Ein „Schwellenland“ zwischen Globalisierung und Armutsbekämpfung
Jede Aussage, die man über Indien macht, wäre gleichzeitig richtig und falsch.
Dieses Land entzieht sich sozusagen jeder Art von Beschreibung, jeder westlichen Logik und klassifikatorischen Schublade.
Indien ist ein Land der Extreme, in dem alles, in einer riesigen Bandbreite, zu koexistieren scheint, und somit wird jeder Besucher, der sich wagt diese neue Dimension von Leben zu erfahren, mit einer unglaublichen Fülle an Erfahrungen überwältigt.
Die Straßen sind voll von Geschichten, von Menschen und von individuellen Schicksalen.
Es ist ein zerrissenes Land, das seine Identität auch nach über 50 Jahren Unabhängigkeit von der britischen Kolonialherrschaft noch lange nicht gefunden hat.
Bürgerkriege, jahrelange Konflikte, wie dem Kaschmir Konflikt, Korruption, Unterdrückung von Minderheiten, Diskriminierung, Ungleichheit, Sexismus und sogar separatistische Bewegungen prägen jeher das politische Geschehen, zeigen die inneren Widersprüche offen dar, spalten das Land und radikalisieren es.
Neben all den eklatanten sozialen Kontradiktionen ist es aber wichtig zu konstatieren, dass sich die demokratischen Strukturen in Indien verfestigt haben, auch wenn es bis zur funktionsfähigen und rechtsstaatlichen Demokratie noch ein sehr weiter Weg ist.
Der Mythos der „größten Demokratie der Welt“ existiert in dieser Form auch nur in idealisierten, westlichen Vorstellungen, denn die Realität sieht anders aus und lässt sich an den Säulen der Korruption ablesen, auf denen diese Demokratie aufgebaut ist.
Das Indien auf den Zug der Globalisierung aufgesprungen ist, lässt sich kaum abstreiten, doch gibt es wohl nicht nur Profiteure der weltweiten Vernetzung des wirtschaftlichen Handels, ganz im Gegenteil.
Globalisierungsbefürworter weißen gerne darauf hin, dass Wirtschaftswachstum auch zu einer Verringerung der Armut führt. Die Zahlen in Indien sprechen jedoch eine andere Sprache.
So scheint es absurd, dass sich trotz eines jahresdurchschnittlichen
Wirtschaftswachstums von 5-9% ( für Deutschland wird für 2010 ein Wert von 1,2 % Wachstum prognostiziert) , die Zahl der Menschen die unter der Armutsgrenze leben ( bezogen auf die westliche Welt würde diese Grenze bei 1,25 $ am Tag liegen) kaum verringert.
Statistiken zufolge leben heute 446 Millionen Menschen in Indien in extremer Armut, das entspricht im Landesdurchschnitt 37,2 %, das sind immerhin noch mehr als jeder dritte. Auf dem Land sind diese Zahlen sogar noch nachdrücklicher.
Armut, Hunger und kein Zugang zu Trinkwasser bestimmen das alltägliche Leben.
Die Globalisierung füttert direkt in die Kluft zwischen arm und reich, und in Indien ist es so dramatisch zu sehen wie in kaum einem anderen Land der Welt.
Vandana Shiva, eine indische Autorin und Aktivistin, schrieb sehr prägnant zu diesem Thema: „Gentechnik, Agrarindustrie und ökonomisches Wachstum verringern den Hunger nicht – Indien ist das beste Beispiel.“
Während indische Eliteuniversitäten IT-Fachmänner und Frauen für den internationalen Markt ausbilden, ist die generelle Bildungssituation in Indien erschreckend. Die Analphabetenrate liegt bei über einem Drittel der Bevölkerung.
Diese Diskrepanz zwischen haben und nicht haben, scheint wie fest verankert und wird durch das straffe Kastensystem noch verstärkt. Auch wenn die Wichtigkeit der Kaste in der Gesellschaft abnimmt, sind soziale Einteilungen und Diskriminierungen durch Kastenzugehörigkeit doch allgegenwärtig.
Auf welchem Weg ist Indien, und wo soll dieser Weg hinführen?
Die Dynamik des wirtschaftlichen Wachstums in diesem Land ist kaum zu übersehen, und in Megastädten wie Mumbai, Neu Delhi und Kalkutta, überbieten sich die Architekten mit gigantischen Projekten von Gebäuden und Wolkenkratzern.
Ein Streben nach Prosperität und Kapitalismus zeichnet das junge Indien , ganz nach dem amerikanischen Vorbild.
Das dabei 80% der Bevölkerung außer Acht gelassen werden, dass durch billige Importwaren die auf den indischen Markt drängen ganze Bevölkerungsgruppen verarmen und zu massiver Urbanisierung führt, dass Europäische und US amerikanische Agrarsubventionen so artifiziell niedrige Nahrungsmittelpreise kreieren dass indische Kleinbauern ihr Land reihenweise aufgeben müssen, dass taucht in kaum einer Statistik auf.
Doch sind es Menschen und Einzelschicksale die hinter solchen Fassaden stecken.
Schaut man hinter die 9% Wachstumsrate, dann trifft man Menschen, deren Alltagsleben nur von dem Wachstum der Sorge ums tägliche Überleben geprägt ist, und man trifft Menschen die sich einsetzten, um aktiv etwas für eine bessere, gerechtere Welt zu tun. Es sind Brücken der Menschlichkeit die dort gebaut werden und gebaut werden müssen, die Hoffnung geben.
Auf einer Reise durch Indien traf ich viele solcher Menschen mit dem festen Glauben an eine bessere Zukunft für die 1 Milliarde von Menschen weltweit für die Hunger ein Alltagsphänomen ist.
Jeder Mensch in der westlichen Welt, kann seinen eigenen Beitrag für eine gerechtere Welt leisten. Es sind kleine Dinge die diese Welt verändern können.
Montag, 25. Oktober 2010
Dienstag, 15. Juni 2010
Darjeeling unlimited.
This is not India. It doesn’t resemble to anything I have seen, tasted, smelled, done and experienced…yet I am here in the Indian Himalayas.
I am sitting in a train, around me, the constant noise of 4 or 5 Indian kids is rising and is filling the smallish train compartment of the little mountain train that is leading me towards the Indian Himalayas.
Yes I am used to noise, how could I not be after 5 months of cacophony in India, still the excitement, or boredom ( its quite hard to say) that leads these kids into a constant state of agitation and relentless talking and mumbling is quite hard to identify with. To make a point, it drives me kind of crazy, as sitting here and now, all I want to do is stare at the splendid sight that is slowly passing by my little window.
There is a greenery around me, one that is as lush as one might think being on a expedition to the south American jungle, and there lies a freshness in the air, one that is being swept in with the cool mountain winds that are blowing more and more eagerly as we are taking on altitude.
Riding towards something that I have no imagination of in my mind….well, maybe I have dreamt of it, I have dreamt of it many times before, but to actually find myself sitting there and to observe these mountain peaks appearing on the horizon reaching high into the sky, that’s a special moment.
How can you articulate that moment? How can you wrap it up in words to send it all around the world, to be savored in any given moment…..like conserving it. A conservation of experience.
Of course I can’t, as it is and will always remain my personal experience that lies within a spectrum of my being that cannot be expressed in words, rather just in my simple being, as all these experiences gathered in all those years just made me to the person I am, here and now, but to describe that in words, no, by trying it, one will find out very soon about the limitations of language. Its simply impossible.
And so then, sitting on the train seeing those magnificent peaks appearing on the horizon, and riding towards them….that moment feels almost unreal.
It feels like a completion, a feeling ….something like, you have arrived. Like a subsequence of my last 5 months in India and everything I have done, seen, felt, understood, learned, experienced during all this time….all this seems to line up like a book, and this moment feels like the last page, something like you breathe in, you smile and you understand.
I breathe and I smile.
Yes I am in this moment and the city that just starts to reveal itself is taking more and more shape….and I read a sign….welcome to Darjeeling, the queen of the hills….
Happy to get off the train I take a deep breath, and the freshness in the air is not the only change that I feel from the pressingly hot metropolises of Calcutta and Chennai. …it feels like a different world.
This is not India.
