All aboard!: Train trip and Day 1 in Varanasi

After seeing Darjeeling Limited, how could I come to India and not take the train? Wednesday evening, after our drive from Agra, Jenn and I boarded the Swatantrta
Southern Express to Varanasi just after 8:30pm. We didn't really know what to expect of the night train and, additionally, since we made reservations within 48 hours of our train's departure, we were not able to book first class tickets as was suggested by some of our Indian friends. So, third tier it was. Prior to this trip I had very little knowledge of the train system; here in India, there are 8 different classes, ranging from air conditioned first class, which provides ample privacy, to unreserved seating, which basically consists of benches, the likes of which you can see on old city buses.
We were pleasantly surprised to find our car, though it had one long corridor which everyone uses for passage to the restroom, we, along with four others, had a little cubby to ourselves, with “beds” which folded down off the walls. We were provided sheets and pillows and as soon as I put my earplugs in, I was out. I slept through the night and awoke with only hour or so to kill before our train pulled into Varnasi.
We were met at the station by employees of our hotel, the Ganga Fuji home, a 5-story guest house tucked within the winding alleyways of the Old City. They put us in a pedicab, our bags at our feet, and we began, what felt like, a very, very long journey to the hotel. The sweat on our cyclists back soaked his shirt and it made me wish we took an auto rickshaw. We knew he wasn't happy and I really wanted to give him a big tip, and would have, had it not been for the hotel employees, with whom our driver began yelling when we arrived at our destination. Probably about the fat Americans and their luggage that dragged through potholes and mud in 90 degree heat – which must have been quite a sight for the locals. Not that I could tell, because they all stare at us anyway. For as many tourists that come through India, they still like to stare at and heckle...
Alas, we finally made it to the hotel and enjoyed a couple hours of quite time. We decided before even arriving in Varanasi that this would be the true vacation portion of our trip – we will sleep in, go to yoga classes, do some reading and just relax. There is not a whole lot going on in Varanasi – there are the ghats, the stairs leading down to the Ganges on which people bathe and wash clothes (and on certain ghats, perform cremation ceremonies, though we have not seen those yet), but the most interesting part about those are the people you find on them. This city is great for people-watching, but unfortunately for tourists, at least in my experience today, you get followed around by shop owners, so it doesn't seem like there is a ton of opportunity for quiet reflection. We will see how things go tomorrow when I make my way to the other ghats.
Right around sundown, we headed to the river to catch the aarti ceremony – a ritual performed by 7 Brahman, Hindu priests, during which they offer prayers to the river goddesses. You have the opportunity to buy 'lotus candles', little homemade candles in mini-muffin tins, placed in small recycled paper bowls and pink flowers, over which you make a wish, light and place in the river. It was so lovely to see all the tiny flames float out into the swirling river – definitely not something that can be captured by a camera, despite my effort. We watched the ceremony from wooden rowboats tethered to one another along the river bank. It was beautiful – they sang, played instruments, burned incense, sprinkled flower petals and lit large silver lamps.
Afterward, Jenn and I bought coconuts from the street and drank the water straight out of them. Not quite the same as my Zico from Trader Joe's but it was damn good! We got a little lost on the way back to the hotel on the dark, windy alleys, but found ourselves amidst a market catering to Indians, rather than tourists – shops with silk saris and sparkley bangles piled to the ceiling! We will definitely try to find that area again over the next couple days.
Off to bed – getting up before dawn to catch a riverboat ride and watch the sun rise over the Ganges!

Taj Mahal!

