Just a quick blog whilst I wait for the other OAPs to have their morning coffees in that haven of hygiene and cleanliness that we call Paul's hotel... I must publish the photo of the cockerel under the table or maybe the mangy cat and his great pal the mangy dog playing together under our feet. Quickly wanted to post message for son Daniel as I keep forgetting to mention something which I know would interest him and which certainly has his father obsessed. They have had two cobras in the garden of the guest house at BTC! Had thought we might persuade Hayley to visit and stay there, but maybe not! Off to enroll children now - suspect will be rumba big queue.

Blog 19 First day of teacher training and an auspicious day for enrolling your child in the Pachaikili playcentre

Wendy, Pam and I cycle the country route to the playcentre, which means running the gauntlet of snarly dogs rather than dicing with lunatic lorry drivers. En route we lose Pam when she is set upon by Mr Coconuts, our local water diviner, who presses some sugar cane upon her. We arrive to find three of our teachers waiting on the steps but no Sekar so no key. After a short while he turns up on his motorbike, apologising for lateness. We tell him we fully expected him to be tired after the last few hectic days and he explains that actually the plaque engravers were working til late because there was a power cut in Vellore, so they couldn’t start our job until 6 o’clock, so he didn’t get home til after 11 at night. Our bet is Mrs Sekar is less than ecstatic about visiting English folk who purloin her husband for long hours and days during their stay!

We gain access to the school but alas our new plastic chairs have not yet been delivered, so our young friend Balaji has to be sent for to round some up from various homes in Sitaramanpet. All in all, we make a late start at 10, but by then we have 5 of our 7 candidates for the teaching post and a couple of mums with their children. It seems that, today being Friday and therefore temple day, it is considered an auspicious day to bring their children to be enrolled. What is more those same mums saw the playcentre yesterday and thought it looked very inviting, so I guess they have thought that the best plan would be to lose no time in enrolling their children. We learn at this point that some of our toys – large cars and buses- have been lifted by some of yesterday’s children, who refused to be parted from them when they were dragged home! Efforts will have to be made to track them down.

We begin the day with some getting-to-know-you activities and all of the women seem immediately very open to talking about themselves and their ideas. After half an hour or so the 6^th candidate turns up –she has had to see her employer to get permission for time off. We spend the rest of the morning in a variety of activities and then at lunch time we have a delicious meal prepared by Nagadevi- the Self Help Group leader, and by Balaji’s mother. Andy and Brian are clever enough to arrive just in time for this. The community of Sitaramanpet seem to be ever willing to help us in any way possible. In the afternoon Balaji presents Pam with a letter for us all in which he expresses very simply but eloquently his gratitude and that of the people of his village, for the help which they have been given with their education ( from the One Candle Fund) which has enabled them to strive towards their dreams. They are grateful that their village was chosen ( actually precisely because there was such evident need there) and that now we have the school there too. He writes also of thanks to Carolyn of BTC, for the weaving work which they have given to their SHG, which has already made a visible difference to their lives. They know already of the chill wind of recession which is global, but being felt particularly harshly in the UK, and we fear for their futures.

In the afternoon session I ask the teaching candidates to play with the water, clay and sand. They do this in two groups and the group who go first to the water area are soon enjoying themselves very noisily. They and the floor soon become very wet! In the clay area they are much quieter, but none the less involved in their play and in the creation of numerous different objects and animals. One of the women guesses my elephant is a tortoise....As soon as they begin to play in the sand they begin what is obviously a traditional hide and seek game. One of the groups becomes very involved working together to create a huge fort – like the one at Vellore, and they cannot be torn away from it to come back to our group discussion!

The women all agree that the play sessions have been very enjoyable, that they have liked their chance to return to childhood and to forget all adult concerns. One of them says that she will understand her son’s pleasure in his play so much better now. All in all it has been a happy and productive day and I will look forward to our next session on Monday.

Blog 18 The Green Parrot flies!

Today has been a wonderful celebration for us all, because the Pachaikilli Playcentre and Pre school Resource Centre was inaugurated, with a great deal of ceremony and local colour. It is quite remarkable that Dr John only gave the order for this to happen on Tuesday, having obviously twisted Daleep’s arm firmly up his back so that our old friend had agreed to skip the last session of his CMC symposium and to come back and be guest of honour.

Sekar was given the unenviable job of Making it So – in the words of the great Jean-Luc Picard. He accomplished this we suspect by giving up on sleep for a couple of days, bless him. We are so very much indebted to him and his commitment to our project. He had to find a form of words for the ‘tablet’ or plaque, which Dr John would agree to; have it carved on a stone; have that stone cemented onto the outside of our building; fix a temporary curtain over it; invite all the dignitaries of CMC to the inauguration; draw up a programme (again with Dr J’s assent- no errors to be made in the order in which Important People speak...); purchase innumerable shawls and sandalwood garlands as gifts for same Important People; design and have made a huge plastic banner – complete with 3 flying green parrots garnered from the internet; organise the public address; put word out to all local people from Self Help Groups; make sure there is water on site; get engineers to connect electricity to next-door house’s supply(!); have 50 chairs sent up from RUHSA; and get a priest for the opening prayer and a large 5 wicked candle for ceremonial puja. In amongst all this he managed to shop with us three women in Vellore – see earlier blog- for play equipment, on Tuesday, and ditto further shopping with Andy and Brian on Wednesday.