India is many things, and for me it represents vast numbers of adjectives and experiences but what I experience here, on the rooftops of the world, is rather something like not from this world. It somehow feels like standing above everything, detached from the rest of the world, like as if ,with the view that is changing, we are changing the way we look at things.
Everything changes if we just change our point of perception.
It is refreshing, and that’s how it feels to wander around these steep and hilly roads of Darjeeling, discovering little characters of people, all part of a culture that really has that relaxed way of being, that seems totally detached from the worries of the rest of the worlds ( I speak of the world that I am from.
I encounter warmhearted people, people that seem to live in such a content space that it almost feels like an eternal peace.
Me and my friend, we find ourselves sitting in a little wood hut in mitten the busy fruit market in Darjeeling, enjoying one of our most memorable lunches, consisting of the only dish served in that inviting, charming, cute little family run place, where, if squeezed , 6 people have space to savor veg momos, the most delicious homemade stuffed dumplings I have ever had……..the 2 Nepalis that sit next to us understand the way of enjoyment and send us a warm smile, to let us be a part of it.
I glimpse over the table to see the magnificent collaboration and community effort that comes straight from the heart and goes into these delicious Momos that I am about to enjoy. Thanks for this moment…. Thats what I want to say and indirectly I let my joy speak, through a smile, that gets immediately reflected…
There are moments in life that you will always remember, that you will cherish on, that will illuminate your world. Not in a sense of revelation but rather in the sense of light, like to bring light into the darkness.
I am sitting in a jeep, cramped in there with 9 other passengers, I find myself on the way to a hiking adventure in Sikkim, one of India’s northern most states,in the midst of the Himalayas, the roofs of the world. I am riding along and soon I have no chance of admiring this spectacle of nature outside, flying by my window, that seems to be not from this world. The rising sickness takes me back into reality and with it comes an awful feeling, spread out over my body from the centre of my stomach.
Yes I am getting car sick, but measured by the non existence of any road, not at least what many Europeans would refer to while speaking of roads, by the rather radical driving skills of our sweet Nepali driver, and by the number of hair pin bends we pass, that sickness is more or less surprising.
So am I riding along…. Well, it feels more like bumping…..sitting there makes me somehow feel like being part of a video game, something like an adventurous car racing game in the mountains….that thought makes me smile, even if the breakfast that I quickly got before hopping on this adventurous ride already decided that it wouldn’t stay where it was, I am somewhat enjoying this insanity and I smile along, listening to the crazy techno high pitch Indian music….
The feeling of being totally out there, in mitten the magical mountains, standing amidst the roof of the world….its such feeling of being in the present. A total absorption of the moment. . You are just out there and with such a presence that everything seems to fall in place, serendipity of time space and being.
This moment is perfection. Its magical, as then there is nothing that counts, absolutely nothing, no thought is created, there is only existence. It might sound philosophical but in fact that moment could not be farther away from philosophy….it was reality.
The beginning of that reality started for us in Sikkim. We set off on a hike for a week to explore the Indian Himalayas along with our lovely Sikkimese guide, with a couple of yaks some rain and a cloud of mist.
On our long way up we were passing through some cute nepali mountain villages, had tea with local Nepalis while listening to the radio stations, playing the most random and mostly not the best American pop music, and we sipped some millet wine, a self brewed drink that Sherpas would not do a step without.
And then after a few days gaining altitude, in one specific moment you find yourself climbing up 5000 meters with the sun setting in your back and as you reach the top then that’s what you see….perfection.
Peaks rising as high into the horizon, the colors of the sunset playing along in this game….and then you just stand there and breathe.
This is awesome. In the true meaning of awe.
An unforgettable spectacle of natures beauty and impressiveness, The strength, the immense beauty, the patience and hope that these mountains reflect makes you stand there and understand the incredible power of creation. Me, as mere human, I feel totally insignificant.
I am sitting in a train, around me, the constant noise of 4 or 5 Indian kids is rising and is filling the smallish train compartment of the little mountain train that is leading me towards the Indian Himalayas.
Yes I am used to noise, how could I not be after 5 months of cacophony in India, still the excitement, or boredom ( its quite hard to say) that leads these kids into a constant state of agitation and relentless talking and mumbling is quite hard to identify with. To make a point, it drives me kind of crazy, as sitting here and now, all I want to do is stare at the splendid sight that is slowly passing by my little window.
There is a greenery around me, one that is as lush as one might think being on a expedition to the south American jungle, and there lies a freshness in the air, one that is being swept in with the cool mountain winds that are blowing more and more eagerly as we are taking on altitude.
Riding towards something that I have no imagination of in my mind….well, maybe I have dreamt of it, I have dreamt of it many times before, but to actually find myself sitting there and to observe these mountain peaks appearing on the horizon reaching high into the sky, that’s a special moment.
How can you articulate that moment? How can you wrap it up in words to send it all around the world, to be savored in any given moment…..like conserving it. A conservation of experience.
Of course I can’t, as it is and will always remain my personal experience that lies within a spectrum of my being that cannot be expressed in words, rather just in my simple being, as all these experiences gathered in all those years just made me to the person I am, here and now, but to describe that in words, no, by trying it, one will find out very soon about the limitations of language. Its simply impossible.
And so then, sitting on the train seeing those magnificent peaks appearing on the horizon, and riding towards them….that moment feels almost unreal.
It feels like a completion, a feeling ….something like, you have arrived. Like a subsequence of my last 5 months in India and everything I have done, seen, felt, understood, learned, experienced during all this time….all this seems to line up like a book, and this moment feels like the last page, something like you breathe in, you smile and you understand.
I breathe and I smile.
Yes I am in this moment and the city that just starts to reveal itself is taking more and more shape….and I read a sign….welcome to Darjeeling, the queen of the hills….
Happy to get off the train I take a deep breath, and the freshness in the air is not the only change that I feel from the pressingly hot metropolises of Calcutta and Chennai. …it feels like a different world.
This is not India.
India is many things, and for me it represents vast numbers of adjectives and experiences but what I experience here, on the rooftops of the world, is rather something like not from this world. It somehow feels like standing above everything, detached from the rest of the world, like as if ,with the view that is changing, we are changing the way we look at things.
Everything changes if we just change our point of perception.
It is refreshing, and that’s how it feels to wander around these steep and hilly roads of Darjeeling, discovering little characters of people, all part of a culture that really has that relaxed way of being, that seems totally detached from the worries of the rest of the worlds ( I speak of the world that I am from.
I encounter warmhearted people, people that seem to live in such a content space that it almost feels like an eternal peace.
Me and my friend, we find ourselves sitting in a little wood hut in mitten the busy fruit market in Darjeeling, enjoying one of our most memorable lunches, consisting of the only dish served in that inviting, charming, cute little family run place, where, if squeezed , 6 people have space to savor veg momos, the most delicious homemade stuffed dumplings I have ever had……..the 2 Nepalis that sit next to us understand the way of enjoyment and send us a warm smile, to let us be a part of it.
I glimpse over the table to see the magnificent collaboration and community effort that comes straight from the heart and goes into these delicious Momos that I am about to enjoy. Thanks for this moment…. Thats what I want to say and indirectly I let my joy speak, through a smile, that gets immediately reflected…
There are moments in life that you will always remember, that you will cherish on, that will illuminate your world. Not in a sense of revelation but rather in the sense of light, like to bring light into the darkness.
I am sitting in a jeep, cramped in there with 9 other passengers, I find myself on the way to a hiking adventure in Sikkim, one of India’s northern most states,in the midst of the Himalayas, the roofs of the world. I am riding along and soon I have no chance of admiring this spectacle of nature outside, flying by my window, that seems to be not from this world. The rising sickness takes me back into reality and with it comes an awful feeling, spread out over my body from the centre of my stomach.
Yes I am getting car sick, but measured by the non existence of any road, not at least what many Europeans would refer to while speaking of roads, by the rather radical driving skills of our sweet Nepali driver, and by the number of hair pin bends we pass, that sickness is more or less surprising.
So am I riding along…. Well, it feels more like bumping…..sitting there makes me somehow feel like being part of a video game, something like an adventurous car racing game in the mountains….that thought makes me smile, even if the breakfast that I quickly got before hopping on this adventurous ride already decided that it wouldn’t stay where it was, I am somewhat enjoying this insanity and I smile along, listening to the crazy techno high pitch Indian music….
