Independence

Independence Day was our last full day in Chennai. It was SUCH a great way to spend it! We really saw an expression of the people’s love for their country, which I’ve always felt is more lacking in the UK (not wholly a bad thing!). The school had celebrations in the morning: a march-past, traditional and modern dance and music, speeches (including one by me and Sam!), and, cutest of all, some younger students dressed up as historical Indian freedom fighters and gave a short play/ performance about how they’d saved “mother India”. The patriotism displayed did seem quite positive. It encouraged everyone to work hard for each other and their country, rather than only thinking of themselves. I’m generally against patriotism because, well, why put people in your country before people in other countries? Why not put the most needy first? But, if patriotism makes people less self-centered then that’s a step up I think.

In true Indian fashion, the guest of honour, a local journalist, invited us back to her house for half an hour after the celebrations. And, in true Indian fashion, that half an hour turned into two hours, including the traditional force-feeding ritual, trying on her weddding dress (see pictures below), and visiting her Jain temple to chat to the Saints there. WOW!

It was SO amazing to be able ot chat to the saints. They were totally commited to non-violence: they wore masks over their mouths to stop themselves ingesting and therefore killing microbes in the air; they don’t use anything electrical, because they think the electric currents could harm microbes in the air; they don’t even cut their hair incase it harms animals- they pull overy hair out by hand. To be honest, their methods seemed futile on the whole, and they meant that the saints could do no charity-style work(they can’t even handle money). I think they’re right that it’s wrong to harm sentient beings, but sometimes you have to harm some to help others. However, their total commitment to their belief in non-violence was totally inspiring.

I’ve left Chennai now and am back in Delhi, spending 2 weeks with KPMG. We’re enjoying Delhi so much more this time around, because we have the time, energy, freedom, understanding and confidence to really go out and enjoy the place. I’m learning tonnes from KPMG too. It’s turning me slowly into a profit-driven, heartless capitalist- I can feel it already. I’ve already begun buying loads of cheap, beautiful jewellery to sell back in the UK, and learning about how KPMG goes about advising businesses is giving me advice way above the necessary level!

OK, signing off, finally. PCs are in hot demand here. Again, thank you for all your comments and keep challenging me to look deeper!

Yours

Sally

Photos

Here are some photos to help illustrate my Chennai experience. They’re write a muddle- sorry!- but it saves me from writing tonnes and tonnes about every little thing I’ve done. More in-depth stuff is in the post above

ps. I originally wrote a tired, slightly moany post, including allusions to the cold-tomato-juice-style showers at the hotel and the poor service in the restaurant, but I deleted it cos it was kind of pointless! That’s why I have two seemingly random comments below

Chennai's sweets always look amazing. Taste... less good...

Only the very lucky get seats on the buses here. You're lucky to stand/ be propped up inside. The rest just hang onto the windows and hand their (full-priced) fares through the window! Note the resulting tilt.

The school showed us a play about the environment. To be honest, I uploaded this by accident... meh...

These boys talked to us for ages and were really nice! They didn't even force autographs out of us- they were just really interested and keen to tell us about India :-)

The Chennai gang were let loose on live radio for an hour. BIG mistake... ;-)

Pimped-up tig, Indian style

Talk about a close up... This nwas taken from a tin can/ safari bus.

We were going to get to ride the elephants, but they were poorly :-(

There was no furniture. The only teaching style in free schools is "activity-based learning", where the children take cards and do the excersies described on them.

This is the flip side of the govt school. the walls may not be painted and there may be no desks and chairs, but they DO have 6 swanky computers designed for primary learning... eh?!

The students dressed up as freedom fighters from india's history. gandhi was particularly cute.

The guest of honour at Independence Day took us back to her house. This is me wearing her weding dress! It was SO heavy, but such fun!

Couldn't resist capturing this, one of many "tailors"/ small-scale sweat shops near my house in Chennai

Observing predjudice?

So, so far I’ve been very positive about India. I think that when you’re encountering something new, it’s best to be positive and welcoming to it. That way, you don’t shut it out- you keep learning and in time this reveals the more negative aspects too. If you accept your immediate gut fear/ repulsion, you shut something out and stop learning about it too soon.

