Sharing in Delhi

My three flatmates, like me, are all volunteers with Asha. Although Asha's primary focus is on health in the slums of Delhi, it also takes a long-term view and provides a wide range of training for different people in different circumstances. The volunteers living in the flat in C-9 are all English Teaching Volunteers (ETVs). All the ETVs are fluent in English and amongst our group, all have tertiary qualifications, although that's not a requirement for the job. We are enthusiastic about making a difference in the lives of others, even if it's only a few people at a time.


Bec (pictured above teaching) is an Aussie who has finished university and wanted to do something (a) different and (b) useful before she went into full-time work. She featured on the Australian Channel 7 National News last week. She had been filmed whilst the Channel 7 news team were covering the Commonwealth Games. The Aussie CWG athletes made a very generous donation to the work of Asha, so the news crew wanted to follow up with the work on an Aussie in the slums of Delhi. So if you saw that news broadcast, that's Mayapuri. I worked with Bec for a few days and then took over from her in Mayapuri. She's now having a bit of a holiday in central India, before heading back to the Land of Oz to look for a 'real' job.


Jess (pictured above sitting on the wall surrounding a 12th century tomb near our flat) is a Kiwi and is considering studying to be a teacher. She works in the Zhakira slum, which is over an hour's drive from where we live. Her classroom is a miniscule concrete box without windows, perhaps 3m x 3m. When there are more than 10 pupils on the floor, it becomes an impossible environment in which to teach. Although Aussies traditionally mock the Kiwi accent, Jess' Indian students have never noticed until her lesson on Friday. In a lesson about food, she wrote the word 'bitter' on the board and pronounced it for them. They all told her that she had mispelt it: No, miss, butter is spelt with a 'u' not an 'i'. She kept repeating it over and over again, trying to convince them that 'bitter' was a different word from 'butter'. We'll see how they do on the test. :-)

Anjuli is from England, and to make our lives so much easier, speaks fluent Hindi. The rest of us are struggling. Anjuli is a qualified language teacher and will be working with Asha for a year, designing curricula for different levels, overseeing lesson plans and making the lives of ETVs much easier.

All my flatmates are easy to get along with. We take turns to get up early to pump the water. Sometimes someones cooks and sometimes no-one cooks. I'll write more about food later. Now that Bec has left, we each have a bedroom to ourselves, but that will only last for two more weeks, then new people arrive.

Our routine is to get up early or later (depending on who's doing the water), have breakfast and wait for the driver, who takes us all to the Asha office. Those of us who are teaching in the slums (me, Bec and Jess) photocopy our worksheets, gather our resources like extra copy books and pencils, do any admin that needs doing (like paying the rent) then we head off to Mayapuri and Zhakira. We teach all day then find our own way home. By 6pm it is dark, but our market is open until about 9pm or thereabouts, so we sometimes do a little grocery shopping before dinner. Then it's lesson preparation for the next day, followed by a shower to remove all the grime, sweat and dirt accumulated from a day in a Delhi slum. After that it's a bit of a chat if we're in the mood, or we logon to the Internet to update blogs, send emails and so on. By 10 or 11pm the whole household is asleep, getting ready for another Delhi day!

Living in Delhi

On Friday 15th October I began the next phase of my travels, and perhaps my life. I moved into a flat in Delhi with three other English teachers. We are all volunteers with the Asha Society, an Indian NGO which works in Delhi's slums to improve health, education and living standards. Over the next few days and weeks I'll write more about Asha, my work and the children I teach. This blog entry will focus on our little flat in Sector C9, Vasant Kunj in southern Delhi. If you go to Google maps and search for 'Pocket 9, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, Delhi, India' you will be able to see approximately where I live.


By Delhi standards this is a middle class neighbourhood. In Australia and the UK, it would probably be considered a slum, which is ironic when you consider what a real Delhi slum is like. I can't photograph the outside of our flat because all the buildings are so crushed together, so the photo above shows the flats in the next block, and gives you some idea of what ours looks like - and how close it is! The photo to the right is the view from our front door.

The inside of the flat, and indeed most of the houses and flats in the area, are quite nice. Our flat has three bedrooms (each with two single beds), two bathrooms, a living room, dining room and kitchen. The floors are all tiled, and whilst all the furniture and fittings have seen better days, it is comfortable and very functional.


