A Taste of South India

For the past year, Phil and I have been discussing the possibility of having him come here to visit for his annual vacation. A few weeks ago Phil those plans finally turned into reality and he arrived in Mumbai where I met him at the airport. We spent two days in Pune before heading down south to the state of Kerala to meet my friends from Pune to experience the backwaters.

Our Eco-Friendly Boat

The sun felt much warmer on the skin compared to Pune, possible because the pollution in the air wasn't as bad. The state overall was much cleaner compared to Pune, and although I saw a very small portion of the state, Kochi was very developed and had a very interesting vibe. The atmosphere was noticeably more laid back compared to many cities I have visited so far in India. We ended up spending only one night in Kochi before leaving for our backwater tour which was a really interesting experience. I wouldn't want to do it for several days in a row, but our tour was only one day and one night, which was the perfect amount of time to sit on the boat and watch the world go by. We made the excellent choice of doing an environmentally friendly tour, which meant our boat had no motor and there was complete silence. We ate fantastic meals on the boat and spent a great night outdoors sleeping in mosquito nets with the wind blowing across the lake. I ended up however waking up with huge swollen bug bites on my back as I had been apparently massacred by mosquitoes the day before.

Backwater Canal

Attempting to Steer the boat

Phil and I decided to head out to Tamil Nadu the following day. We decided to check out a hill station called "Ooty", but unfortunately a cyclone hit most of the state and we were trapped up in the mountains in thick cloud, cold weather, and heavy rain for the better part of three days. I was extremely unprepared for this weather, having brought only a few t shirts and shorts with me, and no shoes. However, the drive up the mountain roads to Ooty was one that I wont soon forget, amazing views and the colours were some of the most vivid I have seen so far since arriving last July.

Exploring Ooty

After three days in the cold we took an overnight train to meet Julie, Victoria and Anjali in Pondicherry, a coastal city that was once a former French colony. After spending three days there, it almost felt as if we had travelled to a European country, with french being spoken everywhere, the laid back atmosphere and clean streets in the French quarter of the city. We all joked that it was only once we crossed the canal (more like an open sewer) from the French quarter to the Indian part of town that you could start to feel like you were back in India. In general we spend the three days eating, wondering around and relaxing on the rooftop of our guesthouse that overlooked the bay of bengal. We rented scooters one day and travelled 15km to the town of Auroville, which was extremely beautiful, located in the forest just outside the city. The idea of Auroville is a universal community where nationalities do not matter, and every member lives in harmony and peace, united. While the idea really seemed interesting to me, the actual place itself was really strange in my opinion, and rubbed me the wrong way. The center of the town has a huge dome of sorts with a huge diamond in side which none of us could really understand. I'm glad I went to see, but I won't be moving anytime soon!

This trip had a very distinct feeling that was quite different than the other journey's so far in India. While every area of the country is quite different, I felt the biggest change from what I have come to know in Maharashtra was in Kerala & TN. The cleanliness of the cities, along with the laid back atmosphere of the coastal regions was a nice change. Having Phil here was extremely fun, and it will be great to share the experience with him and I'm sure we will be re-living our trip for the years to come. 

View from the rooftop

Coast of the Bay of Bengal

A Change of Scenery

This past week has been an incredible roller coaster ride of emotions and  experiences. The semester ended quite suddenly and all of the OMG crew suddenly found ourselves saying goodbye as we all disperse in different directions for the next little while. It wasn't until the few minutes after the last two people left the flat that it hit me hard that I would be on my own for the next 2 weeks exploring the country and for the first time traveling without friends.

I left Pune on a 15 hour bus ride to Nagpur. My first few days in Nagpur were really tough mentally. The city is much smaller than Pune, but I don't think many foreigners come here so I was the centre of a large amount of attention at any time I was walking down the street. The city is still quite developed but poverty is still very apparent especially in the old part of the city. It took me a few days to finally get used to being on my own again. Traveling solo can be an extremely rewarding experience, but the low days can be really difficult.

The reason for coming to Nagpur as I mentioned in a previous post was to volunteer with a local NGO here that sponsors roughly 800 children and provides diabetic care to children who otherwise could not afford it. I was working for a professor last year who sponsors one of the kids in the photos below. He is also conducting some important research on diabetes management in a resource poor context. Families of the children are being interviewed here and the hope is to use this research as a basis to understand if their management practices in a resource poor setting are making a positive impact in the health of children. If the results are positive, hopefully initiatives similar to this one can be developed in other areas of India and also in countries around the world. I am here to help with the collection of data and also to help with organizing a database for all the kids and sponsors. The NGO here is doing fantastic work and is very inspiring to see the difference they are making to the lives of many children.

