India and its transportation

Indian transport has a reputation for being a bit wild and having traveled around the country before, I was ready for anything. My weekend vacations have involved eventful travels, sometimes frustrating, sometimes amusing and sometimes downright scary! So I’m going to summarize some of the craziest things that have happened to me so far while using public transport in India…..

One of the first weekend trips that I took was to Amritsar to meet a friend from university. I took an overnight bus and slept in a small compartment attached to the wall, much like a display cabinet, it even had a sliding glass door. In the middle of the night I was woken up by angry shouts. Looking out the window I could see a crowd of furious men screaming at the bus driver Things escalated quickly and before the long they were throwing bricks at the driver who quickly retreated into the bus. They then started pelting the bus with stones and bricks, one of which smashed a window! I was pretty confused as to what was going on but after a conversation with another passenger I learned that there had been an accident and that the bus had hit someone. I’m still not sure of the details, I only hope that it was a vehicle rather than a pedestrian and that no-one was badly injured. It just made me sad to think about the impunity in India and the fact that a bus could have knocked someone over and just driven away from the scene. 

On a slightly lighter note, my journey back from induction, while long and boring, was broken up by a few amusing incidents. Firstly, the sheer ridiculousness, of a bus having to swerve to the opposite side of the road to make way for two cows having sex made me laugh. Cows can really get away with anything here. Secondly, after the bus driver took a wrong turning he proceeded to drive full pelt down the motorway in the direction of oncoming traffic! And no one in the bus seemed at all fazed! 

Finally, what should have been a perfectly ride home from the neighboring town Suratgarh turned into something entirely different. This was definitely one of the more frustrating rides that we took. After an afternoon shopping for groceries and materials for our projects we decided to try and catch a bus rather than a rickshaw home as the bus is so much cheaper. A bus was beginning to leave the station and I shouted to the ticket man to ask him if it was going to Rangmahal, which he confirmed, so we ran to the departing bus and jumped on just as it was taking off. The problem is there are two Rangmahals close to Suratgarh….  It seemed like the bus was taking a strange route out of the town so I asked the passengers if we were going to Rangmahal-Jogi (our Rangmahal) or Rangmahal and everyone confirmed that we were going to the right place. However, we took off in the wrong direction! Me and Mae were getting really confused by this point and a bit nervous as we continued down the motorway, getting further and further away from our village! So I kept shouting “RANGMAHAL JOGI??” and everyone kept responding “YES!” So I told myself that maybe they were just taking a strange route. They weren’t. Finally, we got kicked off the bus at  the other Rangmahal. Even at this point people were telling us that we were at the right place, even though it clearly wasn’t!!!  A few people who finally understood what we were talking about told us that we would have to catch a ride back to Suratgarh and get the correct bus home from there. By this time we were so fed up that we didn’t bother trying to save any more money and agreed on a rickshaw. ;)

So thanks Indian transport! You’ve made the travels to my destinations become a very noteworthy part of my vacations!

Louise King - UK

Project Manager in RangMahal 

So I have now been living in Rangmahal for just over a month.

At first, there was a lot of adjustment as it is a totally different environment to what I am used to! I am from cloudy, grey, drizzly, fast-paced London and this is a world away from that! It is insanely hot, slow and lazy, the sun is always blaring and there is sand EVERYWHERE. I am sure when I arrive back home in London, I will open my backpack and sand is just going to pour endlessly out of it!

One thing that was a challenge at first was the toilet situation. At home I am used to pristine clean toilet bowls, sinks with luxurious soaps, a bathtub and an overhead shower (I am drooling at the thought of this kind of shower now!) In the village, the typical toilet is one that looks like this:

Our gorgeus toilet in the first house

As you can see, this is simply just a hole in the ground with two bricks either side. There was no door… only a wall that around the toilet, which came up to my elbow, so I was always nervous that someone would peek over the wall and see me squatting. I had several comical experiences as I do my business, coughing constantly as though I have been smoking for the last century to make people aware of my presence, awkwardly walking in on Dada Ji then running away and hiding in embarrassment, and also having a dog jump over the wall like HELLOOOOO. Toilet trips were interesting to say the least!

