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Published: December 1st 2012
The idea of going to Bakhel to do some voluntary work with the Hunar Ghar School was Caroline’s as she knew one of the founder’s father when she was CE at Hastoe. After an introduction to his son Akshay (now a doctor in London) and communication with the other founder Ed (based in Paris though originally from Somerset) we agree to do some work with the children on introducing them to Photography, some interviews with the children about their views on the school itself and the education they receive and some interviews with the village community to determine their views on the school with a view to producing a photo book to help promote the school and use it for fund raising via the charity “Educate for life” in the UK which has a good website – so check it out
Link
www.educateforlife.com We hope to also produce a photo book of pictures taken by the children so that they can have it as a memento in their library to which we donated a book of great pictures of India – one we will get for ourselves as well.
‘Ram Ram’ We arrive at the village Mandir
from Udaipur by car – as its C’s birthday so it seems unfair to make her take 2 buses and spend hours getting here on her big day. Ed who is already in the village trying to drive things forward meets us together with Gopal – the school co-ordinator cum English teacher – and Vishnu Priya - who runs the 2 women’s groups that EfL help set up. We notice that the normal greeting here is not Namaste but Ram Ram – a new concept for us.
The Mandir plays a key role in village life and provides free food for the children who don’t go to school every day. Sunday is their big day when people from all around come to make offerings and dress in their Sunday best.
“Away in a manger” It’s off to our village home – a stone built house, rendered in cowpat/mud paint with clay tiles for the roof with 2 simple rooms 10ft by 20ft each, which houses the family, 5 goats and a cute calf. M can now empathise with how Jesus felt on his coming into this world. C realises some time later that she paid a lot
of money to buy and convert a building just like this on Dartmoor – no wonder it feels familiar.
The first room is the sleeping room, cum living room, cum stable for the 5 goats (who crap and fart a lot all night) and a little calf. The second room is the kitchen, cum utility room, cum storage space. The space is also occasionally home to a ginger cat (mouse and snake catcher), hen, rooster and a couple of mad sparrow that are fascinated by their reflections in the mirror on the wall.
We are given 2 of the family cots (charpoys) which leaves 1 for all of them making us rather uncomfortable. The kids sleep on the ground and with winter coming on this is harsh. We are reduced to one cot when the family increases suddenly by 50% as various children etc turn up for Diwali (unannounced it would seem).
We weren’t brave enough to sleep without a mosquito net as C would be bitten all over and it caused quite a few giggles from the kids as we tied it up to the roof timbers each night. The additional effect it had was to
provide some form of privacy screen as we fought with bedcovers and modesty to change in and out of our clothes each day.
The village has no electricity, water is via various wells and hand pumps, toilets are the bush. Personal washing is a public affair with most folk stripping down to underwear (the women would go topless but keep their skirts on) and washing in the wells. We tried our best with a bucket and a wraparound but were pleased to have the facility of the bucket shower at the Rohida EfL office occasionally.
Our Host Family Kanku Devi is mum who used to volunteer at the school and has for the last 6 weeks been appointed as a health/community worker. She and hubbie (Nata) have a family of 4 (Bima 14, Rutu 12, Mukesh 8 and Kumlish 4 – all ages are guesswork as nobody knows their actual ages) or so we thought till 2 grown up sons suddenly turned up before Diwali – the eldest with 2 wives - one he was living with and the other who has his 1 year old son who had been sent away from her family as they
didn’t see her as their responsibility anymore. She seemed to find more acceptance with the family as she was the one with the child who the grandparents adored. It was bit awkward for a while until things sort of got into its own rhythm as we discovered life in the village normally does. The eldest daughter also visited towards the end of our stay.
Just before leaving we presented the family with pictures of themselves, the children and grandchild which they love as we’re not sure they have seen a print of a picture of themselves. We also leave them a blanket we bought from Mt Abu – really warm – which will help them through winter. The quilt is actually made in Hartala Colony in Moradabad where M was born. A cool connection we feel.
