people complain a lot about the traffic and congestion of mumbai, and how terrible it is. i dont know what they are talking about. i along with two other nourish folks went to mumbai for about four days and we LOVED every second of it. I think i've fallen in love with Mumbai.
It's such a cool city with so much, SO much going on. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that yes, for this leg of the trip i am indeed a tourist. a tourist is what i am. i am not doing anything 'productive' or working on anything, i am just absorbing as much as i can about the city with the little time that i had there. visiting places, shopping, going to bunches of art galleries, museums, walking along marine drive, EATING our little hearts out, attending a Kathakali performance, and watching our first bollywood movie in the theater (please do not watch Kal Kisne Dekha, it is a terrible terrible movie. the movie industry took a pretty bad hit with the multiplex strike for a couple of months so this was the only movie that was out while we were there. the theater was cool and that's pretty much it and i didnt know that everyone had to stand up before the movie started to sing the Indian national anthem, so that was kind of cool too. the movie is terrible.) is how we spent our four days there. the buildings, roads, architecture, of mumbai are amazing, as are the yellow and black cabs! cabs surprisingly saved us so much money and was so much more economical than rickshaws.
THE FOOD in mumbai was INCREDIBLE. I dont think there was any single meal where i was blah.
for anyone planning on going to mumbai, you MUST go to Swati Snacks. It's a cute little restaurant. and all they serve are the amazing indian street food, accept in a restaurant using safe water and all. it is AMAZING. i completely indulged in my pani puri and pav bhaji and a whole bunch of other stuff we shared. i'm not sure how many cups of chai i've consumed so far. i'm a chai addict. but that i always was.
Who knew Irani food would be good in Mumbai? We ended up going to the same Irani restaurant at least four times to get a delicious finger licking plate of Chelo Kabab.

Of course all of our experiences were good (minus one small incident in a cab). but that's because we took on the role of tourists to take out and absorb all the materialistic and fun happy things that Mumbai has to offer. One of the first things I saw in Mumbai was a woman lying down on the side of the road, half sleeping. her son, must have been about three years old, completely bare and without clothes, just roamed around the streets, walking from here to there, exploring like little kids do. He walked over to play with dirt, and made mounds of little miniature dirt hills and he kept on playing with them as he was defecating in the street. he finished his job and ran around some more and walked over to where his mom was to play with more dirt. I guess those streets were his home and he was extremely comfortable with where he was, no fear of the ongoing traffic, no fear of crossing the street as a kid that small. no, he was navigating his territory.
it's a weird irony that street beggars end up becoming objects. what i mean is, we've been told (and i also believe this) that giving money to beggars is never a good idea, after all you dont know what the money is going towards and perhaps you're adding on to the problem and these people are being exploited by a third party. They take on the role of beggars and because we don't respond to their pleas, and their constant nagging as they follow with their stretched out arms and sad eyes, they end up becoming less human somehow and end up becoming annoying objects that you ignore and try to dodge. you end up wanting to focus on anything but them because it's easier that way.
seeing the occasional beggar ends up becoming a part of the 'experience' of being here, you know because that's just how south asia is.

it's hard to reconcile these truths as you experience them simultaneously.

I'm in Gujrat now staying with a friend and his family. now it's experiencing a different kind of india, and as i've thought many many times, the REAL INDIA. a village, with a wonderful family. the graciousness of them all has been overwhelming and another challenge has been that i can't convey my gratitude in any way because i dont speak a lick of gujrati. great. for a person like me who talks as much as i actually do, it has been extremely frustrating (internally) to not be able to connect with the people that have taken me into their homes. i just smile a lot and gesture sometimes, but man language is such a huge crutch.

more to come later.

bye bye udaipur

we completed our documentary after four weeks of interviewing, shooting, visiting the village (Malaaria), translating, and hours of editing. the end product : an 8 minute promotional documentary for the NGO we've been "working" with (Seva Mandir). At our first initial meeting with the senior staff members we realized that we thought we were here to do one thing (cover their fellowship program in a documentary as a way of promoting the idea of community leadership and sustainable development), and at the end of the meeting it was very clear that that was not the case at all. The members of the staff went on explaining how they want us to film the Jati Panchyat and the reforms it's made in the rural villages. Well, let me be more clear. They initially told us that we need to thoroughly cover what the Jati Panchyat is in depth, cover the intricate social complexities of what that patriarchial hierarchy means in the village, cover programs that Seva Mandir has implemented for women in Malaaria, cover the fellowship program, why it started how it functions, and the biographies of the fellows. in depth.

in the first 5 minutes of the film.

