Political Exile

Last week I was visiting the Loyola Teacher Training Institute in one village Krishnankuppum. To have a college level institution in a village is one thing amazing in itself. The fact that this school turns out students with the highest ranks in the district creates that much more credibility. I had met with the director at the Pongol Holiday function and he invited me back to visit the school which unbelievably actually happened. I observed classes, wrote and received letters from the students, and talked about future developments. Always in India, everything boils down to money. The financial obstacle is the most prominent in any interaction with an organization or school to a beggar or performer on the street. I had a good experience and then decided to continue my time with this director, Dalit Arockidoss. We went to Chennai for some political experience and most importantly, one meeting uniting many of the Christian Educational and Political movements in Tamil Nadu. By this point in my journey, most of my time has been spent with priests, sisters or in Christian institutions, so I was hesitant, but this experience seemed interesting to me because Dalit Arockidoss is basically against most interpretations of Christianity and he wants to educate people to use religion in a positive not desperate or dependent way. He has a let it be how it will be philosophy. So I joined this excursion through the Dalit Christian Liberation Movement (DCLM). I attended one small meeting with only the DCLM, about 10 members, standing on a road alongside a fence by a Christian church and school. There were no rooms available for us contrary to what we had expected. This meeting relocated to another church led by a local bishop and then about 40 people filtered in within one hour. Only one woman attended, she is a minister. We were the only two female participants. I found the discussion interesting, but achieving one platform to unite with a political party still seemed like an impossible task, this was largely caste related. Afterwards the DCLM went to BSP parties clubhouse where I began my political exile. Without pages of detail, the BSP wants to unite all castes and people through politics, but they have given many seats to high caste rich people so they are exhibiting some corruption. In the UP there is a Dalit woman who is the CM and a BSP representative. She wants to gain power in TN. Having a Dalit acting as CM is a great provocative way to battle oppression, but through her activities, she now has more crows that most other politicans and CM's. Thus the corruption continues as people still don't respect her because she is a Dalit which is why she has not succeded in becoming the CM of TN. The DCLM wanted to get some seats through the party to contest in the election and my presence was equivalent to foreign money so I went for a walk and took a nap in the car. The following two days included related events at the BSP clubhouse and attempts to get the paperwork for one of 40 seats with the party. Each time I took a necessary nap in the car. Late nights of political discussions and venting with huge afternoon meals at hotels (restaurants) in political force of 10-20 people was definitely worth sleeping fewer hours. The final day in Chennai the DMK Chief Minister Karunanidhi was coming to their headquarters and I became a foreign press agent in the lineup that was organized to welcome him. Karunanidhi is 87 years old, ridin' a wheel chair and has just been released from the hospital. He always wears dark expensive sunglasses. I was woken abruptly and rushed from the car to join the masses. Still in a slight daze I placed my own $3 sunglasses on and hobbled after Dalit Arockidoss to the crowd. Immediately my bag was searched and three security guards had surrounded me. We crossed the center from one side to the other and a guard pulled me away from Dalit Arockidoss. Oh NO!! I thought, but abruptly I was forced into the small grouping of 5 women watched by a pushy woman in a lilac chury. I managed to snap one photo of Karunanidhi's arm and the rest just the masses of men wearing white. People rushed the car and Dalit Arockidoss suggested I do the same, so I slipped behind a hut and through a gate to join the news crews. Immediately a guard told me I was not allowed to take photos. Only me, next to the crowd of 20 photographers and videographers was given this command. A small man in a bell hop uniform told me to follow him to take some photos and I glanced at the security guard and did, but there were too many people to have even a fighting chance, so i retreated , joined Arockidoss and wiped my sweaty brow. What Arockidoss says is definitely true the whiter you are the more corrupt you are.

Camels and Monkeys Galore!

