Closing Time

Sorry for the long lull in blog posts. My charger recently blew out so I didn't get to use my laptop as frequently as I'd have liked :\

Yesterday was the last day of our program. It was truly a bittersweet moment. While I was happy to be done with all of our academic tasks, the thought of never seeing many of the people that went through this experience with me was very saddening. It takes a very special, very motivated individual to want to study in India, and that really showed. Each person that came on this trip has a very unique quality about them, and it was amazing to get to interact and explore India together. I also realized that I'm really bad at saying goodbye. I didn't know what to say to anyone without feeling awkward. poohie.

On a lighter note though, I got to perform a kathak piece at the closing celebration and it went pretty well! I did mess up a bit, but it definitely could have been a lot worse :P pictures from the night shall be posted shortly.

Tomorrow I'll be on my way to Mumbai and then to Delhi. More fun awaits :)

So here's what I did in the past week:

Over the weekend, a small group of us watched Cocktail, the summer's "most anticipated Bollywood release". Though not as amusing as the last Bollywood movie we watched, it was still very enjoyable. The movie had a lot of catchy dance numbers and was also very modern (filming took place in London, and in Cape Town! :o)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GYi4n_gHUc <-- one of the songs from the movie.

We also got to check out the local Papa Johns in Pune. It was really cool. Papa John's in India is like a sit-down restaurant instead of a fast food place. Waiters serve you pizza, and bring out plates of creamy garlic sauce and ketchup. There was even a round of Akon songs playing the whole time we were eating our meal, which made the whole event even funnier.

At Kathak, I learned some actual dance moves! It was really exciting, but I'm still fighting the urge to dance like I used to when I took Bharatnatyam lessons. Hopefully I'll be able to practice it well enough to perform next week!

I also went on 3 field visits at my internship. We mostly visited pregnant womens' homes, where I asked them questions about their prenatal diets and care techniques. I really enjoy this part of my day. It's always so interesting to listen to these womens' stories, and to see how and where they live. The women we talk to are also often very excited to answer our questions, which makes the interview that much more engaging. One woman even made us tea! It was a really nice gesture.

Sitting in on one of the MOMS committee meetings within the community.

Bismila, Asha, and Nisha [our field workers], with the nice lady that made us tea!

a picture of us walking through the community 

This area is usually submerged during monsoon season. However, since the rains have been late this year, the area is very barren. I just thought it was an interesting image to capture.

Baramati

This past weekend, our group journeyed on a village 'trek' to Baramati, a town 2 hours east of Pune. While there, we got a slice of agro-business life in India, and saw many different types of factories including a silk processing factory, dairy farm, and a sugar cane farm among others. Here are some pictures from the trip:

At the silk processing factory; silk is made from silk worm cocoons. Each one of those cocoons has a hibernating worm inside :o

Weaving silk on a loom

DUCK!! This was during a tractor ride we took

Mandai

Our host mom Swapna recently took us to Mandai, Pune's largest vegetable market. She wasn't joking when she told us about its size. It was HUGE. We literally walked through warehouses filled to capacity with onions, potatoes, beets, chili peppers, tomatoes, you name it. It was also really interesting to note that despite the time we went at (6:30AM!), the market was very lively and was already catering to paying customers. Here are some pictures below:

Ajanta Ellora Caves

This weekend was absolutely fantastic. If you ever get the chance to make the trek over to the Ajanta and Ellora caves, DO IT. Despite how old the caves are, the sculptures and monuments are still very well preserved and very, very well detailed.

A little history before I post my pictures: There are a total of 29 caves at Ajanta, dating back to the 2nd century BC. They are all influenced by Buddhism, and depict many variations of Buddha and his disciples. The caves also have fresco painting depicting different aspects of Buddha's life and path to enlightenment. Ellora, on the other hand, has 34 cavse/temples, and presents a mix of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain architecture. Construction began around 6th century AD, and continued until somewhere around 11th century AD.

Here are some pictures below:

Look at the sheer size of those sculptures! This entire Hindu temple was carved out of one single rock. (Ellora)

Taken at Ellora, in cave no. 1

Main Hindu temple, Ellora. Again this was all carved out of a single rock!