So there are a few negative things I’d like to talk about now I’ve been here for a while. One thing I’ve found increasingly uncomfortable is the attitude displayed towards people with white skin. Don’t get me wrong, people are EXTREMELY friendly and welcoming to us, and many of the children are very charming and have lots of interesting, genuine questions to ask us. But sometimes I feel we are welcomed TOO MUCH! It can start to feel like hero worship! For example, the younger children all want our autographs, and whenever we walk down the corridor or sit down somewhere public in the school we’re hounded by huge groups of them begging “Please! Please miss! Please, autograph, please!”; it’s very hard to make them go away! They’ve never seen foreigners like us in their school, so I understand that it’s an exciting novelty for them, but I don’t like to give them autographs, because it encourages them to see us as some sort of higher beings, not students just like them. I wouldn’t mind if they were just curious, but the way they BEG for autographs puts us on another level to them. It seems to reduce them, and they’re such amazing, lovely, cute, normal children. My friends and the teachers say that if we were black visitors from Africa we wouldn’t get the same attentions.

We watched a very popular Bollywood film last night called “Singh is King” which increased my concern. Firstly, all the actors were (as is usual in all the media here), very pale-skinned. There were a lot of half-naked ladies, and all looked Western, some having unnaturaly white skin, as if they’d just rolled in talcum powder! Most Indians walking down the street are actually far darker-skinned than I’d realised- definatley closer to black than white. But white skin is the ideal. There’s even a product called “Fair and Lovely” which I’ve seen in most beauty shops, which whitens your skin.

In some ways I find it funny, because in the UK we all want to look tanned! In place of “Fair and Lovely”, we have fake tan. And you don’t catch many pale-white girls flashing their bodies in films and the media. We both want to look like the other! Why can’t we just appreciate the beauty of what we have? So, it’s certainly not just an Indian ‘illness’.

However, there are associations with white skin that are quite openly believed in society here, whereas in the UK I think we’ve learned to either challenge our natural prejudices, or not to express them for them sake of being PC. WHen we asked the children in the school what they thought people in Britain were like, they said, Kind, Friendly, Nice, Fair (skinned). OK ok, so we were standing just in front of them looking clearly British, but others have confirmed that we’re seen as very polite and nice (if a little snobbish!). And they all think we’re proud of our white skin! They laugh when I tell them about the fake-tan craze! So, I suppose I don’t really know what to make of it. One kid in the class actually said he saw British people as “the enemy”, which was slightly worrying! Others see us as lacking spirituality, morals, and fulfilment, and not taking marriage and relationships seriously. So there are two sides to every coin!

The movie “SIngh is King” made me upset for other reasons though. In this area of India, the vast majority of women cover up, and don’t wear clothes that are tight enough to show your shape. So it was a shock in the film when every single woman was scantily-clad, always showing either cleavage or most of their legs, and usually showing both… in slow motion… with their boobs jiggling as they ran… with sexy music on in the background… while the men behind me in the audience hooted and whistled. Ergh, it made my skin crawl. And the whole movie was carried by the men, who had nearly all the lines and the only distinct personalities. The women were there to be oggled or fought over. The way it portrayed women just felt horrible to watch. I was looking out for exceptions to the rule, but really couldn’t find any. Oh, excpet for one, who was 50ish, fat, and the mother of the bride-to-be. Even she didn’t have much of a role except selling flowers and crying a bit. I can’t tell if I’ve just become overly sensitive since living in this more conservative area, or if it really is a serious issue. What do you think?

And the caste system still exists here, whatever people say, but I won’t go into that now because this post is lacking balance! So, on a brighter note, I went to the zoo on Saturday and saw 2 baby elephants and a baby monkey and some chimpanzees and a hippopotamus and, best of all, a little mouse gaily skipping along the back of a python and practically giving it a dental check-up, without suffering a scratch!

Hmmm. Doesn’t quite balance out the negative. Well… we went on Chennai Live (a local radio station) for an hour and it was REALLY FUN, then we called up another station while they were playing retro songs like Aerosmith, Guns and Roses, George Michael! (It was like the old Gits’ disco, Mum!) And, I have a companion staying with me with my host family, because my partner Sam was feeling home sick on here own! It’s much more fun when there are two of us!

