Tuesday 28 September 2010
Don't mess with my nerves!
Anyways, we had a "green" lunch on Monday, consisting of lentils and beans:
Then, we visited a temple which is next doors to our modest accommodation:
Finally, in Bhuntar, got a few more pictures and headed for Kalheli.
As we've lost Bashing, the more and more time is spent in this ashram. And this time the children were slightly bored by us: watching Smackdown (Undertaker vs. Kane - I enjoyed that one as well!), Bollywood hits with Govindah and doing homework.
Last day, we awarded them with a few nicely printed and laminated scripts. Surprisingly today none of them were present, so I lost my patience easily, shouted. Imagine me exploding on them. BJ calmed me down. BJ is a 12 year old boy. Just like the majority of orphanage kids in India, he has both parents, who take him back for a holiday season and summer. Instinctively I am convinced that the reason behind the low girls population in orphanages is due to female infanticide. Staggering numbers, over 10 million each year. The boy dreams of becoming a police driver and attending a +2 school in the English medium. Hindi schools are cheap, only 100 Rs. per year, compared to English ones 800 Rs. It's heart brekaing to realize that the child's future is determined by $15.
In the end, they have lost my new ball from the Juggling collection! (^ ^), on top of that we inadvertently refused to eat the dinner there, which my stomach regretted ever after. We'll manage them better next time.
Sunday 26 September 2010
Third visit to Paramita's house, rehearsing at Kalheli and Dalphur's song competition
I felt fed up with my partner, strangers praising her country, me introducing myself as Sergey from Russia. Listen, I grabbed Lavania by her hand and brought her to play. We played badminton and table tennis, which she either was not familiar with, or a lousy little girl child player. Being the latter, I supposed we could go to the blackboard and "draw". I taught her how to draw a cube: "Draw 1 quadrat, draw another on top of it, connect the edges." I taught her some logarithms as well, of which Joy was really pleased. I congratulated him with his daughter finihing the high school mathematics course at the age of 7!
You cannot imagine how big a relief do children bring to the irritated and angry people, as I was before. Accompanied by paramita we went to Kalheli and rehearsed the skit again. Our boys are spitfires and hyperactive, only Diwan being the omniscient leader of this hound gang :)
We gave him Lakshmi's part, it's around 200 words, making him the main figure in our modest play. God provide Diwan with memory and ating skills, we'll do the rest! Paramita taught them how to sing an "another" Nationalistic song, God should reserve her a buqiet of flowers and candies. Speaking of which, Northern India is the hell on earth for the chocolote lovers. Sparse chocolate resources and "cultural" vegetarianism (in europe it is rather "popular" to say the least) are the key factors separating our cultures. So, I got a Kit Kat.
Worth mentioning, after making chapatis the day before, we felt well accustomed in anat asharam's kitchen, and on Saturday we saw the kids frying a derivative of chapati, namely, "Roti". It was oily and greasy, once submerged into boiling fat it would inflate like a balloon and collapse afterwards. I was fascinated by its nutritional supremacy. Hence, we stayed for a dinner. I got Alu (potatoes) in the tomato soup. Therefore, AluTomato! Kids and the managment were heartedly surprised that we loved orphanage's food. So went on and explained them how much would this menu cost in the European restaurants!
On Sunday we planned to establish further contacts with the blind and Bhrat Bharati (Bharati - means "Indian") schools. We knew it was in Dalphur, but where exactly? The bus came handy with the nod of his head, and guess where did we end up? In the mid way between Kullu and Bunthat, some 5 km from Bhrat Bharati. We promised to work on our gullibility, and never trust bus conductors again! We hitchiked to the place with a beautiful family car, whereas the father was blessed with 4 beautiful daughters. He seemed unhappy. But one of them was particularly attractive and talkative, a cumputer netwroks student. In Lithuania computer science sill stands as the last bastillia for male dominated student bodies, radically reverse situation is here in India.
