Carol’s India Blog

 My last entry from India – I think. I left Koraput with tears and promises to continue to work for the organisation and return next year! My work colleagues gave me a lovely present and the two new volunteers who have been staying with me for a few days in my damp house, cooked a meal, Ali brought some beers and a Bacardi so we had a farewell drink, as I never drink alcohol here it seemed to go straight to my head! 

The train journey to Kolkata was to take 24 hours leaving at 6.45 am,  and I decided to spend a night in Kolkata so I could see the city and buy some presents, unless you want vegetables, rice of plastic buckets  there is nothing to buy in Koraput.  When I woke up on the train next morning I expected to be in Kolkata but we weren’t there so I surmised the train must be running late.  Strange that the man sleeping next to me had told me he would be ‘alighting the train at Tata at 1.30am’ and it was 7am and he was still there! Around about 8.30 someone told me that the train was running at least 10 hours late – maybe more!! The naxalites (the extremist Marxists or Maoists or CP  – they go by various names in the press but the people call them naxalites) had blown up a station and part of the line in orissa during the night and the railway system was in chaos. Just as well I decided to spend the night in Kolkata otherwise I would have been stuck in Koraput and missed my flight. There was no food or water on the train and as I had drank all my water and eaten the poori and potato dish Luna made me for the journey I was beginning to worry.  We stopped for over an hour in the middle of the countryside and, never ones to miss a commercial opportunity, people appeared from nowhere selling snacks and water, but it was not packaged water they were just filling up bottles, so I went without. The last thing I wanted was to be ill on that train!

We eventually arrived in Kolkata over 13 hours late, and because there was no space for the train to pull in at the main station (Howarth) we stopped at a small station further out. There were no coolies to carry my bags and no taxis! The only way to get out of the station seemed to be to cross the line – almost impossible with a suitcase of wheels, a large heavy bag, laptop case and 2 other small bags. I t was very dark and after 37 hours on the rain and only a bag of cashew nuts to eat all day I was ready for giving up and lying down on the track – but as usual lovely Indians came to my rescue. A very nice man carried my bags across the track and him and asked his driver o take me to my hotel, on the way we did the tour of Kolkata by night! This man and his colleague worked for a large company  (engineering/robotics company) based in south Wales, so they know Cardiff areas very well. Sometimes people’s kindness is embarrassing they want to do so much for you and other times (as in the market) they just want to rip you off and charge you 6 times as much as Indians will pay. One thing I have learnt living here is that human being are the same wherever you go (same emotions, some honest some dishonest, some you just seem to click with and others are hard work) The differences we show are shaped by our culture and our upbringing, and it’s almost impossible to leave it behind. Maybe the intrepid travellers amongst you knew that anyway!  I will certainly be much more understanding of people from other cultures and if I meet anyone who is living away from their homeland I will be much more welcoming ‘cos I know how lonely it can be.  Can’t wait to see my family and friends and the hills of home!

Over and out from India.

My time here is almost over because I have decided not to return for my final 6 weeks after the wedding. I will be very sorry to leave and will miss the people very much. They are completely eccentric, drive you mad sometimes but very endearing. There are so many characters and its impossible to describe them, you would have to experience them! For example there is the man in the orange boiler suit and old parka who follows me about the market every time I go there, he is very tall (unusual here) looks mad and keeps asking the traders what I am buying, then as suddenly as he appeared he disappears! And there’s the little man who does my ironing in his tiny wooden hut – just big enough for a table. He fills his large iron up with hot embers – no electricity required – and everything is beautifully ironed for 3 rupees per item (that around 5 pence) He is always smiling with his toothless grin and chats away to me in Oriya. He makes me feel good when I return home with my bag of beautifully ironed clothes. And then there is the deaf and dumb tailor, we communicate by drawings and he makes me clothes that fit without any measurements; however the style of women’s clothes is very baggy! Then last week I met the man who is employed to collect people’s rubbish, he blows a whistle and you rush out with your bag of rubbish which he dutifully puts into the cart. I was watching him other day and thought to myself ‘only in India’- he collects it and then goes along the road a bit and dumps it all by the side of the road and then collects another lot. But I could have dumped it there myself! Crazy or what! India must be the dirtiest country in the world; one of the volunteers described it as a vast theme park on poo ‘Come to India and visit the land of poo’

Tomorrow is a big festival in honour of Lord Ganesh, he is the one with the elephant head and my favourite. It’s him you worship before you start anything new as he is the remover of obstacles and makes things run smoothly. The atmosphere here is like Christmas with fairy lights and sparkly banners, tinsel and Ganesh statues everywhere. I bought some tinsel and glittery banners for my house so it looks very festive for my farewell party.  Hinduism is not just religion its a way of life and I just can’t imagine a group of guys in their 30s back home enjoying themselves as much as they have here this week – cutting up bits of polystyrene , gluing glitter and making little shrines ! They were all laughing and generally having a good time and not a drop of alcohol involved – see what I mean about endearing, you just can’t help but like them.

