Saturday - one last day

On our last full day we checked out early and climbed aboard our trusty bus to head north to Chennai. About half an hour after we started we ran into some mechanical difficulties and had to pull over and spend some time at a small cluster of roadside shops. Several mechanics later we were back on the road to the World Heritage site of Mamallapuram, an extraordinary archaeological site built some 1400 years ago and featuring one of the world’s largest bas relief sculptures. The site also has a gigantic boulder seemingly precariously balanced, but that has stood for centuries. We took the obligatory silly group photos and enjoyed the tour conducted by a local guide who called himself Shiva (but promised he wasn’t “the destroyer”).

After the tour we reboarded the bus and made our way to the Park Hotel in Chennai for our last night.

But first, shopping.

A group of intrepid shoppers headed into town in search of the fabled Indian gold bangle bracelets. Our first two stops educated us (prices of bangles fluctuated with the daily gold market – which already priced some of us out of the market – and the prices further varied by the workmanship involved in the bracelet.) Having realized we were shopping in the wrong league, we took our driver Anandh’s advice and headed to T. Nagar, a crazy, teeming market district that featured stalls at which we found plenty of costume jewelry (think: some combo of Faneuil Hall and Downtown Crossing on steroids). We also got to stand and watch life pass by for a while and take in a last few moments of our Indian adventure.

We ended the evening on the roofdeck by the pool enjoying the Park’s famous Saturday night kebab BBQ. We took a few moments to formally thank the wonderful Pradeep Gulati, who lived with us for the 10 days, guided us through all sorts of adventures, assured we were well fed and safe, and was undoubtedly glad to get home to Delhi and to his family, including daughters Sana and Naina, who missed him.

We were up at 3:30 the next morning for a 4:15 bus ride to the airport and the beginning of our 24-hour journey home. We lost Graham in London as he headed to Madrid and his next adventure, and the rest of us arrived, bedraggled but happy, at Logan at 7:30 p.m. Sunday night. As a last treat, we were greeted by Errol Flynn (seriously), a customs officer and colleague of Kelsey’s Aunt Colleen, who gave us the VIP treatment as we jumped through the last few hoops between us and our family members.

All were delivered happy, healthy, tired and full of fantastic memories and ideas about how to help the groups and schools we worked with.

In all, a tremendous experience for this group and a fantastic first step for Brooks in India.

Namaste from North Andover.

Friday - Fishermen, sightseeing and an elephant

Today we visited a village I’ve seen spelled 3 ways, so I choose “Anumandaikuppam” – I know the suffix means “fishing village”, so I feel safe with that. One of the intents was too see a village that had been ravaged by tsunami and to hear about that, but to be honest, 3 years later as they are now engaged in normal daily life, that seemed a little trite. Instead, we simply enjoyed the experience of seeing yet another way of life – completely dependent on the whims of the sea (which are less predictable post-tsunami, the men said). On the beach we saw the various types of boats these men use – the old style, 4-5 logs lashed together which surf over the top of the waves (one hopes), the middle style, all wood in a more traditional long rowboat form, and the post-tsunami model, same shape as #2, but fiberglass coated to make them lighter yet hardier.

The rhythm of life is the same here – early morning they leave to fish – some 25-30 kms out to see with a variety of nets seeking a variety of marine life – and then after 8 hours or so they come back to the beach, hand off the fish to the middleman (who they have contacted via cell phone from at sea – a distinct change in traditional procedures!), the rest and fix nets and other equipment for the rest of the day.

The people of the village had become used to visitors, though they hadn’t had any for a while. Nonetheless, they were nothing but welcoming to us (the norm in India), and answered all of our questions through the stalwart Pradeep and our Tamil translator for the day, Mr. Ghosh (Namesake students take note – what part of the country do you think he is from??) After spending time at the shore we proceeded several hundred meters inland to see the new housing built by some of the relief organizations that came in after the wave hit. They are concrete cube houses set at least 50 meters back (by law). The mood – vibe if you want to get all hippy about it – by the sea was productive and peaceful. The new construction did not have that feeling. Despite the best intentions of the relief workers, there is still some ongoing tension between those who have relocated to the concrete homes and those who want to be on the beach, close to their boats and their livelihood as they have always been. It’s hard to know when it’s right to counter someone’s wishes “for their own good”.

We had a chance to visit the village school and the playground built through funds children in other parts of the country had raised. The kids, of course, are always a highlight – many cute pictures were snapped.

After that we returned to Pondicherry and had a tour of a fascinating handmade paper business run by the Aurobindo Ashram (see entry above about the prophet, and presumably you’ve diligently Googled him by now …) Seeing the process by which the people go from t-shirt scraps they have retrieved from a nearby factory to some of the most beautiful designer papers you’ve ever seen – with almost no waste at all – was extraordinary. Not only did the kids learn about a production process, but they saw a wonderful model of recycling and recycling again, from the water used to soak the cloth bits to the trimmings of the big squares of paper – it all gets reused. As an aside, we saw a monkey there, which I put on my critter life list. I'll figure out what kind once I get Internet access again!

