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Published: March 2nd 2009
India Part 2 - School mayhem and our last month of pure sunshine
Dedicated to Aunty Margaret, Rest in Peace
We are coming towards the end of our Asia section of our trip. It is nearly 10 months since we landed at Bangkok and started out diet of rice, pure sunshine with an average temperature of between 30-35*C, constant sweating and being covered in dirt/dust nearly everyday!!! We have loved every single minute of it
However our last month at the school has gone fast and has been full of events happening in India and back at home in the UK. We have had to do our fair share of traveling to the internet and back as I applied for job…. (For some silly reason I decided to look at TES and saw a job at Shuttleworth in Burnley!!!!)
All of this was made even more interesting by the daily power cuts and even a super big power cut one afternoon/night for 12 hours. This also included no water as we needed electric to pump the water from the well. The pupils ended up eating their dinner outside using the moonlight as the well organised staff didn’t
have the common sense to give the children their dinner before it went dark. !!! So you can imagine the fun and games we had completing my application form and trying to send it of via e-mail!!!
However, the good news (especially for my mother, we are coming home sooner than anticipated) is that I have got a job back in Burnley starting in June, meaning that we will be returning back to the UK by the end of May. It is a very strange sensation having a return date, because for the past 16 months we have just taken each day as it comes and have had no boundaries. (Apart from my mother threatening to kill me!!!!)
Right let’s get back to India…
We have actually got out of the school more and explored the local area at weekends, which has been lovely as we cycled along “quiet” Indian country lanes exploring the backwaters. However it never ceases to amaze me how Indians will stop what they are doing, whether it is driving a car, moving cows, selling fruit or just hanging around, which is what 80% of the male population do… and stare at
you………….!!
We went to Trivandrium one weekend, which is the state capital of Kerala and has many of the old English colonial buildings within the Government district. However there was nothing else really that stood out about the city apart from the fact that it has “7 Indian Coffee Houses”, with one in a red bricked spiral building, which got Carl really excited!! Plus the train ride there and back, as we traveled with one of the largest employed workforces in the world!!
We had the Annual Awards Day as a large 30m high stage was built and the children dressed in their best clothes and the community came to watch. The day started at 10am with the raising of the school flag and then the programs on the stage started at 1pm and finished at midnight. There were many dances ranging from traditional, to modern Indian, a fashion show, a drama, the school band and a lot of speeches. It was a fun day for all and very entertaining.
Traffic is still as mad as ever, with Carl coming home with many a scare story after his 4 hours on his narrow twisty
country lane bus route. He has noted that he always sees a different vehicle with brand new mattresses every day; He sees a daily suicidal man and women attempting to take on the bus; or the dozens of kamikaze motorcyclists along with the many different traffic jams all usually occurring out of stubbornness and lack of common sense.
We have settled into Indian mayhem quite comfortable as we now have stomachs of iron (we’ll probably get ill now I’ve typed this). So far the school/hostel kitchen rat count is 13 with the older boys loving it, equipped with their baseball bats, sticks and brooms. It is actually a good achievement in the 2 weeks that we have started the termination campaign. The food at school is bland, cheap and poor quality, so we really appreciate our weekend treats of “shajah shake” (banana, frozen milk, horlicks/chocolate powder, ice cream & the usual large amount of sugar, even though you ask for no sugar…) and ICH, which has a very good basic menu!!!! Two people can eat for as little as 1 pound between them and have a big feast. Everything is very cheap from clothes, food, music and accommodation.
Our last full day at school was a cracker, it was the same day as the Year 11’s left and had their leavers outing. We had our photos taken in the morning and then piled onto the school bus and headed to the lake. We then had a 1½ hour boat cruise around the backwaters of Kollam with Niza (My older daughter) being our entertainment. We then went to a resort where we were fed Byriani and fruit and relaxed in the summer sun for the afternoon. This must have been a welcoming break for the Year 11’s as they have been getting up at 4am daily to revise, then going to school, then back to the hostel to revise up till 11pm, constantly for the past 2 months!!! The day was finished of with ice cream.
After finishing school we headed north for a week to properly explore the back waters between Alleppey and Kottayam. The average houseboat cost about 100 pounds for 1 day/night on the canal system, food, bed etc. Obviously we thought that was ridiculously expensive and found a cheaper option of 30 pence for 3 hours using the passenger ferry between
the 2 towns. It is a lot of the same scenery and it basically told us that the houseboats were a big ‘rip off’… but probably very nice. We then further explored the backwaters as we cycled back to Alleppey through lovely countryside of rice fields, small canals and a couple of ferry crossings. It was magic and it was free…
Back in Alleppey we had a couple of days of doing absolutely nothing as we relaxed at beach, investigated the old town and bought quiet a bit of Indian craftsmanship!!! We then headed back to the school for our farewell weekend with the kids.