Mr Immanuel organised a taxi for us all at 7.40 this a.m and off we set as we want to be early to set up the toys in the centre. Forgot to mention that Sekar had ensured that the toys were transported from RUHSA to the centre and even found a potter to donate us our first lump of clay. When we arrive we find that the site has been raked, tidied and gravelled and the plaque is firmly ( well to be honest the cement is still wet) in place. It is great and – I lost my bet in previous blog- has Daleep’s name in large letters across it. Ditto our names, but much smaller in the corner, and Dr John’s, same size! Not sure if I mentioned previously that Pam came up with the suggestion of Pachaikilli playcentre. On our first trip in 1991 we used to cycle in to the Barbara Jennings school every day, passing a tree full of green parrots. There is a lovely action song which the teachers used to sing which is about a green parrot singing- ‘Pachaikilli parum’.

Many RUHSA staff seem to be on site – and the engineers from CMC- to get everything set up, so while they are doing that we all start unwrapping our purchases and setting them out on the shelves. It doesn’t take us too long with all hands on deck and goodness does it look wonderful when the room is full of brightly coloured toys and books! Gradually the local women start to arrive and lend a hand, decorating the puja candle with flowers and fixing our scarves with pins ( discover Indian women have secret ‘pin stock’ about their persons for just such a necessity) They are clearly amazed with the play equipment. As more people arrive they bring with them some small children, who don’t hesitate to get stuck into the toys. An instant success of course. After some phone calls from Sekar we discover that Daleep has been taken prisoner by Dr J and is bogged down in a tour of RUHSA. One of our earliest associates from the weavers’ society, Karunamurthy, is talking to me and says ‘Daleep was always a punctual man’. Eventually, about 45 minutes late, Dr J arrives with Daleep and the first thing he says to all of us is ‘ I am so sorry to be late’. He hurries to get the curtain unveiled, then Andy is ushered forward to cut the ribbon- with a few words of Tamil and English- and in we all go to begin the ceremony.

Chairs are placed at the front for all 5 of us plus Daleep, Dr John, and Carolyn and David Whitwell. After the puja candle-lighting and prayer we are enmeshed in a positive shower of sandalwood garlands and shawl gifts – all very lovely and Kashmir wool apparently. During this Daleep is muttering to me about how much he hates to be late. Speeches are then made by all and sundry, with the longest being by me and then by Daleep. He has grasped very quickly, as I remember he always was able to do, the essence of what our centre is about and how it chimes with his ( and our) philosophy of development. He has picked up on my words about teaching the young children to make choices and to understand that they can take control of their own destinies and he goes on to talk about how impressed he is to see the changes in their communities, with people having taken control of their own lives through the Self Help Groups. Later when Susie Whitwell, Carolyn and David’s daughter, who is in K V Kuppam for a brief stay, with her friend Laura, says how impressed she was with Daleep, Mr Immanuel replies that ‘ He could impress anyone in two minutes’- which is a good way to express it.

It is all in all a super event, and we have to admit that we have greatly benefited from Dr John’s insistence on having Daleep there for the ceremony. Sekar has done a great job of translating all that we have said- Pam has spoken about the wonderful friendship shown to us by the community of Sitaramanpet; Wendy has spoken of her gratitude for the love she has found here in K V Kuppam over her 13 years of being associated with the playcentre projects. Sekar finishes with a rendition of the green parrot song and with that Daleep starts to insist on haste as he has a train to catch from Katpadi. We rush back to RUHSA for a lovely lunch, Daleep just has time to throw at us his copy of The Hindu which carries a gloomy editorial about economic prospects for Britain, and off he dashes. We feel the need for rest, as it has been an emotional day and also the weather has hotted up considerably this week. Teacher training starts tomorrow in earnest!

Blog 17 An afternoon in the insanity of Vellore

Yesterday Wendy Pam and I went to Vellore to meet up with poor over-worked Sekar ( trying to organise so much for our inauguration) He helped us find more toys and play materials - lots spent at the stationers especially on art stuff. While we were there a funeral procession passed by - dead man reclining on a flower covered cart, with coins over his eyes. Lots of banging of drums accompanied the procession. Am going to try to upload photo.

Blog 16 January 27th

Just a quick line to explain that the latest photo published is the view out of the back of the new playcentre building. Poor Sekar is as I write rumba busy running about trying to arrange our building's inauguration ceremony - with 'tablet' etc etc- all in less than 2 days. Just told him we want to call it Patchi-kili Playcentre. First word is an English transliteration of Tamil word for green parrot. All our names are to go on it as being present...