Before coming to India I had a conversation with three native youngsters whose parents had immigrated to the US and were just about to have their fourth child. This was part of my preparation and intense informative sessions so generously organized by Phil and Nancy. I asked them prompted by their parents what animals you could find roaming India and they told me monkeys, cows, elephants, chickens and more! My interactions and sightings have been mixed and surprising. Every night, no matter where I am, I live with biting red ants, hazardous mosquitoes and croaking lizards that are almost translucent. The other evening at the RC Sendivakkam school a frog became my roommate. During the day while the insects are resting the monkeys roam. Everywhere. India has many national parks and zoos, most of which are well kept and highly touristic. They have white tailed deer, bird sanctuaries, elephant rides and nice paths and greenery. The monkeys are altogether overpopulated and imposing on peoples' families and shops. They live in the temples, dangle from coconut trees, and swing onto your roof. They will swarm your front door in the afternoon hoping to steal your lunch. They will have sex on the side of the roads and inhabit the school children's hostels. They are worse than the stray dogs whose mange covered coats are red and irritated. The dogs fight each other and sometimes pose a hazard to bystanders. It is best to create a safe perimeter, like an attendee at a cockfight their snarls and barks give warning for ferocious bites and brutal scratches. Typically only using three legs their stamina and breeding habits mimics that of the local women. The female dogs are always pregnant, but I seldom see puppies. The first and only time I have seen camels was on the streets of Chennai, it was like a moment from 'Aladdin', multicolored blankets and fringed bridles decorated the 8 or 10 camels walking majestically down the road past a gas station. Families have cows, goats, buffaloes, chickens and children (this is a joke, but in reality they are unhygenically linked to the animals that live with them on their property and in their homes). While visiting one school a goat was placed in my lap and this being unusual for me I didn't touch the goat so it ran wildly through the classrooms. I then needed to be the goat herder and somehow with the help of 5 students managed to get the goat stabilized on a bench, though I still had to hold it. It was bleating and scared like the pre-school students arriving at school in the mornings, not wanting to leave their mothers arms. The cows roam the streets of the city and I spot them munching on brightly colored posters and looking for small grassy plots. Cow paddies are everywhere and half of the time walking you should be looking down for either a cow poo or a human one will pass you by. Driving more rurally, the brake inspectors as Pastor Peter Paul Thomas calls them will make sure your attentiveness and vehicle maneuvering are at their highest level. Sometimes they will be running, sometimes traveling in huge packs meandering as they wish impossible to pass until the herder pokes and prods them in the right direction. Unfortunately for one huge buffalo the car he was inspecting did not have good brakes and therefore he lost his life. This life specifically took up half of the road he was a mammoth! It's a dangerous job, but since he police are negligent responsibility get passed along. I saw an iguana like the one I used to have crawling on the ledge next to Preem's house. Preem is also a monkey intimidator and his dance with a broom handle is not to be taken lightly. If only my iguana would have found his way to India, I'm sure he would have been happier than enduring the torturous care I neglected to give him. As bothered I am by the insects constantly crawling on me or the hornets invading my bathrooms building their immaculate homes alongside a mirror, the locals don't take any notice, this is life and I'm working on adjusting. One thing all the animals share is their understanding of Tamil and rarely English, so there goes another barrier for my communication obstacles!

Doing so much when it seems like so little

As I write this in a revolutionary mindset (as usual) listening to the Flaming Lips on my Ipod, one of my small indulgences, I can literally watch the city of Chengelpattu changing around me. There are buildings sprouting up all through the Ranga Street Apartment neighborhood where workers make makeshift shacks and sleep on mats on top of trash littered streets. They cook here, brush their teeth here, and their toddlers yell at monkeys that attempt co-habitation. The economic stimulation is always mixing with the extreme poverty. How can one organization like Lead Forward have any hope when it is surrounded by an overwhelming despair? I can easily tell you how. From the first moment that a student of ours speaks to me in English and clearly understands my speech to the good marks and comparative conversations I have with priests at Christian schools these moments motivate and pulse with our LF students determination and motivation. I wish they could chant "We Will Overcome" in a rally down the streets of Chennai. From our one college student Tamilarsi calling herself black beauty to our new sixth standard student Nitiya Deeshika reading her own sponsors letter in English and seeing her clutch the 8.5x11 white paper with some indescribable compulsion. I am working with Phil to develop relationships between our students and the Lead Forward India leaders, the students don't yet understand which relationships are going to affect their future successes. Will it be those with their parents, sometimes inhibiting for guiding purposes, or those with their teachers who hopefully they will use as role models and keep in contact with them always, or is it the LF India leaders? It can be all three we can teach them through our LF India leader sand I am working to start that movement. The more motivation and support the better because though there is pressure from society there are students that slip through the cracks without motivation and given misguided support. Though there are always struggles and in India, corruption seems to rule over most of them like a monarchy, the memories and incidents that stick with me fortunately are the ones that will give Lead Forward the bright future we so desperately need and deserve. It is government exam time for our 10th and 12th Standard students, their test scores will directly determine their future. They will be eligible for scholarship and learning groups/levels based on their results. Wishing them the most focus and concentration and the least stress and distraction!