Living in Delhi, even in a middle class neighbourhood, has its challenges. For example, water is only provided for an hour a day. We take it in turns to get up at 7am and start the pump to extract water from the mains into the ground level tank, and then pump water to the tank on the roof. If it is not completed by 8am, then we have no water for the day. Our water pressure is gravity from our roof, and since we are on the top floor, that's very little. The photo on the left shows the ground level water tanks of our neighbours and ourselves. Ours is the one closest to the camera. Although it's a pain to do it this way, and we have to be really careful about conserving water because our supply is strictly limited, when you read about the living conditions of the slum kids, you'll see what a tremendous luxury it is to have water pumped into your home, and a toilet of your own.

We also have the blessing of electricity with that most wonderful of inventions: air-conditioning. After a hard day struggling in the oppressive heat of the slums, it is glorious to turn on the AC and relax, before having a shower. The electricity is reasonably reliable, compared to Pakistan anyway, although it is not uncommon for everything just to go off, then restart a few minutes later. At least we have electricity, and we can have a fridge to keep our food cold.


The street outside our flat is like pretty much every street in India - jam-packed with traffic, with horns honking constantly, the pavement has holes 30cm deep in places and in other places the holes in the pavement disappear into what is probably an underground sewer or drain. It smells bad, but then you get used to it, like everything else. In our neighbourhood, as everywhere, the rubbish is piled up periodically in the street, but not actually taken away anywhere. The cows, stray dogs and squirrels then pull it all apart looking for food. Bizarrely, we also seem to have a neighbourhood pig, which joins in the garbage-gobbling. It's the only one I've seen in India and I'm not sure if it belongs to someone or if, like the cows and dogs, it is just a stray.


I'm happy with mye little flat and it's great to have a kitchen in which to prepare my own meals. Now I just have to remember how to cook! :-)

Delhi's Red Fort and the Jama Masjid

After the Commonwealth Games were over for me, I had one last day of being a tourist in Delhi before heading off to teach English to slum kids. More of that later.


I walked to Delhi's Red Fort (not to be confused with the Red Fort at Agra), which was once a Mughal fort and has played an important part in the history of Indian nationalism and independence. There was not much left on the inside of the once-massive Mughal fort, after the British cleared it out in the 19th century. Still, the fort itself is an impressive sight and can be seen from quite a distance.

The Museum of Indian Independence was of special interest to me, as my own ancestors were involved - but on the side of the British. One ancestor, William Kelman, received a medal for his participation in the Affair at Kurnool in 1839, which the Museum described as one of the first coordinated moves towards Indian independence. The link above provides an entirely different view, and was written by a British Officer in 1911.


The other interesting viewpoint was that Indian independence in 1947 seemed to be attributed almost entirely to Subhas Chandra Bose, who opposed Mahatma Ghandi's views on non-violence and organised Indians to fight alongside Nazi Germany and Japan in World War II. Gandhi and his part in the struggle for independence was seen as very much a small part in the story. Although he is mentioned, Gandhi has some photos and a diorama of him, whereas Bose has several galleries devoted to his life and his wartime exploits.

My next stop was the Jama Masjid, a large mosque built around 1650 by Shah Jahan, who also built the Red Fort. The ushers were grumpy and rude, and insisted that all westerners wear ridiculous outfits (see the photo below) regardless of how well they were covered and whether or not they were actually Muslim. Not much to say about this mosque - if you've seen mosques before there is little special about it, apart from its age, and the attitude of the custodians makes it an unpleasant experience. As a rule, Indians are overwhelmingly friendly and helpful, but as with anywhere, there must be exceptions to the rule.

Two Religions

In between visiting Commonwealth Games venues, I managed to squeeze in some more sightseeing of a spiritual nature. First on the agenda was the Bahai temple, shown above. It's the latest in a line of massive Bahai temples, each with nine sides. From the outside, it looks a lot like the Sydney Opera House, if it was folded up. There's not much to see and do here, since absolute silence is required inside. Visitors are ushered into the temple in groups of about a hundred, then they sit quietly, then leave. I was interested to see whether it was possible for a crowd of Indians to be absolutely silent, especially after seeing and hearing how impossible it was to achieve this during some of the CWG events, even after repeated requests, stoppage of events, and so on. Maybe the crowd that goes to a Bahai temple as tourists is better behaved than their sports-interested compatriots, because it was actually fairly quiet. It was a great deal quieter than the catacombs under the Vatican, where you can see the graves of the Popes. Michaela and I visited Rome last year and were startled at the holiday atmosphere at the Popes' graves, with people laughing and joking, jostling each other and generally goofing about, all the while the Vatican ushers were going around loudly saying 'Shhhhh' every few seconds. Maybe the Vatican ushers should take lessons from the Bahai ushers in maintaining silence in a sacred place. :-)