I timed my visit here to ensure I was here for the day where the children that are sponsored come in for their insulin and to be interviewed by the staff here. I got to meet over 30 children and their families as well and to get some insight into the problems they are facing and how the NGO is helping. The first child that came in was having health problems because he wasn't taking his insulin regularly. The reason was not because of access but rather because if he takes it at school the boys tease him and basically don't invite him to eat lunch or play with them. It was really difficult to see because you could tell how the stigma of Diabetes was affecting this little boys life and his confidence.

Another boy came in, and I thought he was 8 or 9, but he was actually 20. Because of malnutrition and since he did not have access to insulin as a child, his growth was stunted and now he faces severe challenges in society with his appearance.
However, there were many kids that came in that were in extremely good health, and succeeding in school in large part because of their ability to get insulin for free at the clinic, and because they come in for check ups 4 times a year. The staff here really is amazing, not only are they providing the insulin, but they use these interview days to try and promote education for their children rather than keeping their daughters at home to clean and cook, because the parents will not always be there to support them. Also, having the parents all come in on the same day allows the staff to show parents that other children are succeeding, getting married, and living normal lives despite having T1D, and that their children can succeed as well.

Today is National Diabetes Day, and the NGO held an event for all families that are part of the program. I ended up being a special guest at the event alongside Andrea, an adventure cyclist from Switzerland who biked from Europe to India and is raising money for Diabetes. It was an incredible evening and getting to meet and play with a bunch of the kids was an unforgettable experience. Many of the children were extremely adorable, and I ended up practicing how to write our names in Marathi and English, which basically meant them laughing at my horrible attempts to write my name in Marathi.

On the weekend I flew to Delhi to write exams for the foreign service. Being in Delhi was almost like a dream. It was completely different than the cities I have visited over the last few months in the South, mostly because I had to stay in one of the nicer areas near the Embassies where my exam was held. Taking the metro and wandering the streets near Connaught place in New Delhi made me feel like I was in Europe rather than India. But every few minutes or so I would be brought back to reality with men asking to be my friend and in general trying to harass me in some way. Overall, even though it was a quick trip to Delhi, it was great to see new things and explore a different city and to get a taste for the North where I will be spending most of December traveling with Erin.

At the clinic

Andrea, Director of the NGO, Me

Teaching me Marathi

Rock stars!

Celebrating Diwali

Last week I was extremely fortunate to be able to take part in and experience Diwali. Diwali, also known as the festival of lights (you should be able to see why from the pictures) is the biggest Hindu festival of the year and something I was looking forward to since last winter when I decided to come here for the fall term. The festival did not disappoint! Here are some of my experiences during Diwali.

Lights & Explosives

- The city literally erupted in firecrackers for more or less 4 straight days, and when the sun went down it was a non stop show up until around 5am the next day! The city smelled like one big pile of gunpowder and was extremely hazy. 

- Almost every house was beautifully decorated with lights and some with bright lanterns and Rangoli art at their doorsteps. We were lucky enough to have Nilo come and design Rangoli on our front door.

Family

- Unlike many of the other festivals that I've seen so far which were centered around loud music and dancing in the street with huge stages and strobe lights, Diwali was really nice because every night we would walk down some of the side streets near our flat and see families hanging out around and coming to greet us in the street and shake our hand to say Happy Diwali. 

- A couple of friends that I have met since being here brought over some sweets (Indian candies) as a gift for Diwali which is tradition when visiting someone's house.

- Walking at night and just watching families designing Rangoli or sitting in front of their front door chatting and spending time together was something I looked forward to every night

Energy & Atmosphere

- Walking down the street you could feel like excitement, especially with the kids who were in absolute heaven. What kind of kid wouldn't love a festival centered around sweets and blowing things up? 

- We went to buy the ridiculous amount of firecrackers with Amman and his cousin. It was really great to see how excited they were and kept asking us excessively "You come tonight to get us right? We must light the cracker together!" It was adorable!

Danger

- Total number of bikes/cars almost destroyed = 2, total number of houses almost blown up = 1. Each time the "rocket bomb" was the culprit. The first time the rocket ignited uncontrollably into the street there were two motorbikes waiting, and it exploded right in front of them, they seemed surprisingly calm despite the fact that it came so close.

- A few days before Diwali, people were already lighting off crackers in the streets, so myself and another Canadian went out join. The first cracker we lit up literally exploded in his hands, it was a huge explosion. Looking back I'm not sure how he wasn't hurt more than a few cuts on his hands. I couldn't hear anything for 10-15 minutes and I had a huge light in my eye for a while as well. I would like to know how many people visit the hospital every Diwali because of firecracker related injuries!

