Sunday, January 18, 2009

Himdia

(Note: I am writing on a really bad key board and so some of the letters are not coming up- sorry) Ok... so I am going to catch you up on what I have been doing since i wrote last... well, yesterday I had the honor of hearing the Dalai Lama speak! We went to a brilliant conference called "Global Congress on World's Religions After September 11th- An Asian Perspective." We sat 5th row which was amazing, and hearing His Holiness speak was incredible. I agreed with a lot of what he said, had/have MANY questions about some of his other points but to be honest, the most incredible thing to see was a crowed of people in such awe!! I have never seen people SO greatful to hear someone speak; everyone stood, everyone nodded, veryone smiled. Th conference was held at Jamia Milia Islamia, a Muslim university, and the audience was filled with some of the most brilliant professors, philosophers, and academics and then us, 15 students... woo. I sat next to this professor from Concordia in Montreal who came to this conference to talk aobut how he thinks that it is incorect to talk about religions as a foundation to war because people attach themselves to so many identitiess that we cannot jusst blame a problem on one specific identity. It is like that children's book about the guy with the many hats... everyone is wearing many hats and so, thi professor ague that one cannot say that a problem is ebcause of the blue hat when there is a red hat, a green hat, and a yllow hat on top. Interesting. It was hard to hear the man who oppened thee conference say that "the attack on the palestinians by Israel was unprovoked," I agree that it is wrong that innocent Palestinians had to die, but I do not think that that was unprovoked (not saying that becaus it was provoked it was ok...). Anyways, I loved how the Dalai Lama responded to that by restating that every side has a story and a perspective and we have to look at all sides. Well sais HHDL.
Oh oh oh, I forgot to say, so yesterday morning I made a few of my friends come with me to the Sikh temple at 4 am to see the temple without tourists. I thought 4 am was early- but th people "wake up the book" at 2:30 am and "put it to bed" at 10pm... LONG day of prayers and i thought yom kippur wa bad ;) ... anyways, the temple looked beautiful at that hour and it was cool to be ther eand see what h appens when we are usually asleep.
Last night I went out with a few friends- w went to an incredible bar with live music- I felt like i was in Manhattan again, the band was playing the Beatles, Janis Joplin, et cetera and it was brilliant to see all of these people (who look, dress, and drink like me) from th other ssid of the world singing ALL of the words to some of my favorite songs. SMALL WORLD.
Today we woke up and went to see Humayum's Tomb... words will not express how it looks... just think of Aladdin... I am not kidding I actually started to sing "A whole new world"... i will show pictures soon.
THEN we went to the Tibetan quarter and it was the best. Really unbelievabl- we ate Tibetan food (which makes me SO excitd to go to Dharmassala because I don't think i can eat rice and curry anymore sorry ). Wheen we were leaving we tried to get a rickshaw and before i knew it a cop was there yelling and hitting the cabbbies with his stick- I have no idea what happened but the police man was just walking and yelling and hitting the rickshaws- he even intentionally broke some of the mirrors- it was the most brutal thing I have seen here thus far- I forget that I am not in the US and I cannot say something and tell him to back off... so... yeah. That was not fun.
Finally, we got a rickshaw and he took us to the metro station- this man biked with 4 girls in the back and it only cost 20 rs. That is less than 50 cents- to be honest that was the hardest thing I have had to see in the past 3 days... he works SO hard and doesn't get paid anything- don't gt me wrong he probably has a good life but i cannot believe how hard he has to work for such a life.
We went to the New Delhi Train Station where, by the way, if a child is there alone it takes only 20 seconds on average for him/her to get kidnapped. That train station is actually one of the most dangerous places in Delhi. So, we got there and i REALLY had to go to the bathroom and so, i left thr group and ran to the closesst one. Don't be scared- the worst thing that can happen during the day is getting pick pocketed, BUT i cannot say how oevrwhelming it is to be surrounded by sso m any men. Delhi might as well be called Delhim because there are NO women in sight!! They are all at home with the kids and cooking so, when you walk down the street it is you and one million men. A bit much at times.
So, we went to the station to meet Brijesh- our tour guide for a street kids tour of Delhi-the organization that runs it is called Salam Balak (the one who started it was the mother of the woman who directed Salam Bombay or Salam Mumbai I dont remember). This tour was led by Brijesh, a 20 year old guy, who used to be a street boy. He ran away from home at th age of 6 because he thought that it was bullshit that he worked so hard for money but his parents took the money and didnt send him to sschool or anything. So, he left Bihar thinking "fuck it, if i am going to work this hard then i might as well take the mony for myself" so he boarded a train and firsst went to a small university town and thn made his way to Delhi. 60 Percent of the kids that run away are from Bihar.... 20% of those who run away are girls; however, you do not see th girls on the street bcause within seconds (literally, as above stated, 20 seconds in some places) they are picked up by pimps and forced into sex circles. Oh, also insane fact, about 30 run away kids come to Delhi every day. The kids on my trip asked if gang leaders or parents mutilate the kids in order to collect more money and we were told that that does not happen around here- it might in other places but not here. The worst thing that happens to these kids is that they are taken to factories that are hidden in this city and forced to work about 14 hours a day with no pay... the government "cant find these factories"/ are getting paid off by these factories and so, don't do anything about it. Scary. Brijesh told us NOT to give money to th kids because it only encourages them- he said that when he was living on th street he knew where he could go get free food and that there is always somewhere to go get free food- he said that NONE of the kids die of malnutricion ecause there is always food to be eaten. He said that he did/the kids do only spend their mony on movie tickets to go see Bollywood films and on drugs. Salam Balak is an organization that has contact spots around th New Delhi train station to give this kids food, medicine, and an informal education. They help 5000 kids a year on average and they hae temporary 24 hour shelters as well which housses these kids for a year and thn ither sends them home or find a family for them. So, we went to the shelter today. The kids were too cute- they were LOVING our cameras and so, all of the kids in my group just let the kids take pictures and took pictures of the kids yada yada, we couldn't speak to them because none of us speak Hindi but we smiled and played games with them and tried to make them laugh. It was cute but you cant give us a high five for that- it was really hard. These kids were sitting down on rugs that smelled so bad and were dirty and barefoot... BUT this is not because the shelter is bad, the shelter is actually fantastic, this is because this is India. That sounds mean and I am sorry but it is just what it is. It was just the first time i got that close to Indians... like hugging and so on. I was just shocked because this really is a different world. Ah, again, I am sorry because this sounds really pretentious and onoxious but i am not trying to be, it is just hard to see. BUT we can help!! We can either ovlunteer at the shelter or we can support one of the children for a year and it only costs about 500$. 500$ for the year. How much did you spend on your last family meal?? Exactly. Check out the website and pleasse donate OR OR OR send games, clothes, or bedding to the shelter. www.SalaamBaalaktrust.com That is my only promoting for today... i promise.
Speak soon!

