Week 13, Dasara at Sandhya’s House

We had Monday off from work because of the Dasara festival. I said before that this festival celebrates the triumph of good over evil, which is a Hindu festival; it’s the day when Rama defeated Ravana (an episode from the Ramayana, one of the great Indian epic poems) and also the day when the goddess Durga slayed the buffalo-demon Mahisha. I think it is also a festival to celebrate the beginning of the harvest season, and it is a sort of Labor Day where people celebrate the tools of their trade, which is what we did in the office on Friday. It turns out to also be a Buddhist festival (Ashoka Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Din), which celebrates the day that Ashoka the Great converted to Buddhism. It is also the day Dr. Ambedkar, who revitalized Buddhism during the Indian independence movement, converted to Buddhism. I feel like there was so much going on all in one festival that I can’t really keep it all straight.

Sandhya’s family is Buddhist, and since Susan and Jenny were in Goa for the long weekend, she invited me to her house for the festival. Her brother-in-law also just completed the remodeling of his house, so they also had a puja (payer ritual) to celebrate that.

I got there at about noon, and all the houses around the housing society (neighborhood) had a Rangoli outside their front doors. They are made out of a sand-like material that, in this part of the country, is made of died, crushed rock. Rangolis come in different shapes, sizes and colors.

Then we went over to the brother-in-law’s house where they were having the puja. Everyone in the extended family was there. They sat on the floor in two rooms; the women were in the room where the table was set up with a Buddha statue and candles, and the men were in the room next to that. They all chanted and sang some prayers, and then we passed a long string around that everyone held on to and they sang another prayer. After the puja we all went out for a buffet lunch in the backyard. It was really good, especially the gulab jamun (which is quickly becoming my favorite Indian sweet) and the puri (a crispy, puffed up, deep fried bread); there were also papads, a vege curry, a dal, rice and palak bhaji (spinach deep fried in a chick pea batter).

I made friends with lots of the kids there, especially Sandhya’s niece Siddhi and her daughter Aakanksha. Siddhi is learning English at school and is very good at it. Aakanksha goes to a Marathi school and at first she was too shy to try the little bit of English she knows, but she got more comfortable as the day went on. Here is Siddhi with her lunch.

Here I am with some of Sandhya’s nieces and nephews. They have a very big extended family and I think they all live in the same housing society, which Sandhya’s grandfather founded in 1956. It’s an all Buddhist community that was established so that the workers in a local munitions factory didn’t have to go live in the slums when they retired. Six of these kids live in Sandhya’s household: the three girls and three of the boys.

At the end of the day Sandhya’s husband took me home. I showed him our flat and he was amazed that we each have our own room; I think they share about three or four people to a room in their house. I also showed him some pounds because he has never seen any foreign currency, and he was really happy.

Week 12, People at Work

I thought it would be nice to show you all the people who I spend my days with. Here is a photo of most of the people in the office. From left to right in the back row: Shashi (social worker), Pramila (and art teacher who does workshops in the slums), Sandya (social worker), Zhaida (social worker), Shoba (social worker), Pradeep (he’s the one Jenny and I work with on GIS and Google Earth, also a social worker), Leena (receptionist/secretary), and Dipak (Pratima’s driver, who also makes us tea and does random jobs around the office). Just to clarify, the social workers are the people who go into the slums and survey the people; they enter the data into the computer and produce reports to summarize and present the data.

Sitting in the middle are Maushi (one of the Trustees of Shelter Associates who is an expert on composting and waste management) and Pratima (our boss, the director of Shelter Associates). And the volunteers are sitting on the floor in the front: Susan, Jenny, Caroline and me. I live with Jenny and Susan. Jenny is another EWB volunteer, and Susan is here on a Davis Foundation 100 Projects for Peace grant. Caroline just got here on 30 August; she is studying architecture in Berlin, but comes from France.


In the office whenever anyone has a birthday (there have been a few already this summer) we get a cake and sing ‘Happy Birthday’. Then Pratima gets to shove cake into the person’s mouth. It’s really funny to watch. Here they are on Maushi’s birthday (19 September); Pratima was nice this time and didn’t make a big mess because Maushi is the ‘youngest’ person in the office.


Today when I got to the office, all the ladies were wearing saris. They explained that it’s part of the festival on Monday (Dasara, a holy day that commemorates the triumph of good over evil) that women wear saris and men wear traditional kurtas. They asked if I want to wear a sari too, so I said yes. Leena lives close by, so she went home to get me one and they all dressed me up. I would like to get a sari, but I don’t think I would ever wear it again. It’s nice to borrow one for the day. Here I am with Shoba, Sandya, Pramila, Leena and Sandya (not in the top picture, she’s the accountant who only works part time). Also as part of the festival, we set up a little shrine to the tools of our trade: computers, software, slum surveys; they sang a song and we ate sweets.

