11th January 2009
2009 Day 1We arrived at Chennai airport on time at 1a.m, on Sunday 11th January 2009. Clearing customs and passport control was much faster than previously and the airport seemed generally more modern and streamlined. Just no phone! But texts coming through rapidly on our mobiles. Pam and Andy changed money.
As we came out into the thick night air there was an enormous crowd waiting to greet passengers, amongst them Annandan- who was waving vigorously. Our driver was Mr Veejay whom I recognised from other times. We were soon in the vehicle, jammed in with our luggage, and on our way. The new 4 lane highway which apparently is to join up Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, is quite astonishing. It is now a fast, smooth ride and we took just 2hours to get ‘home’ to RUHSA.
Our usual flat has had a lick of blue paint and the woodwork is cream. We un-packed before going to bed and then some at least of us had a few hours of sleep, despite the loud crows, barking dogs and rushing trains. We spent the rest of Sunday remembering the old routines ie water managing, fans, boiling good old Wend’s kettle and remembering to turn it off, sharing 4 plastic cups, etc. We then went forth to dine at Paul’s hotel! It is still very similar though perhaps the walls are tidier and the coconut roofing is fairly new. The menu soon came flooding back to us. They are more conservative in their menus than even our local restaurants in the Aude, just tomato chutney with chapattis instead of cassoulet and tarte tatin....Still, we are grateful for pleasant-enough food and cheaper than chips. Can we afford another poppodum- ‘oppalam’ at Rs 5?! That’s 7.5p at current rates of exchange.
In the evening we learned that the wonderful Mr Immanuel had been playing hide and seek with us all day, using Ambaragan as a runner of course. So we all went along to his room to talk to him and to learn about the extraordinary and Machiavellian shenanigans which have made up the life of RUHSA since we were last here. Our heads were spinning as we staggered out again but as always Imms had made us feel that all would be well, that truly ‘there would not be any problem’. We agreed to meet again in Imms office at 9 in the morning.
January 12th 2009
By 9 we were outside Mr Immanuel’s office, in which had been arrayed 2 rows of wooden chairs. We spent a long time filling in forms- for sending to Vellore for the police, we think. We now have to register as tourist visitors under increased security arrangements. We had already filled in the RUHSA forms as we arrived in the middle of the night. Apparently we need to have our photos attached to the police forms. Jambalingam came in to talk to us, and Sekar was on hand to be part of the meeting. Great relief that he is to be allowed to be our main helper as he does have all the relevant experience. Imms rang Dr John and passed him to me to speak to. His main concern was to plan for an inauguration of the building. I said there is much to discuss with you and would it be easier for us to come to you in Vellore, or would he come to us? No no he said, I am coming to see you today around 12. He then spoke to Sekar and told him 1p.m. Dr John, I begin to detect, makes me seem punctual. And I am not! Imms most realistic guess was around 4.30.
In the meantime we went with Sekar to P K Puram to the office of the Block Development Officer, for a small ceremony at which prizes were to be presented for women who had taken part in cultural activities for Pongol. There were winners in the Rangoli patterns competition, in street theatre, mime and singing. The prizes were stainless steel dishes. Three women who had won singing prizes then sang for us, songs about female infanticide, about the need to educate your children, about the changing role of women
2009 Day 1We arrived at Chennai airport on time at 1a.m, on Sunday 11th January 2009. Clearing customs and passport control was much faster than previously and the airport seemed generally more modern and streamlined. Just no phone! But texts coming through rapidly on our mobiles. Pam and Andy changed money.
As we came out into the thick night air there was an enormous crowd waiting to greet passengers, amongst them Annandan- who was waving vigorously. Our driver was Mr Veejay whom I recognised from other times. We were soon in the vehicle, jammed in with our luggage, and on our way. The new 4 lane highway which apparently is to join up Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, is quite astonishing. It is now a fast, smooth ride and we took just 2hours to get ‘home’ to RUHSA.
