« The Wilderness Must Be Explored! | Main | First Impressions of the Caste System »
July 11, 2009
Functioning In Pavagada
I just spent my first three days in Pavagada, and it was whirlwind of meeting people, going places, and eating spicy food. My uncle Subba has been taking me around on his motor bike, showing me different sights around the village and introducing me to everyone he interacts with, which seems to be nearly everyone we see.. However, I’m not usually introduced as Raj – my first title is usually Pushpa’s muga (son), or more likely , Anusha’s tuma (little brother). My sister spent a year teaching chemistry at the school where I’ll be, and really seems to have wowed the whole town while she was here. Usually people are only partially interested in me until they hear “Anusha’s tuma,” at which point their eyes light up and they launch into a memory of her. In fact, the first night I was in Pavagada, we spent about 45 minutes sitting around reflecting on Anusha’s “generosity of spirit” and “endless patience.”
In addition to meeting many people and discussing Anusha’s seemingly endless number of winning qualities, I’ve also spent a lot of time at “functions.” I’m still not quite sure what gets called a function, because I’ve been to three of them, and each one has been completely different. Whatever they are, they are steeped in formality and tradition and speeches that seem to be ignored by the audience, and all in all, good social experiences.
The first one I went to was to honor a man who had conducted 1,000 pujas (religious ceremonies). The function was held in a temple, and it was beautiful - there was a hall filled with women sitting in rows on the floor, eating all sorts of brightly colored food with huge banana leaves as plates. My cousin Rushmi said it would be too embarrassing if I went around taking pictures, so I didn’t, but I wish I had. After eating a huge amount of food that I can’t pronounce, we stumbled back home for a nap that turned into a 19 hour sleeping marathon for me – I don’t know why, but I was completely exhausted and just slept and slept and slept.
The next morning, I was sitting at the table figuring out things for the project when my uncle said “If a gentleman came by in 10 minutes to pick you up, would you make a speech at a function?” I wanted to say “Are you kidding? No way.” but instead said “yeah…sure…” and committed myself to Function 2: End of the Semester Celebration at the Government Institute. My uncle said “There are some students graduating, and they may be nervous about the future, so just reassure them they are smart and there will be job opportunities for them” then left to go make a business call. I sat at the table trying to think what I would say to a bunch of rural Indians my age about getting a job – something I haven’t even done – but didn’t have long to think about it, because a guy showed up on a motor bike and it was off to the Government Technical Institute. When we got there, I was ushered up onto a stage in front of about 120 uninterested 20 year olds and given what felt like was the seat of honor. After several speeches from people who actually seemed to deserve to be sitting on the stage, I helped to hand out sporting award trophies, then made a speech about the bright future of electricians and fitters in India. However, my “speech” was only about 45 seconds long, and I don’t think well-understood, because when I sat down, there was a second of a silence, then some scattered applause. If you don’t really understand what you just read, then I think I’ve done a good job describing the event, because I sure don’t know what happened.
After the ceremony, my uncle picked me up and took me straight to my third function, which was actually for me – it was my introduction to Jnana Bodhini, where I’ll be working to install the solar system. We sat in a class room in front of the 80 students that made up the 10th standard ( = senior class) and I was treated to 20 minutes of hearing how noble and generous I was and given a garland of flowers to wear. Then I was asked to make my second impromptu speech of the day, which came out only slightly better than the first, and which is captured on film. Following, the teachers left the room and I was asked to explain what I’ll be doing at the school to the class. The lesson on a solar-powered system actually went pretty well, and after it I went home with my uncle. So those are the functions – do you get the joke in the title to this entry? Funny, huh?
The day after my introductory function at the school, I went back to Jnana Bodhini School with my uncle to discuss the project with his childhood friend and one of the men who helped to create the school with him – Mr. Anand Rao, or Anand Uncle, as I now call him. When my uncle said we were going to talk about the project, I imagined myself presenting the design I had come up, and the two of them looking impressed and pleased. In reality, I sat on the other side of the desk of them and and watched them argue over things in Kannada (the local language), turning to me occasionally for input. However, they both have a lot of experience doing very similar work, so I disregarded the initial ripples of resentment I felt and took in the experience as best I could. Although the plan has changed pretty significantly since that meeting, it felt good to finally be in the school I had thought so much about, sitting near the computers that we’d be powering with the students that would be using them hard at work in the surrounding classrooms.
Pavagada is an interesting place. I don’t know how to try and capture it, because I’m still trying to understand it myself. My first impression is that it is a very family-centered farming community where kids wonder the streets in packs, invading unsuspecting homes to demand attention and food. There is a beautiful sense of family that seems to run through all the houses, and each evening a group of women congregate at the corner of the block to gossip about new developments in village politics while their kids rocket around them, playing hide and seek between their multi-colored saris. I don’t want to misrepresent things though – the sanitation level of the area disgusts me. Pigs, cows, and feral dogs wonder the streets and open-air sewers are everywhere. Also, the caste system is very much a presense here (my uncle’s house is on “Brahmin Street) and poverty seems to be everywhere you look. But the poverty doesn’t bring people down – it’s a part of life here, so it is accepted. All in all, it seems like an exciting place to be, and I look forward to getting to know it better.
To summarize the project briefly, after the initial meeting in the school, we changed the design to incorporate an inverter the school already has. With this design, I came back to Bangalore with Anand Uncle and his son Ajay to meet with a Mr. Srinivasan, who works for a company that sell solar parts in the area. At this meeting, he outlined a slightly different design for us that would cost about half the cost and supply more power, which blew our minds and got us very excite d. I’ll be headed back to Pavagada tomorrow or Monday, where I hope to spend time meeting more students while we wait to hear from Mr. Srinivasan– my aunt has already organized for me to go running with two other boys and to play chess with what sounds like half the neighborhood. It’s good to have a loving family.
Finally, I’ve started uploading videos onto YouTube, including the awkward speech I gave during my introduction to the school function. Right now, YouTube isn’t working so I can’t copy the links, but if you search some combination of “raj vable pavagada solar power bangalore india” the right clips should (hopefully) show up. If nothing published by ‘rajvable’ shows up, please let me know, and I’ll figure out what to do. For some reason, it isn’t easy to find them by searching, so if you find one then click on my name in the upper right corner (rajvable) you can see the four ones I’ve posted so far.
Man, writing this blog is way more difficult than I thought it would be. I can’t decide if it’s better to write about experiences or the thoughts these experiences lead to, or some mixture of both. I hope this is interesting for you to read, and if you have ideas on how to improve it, please let me know.
- Raj
Posted by avable at July 11, 2009 11:28 AM