Week 12, Cooking Lesson

On Sunday, Susan, Jenny and I went to our boss, Pratima’s house for a cooking lesson. We learned how to make gulab jamun, khichadi and rava upma. Gulab jamun is a sweet; they are small dough balls that are deep fried (kind of like donut holes) and then soaked in sugar syrup. They absorb the syrup but don’t become soggy. They are really good. You make the dough from a mix, so I’m going to buy some and bring it back with me.

Next we made khichadi, which comes in many different varieties. The one we made is made out of sago and is spiced with fresh green chilies, fresh coriander, ground peanuts, salt, sugar and cumin seeds. I hope I can get sago in the UK. Here’s Susan eating the finished product.

Last we made rava upma. Rava is a kind of wheat flour that seems a bit coarser than the flour we get at home, and upma is a standard Indian breakfast dish. It ends up like a mush, similar to cream of wheat, and is spiced with fresh green chilies, mustard seeds, asadoeda powder, salt, and sugar, and is garnished with fresh coriander and grated coconut. Here in India they keep their spices in a ‘masala dabba’, which is a round container with lots of little compartments for the different spices. This one has (clockwise from top) mustard seeds, chili powder, cumin seeds, ground coriander, asafetida powder, turmeric, and a miscellaneous masala in the center.

Week 11, Slum Visit

On Thursday we went on our first slum visit in Pune, to Dattawadi. Well, it isn’t really a slum; it was a slum before Shelter Associates was involved in the redevelopment in 1996-7. It seems to me like any of the poorer apartment blocks you see around India. One of the most interesting things here is the huge contrast between people living right next door to one another; you get redeveloped slums right next to upper/middle class apartment blocks.



In the courtyard of the complex, you can see people hanging out, clothes drying, and satellite dishes! It’s interesting what people spend their money on.



The people were very welcoming and showed us into their apartments. Each family of 4-6 people got an apartment that has a footprint of about 125ft2. Part of the Shelter Associates plan was to provide a good quality shell for the building and allow the people to decorate the inside themselves to make it their own. They were allowed to build a loft so that the apartments became two floors with almost double the living area, and as a result the layout of each apartment that we saw seemed to be slightly different.

The general layout was that the downstairs has a living room (where people probably also sleep), a kitchen and a washroom with running water, and the upstairs is the sleeping area; toilets are along the corridor and are shared between 4 families. The space is tiny and the toilets are not nice, but it’s better than a slum where you don’t have running water or toilets at all! Every day here I am reminded of what we take for granted in the US and the UK!

The people in Dattawadi have really turned the little apartments into homes. Many of the entrances are decorated, there are pictures hanging on the walls, the kitchens are fully equipped with pots, pans and gas hobs (I didn’t see any electrical appliances like fridges though), and most have tvs to go along with their satellite dishes.

Fifty Years of Math 1957 - 2007

I just found this in an email from a while ago (haha 2007), and I thought I'd share it with the group because it's funny. And it's interesting because when I was in Belize in May, and now in India, every person I meet can do this kind of arithmetic (it's not math, by the way) in their head. Today, for example, the rickshaw to work cost 63 rupees. I handed him 103 and asked for 40 rupees change. Then he asked me for 10 more rupees and handed me a 50 rupee note. (I hope you can all follow that.) You would never experience a transaction like that in the UK or the US, and it's sad.

****

Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this? Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950's:

1. Teaching Math In 1950's: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

2. Teaching Math In 1960's: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

3. Teaching Math In 1970's: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?

4. Teaching Math In 1980's: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Math In 1990's: A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut
down their homes? (There are no wrong answers, and if you feel like crying, it's ok.)

6. Teaching Math In 2007? Un hachero vende una carretada de madera para $100. El costo de la producciones es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho

Week 10, Food

After the first two weeks when everything I ate gave me a stomach ache and made me ill, I have really started enjoying trying all the different food here. I’ve eaten at many Indian restaurants in the UK, but they all serve the same westernized Indian dishes, with little variety from one restaurant to the next. We’re trying to be more adventurous now and sometimes order things where we have no idea what they are.

One good way to try new things is to order a ‘thali’. A thali is a big plate served with lots of little pots containing different dishes. Here I am with Susan at my favorite thali restaurant; they come around and keep refilling the empty pots, so you can eat more of the stuff you like and leave the stuff you don’t like. The only problem with thalis is that you never know what the names of the dishes are in case you want to order them again in the future.


One new thing I have discovered here is a ‘dosa’. The first few weeks we were here, Jenny lived off dosas. A dosa is a kind of thin pancake or crepe made of rice flour, with a potato filling. It is always served with a white and a red sauce, neither of which I know what they really are. It’s a south Indian dish and there are about a million variations. The standard one is called masala dosa, which is what I just described. Here, Chris and Euan are eating paper dosas, which are super thin and really big. Then there’s rava dosas, which use wheat flour that makes it a bit crispier, and onion dosas which have onion in the batter.