Bakhel - The Village The village is like an oasis with date palm trees, rivers running around it, fields of corn, cotton, lentils (it’s also harvest and re planting season). The land is interspersed with some interesting rock formations as it’s at the edge of the Aravalli range of hills. There is a road that runs through it on the way
to Gujarat (& Surat), the border being 7 kms away.
Most of the villagers own some land and are farmers or itinerant labourers (even when they have their own farms). The land seems pretty fertile and this year the rains have been good and there’s a lot of greenery around. Water is got from wells all around and convenient to walk to – the water seems safe and we drank it without any side effects.
The sky is pretty clear all the while and the sun rise and sun sets are impressive. The morning chorus of birds was always a delight – there was a range of varieties and most of them sat on the electric wire to warm up for a while as the sun came out.
After a while one senses a rhythm to life in the village. We enjoyed working in the village and the inter action with the local people who were most welcoming. They are beautiful, friendly and honest and the rhythm of their life seemed magical and serene despite its many obvious hardships. They are a strong, hardworking and proud people.
The villagers’ life is hard and we are impressed
by their stoic approach to what is their lot in life. They are tough, poor mainly, yet friendly, honest and family based. The sunrises & sets each day, seasons come and go, the roles in the families and community follow a largely defined pattern and they survive with religion and a smile.
They have a “chai” for anyone at any time and after the initial curiosity about us are friendly and welcoming. (Unfortunately some chai is like drinking treacle. They really need to get rid of their sweet tea fetish – apparently diabetes is a problem here & we are not surprised yet there appears to be no educational programme to wean people off the sweetness – the rest of the chai is awesome with subtle spice & ginger flavours).
After a while all the kids would shout out to take a picture of them – which we had to resist at times or we would get not much done. The village has a picture at every twist and turn – no wonder we ended up with about 1200 or more!! Most villagers were accommodating of our intrusion into their lives and enjoyed seeing their pictures on our
LCDs – a first for nearly 100%!o(MISSING)f them. The greatest challenge was to try and get them to smile as they usually went rigid, stood to attention and looked seriously at you as if facing a firing squad with dignity!!. Eventually we would say in Hindi “show me your teeth” and when they would laugh we would snap. This showed them that a smiling picture was the one to have & things got better from then on.
The village has 5 hamlets (possibly a 6
th but people aren’t sure). No one know how old they are and it strikes us that to them life goes on and age and birthdays are irrelevant unlike the west where we go into psychotic mode depending which birthday is approaching & suddenly we decide that “we are over the hill”, “too old for something” etc rather than living life and enjoying being alive as they do.
Mount Abu We first come here with the HG team as they have a meeting with the Global Medical & Research centre to persuade them of the need for an additional monthly mobile medical clinical visit a month. They also make the case for
blood testing equipment at the clinic to aid earlier diagnosis & cure and training for their staff in basic medical knowledge – so a great day for the team.
We don’t attend the meeting but instead explore for a couple of hours and we get some new clothes, Kurtas – 2 for M and 1 for C + 2 pyjamas from the Government Khadi centre – great quality and 25% off. We meet for lunch at Neelam’s – great Puris & Parathas and then head back to the village.
Travel locally is by shared taxi (mainly jeeps) which in theory seat 10 plus a driver. Most we counted was 18 inside plus 2 babies and another 10 on the roof, 4 off the back and 4 hanging off the sides!! We Europeans are definitely not designed for their seating plans! You sometimes get loud music (quite good too) accompanying you along the way or they forever sound their tuneful horns to attract customers. School kids sometimes appear to get a free ride if the taxi is not too overflowing (literally). The service also acts as the local parcel delivery service (informally we believe) to drop off grain, food
and agricultural stuff from home to home en route.
As it can be hard going at the village for us softies from the west, we decide to take a break and spend 3 nights in Mt Abu before Diwali. It’s a small hill station mainly famous for its lake, temples (especially the Jain one we visit), weekend trippers from Gujarat for a booze up as the former is a dry state & Mt Abu is in Rajasthan which isn’t, and newlyweds.
