Temple Hopping and Sari Shopping (plus a little about Ooty and Work)

     In Ooty we visited many really beautiful viewpoints and saw some gorgeous greenery. Ooty is known in South India to be a really romantic destination, its placed atop a mountain, and in the heart of the jungle where you can find vast tea plantations. Our drive up, after all of the hustle and bustle of breaking down and whatnot, was actually quite peaceful. Just before crossing the border from Karnataka (the state where Bangalore is) to Tamil-Nadu (where Ooty is) we entered a wildlife reserve and the remainder of the drive was through mountainous terrain amongst the jungle. I saw wild elephants, families of deer, peacocks and colorful birds. We also drove through a tiger reserve, but to my despair I didn't get to see any tigers. Bathroom breaks in the jungle proved to be somewhat of a challenge, the bus would just pull over on the side of the mountain and everyone would rush out to be welcomed by a slippery and steep hill.

     The bathroom situation in India is actually one of hot debate. Women must pay to use the restroom whereas men only have to pay if they want to use a toilet, urinals are free. For men, any wall around the city is pretty much fair game. In fact, the government has erected little temples near especially popular walls to discourage public urination in that place, and it seems to work. The public restrooms are often run by men and in order to enter (even to wash your hands) you must hand over a small fee (2-10Rs often). The restrooms are always filthy so I can't imagine where this money is going. 

Eating corn in Ooty... Before a monkey leaped fromthe woodwork and stole Kasie's!

     Throughout my trip I personally payed to use many public toilets, with one exception. On our way back to Bangalore, the bus stopped in Mysore and the four of us rushed to the restroom(we only had 2 minutes to get back) where there was surprisingly no one there to collect. When we were running back to the bus, a man came out of nowhere to receive the toll. None of us thought to bring money when we were caught up in the tumult of getting to and from the washroom in time. So, as the man yelled for us to pay, we glanced at each other and took off sprinting. At first he followed us, but we luckily we made it to the bus in the nick of time, it literally started to drive away before I was fully on. I guess this was our little act of protest?

     After we got back from Ooty, I had a successful week at work. We started narrowing our final project and have come up with some tangible goals to focus on for the remainder of the internship. It has been a struggle to fully understand what is expected of us. We are supposed to come up with a plan based on the company's main issue: scaling to 500 schools (and eventually 1,000-all of the schools in the state of Karnataka) while maintaining the quality that they have been able to implement in the 20 initial schools. Essentially, we need to figure out a way to measure and implement quality on this scale. Currently, PV only really measures quantitative data (numbers and such), but considering I work for the quality team, everyone is intent on pursuing and understanding qualitative data. So essentially, we are trying to figure out how the organization can reach all schools with an equal impact, how they can ensure quality, and how they can assess quality. This is increasingly difficult when you try to gather data from schools in rural and tribal areas because they have no access to internet (oftentimes simply getting electricity is hard-pressed) and most are hundreds of kilometers away from PV's office--so we can't just send the field team there to observe for the day. So far, we are trying to work with local communities, and have gotten excited by the idea of focus groups. I will keep updating as we progress into our final report, hopefully, with more answers. But for now, every answer I come up with seems to beget many more questions.

     This weekend was really fun and really relaxing- a good mental break. On Friday, we found a really fun place to go in the evenings called Banana Beach Bar (located in Koramanagala), and a few of us went for karaoke! The PV interns also had dinner with Cathy, our adviser from Wooster, and it was so delicious. That's where the photos of the Chinese food in the previous post come from.

     On Saturday, I finally got to see temples! I had gone to a few before but was really eager to see more. I was so intent on visiting temples because I thought it would give me better insight into Indian culture. So much of class and caste and everyday life revolves around religion. All states have their own individual languages, but Hindi is expected to be learned by everyone. There are little shrines and places for prayer on almost every corner, people's dress is influenced by their religion, most of India is vegetarian because of Hindu teachings, and cows wander the streets and neighborhoods because they are sacred in Hinduism. I desperately want to gain a better understanding and perception of what Hinduism is and what directs many Indian's lives. Navee and I were set on the idea of driving around Bangalore and seeing as many temples as we could. I was also able to pick Navee's brain about Hinduism throughout the day because of she and her family's practices. We went to the Bull Temple, Sri Nimisjamba Devi Temple, Shiva's Temple, Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple, Banashanken Temple, and Someshwara Temple, as well as a small temple that we mistakenly went to at the beginning. I really admired each of the temples for their own uniqueness and differences, but I think I appreciated the small one that we went in by accident the most. It felt the most pure and wholesome. Like most religious places, the temples encouraged donations around every other corner, but the smaller temple did not force you to pay anything and I felt welcome to observe and participate in their functions.

Kasie always has her CornFlakes

     We also visited Tipu Sultan's Palace on Saturday. It was really beautiful and a lot more modest than the Mysore Palace. There was a nice garden on the side and intricate woodwork throughout. It cost 100Rs for foreigners and 5Rs for Indians. I completely understand charging tourists more, and giving a break to Indian residents, but 95Rs seems a little steep. I mostly grow tired of being ripped off and manipulated by the shopkeepers and autos though. I have learned how to bargain and stand up for myself when it is necessary, but really I just want to be treated like everyone else; I wish it was as simple as saying we are all part of a common humanity.

After temple hopping, Kasie and I went sari shopping! It felt like I was on "Say Yes to the Dress" but I was saying yes to the sari. The ladies in the store were really helpful and accommodated our fairly strict budgets. I ended up finding a beautiful sari and I get to pick it up on Thursday after the tailoring is finished! I expressed my excitement to Darsana, my boss, and she said that we would all wear our saris on Friday, I can't wait.

Tipu Sultan's Palace

     This Sunday, I went to the opening for the new Autism Center donated by the Bangalore West Rotary Club. Cathy is connected to this group because of her involvement with the Wooster Rotary Club. It went really well and I met some really nice people. My only contribution to the center was packing a few books in my luggage and bringing them over from the states, but to my surprise they had us stand in front of the entire group and receive recognition for our (seemingly trivial) efforts in bringing the books and attending the function. They applauded us and gave each of us a gift and a rose. I felt really uncomfortable to receive acknowledgement for something so small when others were exerting so much more effort. For lunch, we had a traditional South Indian meal on banana leaves. It was very tasty and they gave us more than I could possibly stomach in one sitting (and that's saying something!). One of the rotary members handed us napkins, spoons, and water bottles (all of which no one else received) and said that if we weren't there, they would all be sitting on the ground eating. I really wish that no one went out of their way or changed their customs based on our presence. This is a problem I face in SE; trying very delicately to not make assumptions about what may bring others comfort. I sincerely wish I could be a part of the culture without any hiccups or alterations (or assumptions on what will make me comfortable). I do, however, really appreciate the effort that most people put forth, and it by no means goes unrecognized.
 

Sunday, relaxing after a long weekend:

Parisa