Saturday 30 October 2010

how I lived my week


Most paradoxically, the after-festival-week brought many new challenges to us. We’ve had some interesting moments like watching Joothi Hi Sahi a Hindi movie or organizing a trip for the blind children to the amusement park. On the other hand, our relationship with the Master [our room owner] ditorioted gradually throughout the week and this morning reached its climax. To add to this, we’d spent 2 days in Manali and established useful contacts with the British fundraisers and bought some things to the Nepali school. But things have their own order, and I shall give my subjective account of the previous week.

Manali fundraising
We’d usually go there each Wednesday, and on Tuesday evening the preparation part followed. We were selecting the books to be read and worksheets to be printed when Ankit told us that the following day we ought to go to Manali Sudhershana’s orphanage (our first time there) and meet a group of British students from a private High School in London. A rush of adrenaline set me on fire: “Fundraising! Responsibility! British People!:)”, I was worried and anxious. In fact hooked up with cortisol for a few days, I wonder sometimes whether there is enough blood to dilute all the stressful lipids in my body!
I managed to wake Anine up at 6am (completely insanely illegal time to wake up!), took a cold shower (who’s forgotten to turn on the water boiler?!) and got myself ready for a two hour trip to Manali. We planned to hitchhike, but that early in the morning roads appeared empty, so we stood there freezing on the Kullu by-pass. Fortunately, a bus picked us up. We enjoyed the comfort of the “deluxe sleeper”, where as Anine actually fell asleep, and reached Manali in 90 minutes! Then we took a rickshaw to the hotel Highland(er) and got terribly ripped off (that’s why I love Kullu – people would never deceive you there, as long as you’ve been haunting in the city for a few months!).
The British group consisted of 22 girls and 4 guys. Their splendid outfits and Converse sneakers contrasted with the Hindi clothing  Apparently, they were well off, and the hotel looked impressive. The very same Nepali immigrants served them beans, ham and eggs, followed by the bagged tea – a rare phenomenon, finding its niche in the European-oriented hotels! I loved listening to the British accent, even though I always step into an uncanny valley when listening to the native speakers. However, the local children loved it, and carefully repeated “H stands for hoooose (horse)”.

Sudhershana orphanage started whwn a local woman named ...Sudhershana was asked to accommodate a poor pregnant lady some 6 years ago. It grew into large institution ever since, housing 40 children at the time, providing the elders with the vocational training (driver and IT professions). At the first glance her orphanage seemed poor, but that was the optical illusion created by the Indian speciality - garbage in the river. She has established a profitable money flow from the government and looked like the most luxurious institutions of all.
Our British counterparts brought the children to a massive field (almost non-existent luxury item to the other orphanages) and played sports games. They brought a few cricket bats, gates and those who honestly get the point of this game – please continue with the vocabulary items. After a few minutes children were presented with balloons and lost all of their attention from the new teachers, not to mention the fact that plentiful candies kept their mouths busy for a while.
Despite that, I saw the beauty in this cause: people coming all over the world to see the different lifestyle, accept it and help the ones in need. To make sure they saw the really –desperate-in-need institutions as well, we brought them to the Nepali school the other day. Due to the limited school area, we invited only 6 girls, who came with the book and stationery jammed bags. Of course they didn’t assume the worst case scenario (which is as follows: when planning a lesson expect the children have the least possible amount of knowledge in the particular subject), so the pre-nursery group were presented with the color pens instead. However, Fiona, one of the teachers, read a beautiful abc-story of Old MacDonald, who had a farm! Storing all of these books will be problematic, bearing the fact that there are no particular humidity proof closets or drawers in the office.
That’s why even before being exposed to this extraordinary amount of charity we decided to buy a new metal closet. Hence, after the beautiful Londoner ladies left, we went to the new Manali and bought a big metal closet for 3000 rupees and a globe. Globe was my favourite, knowing that geography is rarely thought in this part of the world!
We were happy to know that the British students managed to raise 600 pounds for the Kullu project cause, and Ankit will further coordinate the fundraising action. I hope that yesterday we solved at least some of their problems. Still, pupils are not coming back for December-March period as the winter colds will constipate the unfinished building.