We get the shared taxi from Mandwa to Swarup Ganj, another to the Junction to Abu Rd & then another to Mt Abu itself – all in 3 hours and at local fixed prices. (Coming back we get the bus which is just as crammed but folk don’t seem to mind). After a short search we get a good deal at the Hotel Shanti (Rs 1200 per night), a large room with balcony, shower (bliss) and the ubiquitous English wine shop around the corner.
We indulge in a meat fest at Sher-e-Punjab, and C has her favourite softy ice cream (which they sell all over in various flavours) and even she said it was awful. M
treats himself to a Special Rabri – not a good as Haridwar or Mumbai and expensive as are most things in Mt Abu. We also try the Naz Hotel by the mosque for lunch which is pretty rubbish – avoid it, and discover a great breakfast place that does masala omelette called the “The Gujarat Omelette Shop” – Rs 40 a bargain.
We notice that the local Indian visitors are in shawls, overcoats, woolly hats & jumpers whilst we are comfortable in just a T shirt. They do feel the cold here after the heat of Summer. During the day it hits about 28 degrees.
What is noticeable about Mt Abu is the number of religious and one non-affiliated religious group (whose members dress in white and many are foreigners – mainly it seems from Eastern Europe) that co-exist here. There are a number of mosques in the town as well.
A peculiar attraction is a hand drawn cart which we notice all over the place which we thought was for carting heavy goods or luggage for visitors till we see a cool dude in one with shades on and a green coconut drink in his hand
merrily being taken around. Next it’s a whole family. We are then informed by the guys that pull these up and down the hill that this is the local “Indian Helicopter”. Enterprising or what?!
We visit the famous Delwara Jain Temple about 3 kms out of town (Rs 80 single trip in a taxi) – it’s in a great setting. It’s free to visit but you need to leave your cameras, bags and mobile behind for Rs 10. It’s an amazing collection of ancient temples with the most impressive carvings so it’s a pity that we are not allowed to take pictures. However, this does not stop someone trying to sell a bunch of prints recently taken inside -12 pictures for Rs 100 – we wonder how he managed it?
Mandwa We are grateful to Bhubanesh, one of the teachers at the school, for allowing us to charge the laptop at his place. He is keen on photography & we do a few impromptu lessons for him. His wife Manju is a local district nurse and they have two beautiful daughters – the youngest is a real rascal. He has his own block which he sub-lets to
2 other teaching families – Ajit & Pushpa (one of the 3 community/health workers) together with Prakash and Shakuntala who are both teachers at the school
The other family we should mention is
Kalpeshwho has a daughter, Rimjhim 12, a boisterous son Vansh 7 and 4 year old Vetsal - totally out of control (the brothers son we later discover), who own a shop in Mandwa where we do our camera battery recharges for free as we are with the school. Their kids go to the local private school St John’s on the rod to Mt Abu and their level of confidence and learning is a million miles away from the kids at Hunar Ghar.
We suggest to HG that a partnership with the private school may benefit the children as St John’s has computers for the kids & clearly a high teaching standard.
The School Hunar Ghar is the brainchild and vision of 2 undergraduates from the UK – Ed Forrest & Akshay Patel – who are the Trustees of Educate for Life, the charity that supports the school from the UK in partnership with a local NGO – RBKS. It has been going for about
5 years and has now about 130 children to age 14 or standard 5.
The Vision is to provide learning and community development opportunities from the school to improve the life chances of the children and local community.
The design & layout of the school is really innovative and blends in well with the local landscape. It aims to be different than the other government schools and is.
The approach to learning is also somewhat different as there is equal emphasis on regular learning, as well as play time, and many field trips to widen the scope of the children’s learning and development.
In addition work has been done to establish a Women’s group – 2 in fact which seem to be thriving with a micro finance project and plans for a women’s co-operative etc. They have also worked with the Global Hospital & Research centre in Mt Abu to have a regular monthly mobile clinic at the village (doctor and dispensing chemist) and while we were they had a meeting to agree improvements to the service (an additional clinic a month & blood testing capability) and training for their health workers and the village women.