Our usual flat has had a lick of blue paint and the woodwork is cream. We un-packed before going to bed and then some at least of us had a few hours of sleep, despite the loud crows, barking dogs and rushing trains. We spent the rest of Sunday remembering the old routines ie water managing, fans, boiling good old Wend’s kettle and remembering to turn it off, sharing 4 plastic cups, etc. We then went forth to dine at Paul’s hotel! It is still very similar though perhaps the walls are tidier and the coconut roofing is fairly new. The menu soon came flooding back to us. They are more conservative in their menus than even our local restaurants in the Aude, just tomato chutney with chapattis instead of cassoulet and tarte tatin....Still, we are grateful for pleasant-enough food and cheaper than chips. Can we afford another poppodum- ‘oppalam’ at Rs 5?! That’s 7.5p at current rates of exchange.
In the evening we learned that the wonderful Mr Immanuel had been playing hide and seek with us all day, using Ambaragan as a runner of course. So we all went along to his room to talk to him and to learn about the extraordinary and Machiavellian shenanigans which have made up the life of RUHSA since we were last here. Our heads were spinning as we staggered out again but as always Imms had made us feel that all would be well, that truly ‘there would not be any problem’. We agreed to meet again in Imms office at 9 in the morning.
January 12th 2009
By 9 we were outside Mr Immanuel’s office, in which had been arrayed 2 rows of wooden chairs. We spent a long time filling in forms- for sending to Vellore for the police, we think. We now have to register as tourist visitors under increased security arrangements. We had already filled in the RUHSA forms as we arrived in the middle of the night. Apparently we need to have our photos attached to the police forms. Jambalingam came in to talk to us, and Sekar was on hand to be part of the meeting. Great relief that he is to be allowed to be our main helper as he does have all the relevant experience. Imms rang Dr John and passed him to me to speak to. His main concern was to plan for an inauguration of the building. I said there is much to discuss with you and would it be easier for us to come to you in Vellore, or would he come to us? No no he said, I am coming to see you today around 12. He then spoke to Sekar and told him 1p.m. Dr John, I begin to detect, makes me seem punctual. And I am not! Imms most realistic guess was around 4.30.
In the meantime we went with Sekar to P K Puram to the office of the Block Development Officer, for a small ceremony at which prizes were to be presented for women who had taken part in cultural activities for Pongol. There were winners in the Rangoli patterns competition, in street theatre, mime and singing. The prizes were stainless steel dishes. Three women who had won singing prizes then sang for us, songs about female infanticide, about the need to educate your children, about the changing role of women
I was invited to make a small speech and remembered how to say ‘I speak a little Tamil’ – ‘Kunjum Tamil pesar’ and how to say ‘I am happy to be here’ – ‘Rumba santosh irica’. This is seriously pidgin Tamil!
In the end Imms’ guess for the arrival time of Dr John turned out to be best. Summoned to appear by the very loud telephone (!) in our flat, we walked up to his office and sat around the familiar long table. After the usual offering of fruit juices, Dr John launched into an offer of a ride to see the new building. Although it was getting dark almost at 5, we were keen to go. Dr John’s primary concern is definitely to set an inauguration date and suggested that we make it the date of Daleep’s projected visit ie 24/ 25th January. Daleep was the founder of RUHSA back in 1977 and is currently Director of Christian Aid. He is visiting Vellore CMC for a convention on those dates. He has promised to visit RUHSA and the Bishopston Tailoring Unit.
Dr John seems to understand that Sekar is key to our success as he has all the experience with setting up and supporting nursery schools and teachers. Sekar then outlined two possibilities 1) that we use the children who are enrolled for the government balwadi ( nursery school) and who mostly attend for the midday free meal or 2) that we enrol our own children and set up a management committee. I said it seemed to me we would probably have to use the local balwadi children because it would be unlikely that parents would actually send children to us if we were not offering a meal. But I felt it would be good to use the SHG –(self help group) model for managing the play centre because that model has proved very effective in many projects locally and does seem to enable local women to have a say and to develop skills.
We spoke briefly about how we will have to plan for funding the centre in future, since we in the UK will have no further means of raising funds. Suggestion of training government balwadi teachers in batches- which will presumeably bring in revenue. I said we will have to take great care about how many people are trained at the centre at one time as it is important not to overwhelm the school children and teachers, who must be our first concern. Other teachers from further afield may well be attracted to come for training there too and we spoke briefly about teachers from away being able to stay at RUHSA. We also touched on who might be the teachers at the school and the possibility of using teachers who have worked using our Play-centred methods in the local play centres which we set up and ran in the 1990s. All of these issues need to be discussed and pinned down in detail in the days ahead, but at least they have now been flagged up.
