Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Temples and Load-shedding

On the weekend, a group of about seven of us volunteers took a day trip to the temples of Belur, Halebid and Shravanabelago. They are all about a thousand years old. The temples are covered in the most intricate array of soapstone carvings, with detail that is totally astonishing and magnificent. We had a lovely day and great company. Santoosh, a friend from the office accompanied us and provided us with great conversation, ranging from Australia's no uranium for India policy to baksheesh (bribe payments) and urban planning schemes and governance, and of course Michael Jackson... we watched Kannada films on the bus together, they are sooo corny but entertaining in their own way, even as the language shifts between Kannada, Hindi and English. However it still puzzles me why on buses right across Asia, and now I realise the sub-continent as well, that the volume has to be so so loud!!

At Janaagraha I have been involved in teaching the civic education to program to some students at a nearby school. They are in about year seven, all girls. They are a really lovely bunch of kids, eager to learn and even more eager to ask me questions about Australia... They have about sixty kids in the class, in a room about 4 x 20m (I am not good at estimating distance, so I might be wrong!). The children all wear their hair in two plaits with large ribbons (its universal, I didnt see a single exception on a scan of the room) and crowd onto benches, about five or five to a bench. There is no room to move about at all. We had a great time taking them through the concepts of civic governance and participation, explaining the government structure in India and talking about the problems they face in their neighbourhoods.

Then we moved onto Australia.... they wanted to know the lot! What do we eat - kangaroo, ewww!!! (funnily enough that is their word for Australians), who is my favourite Australian cricket player, luckily in the brief silence, one small girl answered for me - Gilchrist!!! Yes yes thats my favourite I said, which got a cheer. Favourite Indian cricket player?? I stumbled over that one, luckily enough I said it was the really good bowler one and the girls answered for me... Singh!!

The girls wanted to know all sorts of obscure things and had a great excitement to be speaking with a foreigner. I am still an object of curiosity on the streets of Bangalore. At first I found the staring quite intimidating, unsmiling as it was, but I hardly notice it anymore. In fact today, I stared too!; as a foreigner, with her long reddish blonde hair streaming out from under her helmet rode past us on her bike in Bangalore traffic this morning. As we toured the temple complexes we also found ourselves the object of a great deal of foreigner induced amusement. Sara, with her gorgeous shoulder length red hair and porcelain white skin, and I were requested to feature in many happy snaps of the temple visiting Indians, and our smiling faces will be grinning out from family albums across the State...(it gets a little irritating after a time, but how can you say no?)

Of course, the begging is always hard but it hasnt been too much, the actual grabbing and tugging on your arm is not done in many other parts of the world and can be a little disconcerting. The heart wrenching guilt never leaves you though as you step away from the old lady or small boy who is asking for food and into a restaurant, where the most delicious food in jean busting quantities is to be served...

The country side is quite dry as still we wait for rain. Now the city has rolling power shortages as they cope with lower water in the hydro-electric dams. At first the power shortages were although common, quite short and not too annoying! In fact, I thought they were quite quaint. But now that they roll through for six to eight hours a day (and fifteen in rural areas) they are really irritating. I am beginning to understand why there are generators at all the fancy shops and houses and the whirr as they snap on as the main snaps off is becoming an all too common feature. For us, it means no hot water at home and more time on the roof of the office waiting for the computers to switch back on..... oh and I now use the stairs to climb the five flights to the office for fear of becoming stuck in the lift during one of the sudden load-shedding events!!

1 comment:

Ann Lehmann said...

Hey Janine,

Mega interesting blog you've got going! Made me get travel pangs (or was that the baby kicking..)
Sounds like you're involved in a great project.

I've just email my friend Lovely Sharma asking if she's got friends in Bangalore I can hook you up with... 'tis a little world...

We swam at austi this morning 15.7 degrees. Took three laps before the pain stopped.

Enjoy!

Hugs,

Ann (n dan)