Moving on to Delhi - Leg 3 of 4

So yesterday we flew out of Pune and arrived in Delhi, the capital of India. Between Mumbai, Pune, and now Delhi, we have been in cities with a total population of nearly 40 million people. Wow.




The first impression of Delhi compared to the others is that it seems much cleaner and much more organized. Traffic seems to move much more smoothly as well. I’m fairly certain that I saw more actively engaged policemen in the drive from the airport to our hotel than I saw in over a week in Mumbai and Pune. And I suppose that makes sense, since this IS the capital and center of government.



We were on the drive to the hotel when we passed this really cool, old looking building. Several people were ooo’ing and aww’ing, even fumbling to take a bus picture, when we were told that the building was actually our hotel! The Oberoi Maidens Hotel is amazing. It looks a bit like an old mission from the outside and on the inside. The halls are long and very wide. And the rooms are incredibly spacious. My roommate Tom and I were lucky enough to get what appears to be a suite, meaning that we are actually sleeping in two different rooms for the first time on this trip. Very cool.

One unfortunate change we have encountered by coming to Delhi is the temperature. After a week in Pune with low 80’s and quite bearable humidity levels, we are now battling much higher temperatures and ridiculous humidity. A leisurely walk outside can have my shirt fairly wet with sweat in just a few minutes. Thank goodness for a tour bus that has good A/C!



For our first full day in Delhi, we began by visiting the Bangla Sahib Gurudwara Sikh temple. It is a very large Sikh temple, and they do an amazing work in feeding the poor in Delhi. Each day they serve a free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to about 30,000 people per meal. That’s nearly 100,000 meals served each day! And they have been doing this for…well, a very long time.

To visit the temple proper, we were all required to have our heads covered in the Sikh tradition. That meant all the men had to find something to wear, and many of us borrowed scarves from the ladies on the trip. It made for some very interesting looking Americans, as you can see in the posted pictures. We were also required to remove shoes and socks, but this is fairly common for most of the temples we have seen throughout the trip. Finally, we were allowed a trip through the kitchen where the meals are prepared for the feeding of the poor. It was so hot in that kitchen that it actually felt cool outside when we left! But seeing the many volunteers giving of their time and energy to accomplish such good was very inspiring.

After the temple, we had the unique privelige of having an hour with Dr. Shashi Tharoor. Dr. Tharoor is the Minister of Human Resources for India, though this title actually has quite a bit to do with the issue of education in the country. It was roughly equivalent to being given a sit down with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for about an hour. Dr. Tharoor spent many years working at the United Nations before taking a position with the Indian federal government, and he has written many books, both fiction and non-fiction. He is incredibly intelligent and an extremely gifted speaker. The hour he gave us was quite a pleasure and I was impressed with his candor.



A nice lunch at Lohdi Garden was followed by a couple of sightseeing trips. The first was to Lotus Temple, which is an amazing structure built by the B’Hai faith as a place of meditation and spiritual seeking. It is open to people of all faiths, but you are asked not to speak while in the temple, so that all those there may pray, meditate, or worship in their own way.

The second site we visited was Hamayun’s Tomb. Hamayun was the second Moghul Khan who ruled in India in the 16th century. During a recent visit to India, President Obama was unable to fit a trip to the Taj Mahal into his busy schedule, so he visited Hamayun’s Tomb instead. It is a beautiful and historical sight that has been well kept up and restored, providing a really interesting glance in to a time in India’s history that is over 400 years old.

Our trip is rapidly winding down. There are still some big highlights yet to come, but I find myself looking forward to getting back home to Debra and our humble little home in North Carolina.



Namaste!

Making A Curry

I thought perhaps I would take a break from reporting on some of the heavy topics related to our India trip to share some instruction that Jack and I were privileged to receive on making an Indian curry.  Our host, Hutoxi Dadachanji, has prepared several very tasty and authentic meals for us during our stay.  This morning after breakfast she was preparing a Mutton Curry for us to have at lunch.

Her kitchen is humble compared to our appliance dominated kitchens, but the food she prepares is far from that (her son is a chef in Canada as well!).

First we began with the ingredients.  They are:

Cloves, peppercorns

Dried red peppers

Cumin seed

Peanuts

Poppy seeds

Coriander Seeds

Shredded Coconut

Onion

Garlic

Tomato

Mutton (about half a pound of stew sized pieces)

The first six ingredients are toasted in a pan, then ground into a fine powder and set aside.

