Slowly Breaking Through the Daylight

It's a sunny day today. It almost feels like a summer's day in good, ole California but I won't go that far. Normally, it would seem like any other day in April or May, but the problem is that it's actually July 1st. The monsoon was supposed to come in about a month ago. Personally, I'm happy. I hate rain. It's depressing and makes things seem worse than they are. But going down to the village, you can see the despair on the farmer's faces who depend on the rain for their crops. The fields are sowed and ready to go. Sadly, though, the rains aren't only affecting the farmers and their pockets. The inevitability of a food shortage exists as well as an electricity and water shortage. In a country where all of these resources are already lacking, the effects will be disastrous. The Indian government hopes to change that with what else but technology, a method called cloud seeding. Spray the clouds with chemicals! The Government of India has provided funding to get the project underway and help bring rain to drought-prone areas.

As someone who is generally (but not strictly) against tilting the natural balance of things, I'm a bit ambivalent. I feel the pain of the farmers, as it is palpable while walking through Pabal village, but if nature happens to be late, then why mess with that? There is undoubtedly going to be water wars as nations start using the technology to help their own people (it's already done in a bunch of different countries). The environmental effects have yet to be understood but how environmentally friendly do you think spraying chemicals in clouds could be? This does not bode well.

Today was Maha Shivratri which means that big boom boxes from every direction (literally) have been blasting music, prayer, speeches, or all three at sometime during the day. What is also means is that most religiously-inclined individuals decided to fast.

When I was growing up, I always saw my mom fast on certain day(s) of the week. She would abstain from eating food throughout the day, restricting herself to just water until very late at night, after the moon came out. I never truly understood it but respected it because I felt - and still do feel - that it takes a lot of discipline to put yourself through that. When I arrived in India though, the meaning of fasting took on a variety of meanings that I have yet to even slightly understand.

During my one month orientation back in August, another one of the fellows told me he was fasting throughout the day - all while we were both eating lunch. Later, I saw him at dinner and finally asked what the deal was with him eating while fasting. He told me some story that involved devotion and Lord Krishna but I felt it was more of an excuse than it was anything else (no offense to the person). Unfortunately, I don't fully remember the story but regardless, the point was that he was eating, quite well, when he was supposedly fasting.

Then I arrived in Pabal. Not to be at all offensive but fasting out here is just as odd as it was with my last encounter with the other fellow.

Today, all the students here ate breakfast because it was made of sorghum (called jowar in India). But over half of them canceled their lunch and dinner. I assumed the breakfast incident was perhaps something religious but it became more confusing as the day went on. Some staff members came up to me to let me know that they wouldn't be in my shop buying food - not that I really cared. Later, they were the major cash sales contributors for the day (considering our cash sales are mostly food on days where there are no visitors should tell you something).

The students were equally generous with buying food items from the shop as well. I gathered that they were allowed to eat some foods but no others. But it still made no sense because it seemed like they were indiscriminately picking food. Some of the boys went to the village to eat "Fasting Designated" food which was mostly dry bhel and other snack items. I was, and still am, utterly confused by what is meant by the term "fasting" out here.

To me, it looked like they gave into temptation halfway throughout the day and continued to half-ass their attempts at fasting.

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
- US President Barack Obama

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Visit the Indicorps website at http://www.indicorps.org to learn more about the fellowship and the Indicorps philosophy.
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You are also more than welcome to email me with any questions you have regarding the fellowship. Please feel free to spread the message to anyone who might be interested!

This past week, I felt as if I had re-emerged as part of Vigyan Ashram. I have been pretty social with all the students and staff, which has not usually been the case due to language and cultural barriers. But recently, things, for the most part, have been pretty enjoyable.

As part of my re-emergence, I was asked to give a talk about America (again). I gave a 40-slide presentation on America back in November, one that seemed to fill up all the seats (not that I’m bragging or anything). Even though I gave the presentation in English, and most do not understand English, I included many, many pictures to make it more understandable. And not to mention, I had a translator.

