Last Day at DPG

Today is my last day working with DPG. The staff had a going-away lunch for me, and during the lunch, they asked me to nicely summarize my experience. So, below is a snippet of what I wrote for them.

I volunteered with DPG because I was interested in helping others and making my own efforts meaningful, but I had no prior experience in this sector so I was not sure which route to take, whether to work in the private sector to amass funds for nonprofit projects, to become involved with nonprofit activities as my career, or to work in the academic field and try to change the public perception on poverty. I had hoped that by volunteering with DPG, I would get a clear insight into the different functions of a nonprofit organization, as well as, where my own abilities lie. My experience here has taught me some invaluable things, perhaps too many to concisely describe on one page.

I still don’t have a clue which path I should walk along. Time will tell. But I do know with a darker shade of certainty that in whatever capacity it may be in, I have to be involved in work to alleviate poverty, improve women’s position and self-perception, or deal with the social injustices caused by economic inequalities. These words seem right now, even to me, abstract and intangible, but that’s only because I’m sitting in front of the computer, interacting with a clapping keyboard and a rolling mouse. But, when I visited the fields, I had a very powerful sense of what poverty, desperation, and social exclusion felt like. There’s too much suffering in this world to ignore. To do so would be to deaden our own humanity. A few months ago, from atop the skyscrapers of New York City, the world seemed cynical and the human population only a long and growing number with many commas. My interaction with the Indian village women has exposed me to a kindness and generosity I’ve never known before. And, there’s an intense hopefulness and happiness that I feel from the social workers. It’s an infectious feeling that I have never had a chance to experience buying an ipod, getting fantastic new shoes, or receiving a yearend bonus. For that I am very grateful for this experience. Thank you for all the staff’s warm support for me during my stay here. I wish all your own hopes are fulfilled.

During the last monthly meeting, I had a chance to ask everyone member present what they would ask for if they had one wish. (They were at first very reluctant to answer, or did not know the answer), but here's what I extracted from them:

Start a women’s hostel (Rosie)
Good marriage (Chancy and Anjali)
Children’s education (Samadhi and Asha)
Serve her parents (Thurymini)
Son become a preacher (Ponraj)
Become a charter accountant (Karthikai)
Start pre-school (Mareeswari)
Wealth (Anita)
Become a good housemaker (Lalitha)
To build a new house to get away from my wife (Anachi)
Become a preacher to heal others (Solomon- CEO)

Last Day Pictures

Lunchtime

Rosie tying up my packages for the U.S. Unlike UPS, IndiaPost requires you to sew your packages up with needle and cloth.

Raja the dog was completely distraught over my departure. Here, Anachi is trying to wake him up from his emotional stupor.

Yawn...

Anjali's exact words. "What are you doing Catleen?."

Glamour Shots

This entry is dedicated to all the creatures that visited me in my room during the course of my stay in Chennai, helping me to become more accepting of the society of the multi-legged and the creepy crawlers.

Vani's Recipies

Some of the recipies require grinding with a stonemill, but I'm sure the food processor from Home Depot will be a suitable substitute.

Chapatis (you need a clean stovetop to make this one)
1.Add 2 part wholemeal flour to 1 part water
2.Knead dough
3.Let sit for some time (30 min.), Vani also admitted that if she has not time, she doesn’t bother with this
4.Grab a small fist full, roll into a ball, flatten, put some flour on both side and flatten it some more with a rolling pin, until it’s the size of a personal pizza
5.Then put on the pan- wait, flip, wait, flip, put directly on stove fire. It will rise very quickly, remove immediately.

Idly
1.Soak 4 part rice and 1 part ural dal in water for 5-6 hours
2.Grind up the above and as you do intermittently and cautiously add water, until you get a consistent paste.
3.Let this paste sit for 12 hour or until it rises (this step helps to create the flufiness of the idly. 12 hours was given for humid Chennai weather, but in cold wintry weather you should leave for at least a day)
4.Steam for 10 minutes

Tomato Chutney
1.Put 4 tomatoes in 1 cup of water. Boil in water for 5 min. (until soft) – Don’t throw away water!
2.Peel skin, then mash lightly
3.Dice up finely 1 onion, 10 cloves of garlic, 1-2 chilli, fingertip size piece of ginger
4.Put oil and mustard seeds in a pan, heat, then put in the onion, follow by all the other contents of 3.
5.Cook slow until light brown, then sprinkle tumeric powder and (if you like) half spoon of chilli-powder
last, add the tomato puree from 2 in the pan
6.After tomato dry up a bit, add the water from 1
7.Cook until boil, then garnish with finely chopped cilantro

Dosa
1.Add 1 part wholemeal flour to 1 part water (it should have a watery consistency)
2.Pour two small ladles of mixture heated pan (vite! vite!)
3.Gently spread the mixture in the pot with the bottom of the ladle, starting from the center, forming larger and larger rings, until the mixture is completely flat (There should be tiny air holes in the mixture, but there shouldn’t be any large rips. If you get one of these rips, then you’ve made yourself a “mistake dosa”)
4.This mixture will cook very quickly, so you should work fast. After you spread it, flip immediately. Spread a teaspoon of oil on the dosa, then flip again.