My newest favorite food is a ‘sizzler’. It’s everything on one plate, which is basically like a hot frying pan so the food sizzles. It’s like how fajitas are served on a hot plate in the US. This one that I had at Bounty Sizzler Restaurant was spicy paneer and mushrooms with rice, fries, cabbage, carrots, beans and cauliflower.


For lunch everyday we pick up a ‘tiffin’ from a restaurant around the corner from our flat, the purple Royal Café. We just started this service; for the first month Jenny and Susan shared a different tiffin service that made my stomach hurt and I made my own food. We get rice, dhal (a weird yellow lentil stew; a staple in the Indian diet), two curries (often palak (spinach) and a mixed vegetable curry), chapatti (an Indian flat bread) and a papad (a.k.a. papadum in UK Indian restaurants); it’s kind of like a take-away thali. I really like our tiffin, except for now we don’t like eating dinner at that restaurant anymore because eating their food twice in the same day is a little much. Here’s a photo of our 4-tiffin that we use to transport our food.

Week 10, Work

There’s no exciting trips or festivals this week, so I thought I’d write an update about what I’m doing at Shelter Associates. One of the main things that they do here is that the social workers go into slums and complete detailed questionnaires with the slum residents. What results is a lot of data about the people that live in each house. The data is input into a Microsoft Access database, and then also imported into GIS software for special querying. I was asked to make a web site that displays all the data for each slum in a nice way, because at the moment the data just sits on someone’s computer and is not very easy to use.

For the computer geeks among my readers, I converted the database to MySQL and am using PHP to make dynamic pages and graphs from the data. I like this kind of programming because you can see the website develop in front of your eyes.

You can select which city you want to look at (we work in Pune, Sangli and Solapur), and then which slum specifically. Mostly I’ve been working in Indira Gharkul Miraj, in Sangli. Here is an example of the kind of data I put on the website. First are the graphs of the data. On the left are the religion and caste category for each household in the slum, and on the right are some of the assets people own (click on the image to see it better, sorry the one on the right is cut off):



The caste categories are basically groups of castes. For example the Denotified Tribes (DT) are a group of castes that was identified by the government in 1871 as ‘criminal tribes’, and the Scheduled Caste (SC) is a group of castes explicitly recognized by the constitution (I think SC gets a kind of affirmative action or positive discrimination, and is also know as ‘untouchables’). Both of these groups contain lower castes that you often find in the slums. And the assets on the right really show you the level of poverty that we are talking about. Only one house out of the 319 slum structures (259 of which are occupied houses for which a survey was completed) has a refrigerator, and less that 20% own a fan to keep cool.

In addition to looking at the raw data, we can produce spatial queries using the GIS software, and a jpg will be put on the web with each of the graphs above. For example, here is the religion for each house in the slum (left), and just to show something different, the sex of the head of the household for each house on the right (click on the image to see it bigger):

Some of the structures where no survey was completed are shops, toilet blocks, temples, and empty/abandoned/locked houses. Together, the graphs and the GIS queries give a good visual impression of what is going on in a particular slum. Other data we collect includes electricity, water, waste disposal, sewage, income, occupation and education, all of which can be displayed as above.

Hopefully, once the data are available on a website, it will be easier for Shelter Associates and the local governments to analyze slums and make improvements to the living conditions there.

Week 9 German Bakery

After the Ganesh Festival on 3 September, we didn’t have to go in to work until noon the next day. Jenny had to get up at 5am to go to Sangli with our boss Pratima, while Susan and I slept in. We decided to go for a relaxing brunch at the German Bakery, which was the subject of a guest blog post by Chris Taylor a couple weeks ago. To follow this up, I’ll start with a photo of Rama in his maroon Osho robe:

The story continues at brunch yesterday morning. Susan and I ordered food and sat down alone at the bench along the wall. Unfortunately, we sat down right across from creepy guy with the headphones and creepy guy with the trousers, who we found out are called John and Michael. They decided to talk to us and started of by laughing at us a bit, but we didn’t really understand what was going on. Then we found out that creepy guy with the trousers is from Iran and is here studying nuclear physics at Pune University. Sounds harmless enough until he told us that he was going to make nuclear bombs and find out where we live so that he can blow us up. At this point I wanted to run away, but our food had just arrived and we were hungry. Our conversation continued in a slightly more normal fashion; we talked about what we were doing here and what we studied back home. Then the news came out that I just finished my PhD and that I’m only 26, at which point creepy guy with the trousers said I was really smart and asked me to marry him! (He’s 29 and is finishing his Bachelors in a year, so I think he was impressed.) I said no thank you. He continued by saying we could have a lot of fun together, particularly in his bedroom. He plays in a band with the creepy guy with the headphones, and he invited us over to listen to his music in the evening with all the German girls who come over every night. I think we’re gonna pass on that proposition too.