Blind school
On the last days of Dussehra we organized a small trip for the young ones to the amusement park! In order to get the kids there we had to assist and guide their way till Dalpur. It took us some 30 minutes, walking in pairs, and stopping here and then to let the traffic go. Sad, in this country the car goes ahead of the pedestrian, and I felt especially cautious when handling the blind ones.
Once at the fair we sailed in the Columbus ship. A huge fly wheel propelled with a swinging “ship” hanging on the A-shaped metal carcass. There were enough space for 50 people, however there was not enough space for my lunch and at a time I sworn to God never ever become a sailor! Before subduing myself to the illness, I tried to close the eyes and imagine what they felt.
Remeber Harper Lee’s “To kill a mocking bird?” Atticus wisely said that "You never really knew a man until you stood in his shoes and walked around in them". After a month spent with them, I believe I am getting closer and closer to these people and I would never dare to classify blindness as a condition or sickness. It is a simple state whereas one has to relocate the brain resources to the other instruments of perception. Still, the linguistic barrier is standing solid, even though the rate of verbal learning is much more advanced in the blind children compared to the “sightful” people.

We met Shalini today, and will allocate some donations to pay for the transport to the mountain trip on the 13th of November. The whole student body should go with us and have a hands on experience with snow and Shanti. Shanti, means silence in Hindi, and living here amongst all of these cars and people they’ve got used to the noise. I wonder how will they accept silence there?  Moreover, we will try to establish the contact with “Funskool” corporation, an accredited importer of Lego toys in India. I think there couldn’t be a more imagination enhancing toy on the market. Simple pieces and complicated mind, I bet they will visualize and construct, but now let’s try to get it first!

Karwachauth
I do not really know the meaning of this special Hindi day, but it is truly unique and extraordinary for me. Karwachauth is the day when a married woman prays for her husband’s long life and prosperity. She fasts for all the time, being eating when the Moonlight consents and giving up her daily duties and work as long as the sun is out there. This Tuesday we went t the Blind school and found none of the children, nor their teachers! After half an hour we went upstairs and found Budhram (a 19 year old crazy college student with impaired vision) cooking for 20 children! All the married staff was absent and guys had to run this institution for a day! Similarly, Bharat Bharti school was empty as well, as we travelled all the way to Dalphur to have a class with our wonderful friends. Today we will go there again and discuss the corporal punishments in Indian schools. I believe we will get some insightful ideas! Anyways, let the women Indian ladies prosper, whilst the Western man even in the most delirious dreams couldn’t imagine the wives fasting and praying for their lives!

Masterjeeeeeee
Our Master is a one-off character, the only one of his species, Greedicus Rupaye Accumulatus. The only subject he speaks with us about is.. money. How much, why so little, pay more, best accommodation in Kullu. In order to save electricity, which is really scarce in India, I take cold showers each morning. In addition, I explained it to Anine that the clean water resources in India are less than in Norway, although the latter is 10 times smaller than the former.
Still, yesterday his wife broke into Anine’s room just before were leaving for the Blind school and took her blanket! There were a huge fight with tears and swears, and quite frankly I am happy we are moving out next week. But where?
To finish with a happy note, I have started attending a local sports gym, and can proudly say that everyone else is shadowed by my biceps :D Also, we went out to movies, Filmi, and bought a few DVDs with classic Hindi movies, as one of their titles say “Old is Gold!”

Thursday 21 October 2010

The great festival week



First impressions from Dussehra
Dussehra started this Sunday, and the tourists flowed in great number. Over 600 deities came from the valley mountains. They are being carried by two persons, poles resting on the shoulders and deity’s mascot balancing in between. We never saw Dalpur in such a condition: clean streets, orange and red plastic stripes, wind and music. Masses of people to commence and commerce.

Firstly, we went through the bazaar, in Hindi - mella. You could get anything in there ranging from sugar cotton to a 4-wheel drive Mahindra. Dussehra went commercial. But how can we exactly now that spending less than 2 months here? Probably, it’s always been like that: a huge festival preceded by a respective autumn’s harvest. Hence people buy and sell and worship the god’s for one’s forsaken prosperity 


Three football/cricket pitches are crowded with around 200 lakhs (thousands) of people on Dussehra. Once everyone is there standing, the gods start passing through towards the central square and all around the city. The guys carrying those spirits start swinging the structures and people have to run away to not get hurt. It was a real stampede! Some women were left injured, and my lungs nearly collapsed upon the pressure from the other bodies :D


Despite that, I ‘ve never felt so free and anarchistic in my whole life – being pushed by the thousands of cheerful folks is psychologically rewarding.
Besides Dussehra, a big international festival is taking place and we managed to see a few performances in the amphitheatre. I personally met a Kazakh troupe and exercised my Russian skills. You haven’t seen their faces, when I proclaimed: “Zdravstvuyte, iz kakye strany vy priehali?” I love being in India, but meeting even people from your own “block” feels special. I cast no doubts there must have been at least one Lithuanian among all of these goras (white skinned ones)!
I’m planning to get some shawls or our relatives and friends, and Dussehra is the right place.