5 comments:

  1. Elinor, i can't tell you how thrilled I am to be able to check up on you and read what you are doing in India. I hope that you'll be able to keep in touch this much in Darhmsala. You are in such a different world! Profit well from that! The things that you are experiencing sound incredible, I am so jealous that you got to hear the Dalai Lama speak-- that is truly a once in a lifetime thing and I'm so glad that you are taking lots away from it.

    I LOVE YOU. KEEP THESE BLOG POSTS COMING!

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  2. i love to read your experiences. keep blogging. i guess you do not have internet access as you have not responded to my emails . did you get a phone? lots of love imma.

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  3. Elinor,

    Your words about the children makes me choked up just thinking of the scenes of the slums and street kids in Slumdog Millionaire...I know it was just a movie, but from your description, it sounds somewhat accurate. I hope I can try to help in some way!

    Also too many men? Ha, I never thought I would hear the words coming out of a Barnard girl's mouth! Just teasing. But seriously have an amazing time - sounds like you already are.

    Athens is amazing as well! I just posted a blog so check it out.

    Much love,
    Mollie

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  4. elinor!!! i love you. this is SO GREAT! i showed it to my parents... hope you don't mind, but as you know they have a big crush on you, so they were excited.

    also, i know a GREAT girl from brown who is taking a semester off from school and going to india right now/in a few days. actually maybe she is reading this right now because i showed her your blog too! anyway you would love her, so i may put you in touch.

    i am so happy for you.

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  5. Just think-now you'll always be able to go to port-o-potties ...and go camping, and go without (your choice) for the rest of your life, or not.

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