When we arrived back at school to pick our things up and say our final goodbyes, all hell had broken out as a big investigation was done to find out what had happen to some money that had gone missing. What started of as being 2000Rupees (28pounds) ended up being nearly 15,000Rupees (200pounds) over a long period. Plus the girl who had taken it had forced another girl to do it through blackmail and then shared the money with her friends and boyfriend. However, this boyfriend ended up being one of the boys
in the hostel, who me and Carl called “Golden Balls’ because he was bum kisser to the teachers and the Managing Directors nephew!! Plus they had been sneaking into each others rooms at night and sleeping in the same bed. Now that is a big no-no in England, never mind being India where a girl and boy can not look at each other without it being sacrilege!!! Unfortunately it meant that total segregation had happened and the girls and boys were split and had received a lot of beatings during the last week. At least we had the chance to give them some sport, free time and a little enjoyment in their last weekend with us. They wrote us lots of homemade goodbye cards and 2 large Kerala clothes, signed by all the pupils and staff from the school which was lovely. We were both shocked at how much the children had made an impression on us during our time there. It was very hard work and quite heart wrenching saying goodbye to them all.
Our last 3 weeks of India, will be very relaxed and ‘coastal’ orientated.
Our next stop is week relaxing at the coastal resort
of Varkala, which is a Hindu pilgrimage beach, but also one of the few beaches in India where you can wear a swimming costume!! We spent most of the week reading, walking, eating and just soaking up the last of the sun before we head to Turkey and Europe and thicker clothing!!!
We are also going to visit Kovalam and Kanniyakumari (India’s most southern tip and their Lands End).
Whilst being in India we have seen allsorts, here are a few of our favourite characteristics, observations and Indian mayhem…
- India companies must have bought many of the old manufacturing copyrights for vehicles. On the road you will see ‘Enfield Bullet’ motorcycles; ‘Piaggio Vespa copies’; -Tata vans in the old ‘Merc’ and ‘Fiat’ styles; and the old ‘British Ambassador’ cars.
- Indians not understanding Carl’s accent!! To the stage were Carl orders food and I end up repeating the order as they have not understood him.
- Our right hand is turning a light shade of yellow/brown from the curries we have been eating and also for spending the last 4 months eating with our hand.
- The amount of children that appear out of nowhere, whether it
is the side of the road, a car window or a house and shout “1 pen, 1 pen”… They are basically taught to ask westerners for a pen at school!!!! (That’s what we think)
- Every time an Indian talks there will be some form of “head shaking”. Whether the answer is yes or no! Plus I have now realised that I constantly shake my head when talking to an India!!!
- Men strive to have moustaches… This is even some of the goals of young male students at school!!!
- The average motorcycle either has a family of 4/5 sat on it with dad driving mum behind and 2/3 children squeezed on somewhere; or 3 young lads just cruising around shouting and waving at anybody and everybody.
- Gold is big over here. You can be walking down a main street in any town and it will be full of little shops overfilled with colourful junk. Then suddenly this large monstrosity will appear out of nowhere in some Roman design with security guards, fancy cars parked out side and a large sign saying ‘welcome to the local jewelry store’….. Gold is wealth.
- Indian films are absolute classics. Your
The boys
On the left is Mr Dude, Carlos is centre and then on the right is Mr Cool. They are basically the school bus drivers and both of them are well chilled!!!hero is some 50-60 year guy with a moustache and 50 inch waistline… However, he can still run fast, karate kit and beat up the bad guys. Plus he always gets his women who is usually 20-25 years old and performs some routine dance half way through the film…. This is the closest most get to some form of sex education!!!!
Truthfully India has been everything we expected and even more. It is not a place for the faint hearted, or though Kerala is a lot easier than Northern India. Expect hassle… lots of it…Everything is done the Indian way so you usually need to add an extra 3-5 hours to what ever you are doing or even a day in some cases!!! Everybody wants your attention and sadly you need to lean to ignore as it is usually idiots trying to look cool!! The children are fantastic and very friendly and love trying their English on you. The women are the real workers. The food has been totally different to what you get from an average Indian restaurant in the UK and we’d actually say that the Indian food in Malaysia had more variety and tasted better
Year3 getting ready for their dance
PS That is Golden Balls sat next to me!!! (this may be because of the quality). The mountains and coast are stunning and are where you are likely to find a quiet spot in India. There is one thing for sure about India … you will love it and you will hate it, but you will never forget her…
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tara
non-member comment
yeaaa for vegetarian food!! i have a tip for you instead of 'shanti shanti' turkey's version is 'yavash yavash'!! you look beautiful sarah in your indian attire! carl you look hairy!! xx