We then toured the city a bit, noting the stark contrast (gee, have I used that catchphrase enough??) between the Tamil side of the town and the area known as “White Town”, and not due to the color of the buildings… The area the French occupied remains distinct in its character, though the French occupation ended in the ’50s. It is quiet, clean, colonial in architecture, and altogether lovely. The Tamil side feels much more like India – hot, crowded, dynamic, diverse and exciting. It’s nice to have both to balance between!

Next we had a visit to the Ganesh temple, where for a few rupees one may be blessed by Ranee the holy elephant, who takes the coins in her trunk (literally, you drop it into what I assume is the nostril), tucks it away in there (it jingles like a purse when she shakes it), then gives you a plunk on the head as a blessing. Graham, who has been desperate for elephant interaction, was a bit freaked by the process, particularly the coins in the nostril part. I’m not sure his blessing actually counted, he shied away so much.

We had ‘coconut water’ out of fresh coconuts beheaded by an authoritative lady with a sharp knife (who tried to rip us off with old dried out coconuts until Pradeep intervened), saw the Aurobindo Ashram and witnessed the devotees meditating as we strolled around the tomb of the prophet, and then hit the Promenade for lunch, which was a spectacular buffet and even better dessert, and headed shopping – another great adventure.

Our day was topped off by a delicious dinner at our hotel, the de l’Orient, featuring some local musicians playing various flutes to aid our digestion as we ate our way through the menu. The students opted for Pizza Hut (around the corner), and all were happy. The kids went off and had fun in their rooms, and the adults (including Pradeep) met up with a recently relocated French couple and enjoyed some fine conversation.

Another amazing and full day.

Tomorrow is our last full day in India. It is unfathomable.

Thursday: South down the East Coast Road

Today we left Chennai and took a 3-hour bus ride south on the East Coast Road (sort of like India’s Route 6 on the Cape..) to Pondicherry, a holdover from the French colonial effort in this part of the subcontinent. The people in this part of the country are Tamils – they are physically quite different from farther north, and speak a different language and rarely have English or Hindi. They are more religious, and ornate colorful temples (and little “porta-temples” on random corners) are everywhere. There is also a concentration of Christians here – mostly with the last names of apostles and other Biblical figures (I met someone named George and Paul and thought the Beatles were the influence, but met a David and a Thomas and figured it out).

The ride south on the bus was like every other ride everywhere here- if you close your eyes for a moment you’ll miss something astounding. From trucks and busses crammed with people and goods to families precariously perched on motorbikes to ox-drawn carts going through major toll booths (imagine the Mass. Pike)… and once you have that in your mind, add cows permitted to wander undisturbed through traffic and meandering the median, safe in their holy status. Today we passed shrimp farms, spirulina farms, rice paddies and salt mines. “Back to the salt mines” and “holy cow!” have much more meaning to us now!

At lunchtime we arrived a Udavi School in Auroville, just beside Pondicherry. Auroville was started in 1968 as an experiment in peaceful community living (that is simplistic - please look at the Web site for more). People from 124 different countries came here to live a peaceful, accepting existence. Since then it has grown into a large set of townships including people from all over the world with skills to add to the community. This school is an effort to reach the children of the 13 local Tamil villages in this region, who otherwise might not get school at all, and certainly would live their lives at a subsistence level only. The school has 30 teachers and 40 volunteers who teach the 250 students on the beautiful campus, exposing them to art, language, dance, reading, English, maths, science and more. They may attend this school for 50 rupees a year (just over $1), make their own uniforms, and the experience they get is tremendous. Unlike schools we have seen which are quite rigid and teaching for a particular set of tests, this school offers teachers nearly complete autonomy. The volunteers are people who come from all over the world to immerse themselves in this very peaceful spiritual life, and they add so much (for example, the students are coached in volleyball by a Russian Olympic coach called Vladimir…)

At Udavi we arrived in time to eat lunch with the kids in their communal fashion (though we got spoons, as they typically scoop their food with the fingers of their right hand; plates are scraped onto a stone where the campus dog feasts), then toured the campus, then met to begin our service project, whitewashing a new wall for painting. During that project same of the girls brought out kollam powder and showed us how it is their tradition to make designs using this chalky powder outside their homes each morning. It is a skill typically practiced by women, though some boys joined in too (including Mr. Walczak and Erik!) The end results are gorgeous shapes which essentially wish guests to and occupants of the house a good day. After the labor we talked about our lives in a group, and then the Udavi students (9th graders) did a piece of classical Indian dance for us that was astounding.