Ellora elephants

Outside one of the Buddhist caves at Ajanta

Inside cave 26, Ajanta. This is the area's best preserved cave.

giant sleeping Buddha!

me! :) It started monsooning while we were at Ajanta

the entrance to Ajanta

And of course, there were monkeys EVERYWHERE :)

this monkey was not very pleased... :o

Here are some other random pictures from the trip: 

These ladies were really nice :) They let me click a picture of them while we were driving with them through traffic. 

We also visited the Bibi-Ka-Maqbara (or...the poor man's Taj) It had a very similar layout to the Taj Mahal but was a little smaller. 

out whole group!

Random Update

Greetings from Aurangabad, a city approximately 5 hours north of Pune. Some people from my program have trekked here to see the famed Ajanta-Ellora caves; I'm actually really excited about it and will definitely post pictures as soon as we get back from our trip.

This post doesn't really have any set topic, but it's more just to document some of the things I've taken up or done since being here.

Along with my internship and contemporary India class, I've now enrolled in Kathak classes and Yoga classes. Kathak is a dance style from northern India that encompasses intricate footwork with story telling. At first, I was expecting it to be a lot similar to Bharatnatyam, a south Indian dance style that I'm more familiar with. I was SO wrong, haha. Kathak is very lucid; it incorporates consecutive spins, fluid hand movements and consistent foot tapping. B-nat, on the other hand, is a lot more stiff in the sense that the basic position used is a squat, more jumping is required, and hand movements are jerky. While learning Kathak the first day, I actually found myself resisting the urge to use Bharatnatyam hand positions :P It's a lot of fun though, and a really interesting way to understand regional differences in culture within India.

As mentioned before, I've also picked up Yoga. This is something I've always wanted to give a try but never found the time to until now. I've only been to one session so far, but can definitely see why everyone is so crazy about it. After we had finished, I could feel that my body wasn't as tense as it normally is, which was awesome. I definitely do have to work on my flexibility, though, but hopefully this will improve with time :)

Happy 4th, ya'll!

I've officially reached the 1/2 mark of my program (just in time for Independence Day!) I wanted to share an article I found online yesterday that really resonated with me:

http://blog.seattlepi.com/monsoonmasala/2011/01/29/american-thoughts-on-living-in-india/

"India and I fight, we scream, we argue, we don’t speak for days on end, but really, deep down, we love each other. She’s a strange beast, this India. She hugs me, so tightly sometimes that I can’t breathe, then she turns and punches me hard in the face, leaving me stunned. Then she hugs me again, and suddenly I know everything will be all right."

Though I've been to India many times before, I feel like this trip has given me insight into this country that I have never realized before; I have never until this trip walked through a slum area, had the power go out on me while I was still taking a shower, or yelled at a rickshaw driver over 1 Rs change. At the same time, I've never until this trip, danced in monsoon rains, bargained for mangoes with local market vendors or smelled sweet strands of tuberose growing on trees at street corners. Every day in Pune is filled with its own unique mini-victories and minor struggles. I've been challenged beyond my limits but have also been encouraged to grow as a person. India has taught me the importance of patience, of flexibility, and most importantly of accepting that some aspects of life are just simply not under our own control (and learning how to be okay with that!). My experience here has truly been an emotional rollercoaster. However, at the same time, I know that as much as I may complain, pout, or whine, deep down I wouldn't expect or want to have it any other way. :) 

So for this blog, I thought it'd be cool to talk about some of the sights I've seen in and around Pune so far:

1) Aga Khan palace

Built in the 1800's, Aga Khan palace is famously known as the place where Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned for 21 months between 1942-1944. It's also where his wife and secretary passed away :( Though we didn't get to go into Gandhi's actual room, we were able to see it from afar, as well as different parts of the palace and the surrounding garden. Peeeektures below:

Indian flag, pre-independence 

the room that Gandhi stayed in during his imprisonment 

2) Parvati Hill

Our host mom, Swapna, took us to see Parvati Hill, where you can see the city of Pune in it's entirety.
     

3) Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani 

Over the weekend, I went to visit my uncle, his wife, and my great-aunt who live an hour away from Pune. They took me to Mahabaleshwar, which is this absolutely gorgeous hilly area 3 hours south of Pune. The whole area reminded me of something you'd expect to see in a Lord of the Rings movie. While there, we went to this syrup factory famous for making syrups from real fruit preserves. My favorite was kiwi :)

Tuesday Happenings

Today was a pretty eventful day :) Our hostel group woke up bright and early at 5AM to drive over to Pune's prime flower market with our host mom, Swapna. It smelled absolutely amazing. Flowers were unloaded by the truckloads, and were laid out in giant heaps around the market area. I was a little frustrated because my nikon was broken, but definitely enjoyed what I saw. Picture below:

From there, I went to my Contemporary India class and then to my internship. Today was super productive. I finalized my project for the organization, and got to listen in on self-help meetings of women from the area. They are all so incredibly inspiring; all are volunteer social workers and are consistently striving to make Tadiwala Road a better place to live.

