alive and kicking

So as an update – I'm alive, I'm well, I'm thriving. I haven't had access to the Internet since Aug 14, so I apologize to all those who have been trying to get in touch with me (and to all those that I promised to keep in touch with).

I'm here at Environmental Santitation Insititute in the village of Sughad, 20 mins from the Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of the state of Gujarat in India. It's a pretty neat place, the accommodation is pretty nice. The entire insititute is built around the principles of sanitation (of course), water conservation, conserving energy and planting trees. I think the most remarkable fact is that no water comes from the outside at all – they recycle and harvest all the water they need.

Anyways, it's been 20 or so days into the Indicorps orientation, and it certainly has had quite a bit of effect on me. One of the main changes is that how little I actually need, versus how much I want. Only way to learn the simple life is to experience it. And there is no substitute for the humility thereof. Waking up every morning before 6, meditation or yoga for half an hour, followed by rotating cleaning duties (cleaning the main campus areas, cleaning your dorm, helping out in the kitchen or going for a silent morning walk). It teaches you pride in your work, it teaches you the value of keeping clean and not trashing things around. It also teaches you that little water and/or limited means are absolutely no bar to perfect sanitation. Cleaning your own dishes with minimal water after every meal teaches you that. Washing your own clothes by hand every 4 ^th day teaches you that. It also taught me that I can live on 4 pairs of clothes – yup, that's all I got, 4 pairs of kurta pyjamas (Indian-styled shirt and pants). I bought another kurta (shirt) here, because if you skip a laundry day, it puts you into a jam. But that's it. That's the clothes I exercise in. sleep in. work in. clean in. and you manage. True – I don't smell the best by the end of the day, but it's doable. And that's what's important. On an equally important note, having almost all-white clothes is a bad bad bad idea in India, where it's dusty, you sit/work/exercise on the ground, and more importantly, wash your clothes by hand.

Some of the most memorable things we've done – the day activity where all of us spent time working with people of the lower economic status in an urban setting. I spent 5 hours working with a 10 yr old boot-polisher, who basically walked around looking for business. There were people who went rag-picking in garbage piles, people who worked with seamstresses, people who worked with street vegetable vendors, people who worked with 'chaiwallas' – the tea stalls so common place all over India. It was just so eye-opening to experience firsthand the way these people live. And I think what opened us up and made us comfortable with this might have been the 2/3 days where we worked inside Ahmedabad's largest slum providing flood relief. People went in to play with the kids, bathe them, go house to house and administer first aid (or simply cut their nails – as I did). But more than anything, talk and interact with these people, to really get a sense of what things are like. I've lived in India before, and I was absolutely surprised how little I knew, and how many assumptions I went in with (and were broken). Not everybody's dirty. Not everyone's unhappy. Not everyone's unscrupulous. The kids just want to laugh, the parents just want to get back into their homes and back to their lives, despite whatever floods might have happened. Yes, sanitation is not perfect, and there is a long way to go with that, but then again, there is also quite a cohesive sense of community.

On Monday we came back from a 3 day village stay in the Saurashtra region in Western Gujarat. All of us had a fantastically different experience. Mine was great – my host family was relatively quite well off at the village. It was also near the end of the monsoon season, so the fields were all full and green. My guy (Narayanbhai Ramjibhai – in Gujarat they seem to say their name and their father's name – bhai means brother) was growing a bunch of things – almost everything – predominantly cotton and peanuts, but also toor daal (yellow Indian lentil), turai, doodi, karela, bhindi (okra) – all Indian vegetables, sugarcane, chauli (black eyed peas), gwar, everything. And yes, they obviously had cows and buffalos for the milk, which they also used to make their own butter and ghee and sell it (btw – homemade butter's pretty darn good). I got there late on Saturday night, where we had rotla (thick, very thick gujarati rotis made of bajra) and karele ki sabji (bitter gourd). We then went to the bachat mandal (savings group) meeting. While the meeting was going on, one of the guys there also took me to the local grocery store to chit-chat with some of the locals gathered there. It was also cool to see a big old barrel of petrol with a hand pump being used. Anyhoo – the next morning was when the work really started. After a breakfast of gehoon ki rotli (wheat roti, not as thick) and milk (served with every meal, done really well here by adding sugar and elaichi). anyways, overall, kickass experience. more on that later.

another awesome thing was this 'amazing race' in teams around the town of ahmedabad. really got a feel for how to move around a city in India, negotiate with people, deal with people etc. don't know if this will work - but i'l trying to put a picture of me doing a random act of kindness, one of the requirements of our race. cool shtuff overall.

This is me with the random act of kindness - helping push the cart for a banana vendor:

rest later. been replying to emails solid for the last hour and a half. sorry if i wasn't able to get to someone (although i'm pretty sure i did).

- ashish