Most of the visitors to the Bahai temple in Delhi were not followers of that faith, as was shown a few minutes after exiting the temple. We were all required to be in bare feet, and the tiles around the temple were blisteringly hot, so someone decided to sit next to one of the nine pools surrounding the temple and dangle their feet in. Everyone else quickly followed suit, as the photo shows, and so did I. It was absolutely blissful, feeling the cool water around our very hot bare feet. This lasted for several minutes until a small posse of security guards swept down and ordered us all the get our feet out of the pools, which we did. Playtime was over.


After retrieving my sandals and going to the museum of Bahai history, I headed off to the ISKCON temple next door. ISKCON is the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, usually just called the Hare Krishnas in the West. Most of the devotees seemed to be Indian, with a few Westerners thrown in, and all were dressed in the characteristic pale orange robes with shaved heads and a tiny ponytail.


The highlight of this visit was the 'Vedic Expo', which was an over-the-top sound-and-light extravaganza, explaining the principles of the Hare Krishna faith (they are basically a denomination of Hinduism, which focusses purely on Krishna). I was let into a pitch-black room, all alone, then there was a lot of crashing and banging, followed by a lecture on the faith, all the while different parts of a static diorama lit up. I was then ushered into another pitch-black room and the process was repeated. This is definitely not a place for children, with almost total darkness, apart from strobe lights on some really scary-looking figures, and lots of loud noises and shouting. Not exactly my cup of tea for a religious experience, so joining the Hare Krishnas is another career choice that is now out of the question for me, along with sports photography.

Incidentally, there were a bunch of Hare Krishnas (Indian and foreign) singing and dancing at the exit of one of the CWG venues. The local people seemed to regard them much as we do in the West: try to walk around them and just keep moving. :-)

My Commonwealth Games - Diving and Ribbon Waving

The last two events of the 2010 CWG in Delhi that I attended were the 10m Diving Finals and Rythmic Gymnastics Finals (you know, that thing where young girls in sparkly suits wave ribbons about), both held on Wednesday 13th October.

I attended the diving specifically to watch Matt Mitcham, who was probably the only Australian athlete whose name I knew before the competition. It was really interesting to see live, as opposed to televised. For one thing, there is a 30 minute warm-up period before the actual event. There were two 1m boards, three 3m boards, and three platforms at (I think) 5m, 7m and 10m. What was great to watch was that every board and platform was in simultaneous use as the divers warmed up. Someone would do a brilliant dive off the 10m platform while others did their moves from the boards or other platforms. There was a constant flow of fit young men, flinging themselves into space in the most graceful of ways. The photo above shows Matt Mitcham during the warm-up. Note the empty stadium.

There was also a man dressed as a CWG official, who did a Mr Bean-style tumble off the 10m platform, after pretending to lose his glasses in the pool. It was very silly but great fun.

There were three Aussie men in the finals: James Connor, Ethan Warren and Matt Mitcham. They all performed creditably. After 4 of the 6 rounds, it became obvious that it was a showdown between Tom Daley of England and Matt Mitcham of Australia. Then Tom Daley scored a perfect 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10. Unbelievable. Matt came back with a great dive but then his last one was a shocker, scoring 6s and 7s. And so the gold went to Tom Daley with the silver to Matt Mitcham. I must admit, it's the only time in the Games I've actually felt disappointed. I guess that's because of my expectations. I expected Matt to win and when he didn't, I somehow felt silver was not quite good enough. It's crazy the way the mind works.

Incidentally, I had breakfast the next morning with Tom Daley's uncle, who happens to be staying in the same hotel as I am. Nice chap. Made me feel better about him getting the gold. :-)

When the diving was over, I raced over to Indira Gandhi Stadium to catch the last hour of the ribbon-waving thing. When I say 'raced', I really mean crawled along in Delhi's appalling traffic, weaving about in an auto-rickshaw (three-wheeler, Australians call them tuk-tuks), listening to the blare of car and auto horns, driving up the wrong side of the road, dodging police wherever they were.

As usual, once I'd made it through the traffic, there was still a 2km walk to the stadium, followed by several security checks, including a radiation detector. I wasn't radioactive, in case you were wondering.