Sitar classes
Today we visited the music school and agreed to start Sitar classes on Friday. Wouldn’t that be nice to bring home from India something more valuable than the Kullu cap? Let’s bring music! One of my friends helped me to fall in love with the Gypsy culture and I owe him one. Here in India, my Gypsy part of spirit is retained for a new life. Dresses, voices and sounds are too familiar to let them vibrate unnoticed.
Our future teacher, Rajeem, invited us to look at his dancers’ performance. There were 20 of them girls around 14-18 years old flexing divine sculptures with their bodies. After the dance they grabbed the Henna paint and drew virulent symbols on Anine’s hands. Meanwhile I had to content with an“OM”, as long as guys aren’t supposed to wear hand paintings  We loved it and made friends with them all. Chay was rewarding as usual.

Limbo
Finding a place to live in India is easy, especially for a foreigner. Conversely, paying the right price is inversely proportional to the whiteness of your skin. Our master is a great man: in his 60's, housong 2 daughters and their children as well. However his 4 floor residence is far too big for an honorbleman of his age and family size. So he'd rent a few rooms for the tourists especially on Dussehra. In order to do so, he "requested me to relocate Anine" back to my room for 2 weeks. This was clearly what we didn't agree on before shaking each others' tongues for the almighty "verbal contract".
In the end, wemanaged to persuade him to give us a notice in case some tourists are coming, so that in a few hours time we'd move our stuff together and be sad. However, the last week as I saw it reminded me of "who's afraid of virginia wolf" scene when e. taylor attacks her historian husband and reveals their most intimate secrets. 6 renters came in total and they all caused lots of troubles. This morning we found Anine's towels covered in a yellow ..spice/sweat/goo, coridoor's odour was strikingly familiar to hashish. Apparently our boys had fun tonight and we'll pay the price by cleaning the bathroom again :)

I should apologize Jezhko for using his towel last year - I know miserable life becomes once your towel becomes a part of the community property ;D (I used it only twice, Jezhko!)

It seems that our master's and many rich but PECULIAR men's dignity can be sold for a staggering price of 300Rs per night.

This morning my iGoogle announced that "Moon Crater Contains Usable Water, NASA Says".

Sunday 17 October 2010

before Dusshera...

The Wedding
Wednesday was the long awaited Indian wedding day. Our friend Papu took us to a village 15 km away from Manali, and although by the time we reached our destination it was dark, there were literally kilometers of lamp cables leading the way to the main yard. In my life I happened to see lots of European marriage ceremonies, but they shamefully shy of decorations, music and food compared to the Indian ones. Let’s clarify, we hadn’t met the groom nor the bride before (neither that night), but their relatives showed the way inside a white tent, stuffed with 30 “drinking tables”. I was immediately served with “masahavi” food. The first time I’m eating meat in India! Still the “meat” is 90% bones and the rest is chicken or mutton.
Also, numerable appearances of the waitresses meant that the table had to carry a great deal of liquor glassware. Unlike in my own culture, North Indian people are careful with alcohol, their favorite choice being 1 part of whiskey and 3 parts of water. However, that night newlyweds’ family and friends skinned off the suits and celebrated. An hour later, all cheered up, we moved towards the dinner head quarters – garden. We ate right there on the ground from the plastic disposable plates. People accepted us warmly, and neighbors grinned occasionally at our failure to eat with the right hand.
Wedding food is special hear, it has its own colour (yellow/orange) and serving sequence. For a starter we are offered a handful of rice. Anine places her both palms over the plate and says “niche”, she doesn’t eat much rice. Then, brown beans follow. Dal, Alu, curry chase in and we get another serving of rice. The former meals are high in protein and are my favorites here in Himachal. Yet what follows next is a straight deviation from the sour and salty main courses. We get extra sour and sweet curry and mango pickle.
Before coming to India, I was aware of “the pickles” in the Eastern European way. Me, my sister and Mom would pick cucumber from the green house, shave off the spikes, wash them a few times with a boiling water and vacuum in the jars with lots of vinegar. Here everything pickled in one or the other way comes as a threat to my stomach! For desert we enjoy the orange sweet rice. I don’t know how they make them orange in colour, but it’s a sugary desert, enriched with cashew nuts.
On that night we made more friends than ever before, and some of them invited to pay a visit on Diwali break. Shimla, Rajastan, Panjab, UP! Locals, poor and rich, Brhmani and peasants, have one thing in common – hospitability. Abundant in the economically backward countries, it compensates with people’s smiles and kind heartedness.

