Hey Guys!
Sorry it has been awhile since I have last “blogged”, I have just been very busy here at Vishtar and also our Internet service tends to go out on a regular basis. Well a lot has happened since I last wrote such as we were given the opportunity to observe a India and Pakistan peace meeting, found a Pizza Hut in Bangalore, went to the Hare Krishna Temple, drove to a market in Bangalore, attended the St. Mary’s festival, met with a panel of women whom all are Vishtar staff to discuss women issues in India and also met with another panel compiled of a few of the Bandai girls to discuss their situation and the program that they are involved in at Vishtar. As you can see this is proof to my claim of how busy they keep us!
First, the Pakistan and India Peace meeting was really a fascinating experience. The meeting was about three to four hours long with dinner following the assembly, therefore it was a bit longer than us Americans anticipate meetings to last. However, I thought it was definitely worth it due to my ignorance on the details of this conflict. My favorite part of the meeting was when we divided into small groups and listened to a speaker and had a chance to discuss afterwards. The group I was involved in discussed De- militarization, this turned into be a group discussion on possible solutions for the Pakistan and India conflict over Kashmir. I really learned a lot by listening to these extremely knowledgeable Indian men discuss with each other the current happenings in Kashmir. It also was a bit intimidating to be discussing with men whom are so familiar with this issue and I also felt a bit awkward since throughout the discussion many Indians were delicately trying to critique the American government due to our presence. I had no idea that the United States played such a “middle-man” role between Pakistan and India. The men went on to tell us that India would prefer for America not to be involved in any way. Many particularly did not like the idea that America largely plays a big role in supplying weapons to Pakistan, which eventually kills people from India. As I say this I am not trying to offend the reader, rather I am merely trying to sort my thoughts and give you an idea of my experience at this meeting. Also members of the meeting did not want to offend us, Americans, at all but simply inform us of these happenings. And hoping that when we return to the States we could somehow convince our congressmen to pull America out of this conflict. However, this is an extremely far-fetched request as most of us students thought, but we just nodded our heads in agreement out of respect. After listening to the people of India discuss back and forth for a while, many eagerly wanted our opinion as Americans. Unfortunately, none of us felt worthy to discuss this issue up to par as these men would hope. Therefore, I decided to just confess that I did not realize Americas’ role in this dispute and would like to learn more. This only fueled the discussion further... haha! Let’s just say a lot of these men are Barak O’Bama supporters!
Second, we found a Pizza Hut in Bangalore and it was amazing!! At first we were a bit leery since we weren’t sure if it would taste the same as the American Pizza Hut, but it definitely exceeded our expectations! We received many stares, as us 16 Americans filed into the small but one of the most fancy Pizza Hut’s I have seen, and took up a third of the restaurant! I find that Indian food is hard to eat at times due to the rich flavor/spice and that much of it tastes the same since I have not yet been able to retain the identify of the different dishes. This Monday we were able to visit the Hare Krishna Temple, this was a peculiar experience. Many of us were lost in translation and constrained to cultural barriers throughout the visit, which was to be expected. The proceedings before entry into the temple were as follows: we had to go thru extensive security, had to hand over our cameras and our shoes, and had to wash our hands and feet for purposes of cleanliness. We then were given a piece of paper with a prayer on it which we had to chant repeatedly while walking on stepping stones in a cue this eventually led to the temple. Once we entered the temple we each received a brown cube, later I found out that this was to eat. Finally, we saw the statues of certain gods, many people at this time prayed or took time for reflection. Afterwards, we were guided by signs and found ourselves immersed in a huge market, which seemed endless. Many people in our group did not feel as though this was an appropriate place to sell things, it almost seemed as though people were “buying off God’s grace”. On the other hand, I found some really cool holy beads that I could not resist! Shhh!
