Ally’s Diary
WOHAA Trip to India
Our week in India was unlike any other trip. Stepping off the plane, it seemed as if we were being transported into another world. All our senses were engaged from the moment we left the airport. The glorious colours of the various saris were set against a backdrop of amazing bright flowers and colour washed houses. Chennai was vibrating with noise from every vehicle in the vicinity sounding its horn. The smells ranged from the ubiquitous glorious jasmine which women clip in their hair to the pungent odour of the fish being sold at street stalls. The heat folded down on us like a clammy blanket magically lifted by the air conditioning in our vehicle driven by the lovely Shanmorgum.
We never got tired of driving in India. There seems to be no concept of lanes or right of way. The drivers demonstrate remarkable courage and skill; seizing every tiny gap as cars, bikes, buses, buffalo drawn carts and wandering cows pass each other with only millimetres to spare.
Our first taste of proper Indian food was a delicious South Indian breakfast. Ragni led us through the menu consisting of vadas (deep fried doughnut), idli (soft rice and lentil cakes) and dosas (pancakes) served with a variety of chutneys and lentil and vegetable stew. Fortified, we set off for Puducherry’ fascinated by the changing visions of India flashing passed our windows. Rajni pointed out salt pans and we gazed at the little thatched house enclaves under the coconut trees.
Our rooms had a glorious view of the sea so we could watch the sparkling lights of the fishermen’s wooden boats bobbling up and down at night and wake up to watch them finishing off their catch in the early morning. As it cooled down, the empty beach fill up with families and stalls selling everything from tiny plates of fruit salad and roast corn on the cob to luminous balls which could be shot up high into the air with a catapult.
Our first stop was a temple. The door was guarded by a huge live Indian elephant. We bought bundles of grass to feed it and watched while others gave bananas and money. Inside, the temple was exquisite and we joined queues of people making their offering to the gods. From there we headed to the famous Aurobindo Ashram and sat for a while in the beautiful courtyard amongst the meditators. Our tour continued with two tuk-tuks (auto rickshaws) taking us to three of the biggest churches in Puducherry. They were amazing – full of brightly coloured statues and pictures of Mary and Baby Jesus and playing upbeat music which was a weird combination of Indian, Christian and Bollywood rhythm.
We then set off to the market to buy outfits to wear to all the functions Rajni had organised for us. After a crash course in saris and salwars, five Indian princesses emerged to get on with the serious business of accessory shopping. For a total of £3 we got all we needed – sparkling bracelets, jewelled necklaces and earring sets, jingly anklets, clips and an amazing selection of bindis.
Sunday morning saw us up bright and early for the opening of a factory which is doing its bit towards saving the planet by producing cloth bags for many of the main retail outlets in the UK. Again, this was unlike anything we had previously experienced. Musicians specially brought in from Kerala and beautifully clad, curtseying women lined the red carpet to welcome the guests. We were filmed and photographed as we swept up to our front row seats, hoping very much that we had taken in the skills required to “control” a sari and that they weren’t going to unravel around us. The British High Commissioner was the guest of honour and after he had cut the ribbon we were taken on a tour of the factory. I will never again take cheap garments for granted. The image of the rows of smiling seamstresses waving to us as they completed their quota of thousands of bags will stay with me forever. These, of course, are the lucky ones with excellent working conditions and a job lifting them out of the terrible poverty we saw so clearly everywhere we went.
The roof top banquet exposed us to another huge range of delicious Indian dishes and set us up for the most important event of the day – the ground breaking ceremony for the new Wings of Hope site! As we accompanied the British High Commissioner and his police escort to the piece of land, we felt privileged to be part of the start of such a big project. He planted the first tree to great cheers of encouragement but it seemed hard to imagine that in less than a year the land would be transformed into classrooms full of children.
Monday morning was a 5.30am start to miss the traffic into Chennai. We checked into our apartment, meeting the staff who looked after us so attentively for the whole of the week, and then set off for the school arriving in time to teach two lessons.