We followed one group of 20-30 nicely dressed up girls and ended up in a big out doors singing competition. School representatives from all around the Himachal Pradesh (or simply HP) were present. Occasionally we felt 6 thousand eyes staring at the two of us, but how much joy and interest we received from those young nice girls! They taught us ingenious games with the pebbles found right there in the grass and someHindi as well. Panch baje giro - it's five o'clock! Tomorrow I'll go to Yoga, and Anine will try playing Sitara with the girls' teacher. Her name is Flower.
In the end we got ice-cream and corn in Bhuntar.
Friday 24 September 2010
Me ne anat ashram me Chapati banay !!!
(Yesterday I made Chapatis at the orphanage)
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Yoga and Herbage
This Saturday, just before going to Basing and hearing the terrible news, we paid a visit to masala/spice shop. It’s run by an astounding couple, both late into their 60’s, still having a crow black hair. Besides spices one could find anything ranging from butane gas to Nestle milk powder, of which I am a great fan myself!
He belongs to the active intelligence of Kullu town, together with several elder family heads runs a school, serves morning prayer at 8am and does Yoga on a daily basis.
He’s taught us how difficult it is to find a partner in India and rebel against family’s favorite pick. As a matter of fact, we are not aware of any divorced couples in this down, married people are smiling and helping each other. This comes at a price, whereas a woman has to play a submissive role and man is her “God”. Do we remember our grand-parents marrying in the same way? The smiling shop owner stops doing so once he hears about the US. “It’s a self-destructive parody of democracy”, he claims.
On Sunday morning we were invited to have Yoga with him and other Kullu people, also a new Yoga teacher has just came from Rajastan. Here we were, at 5.30 am flexing bodies and squirting lungs. The last exercise – stand up as a dog and whilst breathing in and leaning back upwards, laugh laugh laugh!
I went there on Monday, and Today as well. We great our guru by sayng “Om G”. I You still remember “Bro G”?! There are a few differences between two concepts, as ”Om G” helps to stretch one’s tendons and happiness whilst “Bro G” speaks Bronx.
Yesterday we had the biggest carnage party ever! Wait, what’s the Latin equivalent for vegetarian carnage? Herbage. For 70 Rs I ate like a king, leaving two extra chapattis for a cow outside. Today I’m drinking Re-hydratation Salts solutions J
Anine is feeling even worse, as she had a fever even before yesterday. We aren’t visiting any institutions today, but tomorrow we’ll go to Kaleyhli and continue the skit preparations. I went there the day before, but as long as both Anine and Paramita couldn’t show up, we watched an incredible nature documentary series “Life” by BBC. This afternoon kids saw a chameleon shooting out its sticky tongue at the praying mantis in Madagascar and Komodo dragons hunting down a...buffalo. Shortly afterwards evolutionary discussion followed, driven by those keen to discuss the adaptations of reptiles and amphibians.
When the sun went down at 6.30, I was challenged for a game of badminton by Raj Mohan. I bit his dust.
How should we get back to Bashing? How to strengthen the connections with Bhrat Bharati and Blind school? Tonight I’ll try finish Bashing profiles, despite the fact that we aren’t allowed to fund raise for their cause. I missed my Princes, her soft skin, tender touch and smart ideas, which are the necessary attributes for each self respectful princess. But mine is special, I have no doubts about it!
Sunday 19 September 2010
Lunch with Paramita, expulsion from Bashing and this morning’s Yoga
On 17th we came to Paramita’s house. We agreed to have a lunch first, afterwards leaving time t finalize the script and bring it to Bashing for a tryout.
Although being an upper middle class family woman, she cooks outside (gas is too expensive!), on the most peculiar degenerate of what is known as the European barbeque. Recipe as follows: a few stones placed in a circle, fume collector, finalizing into a tall pipe with a roof on top. Her house maid puts a thick metal bowl on the stones and cook trout with masala, dal and ladyfingers. Paramita is Bengali, so fish commonly ends up on a table in her house, just as well as mutton and chicken.
A pressure cooker is exhaling hot vapor – less than 15 minutes and rice is ready. I remember, my grandmother , with a species name of Homo Sovieticus, was explaining me, Homo Post-Sovieticus, the dangers and cons of “rusky made pressure cooker”. It exploded often enough in her, her neighbors and their friends of friends’ kitchens, to create a popular mistrust in it all around the country J
There I was, now a man, facing that smoldering steel volcano. And God bless the pressure cookers around the world for a g/food reason – stuff inside tastes delicious. Paramita served us first, and then she ate a humongous plate. Her daughter, 6, came back from Cambridge school a few minutes later and we watched her previous school videos. Children of all age and undoubtedly rich parents were dancing and shaking their “budies” together with Akon and Beyonce. “Vanity fair”, a foreigner might say, but rich schools’ shows were always pompous and dry in content.
Later on we presented our script to the kids in Kalheli. They didn’t know how to read English! Haha, we will adopt a dinosaur of education – memorizing J Money for the trip is organized, Paramita will work on clothes, make up - we’ll make it. So far so good.
On 18th we finally got expelled from Bashing..by its own board! These guys who fund the orphanage appeared on several occasions previously and were curious how British were we, and what on earth brought us there to teach English, Geo and initiative games. This time they told us politely “Do not come here again”. We cried we called Ankit. Wegave them the last lesson on Geographic orientation and waters. I sang them Lithuanian basketball anthem “Ant kalno murai, joja Lietuviai..” and Anine spun them with “Uncle Jakob”. That is it. We aren’t allowed to meet them again, and what hurts the most – absence of any reasonable arguments against our teaching.
We were rippedof in our traditional eating place again. I fully understand that the bargaining foreigners look stupid, but to see others paying 30Rs and then being asked 60Rs reminds me of…racism . Splendid and pure as milk – people who’sskin is “gora” (white) are being mistreated quite badly. Evidently I’m struggling with some self expression, let it be.
Listen, today we wokeup at 0530 and went to the morning prayer and yoga followed. A real yoga guru is visiting Kullu for 7 days, so we couldn’t miss the chance. Previously I had Yoga with my Mom, but today’s experience was beyond comparison. For 100 minutes we breathedand flexed. Afterwards I felt relaxed by the dopamine. I promise to go to yoga each morning from now on.
Later on, we met Das. Das’s cook is a gifted artist. When reading Gunesekera’s “Reef” I pondered how could the food deserve so much attention. Now I have tasted and loved it. Das promised to buy us a flight to Sai Baba’s city. We’d spend 1 week in South India and witness Sai Baba’s miracles first hand J
Saturday 18 September 2010
2010 Hashish and other earthly addictions
Time is passing too quickly… nights follow days and vice versa. Have I run out of time? Too much time spent dreaming about the future. Let’s get back to reality.
Why am I so confused? Because Flash games rule!!! For the last few days Modestas have been trying to unlock level 19 of the Dog Fight 2. No excuses, but those WWII fighter plane games are addictive as hashish. And the latter one is getting closer to us every day. It’s being grown in our garden, processed in the kitchen conditions, sold straight here on the street. In the morning I’m being awakened by an unmistakable marijuana odor!
Yesterday we visited Papu, a crazy guy who’s wife is long dead. He lives by himself and “grows stuff” for his own “consumption”. However, we didn’t smoke hash, instead, made Italian coffee. I brought the Machinatta, Illy ground coffee and Anine. What else would Papu expect from me? So the coffee was too sweet, and he didn’t even try it. I remembered my long forgotten (2 weeks) addiction, oh pretty caffeine molecules! The very same guy likes speaking with us too much, thus living up his own addiction. However, apart from speaking, we watched two movies: Bollywood one and Scary Movie first part. Guess which one was Papu’s favorite.
Today we finally managed to get to the drug de-addiction centre and do a 1 hour session. I will tell you the way this organization works. There are around 45 men in there, who were all addicted to either Alcohol, Hashish, Heroin or Carabin (marijuana). Some of them were poly-addicts, for instance, the youngest inhabitant, Jarekesh 15. The oldest is 55.