we were up front about how absurd that idea was and walked away from the meeting feeling like we have a more practical and clearer idea of what to do, and we were very excited to do it. all three village trips to Malaaria have been the most enriching experience in India so far. That afternoon sitting with Veni Bai, and Rodi Bai, listening to their stories, their struggles, their desires was eye opening and inspiring. they were so appreciative for our interest and our curiosity and welcomed us with such warmth. the language barrier kept us from understanding what the heck was coming out of our mouths, but the sentiments were the same.

we showed our final product (the co-editors of the film slaved over piecing the thing together, and cutting down hours of footage to what Seva Mandir wanted, a less than 10 minute video, for hours) to our volunteer coordinator, the supposed head person for this entire project, the day before yesterday. she was pleased. in fact, she used the word "excellent". her only feedback was "you repeat a couple of pictures, but the rest is fine"

great.

the next day, she called a staff meeting to have the rest of the staff members look at the video. they watched.

and then it was silent for a good 2 minutes before one senior panelist just started bashing the entire thing, and the entirety of the film. for the next 30 minutes, in hindi, they started telling us about how the film lacks focus, they were irritated that it was promotional for seva mandir, they didnt understand why we focused on women's issues, and why we didnt go further in depth with the fellowship. i think they forgot that there was someone on this side of the table who understood every syllable of what was being said. our volunteer coordinator usually translated for the rest of the group what ever is exchanged in hindi, and this time she didnt. it might have taken them by surprise when my response to their complaints or on point to what they had said in hindi. the overall response was sour, and we all were made to feel as if our time, efforts, money, passions, interest, curiousity, all of that was worth nothing.

i have no qualms about professional confrontation, and their reaction was so insulting that we told them everything that we had been asked to do, and how we had received absolutely no direction from any seva mandir staff. at all or in any shape or form.
resources in terms of doing research about this social issues were always limited, as in their library has tons of articles...locked away with missing and out of order keys. we were told that we have room for creativity and that we could frame the subject matter however we wanted. and then we were bashed for doing just that. they claimed that we had no objective and when i asked them what they had in mind for us, they could not answer the question.

if the knowledge of the staff members, people who have been involved with Seva Mandir for decades, and the skills of the students were combined and integrated professionally the experience would have been much more enriching for both parties. personally for me, the village experience, talking to those women and seeing their work, and their leadership far surpasses any of the internal structural weaknesses that Seva Mandir has. Our host parents had told us from the very beginning that all interns, especially from abroad who work with Seva Mandir leave with the same level of frustration. They have loads of brochures, pamphlets, articles and scholarly writing on how much they are doing and how much they are accomplishing. Though that gets them grants and international attention, this experience of being completely devalued for my time and something that I care about has left a very bitter taste in my mouth and I would never recommend anyone to work with them.

I don't regret any of my time here and in fact it has been extremely valuable and I have learned a lot : about the city, about the people and about the organization in terms of what they do well and what they don't. This experience, though they made it seem as if it was futile, was completely worth it.

Our time in Udaipur is up, and the serenity of the city grew on me a lot. Our group of 6 has dwindled down to 3. The 3 of us will leave Udaipur tomorrow night to go to Ahmedabad for a day and then spend about 4 days in Mumbai. Then the other 2 will leave and I"ll be in India for a couple of weeks more. Not sure where I'll be or what I"ll be doing. I'm hoping, InshAllah, I can survive :)

bah

Ex Dalits protesting in Punjab




















Protests against attacks on Indian Students in Melbourne


i dont know how much the protests in australia are being covered in the States, but my goodness it is EVERYWHERE here, magazines, newspapers, breaking news on every news channel, non stop (another side note, every piece of news on the news channel seems to be breaking news, i don't fully get that). Obviously this has raised many many many conversations about racism. what's ironic is that as Indians abroad and here are protesting against racism, there are ex-Dalits (lowest caste : untouchables) who have converted to Sikhism protesting up north. Despite having have converted to Sikhism which does not recognize any form of caste at all, these individuals are still noted as Dalits and treated as such back in the cities that they and their families originally come from. I was reading the Times of India this afternoon and came across an article discussing this issue, titled "Race against caste", delving into somethig that I had brought up before. Is casteism the same as racism? Up for you to discuss.
The article ended with an interesting bam.
"..And there is one particular caste in India which, in some way, is as equally if not more oppressed than Dalits. It is a caste that is routinely burnt alive, killed in the womb, beaten, sexually violated, and often subjected to lifelong abuses and deprivation. It is a caste called women"

sweden should take over india

...one of the many interesting things i've heard other fellow travelers say.. this one happened to come from this middle aged Brit dude eating lunch at the same place we were eating.