From just inside the main gate

We rolled into Agra yesterday afternoon. At the time, we thought our driver was just abiding by the local pollution restrictions - a number of years ago, restrictions on types of vehicles and general traffic were placed around Agra near the Taj because the pollution was causing discoloration to the marble, so generally speaking, the roads are closed to large cars. He dropped us at a checkpoint outside of the main part of the city around the Taj, and had us catch pedicabs in the pouring rain. We found out later that, had he paid the cop 50 rupees (about a dollar and change), he could have driven us to our hostel. So we, and our luggage, arrived soaking wet. Awesome. I began praying to the powers that be to allow us a clear day so we could really enjoy the Taj Mahal. Sure enough, I got my wish and we awoke at 5:30 this morning to a mostly clear sky.
The walk to the main gate from our hostel was under 10 minutes and the ticket ine was relatively short. I felt the same as I did as a child on the way to Disney World – this is one of those end-all, be-all moments in life that you always look forward to and never forget. Not to sound totally cliche, but I will tell you: the Taj Mahal is every bit as breathtaking as people say, and pictures don't do it justice. You could see it from the roof of our hostel, and it looks like a painting - so real it looks fake. Up close, it is even more incredible. The structure is not completely white as I had thought - the four symmetrical sides are inlaid with semi-precious stone in black, reds, yellows and blues.
The inlay work on the front of the Taj

Quick history: Shah Jahan, a Mughal emperor, began construction on the Taj Mahal in 1632, as a mausoleum for his third wife after she died giving birth to their 14th child (birth spacing, anyone?). Rumor has it that he was planning to build an identical structure in black marble on the opposite side of the river on which the Taj sits, but 1. black marble comes from Europe and at the time, it was too costly to import it, unlike white and other marbles which come from India, and 2. before the Taj was completed, Shah Jahan's son imprisoned him to take over the throne, locking him up in a prison cell about 2 km up the river. He was able to see the Taj from his cell, but was never allowed to see the completed inside. He is now buried with his beloved below the main floor of the Taj.
We had a free tour guide, provided by the India Archaeological Survey, and got professional photos done, as suggested by some friends. Under normal circumstances, there is no way I would ever hire someone to take my picture at a monument, but even at 6am, the crowds were growing and we knew that he would be able to move people out of the way, providing flawless photos; just me and the Taj!


The tour was good; not much that wasn't printed in Lonely Planet, but he was super patient with our incessant picture-taking, and even offered to take photos of us with our cameras. The really cool part of the tour was inside – he took a flashlight to show us how the marble and the inlaid stones glow. Real white marble is semi-translucent and you can see the light penetrate the stone about an inch deep (this is also a good test to tell if something is actually marble. Though this white marble comes from India, many local vendors try to pass off mini-Taj statues and other memorabilia made of soapstone as marble, and if you're not an expert, how could you tell?). Apparently, it is best to see the Taj under full moon light, which makes the whole main dome glow. As we learned when we got their, along with their no-shoes rule, no photography is allowed inside, so you will have to go see it for yourself!
After the tour, we split up for some quiet time and more picture-taking from different angles. The whole complex is completely walled-in and the Taj, as well as the symmetrical buildings which flank it – one a mosque and one a guest house, are surrounded by a park of indigenous trees, with stone benches underneath, providing ample opportunity to just stop and reflect. It really was a beautiful morning.

Thoughts on India thus far.

India has a way of taking you by surprise – you will expect one thing and it will throw you curve balls you never thought possible – amongst the chaos, the aggressive shop owner on the street will turn around two minutes later, offer you chai and tell you about his family; upon retreating to a quiet corner of a crowded monument when you just can't take it anymore, you will make an unexpected new friend and travel companion. The traffic, the noise, the masses upon masses of people have made me realize how sometimes, I take my lifestyle for granted. I am so used to walking where I need to go, taking life at my own pace, having personal time during which I can truly feel alone. Not here – regardless of how it looks on the surface, the undertow is strong and unrelenting. But it goes two ways. Just the same as it pulls you under, even if your first inclination is to resist, you can't help but feel the exhilaration of what will come next.
Despite having two weeks to go after my course finished, by the end, I just wanted to go home. I wanted to be done with being here. I can't blame it all on India; I have been running on empty since Spring finals and feel as though I have not had a moment to gather my thoughts. I figured summer would come, I only had three classes and my practicum; how hard could that be? HA! The classes and practicum took more out of me emotionally than academically or professionally, we had to move into a temporary living situation and I still had to prepare for this trip. Needless to say, this was a difficult summer and being in India is not exactly a vacation. But it is something new, and something very special.

