Janurary 14, 2012
This will be my longest post. The last few days have been filled by journey through jungles, riding on crowded trains, climbing up mountains, touring through ancient cities, and encounters with wild elephants. I know one blog post will not be enough to summarize the past week and a half, but I will try my best to give an account of my adventures.
We woke up at 5 on Thursday in order to get to the train station. around 7 the train arrived. Let me just explain that every conception you have trains in India is accurate. The entire goal of transportation in India is to cram as many as possible into one vehicle. I wish I had two rupees for every time that I have seen people packed into a vehicle like sardines and seven more people hanging on to the outside. The trains were not any different. Ten people sit in a compartment meant for six people and eight more people will be sitting on the sleeper beds above. Vendors will come up and down the aisles selling idly and tea. It is a cramped, hot, noisy, terrible train ride and the bathrooms are the most horrifying places in the world. I loved every second of it.
We arrived in Mysore and took a bus to Wayanad. We traveled through farm country. Farmers had placed hay on the road in order to dry them out. We continued into the mountains. Warning sings told us to beware of elephants, but we saw none. As we journey into the jungle we seemed to be journeying into another world. We arrived at the place we were staying. Many of my classmates were distressed to find out that we had now access to the internet and that we had to take bucket showers. On the first full day in Wayanad we didn't have electricity for the whole day. Since we had no internet we had no choice but to find other ways to entertain ourselves. I decided to spend my time listening to my audiobook copy of "Heart of Darkness."
Over the next three days we went on our field visits. On the first we talked to local farmers and the issues they faced. It was remarkable to find that a lot of the farmers we met were organic farmers who had worked on the land for years. Yet because of the economics of crop pricing many farmers do not see a future in farming. Because of this farmers are telling their children to pursue other careers.
The first day was a nice opening where we do not step too far from the bounds of civilization. It was on Saturday that we journeyed into the jungle. One of my classmates compared it to a scene from Jurassic Park. I compared it to traveling back to the back to the earliest beginning of the world when there was nothing but trees and vegetation. In Bangalore I had found many of the roads unsound, but here there were hardly any roads at all. Yet as we came to the Adivasi settlement in the jungle we found that the modern world had come into this place. The Adivasi we interviewed could speak English and had some schooling at the Indian public schools. Yet they were still victims of extreme poverty. Most Adivasi only get two meals a day, and some only get one. The forest that was their was annexed from them, and they were forced to go to the markets in order to eat. In interviews many Adivasi told how they were being plagued new diseases they had never heard of before. Their bodies were rejecting the new food they were forced to eat. All for the great work of modernization. It was a dark subject to report. But I enjoyed the work. I enjoyed walking through the jungle. I enjoyed talking with the Adivasi, hearing their story. It was unreal listening to them describe how their creates fear was an attack by wild elephants.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh05VAX5c2E
On the last day we visited an Adivasi community which is located at the top of a mountain. We interviewed two sisters who were the head of the tribe. They told us that many of the Adivasi tradition were being lost and that it was due to alcoholism. Where they lived was absolutely breathtaking. Climbing up the mountain reminded me of early trips I used to take with my dad, when we would go hiking in Canada. It also reminded me of hiking in Wyoming. It was bizarre, but at points during our visit it felt like I was in Wyoming. I know that Southern India and Northern Wyoming are completely different in every way possible, but I had the strangest sense of deja vu. Driving past farms reminded me of driving past the ranches of Wyoming. I can't explain it but it was just a feeling I had.
After our trip up the mountain, we returned to our hostel, packed, and loaded into the bus so we could return to Wayanad. We made a stop to drink fresh coconut and continued all the way to Mysore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAxfYuwqKLM
Comparing Bangalore to Mysore is like comparing night to day. Bangalore is a congested city. Streets are half finished and there is always construction. There is no sense of a past in Bangalore. In Mysore I felt the age of the city. Along the roads there were ancient temples, old palaces. I felt like Mysore gave me a sense of the history of India. We arrived in the evening, and reunited with the law students who had been studying at the National Law School in Bangalore. We were agitated to hear that while we had been forced to take bucked showers and exist without internet, the law students had enjoyed laundry service, hot water, and HBO. To quickly introduce the National Law School, it is considered to be the best law school in Asia. Founded in 1987 it has produced 16 Rhodes Scholars in it's 25 year history. To be accepted students only have to take one exam. The top 80 scores are accepted to the school. However, those 80 are selected out of 30,000 applicants. so the odds of being accepted are .003%.
In Mysore we stayed at a hostel run by the Swami Vivekanada Youth Movement. There is no need to describe our first day in Mysore. The SVYM took us on a tour of one of their hospitals and schools. It felt very controlled and artificial and it didn't benefit me in any way.