so far we've ran across this younger brit dude who was traveling all across south asia and south east asia before 'settling down', we've met a 19 year old kid from Holland who just happened to be touring India after having taught in Nepal for 3 months. he wants to travel for a couple of more years before college. Couple of Argentinians who's been traveling for 16 months straight, and my favorite of all, this young girl who is orginially from China but studying in Boston who is now traveling all over india and thailand before heading back to china. her parents are under the impression that she's in las vegas, and have absolutely no idea that she's actually on the other side of the world.

chocolate balls and chai

i completely suck at keeping up with this thing and many many many things have happened since the last time i wrote. the only thing on my mind is the fantastic chocolate ball and the chai from our local bakery shop, Cafe Edelweiss, that I get everytime I go there with the rest of the gang. it's our place of unwinding. For some reason, amidst the chaos (not really of the city, but the chaos of everyone's frame of mind. Udaipur is not a crowded city at all. I'm going to Mumbai next week for a week, THAT i know will be real chaos) indulging in chocolate and chai makes you forget about everything else except wondering about why there's no cats to be seen anywhere at all, how the stray dog on the street just pounced on a pigeon for lunch and now is dragging it around the street looking for a place to sit down and eat it, and what in the world is aggravating the baby cow strolling around the cafe for him to be making so much noise.



Jaisalmer was incredible which is something that I just have to dedicate time to at a later time to delve into, but many other issues have surfaced within the past week. An excerpt from what I had written a while back :
-------------------------------------------
"You just have to let go of the little things. Otherwise the whole
experience becomes miserable...", our group leader was telling me on our walk back from work. I realized how much harder this bit of advice was progressively getting
for people on the trip. For some this has been the first international trip, and
definitely the first time in India for most. At first, the curiousity
of wanting to figure out a new place and feeling an ecstatic high at
the mere thoughts of realizing that you are abroad, in FREAKIN India, makes
everything new and exciting and makes you feel as though you have the
whole thing of being a global citizen and being an invincible traveler
figured out. everything is different and ‘cool’.
after tens of hundreds of gawking stares, lots of "hello! hello!
hello! hello!" from kids hollering at you, or following you, or asking for things or just trying to touch you, stepping on cow dung, having to unsuccessfully bargain
over every little thing and realizing that the color of your skin
completely gives away how easily you can be fooled and ripped off,
people start feeling a bit antsy. Everything starts to feel chaotic
lacking any 'systematic' order, the vegetarian food gets old and
people are just craving a burrito or a burger, and after dodging a
cow that happens to pass by them at the wrong time they are "F------
done with India". These are some of the sentiments that have surfaced
over the past week. i think this is what they mean when they say
culture shock.
there’s been comments made about how unprofessional and untimely
things seem and how because of that there doesn’t seem to be any
incentive for work. “why should we care if they don’t?”. “why are
things not ready on time?”. although i am no one to tell anyone else
to make an experience positive nor am i anyone to dictate what the
right or wrong way to feel is, i do feel that this is the exact
Americanized arrogant perspective that we are despised for. This
notion that as Americans we have things figured out and it’s so
“frustrating” to see other places not catch on, or not have it figured
out as well as we do. Comparing a different culture, a different system through the parameters of American lenses, and then judging it based on the 'discrepancy' is utterly stupid to me. I don't know, maybe that makes me being arrogant in my own right. I keep on wanting to say " is not America. This is India." No one in our group is ill mannered and no one has ill intentions, but everyone's inner frustrations (no matter what they are) are surfacing after 2 and a half weeks of being here and I'm definitely included in that equation.
People are swinging back and forth from high highs to low lows and everyone has a different take on what this experience is supposed to be like.
People have made comments about how confusing the caste system is and how strange it feels to be served and to watch servers be ignored. "It's so weird that no one even smiles at them or even acknowledge them". Somehow the mystery and the backwardness of the caste system was to be blamed for this, and since that's so unknown to us, it was that much more foreign and confusing. but really though? is it that foreign? not really, i don't think. it's just that people have a tendency of always thinking that THEY come from a better place when they travel elsewhere (this goes for Indians going abroad too. the notion of "oh we have our culture preserved. Americans are lawless and corrupt." yeah there's no caste system in america, but we do have a pretty heavy handed deeply rooted institutionalized system of racism. and that, is not even dicated in any religious text. as unfortunate as it is, the janitors, cafteria workers, and kitchen staff of most places come from a similar ethnic and socio economic background. we don't seem to mind it. but then when we come to india, omg this classism business is SO backward and the caste system seems to have so much to do with it. the reality of the matter is, we live in the same world and these problems are not that much different from the problems that we still need to fix in our home communities.

Interesting stuff. For some this short short trip to India is a confirmation that doing laundry from a bucket is not something they are cool with and they would not want to come back to india ever. for others it's a confirmation that this is exactly the part of the world that they would want to come back to again and again and again.
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