Time moves incomprehensibly fast in India. Days ‘morph’ into the next and before you know it, you’re sat wracking your brains in an attempt to update this week’s blog.
It’s 8.50pm on Sunday the 24th of May. The day has been wet and clammy, resulting in a mêlée of mosquitoes - I have countless bites in inconceivable areas; the one on my pinkie toe is driving me friggin’ insane!!
We spent the evening at the cinema watching ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ (the new DreamWorks animation). On our way home we grabbed some food from one of the street stalls and I sampled goat meat (Indian mutton) for the first time – I can’t really see it catching on as one of my culinary staples.
This week has been relatively productive. Bex, Nyasha and I are collaborating as a group to devise an arts/drama piece at the PBK girls’ home in J.D Park. The basis of our work is centred on the annual monsoon. A range of materials have been used – scarves, D.I.Y rainmakers, pots and pans. Bex has caught some lovely images on camera of the girls utilizing the scarves to imitate the storm. On Thursday, the kids and I made wind mobiles, symbolic of the ‘brishtie’ (rain). I was also interested to discover the Indian’s version of ‘pitter patter’ is ‘rim jim’ (or something of that sort!)
I had my official meeting with Geeta, the director of Hope India, on Monday regarding the development of the Life Skills Restaurant in Panditya. All my ideas were well received, however it's unclear as to when they'll be implemented - the budget is being used elsewhere and funding may be hard pushed at the moment. I've been asked to redesign the menu thus the past couple of days have involved running off some prototype designs on photoshop. Lets hope they come into use!!
Most of the week was spent sourcing materials for various projects. Card designs have been paramount. As Bex and I are on a mission to improve the marketability of the work produced by the girls at the Life Skills Building, sold back in the UK and Ireland, we have re-evaluated certain areas, namely the greeting cards. In an attempt to incorporate more of an Indian flavour, we have introduced window cards, featuring some of the beautiful textiles already being created by the girls themselves. I am no expert but I reckon they'll sell like hot cakes!
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Week of Elections
The end is nigh - today the Indian general election results are announced! It has been a rather tumultuous couple of weeks. "Never before has an Indian election left so many people so confused about the final verdict," wrote political commentator Rajdeep Sardesai in an article headlined "Your guess is as good as mine". An uncertainty has taken hold and the nation seems uneasy. The skies have ruptured with thunder and lightening, much like an epic drum roll. I still have trouble grasping the dynamics of Indian politics. With so many political parties at hand, it's proven confusing. I understand however, that the race could ultimately lead to many different parties winning seats thus creating a coalition that lacks cohesion and unity. Let us hope and pray that whatever the outcome, India continues to work towards eradicating poverty.
Meanwhile, after numerous drafts our schedules are set and we look forward to beginning the forthcoming week. Tomorrow the greatly anticipated 'Wizard of Oz' play directed by Liam (from Cork) will premier at the boy's home. I am currently adding the final touches to the Lion headdress - as I haven't taken any measurements, I'm praying it fits!!
Nyasha (a fellow volunteer) and I had a rather impromtu evening last night. Reports of a gay Bengali hang out had led us to Olly's Bar on Park Street. As homosexuality seems to be buried under a mass of cultural taboos, we were intrigued to experience a part of the city's underground scene. The tatty tables and dated carpet did not emanate the city sleeker venue I'd envisaged. In fact the bar conveyed more of an old man's digs, full of overweight middle-aged Indians hunched over vodka and scotch. Upon arrival we were met with a mass of hostile stares and I think we instantly regretted our decision. Thankfully, a young Indian gentleman named Sam, who was sat with his girlfriend from London took pity on [us] two awkward white girls. It turned out Sam- a computer technician from Bangalore - and his girlfriend - a lingerie designer from London - were spending the night in Kolkata as part of their months travel across India. They had come to Olly's Bar with the predetermined belief that it would be open till the early hours (a novelty amongst pubs in Kolkata as they generally close at 11pm). However, as a result of the following day's election all late night bars were shutting early. In an attempt to salvage the night, Sam had organised to meet old friends he knew from Kolkata. Subsequently one of his friends had strong ties to Hope - he was an art dealer and had donated several paintings of the artist Wasim Kapoor, a renowned Indian contemporary painter, to auction at Hope's annual ball on the 31st of March. We eagerly accepted their invite back to Sam's art dealer friend's apartment (who's name I can't remember for the life of me). The flat, a 19th century colonial build with tall ceilings and spacious rooms, evoked a Rudyard Kippling type setting. Stacks of art canvasses were strewn throughout the apartment, interspersed with lavish Deccan antiques. A balcony of banana and guava shrubs enticed you to step outside and take in the Kolkata's night scape - stunning!! This only proves the most memorable nights are almost always unplanned.
