So the day before, after leaving the partially-cleaned haunted house, we returned to Krishna's place and felt lazy for the rest of the day until around 8:00, when Krishna took us out to a nice mall to get some shopping done--I got two kurtas and one salwar-kamis pants and one other pair of some pants whose name I currently cannot seem to recall (note: spelling could be COMPLETELY off) that I feel more comfortable wearing around, especially (a) since it's extremely hot and humid here, and (b) when walking around in the slum community, considering Behrampada is a Muslim community.
Afterwards, there was food that took forever to reach our table, and then at 11:00 while waiting for a bus, a man asked us if we were waiting for a bus for China or Japan. Krishna should have just let me say "Actually, I'm going to France" or "Yeah, I'm waiting for my bus back to Kenya," and then bust out in some French or Swahili, respectively. Then there was the amusement of returning and our attempting to surprise Emily for her birthday along with Abijit and Viru and Surbi. We stayed up until 3 in the morning or so sitting around and talking. One highlight of dinner was the point when Krishna realized that this "one weird thing in the canteen" from last summer that they had talked about was actually Anu. It was a beautiful moment.
Emily's birthday in India.
(Photo courtesy of Anu)
Then, three and a half hours later at bright and early 6:30 am, we woke up, showered, and then by 7:30, headed off. We took the 308 bus to meet up with Suni, another member of the Haath Mein Sehat project. She is our "summer intern," and she is a graduate student in public health at Berkeley. She has been putting together questions for an epidemiology study for some base-line data in the news slums in Sion that we will be working in. She has been to India before, but she only knows a small amount of Marathi, and she has never really travelled around the city outside of the protective family bubble. Then, we headed over to the ITC Grand Maratha Sheranton to meet Duane Dunk, a representative of HaloSource. HaloSource is a company that has been working on a bromine resine that kills bacteria and virus through direct contact of the water with bromine-coated polyester beads. Duane really loved to talk, and the meeting ended up lasting for about two hours; I didn't mind so much seeing as we were sitting in an amazing dining room with tea being served to us on platters and with the air conditioning smothering us with cool air.. Long story short, they have some interesting technology, and they are also connected and working largely with a couple large names that we want to work with: PATH, which has received a ton of money from the Gates Foundation to work on safe water and water-related illnesses, and EurekaForbes, the leading name-brand water filter/purifier in India that targets middle-class citizens. Duane seemed extremely impressed by some of our own knowledge and technology development, and also by our experience in working with the Indian culture, especially in the slum areas of Mumbai. This was an amazing find, and this meeting was inspiring for me to push myself to look for more technologies and to ask for samples to play around with for the next couple of months.
At 11:30, Anu, Suni, and I made our way towards Behrampada in the Bandra district, while Emily went to look for other places to live other than the haunted house in Dadar. We took the train, which was slightly full, but otherwise, none too eventful. There was a three-legged dog hobbling around that caught my attention at the ticket counter. The beggars become extremely uncomfortable at times, but sometimes one of us have crackers on us to give to them, which makes it a little better, I suppose. Regardless, I can't help but feel extremely guilt-ridden every time I walk by and wonder why I am unable to just completely change the system and the infrastructure of the world so abject poverty did not exist. One can dream, I suppose.
(Photo courtesy of Suneeta)
We arrived at Behrampada, and was amazed that we did not become completely lost in the process. First, we visited the house of Sumeena, who is the head of the Jai Maharasha Mandel.
(Photo courtesy of Anu)
The Mandels are the womens groups in Behram that consist of women pushing for more rights, independence, and other issues such as domestic violence, women's rights, HIV/AIDS, etc. We had begun working in Behram with the Mahila Mandels three years back, when the people in the community had claimed that clean water was one of their biggest issues that they have to deal with. That was fun, and we stayed around drinking chai, playing with her daughters, and talking about what has been happening for the past few months. We are scheduled to return on Thursday at 4:00 to attend one of the Jai Maharasha meetings. Next, we visited a couple more women, and are scheduled to return on Friday at 3:00 to go visit Naseema's daughter who has just been married, and also June 10th to visit Zakira again.
The dynamics of the politics of the slum, and just Indian culture will never fail to surprise me. First of all, Naseema has always been an interesting lady regarding her qualms with others. She had apparently sent an invitation to some of the Indian students that are working on the Haath Mein Sehat project to her daughter's wedding, and is extremely upset that they did not show up. Also, since both Anu and Suni are India, I was the token "foreign chick," and that was apparent when Suhti and Murdu (note: the names are most likely completely off save the first letter) showed up at Zakira's place to help us translate. I don't particularly mind since they helped us find the last house that we were looking for. I do not know how to even begin to describe Behram. It is literally just rooms stacked up on top of each other somehow, with wires and random lane pipes running throughout everywhere, not to mention the garbage and sewage that you attempt--and fail--to avoid splattering over all of yourself. The smell also leaves much to be desired. The heat does not help, either.