Even the director and chefs were all once addicted. Usually, their families themselves bring their sick men to this institution, telling them a white lie instead of the truth. White lie typically is “They will detoxicate you and take some urine samples”. Reality, however, is 6 months of Yoga, Hinduism, no drugs. All f them went cold turkey, alcoholics were given no booze and hashish lovers were deprived of joints. Now they tell us it takes around 1 month to “get in touch with oneself” i.e. become content with the fact that proper treatment is a must. And so a few people stay even longer, like our English speaker, whose name’s vanished from my head now. He speaks like guys speak in Aberdeen!
They are insanely polite and different men, what an age and social class and race difference. Yet all are equal in their fight against drugs. This time we played “human knot” and conveyer belt”. The former being too boring and latter – a smashing success. Everyone wanted to have a go on their friends’ hands, unfortunately time was our mentor again. After each session, a bell rings. They say a prayer and leave. So we left as well.
Enough addictions for tonight.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Hitchhiking and other thoughts
We love hitchhiking in India! Would it be a 1000 colored TATA truck, white Toyota pickup or a three wheeled symbol of the country - Rickshaw. And, don't catch yourself saying Indian auto industry is backward, as TATA owns Jaguar and Daewoo and sell more passenger cars in India than any other company.
Sunday 12 September 2010
September 11 Anniversary and Kayeli
I can’t believe our friendship is celebrating its first birthday. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait to blow the candle on a cake until March. I have never felt so sure about my love to Her.
The night before I felt nervous, spent an hour walking those narrow streets of Kullu, until Anine joined me. We went to the West and standing on a bridge saw the sturdy and fuming river.
In Kayeli, we taught some more theatre and initiative exercises. Conveyer belt being the star of the afternoon, yet it was difficult to handle 30 boys. We watched tom&jerry in the end, and.. half of them passed away. So be it, we said, for the next time, prepare yourself for some hardcore theatre action as “save girl child” was coming.
Paramita, a local volunteer and a woman of many talents, got us in her car together with Joy (husband). Their house is cozy and spacious, common postcard from the upper middle class album. Their single daughter was beautiful and young. Their family moved from Kalkuta a year ago, as her husband was assigned a new position in Ferment (he’s responsible for vitamin D3 production).
We talked about women’s position in Indian society and prepared a raw script. A woman is giving birth, she’s surrounded by her family, uncles, grand parents and husband. Baby’s born and that’s a girl, and there comes the reproaches from the family for having a child. Then Grandfather reminds that Lakshmi has come to their house (goddess of prosperity), and Lakshmi appears together with Saraswati (knowledge). They’re both ladies, and as the argument unfolds, the girl child is given a chance to live and study.
Paramita’s family radiated with hospitality and understanding, we wish all the best for them. They also took as home by their car and we ate at our “restaurant”.
Now listen, we didn’t get ripped off J
That evening I watched Kynodontas (dog tooth). The night before – Sunset blvd. I have enough time for everything, but from now on I will concentrate on verbal Hindi, which sounds melodic and colourful.
September 10. Geography and tunnels
Bashing bashing bashing – our pride and head ache. On Friday we gave them a lesson on time: days/months/time prepositions and intended to have some geography for the first time. For me geography is more than a game, hence satisfaction soon to be guaranteed.
Children were phenomenally good at the “time” topic, at least verbally. They would spit out tongue twisting months without any endeavor. Yet, when it came to writing, even the elder ones like Kamlesh,14, or Monika,15. By the time we came across the easy “June and July”, three kings stepped on orphanage threshold. They were men from a huge company which constructs mountain tunnels. They are extremely rich people, and were carrying sweets, cookies with butter, potato chips. They gave this food to each of them, and for the first time I saw two things: firstly, our children so calm and submissive, secondly, charity as it happened.
I raised many doubts in my head, why would they bring sweets and potato chips to the kids, and ask them to eat it instantaneously. Truly, kids do not have sweets on regular basis their diet consists of dal (beans), chapattis (bread), pulav (rice), sabji (vegetable curry).
