5 feet high. Yet there they were making their way against traffic through the mess of auto rickshaws, motorbikes, pedal rickshaws, and pedestrians. Where they were headed who knows, but it’s safe to say I’m glad they were on the opposite side of the street.

The small part of India I have seen really is amazing in this way—for all the new buildings and highly innovative technologies and fancy malls there is always at least one water buffalo to remind you of where you are.

Ever in awe,

Kyla

Photos: India

kylabg — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:31:00 GMT

photos from India

Vidyasthali

kylabg — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:23:00 GMT

So on Wednesday, Urvashi needed to go to the village school, Vidyasthali, to meet with some parents who are local mango farmers and some business professors from the University of Lucknow. They are trying to organize a collective between the farmers and also have the older students get involved in order to learn more about the business side of mango farming. Their hope is to not only empower the farmers and make their business’ more efficient, but also encourage students to consider the family business as a career versus something they need to “escape.” They need to think outside the box with mangoes in a sense because the crop only lasts for a couple of months, and the product doesn’t have a very long shelf life. Also so many mangoes are produced in such a short amount of time the need isn’t there and so that gives the farmers even less of a bargaining edge. Wow, I really wish I had paid more attention/taken economics so I could actually use the appropriate vocabulary when talking about all this. Basically mango farmers, despite producing the most delicious fruit by far, aren’t in a cash crop business.

Back to school, so I hitched a ride with Urvashi to check out the school. Vidyasthali or the village school is about a 45 minute drive outside the center of Lucknow. It is essentially situated in the middle of a mango grove. The mango trees, laden with fruit, create a beautiful canopied drive up to the school. The initial part of the drive there was most interesting. On our way we went through the “old” part of Lucknow. The side streets are small enough only for pedal rickshaws. There are fruit vendors lining the streets, people carrying goods on donkeys, and every now and again a cell phone store. (India truly is a land of contradictions). Most of the buildings are falling apart but some of the intricate Islamic architecture remains. Spots of blue and burnt sienna stucco with the most beautiful detail carved into the frames shine bright through the decay. Urvashi was telling me that for such a poor country Indians are generally happy. For example, the girls from Prerna have almost nothing, from an American viewpoint, to be thankful for. They get beaten by their fathers, they have little or no food to eat, and yet I have never seen one of them look sad or downtrodden. Sharp contrast to some of the underprivileged American youth I work with in Brooklyn. Every Indian I have met has been most welcoming and truly excited to share whatever they can with you. So the problem, Urvashi, says, is not innovation or spirit but organization. “They just can’t seem to get it together.”

Past the herds of water buffalo, tiny huts in one of which looked to me like a man was getting a shave, and mango trees lies the village school. The students were even more friendly than the students at Study Hall. The Class IX students took me to their class on break and pummeled me with questions about New York. They were eager to hear about the big city, which doesn’t surprise me considering most of them come from 38 surrounding villages and it takes some at least one hour just to get to school. I then “taught” a couple of the lower level classes, which was most difficult seeing as the students literally speak no English, so I use the term taught very loosely. We’ll work it out somehow I suppose—miming, puppetry, whatever it takes! Then I chatted with some of the teachers, I also use the term chat loosely because it was mainly me trying to piece together what they were saying in Hindi. Luckily Indians gesticulate a lot, and throw in a few English words here and there, so I wasn’t at a complete loss. And so after a long day, it was with an armful of mangoes and well wishes that we made our way back to the center of Lucknow, tired and ready for some ahms (mangoes). I’ll be working at the school two days a week (Monday and Tuesday) and getting my fill of mangoes! I have to say Indian mangoes are by far the most delicious mangoes I have ever eaten! I will be spoiled rotten when it comes to mangoes from now on. J

I know women in India seems to be a running theme, but I just can’t help it! The classes were evenly split between boys and girls from Class I through Class V, but as the students get older the amount of girls in those classes decreased dramatically. Class X for example, only had one or two girls. In a state where the Prime Minister is a woman it is interesting how devalued the average woman in Lucknow appears to be, food for thought. . .

Red Eyes

kylabg — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 04:48:00 GMT

So I have one red eye down and one more to go. Normally I am fine with this but today red eye is a term to be taken literally. I am writing bleary eyed at this computer screen in an effort to start my travel blog. As most of you know I have already landed in London, ambled through the city, and am currently sitting in Heathrow Airport attempting to keep from falling over. And thus the adventure begins. I promise to keep you all aprised of my adventures whether eloquently written or not, it will depend on many factors I'm sure ;) So stay tuned for more India. . .