After this discussion we went – minus Wendy and with a visiting doctor from the UK called Arabella Onslow- to look at the new building. It looks very beautiful, set at the back of the coconut field.
In the end Imms’ guess for the arrival time of Dr John turned out to be best. Summoned to appear by the very loud telephone (!) in our flat, we walked up to his office and sat around the familiar long table. After the usual offering of fruit juices, Dr John launched into an offer of a ride to see the new building. Although it was getting dark almost at 5, we were keen to go. Dr John’s primary concern is definitely to set an inauguration date and suggested that we make it the date of Daleep’s projected visit ie 24/ 25th January. Daleep was the founder of RUHSA back in 1977 and is currently Director of Christian Aid. He is visiting Vellore CMC for a convention on those dates. He has promised to visit RUHSA and the Bishopston Tailoring Unit.
Dr John seems to understand that Sekar is key to our success as he has all the experience with setting up and supporting nursery schools and teachers. Sekar then outlined two possibilities 1) that we use the children who are enrolled for the government balwadi ( nursery school) and who mostly attend for the midday free meal or 2) that we enrol our own children and set up a management committee. I said it seemed to me we would probably have to use the local balwadi children because it would be unlikely that parents would actually send children to us if we were not offering a meal. But I felt it would be good to use the SHG –(self help group) model for managing the play centre because that model has proved very effective in many projects locally and does seem to enable local women to have a say and to develop skills.
We spoke briefly about how we will have to plan for funding the centre in future, since we in the UK will have no further means of raising funds. Suggestion of training government balwadi teachers in batches- which will presumeably bring in revenue. I said we will have to take great care about how many people are trained at the centre at one time as it is important not to overwhelm the school children and teachers, who must be our first concern. Other teachers from further afield may well be attracted to come for training there too and we spoke briefly about teachers from away being able to stay at RUHSA. We also touched on who might be the teachers at the school and the possibility of using teachers who have worked using our Play-centred methods in the local play centres which we set up and ran in the 1990s. All of these issues need to be discussed and pinned down in detail in the days ahead, but at least they have now been flagged up.
After this discussion we went – minus Wendy and with a visiting doctor from the UK called Arabella Onslow- to look at the new building. It looks very beautiful, set at the back of the coconut field.
A bore well still has to be sunk – and who is to pay for it?! And the electricity is not entirely joined-up yet... Still it is much more finished looking than we had imagined and very pleasing. No-one was there when we arrived (due to the Monday market? Or the imminence of the Pongol festival?) which meant there was no key for us to look inside. That will be for tomorrow, hopefully.
Supper at Paul’s – potato curry tonight, one of my favourites, then a session under the large tree in the yard with Arabella and her laptop. She has wi-fi access to RUHSA’s broadband so was able to show me how to set up this blog. Goodness, technology has made even more difference here than back at home, I think. Though the papers are currently full of the scandal of the Head of an enormous Bangalore-based computer company called Satiem ( means ‘truth’ in Tamil!) He has been fiddling or embezzling or some such and now the entire company is under threat with its many thousands of employees.
Back home in the hot dark night, with an almost full moon, and vast companies of crows splatting their shit all around in the dark. Watch out for the scrawny dogs and their micro-puppies. I don’t want a repeat of a previous visit and 6 rabies shots.
Supper at Paul’s – potato curry tonight, one of my favourites, then a session under the large tree in the yard with Arabella and her laptop. She has wi-fi access to RUHSA’s broadband so was able to show me how to set up this blog. Goodness, technology has made even more difference here than back at home, I think. Though the papers are currently full of the scandal of the Head of an enormous Bangalore-based computer company called Satiem ( means ‘truth’ in Tamil!) He has been fiddling or embezzling or some such and now the entire company is under threat with its many thousands of employees.
Back home in the hot dark night, with an almost full moon, and vast companies of crows splatting their shit all around in the dark. Watch out for the scrawny dogs and their micro-puppies. I don’t want a repeat of a previous visit and 6 rabies shots.
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