  

The coriander 

 

 The peanuts

  

The poppy seeds

 

The first 6 ingredients all toasted

  

Ground into a fine powder using a food processor

Now the onion, garlic, and coconut are warmed in the skillet and added to the powder mixture, along with just a bit of water.  Once again the processor is used, this time to make a thick curry paste.

Hutoxi tells me that this paste is perfectly edible in this form, perhaps as a savory spread on bread.  But our goal today is a curry!

So some oil is heated in a pan.  Hutoxi is using a pressure cooker today to shorten the cooking time of the mutton (approximately 20 minutes after it starts to "sing").  When the oil is hot, the paste is added, along with the tomato which has been coarsely chopped.  She added just a bit of water to get the thickness she wanted.

The curry is heated on the stove until the oil begins to show.  I am assured that this is an important step not to be skipped or hurried.  Finally the raw mutton pieces are added and stirred, and the top placed on the pressure cooker.

Alas, I failed to take a picture of the meal we enjoyed this afternoon.  Suffice to say, it was wonderful!  And, of course, the mutton curry was not all we had!  There were chipoti bread, rice, an onion and coriander salad, and a fantastic egg and potato dish called Eggs on Potato Straws (Sali Par Edu).  Yes, we have eaten SO well these past few days!

And for my dear Debra and family - I can tell you that the Dadachanji's took us grocery shopping today and I will be bringing back what is needed to try and make this dish for you (less the mutton of course!).

Namaste!

Pune - School Visits 2 and 3

It's raining today, the first persistent rain we have seen this entire trip.  We've not really experienced the monsoon weather we were cautioned about, but the evidence of lots of rain is all around.  It might surprise you to know how green this country is.

Today we were on our village trip.  One group traveled to Sone Sangvi and the rest of us to Nimgaon Bhogi.  Both are very small, rural villages that are dependent primarily on agriculture for their survival.  But thanks to efforts by groups like Ashta No Kai, led by the incredible Armene Modi, many village women are now improving their families financial outlook.  These woman are forming dairy cooperatives and savings clubs, in the process adding thousands of rupees to their monthly income.

As for the school, we were treated to an amazing entrance celebration!  The school at Nimgaon has up to grade 10, with a total of about 200 students.  They greater us with a traditional blessing, a handful of sugar crystals and the tossing of flower petals!  All the time they were clapping to a rhythm beat out on a drum.

An all school assembly, followed by some grade level races set the tone of a day to celebrate two different cultures meeting and growing to know each other.  Later, in pairs, we spent about a half hour with a class, sharing gifts of writing tablets, pencils, treats, and a short lesson from their American guests.  It is VERY interesting interacting with children who do not speak your language (and no interpreters!).  But be assured that we all had a blast!

All in all, this day in the village has been the highlight of the trip so far.  India has a major issue in the migration of people from small villages to already overcrowded cities.  To this point it does not seem as though the government has shown significant interest in addressing the needs of the small villages, failing to see that helping the villages might also help the major cities.  But we got a first hand look at how many are being given a hand at helping themselves, and it is very inspiring.  And the hospitality shown to us by people who are living on barely 5% of what we earn was more than humbling.

More coming.  I have much to share about our visit to the Blind School, our weekend with our Host Families, and our upcoming shift to Delhi for the final leg of our adventure.

Namaste!

Pune - Our First School Visits

Well, I have not updated recently due to a visit from what they call here "American Stomach."  Let's just say that it was another experience I will not soon forget!  Probably came as a result of something like this...

Tuesday and Wednesday I had the opportunity to spend the day at The Bishop's Coed School.  What a wonderful time we had!

Imagine the following scenario:

The students gather together in assembly at the beginning of the day.  The Headmaster steps to the microphone and leads the school in an opening prayer.  Then one of the teachers steps to the microphone to read a passage from Romans 13 on love.  After a few announcements, the entire school joins together to sing a song that I recognized as being an old praise/worship song.  The Lords Prayer is then recited by all, followed by the singing of the national anthem.

The students are all in uniforms based upon their grade.  The upper grades (8,9,10) wear what look to be traditional catholic type uniforms - boys in shirts/ties and dress slacks, girls in a modest length skirt and a white blouse with a blue smock over top.  If they are the 10th graders, they are also wearing a maroon blazer.  If they have their PE class that day, they may be dressed in shorts and a shirt for the color of the house that they are assigned to (four houses - red, green, yellow, blue).