Once that was over we all crammed into our bus and rode 10 minutes to a beautiful beach owned by Auroville (therefore not public), where we got our suits on and finally swam in the ocean. In Mumbai it is not done, so this was a huge relief on a very hot day!

After swimming we moved on to Pondi to an amazing heritage hotel, the de l’Orient, which I will post pictures of later. Suffice it to say it is extraordinarily beautiful and peaceful, and the French food is tremendous!

Tomorrow, a fishing village obliterated by the 12/05 tsunami that is nearly rebuilt. It will be a chance for the kids to hear about the tsunami from eyewitnesses and see the havoc it wrought.

Radio Silence

Sorry for the delay in posting - the only drawback of Pondicherry is lack of Internet access at the hotel. In addition, the Internet cafes do not allow laptop use ... so I wanted to post to let you know that you'll be getting a bonanza of material tomorrow afternoon when we return to Chennai for our last night.

We've seen some amazing things the last 2 days, and being in this clean, quiet, beautiful, peaceful place has been such a stark contrast to the chaos of Mumbai that it's hard to comprehend.

The French influence here is strong, and it's quite a nice combination - it feels like the French blended better and were perhaps a bit less "imperial" than the Brits may have been ... but that's a layperson's opinion. The food is certainly tremendous and the local people speak their English with a French accent - very disconcerting to my ears!

Peek back tomorrow for full updates, pic and video.

Again, sorry for the delay. All is well here!!

A flashy goodbye to Mumbai, and hello Chennai

Sorry for the delay in posting! The last 2 days have not been loaded with amazing photo ops as the past days have been (thank goodness – my trigger finger is sore!)

Yesterday we went up to “film city” in the hills outside Mumbai. We visited a new film school there, Whistling Woods, which is the new top of the line in the country. We had a good tour and met some students and faculty, but school was not in session so it was a bit one-dimensional. Still, another slice of life, and my big lesson for the day: Bollywood is not a place, it’s a genre. I thought it was both. Now I know.

In the afternoon (insert dramatic music here) …. we shopped.

This was actually the most fun cultural experience of the day. While the girls picked out sarees, we had assistants running around finding matching underthings (a petticoat skirt and a cotton shirt), and then wrapping them all up in the outfit. It was extremely funny, and in the end we all came home with an Indian outfit (except Mr. Walczak, who got distracted by the linens and things).

Last night, at the suggestion of several people including my dear friend Pradeep Kapadia ’74 we ate at Indigo, perhaps the best-known upscale restaurant in all of India. Pradeep’s next-door neighbor when he was a boy in Mumbai is the owner and executive chef, Rahul Akerkar. Sadly Rahul had left for Australia so we missed the chance to connect and tell Kapadia stories … another day!

Of course, we all donned our fancy evening wear for this, even the dads, who were dashing but not as flashy as the girls. No, Mr. Walczak did not wear his new blanket. He served as our “Western escort”.

We all had a wonderful time dressing up, and the food was by and large fantastic.

Today we started with 6 a.m. breakfast and got on the bus at 6:30 for the airport. We got the 9:00 flight to Chennai (formerly known as Madras – home of that sporty pattern we like on our shorts so much!) We arrived in Chennai and hopped the bus to our hotel, an elegant modern design that is both funky and confusing (e.g., the ‘sink’ in the restroom was just a glass slab – no bowl of any sort. I think I’m too concrete for that kind of challenge in the potty, and I know David Mallen is …)

The 8th floor rooftop infinity pool is gorgeous, and there are princely lounging beds around it with canopies. I think we could get used to this … but we can’t! Tomorrow we head off on a bumpy 3-hour drive south to the rural area to visit 2 schools in the next 2 days. We’ll say in the former French settlement of Pondicherry, where I intend to hold my American French accent up to their Indian French accent and see how I fare.

More later!

Technology making a difference

Today was our day to see how technology is helping the kinds of families we have been visiting. We headed to a suburb to see 2 slum schools that have varying degrees of Computer-Aided Learning centers built by Pratham, the NGO whose shelter we visited several days ago. The first school had 2 such centers – one for pre-school through 4th, and one for 5th through 8th. Standing with the little ones I could have been in my son’s preschool – they sat at the same Little Tykes computer consoles and played games aimed at boosting their basic skills in math, reading, general knowledge and English. Rather than being canned programs, these were built by Pratham’s own programmers and specifically aimed at these kids. Their Jigar series and the tutorials they have built for Word, PowerPoint and Excel, which can be run in 3 local languages, allows students to self-teach if they are in an area where there are not knowledgeable teachers. Pratham operates in 17 states in India, and has “friends” branches around the US and UK.