We also meet Vivek their new worker whose role seems to be to oversee the schools development and make the links between the school and all the community work EfL undertake. He seems switched on and articulate – not in desi the local dialect, but has some good experience and practical knowledge to take the school forward – we feel that he has his work cut out for him. He’s fun and is pretty grounded so provides a useful foil to Ed the trustee who has bags of energy, enthusiasm & commitment (he comes twice a year), and loads of ideas but needs someone to oversee the practical implementation side.
The Trustees more liberal approach to education and vision doesn’t always sit too well with the community or sometimes the teachers either. The latter being more traditional and keen to focus on the 3 Rs, while the former expect discipline in the form of a smack or other punishment – which is against the Trustee’s vision.
Free meals are provided for the school children, some other local village kids and the teachers, which are nutritious and combats malnutrition in the village. They are also in the process
of digging their own well to alleviate the problem of women fetching water from a long way away for the children, and there are plans for a new kitchen, new toilets etc.
One thing that definitely surprises us though is the lack of confidence of the children speaking in Hindi and there is virtually no English at all – which is not seen as a priority by the Trustees. We disagree (and tell them of course).
Quite a lot of energy is going into supporting women groups to good effect, however, there is little or no effort being made to connect with the men in the community who are the decision makers. We feel there is scope for some animal husbandry sessions and crop improvement training & advice they could be offered to win them over and get more of their engagement and support.
As part of volunteering placement with the Trustees we agreed 3 projects to complete during our stay
1.The Photography Project This project was the most successful of our stay. The motivation and curiosity of the children was very positive as was the interest of the teachers (an unexpected bonus for us
& Hunar Ghar).
We ended up providing over 1000 pictures for the India website for Educate for Life and their new Trust. We tried to capture the diversity of life in the school and the village together with activities the children have been involved in e.g the Diwali day celebrations and the trip to “My FM” radio station in Udaipur.
Diwali is a big celebration in India and schools close for about 11 days this year. This is a bit unfortunate for us as it starts only a week into our stay and most of the teachers go to their villages. The kids however, being motivated by curiosity if nothing else to use a camera agree to come to field work sessions we have set up for them during the holidays on a voluntary basis – attendance is above 95% and we are impressed. However, their over enthusiasm means that some sessions are a bit like herding cats – not helped by teachers who come uninvited and create more problems than help.
From the photo’s the kids took we hope to produce a photo book to showcase their work – a copy will be sent to the
school library.
A picture chosen by the children of their work was presented to them on our last day in 6x8” size print together with a family photograph (6x8”) which included them, which we took on the field trip and a certificate of merit in photography, which they loved (all the teachers wanted one too even if they had done nothing!).
One area we are disappointed with is the lack of follow up and review of the learning from the photography sessions which Ed had requested and we asked the class 4 & 5 teachers to put in place – this did not happen despite repeated reminders. Equally we were disappointed by the lack of discipline of the teachers who got in the way of what the children were doing at times and encouraged their indiscipline and lack of attention to what was being taught.
One observation we would make is that we under estimated the time and energy that this project would require; the logistical planning, the teaching, the managing & organising of sessions, the preparation, the recharging of batteries, the editing, printing etc.
2. The interviews with the children This was a great
experience to learn about the students views on their school, their aspirations/ambitions and what they liked and would like the school to do for the community.
3. The Interviews with the adults This project did not work well as only 3 of the 31 sample adult families spoke Hindi. And due to holidays & other commitments no local resource was available to help. So only 2 detailed interviews took place but they were very good and informative.
Diwali – Bakhel and Udaipur Light decorations are being put up on all the hotels and fire crackers are exploding all over – it’s Diwali!! Indian fireworks tend to be very loud (the cheapest & most popular ones), fountains are good too, but rockets a rarity. In the village they don’t decorate the houses – instead it’s the animals that get the star treatment. Tinsel and plastic flower garlands for the cattle and multi-colour paint over anything else that can be caught – chickens included!