Independence at last!

Happy Independence Day, India!! Today is day 3 in Jaipur, capital of the state of Rajastan, home of the Maharajahs of ancient India. I was in Delhi for the last four days of the Social Entrepreneurship course, for which I will back-post shortly, but wanted to play a little game of catch-up.

The program ended with more of a bang for me, personally, that I would have preferred... But as I have learned in the last three weeks, travel causes people to run the gamut of emotions, and in the end, it is probably best to just take your feelings in stride and not project them onto other people. I made the mistake of letting my emotions get the best of me in the wrong time and place, and am trying my best everyday not to let it affect the rest of my trip, when really, it made me want to say F- it all, and go home. Whether or not I will go home early is yet to be determined, and try to ask myself everyday, why am I here if not to learn?

I did learn that I never, ever, ever in a million years want to travel in a big group. Ever again. One, two, even three other people can be great traveling company, but a group of 20+, no thanks. It only breeds pettiness and immaturity, the likes of which I have not seen since high school and, frankly, I would have been happy to leave it there. I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say, I was happy to split from everyone on Friday, and start my independent travel.

Since then, after the most stressful road trip of my life (Indian traffic and driving is terrifying. NEVER in my life have I been so scared to ride in a motor vehicle! they swerve and honk and off-road - it's like real-life Mario Kart!), we have been roaming the busier-than-anticipated streets and sites of Jaipur. On day one, we saw the Amber Palace and fort, a lovely hilltop fortress built in the late 1500s, and had amazing thali (sort of the Rajastaini equivalent of tapas – little tastes of a bunch of dishes, but they give them to you all at once on a huge plate in tiny cups. Yum!). Day two began with a visit to the hill-top Monkey Temple and the Sun Temple, at which we were offered freshly opened pomegranate and had beautiful henna done on my hands, followed by a visit to some of the downtown Jaipur sites including Hawal Mahal, the “Wind Temple”, a 5-story temple with 1000 stained-glass windows, and Jantar Mantar, a walled park containing ancient astrological and astronomy tools, which are huge concrete structures, the size of houses – we are talking original contraptions here. The English translation of the explanation was a little rough, but for those who are into astronomy and astrology, particularly those into old school astronomy/astrology, I am sure it made a lot more sense. These devices are used to tell planetary, solar and lunar alignment and look more like something out of M.C. Escher or Alice in Wonderland than scientific tools.

Day 3 was spent shopping it up, first at FabIndia, a clothing company that works with a family cooperative and sells organic, ethically sourced hand block-printed garments. Absolutely beautiful. If we had those in the US, I would only shop there. Afterwards, we headed out to one of the street market to haggle with the not-so-nice salesmen, who always want to tell you that they will give something to you for the “best price” or “local Indian price”. Yeah.. we found out pretty quickly that they like to charge tourists, for trinkets and historical site entry alike, more than double the price they charge Indians (If you are lucky...). I am not one to complain about money, but the very obvious double standard is a little frustrating.

Along the way we made friends with Dana, an Israeli girl who is traveling alone for the year (!!!!). She was in China, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand and has been in India for almost a month. She is so lovely and made me miss Israel so much. Definitely need to get back there ASAP!

We are off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow, so (hopefully!) more updates from there!

Investing in India

Copied from my class blog:

After a heavy week of meeting with NGOs and the communities in which they work, today was a welcome change of pace. Ascending to the third floor of a not-particularly inviting building on a busy street, we arrived at Unlimited India's quiet, serenely lit office in nearby Bandra, but not before a short hold-up on the stairs because, due to office policy, everyone must remove their shoes before entering. The UnLtd India staff works barefoot, pouring over CNN.com or what must have been project proposals on their individual laptops, drinking tea and chatting to one another. We were offered coffee and tea and led up the red, cast iron spiral staircase to an open loft space, in which half of us sat on pillows on the floor.

