Blogs from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, Asia - page 3

When I posted on FaceBook that I was headed to Ahmedabad, India, a friend from Dearborn/Chicago emailed that his daughter was also in Ahmedabad. What a coincidence! She has just finished a 10-day Vipassana meditation (S N Goenka), the one that we did in Australia in 1994...plus her dad grew up in Columbus, NE, just 25 miles from David City. Too many coincidences so we had to make her acquaintance. She told us that she is staying at the Gandhi Ashram, doing volunteer work, and was planning a juggling performance for the children Saturday afternoon. We cut short quilting on Saturday for Mika's juggling for slum children. What fun! After juggling for about 10 minutes to her music, Mika paused to explain that she has been practicing at least an hour a day for more than ... read more

The other evening, Ilaben took us to a memorial service for a much-loved and respected man who died last year. The son and his wife and their daughter and son were joined on the stage by the muscicians. The son read from prepared comments between each musical piece. Ilaben translated for us. The audience was well-versed with the music, whether contemprorary, Bollywood, or classical and were quite responsive which added to our enjoyment. Both Bill and I appreciate tabla and this young man was superb. In fact, he was so good, that after one piece, an elderly woman left her seat and walked up to the stage to shake his hand. The 8-year old grandson sang a lively song that he used to sing with his grandfather. At one point, the daughter-in-law was joined by her ... read more

The homework assignment: start hand quilting by doing embroidery on the rose panels. The women were delighted to show us their embroidery skills. Apparently, embroidery is still a classroom subject, especially in the convent schools. Although quilting is best done with a running stitch, most were determined to show us several other styles which slowed everything to nearly a standstill. Actually, that was fine with us since we weren't sure what we were going to do next. However, during the night, awake at 2 a.m. due to jet lag, I thought about using the bags of scraps to make a Chinese coin quilt. This got Bill involved with cutting strips, and he quickly learned that Medeena was excellent, and so she had to teach Hamida, who was not quite as precise. Fortunately, total preciseness is not ... read more

I thought it would be useful to make a quick wall hanging quilt, so that the women would have a finished project that they could call their own. Well, small quilts are mostly finished but will not be going home with anyone. Not sure what will happen but... In addition to the 9x12 inch panels we had access to five large, contractor size bags of scraps the day before. I thought, why not let the student add at least one cloth as a border adding to those that we had precut. 9 women and 8 panels, but that problem was resolved whenone of the husbands demanded that his wife quit the class and return home because their three-year old son was crying, and he was not about to babysit. He really didn't want her to learn; ... read more

WOW! Flying Emirates Airlines took me back to the way that airlines were decades ago: metal flatware, menu choise, excellent food, coide of beverages including white or red wine (no charge and very quietly, a couple of extra bottles to take with us)...Probably 100+ movies, TV shows, news, etc. that we could individually select. I wateched an epidsode of Mad Men and saw again BLAZING SADDLES. I had started THE HELP but decided to keep what I read in my memory, not the move. Kinda interesting to Mel Brooks' take on integration in the late 1960s with how the The Help is portrayed in memory 30 years later.... read more

After 2+ hours to wander through the marvelous Dubai International Airport, we were DAZZLED!!! It got better, though, when we arrived in the 6-month old Ahmedabad glass structure. Very modern. Then, reality set in. We had to wait and wait and wait for our luggage...Apparently, three planes landed at nearly the same time, and we were convinced that the luggage handlers carried five bags from pane A, then five from plane B, and then five from place, and then started over again. It took FOREVER, and at 3 a.m., people were really getting annoyed. During the 70 minute wait, a couple of young (20s) Indian men approached me to ask if I would buy two bottles of Johnning Walker Black label on their behalf. One had supposed bought his two quota in Dubai, but the other ... read more

Ahmedabad Customs was a new experience for us. Suddenly, half of us seemed to get our luggage at once so we got in one of two lines for customs. Very crowded, pushing and shoving, after such a long wait. Every single piece of luggage, checked and unchecked, including purses, but not our shoes, had to pass through the same scanning machine that our stuff normally has to go through to start our flights, afterwhich one man collected the forms that we had filled in on the plane on which we all declared, I suppose, that we were not bringing in too much liquor or too many cigarettes or illegal drugs, etc., etc. As we finally passed through the scanning line, we were delighted to find Ilaben and her son waiting for us...at 5 a.m.!!! Wonderful...we went ... read more

Bill fell asleep instantly, but I only slept intermittently...I listed to the cacophony of 4-5 dogs barking, snarling, and howling. It got very quiet, and then the loud speaker for the Moslem morning prayers started, then quiet. Someone REVVED up his mortocycle and took off. Quiet. Then, a most familiar ritual...someone coughing up phlegm, gagging, etc. Another motorcycle revving, then a rickshaw horn, and then, someone did their laundry, which consists of beating the dirt out of the clothes. THRAWK, THUMP, THRAWK...Bill slept through it all and I will no doubt crash in a few hours of pure jet lag. About 8:30 a.m., the chowkidar (night watchman) and his daughter pounded on the door to ask if we were ready for a bucket of hot water for bath...you know, there is the plastic cup, a bar ... read more

We woke up at Ilaben's about 9:00 to the smell of fresh chai and a hot Gujarati breakfast. We had slept nearly 15 hours. I guess the flights and jet lag had taken their toll on us. After a good night's sleep and wonderful breakfast we were ready for the day. About 10:00 AM Sara, AWAG's managing director, arrived to take us to the textile production facility where we would train ten women how to make quilts. Sara's driver was a quiet middle aged man with a warm smile. He was an excellent driver. Thank Goodness! I had forgotten how insane driving in India is, and Ahmedabad's traffic now included many more drivers than 1994. Ahmedabad Traffic http://youtu.be/sS7XNeGK_D8 The traffic is heavy with everything from pedestrians, camels, scooters, cows, cars, donkeys, bicycles... read more