July 10 continued

The first visit was to a regional boxing champion that had grown up in Jodhpur and had been helped by the association.  The association is that of Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati that Laxman is a member of.  From there we went to Kishinji’s house.  He is the president of this association.  We also met the secretary here and one of his relatives who is a teacher now, but was raised in this slum area.  One of the biggest problems in these areas is illegal stills and the selling of alcohol in this section of town.  It’s so bad actually, that the police won’t come here unless there is a major raid of some sort.

Notice the 2 boys reading.  In all this mess and squalor, there is still a drive for kids to make something of themselves and leave the slums.  So different from the States, where we often see images of youth skipping school and dropping out.  Kids here would kill for a chance at school, but many have to drop out to work or bed just to eat and survive.

Notice the glass shards along the top of the fence.  This is to keep people out from the private polo grounds that are behind the fence.  While most of the rest of Jodhpur is a dustbowl, there are lush grass fields in some areas where people are not allowed in.

Next we proceeded to a village on the outskirts of Jodhpur.  This is Aryasmaj Pabupura.  The association built it.  The grounds are kept up by the youth that live here.  The main building to the left is a meeting room.  The area on the right is where prayer ceremonies, like the one I participated in in the morning, are conducted.  

Prayer area.  Notice the fire pit. Really beautiful construction.

The gym.

Water tank/well.

This construction site, pile of dirt, and rocks will eventually be a primary health center for the village.  I can’t wait to the status of the construction before I leave.

The interesting thing about the Aryasmaj is that behind it sits a local zamida or landlord.  He has since died, but his son now lives there.  The zamida had pretty much enslaved the village through bondage and usury practices.  But, the association and the village and the aryasmaj all worked together to drive him out... well, as much as they could.  Even though there's no law saying that villagers or people indebted to the zamida have to pay him back, it's part of the Indian ethic, that if they have a debt, they cannot and will not just walk away from it.  Plus, the zamida or his family could hire toughs to come in and make an example of 1 or 2 people and the whole village would then be put on notice.  But, by educating the youth, working together, and banning the stills and sale of alcohol in the village the village has emerged from under the shadow of the zamida.


Laxman said something to me the other day that I thought was absolutely brilliant.  he said, "Nurez, see that tree over there, go try and straighten it since it's growing crooked and has been for many years.  You won't be able to.  But, see that small plant there next to it, we can make sure it grows straight and tall."


To Laxman and everyone part of the association and the Aryasmaj, I say shabash!  You have done Jodhpur and the youth a great service which they will then continue and touch many more lives.  In that manner, your message will spread and many, many more plants will grow straight and tall.

July 10

Wow!  What a truly humbling and amazing experience today has been thus far. 

I started my Sunday with an early breakfast of rice parata and potato parata.  This is rice and potat between 2 rotis.  It’s usually eaten with butter and curd or yogurt.  I skipped the butter and stuck with the curd. 

At 9, I met Laxman at Panch Bhatti Choria.  Laxman is one of the coaches at the Police Line gym.  He’s also a teacher in one of the local schools.  He and Sonny, one of Mr. & Mrs. Williams’ sons were classmates.  Panch Bhatti Choria or circle is where I catch the bus everyday to go to work or go anywhere.

We started off by going to a historic building, where Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati used to live.

Notice the old, old gym equipment.  Forget the Bowflex, this was made from stolen or throwaway parts that were found around Jodhpur.

Cable pull down machine made from old piping.

Some of the kids that came to this special ceremony that Laxman had set up for me.

There I participated in a traditional prayer service.  Besides myself and Laxman, there were several of the kids from the gym as well as the pundit and the headmaster from one of the government schools.  The headmaster is a mentor of Laxman’s.  First we begin by taking a small spoon of water in our right hands.  This is from the brass containers.  After the pundit led us in a prayer/chant, we drank the sip of water, bottom of the palm to the mouth with fingers to the sky.  This was repeated 3 times in order to purify our insides.  Then we put water in our left hand and purified the outside of our body after a prayer.  Right side first, then left side- mouth, nose, eyes, ears, shoulders, and knees.  Then I was given matches to light a candle, of course I couldn’t light it, so the pundit lit a match and gave it to me.  After lighting the candle, using the long spoon, I lit a small square of paraffin or some other combustible, and dropped it in the large fire container in the middle.  To this small pieces of wood dipped in ghee were added.  I was the guest of honor, so I got to ladle the fire with the ghee as everyone chanted/prayed.  I continued to ladle ghee in as the other 4 people seated in the 4 places around the fire dropped plant shavings and more wood into the fire.  This is done as an act of purifying the air around us and taking away the pollution as well as praying.

Prayer book for this prayer service.

The fire is going out.  We have said our prayers and also made offerings of jalebi into the fire so that God has His portion before we ate amongst ourselves.

