Odyssey in India

As I left Shanti Bhavan for Bangalore this morning, I couldn't know what a nightmare it would be to get back. This blog entry tells the story of my 5-hour odyssey between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and is also meant to thank people like Gokand and Habib - without them I wouldn't sit in the school building right now and write this post!

This morning I took of for Bangalore, planning to spent a few hours there, having lunch and and do some shopping. Over the last week I had put together quite a list of things I needed to get, including a warm hoodie (I only brought one warm hoodie and one jacket to India and right now the mornings at Shanti Bhavan are unpleasantly cold - this week I spent every morning PT I had shivering.), a jar of peanut butter (some extra protein, tastes amazing on Chapatis!), some candles (to deal with upcoming power cuts) and some other small things. 
Lizzy and Saching also went to Bangalore, so we took the trip in the morning together. I could have already taken it as a warning that our bus had a delay of over an hour. ;)
We arrived in Bangalore pretty late and as I was starving I went straight to Domino's Pizza. Lizzy and Sachin had some other plans so we didn't stick together. I accepted quite a challenge as I ordered one Pasta and a Pizza Margherita with double cheese. After I finished eating and managed to get up I looked at a few shops around Brigade road, hoping to find a jacket or a hoodie. However, the stuff was pretty low quality and not exactly cheap so I gave up and went to "The Forum" a huge mall with the busses to Hosur running basically on the opposite side of the road. I had a nice coffee there and decided to do my shopping at the "Bazaar", a huge department store next to the bus station that would probably have everything I was looking for. I got everything, except for......matches! Good thing they sold candles, but neither lighters nor matches. By then it was already around 3.30 pm and I was planning to get a bus at 4 pm so I headed to the checkout only to find a massive queue that stood behind the only open checkout counter. It seemed as if the cashiers spent 10 minutes on nearly every customer. As I came closer I saw the reason - that very day a special offer promised incredible amounts of gifts, coupons and points for every customer registering for a payback card. The registration process involved filling out various forms and the cashiers had a very, well, relaxed way to carry out their duty, hence the 10 minutes. Having about 8 people in front of me I spent over an hour waiting -.-

Leaving the shop, it seemed as if I was lucky: A bus was just standing there, with the conductor screaming "Hosur" - exactly where I had to go. It was nearly 5 pm as I got on the bus and I was just happy to be on my way home. Everything started of right, except for the moment when the bus driver found himself on the oncoming lane and not noticing it until the conductor started screaming. The right lane was seperated by a small concrete wall which ended further up the road from where another bus came right at us. Suddenly it was just chaos: the bus driver accelerated like crazy, hoping to change lanes just in time for not being hit by the other bus, the conductor kept shouting, the bus was equipped with TVs on which an Indian movie was running, the volume turned up as high as possible and on the inside as well as on the outside decoration lamps were blinking in all colors. In brief: we changed lanes in time. Doesn't it feel amazing to be alive?

After that experience I decided to try not paying attention the driving any more and took out my book to distract myself a little bit. I knew the highway and if we stayed on it we would arrive in Hosur in about an hour. The only problem was: it started getting dark. By the time I looked out of the window again it was pitch black. (At that point I have to mention: In India, you're not told the name of the bus stop you are currently at, you just know when to get out.)
I decided to ask about the time left till we would arrive in Hosur, just in case. The conductor gave me a weird look and started repeating the name of the town we were actually going to which suddenly sounded a pretty similar to Hosur. However, after five minutes of gesturing and with the help of other passengers I knew I was headed in the wrong direction and my best bet would be to just get out at some bus stop along the dark highway, hoping to catch a bus to Hosur from there. My pulse rose to unknown heights.

There I stood in the dark, the sign on the busstop saying Bommasandra (the rest was in Tamil) and with no idea how to get to Hosur. By then it was already 6pm. After asking around I finally found an english-speaking Indian (Gokand!) who could tell me which bus to catch. It wasn't that easy though as I would have to change busses at some point. As he was my last hope I joined him on the bus that came half an hour later, waited till he was screaming "Get out" (because the bus obviously didn't stop as planned) and managed to point at the bus I would have to catch. Too bad nobody was there to film me jumping off a moving bus, running after another bus on the highway, dodging cars and finally jumping into the open rear door. Anyway, I had reached to point where my pulse couldn't rise any more long ago.