The feeling of being totally out there, in mitten the magical mountains, standing amidst the roof of the world….its such feeling of being in the present. A total absorption of the moment. . You are just out there and with such a presence that everything seems to fall in place, serendipity of time space and being.
This moment is perfection. Its magical, as then there is nothing that counts, absolutely nothing, no thought is created, there is only existence. It might sound philosophical but in fact that moment could not be farther away from philosophy….it was reality.
The beginning of that reality started for us in Sikkim. We set off on a hike for a week to explore the Indian Himalayas along with our lovely Sikkimese guide, with a couple of yaks some rain and a cloud of mist.
On our long way up we were passing through some cute nepali mountain villages, had tea with local Nepalis while listening to the radio stations, playing the most random and mostly not the best American pop music, and we sipped some millet wine, a self brewed drink that Sherpas would not do a step without.
And then after a few days gaining altitude, in one specific moment you find yourself climbing up 5000 meters with the sun setting in your back and as you reach the top then that’s what you see….perfection.
Peaks rising as high into the horizon, the colors of the sunset playing along in this game….and then you just stand there and breathe.
This is awesome. In the true meaning of awe.
An unforgettable spectacle of natures beauty and impressiveness, The strength, the immense beauty, the patience and hope that these mountains reflect makes you stand there and understand the incredible power of creation. Me, as mere human, I feel totally insignificant.
Donnerstag, 20. Mai 2010
Keep smiling...
Its difficult to get involved.
Its a challenge .
Its easy to stay on the surface to move around in our comfort zone.
But how rewarding is that challenge?
For me, it changed a lot,it enabled me to see things differently and
to put things together in a way that I can make a more holistic
picture about whats actually happening in this one world.
Digging into a culture, removing the blanket of superficiality reveals all sorts of things hidden away.
Why do we live in the constant stage of denial? Deny the reality.
Its as simple as that, its real so we should be real, we should move along witht that reality and live it.
To be challenged means to learn. Learning means living and living means to move along in our constant flowing river of life.
To be challenged means to understand ourselves better. It means to reach out towards our personal limits, but it means as well to reach out to our aptitudes and our skills.
I think that today, with the eyesight of the future we are heading to, we all need to be challenged. To enlarge our horizons, to make our ways of thinking and our ways of being more flexibe, to move out of our comfort zone......to in the end make something happen, to move.
Enough of being like a steady pond, stable and secure.....live the flow and flow along with the immense possibilities that lie along our paths of life.
We only have one, so I might as well live it to the full extend.
If you look at the world as a whole, and if you take into account the amount of resources that lie to our feet it would make a lot of sense to distribute them so that everyone would get a fair share.
Why we are not doing it....?
Out of greed?
I think it was Gandhi who claimed that the world had enough resources to fulfill our needs, but not our greed.
Its true.
I mean if everyone in the world would live as abundant as we in the west, we would need 6 planets, to sustain everyones lifestyle.
Sustainability?
Well then all discours about the feeding of the world would seem absurd.
The question how the world could face that growing challenge of supplying enough food for the growing population. Thats redundant.
We can't start there. Because we only have one planet, so we should look after it, and think ove our ways of living.
Climate change, global warming....all these major global phenomenas, are just the symptoms. The cause lies elsewhere.
To really make a change we have to change our mindsets.
Greed is just not part of a sustainable lifestyle. It's the past. The future is simple and happy.
I would love to understand.
But I guess through getting involved in work that tries to build bridges and to fill gaps, means as well to understand.
To be challenged means as well not to be a tourist. It means to be there, in every moment, trying to build bridges between cultures, and people. To communicate, to connect...to look for exchange, not in search of giving and taking.
In a way its like the rule of cause and effect. We have to be the change that we want to see, and we can always, only harvest the fruit of our actions.
I am so grateful to have had that chance of getting involved.
Exchanging ideas is just so resourseful.
Yes, I was def challenged during the time I spend in southern India working for the Earth Trust.
It was such an intense learning period. There is no real replacement for really experiencing involvement.
Through experience,there are suddenly so many doors that are opening for you and what once seemed obscure and frightening, gets then fitted, like a puzzle piece gets fitted into a broader picture of something that makes sense to you.
Obviously I learned heaps about indian culture, society....politics.
And what you get to know isn't necessarily nice, but its necessary to understand, and its necessary to take actions. Before taking actions there is a need to know why and how...
To deal with that stuff that comes out of dealing with people and situations in the society on a level where you are not a tourist any more, not just a foreigner....once you stepped into something to remove that thick blanket that covers all atrocities, then you can see things a bit clearer, leaves you standing there with your mouth open, in disbelief.
There is so much to do.
I come from the point where I say that we are all born equal, equal power, equal rights, equal intelligence....
The reality is quite the opposite of that. India is def the most unequal country I have ever been .
Dysbalance of power everywhere.
Even, as a foreign woman in India, I have more power that most Indian people. There is only a very small part of the society, which is mostly male and belongs to the upper class, that has the power to change things. The trouble is that most of the time, these are the last who will try to do that as they are in the win situation. That there is the majority of the population who is stuck in the loose situation doesn't matter to them...
Not that its much different in the west, but in India its just way more extreme and way more in your face. And authorities have just a very different position, that they can basicly use without any limit.
Most people will remain stuck in their lifes, and they accept and adjust.
Adjustment is a big word in India,
and especially in villages where there really is no other choice. It seems to me like a cage, and to find the door to that cage would require a lot of courage and a lot of progressive thought which most of them have no access to.
Most Indians have never learned to take a decision. They simply do not know how.
And thats as well why they freak out seeing a young woman traveling on her own. Their mind just automaticly tells them that there is something wrong. As its a picture that doesn't make sense to them at all.
Indian women have the smallest cages of all.
Thats why there is no chance in explaining your life, your story....
It would disturb them to much, and it would make you feel so uncomfortable.
To make them understand that no you are not living with your family and that no you are not married, that
you traveled around the world....
No, all is left, most of the time, is playing their game with their rules.
"How do you like my India" ?
" I love it, I think its great."
And yes, this is only a half truth. Of course I love India, I really do, but as much as I love it, it drives me crazy.
.....but that truth I will keep for myself and smile instead.
Smiling is the best way of communication.
If in doubt, smile.
This smile mostly gets reflected with another one in return and an acknowledging Head-nod.
I love this head-nod.
Its like a value of the moment.
I am here, you are here, it is now, and I am grateful for this moment we can share together.
Thank you.
Yes, I think we should def learn from that, to move away from putting everything into the yes and no boxes.
These last 8 weeks I got involved in some very exciting projects, about sustainable development in rural areas, about empowerment of the poor, underprivileged and about equality and
tribes and their rituals and about education.
The last 3 weeks I worked in a local primary school teaching
english, music and environmental awareness...
So imagine me in a remote village in the hills of southern India, with around 20- 50 kids, in the age between 9 and 15, swirling around me....
Yes its pretty wild.
Wild is prbably the best attribute to describe that situation.
Its a different world, and by saying that I really mean it. It was tough for me in many ways. First of all to teach these kids...
How to teach them and where to start.
There is a whole world between us.
I loved it. I loved the kids, and I loved the teaching.
Its such a special opporttunity to really be in the position of having an influence on their long paths of life. And just to give them small impusles, something to think about that their everyday environment wouldn't provide, can leave a big impact on their lifes and on their community.
Because thats where the aim lies. Creating healthier communities, that are sustainable, with healthy and happy people living in it.
To get a message across is not that easy though, obviously.
The cultural differences were apparent and the conservativism that comes with the enclosure....
wow, for a young woman with a critical mindset....it was hard.
To live in that remote village, among this old tribal community was an unique experience that taught me a lot.
The whole interaction with the villagers, and with the kids in general, such an exposure to a really different world, taught me heaps.
In a way, they taught me more than I ever could have.
I learned what hospitality means.
What it really means.
I have never been as openly welcomed to a community before.
That village was so remote that some of the elder inhabitants have never even seen any foreigner so that was something new to them something that is not always very welcome if it means that new influences come in that might question the old traditional ways of doing things....
But in any case, there were some very special moments to share.
A laugh and a smile then can connect worlds.
I stayed in the village for a few days in a row, and also experienced a village festival, where I ended up dancing in the streets with all the people from the village , learning how to dance their traditional tribal dances.
It was awesome!
