Dispatches From India 2011

Note: Newest blog submissions are first.

Dec. 20

Differences can’t be ignored

India and the United States are two very different places.  This has been a common theme to many of the blogs by myself and classmates on this trip, but it cannot be ignored. 

In the beginning I started to notice many of the things I take for granted, being from America.   In India it is not advised to drink the water from the faucet, unless it is piping hot, or eat fruits without washing them yourself.  I am not a speaker of any of the majority languages and though English is an official language, there is most decidedly a language barrier between myself and a large part of the population here.   I, and most of the students I have travelled with look vastly different from everyone else.  All of these were just some of the things I began to notice I take for granted living in the United States at the beginning of our trip.

Now, having been in the beautiful country of India, surrounded by the many (and I mean MANY) wonderful and interesting people who inhabit it, I have begun to note things about this place, which I have begun to take for granted.   These things will soon be gone when we return to the states.  I will no longer wake to the sounds of car horns (which are used quite differently in India than the U.S.) and the chatter of some 1.3 billion people outside my windows.  After I wake I will no longer (without some difficulty) have Kellogg’s Choco cereal with hot milk or chana masala for breakfast.  No longer will I be swarmed by children or asked randomly to take a picture wherever I go.  No longer will I ride In the back of a car in Indian traffic, which I probably cannot describe without scaring mothers and violating university policy.  No longer will a lunch fit for two cost me the equivalent of 1 U.S. dollar.  No longer will I hear Bollywood and religious songs on every radio station I flip to.  No longer will there be a Hindu temple or Sikh Gurdwara at walking distance at any moment.  No longer will all my elders be Aunty and Uncle.  No longer will I be able to see a child’s face light up when I give them a wave, the simplest of gestures but not native to India.  And last but surely not least, I will no longer be able to get the most delicious cup of true Indian Chai at any roadside stand for only 5 rupees.

While I will surely miss many of the sights, sounds, tastes, and feelings of India, we will soon be returning to the reality, the gift, the luck that is our home in America.  This has been an extremely eye opening and life changing journey.  I am extremely grateful for the opportunities, like this one, that the University of Louisville has offered, and continues to offer me. 

Hunter Pittman

sophomore anthropology major

Hopkinsville, Ky.

Thinking about the kids          

Preparing for the trip, Deep and Gerome kept reminding of us things to expect that we might not necessarily be used to in America. Like smog or stray animals. The one they stressed the most was being approached by beggars. I’ve been to cities like New York or Chicago before and live only a few minutes from downtown Cincinnati, so I’m used to seeing homeless people and them asking for money. I’ve also spent time in third world countries before, so I’ve seen abject poverty at its worst. But I admit it: I was nowhere near prepared for the beggars here. I don’t want people to get a bad image in their head of this country – both the people and the landscape are beyond beautiful. Sadly, this is the reality though of cities here.

In Delhi, we didn’t run into many people asking for money (mostly because of the places we went within the city). Personally, the train station was my first experience. After getting to our platform with our luggage (which was a task itself), the group was standing around waiting for our train to arrive. While we were waiting, I heard someone behind me. I turned around and saw a man scooting across the floor with his hands. The man was asking for the visitors (especially the Americans) for money. The man was polite, and after I told him I didn’t have any small bills he left us alone and went over to lie down on a cardboard mat beside one of the benches on the platform. To the best of my knowledge, the man spends most of his time living in the station begging for money. There was another man, this one much older, who approached us right before we boarded the train. Ivy and Shelby gave the man juice and a bag of chips which, to our surprise, he blessed and thanked them generously for. It was really moving to see how grateful the man was for something as small as a snack. The deep creases on his face and hands told the story of a long life, and I can only imagine what that man must have gone through.

We’ve seen people in most public places begging for money, but the hardest one for me to see has been a group of five young kids at the shopping center in District 17. Today was our third visit to District 17, and the same kids have come up to us every time. Each time they’ve approached us, they’ve gotten more persistent and tried to get more money from us. Our first visit there, one of the little boys came up to us as we were about to get into our cars, so we gave him a few rupees and he went away. The second time, two of the girls followed Hunter, Ram, and me for about ten minutes. We told them we didn’t have anything and they still followed us. We walked into stores to shop and they waited outside for us. Hunter gave one of them a hundred rupees (it was the smallest bill he had), but the other girl still stuck with us. It wasn’t until one of the store owners ran them off that they finally went away. I felt bad for them at first, but after they continued to follow us (and even try to grab our hands) I got really annoyed by them, so when the store owner got them to leave us alone I was really relieved.

Earlier today though was even worse. The entire group came up to us early into our visit, and Shelby bought them each an ice cream cone. They were all happy and smiling, so that was nice to see… but soon they came back. We told them we didn’t have anything and that we had just bought them something, but it didn’t matter to them. As we walked away from the main square of the shopping center, they all ran away towards a corner of the square. We thought that they had left us alone, but as we headed towards the restaurant where we were going to eat lunch at, they hounded us like never before. The kids kept grabbing at our hands, running in front of us or beside us, continually begging in Hindi and broken English. We tried ignoring them. We told them no, to go away. Again they refused. They followed us up two levels of stairs to the very front doors of the restaurant, completely away from the store fronts, and didn’t leave us until we had all gotten inside the doors (and they waited right next to the doors for a few minutes before finally heading off). I’ve never been so frustrated, annoyed, bothered before… but worst of all is the pity and the sympathy for them. The sad truth is that these kids most likely work for some man (a thug, I’d call him) who forces them to beg for money and return whatever they get. If people say no, he tells them to persist. They’ve probably learned that if they keep it up, eventually the people they’re bothering will run out of patience and give in.