After a yummy lunch at which we sang Michael Hendrickson “Happy Birthday” while he blew out the candles on his chocolate mousse, we headed to Pratham’s local office to learn about how they are using GPS technology in this context. We split into groups and went with a tech who showed us how to map a route using a handheld GPS. We then downloaded our data onto the office computer and created a map with precise longitude and latitude points and with landmarks and other text commentary included. Pratham has mapped 50 slums around Mumbai this way (an aside – 40% of this city’s residents live in slums – and there are 16 million residents – can you even imagine??) The purpose of the initiative is twofold – first, so that they can identify where families live and work on developing education plans for each child, on the “micro” level. The GPS allows them both to locate families and to guide families to local resources (e.g., the school is just 5 blocks away, there’s a clinic here, etc.) The second purpose is to allow donors to see precisely where their dollars are going – they regularly e-mail reports to donors with maps attached of the precise areas in which their $$ have been spent. Talk about donor transparency! Wow!

With all the technology we have at our disposal, it is wonderful to see such a dedicated organization using cutting edge tools to make a real difference.

Tonight the kids and other adults are going to the Hindi movie “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom”, which should be highly entertaining for them – even if it is in Hindi with no subtitles. I have stayed behind, and have asked them to perform the best musical dance sequence when they get back. Make sure you ask when you see them, too!

We have seen lots of critters around, but today we added monkey on a leash and elephant trundling down the sidewalk to our list. Woo-hoo!!

Tomorrow, Bollywood!!

In the heart of the slums (and there is indeed heart)

I am not sure how much I can adequately convey about today’s experience. In short, we penetrated deep into Mumbai’s Nehru Nagar slum district with the Friends of the Humanist Slum Self-Improvers, met with a group of children taking extra teaching in English and then were led to their homes – 5 pairs of us to 5 different homes each. Our mission was given to us by Prof. Parimal Merchant, a professor of business at a local university, who first lectured us this morning on the roots of the slum problems and the psycho-social realities of such an existence. The Brooks kids acquitted themselves well after some prompting in the university setting! Prof. Merchant used clips from the first film in India to take on the theme of the difficult life in the slums to illustrate the many challenges the life presents. He was accompanied by his wife and young daughter, as well as another volunteer for his NGO organization, Mr. Nailesh Dalal.

After our discussion, Prof. Merchant told us we would first have lunch at Mr. Dalal’s home (a gorgeous high-rise), and mentioned that we’d have Domino’s pizza. I’ve never seen such happy faces on a group of kids!

After a lovely lunch during which the Dalal family shared such intimate details of everyday life as their son’s recent wedding album and their private temple (they are Jains), we piled into the bus and headed to our much-anticipated destination – the Nehru Nagar slums.

Prof. Merchant and Mr. Dalal are both intimately involved with Friends of the Humanist Slum Self-Improvers, a movement dedicated to helping those in the slums improve their standard of living through education and through building self-respect and independence. The group does tremendous work, and we began in a small room in the second “floor” of a structure that required a ladder to access it. There some 25 children were taking voluntary lessons (it was Sunday), and after we had chatted with them for a bit we broke up into groups. The kids – with one Humanist adults volunteer to guide the process and translate – took us to their homes. Each pair saw 5 homes, which were more like monastic cubicles and did not exceed 10’x10’ in measurement. The geometry that allowed a family of 6 to live, eat and sleep in these cubes was well beyond me, but the places were immaculate and the families were happy together. All had emigrated from outer states where there is apparently no chance to earn money and no options for education for the kids. Many said they had nice, larger homes in the villages, but sacrificed that for the time being to make some money and give their children opportunities.

Though we were in a place beyond anything any of us had ever seen (see the walking tour footage in the video journal), we never felt physically scared. The people were all welcoming and curious about us, and generally delightful to visit with. Eventually we got back on our air-conditioned bus, and for the rest of the day I found myself automatically thinking, “5 of those houses could fit in my hotel room,” etc.

There are far too many stories to relay here – one that sticks out is the 18-yr-old who lives in a 2-story cube with her 3 siblings and parents, and who is getting her degree in microbiology and has just completed her student pilot training, so s working toward her pilot’s license. When the students asked whether that was a hard situation, she noted first that she could not get funding (loans) for her education as the slum dwellers are technically squatters so have no documentation to show home ownership. She also mentioned that the electricity goes off a lot, so more often than not se studied for exams by candle light. She made a huge impression on all of us – and I hope inspired our students to think next time they felt like complaining about homework!!

I will post some video, but know it will not capture what it was really like to be there. Despite the aesthetic desperation of the place, we met proud people working hard to have constructive lives and better their childrens’ chances. It was in some ways inspiring, though certainly challenging.

PS Did I mention that we had a LOT of rain in a 36-hour span (325 ml, however much that is). It added an extra layer of challenge to the day, as you can see from the pix. As we complained about slogging through it, we looked around us and realized these people's homes were full of water. Always a lesson...