Shopping for lights in Pune

Nilo designing doing Rangoli in front of our door

Rangoli

Gokhale Nagar street behind our flat

Arsenal of fire crackers

The Diwali Crew

Lighting a firecracker on the side of Pashan Road

Group photo (notice massive cloud of smoke behind us!)

Life in Pune

I've been busy with final term assignments for the last 3 weeks or so because school is coming to an end in a few short weeks. Because of this I haven't left Pune for almost a month, since returning from Leh, but I hope to change that next week for the Diwali festival. I've been writing down some observations, good and bad, and some moments that left me smiling, over the last few weeks and I thought I'd share.

1) Monsoon season is over, and the heat has been intense over the last 2-3 weeks. This has brought some intense thunderstorms which have been amazing to watch. Pune is sort of in a valley so the thunder has a nice echo. The warm weather also means arriving at school extremely sweaty from the bike ride.
2) The end of the Monsoon has also opening my eyes to how sheltered I am in my residential area in Pune. Our main road is now most days filled with people selling every possible item imaginable, and at night the streets are full of people sleeping. The overpass in front of the campus has a community of about 50 or so people living underneath of it cooking and setting up shelter. Leaving campus and seeing this immediately is such a stark contrast.
3) Riding my bicycle around Pune is STILL one of my favourite things to do. Especially when a bus passes me that is full of people and children hanging out the doors yelling Baba or Hello Hello trying to get my attention.
4) Booking a train ticket in India is quite the process. First you have to book months in advance on popular routes if you want to even have a shot at getting a confirmed seat. If you are like me and book only 3 weeks in advance, you get waitlisted and have to wait until the few days before to see if you get a seat or not.
5) I went to a tailor to get a custom made shirt last week, and it will cost $8 for both the fabric and the labour!
6) I am definitely immersed fully into daily life now, which is great because I feel comfortable and like it is part of home. However, the wonder and excitement that accompanied everything I saw the first month or so isn't as frequent. So when a cow stops traffic near our house, a dog comes into class during lecture to hang out, when I have to fight to stay ahead in line, or when I see a family of 5 on a bike, it doesn't seem so different. I am excited for Phil to be coming in one month, as I'm sure seeing all of these things through his eyes again will be tons of fun, and bring me back to my first few weeks here.
7) Everyday after class myself and a few other classmates head over to the canteen on campus for chai and some snacks. The man that runs the kitchen is straight out of a cartoon, and is quite the character. I often order ek (one) chai and teen (three) wada pao, which is basically deep fried mashed potato balls with spices inside served with bread, it is delicious and the ones on campus are not very greasy. The street food wada pao is dangerous though!

As for my plans for the next few months, I am off to Mumbai for 3-4 days next week to celebrate Diwali, likely stopping in Matheran after Mumbai before returning to Pune to finish off school. After that I travel to Nagpur to volunteer for one week, and then I pick up Phil in Mumbai for 2 weeks of traveling in Maharashtra and Kerala. Erin then comes to visit a week or so after, and our tentative plans are to visit Tamil Nadu, and parts of the North East of the country that is less explored. I am also really looking forward to showing her around Pune and sharing all of the things I have been experiencing these last few months with her. Should be an amazing few months ahead.

India Wins Again

Yesterday was just one of those days. Everything seemed to be going wrong, I was convinced the universe was out to get me! There is a saying I have heard from a few people that have travelled in India, and that saying never applied more than yesterday! "India Wins Again!"

The day started off with class at 9am, where I received my first exam grade. After the exam was over last week, I was very confident that I had scored at least 80%, there was no way that I would do poorly, I nailed every question. Turns out, my mark was 60%. Myself and some of the other exchange students here apparently cannot grasp how to write an India exam compared to Canada. It is somewhat frustrating to score so low after working so hard on studying for the exam.

On my bicycle ride home, the traffic was the most insane I have seen on SB road since arriving here. (the main road between the flat and the university) One rickshaw in particular I was ready to run off the road as he kept weaving in and out cutting me off, almost hitting me a few times. The majority of the time he was slightly in front of me, which meant I was choking down fumes for 30 min on the slow ride home.

Ego slightly bruised, throat and eyes burning from the bike ride home, I arrived home in a state of slight panic, as I realized the conversion of these grades will most likely affect my chances at some government positions I applied to for this year's recruitment stream. It might not seem like such a big deal, but after spending 2 weeks pouring hours into essays and cover letters and resumes for these jobs I had hit somewhat of a breaking point that is would all be for not. But after a few emails back home to Carleton, the whole issue was clarified and as long as I get 55% here (which is actually a decent grade) I will be fine! Crisis avoided!