That entire concept is terrible to imagine. Here I am wearing my name brand clothes, spending thousands of dollars to travel across the globe with a group of similarly privileged university students. And there those kids are wearing dirty, worn-out clothes that don’t really fit, begging for a few rupees from whoever they think has some to spare. All of them robbed of any opportunities to better their lives, go to school or earn a decent living. Whenever they approached us, I was probably the most impatient and curt person of our group towards them – telling them no or waving them off as soon as I saw them approach. Looking back on it all though, it hurts to think about. The questions that remain on my mind: how many of these kids are there, and what will become of them all? Is there really any way to improve their situation? Like I said, India is an absolutely beautiful country. With that beauty though, comes a stark reality. There’s the Taj Mahal, there’s pristine farmland. There are also kids like that group.

Matthew Smith

sophomore biology major

Edgewood, Ky.

Dec. 19

Meeting students

My favorite experience in India thus far was being able to visit a school while it was in session.  Entering the school, we were graciously welcomed by the president.  Her grandfather founded the school some years back and now it was running more successful than ever.  You could see her pride in the development of the school and the degree of education it provided for the students.  She then introduced us to the principal who showed us towards a classroom.  Inside there were students lined up around tables with science experiments, economic models, and art pieces. 

Listening to the students present their models, you could see their excitement and pride in their hard work.  They were excellent speakers and you could see their vast knowledge in the subjects.  I could see that not one single student took their education for granted.  Their intelligence and dedication towards their education was inspiring.  There was a table where they had lined up all their notebooks, and flipping through them I was amazed at the advanced concepts they were learning for only being in 10th grade. There were science terms that I hadn’t heard of until I entered college.

After the presentations, we were shown outside where students were practicing dances and skits for their school’s anniversary the next day.  The principal kept nudging us to get on the stage, but I was hesitant at first.  The moment I started dancing though, I had a great time laughing and joining in with the kids.  The little girl dancing in front of me was not holding back, and you could feel her energy radiate as she danced filled with kicks and fast hand movements.  I definitely saw a more lively and youthful side of India today, and I loved it.   

Ivy Nguyen

Junior biology major

Visiting Sultanpur

India continues to be an incredible experience! In our day break in between the medical camps we took a trip to Sultanpur, a city about four hours away from Chandigarh (where we are currently staying).  Near the end of our day there, after visiting the first Sikh temple and a brilliant school we traveled several miles out of the city to a rural village. As we passed field after field and were driving on dirt roads I started to get really excited about the idea of seeing a farm town in India, since I grew up in a very rural area myself. Before we got to the village we came to a river and crossed via a homemade bridge. At that moment I began to realize that the areas we would be going to would most likely be entirely self-sufficient, and they certainly were. Shortly after we arrived at the first village a man pulled up in an onion truck he had built himself. It was amazing to see such innovation with such limited resources. The people that brought us to the area talked about how the people living in the village were indeed wholly self-reliant; from growing all their own food to using cow dung for building materials, which was amazing. The villagers gave us food and wanted to take lots of pictures with us which was also a neat experience. The other village we went to had a large focus on sugarcane and we saw them making and tasted brown sugar and got to help make sugarcane juice (which we then drank later). Once again, it was fascinating to see such innovation and resourcefulness. As a whole I loved the trip and it made me feel very appreciative and fortunate to have access to so many things I take for granted. Additionally, I’m completely guilty of complaining about living “in the middle of nowhere” but those rural villages brought me an entirely new perspective on rural life, which was something I’m really glad I learned.  I can’t believe we’re headed home in just a few days!

Sirena Wurth

junior political science and communication

Boaz, KY

Constant Surprise

Despite this being my fifth time visiting India and my second time on the trip, I am constantly surprised by the country.  It is very difficult to describe the scene in India, but the closest word to describe it would be colorful. In the most basic definition of the word, one could use colorful to describe the traditional clothing that adorn the men, women, and children here.  In a slightly more complex perspective, colorful can be used to describe the drastic changes in scenery:  from the city life of Dehli to the slums that are so non-discretely present and from the villages to the farm land where creativity and innovation is always present.  In the most abstract of forms, colorful can be used to describe the character of the people here. Though the majority of the inhabitants of this country face economic hardship in a way that we will never understand, they continue to thrive to be better, whether it be through hard work, endurance, or dedication. Furthermore, they do all of these things with the basis of compassion. This dedication to improve themselves despite such grand set backs is the part of India and the Indian people that continuously impresses me. The most obvious example of this was present when we went to visit a public school in one of the smaller villages. Many of the students have to walk 30 minutes every morning just to reach the school. Once there, the students are immersed in a broad range of subjects including math, English, science, Hindi, economics, social studies, geography and many more. While at the school, we were fortunate enough to see an exhibition that the students had set up with various projects. These projects were beyond any school fair I could have ever have imagined. In 10th grade, students were learning about cell cultures and economic concepts that I, myself, had only learned last year as a sophomore in college. The pride that the students displayed on their faces as they showed us their project was definitely evident. It was even more evident that the students’ thirst for knowledge far outweighed the “burden” of the long journey they would have to take to reach home that afternoon once school was out. This desire of people to constantly find ways to improve themselves is present throughout the country, whether they reside in villages, farms or the cities.  As I return to India next year as a leader of this group, I look forward to again being surprised by these scenes and sharing them with other students.

Deepa Patel

Junior biology and Spanish major

Somerset, KY