After assembly they move to first period, which is an activity period for all students.  For some the activity might be sports related - soccer, waveboarding, basketball.  For others it might be drama club, robotics, or debate.  In thirty-five minutes a bell (a real bell!) is rung from the outside courtyard to indicate that it is time for the next period.

Starting with second period, students are in their assigned class; a class that they remain in for all of the academic part of the day.  In this school the teachers move rather than the students.  When the teacher enters the room, all the students stand and say, in unison, "Good morning Sir/Ma'am!"  And the class begins.

Students have seven 35 minute periods in their day, a 20 minute break period, and a lunch.

I expected to see discipline and respect in Indian schools, and in this I was not disappointed.  Every teacher is referred to as Sir or Ma'am, and the children stop when they speak to you and introduce themselves properly.  When the classes come to an end, the students stand once more, this time saying "Thank you Sir or Ma'am!"

But surely such a system comes with a price.  Surely students are stressed, uptight robots, weak in creativity and originality, and with little joy in their education...

Hardly!

I cannot think of many schools where I saw such joy in the faces of the students.  And these are students for whom expectations are sky high, in a culture where doing poorly is avoided at all costs because of the shame it would bring to themselves and their family.  They have tests they must pass, just like our kids in America, and yet they work diligently, often on their own, to achieve a 90 mark or better on their 10th grade standard test, because this is the test that will determine which college they can get in to.

So I have to ask myself why.

I watched several math classes, 9th and 10th grade years, where a calculator was never used, and yet the students did the calculations often mentally, relying on their knowledge of numbers rather than the capabilities of an electronic device.  I saw classrooms that had no computers in them, and a computer lab that had computers that must be at least 15 years old.  So apparently it's not the technology that gives them such joy and passion for their education.

I can't help but think that this Indian school has found a way to couple academic rigor with the powers of collaboration and creativity.  And they've done it without abandoning plain old solid teaching.  And it makes me wonder if it isn't just silly to think that if we want our kids to collaborate, solve problems, and work in groups, that surely doesn't mean they have to be doing that every period, in every class.  Maybe this Indian school has found a way to put collaboration, creativity, and a sense of teamwork in some proper places throughout the school day.

No, they are not perfect.  This school is basically a private school, as many schools in India are today.  Students pay to go to schools like the one I visited, and the story is not always as rosy in the municipal schools that the government runs.  Tomorrow we will travel outside of Pune to visit a small village school.  It will be interesting to see what we find.

One of my colleagues here, Melinda Simons from South Johnston High School, made what I think is a very on the mark comment tonight in a debriefing session we participated in.  We had been given a quote back at our Orientation in April that said, "India is America 50 years ago, and 50 years from now."  

Melinda said that she understood the part about India being America 50 years ago, as India is an emerging economic superpower.  But she said she struggled with how India was America 50 years from now.  Until our school visits at least.  She wondered tonight if this India system of very sharp and successful private schools, and struggling poor public schools, was perhaps the road America was headed.  As I watch legislators in state after state devalue education and educators, I can't help but wonder if she's not right on the mark.

More tomorrow about a visit to a local blind school.  And tomorrow night we begin our 2-day home visits!

Namaste!

Mumbai-India Day 1

At the end of my first day in India, I find myself to be in a state much like the country itself.

 Conflicted and contradictory...

It's not as though I expected to immediately fall in love with the country.  Mumbai has a reported population of over 20 million people.  I knew that necessarily meant there had to be significant issues.  

But I found I was simply unprepared for the breadth of the poverty in this incredible city.

                                                           (View from our hotel)

Right next door to a downtown golf course of such exclusivity that not only does it cost over $20,000 to join but also a personal invitation, there are rows upon rows of two and three level shanties that no person I know would willingly live in.

                                                              (Downtown Mumbai)

In the same city where you find a 7 story skyscraper with 3 helipads that, at over $1 billion, is the most expensive single family dwelling in the world, you will also find operating a city laundry service where the well to do get their laundry done for about 50 cents per piece.  This laundry is picked up at your home and returned normally within a week.  In that time, members of the "untouchable" caste wash the pieces by hand in pools of water, pounding and scraping the clothes clean with cakes of soap, not laundry detergent.  Then the clothes are spun dry by hand and hung from lines strung over the roofs of homes to dry.  When dry, they are hand ironed with coal fired irons, folded, and repackaged for delivery.  All this so that members of this bottom class can make enough to ensure a meager meal each day.