We then ventured through a market in Bangalore. What a spectacle that was, every fruit or vegetable one can imagine was available! Huge crowds of people were bargaining for the lowest prices and transporting goods from place to place by balancing them on their head. It was so cool! I had never seen anything like it! Unfortunately, one could not escape the polluted smells of India while walking through this market or the crowds that would constantly gawk at us due to our appearance. Therefore, we did not spend as much time in the market as we would have liked. However, I did get a lot of pictures! Many people here actually enjoy getting their picture taken as long as afterwards they can see it on my camera. Haha, the little ones always say, “Auntie, Auntie I want to see! Take another picture!” As an explorer of this country I obviously do not have any rebuttal to these requests!
Later that day we were also able to attend the St. Mary’s festival, this was absolutely nuts! I have never been in such crowd of people where I externally am so different than the majority! Blonde hair and blue eyes just doesn’t blend in India! The sea of people filled the street and sang in unison “Ave Maria” and listened to the Bishop speak. We could barely see anything and a lot was in Kannada, which made it hard to follow, however, just to see all of the people was definitely enough to awe me. I should mention on this day there were two separate occasions in which we encountered two different extremely persistent child beggars. However, on both of these occasions I spotted their mother watching us from afar. This made me a bit angry. Why put us through this guilt just because we are Americans? Please do not get me wrong, I would have given them rupees if I had any money but we were advised not to carry wallets or purses due to pick pocketers and also it would not have made a real difference whether this child had parents or not because this child would still need money regardless. I just feel a bit tricked; the mother knows that we are naïve Americans whom would not be human if we did not feel guilty upon seeing the sight of this little girl barely able to hold her baby brother on her hip asking for money. I seem to be trapped between being ignorant and not giving enough or feeling extremely sorry for these children and giving them too much. Am I just being their crutch? I mean how much will these five rupees really help them survive in the long run? For now, I will have to get use to the pulling of the skirt along with the gestures towards their hand indicating they need money for food and try not to feel painfully guilty. Why am I so lucky as to be blessed with enough? How does God pick whom gets to be born in middle class living in the United States and whom has to be born into the slums of India?
Finally, we were able to meet a panel of women from different ages, economic class, caste, and family. We discussed the restrictions women have in India and how they deal with this discrimination. Many of them know no different and therefore it was really hard to communicate or rather find a common ground in which we fully understood each other’s culture. In India women are highly discriminated against and often times abused sexually, physically and mentally. Women are unable to own land, make decisions for the family, buy certain things, stay out at night, work outside the household, or choose whom they would like to marry. However, as India continues to evolve into a more westernized or “Americanized” culture a few of these inequalities have faded but many of these traditional ways are still strongly exercised especially in the rural areas. One of us asked, “If you had a million dollars what would you do with it?” David our translator, said, “this amount of money means nothing to them, let us lower this amount to ten lakhs.” I do not know how ten lakhs would compare to the American dollar, but I assume it is less than a million U.S. dollars. Still, many of them had trouble even answering this question; it is hard for them to understand the idea of just “winning” a large sum of money. Most are incapable of even imagining this idea, which in America is often, used as a common “get to know you” question.
Next, we were able to speak with a few of the girls from the Bandhavi program at Vishtar. This was a pretty sad time due to their unfortunate past. All have been temporarily saved from a life of the Devadasi system (an underground system of prostitution) and some saved after they have been committed to this life. A lot of these young girls have had traumatic experiences; this was evident in today’s discussion with them. We were able to ask several questions to each other with the help of a translator. Many girls asked us, “In your country what are the restrictions that young women face? and “In your country are girls discriminated against?” I really felt a mix of feelings by responding to these questions. How do you tell a twelve- year old girl that where you come from there is no gender discrimination and you are free to do as you please while these girls are discriminated against on a daily basis? It was an awful feeling to be the bearer of this news. These girls discovered in that moment that a society can exist based on gender equality and also that tragically they will never be apart of this.
One always sees the sad infomercials on the television advertising poverty in third world countries; one may hear of tragedies overseas, one may even send a monthly donation to them. However, it is much more profound to be living in this infomercial. Hopefully that makes sense :) It’s difficult for me because I know as descriptive as I am with these updates I know you guys will never understand what I am actually seeing with my own eyes every day.
Sorry for the lengthy update, but thanks for reading! Hope you are having an awesome day!
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