Pooja Warier, co-founder and director of UnLtd, provided a short intro to the organization – UnLtd India is an NGO incubator and, by focusing on start-ups, UnLtd assists new NGOs financially as well as developmentally. After a rigorous application process, selected organizations are provided short-term (0-4 years) seed funding, opportunities for idea development, networking, project implementation, scaling of their project (moving it beyond a single community, if they do so choose), general advisory support and assistance through governmental bureaucratic processes (similar to gaining 501c3 status in the US). Fact: 3.1 million NGOs currently exist in India, however most newly established NGOs fail within their first year. UnLtd seeks to support people with a really good idea, and help to ensure they do not fall victim to the same fate.

This support comes in a variety of ways, whether it be in one-on-one meetings between a grantee and an UnLtd associate, who provide grantees a “magic mirror” to help them see possible futures depending on the steps they take in the development process, or simply spending time at the HUB, the space in which we had our meeting, which is meant to be an open, readily available space for grantees or, as Pooja said, “anyone with an idea,” to meet, or at more formally structured workshops, networking events or presentations.

Pooja and her team, Karen and Rosham, took us through the processes of how individuals go about applying to UnLtd funding and support, and the timeline thereafter. They gave wonderful examples of projects they fund, from an after school soccer program to decrease drop-out rates, to training of farmers in bee keeping and provision of bee boxes, to increase their farm's income, UnLtd truly has no limits on the kind of ideas they support and encourage.

We stayed put of the next two hours, and met with Acumen Fund, which supports enterprise through beginning stages, particularly those working on socially beneficial projects across India. Their philosophy and model is not unlike UnLtd India; investing in local NGOs and projects, promoting the consistent creation jobs and high-quality opportunities for social betterment. The projects they support are absolutely incredible, ranging in target populations and focus, from the low-cost women's health hospitals to clean water accessibility to local ambulance services. Like UnLtd, a major focus for the initiatives they support is scalability – expanding beyond a single community to the general population which could be positively impacted by such a project.

It was so interesting (and exceedingly anticlimactic) to hear that Acumen, an international NGO, with millions of dollars and a host of rockstar projects in the works, has very little in the way of impact evaluations to measure the efficacy of their investments. They admitted it as a major challenge, which is pretty disconcerting, as impact evaluation is such a major part of public health and development programming. This reminded me of a conversation we had as a group in Mumbai – Dr. Parrish brought up a conversation during which social entrepreneurship was questioned as the future of NGOs, or if it was just a passing fad. Of course, sustainability of projects and initiatives is key to their survival, and it makes sense that those which can self-sustain have the best chance of not only surviving, but making the most impact. However, if it can't be proved whether or not they are making an impact, how can a potential investor tell whether or not an investment in a certain project will be worth it? Am I, as a public health student, missing something when I ask whether or not it is difficult to gather at least benchmark data – such as the number of participants in a program or the number of materials distributed at the same point each year – to evaluate a project? Are they still doing good work, even if they don't have numbers to back up their work? All of these questions are essential to deciding whether social entrepreneurship is the way of the future, or will soon be a thing of the past.... and I am very interested in the impact all of the organizations and projects we have seen will make within their communities in the future.

Making an IMPACT

Friday, hands down, was my favorite day thus far. Our 7:30 departure time and 2+ hour bus ride was totally worth the first breath of fresh air I inhaled when we arrived at our first stop in the Thane district, a rural area north of Mumbai. Neelam, a mid-60's tiny spitfire of a woman from IMPACT India, lead our group and gave us a lovely overview of the organization's mission and activities – “Actions today to prevent disability tomorrow”, for IMPACT India means working with over 2 million people living in tribal populations, includes the Lifeline Express, the world's first train hospital. The train, painted in bright colors with flowers and rainbows, moves throughout the country year round providing services such as cataract and cleft palate surgery, and other basic medical procedures to rural populations who call it the Magic Train.