After we finished the prayer service, the headmaster (left corner, blue shirt) made a speech which Laxman translated for me.  He said that Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati preached living a good life and helping everyone, regardless of what religion they were.

The pundit is in white.  Laxman is in the green shirt with the mustache.

After the headmaster's speech, I was asked to give a small speech of what I thought about everything and why I was here.  Laxman translated to the kids for me, since some take basic English, but have a hard time understanding American's speak.  British English is easier for them to understand because of the soft vowels.  My speech basically thanked all of them for sharing with me and showing me their service. I said that just because I was a Muslim and they were Hindu, didn't make my way or their way right or wrong.  We all believe in only 1 God.  If God made people different, wouldn't it make sense for Him to have created different paths to the same place, Him?  As long as we all lived a good life, free of deceit and helped our fellows, then surely we would all end up in the same place.

In the time of Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati this was a well.  It's since been filled in with trees.

On the inside, this was a water spout for the bathing pool from the outside well.

After the prayers, we started visiting different colonies or living areas.  This is one of the poorest areas.  It's actually a short walk from where I am staying near the airport.

July 7

This is what an old school, not made from aluminum ladder looks like in Jodhpur.  Don't know why, but I think it's cool.

This is at 1st Pulia in Chopasni.  It's on my way to Unnati.  In the states we see laborers hanging out in the Home Depot and Lowe's parking lots.  Here, the laborers all hang out at 1st Pulia.

Yep, women looking for work as well.  Not just the men over here, hunger doesn't discriminate, everyone has to work.  Plus, many of these women will bring home their wages to support the family since their husband's wages will go to booze.

Today, I left work early and headed to Smita's place for Hindi lessons and we got to meet her new puppy.

Cute little bugger, huh?

After Hindi lessons, we all headed to Uncle Sam's Pizza for our weekly check in with Sukie.  This was on the desert menu!  Thought you guys might get a kick out of it!

Unnati has been really good this week.  Got my project started and will be spending most of tomorrow and Saturday doing some intensive research for the manual I'll be writing.

July 5

It's interesting how life works and the way things come about. The past 2 weeks have been a little slow. I've just been doing research and getting a lot of background knowledge on Unnati and several different Indian governmental programs, called schemes here.

During my down time, I've been hitting the gym and helping coach some kids in boxing. And then sparring with them and some of the other coaches and getting my butt whipped! Oh, it hurts so good!

But, I've also been reading a lot. Yesterday I read "Please Look After Mom" and it really hit home for me. I spent the night and today doing a lot of introspection and then sent my mom a long email. I won't get into it, as that's a little TMI for this blog. But, needless to say, I came out of the experience a better person.

Part of my research today was on drought and drought conditions. It's sad how many villages in India get enough rain from the monsoon every year, but due to abuse of the schemes by people in power who are corrupt, people are still starving and end up dying even though the land they work produces great quantities of food. Some of the worst abuses are taken out on the dallit or harigan communities. You may have a water-lord that refuses to sell them water from a private well he has tapped. The catch is, he is tapping into the communal water table and has cut off the impoverished community's water source. In this manner, poor people end up in bonded labor when they have to continually borrow from the water-lord. They end up losing their land to him and then you have 1 person controlling all the water and all the land, while the poor are left to starve after they work the land for the land/water-lord and give him all the crops.

Anyway, tonight I started a book called "The Giver." Here's a brief description:

"The Giver is a 1993 soft science fiction novel by Lois Lowry. It is set in a future society which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth year of his life. The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness", a plan which has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of "Receiver of Memory," the person who stores all the memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. When Jonas meets the previous receiver—the "Giver"—he is confused in many ways. The Giver is also able to break some rules, such as turning off the speaker and lying to people of the community. As Jonas receives the memories from the Giver, he discovers the power of knowledge. The people in his community are happy because they don't know of a better life but the knowledge of what they are missing out on could create chaos. He faces a dilemma: Should he stay with the community, his family living a shallow life without love, color, choices and knowledge or should he run away to where he can live a full life?" (Wiki)

So, I had just gotten to the part where Jonas is starting to question the sameness when it started to rain. I don't think I've ever appreciated rain so much. Between the hot days here thus far, the research, the emotional roller coaster from yesterday's book, and then today's reading, the rain was a very, very welcome sight and feel. The water hitting me was wonderful.

OK, so enough rambling! The rest of this week should be pretty mellow-until Sunday that is. Hopefully I can arrange it where one of the boxing coaches, who is also a teacher, is going to take me on a tour inside the slum areas so I can see first hand how some of these kids have to live. I've been counting my blessings daily since I got here, but I have a feeling, come Sunday, I'm going to saying a lot of thank you prayers!