My old Oriya teacher, Prakash (the one who says we’ve been together in a previous life) called me last week; he had heard on the grapevine that I was heading home. What is this county like – he lives 300 Km away! Not only are they endearing but they must be the nosiest people in the world. Nothing can be kept secret, they know what you’ve had for breakfast. I had a man come up to me in the street and ask ‘Excuse me mam but what is in your bag’ What possible interest can the contents of my carrier bag be to anyone, and complete strangers have come up and asked me if I have fully recovered as their auntie, brother or granny saw me in hospital – and what was wrong with me anyway! Don’t come here if you want privacy! Prakash was heartbroken about me leaving so I told him I will come back and see him in Digapahandi – maybe I will who knows. But I will definitely come back to India and if everyone I have invited to the UK turns up I will be very busy!

I am now back in deepest Orissa. The train journey from Delhi to Koraput took over 39 hours and its taken me 2 days to stop swaying to the movement of a train! Food was included with the ticket – tiffin, dinner, breakfast, lunch, more tiffin and dinner again. Apart from breakfast, the usual omelette, every meal consisted of overcooked spicy vegetables, rice and dhal (Indian food is so boring)! On my return home I found my kitchen infested with ants, the horrible white ones that eat everything, so everything has been scrubbed or thrown out. The ants were not the worst of it, anything not sealed in plastic had a luxuriant growth of mould – my shoes, my books, my laptop bag etc – and I now have a some room mates, installed in a new birds nest in my bedroom. I would have cried if I had the energy, what on earth I didn’t stay in Delhi! But there is no point in thinking like that, it just makes you more miserable – you have to find something to give you some pleasure. Today when I came in from work I scrubbed the floor of my room with hot water and some nice smelling floor cleaner, then I spent some time making it more homely, I filled a couple of old plastic bottles with some warm water and put them in my bed to try and dry it out a bit and made some pancakes. I ate the pancakes with honey sitting under my net whilst watching one of my favourite films (Pride and Prejudice) Since I have recovered from my sickness I have decided I will be very sorry to leave. I love walking down the road to work every morning wearing my sunglasses, with all the kids running up to me and saying ‘ hello auntie’ My colleague and friend Luna is very funny and always laughing, she seems to think I am funny too so we have great relationship. Yep be sorry to leave!! I had to be at work early on Saturday as it was Independence Day and there was flag waving and some sort of celebration taking place. Children from the little school down the road sang the national anthem (even the tiny ones know the words as they sing it every day at school) and then our director raised the flag and we all had tiffin. The rest of the day was a holiday, but as I want to complete some work before I leave I stayed at the office. My boss asked me if I will continue to do some work for them from home – via e mail – not sure what he wants me to do but I said I’d be happy to. I really like the organisation and the people! Delhi was a welcome break and it was good to be at the VSO office and meet the new group of volunteers who have just arrived. I was able to help out with some of the training sessions. One of the new volunteers – from Glasgow – asked me if I had every done any walking as she was sure she had met me before. Turned out we had been up a hill as part of a group, a few years ago! Small world eh?

After my last entry I thought  had better let everyone know I am feeling much better! VSO shipped me off to Delhi for health checks and all those drugs/antibiotics they pumped into me at Koraput have done the trick and I have no passengers on board.  And some TLC and sleeping in a bed that’s not damp has taken 10 years off me!

It’s strange being back in Delhi, when I arrived in India last November I found it to be a manic, crazy and very Indian city. But after living in Digapahandi and then Koraput it seems quite sedate and cosmopolitan. No one stares at me. you can buy all sorts of western foods and there are lots of good restaurants.  The VSO volunteers in Delhi have a very different life to those of  us who live out in rural India – they go to bars, join the gym ,  go swimming and hang out with the ex-pat communities.  Those of us in rural India have to make our own entertainment and buying a new plastic bucket is about as good as it gets in terms of shopping experiences!  Must admit I am so glad I was sent to a rural place where I have led the life of a minor celeb! My India is so different from the tourist’s India and that of the Delhiites.  My only regret is that no one has been to visit me in Koraput and I have not been able to share the tribal villages and all the wonderful experiences with anyone.   

VSO have put me to work here in Delhi and yesterday I, and other volunteer, ran a session for the group of new voluneers on ‘Coping Strategies’ Hope we didn’t put them off!

However today I have to say goodbye to the comfortable bed, the TV and the warm shower at Sundeep’s guest house and make the 36 hour journey back to Koraput (2 nights on a train!)  Thus undoing all the good the visit has done me.  Oh well not long until I come home, but now I must dash and buy some toilet rolls for Ali’s birthday present – a rare treat in Koraput!