Meanwhile, after numerous drafts our schedules are set and we look forward to beginning the forthcoming week. Tomorrow the greatly anticipated 'Wizard of Oz' play directed by Liam (from Cork) will premier at the boy's home. I am currently adding the final touches to the Lion headdress - as I haven't taken any measurements, I'm praying it fits!!
Nyasha (a fellow volunteer) and I had a rather impromtu evening last night. Reports of a gay Bengali hang out had led us to Olly's Bar on Park Street. As homosexuality seems to be buried under a mass of cultural taboos, we were intrigued to experience a part of the city's underground scene. The tatty tables and dated carpet did not emanate the city sleeker venue I'd envisaged. In fact the bar conveyed more of an old man's digs, full of overweight middle-aged Indians hunched over vodka and scotch. Upon arrival we were met with a mass of hostile stares and I think we instantly regretted our decision. Thankfully, a young Indian gentleman named Sam, who was sat with his girlfriend from London took pity on [us] two awkward white girls. It turned out Sam- a computer technician from Bangalore - and his girlfriend - a lingerie designer from London - were spending the night in Kolkata as part of their months travel across India. They had come to Olly's Bar with the predetermined belief that it would be open till the early hours (a novelty amongst pubs in Kolkata as they generally close at 11pm). However, as a result of the following day's election all late night bars were shutting early. In an attempt to salvage the night, Sam had organised to meet old friends he knew from Kolkata. Subsequently one of his friends had strong ties to Hope - he was an art dealer and had donated several paintings of the artist Wasim Kapoor, a renowned Indian contemporary painter, to auction at Hope's annual ball on the 31st of March. We eagerly accepted their invite back to Sam's art dealer friend's apartment (who's name I can't remember for the life of me). The flat, a 19th century colonial build with tall ceilings and spacious rooms, evoked a Rudyard Kippling type setting. Stacks of art canvasses were strewn throughout the apartment, interspersed with lavish Deccan antiques. A balcony of banana and guava shrubs enticed you to step outside and take in the Kolkata's night scape - stunning!! This only proves the most memorable nights are almost always unplanned.
Monday, 4 May 2009
First Week
Verging on the annual monsoon, it was 43 degrees when we arrived in Kolkata on Monday 27th April 2009. We quickly realised that such unforgiving heat was not to be reckoned with. Suddenly gluing a 2ltr bottle of water to your hand becomes essential, all daily beauty rituals subside (when make up melts off yer face as rapid as it takes to apply -why bother!) and are replaced with a rather potent coating of DEET and sun block. At first I found Kolkata to be an outwardly dirty, ugly city. Travel guides had depicted Kolkata as a bedlam of squalor and 'fume-belching' traffic jams and at first glance this seemed rather accurate. You're confronted with a mass of honking horns reverberating across the city, the streets are continually congested with jostling traffic; organised chaos seems to be a term most fitting!! Traffic lights are optional and 'right of way' is determined by oneself - no rules apply!!. You're harangued by beggars, stall merchants, bus conductors; you're barged and knocked; gawked at; you're bombarded with a multitude of smells (some bearable, some fowl). However, as a weeks past I have grown fond of Kolkata. The people are friendly and the city exudes a certain character that I find homely. Dispersed across the city among the dilapidated, dirty buildings you'll find trees ordained with fruit - likened with the romanticised images you'll have envisaged from books and Henri Rousseau tableaus. Strolling through some of the residential side streets will lead you into the depths of the Bengali soul - a hotchpotch of sitar music, incense infused Hindi shrines shrouded in freshly picked flowers and vibrant artwork ordaining door ways and corner stalls.