After my internship, I along with the other hostel girls went with Swapna again to her aunt's home. Her aunt taught us how to make Modak, which is a traditional sweet from Maharashtra. To make it, we first   boiled rice flour with oil and water to make dough,  and rolled it into several small pancakes. Then, we
spooned a mixture of sugar and coconut onto each 'pancake' and pinched the sides of the dough to make dumplings. It was a lot harder than it looks! Picture below:

Back from day 3 at Deep Griha, and ready fo some more bloggin:

Today, we went with community health workers into the slum areas around Pune to check up on some of the sponsored children in the area. The workers went from house to house, asking children about their 10th and 12th grade exams, encouraging them to go to school instead of skipping it to help around the house, signing them up to receive free uniforms books and lunch from Deep Griha, and asking about their school experiences in general. Though the field visit wasn't directly related to maternal health, it was still very very interesting; I guess I didn't really picture slums the way I had observed them today. Though the area was highly populated and the houses were closely packed together, the houses were still advanced; many had water taps as well as computers and television sets. It was also very lively, not desolate as I guess I had imagined it to be (kind of like how slums were depicted in Slumdog Millionaire). I'm actually really surprised at how ignorant I was before.

 It was also interesting to note that everyone of working age within a household contributed to the family's livelihood, even children that attended secondary school. Some of the children we talked to had very disheartening stories, though. One was an orphan ( I think she was around 16) who lived with her elder siblings; she was forbidden to go to school, and was instead forced to stay at home and do daily chores. There were others who had failed their 10th standard exams multiple times, and decided to give up on school altogether as a result :(

After processing what I'd seen today, I also realized that conducting field work is a very difficult job; often times, children will follow along with what you tell them, but will still act according to their own agendas. If they don't like what you have to say, they won't follow your advice. Plus, conducting field work is also very draining. At this time of the year (pre-monsoon season), Pune faces extreme heat and sun. I've gained a lot of respect for the women that go out into these communities on a daily basis, working for 8 hours every day.

I'm still unsure of what my individual role at Deep Griha will be for these next 5-6 weeks, but I'm hoping those kinks will work themselves out very soon. 

Harroo there :) Ok, so as promised, here is a detailed recap of my past 9 days in India:

So I arrived in Mumbai on the 11th around 9:30 PM. It was HOT (84 degrees :o) I got to meet some other students from the program there as well as the director, so that was good. We all traveled together to one of the airport hotels where we were scheduled to spend the night. It was great overall, but the power went out while I was taking a shower. struggs. Here's a picture of what my hotel room looked like:

From there, we took a bus to Durshet for orientation. Durshet was interesting...it's like this forest/small town in the middle of this hilly area. There were lots of huge bugs, lizards, jackfruit trees, etc etc etc. I stayed with two other girls from the program in this really nice room :) it did have a small animal problem though, which wasn't fun haha.

While in Durshet, we got to visit one of the local villages and interact with the people living there. We saw a primary school, as well as a well where people collected rain water for their homes. We also helped one of the ladies prepare rice flour for their dinner that night. pictures below: 

A primary school in the village 

I have so much respect for that woman; how is she balancing two pots on her head? :o

woot success :) 

grinding rice flour 

From Durshet, we took a bus into Pune. It's a lot like Delhi, but definitely has its own feel to it. One thing I thought was really cool about the area is that it's dotted all over with college campuses; there are so many students here! It makes for a really cool environment with lots of coffee shops and hang out spots :)

Here is a picture of where I'll be staying for the duration of the program:

The lady that owns this apartment is so amazing. More on her later :) 

My mom came to visit on Saturday while I was here! That was really fun because we got to go shopping and all that good stuff :) She left back for Chicago already, though, so the fun was short-lived.

A part from class and my internship, I've been doing a lot of sight seeing in Pune as well. I'll probably make a separate blog about all the historic landmarks here (that'll probably be easier, right?) so look out for that