And I have never eaten as much in 24 hours than during my stay in the village, as refusing food is an offense.
30 coffees and teas a day was my avarage daily dose.
I absolutely loved it, and the work with Earth Trust inspired me in so many different ways, and connected me to so many different interesting issues, that I have no choice but to come back very soon.
I will.
The village I was teaching at is now trying to convert into a fully organic, self sufficient village...
I can't wait to go back and see the change....
Its a challenge .
Its easy to stay on the surface to move around in our comfort zone.
But how rewarding is that challenge?
For me, it changed a lot,it enabled me to see things differently and
to put things together in a way that I can make a more holistic
picture about whats actually happening in this one world.
Digging into a culture, removing the blanket of superficiality reveals all sorts of things hidden away.
Why do we live in the constant stage of denial? Deny the reality.
Its as simple as that, its real so we should be real, we should move along witht that reality and live it.
To be challenged means to learn. Learning means living and living means to move along in our constant flowing river of life.
To be challenged means to understand ourselves better. It means to reach out towards our personal limits, but it means as well to reach out to our aptitudes and our skills.
I think that today, with the eyesight of the future we are heading to, we all need to be challenged. To enlarge our horizons, to make our ways of thinking and our ways of being more flexibe, to move out of our comfort zone......to in the end make something happen, to move.
Enough of being like a steady pond, stable and secure.....live the flow and flow along with the immense possibilities that lie along our paths of life.
We only have one, so I might as well live it to the full extend.
If you look at the world as a whole, and if you take into account the amount of resources that lie to our feet it would make a lot of sense to distribute them so that everyone would get a fair share.
Why we are not doing it....?
Out of greed?
I think it was Gandhi who claimed that the world had enough resources to fulfill our needs, but not our greed.
Its true.
I mean if everyone in the world would live as abundant as we in the west, we would need 6 planets, to sustain everyones lifestyle.
Sustainability?
Well then all discours about the feeding of the world would seem absurd.
The question how the world could face that growing challenge of supplying enough food for the growing population. Thats redundant.
We can't start there. Because we only have one planet, so we should look after it, and think ove our ways of living.
Climate change, global warming....all these major global phenomenas, are just the symptoms. The cause lies elsewhere.
To really make a change we have to change our mindsets.
Greed is just not part of a sustainable lifestyle. It's the past. The future is simple and happy.
I would love to understand.
But I guess through getting involved in work that tries to build bridges and to fill gaps, means as well to understand.
To be challenged means as well not to be a tourist. It means to be there, in every moment, trying to build bridges between cultures, and people. To communicate, to connect...to look for exchange, not in search of giving and taking.
In a way its like the rule of cause and effect. We have to be the change that we want to see, and we can always, only harvest the fruit of our actions.
I am so grateful to have had that chance of getting involved.
Exchanging ideas is just so resourseful.
Yes, I was def challenged during the time I spend in southern India working for the Earth Trust.
It was such an intense learning period. There is no real replacement for really experiencing involvement.
Through experience,there are suddenly so many doors that are opening for you and what once seemed obscure and frightening, gets then fitted, like a puzzle piece gets fitted into a broader picture of something that makes sense to you.
Obviously I learned heaps about indian culture, society....politics.
And what you get to know isn't necessarily nice, but its necessary to understand, and its necessary to take actions. Before taking actions there is a need to know why and how...
To deal with that stuff that comes out of dealing with people and situations in the society on a level where you are not a tourist any more, not just a foreigner....once you stepped into something to remove that thick blanket that covers all atrocities, then you can see things a bit clearer, leaves you standing there with your mouth open, in disbelief.
There is so much to do.
I come from the point where I say that we are all born equal, equal power, equal rights, equal intelligence....
The reality is quite the opposite of that. India is def the most unequal country I have ever been .
Dysbalance of power everywhere.
Even, as a foreign woman in India, I have more power that most Indian people. There is only a very small part of the society, which is mostly male and belongs to the upper class, that has the power to change things. The trouble is that most of the time, these are the last who will try to do that as they are in the win situation. That there is the majority of the population who is stuck in the loose situation doesn't matter to them...
Not that its much different in the west, but in India its just way more extreme and way more in your face. And authorities have just a very different position, that they can basicly use without any limit.
Most people will remain stuck in their lifes, and they accept and adjust.
Adjustment is a big word in India,
and especially in villages where there really is no other choice. It seems to me like a cage, and to find the door to that cage would require a lot of courage and a lot of progressive thought which most of them have no access to.
Most Indians have never learned to take a decision. They simply do not know how.
And thats as well why they freak out seeing a young woman traveling on her own. Their mind just automaticly tells them that there is something wrong. As its a picture that doesn't make sense to them at all.
Indian women have the smallest cages of all.
Thats why there is no chance in explaining your life, your story....
It would disturb them to much, and it would make you feel so uncomfortable.
To make them understand that no you are not living with your family and that no you are not married, that
you traveled around the world....
No, all is left, most of the time, is playing their game with their rules.
"How do you like my India" ?
" I love it, I think its great."
And yes, this is only a half truth. Of course I love India, I really do, but as much as I love it, it drives me crazy.
.....but that truth I will keep for myself and smile instead.
Smiling is the best way of communication.
If in doubt, smile.
This smile mostly gets reflected with another one in return and an acknowledging Head-nod.
I love this head-nod.
Its like a value of the moment.
I am here, you are here, it is now, and I am grateful for this moment we can share together.
Thank you.
Yes, I think we should def learn from that, to move away from putting everything into the yes and no boxes.
These last 8 weeks I got involved in some very exciting projects, about sustainable development in rural areas, about empowerment of the poor, underprivileged and about equality and
tribes and their rituals and about education.
The last 3 weeks I worked in a local primary school teaching
english, music and environmental awareness...
So imagine me in a remote village in the hills of southern India, with around 20- 50 kids, in the age between 9 and 15, swirling around me....
Yes its pretty wild.
Wild is prbably the best attribute to describe that situation.
Its a different world, and by saying that I really mean it. It was tough for me in many ways. First of all to teach these kids...
How to teach them and where to start.
There is a whole world between us.
I loved it. I loved the kids, and I loved the teaching.
Its such a special opporttunity to really be in the position of having an influence on their long paths of life. And just to give them small impusles, something to think about that their everyday environment wouldn't provide, can leave a big impact on their lifes and on their community.
Because thats where the aim lies. Creating healthier communities, that are sustainable, with healthy and happy people living in it.
To get a message across is not that easy though, obviously.
The cultural differences were apparent and the conservativism that comes with the enclosure....
wow, for a young woman with a critical mindset....it was hard.
To live in that remote village, among this old tribal community was an unique experience that taught me a lot.
The whole interaction with the villagers, and with the kids in general, such an exposure to a really different world, taught me heaps.
In a way, they taught me more than I ever could have.
I learned what hospitality means.
What it really means.
I have never been as openly welcomed to a community before.
That village was so remote that some of the elder inhabitants have never even seen any foreigner so that was something new to them something that is not always very welcome if it means that new influences come in that might question the old traditional ways of doing things....
But in any case, there were some very special moments to share.
A laugh and a smile then can connect worlds.
I stayed in the village for a few days in a row, and also experienced a village festival, where I ended up dancing in the streets with all the people from the village , learning how to dance their traditional tribal dances.
It was awesome!
And I have never eaten as much in 24 hours than during my stay in the village, as refusing food is an offense.
30 coffees and teas a day was my avarage daily dose.
I absolutely loved it, and the work with Earth Trust inspired me in so many different ways, and connected me to so many different interesting issues, that I have no choice but to come back very soon.
I will.
The village I was teaching at is now trying to convert into a fully organic, self sufficient village...
I can't wait to go back and see the change....
Dienstag, 20. April 2010
Eine Stadt der Traeume
Dreams are what cities are made of.
Mumbai is full of dreams, you stumble across them around every corner, lingering around on the floors, walking, running, making noises.
And if you go to look up the sky you will find dreams floating around like ballons.
And you can hear them, you can literally see them burst, one after the other, disappearing into the sky.
No Mumbai is not a city for dreamers as we know them , as people of bel esprit as artists as musicians....
Artistic people that fill up the parks in the summer in Berlin, to show off the lightness of being. No. Mumbai is built out of different dreams.
Its a city of a reality that almost feels like a dream in itself, as it is just so hard to get your head around it.