Our second day in Mysore we took a tour of the the city. We first visited the Mysore Palace. Today it is the home of the Wodeyard family who ruled Mysore for hundreds of years. Now it was a tourist attraction. While beautiful the architecture of the building was very European. It was an incredible sight and I was greatly impressed, but I had visited the Hearst Castle in California, so I was not overwhelmed with wonder. What was amusing was the aggressiveness of street vendors next to the palace. Two pieces of advice. Do not touch any items offered by vendors, otherwise they will charge with damage and try and make you pay for the item.
Second piece of advice. If you are a young, white, American woman visiting Mysore Palace, never tell an Indian adolescent male that will take a picture with him. One of my classmates agreed to this, and in 1.5 seconds 50 sweaty, pubescent Indian teenagers wearing polo shirt with popped collars swarmed the poor young woman, all trying to get a picture with her, that they would later put as their profile pictures. My classmate spent 10 minutes taking pictures with all these Indibros. It was a disturbing and hilarious sight to witness.
After Mysore Palace we visited St Philomena's Cathedral where we went down into a catacomb. It was very dark. Afterwards we went to Chamundi Hills where at the behest of my mother I got a picture of me Tebowing in in front of a statue of a bull. We returned to our hostel and loaded into a bus which took us back to Bangalore.
Wednesday and Thursday all of us worked on our media projects. For me this was the most stressful part of the trip. It pushed to me to my limits of sanity to try and edit a short documentary with subtitles in 48 hours using iMovie. What made matters worse was that every time I made an edit on the timeline, my computer would have to spend a couple of minutes rendering the edit. Most of my time was spent staring at the rainbow ball of death while iMovie tried to comprehend that I wanted to have all my subtitles in Cambrina. I can hardly remember a time when I was driven closer to the edge of madness, nor any other time when I wanted to smash my computer with a cricket bat. But I finally managed to finish the project, and on Friday we presented it to our group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2TulilrGGo
Following that we had tea, and had an informal valedictory ceremony. Afterwards we watched a live performance of KuchiPudi by Mr. Madhavapeddi Murthy. I actually had met Mr. Murthy last spring in a theatre class. He did not remember me.
We returned to our hostel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAxfYuwqKLM
This will be my longest post. The last few days have been filled by journey through jungles, riding on crowded trains, climbing up mountains, touring through ancient cities, and encounters with wild elephants. I know one blog post will not be enough to summarize the past week and a half, but I will try my best to give an account of my adventures.
We woke up at 5 on Thursday in order to get to the train station. around 7 the train arrived. Let me just explain that every conception you have trains in India is accurate. The entire goal of transportation in India is to cram as many as possible into one vehicle. I wish I had two rupees for every time that I have seen people packed into a vehicle like sardines and seven more people hanging on to the outside. The trains were not any different. Ten people sit in a compartment meant for six people and eight more people will be sitting on the sleeper beds above. Vendors will come up and down the aisles selling idly and tea. It is a cramped, hot, noisy, terrible train ride and the bathrooms are the most horrifying places in the world. I loved every second of it.
We arrived in Mysore and took a bus to Wayanad. We traveled through farm country. Farmers had placed hay on the road in order to dry them out. We continued into the mountains. Warning sings told us to beware of elephants, but we saw none. As we journey into the jungle we seemed to be journeying into another world. We arrived at the place we were staying. Many of my classmates were distressed to find out that we had now access to the internet and that we had to take bucket showers. On the first full day in Wayanad we didn't have electricity for the whole day. Since we had no internet we had no choice but to find other ways to entertain ourselves. I decided to spend my time listening to my audiobook copy of "Heart of Darkness."
Over the next three days we went on our field visits. On the first we talked to local farmers and the issues they faced. It was remarkable to find that a lot of the farmers we met were organic farmers who had worked on the land for years. Yet because of the economics of crop pricing many farmers do not see a future in farming. Because of this farmers are telling their children to pursue other careers.
