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Published: January 16th 2009
Hello everyone! First all let me apologise that this has taken so long to post but you have to understand that everything can take a bit longer over here! i actually wrote most of this blog but then the internet crashed, but i did manage to save it onto to the desktop of the comp. but now can't access that user and no one here today know's the password! As is the way, so i'm going to try again....fingers crossed!
The title of this blog is slightly bizarre and i shall try to explain it at the end of this post. It is some of the little (and rather obsure) Hindi i have picked up so far!
Right...where to begin...there is sooo much to say so hopefully i shant bore you too much!
Well to begin at the very beginning my departure from London went not so smoothly! I ended up sitting on the tarmac waiting for the wings of our plane to be de-iced due to the truly arctic temperatures (-6) outside so we could take off. I consoled myself with the pleasant thoughts of the warmer climate i was heading to! The pilot then informed us that visibility in Delhi was pretty poor and that if it got much worse we wouldn't be able to land...oh what a joyous thought. Anyway once we finally took off i entered the Indian mentality of going with the flow...where that may be going and hoping for the best! We arrived in Delhi around an hour late...which was around 5am my time, so needless to say i was feeling a bit shit! Bleary eyed i made it through security and proceeded to try and locate my baggage. I stood watching the luggage pass by hoping that at some point i would recognise one. After a while i noticed a collection of baggage which had clearly already been chucked off the belt and yes, amongst it all i spotted my backpack! phew! I walked out into the rows of people waiting for their respective friends/family etc searching for someone in the crowd...which is slightly difficult when your not sure who you're looking for. I spotted my name scrawled on a bit of paper and was met by Keke and led to Felix! It was so good to see a familar face. After a short while the aussies arrived (charlotte, megan and sally) minus unfortunately their luggage! We were all carted off to our taxi which we piled into. It is at this point the thought does cross my mind that maybe it is a good thing we were down a few items of luggage!
Driving to the YMCA was surreal, the reality that i had actually arrived i think was starting to sink in, along with jet-lagged delirum! Keke our guide person sorted out checking us in and after signing a few things and writing down our father's name?! Voila we had our room!
After freshing up we bravely decided to venture out, deciding to try and find the market Rekha had written about in the welcome letter we recieved from her. However in our jet-lagged state this was a lot easier in theory than in practice! We were the perfect target, dazed, confused, jet lagged travellers! To the Indians we probably had stamps on our foreheads reading "New Arrivals"! As we wandered aimlessly we were followed, we were lead, we were pointed in every and any direction! After our fair share of this our tolerance levels were waning so we decided to jump in a rikshaw and head back to the YMCA. The guy tried to charge us 50rupees for this relatively short journey, which even in my groggy state knew was a rip off. After some haggling i managed to get it down to 35(still too much, but not bad for our first try!)
The next day we were taken to meet Rekha our representative in Delhi. We went to her house where she briefed us in some of the ins and outs, do's and don'ts of Indian life/culture. I feel here may be a good point to say a little about Indian roads/driving. Yes it is as hair raising/crazy as you may have heard! Rekha spoke about it being bad because people don't follow the rules of the road, however you seriously wonder what these so called "rules" are! Near collisons are the norm and when buses have written on the back "use horn" you can imagine the frequency to which people obey this one request! We also decided to brave the local buses! This was definitely an experience! On our way back from this bizarre mall (with m&s and next of all shops!) we piled onto a already jam packed bus. I think the image of sardines is probably quite accurate! Personal space was beyond non existant. After it emptied out a bit Tom and i moved up the bus to get some standing space. We were shortly followed by a man who came, stood next to me and started midly shouting at the man sitting by me. This said man promptly rose from his seat so that i could sit down. Well after someone has argued it for you, you can hardly refuse! Whilst on the bus Sally was befriended by the man sitting next to her who was a songwriter/painter. The bus unexpectedly stopped before we had reached our stop and we were all carted off. The road we needed had been closed due to a festival. Luckily Sally's new friend was all to happy to show us the way, which was rather handy seeing as it was dark by this point and we pretty much had no clue as to where we were! People here generally seem very happy to try and help you (even if they are probably not sure themseleves whether they can!) The walk back to our hostel was very amusing as he inquired as to why we were all in India and sang to us one of his songs!
This same day we were also taken to lunch at a very nice restaurant by a Mr. Phuntsok who Tom believes may be something like the vice president of the Tibetan govt in exile! He was the most lovely man which some great stories to tell! Very humble and eager to impart his advice and words of wisdom!
On Thursday we had a Hindi lesson with Rekha. I have picked up some of the basics... hello (namaste), My name is...mera nam chloe hai etc but i think we still have a long way to go! We also got to visit the hunyam?(spelling)? tombs which were quite amazing (hopefully some photos to follow!) Rekha had organised our onward travel to Happy Days school and we were due to get the 6:15am train (ouch!) We arranged with Keke to meet at the hostel at 5:30 so we could all get a taxi to the station and he could help us locate our platform(which isn't printed on the ticket!) However, after very little sleep we rose groggily and and made it down to the lobby. We waited...by 5:45 there was no sign of Keke. Slightly anxious at the prospect of missing our train, we thus proceeded to ring Rekha who told sally and i to jump in a taxi and go it alone!!! So with about 25mins to get to the station, find the platform all whilst it still being dark and us feeling barely awake, we grabbed our bags, said our farewell to the other gappers and began our race! The man outside the YMCA blew a whistle which promptly brought a taxi to aid! We got in and told the driver to step on it! The station was crazy but luckily we were pointed to our platform by a kind stranger and after locating the right carriage, sank into our seats, somewhat relieved at the success of that little adventure!