Trying to make sense of the things that happen around you. Unable to understand, you just stand there, overwhelmed by this dream.
Sometimes I wished it was a dream.
And for me, and my situation, it didn't even seem so far away as I knew that I can step out of this dream anytime, I can step back into my reality, and like waking up from a dream, I could just open my eyes the next morning, to live my life in my reality again.
But i wished it to be a different, rather dreamish reality for all those millions of people struggling for life every day, living in incredible circumstances.
Thinking about it, its clear to me now that Mumbai has artists, millions of them....
it has life artists.
What if the lack of options make you creative?
creatively desperate. For money, for survival, for dreams...?
Where are the dreamers, and who are they.
I think that in one or the other way, we are all dreamers. Dreams are important as they can take us away from our limited physical experience, into the unlimited imagination of our mind. Everything is possible with a little stretch of imagination.
Wings, that take us into a different reality, back doors that can be opened to breathe, if the air gets too sticky in the house of reality.
We all dream, consciously or unconsciously.
What about the realization? Everything is possible? For whom?
With my eyes, looking at my life, its true, everything is possible, as I have got the freedom to make sure of it.
And what about all those bursting balloons above Mumbai?
Transparent like bubbles, blown out into the wind, ready to be taken away a few meters until they disappear, as if they had never existed.
These are all hopes. One more fragile than the other, connected to all sorts of dreams.
Its hope that draws people into the city week by week, day by day.
A glimpse of hope for a better life, a better future for the children....
European cities have the attraction of self realization, of freedom, of opportunities.
To a Megacity like Mumbai, the cosmopolitan capital, and the commercial center of Indiai, all sorts of hopes are connected, but what would you call a hope that is born out of being optionless?
Facing a lack of options, then at least you need hope....what else is left?
So imagine a city whose population just grows exponentially, and with its population, its problems....
Impossible?
I find it difficult to imagine, still.
Having the chance to spend some time in Mumbai,I was introduced to a new dimension of life.
The notion global city has now a very different meaning for me. Now there are pictures in my head, impressions, experiences, moments.....all piling up like a mountain, with all sorts of connections to stored information in my mind.
Even the smallest interaction can have the power to raise a good amount of questions in your head, as everything is in your face.
Extremities, crowds, noise, bursting balloons of hope....
The level of stress seems to be constantly exceeding the limits.
Yes the city has its flow, like any other city. But one hardly wants to swim in it, as its not like a flowing river, far too romantic!, no its rather like a moving torrent, ready to take you off your feet anytime.
Moving around Mumbais flow, its like standing in this torrent, water flushing through your body, taking away all the energy away from you. Mumbai requires so much adjustment, challenges and compromises from its inhabitants....( from my point of view)
And what about the people for whom thats reality
What if your not overwhelmed by whats around you. What if for you it signifies normality? Then you have never known anything else. A thought....one more that is hard to believe.
For me living there,in this flow, is connected to compromises and adjustments, nearly all the time. As I am challenged in my notion of time and space.
The way to work can be the first though compromise of the day. Waking up with that very thought in your mind, makes you wanna step back into the world of sleep, where everything was smooth and easy.
Well what can you do. Prepare mentally for the challenge and then....challenge your level of comfort.
Its an adventure that seems not to be from this world. Not from the world I have know before coming to India anyway.
Standing, morning after morning on the train platform in Malad, one of Mumbai's various suburbs, where we stayed with our cool couchsurf hosts, having to fight my way into the train...competing in running competitions to get on it....just to get into central Mumbai.
Yes, its def felt like a new introduction to time and space. A mass of people on the same spot, moving into the same direction at the same moment, here and now.
And I am a part of it.
Standing on the train I wonder what destinies surround me. What brings all my fellow train riding companions to be here.
What do we share...?
Yes we are all here, now....and that includes yes, me, that includes business men, workers, beggars, women who carry the heaviest, thatched baskets on their heads filled with a whole variety of foods to sell on the local markets, children in ragged clothes getting ready for their daily begging mission, like little businessmen on their own, students, housewives riding to one of the markets........as different as we all may be, and as different our daily missions are, but we are all here.
But thinking about it, for me its clear that I am in a different situation than everyone else, I am here by choice.
That makes a difference, a huge one.
Because in that case, even then I can laugh. I can laugh because for me its an experience. Not a necessity. But what if thats your fate, what if you have to go through the same situation every day, simply because you want to survive, because you have to support a family.....yes, it is the fate of my fellow train riding companions, going to work every day to keep that huge wheel of the economy going. and there is so much hope attached to it.
For me, soon I will step out of this train, knowing that I can leave....I can just walk out of the chaos.
And then maybe one fine day, sitting in the U-Bahn in Berlin , I will remember these eventful days in Mumbai and this thought will create a smile on my lips....
Yes I am standing in the crowd and heat of the morning train moving into central Mumbai thinking about that, and I know that I have access to a world that the majority of my fellow train companions will never even be able to think about....Yes of course I feel bad about it, but I am still here in that train so what can I do......yes I will stop thinking and I will smile, and I will share that moment and then I will get of the train to start my day.
For me, the work I am doing here is pleasure. And that fact might be an even bigger priviledge.
And for feeling priviledged in that way, I do not even have to be in India, in fact I can be everywhere in the world. But in Europe I wouldn't feel bad about it, whereas here I do.
Why?
Its a lack of choices.
Most Europeans have the chance to be the creators of their own destinies, the majority of Indians don't have that chance.
I always imagine a world, where everyone would just follow their passions. Where everyone has the freedom, the courage and the possibility to live their personal passion.
How joyful would that world be. How much love would be around in this world.
Jealousy would disappear, competition and comparism....
I love this imagination and I will not condemn it.
I will continue thinking about it, and i want to continue meeting people who are passionate about what they are doing, because in fact, for me, thats the best inspiration for life.
So how lucky am I to have met someone who follows her passion, a visionary. And even luckier that I had the chance to work with her during my time in Mumbai.
Luckily there are visionaries, brave people with dreams who step out of their priviledged, comfortable zone to work hard for a brighter future.
Simply for their passions and their dreams.
To dive into Preetis vision left me inspired, she even planted a seed of her vision in my head, too.
Thats the power of passion.
Her vision was that everyone should grow their own food even in the urban areas, or especially there, creating a (greater) network of self-sufficiency.
Self-sufficiency arises like a necessity out of the problems of the present economic system.
It provides for the city dweller, tired of the stone and paved streets, the joy of having a little patch of land, cultivating organic food, if for no other reason to enjoy homegrown and healthful food....
Preeti, this amazing woman, managed to set up the most impressive organic rooftop garden, growing nearly everything one could imagine from Avodcados to Zuccinis.
Driven by her results, she made it her mission to insoire people to do the same thing.
While I was there, we planned a model workshop for a school in central Mumbai, aiming to convert the rooftop into a fertile organic garden. Providing healthy organic food for the kids at lunchtime and helping kids towards a better understanding of food production and consumption.
Isn't it a great vision?
The roof of a city. No concrete jungle, but rooftops, terraces, empty spaces creating a lush green jungle of biodiversity...
We should think greener, instead of concreter....
Mumbai is full of dreams, you stumble across them around every corner, lingering around on the floors, walking, running, making noises.
And if you go to look up the sky you will find dreams floating around like ballons.
And you can hear them, you can literally see them burst, one after the other, disappearing into the sky.
No Mumbai is not a city for dreamers as we know them , as people of bel esprit as artists as musicians....
Artistic people that fill up the parks in the summer in Berlin, to show off the lightness of being. No. Mumbai is built out of different dreams.
Its a city of a reality that almost feels like a dream in itself, as it is just so hard to get your head around it.
Trying to make sense of the things that happen around you. Unable to understand, you just stand there, overwhelmed by this dream.
Sometimes I wished it was a dream.
And for me, and my situation, it didn't even seem so far away as I knew that I can step out of this dream anytime, I can step back into my reality, and like waking up from a dream, I could just open my eyes the next morning, to live my life in my reality again.
But i wished it to be a different, rather dreamish reality for all those millions of people struggling for life every day, living in incredible circumstances.
Thinking about it, its clear to me now that Mumbai has artists, millions of them....
it has life artists.
What if the lack of options make you creative?
creatively desperate. For money, for survival, for dreams...?
