Last Week in Vigyan Ashram

Our last week at Vigyan Ashram came round too quickly.  Desperately trying to pull together lessons on batteries and motors with very no internet for 2 days was pretty tricky and frustrating. Luckily Abi had her uni notes with her and from working from first principles over a few cups of chai and a couple of ladus we managed to convince me how they worked so that I may prepare a lessons for generators and motors! We attracted some attention from the locals with our ‘left hand rule’ and ‘right hand rule’ calculations!

Unfortunately due to other commitments at the school I was unable to deliver this lesson yet squeezed in my lessons on batteries which was ok but not what I would have chosen for my last lesson.  None the less it still gave the pupils to play with potatoes and wires.  They all thought I was crazy when I was telling them a potato acted like a battery until they got there voltage.  The principle got excited by this and sent for more potatoes and LED lights.  Unfortunately this didn’t work but I guess its good he was so excited by it.

The students were loving the old potato asd a battery experiment!

The theame of being invited round to peoples houses continued through to this week which was just lovely.  We went for lunch at the bangle lady and man’s house on Monday.  As it was ‘God Day’ the two men weren’t eating but we scoffed away with the ladies quite happily.  They made a huge veg rice thing and very tasty chapattis. They then showed us some photos of weddings-not just their own but a few of their families too. They also showed us pictures of their baby. Abi complimented a photo when he was younger and was gifted it with force which was very funny.  Then being the sales people that they are they pulled out some tacky bling and tried to flog it to us. We would have loved to have bought something but it just wasn’t as pretty as their normal bangles im afraid.  We were also offered if we wanted to buy a flute-which was odd and then she tried to make us buy ‘some ladies undergarments’ which was even better! We never got to see what she had on offer and we both regretted it!

Lunch with Bangle lady and her mother and sister

We were also invited by a lady who taught at the neighbouring high school. We first saw her one morning when we were jogging but it sounded like she had been watching us for many weeks! She was lovely though and insisted we come round to her house to make her mother happy.  After insisting that we had to be home for dinner at 9 we agreed to come round at 7pm.  She came to collect us from our room and dressed us in saris-they are so very complicated! Angita then decorated us with bangles & bindis. We felt a bit like her barbie dolls but it was very much fun! Her home was simple like Mushies and made from earth brick with a dung floor. It was pretty dark inside but still had a big tv!  Her brother (another engineer-surprise!) and mother were in the house and a few neighbours popped in to have a look at us too.  We were given some very tasty chai and we chatted about home and what we had been up to in India etc whilst her mother was cooking away. We were then given a plate with many different things on it such as rice, snozcumber chutney stuff, chippatti etc.  It looked like a sensible portion for pre dinner food but I was pretty stuffed afterwards. Then she gave us a bowl of banana wheat stuff which is very tasty but tipped me over the edge to being FULL.  It was such a lovely evening and again showed the crazy amazing hospitality of Indian village people.  On the way back poor Abi got pooed on by a bird which was quite funny as we had both tried SO hard to keep our saris clean whilst sitting on the floor and eating rice with our hand-it’s a challenge and a half-especially when there are about 4-5 people watching you eat!  So we got back to the school at about 8.55 and rushed out or our saris and expressed our huge thanks to Angita and her mother. Bless her she gifted us with a blessing bracelet and some bangles-as if she hadn’t given us enough! We then woddled over to dinner where we forced our tea down our second dinner.  I’ve never felt so full and had to lie down after dinner. Abi genionly looked in pain as she forced her second chapatti down her throat! We can laugh about it now but at the time I genuinely thought I was going to die from over consumption!

Us in saris with Angita and her mother and neighbour

In between these these meals we fitted in our last Vigyan Ahram meals which we thoroughly enjoyed.  I will miss my dal and red stuff (the rice however I fear I’m not going to escape so quickly!)

The evening before we left there was a ‘good bye ceremony’ for us which was just lovely.  We were pulled to the front of the classroom and gifted a  (very cool fab lab made) trophy, Dr Kalbag’s book & Vigyan Ahram CD and a pencil holder from the IBT department.  It was such a lovely gift and I was so very touched.  Then some students came up and spoke about us which almost set me off in front of the school. Promote came up to speak about me and then one of the girls came up and (through translation) told us how she liked we were interested in making tea and how we had danced with them and how she was now trying to learn English because of us which was so beautiful.

For the next 1-2 hours there were photos (no joke!) everyone wanted a pic with us-my cheeks have never hurt so much from smiling! I genuinely felt like a celebrity it was crazy!  We had a cup of Tea at Annans and then he insisted we drive his little Tata Nano new car! Eek I was scared but it was fine once I got the hang of it and enjoyed my tooting almost as much as the driving! We found out that the breaks were not as bad as we originally thought but there had actually been a teddy bear underneath them! Oh you got to love safety in India!

The Vigyan Ashram Family

And the rest of the Vigyan Ashram family taking photos of us!

We had a handover meeting with Annan & Ranjid where we spoke over our projects and what we did and suggestions for the curriculum etc.  This was really good and it made us realize how much we had done and how much knowledge of the school we now have. 

That evening at dinner we gave all the students and staff ladus at dinner and gave out notebooks with a good luck message in them from us.  The students soon started asking us for our email ids, addresses, signatures and even passport photos! I fear for my identity! Hehe.  They were all so lovely though and even students we hadn’t taught or spent much time with were very excited by it all!

Our 'food account' now closed!

We had a taxi arranged to pick us up early in the morning and had a farewell breakfast with Annan and Madame and then went for tea and (more biscuits) at Ranjid’s and Palavi’s.  It was a lovely farewell and was a bit sad but because I get to go back it was ok.  I will miss teaching the students and the way of Vigyan Ahram life.  I feel totally connected to the school now and properly feel like I have a family in Pabul!