We were met and Gwalior by our taxi. The Journey took us out into the countryside on potholed rodes and the usual crazy driving! I have come to the conclusion that many drivers secretly believe they are rally drivers or something to that effect in some sort of video game! I've decided and am learning that it is generally best not to pay too much attention when they decide that it is perfectly reasonable to overtake a lorry despite there being another vehicle racing towards us from the opposite direction! My heart may only have a limit to the number of near collisions it can cope with!
We were met at Happy Days by Priya who is a volunteer for Indicorp from America. She's here doing community work with the kids from the school. She was very helpful and showed us all round the school and introduced us to the teachers and kids. It was all very very overwhelming especially as i was still dealing with the repercussions of very little sleep!
The next morning we were both still feeling rather overwhelmed by everything!. The reality that we had actually arrived at our new home was taking it's time to register and sink in! We took our first trip into Shivpuri with Priya to get a few things. Luckily i think i'm used to the fact that all eyes are on you, but it's still slightly intimidating, especially when you have a camera in close proximity to your face!
On monday we woke up at 7:20 to make it to the school assembly however when we arrived we were informed that it had been cancelled due to the exams an a film trip taking place! After sitting round for a bit we finally got to meet our principle Gita. We discussed teaching and luckily Sally and I are going to be teaching together. We were then thrown in at the deep after break (although i'm not sure there is really any other end to go in!) We were given three classes to teach and with nothing prepared the prospect of 30/40+ curious and eager eyes and minds ready to be set upon us was somewhat daunting! After much improvisation and ad-libbing we made it...just!
Shortly after finishing we were picked up by Neeraj, so he could take us to be "registered". Like anything here this took a while and Sally and i just sat back and watched as Neeraj appeared to be getting it all sorted out! At one point we were asked whether we could speak Hindi but Sally and I had a sneaky suspicion they may have just been checking whether we could understand them! Anyway we signed the relevant parts and were off. Neeraj inquired as to whether we needed sim cards, which we did so we were then taken to complete our next errand. We went and sat somewhere that didn't look much like a phone shop and were given Chai. After a while we departed without sim cards. We then realised that this stop was for the driver to pick something up! Next we arrived at what was the phone shop and were provided with our sims after signing our name in about 500 pages! who knows what for!! :S
The next day we rose again at 7:20 after a night of singing and chanting due to the punjab taking place, to get to this elusive assembly and our first day of classes! However in true Indian style when we arrived there was no sign of the assembly. We sat and waited and were greeted by giggly children wishing us good morning ma'am! Priya arrived after a while to inform us that school was now only going to start at 9am now until it got warmer! Such is Indian flexibility with timetables!
Our lessons went relatively smoothly. The kids are quite a handful but very eager to learn and to impress! We got to pay a visit to the nursery also. The kids are beyond adorable and Sally and I have to restrain ourselves from whisking some away!
Later that evening we got to go to Gita's house for the Hindu new year celebrations. (where we also discovered that the next day was a holiday and thus a day off for us! ) Her house is lovely and they had a fire going outside where we got Chai and sweet nibbles. We then got to have dinner with Gita's family
The food delicious and she had servants who come round the table to offer you more, and it's so hard to refuse....especially when it tastes so good! Sally and I have taken to guava's which we had stewed with cream at Gita's and also this sort of carrot porridge stuff. It sounds strange, but it's warm and sweet with cashew nuts! mmmm! After eating so much we were grateful for the holiday we had the next day to sleep it off!
Today teaching left us feeling slightly defeated. The younger kids were very hard work as they barely understand you and the older ones are very cheeky and the classes enormus so it's very difficult to keep them under control! But hopefully we'll get into the swing of things soon! We're already adjusting to the spice and our bucket shower so i'm sure the rest will come soon!
I apologise that this post is firstly so lengthy and secondly has taken a while to get posted. It's taken me several attempts to get it finished, but i am learning that things don't really follow much of a shedule or pattern round here! So in conclusion, India is like nothing i could have prepared myself for, or imagined! It's definitely going to be challenge, so let's see how i manage!...
Oh and lastly, before i forget, the title of this blog means " lots of milk" in Hindi! We discovered it in the "Basic expressions" of my Hindi phrase book and were puzzled as to why it was placed there. But to us i think it was more amusing in our jet-lagged/culture shocked confusion! Anyway in our hostel on the notice board that evening was written "The green milk conference" Very strange....but who knows maybe it will catch on?!
Please write and ask any questions! I'm sure i'll have many more tales shortly.
xx
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Sean Bang Bang
Sean Benghiat
woohoo
WOW! sounds like your on a mission over there! But Im guessing you have to enjoy one thing, the weather!! its way to cold here for me, and its not right... mail some off the weather to us! Also what are you teaching? :P must feel good to be teaching such a big class? Oh well Im definitly subscribed to your blog, want some more action :) sounds like anything can happen there.