Pam-blog No 15 Monday 26th January Republic Day

We have been here in India just over two weeks and remarkably, when we look back over our stay, we have achieved quite a lot in the circumstances. By Saturday some of us are feeling pretty exhausted and frustratingly our planned meeting to discuss ‘costings’ is once again delayed due to arrival of upper management. Brian and I decide we need to catch up with Alemelu’s family in order to update her profile on the web site and we are desperate to see Selvi’s mum at Tutithangal so we leave the others drinking coffee at Paul’s Hotel with resident crows and take an auto rickshaw to BTC where we have lunch with Lee and George. We manage to persuade Selvi to come with us to Poonsoli to translate and off we go. Selvi knows a short cut which involves turning off onto a narrow uneven track which winds around the countryside, through people’s yards, through the bushes and along narrow ledges at an alarming angle. Round and round we go with Brian muttering about so called short cuts and Selvi shrieking with laughter every time we almost tip over into the snake infested scrubland. (We aren’t really sure it’s snake infested but after Selvi nearly had a close encounter with a cobra at BTC we are seeing snakes everywhere!) Eventually we emerge unscathed onto the Tutithangal/Vadaganthangal road and turn right to Alemelu’s house.

We haven’t seen the family for three years, at which time Sudha was about to give birth, so we are looking forward to finding out what other changes have occurred. As we walk towards the house the family erupt into the road and we are welcomed warmly. Tamil Selvi, wife of Suresh grabs my hand and leads me into the courtyard which is overflowing with people. There has been an explosion of babies including baby ‘no name’ who is just 15 days old, and it takes some time to match babies to parents and catch up on all the news. Thank goodness for Selvi who is able to translate. We were fortunate to attend the love marriage of Suresh and Tamil Selvi in 2005 and on our last visit we met daughter Monisha. They now have a son and Alemelu’s daughter Sudha, who was a schoolgirl on our first visit in 2003, now has three children! The most exciting bit of news is that Nuresh, brother to Suresh and Sudha, has fallen in love with and married a Muslim lady who has been welcomed into a Hindu household with love and respect. They have two beautiful daughters. What an amazing family they are and what a heart warming story!

We pay a very quick visit to Selvi’s home to see her mother who hugs us with delight and then drop Selvi off in time to cook supper for the guests and prepare for the arrival of Carolyn and David the following day. We are feeling pretty pleased with ourselves having managed to achieve what we set out to achieve with the minimum of fuss, including persuading Selvi that it was not necessary to cook supper and send it up to RUHSA. The team are suitably impressed- no-one so far has been able to deter Selvi from feeding us – but I suspect a little sad that we have to set forth instead to Paul’s hotel for dosai in the company of various dogs and mewing cats and the usual cacophony of a Tamil film blasting from the TV.

Monday dawns with the usual morning crow chorus and we are looking forward to our promised trip to the new and beautiful Golden Temple in Vellore. We have been invited to the 8am raising of the flag for Republic day but no one is very keen, especially as we are all still pretty tired after our mega trip to Chennai. We fail to attend. By 9am we are in Paul’s drinking coffee and waiting for Raghu and friends who are taking us to the temple. They are late and at first we think they are just operating on Indian time but eventually we realise they are not coming and we don’t know whether to be disappointed or relieved as it’s hot and we are all flagging. None of us relished the thought of queuing for hours to see the deity in the heat but we have heard such a lot about this new and marvellous temple, built by a local man who made his fortune, and we are sad not to see it. It seems unlikely we will be able to find time to see it before we leave. We later learn that due to a partial eclipse of the sun today all the temples are closed and that is probably the reason the boys didn’t turn up.

We’ve used our unexpected leisure time to catch up on our sleep and the scientist in our midst has taken up the challenge of solving the problem of the leaking water tank on the roof of our building. This has been a constant source of concern to us over the last few years. I was astonished that not only was the building still standing but in fact it had also been cleaned up and painted. No rats so far and only one cockroach and the remains of something that looked remarkably like a scorpion in our kitchen. The drain in the bathroom has been fixed and I miss the little green frog who used to live there but cannot now get through the grid. The one thing that has not changed is the amount of water flowing constantly from the water tank onto the roof directly above Sally’s flat. Andy was determined to do something about this and the result is a wonderful Heath Robinson contraption which directs the water through a pipe into a bucket balanced at an angle on a lump of wood and then into a drain pipe down to the soil below. We all feel much safer!

Some of us went to the market today and Wendy had the misfortune to pass the butcher’s stall just as the knife was about to slice into the throat of a poor little goat. Within seconds the head was laid down in the front of the stall and it was skinned and butchered in 60 seconds flat- Wendy’s words! She and Brian are now planning roast goat and Yorkshire puddings for next Sunday’s lunch.