There we go, that’ll do If you have any points, questions, comments, please do leave them. Especially, I think a few people who live in India have been reading this, so I’d be interested to here what you have to say about my observations. Am I jumping to conclusions too soon?

Thanks, all the best, and kind regards,

Sally

Chennai Week 1

Hello there! I can’t believe I’ve not posted since arriving in Chennai, many apologies!

We have again been really busy, but our activities have been fun and Chennai’s a beautiful, more laid-back place than Delhi. It’s a busy, bustling city, but it’s also by the beach and quite well-spread out (again, this is all in comparison to Delhi, so take it with a pinch of salt), so there’s a much less claustrophobic atmosphere. There are also fewer beggars, and fewer street venders to chase you as you wander about, which contributes to a far nicer atmosphere.

We’ve done so much I can’t really do it justice without writing a painfully long post. We’ve visited a traditional Indian crafts village, where we saw traditional south indian dancing, houses and crafts, and enjoyed some delicious s.indian food, eaten in the traditional way with fingers, using a banana leaf as a plate! I also had my palm read, and had a parrot tell me about my personality (using tarrot card type things). Neither were very accurate but I smiled along… People pay a lot of money to see such mystics here and have a lot of trust in their “art”.

The whole country is very religious though. For example, since moving in with my host family yesterday afternoon (it’s 10:30am now) I have prayed 3 times, even though they know I’m not religious! It just seems to be what you do. And everywhere you have to respect religious customs, like taking your shoes off in front of temples, touching your elders’ feet to receive their blessings, and receiving bindi’s on your forehead. When I told my host family I wasn’t religious they seemed to be hiding their distaste and almost fear!

The family is also a very important part of a person’s identity here; when you meet someone new, the questions that follow “What is your name?” and “Where are you from?” are invariably “What does your father do?” and “What does your mother do?”. You are inseperable from your family identity. This is shown through the remnants of the caste system- people still speak their caste’s mother tongue, and generally marry within their inherited caste- and even in Bollywood films, no character is introduced without the audience also being introduced to their parents and siblings. So when I tell people my parents don’t live together and have their own boyfriends/ girlfriends I’m also met with an edge of fear and distaste! (Yeah, thanks you two!)

The whole culture around marriage and family life seems to be very different- more conservative- to that in the UK. Oficially, people DON’T date, at least while they’re of school age. Officially, they wait until they have foud someone they believe to be suitable for marriage before they begin any serious/ sexual relationship with someone of the opposite sex. Of course, what actually happens is quite clearly different from this, and lots of the girls I’ve met at school get a tellingly mischevous glint in their eyes when I ask if they’ve got boyfriends! They also tell me their parents don’t know, and laugh as if this fact should be obvious. Basically, similar things go on, but it’s all hidden from your elders.

I’ve learnt a lot from my 2 days in the school here in Chennai. One thing I’ve learnt is to feel fear! These students are SO bright and SO ambitious and enthusiastic. We just don’t measure up in the UK. The 3 year olds can understand the teacher’s english perfectly, and count at least to 10 in English. The 5 year olds seem very comfortable speaking English in class, and by 8 they’re reading English poems unaided. The 15/16 year olds are doing binomial expansions and other AS level work that we only did aged 17, and their mental maths is really top notch too! We visited the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) last week too; it has 4000 undergraduates, who generaly have to score above 97% in all school subjects, and pass a stringent entrance exam, to even have a chance of getting a place. Given that many university graduates are still paid peanuts in relation to English wages, it’s understandable that more and more Western countries are outsourcing (moving their business operations) to India and other similar countries.

This has been quite a factual blog hasn’t it? I don’t want to just tell you what I’ve been up to because I don’t know what you’ll really get out of it.I’ll write more about my impressoins of my host family later, but I can say now that they are ABSOLUTELY lovely people, and I feel really lucky to have been put with them. They’re very intelligent and the dad runs a very successful business. They’re Jains and believe in non-violence and non-harm to animals, as well as truth, tolerance and pretty much any favourable values you can think of! On the down side, the rain has brought mosquitos into my roo there, so I have about 30 bites already. Aiich!

OK, finally, you’ll be relieved to know, I’ve finished! Yay! Hope you are well, and please leave any comments you’d like to make below; I love reading them all!