Where are the dreamers, and who are they.
I think that in one or the other way, we are all dreamers. Dreams are important as they can take us away from our limited physical experience, into the unlimited imagination of our mind. Everything is possible with a little stretch of imagination.
Wings, that take us into a different reality, back doors that can be opened to breathe, if the air gets too sticky in the house of reality.
We all dream, consciously or unconsciously.
What about the realization? Everything is possible? For whom?
With my eyes, looking at my life, its true, everything is possible, as I have got the freedom to make sure of it.
And what about all those bursting balloons above Mumbai?
Transparent like bubbles, blown out into the wind, ready to be taken away a few meters until they disappear, as if they had never existed.
These are all hopes. One more fragile than the other, connected to all sorts of dreams.
Its hope that draws people into the city week by week, day by day.
A glimpse of hope for a better life, a better future for the children....
European cities have the attraction of self realization, of freedom, of opportunities.
To a Megacity like Mumbai, the cosmopolitan capital, and the commercial center of Indiai, all sorts of hopes are connected, but what would you call a hope that is born out of being optionless?
Facing a lack of options, then at least you need hope....what else is left?
So imagine a city whose population just grows exponentially, and with its population, its problems....
Impossible?
I find it difficult to imagine, still.
Having the chance to spend some time in Mumbai,I was introduced to a new dimension of life.
The notion global city has now a very different meaning for me. Now there are pictures in my head, impressions, experiences, moments.....all piling up like a mountain, with all sorts of connections to stored information in my mind.
Even the smallest interaction can have the power to raise a good amount of questions in your head, as everything is in your face.
Extremities, crowds, noise, bursting balloons of hope....
The level of stress seems to be constantly exceeding the limits.
Yes the city has its flow, like any other city. But one hardly wants to swim in it, as its not like a flowing river, far too romantic!, no its rather like a moving torrent, ready to take you off your feet anytime.
Moving around Mumbais flow, its like standing in this torrent, water flushing through your body, taking away all the energy away from you. Mumbai requires so much adjustment, challenges and compromises from its inhabitants....( from my point of view)
And what about the people for whom thats reality
What if your not overwhelmed by whats around you. What if for you it signifies normality? Then you have never known anything else. A thought....one more that is hard to believe.
For me living there,in this flow, is connected to compromises and adjustments, nearly all the time. As I am challenged in my notion of time and space.
The way to work can be the first though compromise of the day. Waking up with that very thought in your mind, makes you wanna step back into the world of sleep, where everything was smooth and easy.
Well what can you do. Prepare mentally for the challenge and then....challenge your level of comfort.
Its an adventure that seems not to be from this world. Not from the world I have know before coming to India anyway.
Standing, morning after morning on the train platform in Malad, one of Mumbai's various suburbs, where we stayed with our cool couchsurf hosts, having to fight my way into the train...competing in running competitions to get on it....just to get into central Mumbai.
Yes, its def felt like a new introduction to time and space. A mass of people on the same spot, moving into the same direction at the same moment, here and now.
And I am a part of it.
Standing on the train I wonder what destinies surround me. What brings all my fellow train riding companions to be here.
What do we share...?
Yes we are all here, now....and that includes yes, me, that includes business men, workers, beggars, women who carry the heaviest, thatched baskets on their heads filled with a whole variety of foods to sell on the local markets, children in ragged clothes getting ready for their daily begging mission, like little businessmen on their own, students, housewives riding to one of the markets........as different as we all may be, and as different our daily missions are, but we are all here.
But thinking about it, for me its clear that I am in a different situation than everyone else, I am here by choice.
That makes a difference, a huge one.
Because in that case, even then I can laugh. I can laugh because for me its an experience. Not a necessity. But what if thats your fate, what if you have to go through the same situation every day, simply because you want to survive, because you have to support a family.....yes, it is the fate of my fellow train riding companions, going to work every day to keep that huge wheel of the economy going. and there is so much hope attached to it.
For me, soon I will step out of this train, knowing that I can leave....I can just walk out of the chaos.
And then maybe one fine day, sitting in the U-Bahn in Berlin , I will remember these eventful days in Mumbai and this thought will create a smile on my lips....
Yes I am standing in the crowd and heat of the morning train moving into central Mumbai thinking about that, and I know that I have access to a world that the majority of my fellow train companions will never even be able to think about....Yes of course I feel bad about it, but I am still here in that train so what can I do......yes I will stop thinking and I will smile, and I will share that moment and then I will get of the train to start my day.
For me, the work I am doing here is pleasure. And that fact might be an even bigger priviledge.
And for feeling priviledged in that way, I do not even have to be in India, in fact I can be everywhere in the world. But in Europe I wouldn't feel bad about it, whereas here I do.
Why?
Its a lack of choices.
Most Europeans have the chance to be the creators of their own destinies, the majority of Indians don't have that chance.
I always imagine a world, where everyone would just follow their passions. Where everyone has the freedom, the courage and the possibility to live their personal passion.
How joyful would that world be. How much love would be around in this world.
Jealousy would disappear, competition and comparism....
I love this imagination and I will not condemn it.
I will continue thinking about it, and i want to continue meeting people who are passionate about what they are doing, because in fact, for me, thats the best inspiration for life.
So how lucky am I to have met someone who follows her passion, a visionary. And even luckier that I had the chance to work with her during my time in Mumbai.
Luckily there are visionaries, brave people with dreams who step out of their priviledged, comfortable zone to work hard for a brighter future.
Simply for their passions and their dreams.
To dive into Preetis vision left me inspired, she even planted a seed of her vision in my head, too.
Thats the power of passion.
Her vision was that everyone should grow their own food even in the urban areas, or especially there, creating a (greater) network of self-sufficiency.
Self-sufficiency arises like a necessity out of the problems of the present economic system.
It provides for the city dweller, tired of the stone and paved streets, the joy of having a little patch of land, cultivating organic food, if for no other reason to enjoy homegrown and healthful food....
Preeti, this amazing woman, managed to set up the most impressive organic rooftop garden, growing nearly everything one could imagine from Avodcados to Zuccinis.
Driven by her results, she made it her mission to insoire people to do the same thing.
While I was there, we planned a model workshop for a school in central Mumbai, aiming to convert the rooftop into a fertile organic garden. Providing healthy organic food for the kids at lunchtime and helping kids towards a better understanding of food production and consumption.
Isn't it a great vision?
The roof of a city. No concrete jungle, but rooftops, terraces, empty spaces creating a lush green jungle of biodiversity...
We should think greener, instead of concreter....
Mittwoch, 17. März 2010
Rajasthan
Like a dream.
But every day I open my eyes to a different reality, asking myself how did I get there…?
Of course there is an easy answer to be found. One of these days I stepped on a plane to take me far away all across the ocean, so when I stepped out of it again, I was welcomed by a different world around me. It’s a sensible answer but somehow little satisfying.
Really it’s a winding road of decisions, each as individual as the other, that got me here. Here and now.
Making a decision is just the beginning of things. Then one is driving into a strong current that will carry you to places one has never dreamt of before.
I might have dreamt before of going to Rajasthan. But it was rather like dreaming of it as a name, or as a shapeless place, painted with colors of my imagination.
Now, there is a pile of experiences and impressions behind that dream, all connected together to form this whole puzzle of memories that take a certain shape.
Experiences go beyond the places you see. The privilege of exploring different places around his planet is just the frame of experience, that will be engrained in your memory, whereas it’s the unexpected and the people you meet that will paint the colors of the painting.
Rajasthan is a beautiful frame of a place to visit, with all its history, palaces, temples, colors….and hospitality.
In a crowded train, that’s where my journey began.
When I got out of it, sitting for 22 hours on my backpack in a crowded train compartment, I was tired after that sleepless train time, I was exhausted and I was happy where I was.
Welcome to Jaipur.
I loved this rose city, with its beautiful buildings, little markets, tea stalls and beautiful Rajhastani clothes…I had a great time exploring.
In Agra, my next stop and the city of Taj Mahal, the fun part of exploring wasn’t as fun any more.
It was overshadowed by the vibe of the place.
It was sad to observe the large impact of tourism on a city, on a culture. The flow of tourists that this poor city and its inhabitants have to put up with is certainly overwhelming, even for me…..still I was a part of it, so I felt bad.