Our first week as Hope volunteers was spent travelling from many of the centres scattered across Kolkata. This initiation plan is to give each of us an idea of how best we can fit in and determine where our skills would be most beneficial. It has been very informative and at times deeply distressing. Our trip to Howrah's drop in centre on Monday was, I feel, our most harrowing experience. Howrah train station is a focal point for destitute children. There daily objective is to gather the left over newspapers, water bottles from the passengers disembarking from the long haul trains. A common pastime among most of the children involves jumping onto the passing trains and as many of the youths are hooked on solvents their impaired judgements heighten the risk of fatalities. Vishnu the house father of the Crisis Centre for Boys (the rehabilitation clinic set up primarily for the kids from Howrah who have seeked help) showed us the drop in centre, a refuge point available for those children who through choice, wish to continue living in poverty reluctant to succumb to a life of routine and rules. We were ushered into a small cramped hut of no less than 20 children who sat cross legged, anticipating our arrival. At 11 am some sat already intoxicated. However the overall attitude was extremely receptive - they gave us their names, then we gave them ours, they sang, then we sang. It was our most raw encounter yet. Our previous experiences had only entailed happy, healthy children with pristine smiles and neatly made beds – the kids who were living happily ever after. In contrast, we were confronted with the uncomfortable learning that these extremely vulnerable, deprived children did not necessarily want our help -they simply yearned a temporary sanctuary (or distraction)! Once a week I will be joining Bex to work with the children at Howrah. We will be offering a range of arts/drama games that we hope we can build on. I think our most daunting hurdle is to overcome their sheer distrust in people.
I will also be facilitating art work generated by children in the ‘homes’ and coaching centres. My goal is to provide children with a range of interactive art pieces that we can create as a group. I intend to exhibit some of the artwork at the Vocational Centre restaurant in Panditya (I have subsequently been asked to revamp the currently sterile interior and jumped at the chance to use it as an exhibition space) and ultimately, wish to incorporate work as part of our expo at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London in December. I’m looking forward to sourcing more art materials. Bex and I, spent the morning wading through Market Square. Our rather persistent, self appointed guide led us through the market humdrum. I practised some bartering and got myself some pigment powder, which I’ve been coveting ever since reading of the light festival. I’m off to buy some fabric tomorrow with one of the girls from the vocational centre – I do hope to find me some bargains!!!
Our first week as Hope volunteers was spent travelling from many of the centres scattered across Kolkata. This initiation plan is to give each of us an idea of how best we can fit in and determine where our skills would be most beneficial. It has been very informative and at times deeply distressing. Our trip to Howrah's drop in centre on Monday was, I feel, our most harrowing experience. Howrah train station is a focal point for destitute children. There daily objective is to gather the left over newspapers, water bottles from the passengers disembarking from the long haul trains. A common pastime among most of the children involves jumping onto the passing trains and as many of the youths are hooked on solvents their impaired judgements heighten the risk of fatalities. Vishnu the house father of the Crisis Centre for Boys (the rehabilitation clinic set up primarily for the kids from Howrah who have seeked help) showed us the drop in centre, a refuge point available for those children who through choice, wish to continue living in poverty reluctant to succumb to a life of routine and rules. We were ushered into a small cramped hut of no less than 20 children who sat cross legged, anticipating our arrival. At 11 am some sat already intoxicated. However the overall attitude was extremely receptive - they gave us their names, then we gave them ours, they sang, then we sang. It was our most raw encounter yet. Our previous experiences had only entailed happy, healthy children with pristine smiles and neatly made beds – the kids who were living happily ever after. In contrast, we were confronted with the uncomfortable learning that these extremely vulnerable, deprived children did not necessarily want our help -they simply yearned a temporary sanctuary (or distraction)! Once a week I will be joining Bex to work with the children at Howrah. We will be offering a range of arts/drama games that we hope we can build on. I think our most daunting hurdle is to overcome their sheer distrust in people.
I will also be facilitating art work generated by children in the ‘homes’ and coaching centres. My goal is to provide children with a range of interactive art pieces that we can create as a group. I intend to exhibit some of the artwork at the Vocational Centre restaurant in Panditya (I have subsequently been asked to revamp the currently sterile interior and jumped at the chance to use it as an exhibition space) and ultimately, wish to incorporate work as part of our expo at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London in December. I’m looking forward to sourcing more art materials. Bex and I, spent the morning wading through Market Square. Our rather persistent, self appointed guide led us through the market humdrum. I practised some bartering and got myself some pigment powder, which I’ve been coveting ever since reading of the light festival. I’m off to buy some fabric tomorrow with one of the girls from the vocational centre – I do hope to find me some bargains!!!
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