Here or there

Here or there.....

India is an amazing place, but it sure is a hard place to get anything done. It seems the culture of greetings, farewells, thankyou’s, awards etc etc slows down a lot of things! We have adopted the sayings ‘here or there’ for this place that when someone says it will take an hour ‘here or there’, it means plus or minus 2 hrs!

On saying that we have had a great day and arrived to the airport on time to fly to Delhi. This morning we visited a female professor at the university,she had spent time at UWA, and was VERY excited to see us. We were meant to call for 10 minutes only, but she had baked and prepared copious amounts of food (we had finished breaky 15minutes earlier), and was so excited that we stayed about an hour.

Australians could learn a lot from the reception/welcoming that Indians give. It is always so lovely, heartfelt and a little over the top, but makes you feel special all the same. To say no to the food is NOT an option, you can try but it won’t work. So this morning we worked our way through white curd milky stuff, nuts and noodle mix, deep fried vegies, pancakes, yellow cake, sweet jello cake, coffee, and fruit platter. WOW! Some may have gone into my handbag..... Then we were individually presented with a gift each of a souvenir god.

We then made our way to Raj’s fish farm. He has been our host for last 2 days so was nice to see his place. We looked around for about 5 minutes and then had a presentation of certificates to us each individually for attending Raj’s farm. Afterwards we went to his home, and had cooldrink, more cake and coffee, and were given gifts of saree’s (for the girls), souvenir coins(for the boys). They were truly special gifts, and we really appreciated. We had a quick look at Raj’s organic rice crops, then headed to one of very few turf farms. A quick look at the turf, then more drink, more cake and more biscuits, all of which is impossible to say no too, and not because its tempting.

We headed towards the airport and can you believe we stopped for lunch!! But in the end made it no worries to catch the dodgy kingfisher airways flight (going broke airline) to the city of New Delhi. Our drivers and cars got us back to our hotel, and we retired early before our last day in India.

The morning was filled with 4 meetings/presentations. 1- FFICI which is a group that helps connect the government with the farmers, and help develop new policies etc. 2- Investment into Indian Agriculture 3 – Austrade, and freeing up the trade negotiations between India and Australia, 4- An Australian government aid programme that helps in Indian agriculture research. It was a really good way to round out our trip and get lots of queries answered.

The afternoon was a trip to the Asha centre. A volunteer aid organisation that helps slum areas of Delhi. 2 amazing ladies explained to us the slum situation. There are nearly 4 million people in the different slum area’s around Delhi. The Asha centre is helping young ladies and children to improve their education, so they in turn can help others around them. ASha has organised bank loans and got ladies running their own small business, and children attending school and college. They have been able to get water in the form of hand pump stations in some slums They have been able to help 350000 slum dwellers.

We visited a slum that Asha has been helping. 3 different groups joined us in the Asha learning centre. A group or middle aged ladies, children and college teenagers. Through an interpreter we were able to learn a little of their lives and how Asha was helping them. I was very apprehensive about visiting the slums, fearing the sadness and poverty that we would experience. But these people were so kind and happy, we really enjoyed our time with them.

The walk through the slum area was a little harder to take. This slum at least had some brick and clay homes, but the drainage and sewerage ran openly throughout the housing. Mostly we were greeted with smiles, but the odd person would lower their eyes. The children followed us as we walked through and saw these homes with electrical wires running everywhere, rubbish and stench all around. Many people actually owned or rented their very small brick home, about 3x2m, housing a family of up to 6 people. They had electrical metres and had to pay for all their power. The toilets were shared, or were just done wherever around the area, and most people seemed to wash at the water pump area’s. We went into a family home and it was neat and tidy and clean on the inside. The owner lady worked cutting up the v that goes on rubber thongs, getting paid one dollar per day for almost 8-10hrs work. She did this in her home. Her husband owned a car and was a driver in the city. They basically cooked in the walkway out the front door of their home, and used a gas bottle for cooking, but some just had an open fire. The children played happily, and young toddlers were thrown around by the older kids without a kid in sight. Parents in oz, would never let kids this age out of their sight. Visiting the slums was an experience never to forget, and I am forever grateful for the life that I have been given
We finished India with one last curry meal out, then flew out Tuesday morning to Doha, Qatar.

 

Guys cutting the turf into strips, they sit like this all day, I think I could probably do 5 minutes at the max

Raj's organic rice crop -

Raj's family