I spent the day relaxing at home reading an amazing book called Persepolis. India loves it's festivals and celebrations, which means our neighborhood for the better part of each month sounds like the inside of a club playing terrible techno music (the fireworks are nice though!) So for 4 hours last night, like the other nights this week the music blared and there was no refuge from it! I've had a few people in Pune tell me they weren't a big fan of all the festivals, at first I didn't understand how this could be, but I'm quickly realizing why someone would not enjoy it year after year!

All that being said, I finished off the day on a very high note, with Julie and I successfully using Parvin's pressure cooker and making an amazing Chole Masala. (yay for a small victory!!) I knew it was good when I looked over and saw Aisha, Parvin's 3 years old niece, licking the plate clean :-)

To The Roof Of The World

My long awaited return to the Himalayas finally arrived last week when our plane touched down in Leh. This part of the Himalayas however, was extremely different compared to Nepal, where I spent some time hiking a few years back. The landscape was extremely arid and the conditions much more harsh. Anjali, Julie, and myself flew in to Leh last Friday from Delhi, and because of the extreme change in altitude (going from 560m in Pune to 3500m above sea level), we spent the day sleeping and walking around the bazaar and exploring the town trying not to exert ourselves too much. Leh itself is quite touristy, but we ended up arriving at the end of the tourist season as the winter was starting to arrive. This meant that the town wasn't overcrowded with tourists, and it often felt like we had the entire place to ourselves in the mountains.

After our first day, we all felt acclimatized, and we took a local bus to a nearby town called Thikse. After walking around asking locals where to find the bus (none of the buses have signs) we found the right bus and waited until it was as full as possible to finally leave to Thikse. Once we arrived we ended hiking up to the main attraction, the Thikse Gompa. It was an amazing view from the top, with Buddhist monks meditating throughout the monastery. This was one of the first times I could feel the effects of the altitude. Climbing even two steps left me out of breath most of the way up, it was a great feeling to push my body in this way for the first time, and the reward at the top was an amazing view. Afterwards, we decided to walk 5km to a nearby village called Shey, which had an amazing ruined palace. We hiked to the top and had another amazing view of the valley, and could even see the Thikse Gompa in the distance.

Thikse Gompa

More views from Thikse

View on the way up to Thikse Gompa

The highlight of the trip, was our third day when we went up the highest motorable road in the world to Khardung-La. After asking around Leh how to get up this road, I found out it was possible to bike down from the top on the road, I couldn't turn that opportunity! It ended up being one of the coolest things I have ever done. The combination of the extreme altitude, rough roads, incredible views, and that I was bombing down these roads on a bicycle was unreal. Many times when we reached a flat part on the road I was stand up as high as I could on the bike and it literally felt like I was flying through the mountains. It was an unreal feeling that I will never forget.  Before the bike ride down, when we were at the top, I tried to climb a little bit higher, just to say I tried to climb at such a high altitude, but it was extremely difficult. Every step upwards was a challenge, trying to step on moving rocks, in snow up to my knees, and also the fact that I was having trouble breathing and things were getting a little blurry. Probably for the best, a military officer told me and another foreigner that we weren't allowed and we had to stop and head back down. Regardless it felt pretty amazing to be standing at the top of the highest road in the world.

Near The Top of Khardung-La

The final day in Leh we woke up at 4:30am to hike up the the Shanti Stupa, 500 steps to the top, to watch the sunrise. We had the entire stupa to ourselves while watching the mountains light up from the sun. After a nap, I spent the rest of the day hiking up through the narrow winding streets of Leg to the hills surrounding Leh, and ended up finding a quiet area on a rock at the top of the highest point in Leh, away from any other tourist. I spent most of the afternoon there, reading and then watched the sunset.

Leh Palace & Gompa

Hiking Up to the Palace

Mapping It Up

A few people have been asking where exactly the places I have been posting about are located in comparison to Pune. I thought it would be fun to try and map out on Google the places I have been exploring.

View Places Visited in a larger map
As I was writing up this post I can across my first post from the week before leaving Canada. I made a list of a few things I wanted to experience during my semester in Pune. I remember typing the list up in our flat back in Ottawa, it is amazing that only 7 weeks later I have accomplished most things on that list. Hampi, Leh, Matheran and other nearby hill stations have all been visited, FRO registration is behind me finally with no late fees paid, and I have eaten almost every veg Punjabi dish available I am sure of it, along with a bunch of South India dishes as well. Still have to do a 20 hour train ride, although after the 20 hour journey to Hampi it seems much less appealing!

Hope all is well with everyone back home!