This set up made me wonder how hard it must be to be a woman in this village, particularly when on their period; it certainly would not be comfortable and if I was a woman here, I would be worried that someone would look over and see me, particularly as menstruation here is seen as disgusting and a taboo.

Here we also shower with bucket and water. As I have been to the Philippines several times, I am very used to it and rather enjoy this way of bathing. However, what I am not used to, is a cow eating its breakfast and defecating outside the shower room, and an old woman peeking into the shower as I pour sand water over myself. I had to laugh so many times when things like this happened! People here are extremely curious, particularly to the way that us foreigners do things!

Another difficulty I had at first was hand washing my clothes. It was definitely a struggle at first, especially with half the village coming to watch the foreigner wash their clothes like a local and laugh at how ridiculous and confused I look. Now, I can definitely say I am a pro hand washer!I had to fill up my bucket with a manual water pump (producing a concoction that is 90% sand and 10% water) and then attempt to wash my clothes by hand sitting in the typical squat position, which is waaaayyyyyy harder that it looks I honestly still do not know how people manage to sit like that for so long.

Actually, most women here experience severe pain in their legs, backs and arms from doing chores such as washing and cooking in this position. Even though they experience such pain, they seldom complain and simply carry on. At home, doing chores can require very little to no effort! It is even so simple for me that if I so wish, I can go to a laundrette or order a takeaway ….so I do nothing at all!

Whenever I was invited to peoples’ house for food, I would always be offered a master class in chapatti making. At first, my chapattis all looked like one of the teletubbies, but hey, as they say, practice makes perfect and I can make the roundest chapattis in the village(with the aid of a bowl to cut it out).

Food has been difficult for us; there are no grocery shops in the village and there are about 12 shops that sell roughly the same thing: biscuits and potato chips. To get food we have to travel to Suratgarh, the nearest city which is 7km away, but this requires potentially waiting for the hourly ‘regular’ bus for 3 hours. The result: a diet consisting of mostly daal, daal and more daal. I do not think I can look at another lentil again after this! However, the food we have made, and have been offered has been absolutely delicious! We have even managed to make hummus desert style which entails mashing the chickpeas for an hour with a dodgy fork.…so worth it and so good!

A huge problem we have been facing as of late is the lack of electricity and water. As it is harvesting season, the whole village has decided to turn off the electricity from 9am – 7pm. This has made living in 41 degree heat extremely difficult without the help of our electric fans! One weekend consisted of Iris and I lying in our beds the whole day just saying“ugh”….”its so hot” …”omg don’t you think its hot?!”…”I’m dying!” … “bring me cookies!”

Holi with the beautfiul girls in the village

On top of this, we cannot use our electric pump to fill up our water tank. We have experienced a few times with no water in our tank, so had to buy a whole pack of 10 one litre bottles to go about our day. ON TOP OF THIS, another village has been controlling the water supply and this is cut off for most of the day until 9pm when we can finally fill the tank. We hope to find a solution to this, particularly when it comes to May and, we have been repeatedly warned, it gets excruciatingly hot with temperatures apparently reaching50 degrees…yay!

Yes, it has been difficult at times, but also has been incredible. I have learned so much from the people here, with their warmth, kindness and openness. The village is BEAUTIFUL. We can walk up a large hill, which everyone calls the mound, and watch the sunset over the lush green farms and the sandy plains around us, or play “Kabadi”, a wrestling game, with the children. I have already been invited to, not one, but three weddings! And have indulged in the delicious food there, and joined in the dancing. I experienced Holi with the girls and ladies of the village, again, dancing and indulging in delicious food and tons of chai.

View from the mound

Living here has made me realise how fortunate I am at home with my plethora of CHOICES. I can choose to eat anything I so desire. I can choose to use the washing machine and laze about watching television as it washes. I can choose to leave my house with the light on in my room, if I so wished, for the whole day and not even think of having no electricity at the end of the day. I can choose to have a hot shower for 30 minutes without thinking about water running out.