I was surprised at how the bus arrived in Hosur as planned and I found the bus to Bagalur (the next village I had to got to on my way to Shanti Bhavan) without any trouble. I arrived in Bagalur at around 9 pm and spent some time wandering about in search of a rickshaw driver to take me to Shanti Bhavan. I finally found Habib, who started going on about how it was night and how dangerous the roads would be but finally agreed to take me to the school for a higher price than usual. 
We were speeding through the dark, being the only vehicle on the road, when suddenly something happened that would have caused me a heart attack had I been only a little older.
The silence of the night was suddenly broken by the bloodcurdling scream of a woman. 
I clasped my chest with both hands, dying a little bit inside. 
Then I realized: my driver had a Hindi song as a ringtone with started with the female singer screaming. While I was shaking on the rear seat he calmly answered his phone. For the rest of the drive I tried hard not to look into the dark forest on both sides of the road.

When we finally arrived at the campus gate at 9.30 pm it took me a while to realize that I actually made it. I'm already sure about one thing: Next weekend I will just stay at the school and actually enjoy it!

Domino's Pizza :3

The blinking bus that almost killed and abducted me ;)

Having a fun time with power outs and mosoon rains ;)

How's the weather back in Germany? Cold and windy? I'm kind of envious!
Why? - Well, I suppose you still have light at night, water to take a shower and you're not swept away by the rain. Enjoy it!

I've just realized that there is never any normal week at Shanti Bhavan. That is a good thing though, otherwise it would get boring, right? I meant to write a Blog entry about a typical day at the school but I always get distracted by unexpected events (apart from not finding time to do it).

Last week started with me getting incredibly sick on Tuesday morning. I woke up at 3 am and managed to get a bucket just in time. Shortly after I felt like not having to hug the bucket any more I had to run to the toilet. I stayed in bed the whole day and felt surprisingly good again in the afternoon.
It just seems inevitable to get sick at some point when staying in India for a longer time. Since I arrived here I already have been sick once, that Tuesday was the second time. Now I just hope I'm immune against any stomach bug that's out there!

The rest of that week was dominated by the celebrations for the "International Day of the Girl Child" that took place for the first time on that Thursday. For us, that involved people from Intel (the computer chip company) being on campus, giving an entrepreneurship training for the older girls and helping with organizing the celebrations.
All this resulted in the girls barely being in class, speeches and celebrations during classtime and finally, classes being cancelled on Thursday. It was not too bad though, as it meant I had time to finish reading one of my books ;)

That weekend we (Ally, Lynn, me and two new volunteers, Rebecca and Fanny) went to Bangalore from Saturday to Sunday, staying over night at the Sri Lakshmi Comforts Hotel. The main reason for me to go was to see the movie "Looper" which was supposed to be amazing, according to dozens of critics. I found it extremely disappointing - it just wasn't a good movie. Probably the critics were distracted from the content by Bruce Willis who played one of the main characters.
However, we still had a great time at the mall where the cinema was located, eating frozen yogurt and stuff we don't get at the school ;)
The next day Lynn, Fanny and me went to the botanical gardens of Bangalore which are somewhat away from everything else but are huge! That was basically the most impressive thing about them, together with some trees, planted by either Queen Elizabeth II, Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi. The rest was not that well-kept so we didn't stay for too long.
The weirdest thing about the weekend though was that every single auto driver wanted to cheat us. They asked for ridiculous amounts of money, the driver who was supposed to take us to the gardens didn't know the way - even though he said so before, took forever to get there and wanted a ridiculous amount of many in the end, way more than we agreed on. When we refused to pay the got aggressive and Lynn got scared, so she paid him what he wanted. Strictly spoken we should have called the police.
Two! other drivers who should take us to our Hotel wanted us to walk the last 1,5 km so they didn't had to take the turn required to pass by the hotel. The reason they gave us was: "Sir, I can't drive on the other lane here, only one way!"
This was far from being true as the road our hotel was one was one of the biggest roads in Bangalore! He just planned on us not knowing it and wanted to save some time and money by making us walk.