Our period spent at SS Educare was inspirational. The memory of the children we met will stay with us forever. The dedication of the staff and pupils was phenomenal. The children have so very little as they all come from poor backgrounds. The younger ones have no chairs but sit on the floor and pull low wooden desks over their knees. For the older children, the classroom doubles up as a dormitory with each child having a locker in which they keep their mattress and the few possessions they own.
The children were wild with excitement to have us there. They listened so attentively to our lessons and participated with so much enthusiasm that we did not want to leave. School ended with a meditation sung with such gusto that the sound vibrated all around the beautiful pink building.
That evening we went to an engagement ceremony. The smell was heavenly, with hundreds of flower chains hanging over the door and along the walls. We watched as the two families performed rituals and exchanged gifts. Rajni then took us for a delicious Indian dinner where we sampled many new dishes.
Tuesday commenced with assembly at the school. We introduced ourselves and gave some details of our lives in London. The children loved our singing and dance routine, clapping so enthusiastically that we felt truly blessed to be there. We then spent some time chatting to the children and teaching them how to high-five. Our lessons concentrated on various aspect of life in England, including food. It was quite overwhelming to have potato or cucumber being screamed at you by thirty hugely enthusiastic five year olds. We also covered famous sights and sounds of Britain showing pictures and playing recordings of places such as Big Ben. We all had huge fun with a lesson which used glitter to demonstrate the transmission of germs. Such was the children’s zealous application to the subject that we have left a lasting legacy of sparkly glitter all around the school.
Tuesday afternoon was one of the highlights of our trip. We attended a Mehndi ceremony and had henna designs drawn on our hands and feet. It was amazing to feel the cool liquid being spread across our palms into intricate designs with such skill. As we sat patiently waiting for the henna to dry, we watched mesmerising Indian dances and joined in games played by the guests.
Our luck continued with the next day being Lord Ganesha’s birthday. The city was full of life like models of the deity adorned with red paste. The most fantastic was an enormous statue made entirely of 27 different types of vegetables which weighed two tons and had taken 18 days to prepare.
Rajni’s family took us in so warmly and with great generosity invited us to the actual wedding ceremony on Thurdsay. It was incredibly beautiful and fascinating to watch the rituals such as the exchange of necklaces and burning of incense. The meal afterwards was our introduction to proper south Indian food eaten on a banana leaf. Many dishes are prepared and each put in a specifically designated place on the leaf by the rows of circulating waiters. We ate with our hands (as is the custom) much to the approbation of the other guests who were watching our messy attempts with amusement.
In the afternoon, we headed back to the school for the leaving assembly.
The children had prepared a beautiful performance for us. The little girls, dressed in glorious white fairy costumes, danced and sang. The bigger boys sang and chanted, their confident voices reverberating around the room. We handed over the books and posters we had brought to donate to the school and were hugely touched to each be given a gift.
Friday was a sightseeing day and started with a trip to Mahabalipuram with its ancient temples and rock carvings depicting everyday life in the seventh century Pallava kingdom. Sitting under the so called Krishna's Butter Ball (a huge, spherical monolith), we hoped it would not chose this moment to obey the laws of gravity. We then paddled in the warm water of the Bay of Bengal and watched the day trippers cantering along the beach in a more exciting version of Brighton’s pony rides.
Rajni fitted an amazing amount into our eight days. No school or family holiday could have given us the insight we gained into the culture and experience of the daily life and celebrations in India. However, the life changing aspect of our trip was definitely our interaction with the children at the school. We saw incredibly poverty in Chennai with pitifully thin people lying on the pavements and under bridges. Rather than becoming overwhelmed by the problem we realised that it was possible to make a huge difference. Each one of the children sponsored by Wings of Hope was being lifted out of poverty and given a chance to support his or her family when they grew up and move them out of the slums. Their smiling faces will stay with us as a permanent reminder that every single little bit helps!