For the locals it’s peak harvest and replanting time for new crops and the men plough their fields Diwali or no Diwali. The folks do however, ease off in the afternoon to get
their best glad rags on and go “roaming” in whichever town they choose – many go to Mandwa which is only a km or 2 from the village (depending on where you live).
We venture into Mandwa and find local women from all around in colourful sarees and their best jewellery – a great sight and we do manage to get some pictures. Folks warn us to be careful as it’s the day when men tend to get a bit inebriated and make a fool of themselves later on in the afternoon (nothing new here - just like Christmas in London!). So after a local lunch of the usual samosas and jalebis we go for a hike up one of the hills overlooking the village – great views. We celebrate a bit with the host family as we had brought them some Indian sweets from Mt Abu and sparklers for the children.
We joined the school for a day trip to My FM radio station in Udaipur which was great – they were recorded singing village songs etc which would be aired in a future programme. They then went onto Sahelyion-ki-Bari (ornamental gardens from the 18
th century built
by the king for his women folk to enjoy). Beautiful they are too.
To finish off the our projects we decide to stay on in Udaipur for 3 nights and find a great room for about Rs 1200 per night – the Ganguar Palace Hotel ( great large room but a bit noisy as it was next to the main traffic route) in Ganguar Ghat next to Lal Ghat – a lovely spot by the lake with a roof top eatery with amazing views of the whole area. The Lake Palace and surroundings look pretty awesome and the city looks great with all its Diwali lights on. A good time to visit Udaipur we feel. Unfortunately C has a dose of Rajasthan belly & M over indulges on the awesome Thali from the hotel roof top restaurant so we extend our stay for 2 nights to recover. M takes advantage of the enforced room rest to watch the India Vs England first Test live from Ahmedabad. India wins – at last.
After a few days of light food at the Rainbow restaurant – with great views, we make our way back to the village. At home we find
most of the adults away bar the daughter in law (who disappears the next day), plus plenty of local kids with the children of the host family. The mysteries of village family life we think.
We also call Satish who has now arrived in India for his 3 months stay at Satara, as we are planning our joint trip to Ajanta & Ellora with him and Girish. He’s also likely to join us in Goa at Phil’s place and we may all end up in Pune when Yogesh & Indie arrive from Australia; so this unplanned section of our trip could be fun.
Rohira & Swaroop Ganj The last few days are taken up with 2 interviews with adults, more pictures for the school website (including of the teachers) and a feedback session with Class 4 & 5 on their photography work plus a show of best pictures we have edited for their photo book. We also spend time at the local office in Rohira (pronounced Roheda , about 22 kms away and 45 mins away by taxi) where we find some great coffee, hot and served in clay cups for Rs 5 and Daksha snack shop
for samosa chaat and kachori chaat for Rs 10 each.
We spend our last night here with Ed, Vivek & Deepak who we take out for dinner as a thank you to a small place in Swaroop ganj (SG). We have a great thali each for Rs 45 each – eat as much as you like then get the very last taxi home – phew – or it would be an hours walk home in the dark! We finish off with some Kalakand (milky barfi) which is great.
The next day we are heading Pushkar to witness the famous Camel Fair that takes place once a year around November, so we get up early to catch a taxi at 7-30am to SG, and then on to Abu Road to catch our train to Ajmer. Abu Road is famous for its station Rabris (creamy milk sweet) which we have been recommended so after sharing 3 for breakfast we are ready to rock. We leave Abu Road at 10.02 on time on the Aravalli Express for Jaipur only to find that we stop at Swaroop ganj at 11 am!! What a waste of 3 hours potential sleep time – that’s
travelling for you.
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Geoff Waters
non-member comment
Terrific
What a wonderfl experience you are having and many thanks for the detailed account of your travelling life, with lovely supportive photographs. We held our annual Santa Fun Run on Saturday 24th and it rained but didn't put off 412 turning up. Take care Geoff and Kay x