Blind school
We face great difficulties in exchanging our thoughts with the blind kids. They’re mastering the verbal language easily, but learning new nouns such as a clock, floors, wall, cat or house is literally beyond their imagination. So I came up with a plan to get some Lego toys into the school. All we need are the basic Lego pieces, whereas the resulting 3D sculptures have endless number of permutations. I love Lego, and I couldn’t imagine my childhood without it. So I found out an Indian company producing similar toys (it has the Danish license as well). What we should do now is to get into contact with them and ask for a few sets. I’m sure we could negotiate with the company on the advertising basis. Hopefully, by the end of Dusshera we’ll establish a dialogue.

Dusshera
Tomorrow marks the start of the most flamboyant event in Kullu. It’s celebrated around India as well, but in Kullu Dusshera has a symbolic meaning. On one hand the Gods come down from the valley mountains, on the other – tourists. Lots of them are eager to spend the money on Kullu shawls and dresses. Truly beautiful textile is made right here in Kullu, and the foreigners bring sweet profits to the shop keepers. Speaking of whom majority are Sikhs. I wish me knew more Sikhs in person. But apparently only brahmani caste lives in Akhara (our part of the city).

Sunday 10 October 2010

Catching up

Bharat Bharti
We've finally sorted out the contracts with the management. Our activities there are as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Friday - English; Saturday - crafts and physical experiences. Additionally, audio book recording and OCR scans (my favourite s o far). We arrive by 10 o'clock, and the kids surprise us: "Good morning M'am, Sir". They can literally smell and feel us. Following Aristotel, me and Anine should be made of "ether”, or the sixth matter :)

The first thing to do before engaging in any activities with the blind would be learning their names. In our first classes I haven't met this article properly. I'd thump the table space next to a desired kid to gain his attention. We were asserted 13 of them - youngest ones. They already know how to take the full advantage of the remaining sensory perception, they'd mastered Brail long ago, move freely around ashram unsupervised. They are 5 to 9 years old.

Besides the name, we learned the extent of their disability as well. Majority were born completely blind, whilst a few show dark/light sensitivity. Most importantly, a few have a so called MD (multiple disability), usually mental retardation. Getting their attention, working with and anticipating the feedback are challenging, patience consuming.

Third and the final rule, never help a blind one to move around the ashram. For example, there is a beautiful 5 year old girl, with fully impaired vision. She is new in the school, and just started learning how to be independent. Sometimes me and Anine couldn't resist the temptation to help her around when she was going to the toiled or coming back from it. in contrast, the others are sharp orienteers, no assistance needed. Well, not the clearest explanation of my point, but nothing is certain here anyways :)
This Saturday we had a massage session. Even the elders showed up as it's a school free day (2nd Saturday of the month is a Hindu holiday). Girls and boys sat separately, facing forwards each others back on a mat, and massaged. Anine knew a great deal in it, I contributed my own moves as well. We played Chopen and Steve Vai. Kids love solos!
Our award, a lunch with the blind, was sponsored by the local wedding. We'd been hearing the wedding march for a few days then, and knew that smth big was happening. Now, the jigsaw solved itself and manifested in a great WEDDING FOOD. Traditionally, too much food is made for Indian weddings, hence the orphanages and schools for poor are given the surplus. That day I enjoyed rice and curry, black beans, cauliflower, mango pickle and "an unnamed long white vegetable".
I couldn't imagine a better beginning...

Still digesting the sloppy lunch remains, we headed towards Dhalpur and Kullu hospital in particular. Behind it, Kullu electricity transformators reside. You can hear the electrical orchestra playing in the wires. Tajender's father is a manager there, and Tajender himself is one f our beloved Bharat Bharti students. He kindly invited Anine and me to have a dinner.