                                                       (The Dhobi public laundry)

Yes, there is much that is amazing in this city.  But there is also much that is sad.

I spent two hours today with a young man named Rajoo.  He is 25 years old and moved to Mumbai six years ago from Nepal to find work and a career.  But after six years, Rajoo still lives on the streets, and he earns what little he can by shining shoes of residents and visitors.  In fact, that is how we met.

                                                                  (My friend Rajoo)

I was taking some free time to walk around the city, just to take in more of its character.  Rajoo approached me and asked if he could shine my shoes.  When he realized my hiking shoes couldn't be shined, he chose to walk with me rather than part company.  For over an hour we walked the streets, Rajoo asking about me and my reasons for being in Mumbai while also pointing out to me spots of interest.  His knowledge of the city and it's buildings was impressive and welcome.

I learned that he left behind a wife and a son, neither of whom he has seen since he left to make a home for them.  He spoke of his difficulties finding a job while homeless, and the impossibility of finding a home without a job.  He talked almost dreamily of his desire to be able to buy a shoebox, which would, in his words, "change his life completely," including the ability to bring his family here.  But for a man who is lucky to make 400 rupees per day (about 8 US dollars), the prospects of earning the 3500 rupees necessary to buy this box are bleak.

                                          (The domed ceiling in Jain Temple, a Hindu temple)

He led me thru parts of town that probably should have scared me, and in the process gave me a clearer glimpse of what it means to be a have-not in a city as wealthy as Mumbai.  I very much wanted to be able to buy him his box and find out one day that he turned that box into a life for his family.  In the end, I settled for a picture of the two of us to remember him by, and handshake and Namaste of thanks for his company, and a couple 100 rupee notes from my pocket.

(Jain Temple)

(Me at the Tower of India, having been blessed by two different people.)

It was the great visionary Stan Lee who wrote, "With great power comes great responsibility."  He meant it for Peter Parker, your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man.

But surely that is a message for those in charge.  Certainly for our leaders in the United States.  And, as I am learning now, also for those in power in places like Mumbai.

Namaste my friends.

In the Air (or "Oh my aching butt and legs!")

We are well in to the flight from Newark, NJ to Mumbai.  At 6:00 a.m. EST, we have about five more hours on a flight that departed at 8:30 p.m. EST.  

Picture yourself sitting in the movie theater.  Take about an inch of cushion off the seat.  Then move the two arm rests so that they were barely as wide as your hips.  Add a lapbelt.  Let the movie theater be at full capacity so that there are people right next to you on either side.  Finally, let the movie be 15 hours long.

It's kind of like that...

There are some really cool numbers to share however:

--567, which is the top speed (mph) I saw on the flight report update

--8082, which is the number of miles from New Jersey to Mumbai

--37000, which is the highest altitude (ft) we were at 

The seat arrangement in Economy is 3-3-3.  Three seats left, aisle, three seats middle, aisle, and three seats right.

So I ask any of my math students out there, what was the probability that I would get an aisle seat?  Or a window seat?  Or, boo, a middle seat?

I'm not sure what the odds were of there being an empty seat between me and my neighbor, but there was one, and we both were grateful.

Had an interesting meal at about 9:30 p.m.  Some type of chicken and rice main course, which wasn't bad.  A salad that had some peculiar seeds or nuts on it (they were good).  There was a roll with butter.  A cup of plain (ick) yogurt which I ate because I thought those live bacteria cultures might come in handy in a couple days (lol).

Then there were some new things.

A little plastic cup of what was called "pickled vegetables."  It was about this size of a little individual butter tub from a salad bar, which made me wonder what kind of mini vegetables they had pickled.  Turned out be a paste-like substance with a slightly disturbing tangy flavor.

There was another plastic cup labeled "Ramasali" I think.  It was described on the label as "cheese patties in a sweetened milk sauce."

Yeah, that's what I thought too...

It was oddly enjoyable.

In an accessory bag was a little packet described as a natural breath freshened and digestive aid (which might not have been necessary but for the pickled "vegetables").  It had fennel seed, coriander, a bit of sugar coated something or others, and assorted other things.  

I felt like I needed a digestive aid after eating it.

For a snack a bit later, we had a curried chick pea wrap.  Quite tasty.

Well, I'm sure I've bored you enough for now.  Four more hours!

Namaste!

Departure Day !

Nuff said...

Next post will be coming from Mumbai, India.

Appreciate all prayers for safe passage...

Namaste my friends!