I saw lots of ribbon waving, and ball wobbling, and something to do with rope twirling. Some of it was quite entertaining. Some of it was saddening, for the performers for whom I'm sure it is a very important sport. Like when they drop the ball and it bounces off the stage, then they have to prance about to pick up another ball, all the while trying to pretend that this is all part of the act. Or when the Aussie girl put the ball behind her back, bent forward, then reached back and couldn't find the ball. The look of terror on her face was something to see.



Anyway, Australia's Naazmi Johnson won gold in the individual All-Round Final. As I knew that this was the really, really last time I was going to sing my national anthem in public (well, for a long time anyway) and as there was no-one else left in my stand, I decided to belt out the words at full volume. This caused enormous hilarity amongst Indians in other stands, who came scampering over to videotape me singing! I'm glad that I brought so much joy to the remaining spectators. Maybe I'll be on youTube one day. :-)

My Commonwealth Games - Athletics

Watching the last night of the athletics at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi was an absolute highlight of my visit to India (so far!).

I got to sing my national anthem (loudly and badly, but enthusiastically) a total of four times. That's a great feeling. I met some Kiwis who were running late as they had just watched NZ win the gold in the Rugby 7s. They were ecstatic! They were in Delhi to watch their nephew compete, confirming my earlier suspicion that I am the only foreigner watching the CWG in Delhi who is not related to an athlete. I wonder if I could adopt one.

So what was so great about this night? Well, first of all, I got to meet Jacob Groth who was in the Australian Men's 4 x 100m relay. They placed 4th in the final, missing out on a gong by just 0.25 of second. They were great to watch. Not being the shy type, I asked Jacob to sign my ticket for me, which he graciously did. Even better, he gave me his competitor number from his running shirt (#1045). It is a really cool souvenir which he also signed. It totally made my night. He was very friendly and his family were soooo proud of him. What an accomplishment!


Australia won gold in the Men's Pole Vault (Steve Hooker), the Women's Pole Vault (Alana Boyd), 4 x 400m Men's Relay and the Javelin (Jarrod Bannister). All the competitions were a delight to watch. The photo shows the Aussie Men's 4 x 400m Relay Team who leapt the barrier separating the track from the crowds, to come to our stand.

Another highlight was the Women's 5,000m, which saw Kenya place 1st, 2nd and 3rd. As those women ran around the track they just looked so fluid and synchronised - they were a real pleasure to watch. The photo at the top of this page shows them racing by, in a blur, with no-one within cooee of them.

Finally, the big surprise of the evening was the Indian Women's team winning gold in the 4 x 400m Relay. Not just a surprise to me, but to the commentators, the media and the 64,000 Indians in the stands. It was an absolutely brilliant experience. It became obvious after the 2nd baton change that the Indians had a chance of winning a medal - something that's really unusual for them in athletics. Then when the 3rd baton change occurred, the runner just took off, leaving everyone else for dead. The crowd was going absolutely apoplectic with excitement, including the Aussies and Kiwis who for once were cheering on the same team: India!

When the last runner sped over the finish line in 1st place it was pandemonium in the stands, with 64,000 people jumping up and down shreaking with delight. If joy was something that you could measure, on this night it would have gone off the scale. It was awesome to see so many people so happy.

Now at CWG events, most of the Indian crowd leaves about an hour before the end, leaving the stands abandoned to the few diehards and people like me who are just enjoying being there. On this night, no-one left, as everybody waited for the chance to sing the Indian national anthem when the Women's Relay team were presented with their gold medals. Within seconds of the medal ceremony being over, I would say that 60,000 people stood up and made a beeline for the exits, causing much crushing and confusion. But they organisers had a trick up their sleeves: they played 'Jai Ho' on the loudspeakers. It had an instantaneous effect: everyone stopped making for the exits and started dancing in the aisles. What a sight! What a method of crowd control. :-)

By the time the last medal ceremony was over, there were perhaps 100 people left in the stands. I made up for their absence by singing very, very loudly. :-)

Humayun's Tomb

I took a 'day off' from the Commonwealth Games to do some sightseeing. On Tuesday I visited Humayun's Tomb. Humayun was a Moghul emperor who lived in the 16th century. His magnificant tomb is considered to be a forerunner of the Taj Mahal, and has the distinctive dome copied later at the Taj. By contrast, Humayun's Tomb is not of solid marble, like the Taj, but of mixed red sandstone and white marble, giving it a really striking effect. It is surrounded by dozens of acres of 'Mughal gardens', which include many fountains and water channels. It was peaceful, beautiful and quiet.







The last picture is of the tomb of Humayun's prime minister.