Goodbye from India!

The time went by so quickly, but it is time to go home. It was nice to see old friends and make new ones. We were able to accomplish so much in such a short time, but I was in no way surprised. A professor of Business Management from Tanjore, Tamil Nadu stressed that it was institutions that needed contractual relationships, but that most things in India were accomplished through personal relationships. My relationships in Madurai stretch back 15 years and I was confident of accomplishing our goals (though, truthfully, I did not know what form success would take).

Since my last visit...

Gas prices have skyrocketed. This drives the increased cost for everything;

Sugar is now optional in South Indian coffee. On previous visits to India, one could expect to get a little tea or coffee with ones sugar! On this visit, it was not unusual for the hotel (restaurant) to not include sugar in the coffee. This hints at a looming obesity/health crisis which you can see in the physical size of people;

There is now a very large proportion (compared to 0% from years prior) of North Eastern immigrant workers. These folks look Southeast Asian (from an American perspective) and stand out against the South Indian population. Prior, the only North Indians present were those from the state of Kashmir fleeing the violence of their region;

Lots of dogs on many of the streets, where before they were limited to certain areas;

Massive egg consumption in restaurants and at home;

Increased food waste in Chennai;

And, lastly, I just could not find a comfortable, air conditioned Cyber cafe!

Good-bye Madurai!

  

Chuck Norris is no Ph.D!

Nightime shopping Pondy Bazaar

Good-bye Chennai!

Happy Independence Day!

Today marked the first time I celebrated Indian Independence day in India. In fact, we observed two flag-raising ceremonies at the Gandhi Museum.

The first was organized by a women's rotary club. Their message was simple: India will not be free until it's women are free. They cited Gandhi's commentary that India could not be fully free until a woman can walk at midnight with jewels without fear for her safety. Timely. There were several songs as well as a rousing, longer version of the National Anthem written by Tagore, India's Nobel Laureate, sung by the attendees. 

Sam also got the opportunity to experience a feeling I've experienced many times in India: the stress from having to give impromptu remarks at an event. In these moments, the pressure to say something profound can be overwhelming, but he handled it well! 

The second ceremony was larger and organized by the Gandhi Museum staff. The event began with Swamiji, a Japanese Buddhist monk that I first met 15 years ago, leading a sacred chant. The crowd was small at first but progressively grew with both adults and children (who were dressed in their school uniforms). We learned that children go to school on Independence day for the ceremony and are then dismissed for the day! Again, there were several songs as well as a singing of the National Anthem.

After the flag raising ceremony, the Gandhi statue was garlanded as a sign of respect and the crowd moved to a replica of Raj Ghat, a relatively new addition to the Gandhi Museum grounds where individuals paid their respect to Gandhi. It was a very short affair and when it was over, the Rotary Club invited us to breakfast. 

Unfortunately, it was very close to a scheduled meeting with our Place for Change contacts and so Sam and I had morning tea which was generously provided by Dr. Ravichandran, the Head Librarian. He also graciously opened the library to us so that we could hold our meeting! All in all, a very uplifting and productive morning!

The first ceremony.

A rapt audience: just like class!

Swamiji and his female disciple. 

Young schoolboys celebrating Indian Independence Day.

The morning ends with our meeting in the very serene Gandhi Museum Library.

Gandhigram Rural Institute

Rennison and I were treated to a wonderful experience during our visit to Grandhigram Rural Institute. We traveled an hour on the bus through beautiful rural areas.

From their website:

"The Gandhigram Rural Institute (GRI) was founded in 1956.  With undying faith and deep devotion to Mahatma Gandhi’s revolutionary concept of ‘Nai Talim’ system of education, Gandhigram Rural Institute has developed academic programmes in Rural Development, Rural Economics and Extension Education, Rural Oriented Sciences, Cooperation, Development Administration, Rural Sociology, English and Communicative Studies, and, Tamil and Indian Languages. Students who emerge from its portals tend to meet the personnel needs for rural development under various governmental and non-governmental schemes."

It is always exciting to meet faculty and students who are dedicated to the principles of equality, education, development and service. These principles, among many others, define the legacy of Gandhi in India. As you can see below, Gandhi was concerned that all segments of Indian society share in the prosperity of the country. 

As we walked along, lo and behold a wonderful quote by the British writer, E.M. Forster. I'm putting this in my syllabus! 

  

While at Gandhigram, we met with faculty from the department of Gandhian thought as well as the Sociology department.

Here is a list of research projects within the Department of Sociology which students can learn more about when they come. 

We had a wonderful lunch at a women's cooperative cafeteria owned by a group local village women. 

Scholars deep in thought...

And finally, here's a good principle that we should all live by.

Jurassic Park

In India, some things are old and some things are very old. On the grounds of the Gandhi museum is a small government museum that houses a small collection of ancient artifacts. The statues you see in the picture above are religious icons found all over India. These are all from the region and are several hundred years old. Some are only 300 hundred years old while some are over 1000 years old! Then there's T-Rex!

Apparently no one likes this addition. The hope is that Rex will leave once the current curator moves to his next post. In the meantime, Sam and I came up with the following analogy. Best answer wins first prize.

