Tourist-fest

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So, end of week 2; time for me to regale you with yet more minutia of my world in Delhi. The joy with writing this blog is that I don’t feel I have to restrict myself to only the things that are interesting. You are all so different, it would be impossible to say what was universally interesting and so rather, I get a licence to rant onwards to my heart’s content. Indeed, I can write what I find interesting and let you decide for yourselves.

Happily, Saturday saw the last of my ailments. So I was actually only ill for about 36 hours proper. All bar two of us have now been ill, many for upto a week so I’m counting myself lucky. I’ve now managed to strike a balance with the food. I’m having curry everyday, but only once at lunchtime which seems to work nicely - my stomach appreciates the respite - now I can get on with appreciating just how tasty and wonderful the food is. My treat to myself when I can find it though, is Rachel’s Organic Rice Pudding, its really cheap here and absolutely gorgeous. I’ve also managed to find a couple of sneaky pots of houmous which have gone down nicely.

I guess the big news is about my placement. I had a meeting with Rimmy and Kumkum on Tuesday, they are the VSO workers you set up and manage VSO’s partnership with BNP+, the organisation I’m working with. It seems that the job role that I was expecting is no longer what is required. The job outline was written a very long time ago. As its taken 2 years to get me into post, needs assessments and strategic plans have been carried out in the meantime and now it is understood that the training the staff need is very much about working practices rather than HIV and sexual health skills and knowledge. Clearly, some of this could be transferable from my experiences of working in the UK and so I feel I can still offer something valuable, but some will be very alien to me and so feels very like I’m about to become the proverbial one-eyed man! (sorry to those not familiar with English proverbs, he says, as if I were a mine of knowledge on the subject…). I’m feeling really disappointed about this role shift, but not aggrieved, we’ve been warned all along that our roles will have to remain fluid, indeed this is also a plus for me as I have the capacity to influence the direction of my role and maybe I’ll find a need for the skills I want to share in a different way. This all does make you question the validity of VSO’s approach however. Its pretty fruitless having volunteers with specific skills if they may not be using them. Having said this, I guess it explains VSO’s new shift in focus which is about recruiting predominantly organisational development staff and strategic planners (as per the rest of my group) - that way, the skills are generic and can be useful in most circumstances. I do now feel slightly perched on a limb. The big plus I guess is that I’m certainly going to be stretching my skill set and so will have a whole new set of skills to bring back to the UK and offer to my next employer, feels like a long way off, but must focus on the positives. The other thing I learnt in that meeting is that Eamon and I wont be living together as he’ll be in centre of Kolkata and I’m in an isolated suburb - this I’m really pleased about, I think I’ll value my space greatly.

So what have I been up to this week? Well it’s been quite a tourist-fest really. I’m conscious that I’m not in Delhi hugely long and also that I’m unlikely to get back here much as its 17 hours away on the high-speed trains (a great deal more on the slow ones!). Thus, I’ve been following the tourist trail with as much zeal as any hot blooded 60 year old fat German man with a beach towel and family in toe (No offence meant - just a convenient stereotype!). I’ll include a few photos in this blog - some could do with editing, but haven’t worked out how to yet. Bizarrely, the most impressive building of all was the one I was not allowed to photograph. It’s a Temple called Akshardham which was only built in 2002. From a distance it is as impressive, as ornate, as magical as any building I’ve ever seen - an impressive feet nonetheless, but sadly on closer look its very much moulded (machine-carved) marble, just a little too uniform to hold any of the passion and conviction of its crafters. Thus it falls flat at the final hurdle and creates absolutely no atmosphere. My most adventurous tourist trip to date was to get an overnight train to Amritsar in the Punjab, close to the Pakistan border. It’s supposed to be a remarkable place; its Golden Temple particularly, is revered as a pilgrimage site for Sikhs. However, as you’ll notice, I’ve started referring to it in the conditional, i.e. I failed miserably to get there. The detail is convoluted and slightly embarrassing, but suffices to say that a combination of my last-minuteism, the far from universal acceptance of credit card payments, my mis-guided faith in a passer-by for directions and the shear extreme madness that is New Delhi Station, all conspired to ensure that the trip was just not to be. Maybe another time. Next week I’m aiming for that Agra/Jaipur trip I’ve been talking about, so cross-fingers! To be fair, the 3 hours I spent trying to buy my ticket to Amritsar was actually useful time in some respects. I got to thinking about all the travelling I’ve done and motivations for it, really I feel that my need for tourism, that feeling of just seeing and experiencing a taste of somewhere, is beginning to fade. At the time is was perfect and ideal, now I’m feeling like living in a different culture is so the way to go, less stressful and more rich - don’t get me wrong, I’m not meaning to be sanctimonious about tourism, I think it can be absolutely amazing, just not so exciting for me anymore, maybe I’m a less confident traveller than I used to be. In fact holidays for holiday’s sake are must more appealing than they used to be. Anyway, I don’t know, I’ll shut up there, I’m even boring myself now.