Yours

Sally

ps I lied about finishing, sorry! I have loads of photos and videos which I’ll try to upload tonight or tomorrow. That’s it now, honest!

Bombs, crazy excursions and wonders of the world!

Hello!!!!!!!!

Many thanks for all my comments, it’s so nice to hear from familiar people from home! I miss you all!

So, I’m sorry for not blogging so much on here. The week has been ABSOLUTELY packed. We’re up at 7am and back to the hotel at about 830pm, or later, at which point we have to go out in Delhi and find some food…

…Which is an interesting challenge! The way to get about is in little yellow and green autos/tuk tuks, and they are far from reliable! I paid 250 rupees for my first ride, later realising that a local would have got it for 30! (There are 80 rupees to the pound). tuk tuks keep dropping us off in random places too, cos they have no idea where we want to go, and spot other potential customers on the side street! And then, once you do arrive at your destination, you have to walk to find the restaurant, which gfenerally takes another 30mins or so. One night we walked for 45 mins, including crossing an 8-lane (2×4) road (erm, mum, don’t think about that too hard…), then eventually gave up and went back to the hotel. We ordered pizza on room service.

I’m getting used to the heat, and I’ve loved the food from day one. Although, after being ill yesterday, my taste has shifted to blander, more western food. Plain pasta is the most appetising thing right now! Curry is litterally everywhere. Everywhere smells of curry, there’s curry for breakfast, when the cleaner leaves our room in the morning it smells of curry, the innocent-looking bread and digestive biscuits taste of curry… You’ve gotta like curry!

On other notes, the poverty and hardship hear is getting to me more and more. Most of the beggars on the street are actually working for organiseed gangs, so any momney you give them doesn’t stay in their pockets. About 4-5% are genuine beggards. Most of the children you see on the streets begging (there are LOADS) have been kidnapped from or sold by their parents to these gangs. Many have beenmutilated as babies (e.g. hands or arms cut off), as mutilated beggars statistically earn more money. The thought of that going on around makes me really upset for these people. If they don’t bring home money, they get beaten up, which is why it’s so hard to resist their begging. they really do look desperate. I tend to give them any spare food I have, but you just can’t give them money. Interestingly, in the more rural areas they all ask for pens and paper. Perhaps they want to sell them (the people here are very enterprising, through necessity), but I think they want them for school.

Education is SO important for these people. If they’re educated, they can get good jobs. Good by indian standards that is. We visited a call centre, which i always thoguht would be a sweat-shop equivalent. I imagined buildings like 1800s factories and people cooped up like chickens, working long hours for little pay. I imagined it would be people near the bottom of the social pile. Not so. Call centres are HIGHLY desirable places to work. You have to have a degree. The people looked very happy, and their clothes and mannerisms were notably more western. There are prizes and promotions for those who do well, and the working hours are unsociable, but not too long. Wages are enough to live comfortably, and promotions lead to pretty high standards of living. My image of 17thcentury factories was way out too! They just look like british office buildings, and fellows who’ve worked in british call centres say they are just the same in england! But I bet we don’t enjoy the work as much in the uk!

A lot of the people who live on the street actually have jobs. For example, may work in construction, so just set up camp near their work and move around as necessary. They can’t really afford houses from their wages, ad living on the street is just a norm for many low0income people. I presumed they were jobless at first. The children wear no shoes, but their feet are hardened, so it doesn’t really matter. The fact is that what we see as abject poverty is a normal, often pretty happy way of life below the surface. I mean, they want to have houses and clothes and shoes etc I’m sure, and their security is very low, but I don’t think we can liken it to people living on the streets in the uk. It’s the gangs and children and beggars that I worry most about.

On a happier note… W e went to the traj Mahal yesterday! (Sorry for the bizarly quick change of tone!). It was really nice: the house that love built! It is incredible that this huge, beautiful monument was built by a husband for his dead wife. Although, I think he did have 300 other wives.. anyway, I can dream that there are men out there like that, ha! The gardens were beautiful too, and I felt very sorry for the 2 mosques either side of it which are absolutely beautifully intrivcate, but almost completely ignored! I’ll be upoading phoots soon. By the way thogh, I would have enjoyed thta day more if it wree for the $am rise and 12pm return to bed. I’ve never been so ill and tired in all my life- it felt like torture on the train back!