As we arrived at Shanti Bhavan, the power in the school had been out for almost two days. When we came back on Sunday it still wasn't on again. On the weekend and in the following days we also had heavy monsoon rains so supposedly some power lines broke down in Tamil Nadu. However, another problem became apparent on Sunday. The school, being remote, gets its water from an underground well with a pump distributing it to the different buildings. There it is stored in water tanks on the roof. The pump is run by electricity. On Sunday, the water tanks were almost empty, with no electricity to refill them.
The reason that I am able to write this post now, on Tuesday, is that we had power for some time today. However, it only has half the amperage (don't ask me about details! ;) which means it is sufficient for charging a phone or a computer and for the energy saving lamps in all of the buildings but not for running a pump. This afternoon I was able to squeeze half a bucket of yellowish water out of one tap to take a shower after PT...I just hope real power comes back tomorrow.
The other problem is that the classroom light in the school runs on solar power, to be precise, a battery that is charged by solar panels. With the sky being gray and cloudy all the time now we barely get enough power to light the classrooms for one hour in the evening when the kids are supposed to learn and do their homework.

That's another not-so-common week at the school so far, how about Germany? I still wait for the construction workers to hit the main or accidentally cut the power while building Stuttgart 21, should that happen when I'm back again - I'm ready now!

Some more pictures from Hampi!

As promised, here are some pictures from my stay in Hampi that my fellow volunteers took. LIzzy, who was with us on the trip was really busy during the last two weeks so she couldn't give me the pictures she took until today - that's way it took so long.

Here we go:

 Ally, me and Lynn on the bus to Hospet/Hampi

 During the procession for Ganesha :)

On the rocks next to the Hanuman temple

The Hampi-Crew: Bitsy, Lizzy, Ally, me and Lynn

From Hampi to Hyderabad

All right, here it comes: the super-long blog entry covering my one-week holiday :)

As mentioned in the short entry before, we (Lizzy, Bitsy, Ally, Lynn and me) went to Bangalore with Babu, the driver, on saturday last week. We went straight to UB City, some sort of shopping mall with nice restaurants on the roof where you also have a great view over Bangalore. The one we went to, some mediterranean-style place was not too cheap (well, you could say European prices) but I had an amazing Hummus with really good bread and olive oil as a starter, followed by a Pizza which wasn’t bad. 

After that we took an auto to the bus station where we would catch an overnight bus to Hospet, the city next to Hampi. We found the right one pretty fast and got in. It was basically the cheapest bus you could get: no beds, no pull-back seats and no AC, it looked a little bit like an American school bus. And it was way too hot inside - we didn’t know that this was about to change soon...an over eight-hour drive awaited us.

The first stop after about two hours was in the middle of nowhere, it was really strange to see the lights of a tiny restaurant being turned on as soon as the bus arrived (the people there were preparing food at candlelight before) and everything being pitch-black again as the bus left after 20 minutes.

Back to the temperature: as soon as we left Bangalore it was already starting to get colder. Soon after our first stop I already had to put on my scarf. Later it got freezing as some of the windows couldn’t be closed and the wind was blowing through the whole bus. I was sitting there with my scarf and my hoodie and there was no way I could sleep on this bus. It was basically shaking all the time due to the condition of the Indian roads, at some times I was even afraid the bus would fall over. Also the driver was constantly honking, the horn was so loud it felt like it was going to the inside of the bus, not the street. Other busses and trucks also made generous use of their horns which sounded like sirens at times. Near the end of our ride I was able to fall asleep for about 15 minutes. Upon waking up the two Indians sitting next to me were somehow lying on me and I was incredibly puzzled about where I was and what was going on for some seconds. It was a unique experience though which I don’t necessarily have to repeat - going by train is definitely a better idea!

We arrived in Hospet at around 6 and had to take a bus from there to Hampi which took about half an hour. On the ride there we already got a glimpse at the beautiful landscape, with the sun just rising.

In Hampi we desperately tried to find the Shanti guesthouse where we were planning to stay - we soon found out that it had been demolished as it was illegally built on some ruins. (They could at least have left a note on their website which I checked the day before.)

We decided to have breakfast first and went to the so-called “Moonlight Restaurant” which basically was a bamboo roof with blankets thrown over it. The food was really good though, I had Malai Kofta - a vegetable curry with mashed potatoes.

After we finished eating the owner of the restaurant showed us the guesthouse he owned nearby which looked really nice and we decided to stay there.