It turned into a hassle to move around, always trying to show a different image of a white person than just money and superficiality. In the end I had some great times and I met a nice family who wanted to adopt me as their new daughter in law, which, looking back on it now, was hilarious.
And the Taj Mahal is a magnificent monument, the symbol of love.
My next train ride was the beginning of an unique experience….I had the chance to be part of Indias most important of all traditions……an Indian wedding!! On the train I got to know an Indian family, who, after I accepted their kind and genuine invitation to join them for the celebration of their cousins wedding, got more excited about me coming than I was. For them, now I was one of their family members, they even called me daughter!
Whose cousin was getting married….well that, I never found out. I could not unravel the mystery of Indian family relations.
Indian tradition has a very different understanding of love than the society in western countries.
It was an arranged wedding, it’s both of the families that are in search of a suitable partner for their kids, and the role of the dowry is not to be neglected. The bride and the groom haven’t met each other before making the commitment of spending the rest of their lifes together. It’s a commitment, as divorce is just not accepted.
The ceremony takes 3 days, and as I mentioned before, every, even over 7 corners related family member comes to attend it.
Everything is paid for by the brides family, and by everything, I mean everything. Often the cost of an average marriage climbs over the payable limit of the families budget so they have to take out loans….
Crazy?
Its how you look at it.
For me, this idea of love def goes against many of my beliefs, and the anxiety that I could read in the young brides face, didn’t help me to convince me in a different way…Still I respect choices and cultures. So I respect this one.
Seen from the other side, for most of the Indians that I got to know at the wedding, the simple fact that a young girl would travel on her own in a different culture without any husband or male companion, was hard to believe.
I tried my best, and used the softest words, to explain why I was not married and why I would choose to travel….but in the end I would still look into confused, interrogative, brown Indian eyes…
I loved being at the wedding, and during these 3 days, I really felt like a part of this kindhearted family, that made me discover every little part of their traditions and rituals.
They dressed me up in a Saree, the traditional Indian dress, most women, especially when they are married, still wear.
For me, the fun part was just being in the middle of it, having the chance of observing everything around me, meeting all these family members, understanding more of Indian culture, and certainly, and this I do not deny, eating all this delicious Indian food.
It was a feast, and yes, I had a stomach ache the next day, but it was worth it.
I took some memorable experiences with me, and made friends for lifetime…
My next steps took me to Pushkar and Jodhpur. Two other magnificent cities. I loved Jodhpur, the blue city, where I hung out for a few days after heading back to Mumbai.
I had an amazing time in Rajasthan, even though the last 2 days on my journey there, I got really sick and spend a whole night in a shoddy Indian bathroom……but that as well, I told myself, is just a part of the Indian experience.
I hope that one day, my path will lead me back to Rajasthan, with maybe a backpack full of better Hindi knowledge, to understand even more of this rich culture….
But every day I open my eyes to a different reality, asking myself how did I get there…?
Of course there is an easy answer to be found. One of these days I stepped on a plane to take me far away all across the ocean, so when I stepped out of it again, I was welcomed by a different world around me. It’s a sensible answer but somehow little satisfying.
Really it’s a winding road of decisions, each as individual as the other, that got me here. Here and now.
Making a decision is just the beginning of things. Then one is driving into a strong current that will carry you to places one has never dreamt of before.
I might have dreamt before of going to Rajasthan. But it was rather like dreaming of it as a name, or as a shapeless place, painted with colors of my imagination.
Now, there is a pile of experiences and impressions behind that dream, all connected together to form this whole puzzle of memories that take a certain shape.
Experiences go beyond the places you see. The privilege of exploring different places around his planet is just the frame of experience, that will be engrained in your memory, whereas it’s the unexpected and the people you meet that will paint the colors of the painting.
Rajasthan is a beautiful frame of a place to visit, with all its history, palaces, temples, colors….and hospitality.
In a crowded train, that’s where my journey began.
When I got out of it, sitting for 22 hours on my backpack in a crowded train compartment, I was tired after that sleepless train time, I was exhausted and I was happy where I was.
Welcome to Jaipur.
I loved this rose city, with its beautiful buildings, little markets, tea stalls and beautiful Rajhastani clothes…I had a great time exploring.
In Agra, my next stop and the city of Taj Mahal, the fun part of exploring wasn’t as fun any more.
It was overshadowed by the vibe of the place.
It was sad to observe the large impact of tourism on a city, on a culture. The flow of tourists that this poor city and its inhabitants have to put up with is certainly overwhelming, even for me…..still I was a part of it, so I felt bad.
It turned into a hassle to move around, always trying to show a different image of a white person than just money and superficiality. In the end I had some great times and I met a nice family who wanted to adopt me as their new daughter in law, which, looking back on it now, was hilarious.
And the Taj Mahal is a magnificent monument, the symbol of love.
My next train ride was the beginning of an unique experience….I had the chance to be part of Indias most important of all traditions……an Indian wedding!! On the train I got to know an Indian family, who, after I accepted their kind and genuine invitation to join them for the celebration of their cousins wedding, got more excited about me coming than I was. For them, now I was one of their family members, they even called me daughter!
Whose cousin was getting married….well that, I never found out. I could not unravel the mystery of Indian family relations.
Indian tradition has a very different understanding of love than the society in western countries.
It was an arranged wedding, it’s both of the families that are in search of a suitable partner for their kids, and the role of the dowry is not to be neglected. The bride and the groom haven’t met each other before making the commitment of spending the rest of their lifes together. It’s a commitment, as divorce is just not accepted.
The ceremony takes 3 days, and as I mentioned before, every, even over 7 corners related family member comes to attend it.
Everything is paid for by the brides family, and by everything, I mean everything. Often the cost of an average marriage climbs over the payable limit of the families budget so they have to take out loans….
Crazy?
Its how you look at it.
For me, this idea of love def goes against many of my beliefs, and the anxiety that I could read in the young brides face, didn’t help me to convince me in a different way…Still I respect choices and cultures. So I respect this one.
Seen from the other side, for most of the Indians that I got to know at the wedding, the simple fact that a young girl would travel on her own in a different culture without any husband or male companion, was hard to believe.
I tried my best, and used the softest words, to explain why I was not married and why I would choose to travel….but in the end I would still look into confused, interrogative, brown Indian eyes…
I loved being at the wedding, and during these 3 days, I really felt like a part of this kindhearted family, that made me discover every little part of their traditions and rituals.
They dressed me up in a Saree, the traditional Indian dress, most women, especially when they are married, still wear.
For me, the fun part was just being in the middle of it, having the chance of observing everything around me, meeting all these family members, understanding more of Indian culture, and certainly, and this I do not deny, eating all this delicious Indian food.
It was a feast, and yes, I had a stomach ache the next day, but it was worth it.
I took some memorable experiences with me, and made friends for lifetime…
My next steps took me to Pushkar and Jodhpur. Two other magnificent cities. I loved Jodhpur, the blue city, where I hung out for a few days after heading back to Mumbai.
I had an amazing time in Rajasthan, even though the last 2 days on my journey there, I got really sick and spend a whole night in a shoddy Indian bathroom……but that as well, I told myself, is just a part of the Indian experience.
I hope that one day, my path will lead me back to Rajasthan, with maybe a backpack full of better Hindi knowledge, to understand even more of this rich culture….
Donnerstag, 18. Februar 2010
A taste of rural India
No matter where we go, what’s left to us is putting one foot in front of the other.
Leaving behind us the steady trail.
Often our steps’ direction is already predictable, able to be foreseen.
We always seem to follow up on something, call it a purpose, something we are pursuing with eager feet.
Stepping out of that circle, always brings a new dimension of possibilities with it.
Here in India, I never know where one of my many steps I take a day step is gonna lead me.
And sometime, suddenly there is a new door just opening in front of you with a new spectrum of ways you can go.
One of these steps took me to Ganeshpuri, a little village in northern Maharashtra.
It should be my first taste of rural India. Having spent some time in Mumbai, I welcomed that experience, one, that should open my eyes to a new understanding of the meaning of rural Indian life.
I came to Ganeshpuri to volunteer with an NGO, the Saha Astiva foundation.
They just recently set up a project for sustainable development in rural areas within India, mainly working together with tribal people.
The indigenous tribe in this particular area, the project was located in is called Adevasi.
There are nowadays, like in many other countries, very few of the traditional tribes remaining.