Week 9 Ganesh Chaturthi

Yesterday, 3 September, was the 11th day of Ganesh Chaturthi. After having a Gensha idol in your house for 11 days, it was time to submerge him in the river. I got a little one in our flat, and tried to offer him fruit and sweets during the whole festival:

Akshay and Mohit, two of our local Indian friends, came with us to the river. I am really glad that they helped us, because otherwise we wouldn’t have been sure about what to do. And they brought more sweets for our Ganesha. As soon as we left the flat it started to rain, so I think Ganesha was happy with us.

So we went to the river and found a guy who would take our Ganesha into the river and submerge him. First though, you have to pray for him with a candle, then you crack the coconut and pour the milk on him, and finally you eat the sweets (yum). Our Ganesha got prayed for together with a much bigger idol (the little one on the plate is mine):

Then it’s time to go swimming. The river is so dirty and cold, I feel bad for all the guys who do it; they get paid for each one they take out though, so hopefully they make a bit of money in the process. Ganesha gets submerged three times, and on the third time he is let go to sink to the bottom. The guy brings back some mud from the bottom of the river, which you have to keep until next year when Ganesha comes again. Here you can see our little Ganesha being held up by the guy with the white bandana on his head, just before being submerged; there are lots of other idols being submerged around him too.

One of the best parts of the Ganesh Festival is all the sweets. Everyone bring sweets, many of them home-made, like modak and shev bundi, and you pass them out to all the other people around you. I think maybe because we are white, everyone wanted to give us their sweets so we got to try so many good things. Another great part of the festival is all the music, dancing and throwing powder paint! We got completely covered. I felt like a pink smurf.

I’m really glad we participated in the Ganesh Festival. It’s one of the most fun things we’ve done in India so far.

Week 8, Trip to Aurangabad

Last weekend, Jenny, Susan and I went on a trip to Aurangabad. We left on Friday (28 Aug) afternoon, and the bus took about 5 hours to get there. We stayed at the Hotel Shree Maya, which was ok; there were quite a few bugs crawling around the place. My mom asked me if it was a Maharashtrian hotel or a Western hotel, and it was somewhere in between. This is exemplified by the toilet in our room, which was a little bit Western (left) and a little bit Indian (right):

On Saturday we went to Ajanta caves. These were another 3 hour bus ride from Aurangabad, but it was well worth the journey. There are about 30 Buddhist caves carved into the walls of a gorge. You can see them in the background here:

Each of the caves contains amazing carvings and paintings all around the walls and columns and the ceiling. It’s hard to describe how detailed and elaborate it all is. My favorite part was the large Buddha that is looking right at you from the very back of the cave when you walk in. Every cave I walked into left me in awe, and I wanted to take a million photos. The photos don’t show what it’s really like there.

Cave 2	Cave 19

Cave 26
After the caves we walked back through a row of shops to the bus. This experience ruined the day a little. The shop keepers were following us around yelling “Yes Madam”, “What do you want?”, “Come look in my shop”, “Looking is free”. At one point the three of us had a crowd of over 10 shop keepers following us and trying to get us to buy souvenirs from their shop. I understand that they are just trying to make a living, but I felt so crowded that I couldn’t look at the contents of the shops properly, and so annoyed that I didn’t want to give them any money! It really makes me miss the significantly less aggressive shop workers in the west.

On Sunday we hired a rickshaw driver, Nasir, for the day. First he helped us get bus tickets back to Pune for that evening, and got us each a 20 rupee discount. Then he took us to Ellora Caves, which are only about an hour from Aurangabad. We made a quick photo stop at Daulatabad Fort, which we didn’t have time to visit. I thought that overall these caves were not as impressive as Ajanta. The caves at Ellora are split into three groups: Jain, Buddhist and Hindu. The Jain caves had some beautiful carvings. Here, Susan and I are on one of the balconies:

The Buddhist caves were similar to, but not as nice as, the caves at Ajanta. The Hindu caves were a bit plain, except for cave 16, which is HUGE! It’s not even really a cave – it’s a full sized temple carved into the side of a mountain. When you go through some of the other caves you start to forget that they were all carved out of a solid piece of rock, but in this one you feel like you are in the bottom of a quarry that has been turned into a temple. Here you can see the rock cliff around the left side of the photo, and the multi-story temple in the middle:


We took the bus home again on Sunday night, and were exhausted from all the traveling and walking we had done over the weekend. We had a great time.

More photos are coming on facebook for those who are interested.