Vrinda & usWe met up with The Indian Network for Development Exchange (IDEX) staff & other volunteers in New Delhi & found to our surprise (wasn't mentioned in the programme!) that we were driven to Agra again. It took bloody hours via country roads, due to an accident on the main road, but we got to see the Taj Mahal for a 2nd time - very nice! - before moving on to Jaipur, which was to be our base for 3 days of "orientation". We all stayed with host families.
We were lucky enough to find ourselves in the home of Mrs Vimal Lodha, a teacher & headmistress of a private primary school, her mother-in-law & her daughter Vrinda. They made us very welcome, fed us delicious food & kept Fiona supplied with endless cups of chai masala. A sweet made from lentils, topped with silver leaf (which was to be eaten too - they were horrified when we started to pick it off!) was a particular treat.It was a very liberal Jain family which had experience of living in the UK & USA, so we were able to have very frank conversations about Indian life. Vrinda, who is 24, has a social work degree & works for IDEX. She does not generally dress or think in a traditional way. The whole family is probably very representative of the growing Indian middle class. There will be 400 million of them by 2020 according to estimates we've heard - more than the current population of the USA, which reached 300 million last November.Another figure to consider is that 80% of the population are currently living below the poverty line - don't know what the predictions are on that for the future. It was particularly interesting to talk to Vrinda who shone light on the attitudes of the under 35s, who make up 70% of the population. Confused? We are all the time here!
We had our 1st Hindi lesson - namaste to all of you - & a talk on Hinduism. We also had a talk on the position of women in Indian society (Fiona, as always, is very grateful that she was born in Scotland in the 20th C!) & a talk about an IDEX sponsored project to help the Kanjars. The Kanjars are, in effect, a criminal caste, thought of as lower, even. than the untouchables.
Things were not all serious & worthy, though, in Jaipur. As is traditional here, we consulted a palmist & astrologer. Fiona is glad to report that all her bad years are over & she has a comfortable, happy & healthy life to look forward to (a blessing to know in a country where only 1% of population have internal plumbing or a toilet & where, in Himachal Pradesh, for instance, 80% of diseases are water-borne while only 0.24% of the water is clean enough to drink safely). Howard now knows that I will never leave him (another blessing?) & will be by his side as he moves house, surrounds himself with greenery & spends as much time as possible by waterfalls! All this & more could be seen in our palms & we've still to get our astrological readings.
Finally we should mention that we really liked Jaipur - the roads were in good condition, the place was much cleaner & more organised than anywhere else that we've been so far. The "Pink City", so-called because all the buildings are constructed of pink sandstone, was lovely inside the old walls & we enjoyed the faded splendour of the Amber Fort, with its beautiful Shish Mahal / Hall of Mirrors & amazing wall of fortifications snaking over the surrounding hillsides. After the Great Wall of China, this said to be the next longest wall ever built.
Oh, & we went to our 1st ever Bollywood movie - VIVAH. We can't say we enjoyed all the over-acting, with the Overabundance of significant glances shot in soft focus, but there was at least not too much singing & mercifully little dancing. The cinema was a fabulous 1930s wedding cake of a place, though, which we were glad to have seen.
Oh, & we rode an elephant!
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