During the British occupation, most of the Adevasi people were used as workforce for building the railway tracks.
Today, most of them have to face a life in poverty, and the lack of options leads especially many young males into alcoholism.
For a living, Adevasi people often take on tough scheduled jobs in one of the many factories that are located in the vast urban outskirts of Mumbai, or, like most of the women and children, they work in the brick mills.
The project being located around brick mills, I had the chance to experience this rigid and extremely challenging manufacturing.
Hardest physical labor combined with a 10- 12 hour day, 7 days a week, that’s the daily grind.
Everything is done by hand.
A brick is sold for 1 rupee.
And what else is there to do if there are just so many mouths to be fed…
Other employment is hard to get, as there is lack of even basic education, a high illiteracy rate.
Getting to know these peoples’ life, and becoming a part of it, left behind a very strong impression.
What does it mean to be a human, and how can we attribute a value to someone’s life…?...
Yet again I discovered a warmhearted spirit, and a generosity that really touched me.
The idea of the project I have been working at , was creating more options in working together with the people and developing new methods for sustainable settlements for a future, that is valuable both for the people and for the planet.
Hereby, the focus lay on organic farming.
Teaching sustainable farming methods to Adevasi people, raising the awareness on conscious foods and health.
The concept is to develop a network of organic farmers, first, simply to spread the idea of it, to inspire people to grow organic food as well as to consume it, then to make organic food production profitable for farmers, on small and large production scales.
So a first step has been taken by creating the network MOFCA, Mumbai organic farmers association, that will soon run a weekly farmers market in Mumbai.
The project was all just in the beginning of evolvement, leaving much space for ideas from us volunteers.
When I came to volunteer, it has been running for about 9 months, so the main focus still lay in experimenting with crops and setting up a permaculture based farming.
I helped where help was needed, setting up a compost system, planting trees, growing….
I had a great time, working on the land, living out in rural India, being able to experience authentic Indian culture, and as well the natural beauty of the landscape.
Living was very basic, in a little strawhouse, with no plumbing nor electricity.
After a while my body clock just worked like the sun, and the amounts of sunrises and sunsets I have seen during these two weeks is hard to beat.
I learned a lot through the experience at Saha Astiva. Volunteering for an international NGO also offers a lot of networking experience. And this, especially in a foreign country and a new culture, is a very enriching experience, meeting local people with beautiful projects in how to make a change, and obviously connecting to other NGO working in similar areas.
I found it very inspiring.
And the great opportunity to be off the tourist track, to get involved, meet great people with lots of enthusiasm…
Rural India ?
Nothing is hidden, there is everything is in front of your face.
The lack of waste management, the lack of any care facility, the lack of options, the inequality ….
Personally I really liked that experience, as too often as a traveler I feel just like moving on the surface on things.
Its good to get involved and its always great to be surrounded by people who work hard for their ideals…
Mittwoch, 27. Januar 2010
Maximum city
Welcome to India.
Welcome to Mumbai.
There are 16 million people living in this megacity, and 60 % of them live in shantytowns or slums.
Of course these numbers do not represent a lot, and personally I do not like numbers either, but it might help you to understand the dimension of this fast growing city, and it might help you to fathom some of my personal experiences during my brief visit.
Mumbai is overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.
It certainly has its own flow, and that flow def involves some insanity. It took me some time to get used to it.
That flow for sure involves crowds, wherever you are and whenever you step outside, there is never nothing going on.
It’s a hard time, trying to avoid crowds , and when you catch one of the suburban trains in Mumbai on a normal weekday, you can call yourself lucky to find air to breathe. I would have never believed that so many people can fit on one train.
The crowding doesn’t step away from the traffic either. Having grown up in the countryside, I was def introduced to new dimension of just masses of people moving in any possible way of transportation every day.
On the street, there is everything that moves to be found. Cars, rickshaws, taxis, bicycles, people, dogs, cows, donkeys….
Most astonishing however that it all seems to work out. I mean, no one keeps to traffic rules, but somehow there seems to be an invisible law that keeps the total chaos away. Being used to drive in European traffic, it would have certainly been suicidal for myself to try and drive around Mumbai.
“Its an adventure crossing the streets of Mumbai”, a local man was shouting to me, amused by the sight of my debutant attempts of crossing one of them.
If you seek the calm, keep away from Mumbai. The beeping and honking and shouting never stops, as its the drivers’ method of communication. The city seems to bathe in constant noise.
My first encounter with Mumbai’s traffic was my adventurous taxi ride from the airport to Bandra, one of Mumbai’s suburbs, where I should meet my lovely couchsurf hosts Lauren and Micheal, two journalists from Australia, that took about 2 hours for about 8 kilometers.
Adventurous? Yes, even a taxi ride can be an experience, but don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed myself very much by staring out of the window, absorbing the craziness on the streets.
Lauren and Micheal were about to finish one of their articles, about the slum dwellers, an international NGO ,based in Mumbai, aiming to improve peoples’ life in the slums.
Dharavi slum is one of the biggest slums in Asia, and a huge part of Mumbai, all in all there are about 1 million people living in it. We choose that spot to take photographs for their article and interviewing some people doing businesses in Dharavi.
I want to add here, that I felt very uncomfortable during our visit in Dharavi, not because of what I saw, but of the feeling of being an intruder in the inhabitants’ life. I felt a bit voyeuristic.
I would have liked to show my veritable interest in peoples’ life, but my very little Marathi skills ( Marathi is the language that is spoken in Maharashtra, the district Mumbai is situated in ) gave me a hard time trying to do so.
Regarding this, the generosity we encountered is even more amazing.
People in the slums were generally very friendly and welcoming, willing to show us their way of living.
One boy showed us the factory he works in and we even got invited for pastry into a bakery, situated in the cellar of a building.
They were people who had not much to live of but willing to share everything they have. These experiences def gave me something to think about. It’s a kindness, we should take example of.
Of course in this density of living, there are as well many environmental problems involved. There is much pollution and by walking through some alleyways, one can def smell the sewage.
The rivers that flow through Dharavi serve as a dump.
Dharavi though, is not the only impression of Mumbai though.
It’s a city of extremes.
Poverty and abundance are existing just side by side.
The controversity of having and not having is ever apparent. You see families living in tents just in front of some fashionable condo blocks. This picture is very authentic for Mumbai, and I found this a very sad one, making me think a lot about justice, because I actually want to believe in justice, but that’s another subject.
The good thing though is that there are a lot of good people doing good things, so there is hope, for sure.
Another thing I want to write some words about is the gender situation, because I am daily confronted with it and personally I find it very hard to tolerate.
The gap between men and women in the Indian society is apparent.
Sometimes I have the feeling that I am not treated seriously, as if as anyway I would not have something important or interesting to say.
For me, I find it very difficult to judge how I should behave, being confronted with, in my view ,sexism. As then I fall into the conflict of westerners traveling to developing countries and the difficulty of finding a balance between tolerance and setting the limit for my personal dignity as a woman.
I appreciate my freedom, and I have a hard time negotiating with it.
But for me, obviously, that’s only a short termed problem, as long as I am not wanting to stay in India, but for the Indian women, it’s a daily fact, and that’s another fact, giving me a lot to think about.
Nevertheless, I do not want to spread negative feelings about India, as in fact, I am liking it a lot.
But I just want to give you an impression of life in India, and the thoughts and experiences I personally encountered, and that still follow me around.
I am daily amazed by the craziness, in a good way, and I find Indian people generally very warm- hearted, friendly, kind and very curious people.
Of course I get stared at, a lot, wherever I go, and the worst when I am walking around on my own, but most of the time, people are just curious, and when you actually speak to them, they show a lot of interest and respect. For sure I have to be nasty sometimes, especially to men, if they loose that respect, or to beggars when they follow you around and keep touching you asking me for money, but till now, a strong pronounced “no” has always been accepted.
Just as I mentioned the begging, well that’s another problem that I am daily confronted with.
As a foreigner I am just the perfect target. Sometimes my heart just softens and I give people a few rupees or I take them to one of the many many food stalls and buy them some food, what they take gratefully.
So I hope that I could give you a little impression about Mumbai, the maximum city, and I will try to write soon about India more.
Maximum city, by the way is a great book about Mumbai, written by Suketu Mehta.
Abonnieren
Posts (Atom)