After leaving our luggage there we walked around for a bit in Hampi, bought some stuff (postcards ;) and went back to the guesthouse to take a shower and a nice, long nap. After that we headed over to the “Bamboo Lounge” , a rooftop restaurant with monkeys running around and stealing stuff (like papayas) for a Lassi.

We planned on having dinner quite early, at a restaurant that Babu recommended to us, the “Mango Tree”. On our way there we got caught in a parade for Ganesha as the Ganesha festivities go on for several days. This day was the climax of it, with a huge, decorated Ganesha statue being carried into the river. The parade included drummers, dancers and firecrackers, everybody had coloured powder in their face (we soon had that too) and was just happy, dancing and celebrating. We were soon asked to join them. The Indians were really nice, explaining everything that was going on. The parade lasted several hours until we finally arrived at the river where the Indians carried Ganesha into the water. It was a really impressive moment, with the stars shining and huge piles of stones all around.

After it was over we went back and started walking to the restaurant which was somewhere on the river in the opposite direction. We stumbled along the dark path with our flashlights for fifteen minutes and were close to giving up as we finally passed a sign and found the “Mango Tree”.

The food there was well worth the trouble, I probably had the best Coconut curry in my life. As we headed back to Hampi on the dark path a man approached us, asking: “Namaste! Would you like Marihuana?” We had a hard time not to laugh at how weird this situation was. Ally, one of the volunteers understood, as she told us later: “Namaste! Would you like Nirvana?”

Without any Marihuana or Nirvana we all slept pretty good which was most probably due to the bus ride the night before. The next morning we had a quick breakfast and headed towards the Hanuman temple which is outside of Hampi, on a mountain on the other side of the river. Hanuman is an Ape-god who is known for helping the God Rama to rescue his wife Sita from Demons that kidnapped her.

We crossed the river in a tiny boat together with 5 heavy motorbikes, their owners and some other people what made me worry about us sinking in the middle of the river. We crossed safely and started climbing the stairs that led to the top of the mountain and the temple. Up there you had to take of your shoes - good thing we had come in the morning as the stones would have been unbearably hot around noon. After watching the monkeys that were running around up there we entered the temple were two men were sitting in an open room, singing verses out of a holy book all day long.

As I stood in front of the central altar a bunch of Indians came in to pray to Hanuman. They were performing a ritual in his honor and let me participate without hesitating for a moment. I had to drink temple water and later got blessed with a line of vermillion on my forehead. It was and amazing experience though it seemed really unreal when thinking about it later.

We all enjoyed the stunning view over the landscape with the huge piles of rocks and the river for a while before we headed back to Hampi. On that day we also walked around in the ruins right next to Hampi where I got quite a sunburn. The mere scale of the temple city was already impressive and I had to think how everything looked back in the time when people were still living there. 

Lizzy left in the evening as she wanted to get back to the school earlier.

On the next day, my birthday, I started the day being greeted by the temple elephant. We saw this elephant being bathed in the river, so we just followed it back to the temple where we were able to pet it :) It’s an incredibly huge animal compared to cats and dogs back in Germany. 

Lynn and me then took a tour around some of the main temples by bike, with a guide who did an amazing job in explaining us even the smallest details and the all the stories about the Hindu Gods. The last temple we visited was actually some kind of a huge cartoon strip, with carvings on the walls telling the story of Hanuman and Rama.

On our last day I decided to rent a motorcycle and drive to the ruins further away that I hadn’t seen yet. Although I didn’t have any license I had no problems renting the motorcycle which cost me around 4€ for the whole day!

It definitely was a lot of fun, driving around with palm trees and rice fields next to the road and all that. Unfortunately, as I was on my way to return the bike the main brake wire was cut (probably because it was way to old and hadn’t been checked recently) and the only option left to brake was letting the bike fall. This earned me some nice scratches on knees and arms, but fortunately nothing worse happened. (In India, you don’t wear a helmet!) 

Ganesha, the God of luck must have had an eye on me ;)

I definitely wouldn’t have let the guy who rented the motorcycles get away with that but I had to catch my train to Hyderabad which was running in an hour and we still had to get to Hospet. (We got there just in time - luckily the train was running late)

Bitsy also decided to go back to the school and that left Lynn, Ally and me going to Hyderabad. We decided on that city because it was on of the important Indian cities and supposed to have a nice lake with a huge Buddha statue in it, a nice garden and impressive islamic architecture all around. 