It has all been a huge learning experience for me. I feel that I will be a gazillion times more patient; there is a lot to learn from the optimistic and laid-back attitude of the people in the village. I am enjoying this simple way of living, and I have even more appreciation for the comforts and the ease of doing everyday chores at home.

Ta for now!

Danielle Outen - United Kingdom

Microfinance / Women's empowerment Project Manager

Centre Administration Coordinator in Rang Mahal

A sad but fond goodbye

Six months ago my Internship with EduCARE began and now I’m on the way back home to England! As with everything in my last days with EduCARE and in Naddi; I’ve definitely been stalling knowing that my internship and the times with my wonderful Naddi family will soon be over, so this blog post is the end point of an amazing Indian adventure.

During my six months I’ve created so many memories and had crazy experiences that I’ll remember a life time! I thought I’d use this blog post to share some of them:

Sick in my Shoes

In October I was on my way to Delhi on an overnight government bus, after about an hour or so I managed to drift off to sleep whilst my Tibetan neighbour was continually vomiting out the window because of the bus drivers mental driving! At 3am I wake up and the bus has stopped for a short break so I decide to get off the bus to stretch my legs and use the toilet – stupidly when I went to sleep I’d taken my shoes off and left them underneath my seat. So as I put my feet into my shoes, I notice one of them is wet… and well, you know the rest of the story – disgusting certainly didn’t justify it. Only in India can someone be gross enough to throw up in your shoes and then say nothing as you put your feet into them.

A Holy Baptism

I was walking from the Indra intern house in Naddi to the main square to go to Omi’s for lunch, one particular part of the path is always slippy and has water on it. Clumsy me decided that this day was the day to completely stack it! I ended up lying in the field below half under barbed wire, half in a field and covered waist down in a combination of mud, cow poo and water. Only in India is being covered in cow excrement seen as a good thing.

Animal Encounters

o Raging Bull – Being charged at not once by twice by an angry territorial cow in the Jaisalmer Fort.

o Stray Dogs – Constant accosting on the way to McleodGanj.

o Cheeky Monkeys – Being completely surrounded by Langur’s on the walk home from Triund and having no idea what to do!

o Monsoon Critters – Providing my feet as lunch for many a leech whilst in Shenney during the Monsoon.

Transport Frustrations

As a student in India utilising the cheapest transport option was always my go to, however this incurred many memorable moments:

- Never being sure whether a bus was ever going to arrive, let alone arrive on time.

- Driving from Naddi to Dharamshala and fearing for your life because the driver seems to have forgotten about using their breaks and official speed limit.

- Using overnight buses to get from A to B and the bus driver plays consistent Bollywood and Hindi music all night at full volume when you’re trying to sleep.

The start of a long 36 hours traveling from Naddi to Khuri.

My favourite method of transport, Tuktuk!!

Christmas in Kerala 

Kerala is somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit, so when myself and Siobhan decided our Christmas Holidays would be spent there I was over the moon. Whilst it certainly didn’t feel like Christmas in 30+ degree heat surrounded by sandy beaches and palm trees, the opportunity to experience a complete contrast to North India was amazing. The South of India is a land of chilled out people, amazing food and beautiful scenery and a great choice of location for a deserved rest!

Alleppey Backwaters

Fort Cochin

Khuri and Jaisalmer 

In October, I was fortunate enough to venture out of Himachal Pradesh and visit Rajasthan for 9 days during the coordinators retreat. Whilst the hot desert weather was something pale and ginger me hated, the Rajasthani lifestyle and culture was so so fascinating. The retreat was culminated by us all taking a camel ride (a very painful and jolty camel ride) into the desert for a night under the stars.

These are just a handful of the memories I’ve made and it’s a shame they have to be put on pause until the next time. But I’ll be back, Naddi is certainly not a place you can forget in a hurry!! And as for EduCARE, it’s been a crazy up and down ride but I’ve loved every second.

Rebecca Lewis - United Kingdom

Disaster Management and Emergency Planning Coordinator in Naddi