Guests were interested in Anine a lot, for two reasons. She was a woman to begin with, and blonde as well. No explanations needed, kids were disturbed by the amount of food. I call it “being high n sugar”, so they became extrememly energetic and agile. We had to play some old school violent games like red rover or cat&mouse. Games are rough (you know boys), tears are common.
Afterwards, we showed them a world political map. Surprise, they couldn’t tell us where India was. They couldn’t tell us Russia, nor the US, nor China. It was their first but definitely not the last one encounter with maps. Now it’s clear, that in their public there is little initiative to teach global awareness. Conversely, ne could argue that the whole country is generally bad at geography. Even when meeting some elder men of pristine reputation I feel awry once statements like “I believe German similar to French” or “knowing that Britain has a land border with Europe, how do they unknot the right-left traffic difference once driving from Spain to Bitain?”. ;D I could collect more quotes of similar relevance, but time is sparse. In the end, we still have a lot of things to teach them about European continent, whereas India is too much a “continent of its own” at the moment.
Das (tunnel company man) invited us for a dinner on Sunday.
Next time we’ll bring two maps t Bashing, and our evening was spent planning for “Save girl child India” skit.
Friday 10 September 2010
September 9
Throughout the last few days we kept on working with Bashing, established contacts with Grady (a guy who’s bringing bicycles from the US) and previous volunteers. Yet, I felt like I’d left my soul in the fridge.
At Bashing kids were too distracted and preoccupied to learn, so we played cricket. I’ve never done it before, and surely never play this game again. It’s tedious to say the least, and for the most of time only two people engage into it. Snobbish piece of heritage from those times, I thought. Conversely, Basketball, is one of the coolest and least snobbish games ever. It’s as athletic as a sport can get. I wonder how’s Lithuania performed yesterday against Argentina.
On Thursday we had to visit drug de-addiction centre and Kayeli orphanage. We went to the central bus station which resembles a colorful masquerade and asked one of the drivers for Jhiri. As it turned out we were being taken to Ghiri which is 2 hours drive from Kullu. Sad. After being ridiculously late for the centre, we opted to come back to Kayeli on time.
A cute pickup stopped for us, there were 8 kids inside, and two funny smiling guys in front. They showed some zig zags when asked whether they went to Kullu. As gullible as we are, instead of going to Kullu, we went to the…skies. The pick-up was driving kids who live n a hug mountain back from school. We spent 1 hour elevating ourselves through serpentines. God, these panoramas are astonishing. And roads are narrow enough to sparkle frightful hallucinations about us rolling down the road. I’ll ask Anine for some pics, that we’ve taken that day.
I always wondered what brings people so high up the mountains. Here you have a powerful river and a patch of fertile land by your neighborhood, and yet, you ascend further. Some of those girls in the truck were astoundingly pretty, like gemstones on a crown of mountains.
So we went to Kayeli and met them kids. Compared to Bashing where anarchy is their bread, Kayelis were modest and well behaved. A married old couple is running this place, and believe it or not – they run it smooth. This Saturday we’ll start planning our skit for Save the girl child and for now we played some bonding games.
Guys liked it in general, yet the elder ones were slightly bored. I raised my voice a lot. And they would listen. I like it.
Once back in Kullu, we were ripped off. At the fruit stand, at restaurant, at staples shop. We felt sad. Last day we paid 35 Rs for two half plates of “lady fingers” and Dal, and now it inflated to 60Rs. Kindly asked, assistant gave us a discount to 55 Rs. Equality and patience, next time we’ll say “Sahi sahi ret lagama” – “Tell me the real price”! I can’t believe that Lithuania, although being at the back foot of Europe is still cheaper than India ;D
One week in Kullu, and life is turning mundane, except the daily activities with children.
Yesterday, I did the garbage the first time. Instructions go like this:
1. 1. Take the trash
2. 2. Go a few quartiles away
3. 3. Look out for cows.
4. 4. Feed the garbage to them. ;D