More photos...

Finally managed to upload some more photos... hope you like :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosimo-roams/sets/

Hard Day's Night

First day's work for over a month now... I began my voluntary experience at Seva Mandir yesterday. I'll be working with Naveen who runs the Village Institutions programme, basically, as I understand it so far the programme concerns itself with empowering small village communities through democratic processes. Seva Mandir supports them in setting up elected committees who oversee a range of other projects. They encourage local villages to pool resources and work together to achieve higher goals, encourage education of all children with a special focus on increasing female participation (girls are so often not considered for education out here, especially in the countryside), set up institutions in each village to monitor health aspects such as childhood nutrition and midwifery and so on.. all of these revolving around the village committee.

It's been running formally for about 10 years now and seems to be up against some challenges, mainly down to the change affecting the day to day lives and power bases of those involved, I didn't see too much of that today but will hopefully learn more in the coming days. I was taken by Naveen about an hour outside of Udaipur (again by motorcycle, spent more time on one of those the last two days than standing on my own two feet!) to one of these village committee meetings. We arrived at eleven o'clock to a village empty of committee members. It was however full of inquisitive school children who had turned up to school to discover their teacher hadn't... I knew this happens a lot around the world but looking at the school kids face to face, all clean and wide eyed, some having walked five to eights kilometers to get in, I was pretty upset at the state of things... hard to describe the feeling, cliche but you could literally feel the potential seeping out of them there and then. Following this the committee members finally arrived, two and a half hours late for the meeting (though I am getting used to the Indian sense of time). Naveen wanted to get them up to date with their records (the duty of the committee) and so took them through the correct way to file them and some basic accountancy for the records of the various things the village produced. The meeting took about three of four hours, all in Hindi so I pretty much have no idea what else was discussed but I will hopefully be going through that with Naveen later today.

So that was my first day, first experience of an India NGO, very interesting and Naveen (a thick-set Indian with a lovely smile, incredible vocabulary and a love of Keates) seems keen to impart as much knowledge as possible so fingers crossed the rest will be as interesting!

(Footnote - While I have been writing this blog an Indian family, grandmother down to baby grandchild have been standing by the window gesturing to their mouths in the hope that I will give them some money to buy something to eat and I have ignored them and will most likely continue to.... not proud of that, but need to really... this place is definitely, to use a word that doesn't do it justice, a challenge.)

If, having read any of my posts, you would like to donate to Seva Mandir you can do so online at the following link: http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/pr/2000/proj1908b.html

Pick a project and follow the simple instructions, the money will be put to amazing use. :)

Dog Eats Cow

Hello, so another few days go by and and oh so little to report. My two new friends and I have both been feeling pretty rough the last few days so activity levels have been low... that said today I began to feel better as did Duncan so decided to rent a motorbike and venture outside Udaipur's ancient city walls and into the badlands of the Rajasthan hills...


To be fair the hills are nowhere near as bad as the attached photos suggest but I thought I'd add it for effect (this was seen quite early on into the journey though). It was quite stunning really, beautiful sun-scorched mountains, run-down vollages, women toiling in the heat of the midday sun in glorious colours while their dutiful husbands sat round doing f-all, beautiful kids running and laughing oblivious... (I have to say the kids out here are literally melting my heart... but that's another story). As Duncan kept saying, around every bend was a scene from National Geographic, it was pretty darned cool. We rode for an hour or so and stopped on the crest of a hill looking out towards Pakistan... it was stunning, as much for the beauty in the mountainscape as for the beauty in the silence. Silence is a concept I had forgotten existed in this country and for the first time in 3 weeks I found it again and it was amazing... I don't know when I'm going to have the chance to find it again!!!


Changing the subject slightly, I had an epiphany last night. As I lay in bed at two in the morning, I tried to block out the ridiculous horns of the buses and the shouting and the dogs and the hammering by controlling my breathing to help me relax... I realised that must be the reason why Yoga and Meditation find their homes here in India... because if they didn't exist here then everyone would literally go insane. Well, I know that's not true but I was going mad enough to think that it was an epiphany at the time! I did have another thought, why in god's name do so many westerners come over here to find their inner calm... I couldn't even have imagined, made-up, dreamt of a more stress-inducing country... lovely it most definitely is... relaxing it most definitely is not.


And with that I fare thee well as I try for the 21st straight night to get an unbroken night's sleep... bon nuit.