What I can say is that at least the hotel was very nice. We stayed at the Taj Mahal Hotel, an old hotel with rooms in 1940s style and really friendly service. The Masala Dosa I had for breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant was also pretty good.

The city of Hyderabad was not the perfect place to travel: stressful, loud and confusing. On our first day I went to the archeological museum which had an egyptian mummy, sculptures and pictures in their collection and was quite interesting. The public gardens were the first place were it wasn’t as loud as in the rest of the city. Trying to find the lake by foot I got completely lost and had to take an auto there. It turned out though that nobody had made any effort to make it look nice and the Buddha statue stood in the middle of the lake - you could hardly see it.

I certainly would have liked the city more if the traffic wasn’t that bad - everytime you crossed the street you almost got run over and the pollution was unbearable. In the evening we decided to try McDonalds India for dinner. It was completely different from what you find in Germany and America and way better. Over half of the burgers there were vegetarian (meaning also no egg) and all were delicious. The french fries were, as I expected, the same as in Germany ;) One surprise was the coke: in India they have so-called “Thumbs Up Coke” which is made by the Coca Cola Company but contains some Indian spices. I like the classical coke better but it definitely was an interesting taste.

The next day we tried to visit a huge archway the city is famous for. “Tried” is the right that it was in the middle of some junction and the traffic was as bad as everywhere else. Further, there was a huge bazar in this area so you had at least 5 people running towards you, trying to sell you shawls, chains, bracelets and much more. We fled into a Cafe Coffe Day.

After that we went back to the area around the hotel and decided to go to a cake store we had passed the day before. This store had about 50 flavors of cake you could choose from, one looking better than the other. All of these cakes were vegetarian, also meaning that no egg was used - still, the dough was as fluffy as it would have been with egg.

We all got some pieces to try, I went for Pineapple, Black Forest Cake and Italian Chocolate. If there is one thing Hyderabad is worth visiting for, it’s this bakery!

At 6.50 pm our train to Bangalore left and it was the most comfortable means of transport we had taken in India so far. Unlike on the other train, sheets, blankets and pillows were provided as well as dinner! In our compartment was an Indian couple that just returned from their holidays and the husband gave us so many tips on what we should definitely visit in India. I slept really well and upon arriving in Bangalore the next morning I decided to spent the day there while the others went back to the school. The things I did there included getting a haircut, having a nice cup of coffee and a cake and eating at Domino’s Pizza. There I met an Indian called Mahesh with whom I had a nice conversation and who insisted on helping me find the right bus from Bangalore to Hosur, the city next to our school.

Upon arriving there I was surprised to see that there was a lake in front of the school, reaching almost up to the gate. It is usually dry but there was heavy rain the days before. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture - but even without it there are more than enough pictures in this post ;)

I’m still writing an entry about Life @ Shanti Bhavan and the animals on campus, these should be online soon.

Until next time!

Hummus :3

The Moonlight Restaurant

Inside...

A first view of the central temple

Chillin' in the Bamboo Lounge

Monkeys everywhere!

Monkey parade ;)

Well, there was also a cat...

In the courtyard of the temple - the sun is already setting

Ready for the celebration :)

Will it work?

Everybody dancing

And here comes Ganesha...

Dancing in the dark

Carrying Ganesha to the river...not so easy

The famous coconut curry (and a delicious mango lassi)

Good morning!

Here is the reason why we had to take a boat...

Tiny, right?

In the distance you can see the stairs leading up to the temple

 

Oh, hello!

And up we go...

Agent Peter: Mission Kokosnuss ;)

Cute, right? That wasn't even the biggest one...notice the 2€ coin?

I know you want to jump into a plane to Hampi, seeing that picture ;)

Beauty in every direction 

On top!

One of the many monkeys

The temple

India traffic jam :)

Greetings, elephant!

Lynn and me walking around the ruins

I like his look...

The road leading up to the Vitalla temple

The famous stone chariot

Meeting the family ;)

The famous archway...I didn't make any pictures in front of it for the fear of getting run over by a car...

Sunset in Hyderabad

There might be some more pictures to come in the next days.... :)