His Mom and Papa showed extraordinary curiosity about the lifestyles of Norway and Russia ;D As a rule of thumb, if a person fails to realize Lithuania's lcation on the globe, I concede being a Russian. What a paradox, to say the least! They were shocked to know that "Russians" eat pork, beef, mutton and chicken. Even more, "we" have it for lunch as well. Despite the cultural abyss, they loved me and served their best foods. Matar Paneer, Alu Ghubi, Shimla apple and for desert - sweet rice with Ghee. Importantly, everything was made from their own products. Tajender's family has big farm in Shimla, they grow apples worth 4 lakhs and 3 cows. Ghee is not atypical butter, because it's liquid and warm. Certainly a product of the backward refrigerator industry. We talked on "love" and "politics".


Manali School
We've finally had our first class with the Nepali kids in Manali. There are 20 students o both gender and ages from 3 to 13. The elder ones speak a great deal of English and play basketball at NCAA level to say the least. We agreed to spend 5 hours each Wednesday and it'll stay as our main priority. School is a 4 room building undergoing a re-construction lately. There is no electricity, nor the 6 walls.

Cobblers
I've finished the 1st season of The Wire. Why did I start watching it? Probably, to compensate for the lack of Western culture. Vicariously watching people die and sniff crack. Eerie, but familiar :) Not as if I was a great fan of these activities, but I'm simply missing Hollywood, and He is missing me. It's challenging for the Bollywood producers to sell violence (not as much as it was 30 years earlier though), as long as melodramas and "soapy" movies prevail.

Throughout the last 10 days lots of personal issues prevented me from "opening up". I was reading on neuroscience "Foundations of evolutionary neuroscience" and Marx. I always regretted not taking a closer look at the latter, instead of perversely slandering his image.

Dushera starts soon, and tomorrow Papu's bringing us to Manali - a real Indian wedding. He promised us a delicate cultural pearl, we'll see about that.

Meanwhile, the calendar strikes 13 months. Our first kiss being 13 months old, I'm a happy father, though 13 is a sad number. Probably one day we'll stop counting months, as they'll be shadowed by the years, decades, and from what I've read and future medical care promises - centuries TOGETHER! You stir up my temporal lobe - I cannot remember my name, You cause lesions in the orbitofrontal cortex - I lose my mind... Sheldon couldn't have said it better, but those things happen when I think of You!

Friday 1 October 2010

Trip to Manali, establishing new contacts

On Wednesday our schedule was rather self-effacing, consequently we went to Manali for the first time. Every tourist whose foot touches Himachal ought to go to Manali. Young ones – to smoke up, elders – to visit the temples. However one nation deserves a special commentary. Israelis! Escaping the army and enjoying a cheap “study in India” term, Manali is the New Promised Land.

Once on the by-pass, we got a hike from a rickshaw truck. We weren’t alone, three pressurized butane gas balloons accompanied us. Instructions on them clearly said “Keep under 30 C, Be careful!”. What a coincidence, the local air temperate had been 30C for a few days then, and the rickshaw besides its ability to wrap the space time, bounced up and down on the road. Say, instead of 40 minutes “standard” (nothing comes in standards here) trip, we’d been shaken for 2.

City center was magnificent and taken care of. I know that one of my friends lived there for a long time, now I wondered to which school did he go, maybe I was walking the same paths as he did? Me and Anine went to the Holy Star private school, there we had to meet a contact person for the Nepali immigrant worker’s school, which was somewhere out of reach. Listen, the abovementioned “holy star” turned out to be a David’s star  This made me laugh for a period of time. However, morning prayers were conducted in the Catholic tradition.

Soon we met Prashana, his wife Sunny and their daughter Joyce. Besides being lovely Christians, they helped around with the Nepali school as well, Sunny’s been working there since April. She explained that the school can barely pay 2000 Rs for the rent, and bus services. She explained, there were 30 children with a really poor level of English. Nepali’s come to Manali to work in the tourism industry, construction sites and part time workers, due to higher salaries, and many of their children abandon education whatsoever. Local Nepalis were pushing for a school like that, and they partially fund it.

Sky turned black, and we opted for home. A few tourist cabs stopped for us, “Kullu, 10 000 Rs, come with me ;)”, they were kindly refused. Few cars would stop, but in the end I was laying down on a styrofoam mattress, observing the Milky Way. Light pollution is sparse in the mountain regions. I dreamed about Us and Our future, and a powerful motorcycle, cozy apartment, warmth borrowed from You. Is it true that the stars are at their best when one looks at them alone? True true…
As for now, we have got 3 new institutions: the blind school, Napali school and Bhrat Bharati