1. Ancient Hindu artifacts are to T-Rex as __________ is to __________.

India is replete with example of incongruous items. This sign above is near the Meenakshi Temple. I'm not sure who the male image appeals to and why is the female showering?

Sam and I have many questions about the message of these pictures. Focusing on the male image, we've narrowed down our hypotheses to the following (using our amazing powers of critical thinking). Because we are professors, let's put this in the form of a multiple choice question for you, our home viewers:

Choose the phrase that bests completes the following statement:

"The male picture above means that____"

a) the male bathroom is located here.

b) the male bathroom is located here and only men who resemble the image above may use it.

c) the male bathroom is located here and any men who use it will turn into the male figure pictured above.

Creating Partnerships

Sometimes you can squeeze a lot in a day! As I get ready to end a productive day, I marvel at the wonderful experience of meeting someone new, finding out how many things we have in common, and both parties getting excited about a now-shared vision. We met many great people today and look forward to discussing our partnerships even more in the future.

Sometimes our meetings took the more social form of sharing a meal (I especially like these type of meetings, don't you?). Here we are sharing a dinner with faculty from the Gandhi Memorial Museum in Madurai, Gandhigram Rural Institute and Lady Doak College. We even made a new American friend studying in Madurai as an anthropology graduate student!

Throughout the day, we were able to meet with the Director of the Gandhi Museum, Dr. R. Rengasamy, Associate Professor of History, Dr. M. Valliammal and Principal (President), Dr. A. Mercy Pushpalatha (both of Lady Doak College), and Associate Professor of Gandhian Studies and Ramalinga Philosophy, Dr. V. Alagirisamy. I am happy to say that everyone we've met so far is as excited as we are at the possibility of bringing ACC students to Madurai! They are especially excited about getting our students to spend time with their students and learn from each other.

We toured the Gandhi Museum and Library and learned so much concerning the modern history of India. Thank you Dr. A. Ravichandran for giving us the lovely tour!

Library bookstore

Some cool books:

Every library should have a cool staircase like this one!

Madurai

Internet access has been more problematic this trip than in years past - at least public internet access. It seems that more people than ever now have access to the internet and so public (read tourist) internet locations are harder to find. Our first hotel had WiFi but it was very slow. The hotel, Hotel Kanna, was located in a very interesting and bustling part of  Madurai.

Every evening we would be greeted with the call to prayer from the neighborhood mosque. Less than 2 hours later, the streets would get busier (we didn't think it was possible) with Muslim patrons moving about as they broke their daily fast for Ramadan. Friday was even more frenetic and festive as the Muslim population celebrated Eid al-Fitr.

Our second hotel which caters to local travelers rather than international travelers had no internet access at all. We've moved twice in Madurai because of internet problems. In the interim, we've been reduced to finding small, simple "cafes" (no coffee or AC) to work on our blog and research the area.




We've spent too much time finding internet access and then traveling to it, but sometimes the walk in the evening can reveal unexpected treasures.

It hasn't been all bad. Our rooftop restaurant on our first night in the city revealed a beautiful view of Meenakshi Temple's gopurams.

Dr. A. Ravichandran, the Gandhi Museum's head librarian, was kind enough to show us beautiful view of Madurai from the rooftop terrace of the old palace.

If you look closely, you can see the imposing gopurams of the Meenakshi Temple although they are 3 kilometers away.

Relief Projects in India

Yesterday was a powerful day as we traveled the country side with Jesse and Susanna of Relief Projects India. These two volunteers have committed their lives to help the children and communities of rural Madurai. They work with other local groups who have also sacrificed greatly for the women, children and elderly of the area. We toured the S.H.E. construction site and met the children and staff of the Mercy Home (run by a Roman Catholic order). We could not take pictures of the children as this is also an adoption center and pictures are not allowed. But we did meet beautiful babies and toddlers, all abandoned by local families and many with mental or physical challenges. We played with and talked to them and beheld the light in their eyes and the love in their hearts.

Jesse and Susanna were instrumental in helping us understand how non-profits and charities operate in this part of India. There are of course economic, social, cultural, political and psychological challenges, but having spent over eights years in India constantly working on relief projects, they had learned immensely from their successes and failures.  We know it will be a great educational and personal experience to have students discourse with them as we learn how they have approached the social problems of poverty, gender discrimination and rapid economic, social and cultural change.

One of the exciting parts of the S.H.E. is the focus on sustainability for this project. Hyundai has donated solar panels to power the facility. A diverse number of crops are being grown for short- and long-term profit (as well as employing local labor). And finally, sustainable practices in drip irrigation and land resource management are being implemented in order to teach other local farmers about alternatives to growing the ubiquitous (and heavily water dependent) cash crops of rice and sugar cane in this drought stricken region.

It is hoped that these efforts will increase trust and cooperation between local communities and the work of Relief Projects India. It will also help integrate and inform future relief efforts as information and resources are shared among all of the stakeholders.

Below are some pictures of our incredible day.

 Jesse and Susanna giving us a history of the Mercy Home

The inner courtyard of the Mercy Home

 The rural area where the S.H.E. pre-school and community education center will be located.

 The stone (lasts longer!) school/community education center (rear view)

Learning about the construction plans that include full access for the physically challenged (e.g. elevator)

Front view of center

Storage and office building with sustainability farm in the back

A view of different crops being grown

Bovine break