Udaipur

Sorry for the delay in posting, I've been busy sitting on my ass and doing absolutely nothing. I arrived in Udaipur on Tuesday afternoon having spent a lovely 17 hour journey on the train from Delhi in carriage with sour-faced Russian family, all good fun. I kid you not my least pleasant moments so far this trip have been due to other travellers, not the bad smells, bad stomachs, dead rats, poor street-kids, hawkers or conmen.... it's other fucking westerners.

That said, Udaipur has been kind to me, not only have I been lucky enough to bump into some really nice travellers but the place itself is beautiful... the perfect following on point from Delhi... so quiet and pretty in comparison (when I manage to upload my photos you'll be able to see the difference in view from my Delhi hovel to my Udaipur guesthouse...). I arrived to my hotel and was stunned by beautiful views from my windows and rooftops... and the silence... quite a relief! I didn't do much for the first couple of days... just enjoyed the lack of pressure to do or go anywhere... I'm hopefully going to be here for a few weeks so there's no rush to see everything. Met a cool English guy called Ian, he left yesterday but we hung out for a while, mainly doing sod-all other than sitting in the sun and drinking tea... which was great. Through Ian I met a couple called Duncan and Ellen who are lovely and who have been keeping me company since yesterday... much of the same, tea, beer and sun... grand. Not much else to report from Udaipur... just lots of sun, beautiful landscapes and waiting to hear back from the NGO who are being a little bit silent at the moment...

Will post again when there's more to report (sorry for lack of photos but Flickr is pretty shit I have discovered and its taken me about half an hour to upload 1 photo... will try again in a day or so)...

Agra - and The Wasps..

Just come back from a couple of days in Agra, back to the enjoyable hell that is Delhi! Agra as a town is pretty darned scruffy, a fitting setting for the jewel that is the Taj Mahal. I managed to plan my trip well, arrive Thursday to give myself Friday to watch the Sunrise and Sunset illuminate the white marble of the Taj... only my cultural ignorance let me down, it's closed on Friday. This actually worked in my favour as I ended up seeing a lot more of Agra than I might otherwise have done.

The Taj itself is utterly stunning, I arrived ready to be disappointed, expecting the hype to supersede the reality... it pretty much took my breathe away... I imagine due the combination of seeing something that I've only ever seen in postcards and the intrinsic opulent beauty of it. The myst that descends on the region only added to the mystical quality, unlike anything I've seen before... and again the words fail me.

By the by more photos attached: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosimo-roams/sets/

It being closed on Friday allowed me to explore some of the other sights of Agra, and there are a few. In the morning I visited Agra Fort and Sikandra. Agra Fort, much more beautiful that the Red Fort in Delhi, was lovely. Not willing to shell out for guides I remain more than a little ignorant of the history but click the link and thank Wikipedia... really lovely peaceful place, wonderful range of imposing and also delicate architectural styles, pretty cool. Then onto Sikandra, the resting place of Akbar the great. Again, pretty damn stunning, although unfortunately much of the main complex is closed to the public. The grounds however were really nice; dear, monkey, squirrels ran free... that and the hornets. Fuck me, I have never been so scared in my life... walking up to one of the gates surrounding the main tomb I decided to keep my head down whilst walking up to it in order be awed by its splendour when I was right beneath it... when I got there and looked up to my horror there where about ten massive hornets nests, thousands of them flying around... flying into my face, everywhere.... I walked away, adrenalin pumping, I have no idea how I didn't get stung or how they hadn't put up a warning sign or something but I was pretty fucking lucky! Anyhows, lovely place, minus the pissing hornets!

In the afternoon I got a taxi with a fellow traveller 40km out to Fatehpur Sikri, a city built by the aforementioned Akbar. It's a ghost town, abandoned hey say due to a lack of water... amazingly preserved, probably the most impressive place I've visited since getting to India. Had the place pretty much to ourselves too, which is ridiculous considering what it is, I guess there are just so many stunning places in India the visitors are spread a little thin... all the better I'd say.
And that was Agra, surprisingly enjoyed it have heard not the best reviews... I am now killing time writing this stupidly long post before heading off to Udaipur tomorrow evening... a change of pace that I am longing for after the frenzied experience of Delhi. I hope to relax... and perhaps sleep without earplugs... keep you fingers crosses.

Out of Delhi

So... I'm leaving Delhi for the first time in a week and a half. I can't say that it's not a relief! I've been frustrated and amazed by the conflicting surge of emotions that this and any big city has evoked in me. I've been hugely frustrated by the neon dollar sign that seems to flashing over my head, giving license to all sorts of bare-faced cheeky attempts to swindle me out of my cash, amazed by the monuments and markets, food and massiveness of this place. Shocked by some of the poverty and destitution, families living in tents along side their work place... often just a stretch of pavement they are laying in time for the Commonwealth Games, amazed by the little violence, ill temper, anger that I have seen in the face of such things... and left with a pressing wonder of why and how... a wonder that I'm not sure I'll get an answer to but I'm going to enjoy trying.