This is long, sorry…

…I’m starting to get used to the fact that everywhere we go there will be street venders bugging you. We came out of the peace and majesty of the Taj and there they were again. “Hello madam, you lok very beautiful. I have beautifulscarves and cklothes in my shop, you come see. i ntake you”

“Nahi jee” (no thank you)

“Yes yes, you come, jst look. What you want, I have everything, very beautiful, very cheap”

They follow you until the bus is too fast for them too keep up running. I chalenged one who said “We have everything” to sell me a live elephant, and he said he would if I went to his shop! They’re SO persistent. Last night we had a 30 minute wait on the bus, and were absolutely mobbed by venders banging bangles on the window and shouting prices at us. We’ve taken to bargaining with them just for the challenge of getting something for rediculously little money, but for me I find it quite wearing. Especially when I’m so tired! They are so persistent that you can’t escape, wherever you go, and your attention is just compleately drained by them! Their persistency also makes me sad; if it were me, I would just give up after 2 minutes. They keep going and going until you’ve physically moved yourself where thye can’t reach you, even if it means trying to sell to you for half an hour. They must be so desperate to sell if it’s worth the headache of all that.

On another topic, yes, there are bombs going off in India at the moment. I’m off to Chennai on  onday, which hasn’t been hit yet, but in myopinion that makes it more of a target. I’m very concerned that I’ll be in Delhi on Independence Day, as independence Day is the focuds of these attacks and Delhi would surelyt be a good climax target. So I am I bit scared by it all, but I also knwo that the british Coucil are closely following foreirg office advice, and that anyway, I’m staying away from danger spots like crowded markets or bus stations, and would be very unfortunate to be one of the people hamred out fo such as huge population here. They definately aren’t particularly trgeting foreigners. there vcould be no more bombs too. I don’t know. If we had to come home early, we could be bombed on the tube couldn’t we?

Just to answer the final question, we’re all a big group of 40 now, but will split into groups of 10 on  monday. I lke everyone and have a great group too so I’m very happy. AAbout 75% of us were ill nyesterday, but only about 25% are still bad today, as we got a sleep in this morning to recover.

 

OK, there’s a huge queue builindg up so I’ll sign off! Thanks again for your comments it’s lovely to hear from you!

Love Sally

Videos and Pictures

Oldest mosque in India

Images of the oldest mosque in India

I'm waving speciafically at Mahsa, my best Bah'ai friend!

Bah'ai Temple

Fun food!

Hello! Sorry for everyone who couldn’t post their comments. There was a spam filter error that I think I’ve fixed now. I hope you enjoy the photos I upload! There might be a lot, as I have no other means of storage! Unfortunately videos don’t seem to work but I’m working on it. I have videos of traditional Indian dance and young children doing acrobats in traffic jams, so there’s quite a bit to see!

All the best,

Sally

End of my first day

So, I arrived in India at 11 am this morning. I was just ready for bed by then, as I’d only slept for an hour on the plane, and my body thought it was 5:30 in the morning! Still, I battled on and have had an exciting first day finding out about what’s going to happen on the rest of my trip.

The first impression I got of India was how chaotic it was! The roads are a free for all, and the main background noise in Delhi is that of horns beeping as cars, busses, bikes, puk-puks and pedestrians battle fior space on the four-lane roads that run around town! I was also shocked to see fmailies and children living by the side of these busy roads, on the grass verges. I knew I’d see this, but it struck me at first, since I was in such an excited mood on setting off for our hotel.

I’m finding the country realy captivating and engaging. If you don’t engage, chances are you’ll suffer some sort of harm! But regardless, the mass of people everywhere draws you in, especially since their way of life is immediately recognisable as very different to life back home.

My eyes actually do ache a little. Maybe it’s because there’s been so much to widen them! Or mayeb I’ve been taking too many pictures…

If you have any comments or questions, please do leave them here! I apologise if this blog is a bit bad- I’m VERY tired!

Yours,

Sally

Welcome! (And itinerary for the trip)

Welcome to my India blog! “Namaste!”

The Taj Mahal, which I'll be visiting soon!