Nonetheless, I’ve come to realize most everyone did not give a hoot about it. So once again, I talked about America in a question-and-answer format to which my responses were received with shock and horror. Some examples of outrageous (and seemingly offensive) statements include:

• The fact that most children move away from home to go to college and some do not move back home after graduation; if they do, it’s for less than 5 - 6 years


• Picking a spouse is not done by parents but by the children themselves (i.e. we pick our own spouse)


• Farming is not done by individuals and is mostly owned by corporations


• Exams are not held after every grade (standard) and progress is based on grades earned (GPA)


• Entrance into colleges is based on more than GPA and SAT scores, such as extracurricular activities and admissions essays


• When parents get older, they are either placed in retirement homes, or move to areas that are inhabited by like-minded individuals, or are fully self-sufficient. Some do move in with their children but it's not common practice.

After answering every question, the group would start rumbling and discussing their disbelief that such a culture existed on the other side of the world. Some laughed, some shook their heads, some didn’t understand (once again, even though a translator was present).

The funny thing is that most of those facts, sans the educational related ones, are occurring in India's cities as well. It’s amazing to me that such a disconnect over cultures/traditions can occur within one country. But forget thinking on a country-wide scale - Pune (the nearest big city) is less than 50 miles away from here!

I didn’t realize it until recently but I’m able to understand gritty English a lot better than I originally expected. For the past few months, I’ve become totally accustomed to the English that has been used around here. Obviously, grammar is not of concern (nor is it for me when I speak in Marathi). And sometimes words are said incorrectly or the right word cannot be found, but in all of it I’ve been able to completely understand anyone who speaks to me.

As of this week, the Vigyan Ashram became a temporary home to a woman from England. She is a staff member at the University of Sussex and seems to be deeply involved with the organization ‘Engineers Without Borders.’ It has been her lifelong dream to visit India and she thought that combining her dream with her passions would be an ideal supplement to her overall experience. And thus she has come to stay here at the Ashram for three weeks, working on a project of her choice. With a mechanical engineering background, she has a lot she can contribute to the Ashram. Anyway, I’m veering off-topic.

I was giving her a tour of the Ashram and she seemed to immediately fall in love with the place. But while I was talking, I noticed how I had grown accustomed to not only speaking slower but "dumbing down" my English, sometimes taking a few more seconds to think of an easier word. After a while, I realized I was doing it and stopped. Being one of the few people she could converse with, she ended up talking to me a lot for the next couple hours.

I went back to my room afterwards and talked to some of the students and staff who know English. My brain had to adjust considerably to understand what was being communicated. I’m still surprised with how my comprehension level has shifted so much within a few hours. It felt as if they were speaking a completely different language. Can I claim that I’ve learnt another language? Hmmm...

Maybe I can’t considering that I’ve heard some of my fellow fellows speaking in English to their NGO colleagues and, let me tell you, they pour on that heavy Indian accent along with the broken English in an attempt to imitate the what they hear which (seemingly) eases the line of communication. I’d probably try the same if I could hold in the laughter that would commence afterwards.

Below are some of the labels I have created for some of the Gift Shop products. These are for the hair and massage oil bottles. Give me your thoughts/comments/suggestions/opinions/critiques/compliments/etc.

Happy New Year! 2009 is finally here. The staff here have made it their 'resolution' to speak as much English as they can - for the year. They've exhausted most of their vocabulary in the first 10 minutes of the day, so there is much to learn from here. It is too funny listening to them trying to talk - they're laughing, as well, along with the only staff-member who knows English. We'll see how long this lasts. I'm betting that by tomorrow it will be back to square one.

On the flip, the village did celebrate pretty loudly last night. I was a bit disappointed that none of my students were feeling festive enough to drag me to go down there. But I took comfort in the fact that the music was blasting and firecrackers were popping through the night.


The 1st also marks the opening of the gift shop I've been trying to start here at Vigyan Ashram. Students have been busy the past couple weeks making products to sell to the various visitors we get here on a daily basis. My office is now a half-office and half-gift shop. I made a small walkway with rocks on the side that leads into the gift shop (click on the pic at the left for a bigger view). I'll take more pictures once I collect and setup all the products today. Wish me luck!