I'm off to Agra today, home of the Taj Mahal... looking forward to that one... then back to this crazy city before heading off to Udaipur on Monday where I will be visiting an NGO called Seva Mandir, I can't wait for this. It will be very different from Delhi I am sure, and I hope... although I expect the conflicting emotions will carry me through most of India.

Anyhows, off to catch a train, that's going to be fun!!!

(New photos on Flickr (see link in earlier post), not many, more to come though!)

Delhi Joyrides!

I've been in Delhi for six days now which I think is approximately four more than the majority of people end up staying. I can understand why, it is pretty crazy out here. A few days ago I had dinner with a German family who spent the entire dinner talking about how much they hated India and especially Delhi which was a pleasure... following that I had dinner with a cool Dutch girl who made it clear to me that she wasn't coming back anytime soon. Cheerful chat guys... thanks!

I on the other hand am really enjoying Delhi, I think this is largely down to the fact that I have a few people to meet out here but also simply down to the fact that Delhi is fascinating. I can't overstate how much of a head-fuck this place is, my vocabulary doesn't get close to doing it justice. I went to visit Humayun's Tomb the other day, I wasn't expecting much, standard tourist fare... I couldn't have been more surprised. A truly amazing monument, quite epic in proportions and, as I found out last night, considered by some Delhi locals more beautiful than the Taj Mahal... quite something. (I uploaded some photos to Flickr, link in previous post)

These are also the same Delhi locals who helped me get to my present state of hungover sweatyness. I met them through a friend of a friend who lives out here and joined them at a party around a bonfire on the roof of a building deep in the suburbs of south Delhi. They were wicked, fucking hilarious. I couldn't have hoped to spend an evening with a sounder group. The evening was followed up by a (please look away now mother!)... ... ... phenomenally fast dawn drive through the deserted Delhi streets.... quite an impressive way to see it though perhaps something I shouldn't be making a habit of! And then today... dead to the world me and my new buddy watched a crap American comedy and ordered a Dominos Pizza... yeah!!

Tomorrow I am going to visit the Indian office of my former employees which I'm really looking forward too, hopefully they will be able to help me find some voluntary work further down the line. I've got a couple lined up already, you'll have the joy of reading about that soon. Of course there will be obligatory photos of poor Indians, I'm hoping for a smiling toothless slum kid... maybe with a colourful sweet or perhaps a red ball, that'll work.

Photos

I've managed to upload some of my photos onto Flickr and here they shall be uploaded from now on so keep on checkin if you fancy!!! Link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cosimo-roams/sets/

(ps... there are loads of eagles in Delhi so keep checking and I'll put a photo of one up... that'll keep you coming back!!)

Hanging by a thread...

Jesus, this place is nuts! Officially I think I've just had the most bonkers two days of my entire life. The plane journey went without a hitch, got drunk enough to forget exactly where I was going, ate well, passport control was painless, my bag was one of the first off the trolleys and my driver was there to pick me up... he even spelt my name right!

Then it hit me.... Delhi....

It's covered in a thick blanket of fog at the moment... I thinks its more likely the pollution, the traffic here is immense! The driving (and I've been doing some research here) is almost 56 times worse in Delhi than in Italy... its amazing... lanes mean nothing, sides of the road mean nothing, they even drive at right angles across it.... yet it all seems to work, no one seems to crash.

The rest... having reached my hotel I managed to pluck up the courage top go out... and trust me it took courage. I went for a walk... haha... hopping out of the way of cyclist, rickshaws, cars, cows, cat and dogs.... to Connaught Place... an utter mess of shops and stalls and peddlars and con-artists... got myself a mobile phone (just) without getting too ripped off! That was all for yesterday... today I made it to the Red Fort, the Jami Masjid Mosque (the first mosque I've ever set foot in... quite beautiful) and Chandi Chowk Bazzaar... utterly-fucking-crazy... hectic, noisy... all the cliches you hear about India rolled up in this maze. I tried my first street food (the place looked properly ghetto but damn was it tasty!)... almost got pickpocketed by a group of 4 kids... and took my first cycle rickshaw whick are now offically my favourite form of transport, Chris Hoy ain't got shit on these guys... Chris Who more like! Love them!

Anyhows, written enough methinks. Going up to the roof to watch the sunset... and prepare myself for day three... which, if anything like days one and two... will be incredible.