In addition to the Lifeline Express, IMPACT, in conjunction with the government, provides services within hostel schools, not unlike boarding schools, rural health clinics, and also had a mobile unit for eye exams and prescribing glasses.

On the way to Thane, Neelam described how IMPACT and their services got off the ground, and to the point at which they function today. It sounded like a story out of a public health fairytale. She made it sound so seamless – a disparity was recognized – the tribal communities and rural areas lacked access to basic health services, and so she and her team rallied the necessary troops and brought them what they needed. Voilá! Magic!

In reality, of course, I am sure it was not as easy as her rhetoric described. Blood, sweat and tears went into these initiatives, and it really shows. It is most apparent in the services provided exclusively for women. Physical health as well as social factors emphasize the importance of enrolling these rural children in hostel schools: they are provided high quality diets to curb anemia, and by providing the girls with an education and a place to learn and grow, child marriage is also curbed. By providing the mothers in the community with birthing services and breastfeeding support in the maternal and child health clinic, IMPACT is working to decrease maternal and infant mortality rates, as well as ensure a healthy start to the babies' lives. They made it look so easy, and I hope someday to be a part of an organization which makes such a significant IMPACT.

Day 3 – The other side of the tracks

With Vinod Shetty from ACORN India as our guide, we made our way through the industrial side of Dharavi, one of the largest slums in Mumbai, made famous by the film, Slumdog Millionaire. A large part of the Dharavi community's livelihood is what is called ragpicking, or scouring the piles of trash dumped near by for recyclables which can be cleaned, sorted and resold to companies seeking cheap materials. There is no real sense of occupational health awareness, never mind regulation – most workers were barefoot, and not one worker was wearing gloves or eye protection, even when operating the heavy machinery used to chop cardboard or plastics into tiny pieces. It was very muddy; we had to hop between stray bricks sticking out of the mud to traverse the paths between the buildings, some of which were 4 stories tall, many comprised of metal siding.

When I initially heard about Dharavi, after seeing Slumdog Millionaire and a documentary in class about Shetty and ACORN India's work in Dharavi, I learned that this community is largely comprised of migrant workers or others forced out of their communities for one reason or other. I was appalled to learn, not only about the water supply and sanitation issues, but that many do not even hold citizenship, do not have access to basic health services or educational opportunities for their children. “Where is the government?,” I demanded to know. It reminded me of pre- into industrial New York and Boston, and made me think of my own family, immigrants looking for work and opportunities. They would have been on the streets or forced to create makeshift shelters too, had it not been for the government housing projects to which they had been assigned. I was sympathetic, and am still – but its not so simple in Dharavi.

There is currently a ton of contention between the people of Dharavi and the government: the government sees this group and their community as a burden and an eyesore on prime real estate – sandwiched between two major sets of train tracks, in the middle of the city. Redevelopment projects have been suggested time and time again (Dharavi has been around for the better part of the last 70 years; its not a new phenomenon), but for one reason or other, just have not panned out. This is not just because the government or NGOs are not trying hard enough, but many in Dharavi simply don't see a need for change. They are largely self-sustaining – Dharavi is responsible for almost the entire recycling industry for the city, and business, so I have been told, is pretty good.

While speaking to the owner/manager (it was not clear, but he was definitely in charge) of a cardboard recycling operation I was informed that the operation makes about $10,000 a month – yeah, US dollars. Though many workers in this operations, and many like it, live in their workspace, they earn up to $400 a month – that's pretty good, considering there are people in this county living on less than $1 a day. Like all businesses in Dharavi, the whole operation runs under the table, is not registered by the government and thus, does not pay taxes. If the people of Dharavi were to agree to a redevelopment initiative, they would have to give up their work spaces, pay for a living space, and most likely have to legitimize (i.e. pay taxes on) their businesses. From that perspective, I can see why they prefer to keep the status quo.

Dharavi is not clean, healthy, or anywhere that people would prefer to spend their lives or raise a family, but to certain extent, I get it. I can understand why, in a community of people brought together by the commonality of the need to survive, they're doing a pretty good job at just that.