An Indian Summer Adventure!: No Power, Smokeless Chulhas and Pune!

I gave a lesson on Smokeless Chulhas and cook stoves today. I thought it was going to be too quick and easy so I put in a couple of questions involving % of fuels etc. Oops, it made the lesson last 4 hours! I don’t think the teachers were overly impressed. It so difficult though as the students all have such varied maths skills. Some manage it in a few mins and the others take 40 mins to calculate 20% of a basic sum. It’s something we need to clear with the director when he gets back. The school needs to confirm one way or the other. Part of me thinks that students shouldn’t be able to ‘graduate’ from a school if they can’t do 2 x2 but the other part of me remembers what this school is all about and the importance of practical skills. It’s a tricky one. I think that you would struggle in life without having even the most basic concept for numbers but perhaps here it is not needed.

Today was my first lesson for a few days. Power and internet was rubbish towards the end of last week then we were away to Pune at the weekend (Yay-first weekend off!) and then yesterday it was Independence Day so there were no lessons for the students.

We went to Pune on Friday afternoon after Abi’s lecture. Her lap top had broken so she was using mine so I was on a school computer. This was a horrid taster of what it could be like working here without a lap top! I think within the 2-3 hours that afternoon when she had my comp we had 3-4 power cuts! You just don’t realize how common they are when on a lap top as you don’t lose all your work and have to restart your machine all the time!

Luckily we were travelling with a teacher as otherwise we woulnt have had a clue where to even get the bus from in Pabal. It turns out it left from the other side of the village (the side we didn’t even know existed!) As we were a bit late the only seats available were at the back of the bus. Turns out there was a reason for this-It was so so bumpy! It was genuinely like a roller coaster it was that bad! I couldn’t believe it. I reckon I left my seat every 10-15 mins and got flown into the air. Just crazy!

Our bumpy bus! Makes the no 38 from Linlithgow look classy!

We had to change buses in a town called Rajgurnagar. Because it was a Friday evening the buses were v late and busy. We let ‘the crowd’ go and waited for one where we could fight for a seat. (found out where the term ‘Bagsied’ comes from-they just chuck their bags though the window to reserve their seats-what is even better is that they also chuck their babies through-‘Babysed’)

We finally reached Pune (after 5 hours of travelling instead of 2!) and found our way to Korregon Park where Graeme is staying. Graeme is also with EWB, he is working with Shelter Associates and is creating a website for them. He is a computer genius and fixed Abi’s lap top. We went out for dinner to this place recommended to us called ‘Malaka Spice’. We thought it sounded nice but when we got there we were surprised to find out that is was South East Asian food and very posh! It was lovely though and had a tasty meal that included a brownie and ice cream at the end and a sneaky beer J. It cost us 10 pounds a head which is a lot of money here (normally the total bill for 3 people eating is 10 pounds!) but it was fun to see another side of Pune.

Our fancy meal in a 'Western' South East Asian Restaurant

Graemes apartment (room plus bathroom) is very posh compared to our accomodation at Pabal. He has beds that you cant feel the metal frame through and a shower! Whats evern more amazing is that the shower has hot water! It was amazing to have a warm shower!-Ive never felt so clean! I thought I was satisfied with my bucket of cold water every morning but it looks like you cant change a westeners habit that easily!

A warm shower! I had no idea I missed it so much!

The next day we headed to Kelkar museum which was beautiful and houses 20% of this dude’s collection. There was lots of beautiful doors and old toys and kitchen ware. We got charged 10x more than Indian people but it’s ok. I think it’s important to support their museums as so much of their historic locations are not preserved and it shows that money can be made from preserving historic items.

Having fun at the Kelkar Museum

Then, from recommendation of one of the teachers here in Pabal we went off on our quest for ‘Sweet Home’ an Indian sweet shop. After filling 2 boxes with tasty treats with items that I’m not convinced contain anything but sugar we considered the stressful quest successful!

Us munching into our first box of Indian sweets ( Im sure they are made of rice aswell!)

In the afternoon we went to see Pataleshwar temple which is an old cave temple. I was properly impressed with it. It was so quiet compared to the rest of Pune and so peaceful! There was a man singing a prayer inside which sounded amazing and really added to our experience.

In the evening we had dinner at a restaurant (again recommended) called Georges where we ate too much then wobbled into an auto to see our first bollywood film! We went to see Phirir, a ‘thriller’ set in Newcastle! Hehe-Newcastle! It was very funny to see the UK (and British people!) portrayed through an Indian directors mind! It was in Hindi but it was pretty easy to understand the plot. I was a bit disappointed that there was only 1 song and dance but the police in the film did storm a house to some funky music so that made up for it! Before the film we had to stand for the national anthem and then half way there was an ice cream break. Oh and also to get into the cinema I had my rucksack checked 3 times. They are super strict after the German Bakery bombings in 2010.

Abi & Graeme binge on chicken at Georges.

On Sunday we checked out the western style supermarket. It’s crazy you can pretty much buy anything there and it felt very strange. This confused me as at home you can buy things from lots of different countries and you don’t think twice about it. We bought a loaf of bread and jam and some bleach for our skanky sink-proper treats!

After a lunch consisting of rice and more rice (unfortunate ordering of food-normally when we order things we don’t know they at least consist of something other than rice!) we hopped back on the epic bus ride to Pabal! I have never had to push so much to get on a bus!-its ridiculous, you don’t even need to push-I think people just get excited!

We introduced Graeme to Vigyan Ahram and Pabal and also the rules of meditation and dinner. We were going to make him work them out for himself but we aren’t that mean!

The Monday was Independence day so we stood in the procession and saluted the flag when it was raised. It did feel a bit funny seeing as they were celebrating being independent from us but there wasn’t even a hint of this which was lovely. Then we watched the students give a variety of performances from drama (no idea what it was about!) to dance (traditional and bollywood style) and singing. It was very good and almost every student performed. So we were called up to do something. What do 3 Brits pull out-yes it can only be the Hokey Kokey! Hehe. They seemed to be entertained by it and we even had to stop at putting our left foot in as it was getting too rowdy! I love it-when I was in South Africa the kids at the school absolutely loved it!-turns out it can cross countries and ages groups really quite easily!