One of the most wonderful things about having time in South Delhi is soaking up the sense of peace that pervades the place. It’s full of wide boulevards and lots of lush green spaces. In fact the parks here are quite remarkable. I spent much of today in Lodi Gardens which is my favourite and just happens to be over the road from where we are now staying. It absolutely breathtaking, the only possible criticism being that it’s a little TOO manicured at times. I spent four hours there sat in the shade of one of the many temples (it pushed 40 degrees today!), just watching the world, listening to and watching some phenomenal birds and reading my book - very happy times indeed. Made all the more smiley by the fact that I’m loving my book at the moment. I’ve finally got around to reading ‘1984’ - which, as you’ll imagine, is especially interesting now as I’m about to live in a communist state for the next couple of years. As I think I mentioned in my last tome, I went to Nehru Park (another gorgeous one) last Sunday to watch some live music. Turned out very WOMADesque, indeed I’d seen the first act at WOMAD a few years previous (Misty Brothers - violinists - in case that means anything to anyone). To be honest, as much as I wanted to love the evening: classical music, hot summer evening, beautiful park, nice company, etc; unfortunately, the music was often such that you felt it was venerated purely on the basis of its ‘traditional’ label rather than any vestiges of brilliance, but hey, who am I? I know nothing about these things. Fundamentally it was a nice thing to do, but little more.

As for VSO-stuff, the office are making a real effort to welcome us, still. We had our much delayed welcome party on Friday. Quite a funny evening; lots of local nibbles to try out, more good company and a solid dose of boogying. I’m reigniting a love of Bhangra music as it very much suits my hips and shoulders style of dancing. The staff were excited by my gusto and ended up making a circle around me while I danced and they clapped - shocker - even more so that I lapped it up and wasn’t remotely embarrassed. I’m really not out partying in Delhi due to security and cost, so was great to have a time to shake my groove thing. The thing with VSO is, like the rest of India, there is little concept of the idea of personal space, they’re so worried we’ll be bored in our time-off that they’re scheduling a hundred and one activities which end up tiring and stressing us out. They even booked us on a coach tour on Saturday - the horror! ‘And on the left we have…’ No thank you. On Wednesday we have been invited to the British High Commissioner’s Residence for dinner. Again, so not my scene, but this time I have little choice. We’re having potential visa issues and apparently he’s the man to help us sort it out… it’s not what you know…

With any luck I’ll get to meet Rosalyn this week, she’s the volunteer who is already placed at BNP+, as you may know, she’s been in the States recuperating from suspected Hepatitis and has had to have a gall-stone removed. I’m relieved to find out that she has decided to return and will arrive back in Delhi on Tuesday.

As part of VSO’s mission is to provide a model for inclusive practice, we’ve been having Indian Sign Language lessons which is great stuff. We also went to an NGO called Deafway which is an advocacy and education organisation. It was so amazing to sign to them - they were loving it too - we ended up interrupting their classes and talking about the differences between BSL and ISL. Their teacher was happy as he no longer had to do anything. The rest of the volunteer group just sat and watched - harsh, not quite the ideal of inclusion!

The volunteer group would make quite a sociological study; thrown together under quite a lot of pressure for an intense 4-week programme. There are now definite splinter groups, personalities are clashing, fuses are shortening and the need for personal space is evident in many of us. The biggest divide though is between those who drink beer daily and those who don’t. I’m now expecting the departure from Delhi to be less difficult than I first thought!

So, the only other news I have is that we’ve moved accommodation again. We are now staying at the Indian Social Institute for the remainder of our time here; it’s also where we do our language lessons so is very convenient, not to mention the fact that we now have our own rooms - phew! By the way, I’m still receiving post safely, so no problems there. Thanks. I’m not getting my mobile number until Kolkata because Delhi numbers wont work there apparently - go figure.

I’m sure that’s more than enough reading to fill up your coffee break. Thanks for reading this far. ‘til next time, stay smiley. Lots of love. xxx

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Photos

At the Red Fort
Part of a massive Citadel in central Delhi built by Shah Jahan, the guy who also built the Taj Mahal amongst other things.

Temple Roof
This is the view from my Bengali classroom.

Flower sellers
They're making chains of flower heads to be sold as offerings to temples. Our street is permanently covered in petals.

Delhi Street
This is a major thoroughfare in the centre of the city, they're not all this quiet though.

Jama Masjid
This is India's biggest Mosque. 2500 people can worship here at any one time. It also has amazing views from the towers.

Qutb Minar
This is such an impressive building. It dominates Delhi's skyline. You used to be able to climb it, but there were multiple deaths inside a few years ago and so, no longer.

Lotus Temple
Amazingly peaceful building which consists of just one remarkable room. It's symmetrical down 6 axes. It's a Baha'i temple - quite a new religion which came from Iran I believe.

Lodi Gardens
This tomb doesn't even get a mention in the guide books as such things are so common in Delhi's parks. This one was my shelter whilst have my wonderful lazy afternoon.