The first day was a nice opening where we do not step too far from the bounds of civilization. It was on Saturday that we journeyed into the jungle. One of my classmates compared it to a scene from Jurassic Park. I compared it to traveling back to the back to the earliest beginning of the world when there was nothing but trees and vegetation. In Bangalore I had found many of the roads unsound, but here there were hardly any roads at all. Yet as we came to the Adivasi settlement in the jungle we found that the modern world had come into this place. The Adivasi we interviewed could speak English and had some schooling at the Indian public schools. Yet they were still victims of extreme poverty. Most Adivasi only get two meals a day, and some only get one. The forest that was their was annexed from them, and they were forced to go to the markets in order to eat. In interviews many Adivasi told how they were being plagued new diseases they had never heard of before. Their bodies were rejecting the new food they were forced to eat. All for the great work of modernization. It was a dark subject to report. But I enjoyed the work. I enjoyed walking through the jungle. I enjoyed talking with the Adivasi, hearing their story. It was unreal listening to them describe how their creates fear was an attack by wild elephants.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh05VAX5c2E
On the last day we visited an Adivasi community which is located at the top of a mountain. We interviewed two sisters who were the head of the tribe. They told us that many of the Adivasi tradition were being lost and that it was due to alcoholism. Where they lived was absolutely breathtaking. Climbing up the mountain reminded me of early trips I used to take with my dad, when we would go hiking in Canada. It also reminded me of hiking in Wyoming. It was bizarre, but at points during our visit it felt like I was in Wyoming. I know that Southern India and Northern Wyoming are completely different in every way possible, but I had the strangest sense of deja vu. Driving past farms reminded me of driving past the ranches of Wyoming. I can't explain it but it was just a feeling I had.
After our trip up the mountain, we returned to our hostel, packed, and loaded into the bus so we could return to Wayanad. We made a stop to drink fresh coconut and continued all the way to Mysore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAxfYuwqKLM
Comparing Bangalore to Mysore is like comparing night to day. Bangalore is a congested city. Streets are half finished and there is always construction. There is no sense of a past in Bangalore. In Mysore I felt the age of the city. Along the roads there were ancient temples, old palaces. I felt like Mysore gave me a sense of the history of India. We arrived in the evening, and reunited with the law students who had been studying at the National Law School in Bangalore. We were agitated to hear that while we had been forced to take bucked showers and exist without internet, the law students had enjoyed laundry service, hot water, and HBO. To quickly introduce the National Law School, it is considered to be the best law school in Asia. Founded in 1987 it has produced 16 Rhodes Scholars in it's 25 year history. To be accepted students only have to take one exam. The top 80 scores are accepted to the school. However, those 80 are selected out of 30,000 applicants. so the odds of being accepted are .003%.
In Mysore we stayed at a hostel run by the Swami Vivekanada Youth Movement. There is no need to describe our first day in Mysore. The SVYM took us on a tour of one of their hospitals and schools. It felt very controlled and artificial and it didn't benefit me in any way.
Our second day in Mysore we took a tour of the the city. We first visited the Mysore Palace. Today it is the home of the Wodeyard family who ruled Mysore for hundreds of years. Now it was a tourist attraction. While beautiful the architecture of the building was very European. It was an incredible sight and I was greatly impressed, but I had visited the Hearst Castle in California, so I was not overwhelmed with wonder. What was amusing was the aggressiveness of street vendors next to the palace. Two pieces of advice. Do not touch any items offered by vendors, otherwise they will charge with damage and try and make you pay for the item.
Second piece of advice. If you are a young, white, American woman visiting Mysore Palace, never tell an Indian adolescent male that will take a picture with him. One of my classmates agreed to this, and in 1.5 seconds 50 sweaty, pubescent Indian teenagers wearing polo shirt with popped collars swarmed the poor young woman, all trying to get a picture with her, that they would later put as their profile pictures. My classmate spent 10 minutes taking pictures with all these Indibros. It was a disturbing and hilarious sight to witness.
After Mysore Palace we visited St Philomena's Cathedral where we went down into a catacomb. It was very dark. Afterwards we went to Chamundi Hills where at the behest of my mother I got a picture of me Tebowing in in front of a statue of a bull. We returned to our hostel and loaded into a bus which took us back to Bangalore.
Wednesday and Thursday all of us worked on our media projects. For me this was the most stressful part of the trip. It pushed to me to my limits of sanity to try and edit a short documentary with subtitles in 48 hours using iMovie. What made matters worse was that every time I made an edit on the timeline, my computer would have to spend a couple of minutes rendering the edit. Most of my time was spent staring at the rainbow ball of death while iMovie tried to comprehend that I wanted to have all my subtitles in Cambrina. I can hardly remember a time when I was driven closer to the edge of madness, nor any other time when I wanted to smash my computer with a cricket bat. But I finally managed to finish the project, and on Friday we presented it to our group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2TulilrGGo
Following that we had tea, and had an informal valedictory ceremony. Afterwards we watched a live performance of KuchiPudi by Mr. Madhavapeddi Murthy. I actually had met Mr. Murthy last spring in a theatre class. He did not remember me.
We returned to our hostel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAxfYuwqKLM
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