Rasam (I actually found in this microwave recipe book that Vani handed to me when I told her that my dinner usually consists of instant noodles. Rasam is a mixture, South Indians add to the rice at the end of the meal. Like most other traditional Indian food, I was told it was “good for health”)
1.Combine 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, 1.5 teaspoons of coriander seeds, and 8 pepper corn into bowl. 2.Microwave for 2 minutes at 70%
3.Grind above, then keep aside
4.Pierce tomato with fork and microwave in 4 minutes, remove skin, mash lightly, then add 3 cups of boiling water (or you can use steps 1,2, and 7 from Vani’s Tomato Chutney recipie)
5.Combine 2 tablespoon of taramind pulp, ¼ teaspoon of tumeric powder, ½ teaspoon of chilli, ¼ teaspoon of asafetida, salt to taste, and all the contents of 1 and 3. Then microwave for 4 minutes

Temple-Hopping

the social justice biker gang


Lepaksu Temple: there was no one at the temple when we arrived. The swami was chilling on the stoop at the entrance, chatting with his buddy and we had to convince him to go back in and perform the ritual for us. But since the temple was completely deserted, I got a chance to take pictures of the inner-sanctuaries. This temple was built in the 1500s, carved from the gigantic boulders in the surrounding landscape.



lighting a lamp, swami prayer to the god

ceiling painting

this dog wandered into the temple and followed us around

this pillar is actually not touching the floor. If you look closely, it is completely suspended from the ceiling. It's carved as a monument to the temples of Hampi.

multi-headed snake, guarding the temple

This giant cow statue was located about half a mile from the temple with the cow's head and 7-headed snakes facing towards each other. If you stand next to this statue, you can see the snake heads peaking out out of hills.

smile!

We made a pitstop at a village call Veerapura. There, we found an wise-looking exotic bird which migrated from Siberia. According to the villagers, the flock only started migrating to this location five years ago. Although village is only a few hectares, with around 20 families living there, the birds flock in hordes to nest here during the summer. No where else can they be found in this region.

Agriculture 101

Last week’s trip to Karnataka was all about the farmers. Karnataka is dry region, where villagers depend entirely on the land for their livelihood. Apparently, around 30 years ago, Indian farmers only worked with traditional methods. However, this has changed recently, especially after the initiation of the Green Revolution. Farmers began to adopt pesticide in large doses, and neglected the more labor-intensive organic methods. Although, the output initially increased, the insects gradually became resistant to the pesticide, so a few years later, agriculture output started falling, even below pre-revolution standards. And many farmers, finding the cost of pesticide too expensive to sustain, has abandoned their field in search of coolie labor work. The traditional methods of farming have been forgotten, but they are actually quite simple, and able to eliminate about 80% of the insects. Step one, during summer season (autumn in America) when insects breed, the soil is tilled and turned, destroying the larvae by exposing them to the sun. Step two, a mound is built around the field as a physical barrier against any hungry creepy-crawlers. Step three, trees are cultivated which will attract the insects’ natural enemies. Two strips of marigold are also planted in each field. Their bright colors distract the insects from the crops. Easy right? Now you can try it at home. A man I met there works with an NGO to try to reintroduce these methods to the region.

DPG is also working to redevelop traditional methods to solve agricultural shortages, but they are specifically targeting prevalent drought problems in the area. Because Karnataka is completely landlocked and very hilly, farmers are unable to retain enough water for their crops. DPG helps them to raise some of the capital to shape their land to fix this problem. The farmlands are cut into bunds along the hills, lined with soil to keep the water from running. Around the farm, they build ponds and watersheds, which capture the water for use during droughts. These ponds also increase water-saturation in the soil, and raise water-level in wells. The staff in this area are intensely dedicated. They have a 12-hour work-day, spending the morning walking 500 hectares and the evenings conducting self-help group meetings.









The nursery is where crops begin their life-cycle. In this one, the farmer planted beds of baby tomato plants. Can you tell which one is the genetically engineered breed?


This is called Pongamia. It reaps nuts which can be used for alternative energy

Tamarind plant

Potato harvesting

Spicy Chilli. This plant is the most suitable for growing in dry areas

Farmers thread dried grape leaves together into plates. After dinner, these can be thrown into the field as fertilizer for the crops.

Merrygolds

Rice paddies, a heftier breed that requires less water

A pond constructed on common land

The concrete damn turned this once dry area into a swamp

Unfarmed dryland











The project leaders

Hema, my guide and translator, was the most giggly Indian I’ve met so far. One night after work, she dressed me up in her sari and we strutted around her place. Then, we moved to her neighbor’s place, and strutted around some more.