Chennai, India, where I'll be for 3 weeks

Photo of Chennai City

India is a fascinating, mind-blowing and often unsettling country. I’ve always wanted to go there and experience it for myself, and now I get to do just that, for 6 weeks, for free (!!!), thanks to “The Prime Minister’s Global Fellowship”. Yay!

The Fellowship is run by the British Council, and sends 100 young people to India, Brazil or China every year, to learn about the globalised nature of the world, and the significance of globalisation for businesses, governments and people. The 100 people going this year (including me) are the first Global Fellows ever, and this scheme is also unique in the world! This makes it all really exciting for us Fellows! We’ve already met lots of important people from government and business, received a personal video message from Gordon Brown, toured The Shell Centre, and, the icing on the cake, received FREE 12 mega-pixel digital cameras! Wow! It’s fair to say, we feel pretty privileged.

I’m writing this blog in the hope that I can share some of my good fortune with you, by keeping you updated on my experiences and answering any questions you have. I also look forward to talking to some of you about the whole experience when I get back to the UK in September, hopefully wizened in the ways of the world (!), probably brainwashed by multinational corporations, and without a shadow of a doubt, sun-burnt from head to foot.

That’s about it for now. Thanks for reading! If you’d like to see exactly what I’ll be getting up to, have a look below at my itinerary. Also check out www.bebo.com/globalfellowship for the group web site for all 100 fellows going to India, Brazil and China. We’ll all be putting our videos, pictures, comments etc on there throughout the visit, so it should be packed with interesting stuff by the end of the summer!

Enjoy the blog, and any comments or questions are welcome. All the best,

Sally

ITINERARY- FELLOWSHIP VISIT TO INDIA, JULY- AUGUST 2008
Summarised Itinerary

Phase 1 Immersion Course:
Week 1 New Delhi, 20 – 28
Week 2 Chennai, 28 July – 3

Phase 2 School Placement:
Chennai, 4 August – 15 August

Phase 3, Business Placement:
New Delhi, 16 August – 29 August

Farewell in New Delhi, 30 August

…………………………………………………………
In Depth Itinerary

Phase 1:

New Delhi, 20 – 28 July

Chennai, 28 July – 3 August

For the first week of the India visit, all 40 Fellows will take part in a language and culture immersion course in New Delhi. The course will include language modules in Hindi as well as study of Indian history, politics, economy, culture, religion and arts. There will be excursions within the city, visiting historical and religious monuments and exploring the Bollywood culture. There will be an opportunity to visit a local NGO (charity), and a day excursion to the Taj Mahal in Agra and Fathapursikri. You will also have free time on the Sunday for you to explore New Delhi in your own time.

On Monday 28 July, you will take an internal flight to Chennai.

The immersion course will continue in Chennai on Tuesday 29 July, including the history, language and culture of Chennai and Tamil Nadu, a visit to a community development project and a visit to an Artists Village for an overview of South Indian crafts.

Phase 2

Chennai, 4 – 15 August

During the second phase, you will be placed in pairs in a school in Chennai. Here you will work in pairs and with two Indian peers at the school to complete your research project. Your time at the school may also include a visit to the school’s outreach activities and observing and participating in extra-curricular and sports activities.

You will spend the first day being introduced to the school and participating in school activities. You will be introduced to your mentor, who will support the planning and development of your research project with your peers. At the end of the school experience, you will be asked to present your research project to the school as a group.

Your time in the school may involve time off for Independence Day celebrations.

During this phase, you will be staying with families of pupils at the school. Throughout this phase, you will be encouraged to observe, question and record features of home life and family values, and how these may differ to the UK.

Phase 3

New Delhi, 16 – 29 August 2008

You will spend phase 3 as the guest of a global business with offices in New Delhi. Placements in India will be with Tesco, Shell, HSBC, Ernst & Young, KPMG and Group 4. You will gain insight into the company’s operations and corporate social responsibility activity in India, and gain familiarity with the business skills required in a global market economy.

Farewell in Delhi

30 August

All 40 Fellows will be brought back together in New Delhi before returning home to the UK. On the evening of Saturday 30 August, all Fellows will have a final farewell evening with the British Council team.

Return Journey

Sunday 31 August

Meet the Prime Minister

Downing Street, 17th November