Around 2:30, we had to leave because we had our own respective meetings back at Somaiya college, and the three of us figured that taking the train would not be the worst idea in the world, considering how much an auto-riksha would cost, especially in the middle of the day.
So we were wrong.
No, we were extremely wrong.
The station at Behram was extremely ridiculous. Being fairly tall relative to the rest of the population, it was slightly easier for us to keep ourselves standing. Unfortunately, for Suni, being 4'11", life became suddenly extremely hard as she was being suffocated by the crowd that engulfed us. Trying to get onto the train was ridiculous, and the three of us barely made it on before the train started moving again. The closer the train got to Dadar, one of the large transfer stations, the more jam packed it became. I did not know that cramming so many people into one area was physically possible. In general, the train lurches around enough that you have to hold on or sit down lest you want to be thrown to the floor, or just straight out of the train door. Before reaching Dadar, it got to the point where first of all, there was almost no light entering the train car, and second of all, you did not have to hold on because there was no actual room for movement when the train did lurch. I was pushed up against this woman who was carrying her son in her arms. I believe that she was telling me that if I was going to Dadar, that I did not have to push because she was going there too. Unfortunately, I did not have a choice because this fairly large woman was behind me and pushing me so hard, that I did not have any autonomy over my own torso and limbs. The poor child looked as if he was about to die. Suni, being on the other side of the car that the exit was on for Dadar, was fairing about the same. By the time we stepped off of the train, she had one of those "I think I just saw a ghost" looks on her face. It was a bit exciting, to say the least. Overwhelming and something that I do not care to experience again, but exciting nonetheless.
I think we finally decided that it was like playing Chubby Bunny with marshmallows, with the people as the marshmallows.
Unfortunately, trying to find the right train to transfer to in order to reach the Vidyavidhar station was another 20-minute excitement that involved asking about 34,612 people, each giving us a different direction, climbing up and down 231,702 flights of stairs in 152C weather and 100% humidity, and finally boarding the correct train. We were not even completely sure that it was the right train, since that car happened to be one of the few cars that did not have a map of the stops posted on the wall.
Still, we finally arrived at Vidyavidhar station, and Suni and I went to Genesis labs to talk to Annette, Ajit, and Vishal, while Anu went back to Krishna's to pick up Emily to meet Hetal to talk about the budget. I had really missed being around Annette, Ajit, and Vishal. Maybe it is the molecular biology background, but they are my favorite people to hang around with all day while working; don't get me wrong, I love working with all of the students, but somehow working with these three have been the most fun. We sat around in the air conditioned lab meeting room, and talked about the future plans of water quality testing, both for E. Coli and other coliforms, and for testing for cysts. Since Ajit was leaving Genesis by this weekend, leaving only Annette to really do all of the work, we decided that moving water quality testing to either SIES College in Sion, or a professional lab, was the best move. On that note, Ajit is most likely coming to America! He will be doing his graduate work at UT Dallas, which means that, at some point, I need to go visit the oh-so-exciting city of Dallas. If he obtains his visa, then he will be heading over in August. Screw formality in my writing--I'm completely stoked!
Next, we discussed other issues that they could help me with, such as finding other cartridge filters to possibly test for. They will be calling vendors on Princess Street (yes, that's right, Princess Street), and seeing what can be done. Annette also had the contact for EurekaForbes, which just made me want to explode with happiness. ALSO, ANNETTE HAS AGREED TO OBTAIN A LAB COAT FROM GENESIS LABS FOR ME. It will be awesome, and life will be great. It will be like a souvenier, only a geeky one that I would actually wear in the future. :)
That being done, Suni and I went to find Anu and Emily; we discussed the rest of the week, then went home where I crashed for the next hour or two.
Then there was a lovely shower, people, dinner, and sitting around having girl talk until 2 in the morning. We are forever grateful that we did not have to stay at the haunted mansion last night.
Today should be a more relaxing day. I will be stopping by Genesis Labs to pick up my lab coat, look over results from water quality testing, and just to hang around until the afternoon, where I might tag along with Anu or Emily or Suni to either SAHAS or work on the education program.
Unfortunately, my stomach has been extremely queasy and is currently in pain, and also my legs look like there is a mini black diamond mogul ski-trail made onto it. Only, the moguls are extremely red and extremely itchy. Oh well. It's hot, and it's only 8:00 am. Time to type up a real report for the project.
Lesson of the day: You will be sweaty, dusty, and extremely dirty. Deal with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment