January 24th 2012 Morrises and Whittinghams return

After an absence of two years, here we are- four of us anyway- back at our project in S India and, by popular demand of faithful followers (son Dan and friend Jude!) I’ve resuscitated this blog. We are Pam and Brian Morris and Andy and Sally Whittingham and the ‘I’ of the blog is usually Sally. Our lodgings this visit are at RUHSA campus and in the very flat where we stayed for our first visit in 1991 and of which Dan might therefore have some memory. Nothing too much changes in all the years; same dusty non-designer concrete floor, blue washed walls, institutional cream windows and doors, same seriously uncomfortable wood and cane lounge suite and single beds with candy-striped cotton sheets (well-worn)


Usually on previous visits we have had the wondrous Wendy with us, who could utterly be relied on to bring ‘stuff we might need’ eg medications, ointments, pegs, string, plasters, a kettle etc etc. We did remember a kettle and thank heavens, as tea-boiling constitutes the only catering we can manage. However hard one scrubs and cleans in India- be it one’s own body/ hair/ clothes/ dishes/ the toilet- it is just impossible to feel anything but grubby all day long. Still we have the bottled water and we’ve dared to clean teeth from the tap without any dire consequences as yet.
After just one week here however yesterday we encountered our first plumbing problem... A loud and ominous gurgling from our en suite squatter toilet indicated that – oh joy!- after the posh neighbouring Morrises flushed their ‘English’ loo, that which was blocked by filthy visitors’ awful toilet-paper usage came gushing back up into our hole in the ground. Within the hour though two lucky chaps had been designated to push sticks vigorously down the pipes and phew! Problem solved! Alas now we are under strict instructions from the administrator, Mr Vinoth ‘No toilet paper!’


Time for more pleasant images from our first week. We braved the main building on our first Monday, all of us dreading to see the office where Mr Immanuel always sat, his huge frame silhouetted against the window, always always the warmest ‘ welcome, welcome’ for us all, his white teeth flashing in ready smiles and always something to laugh with us about. We encountered first Vartzella, the secretary, and shared some tears and memories with her, which made us know that it was far from being just us who grieved so sorely for his loss. It is apparent in every conversation we have with anyone on RUHSA staff that his lovely person, his warmth and his ability to fix any kind of problem- practical, social, emotional, are sadly missed every single day. Poor Vinoth, the young man who now sits in his seat, what an impossible act to follow. But we have been made so welcome by him and he has a ready smile and warmth which recall Mr Immanuel very much. And as you see from the above paragraph, he is good at sorting practical difficulties!


So much else is beautiful here too, despite the poverty and the squalor. We cycle most days to Seetarampet village for the pre-school/ elderly centre, and to visit our friends in the village. Now that bums are somewhat inured to the rock-hard saddles, the ride is lovely before the midday heat, past fields of bright green young paddy, through areas shaded by coconut groves, through villages where everyone shouts ‘hi, how are you?’ or ‘vanicum’ in welcome. We pass a giant blue statue of some chap- not stopped yet to see which politico it represents- and he is wearing a huge pair of Elton John in the 70s type specs. Hilarious effect.


Our welcome in Seetarampet has of course as always been overwhelming. The teachers and ayah in the Patchikili centre are obviously still working with great commitment to the project. The children just love their pre-school experience and are gaining all the time in self-confidence. Two local women come in each day to cook food for the elderly people. The women are members of the SHG - self-help group- which manages the centre, and they cook on a rota for a week at a time. We had left last visit in 2010 with the understanding that the elders would have only snacks, like the children do, but the elders didn’t think much of this idea and they certainly do appreciate the great food that the women provide as cheaply as possible. There are implications for costing of course for the future sustainability of the project and given the hard work it has been in the last four years to fund-raise, as four individuals without a large charity behind us, we have to be cautious. Pam the treasurer, who has worked tirelessly and raised a great deal, keeps reminding me of this gently but firmly.


We have as ever been deluged with requests to come and eat ‘ Sapida sapida’ at everyone’s home. So far we have eaten with Raghu and with Balaji’s families, and with Selvi at Tuthitangel- although of course we don’t eat with them, but tend to be fed as honoured guests, cross-legged on the floor, with a banana leaf for a plate, and enormous quantities of everything especially rice. Our daily food is otherwise taken at the 5 star Paul’s hotel at the entrance to the Ruhsa site, where no health and safety inspection is every likely to take place and certainly not to be passed. The tables are never cleaned as far as we can tell, and the crows are ever ready to dart in quickly and snatch a mouthful. Nonetheless we do enjoy what Paul cooks very much. Odd what one can get used to. For breakfast it’s puree and a vegetable curry and perhaps a lentil burger ( a woday). Difficult to calculate what points Weight Watchers would allot to that...We eat a lot of bananas as they are plentiful now and we’ve also enjoyed guava fruit and papaya. In the school garden the teachers have nurtured several papaya trees from seeds, which are now higher than the building after less than three years.


Already we have had quite a few meetings, with Sekar and Joseph, with members of the SHG and yesterday our first big meeting with Dr Rita, the director of Ruhsa. The SHG gave us some ideas for fund-raising locally (buying gold-plated jewellery to be hired out for weddings; bulk-buying food items like lentils and rice, to sell locally for a small profit). We have had to tackle the young brothers who are employed to be our night-watchmen, to pump water every morning, to keep the site clean and to sleep in the building at night. Apparently they haven’t been doing the work properly at all. Strangely as we arrived yesterday to have a meeting with them, they were hard at work clearing scrub! Word gets round in no time in this part of the world. So I had to do a stern big-boss act and they are on a month’s trial to see how they shape up. Balaji always says I am good at communicating with body-language so Pam kept nudging me to do my best stern and ferocious look.

Just one other event of note to report. On Sunday Pam and I went with our teacher Padmini and her family to a Hare Krishna meeting in Katpadi. Quite an experience and now we know the easy Hare Krishna, Hare Rama mantra and have to learn to chant it many times every day. The poem below conveys something of the experience.
Hare Krishna

We are chanting Hare Krishna
With the men in orange robes
Stand and echo Hare Krishna
As mosquitoes hum and buzz
In the thick and throbbing twilight
Sudden dropping blanket dusk
Small bells ching and incense rises
Eerie calling of the conch
O it’s cool out on the rooftop
Where the monk begins to preach
Men and women even children
Sit in silence as it flows
Words like water pour and babble
Soothing fluency of rain
In the search to be enlightened
It’s the Hare Krishna way
Hare Krishna Hare Rama, chant repeated
Much repeated, every day
So the mantras weave enchantment
Till the soul is soaring free