DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

Today we said farewell to Bhavan’s Institute and the RK middle school. Though we had not spent too much of our time there over the past weeks, it was still a difficult parting.

We began the day as usual by four of us demonstrating science experiments to middle school students and four of us teaching creative writing to other middle school students. We finished our last training session with out replacement science demonstrators and were all confident that these experiments would continue to be shown in the future by the Bhavan’s school volunteers. A few of the school’s science teachers also showed interest in our experiments so it is quite possible that the RK School’s teachers will take up part of the project. The middle school students involved in the creative writing group performed the plays they wrote and several improvisation games for faculty and fellow students. The students we worked with thanked us for all our help, invited us back next year and gave us a heartfelt farewell.

We then met with the college students. We finalized the creation of the college’s newspaper, drama club and community service clubs. We also wrote the constitution for the school’s first student council. We then took pictures, exchanged contact information and said farewell to our new friends. While for most of my group this was goodbye, I have the good fortune to be able to return to Bhavan’s one last time to attend the school’s first student council meeting on Tuesday.

Having the RK School and Bhavan’s as part of our work in India definitely has been an important and formative experience. Had we only worked with the Round Table government school, we would have returned home with a very dismal image of the state of education in India. Whereas the government school suffers from a lack of basic supplies, poor infrastructure, overburdened teachers and a series of dramatic shifts if government language policy, the RK and Bhavan’s schools show the opposite end of the spectrum. At the government school, we struggle just to communicate with the students and to maintain order. At the RK School, we can discuss science and literature at the same academic level as we would expect out of American students of the same age. At Bhavan’s, our task is to help create extracurricular activities and not focus on the core curriculum because the school does not need help meeting the core requirements. The most striking difference, however, between Bhavan’s and the other schools is the age and maturity difference. At Bhavan’s the students are our age and are not our students, but rather our peers and that is the relationship we have and treasure when we visit the college. One of the experiences we will miss most is comparing American and Indian collegiate life with out peers, but luckily we all have e-mail.

Though we don’t know if we shall ever meet our students and peers we have worked with at the RK School and at Bhavan’s, they promised they would never forget us and we promised the same.
 

“Ahhh! My hand is purple! My poor hand is cold and purple! What did I do wrong? What did I do to deserve so cruel a punishment as this? Help me please! Who is that stranger looking at my purple hand? Oh no!!! Don’t touch my hand! Who is that lady and what does she now want with my hand? Success! By some miracle, my hand is normal again. It’s a little wet, but that’s a small sacrifice to pay for the restoration of my right hand.” Something like that went through the mind of that poor first preschool student when we painted her hand purple and placed her handprint on the wall. She likely had no idea what was going on and I don’t think she fully recovered until long after we had washed her hands and she saw that the rest of her classmates go through the same ordeal. Luckily, the other kids caught on quickly and, despite our first victim’s initial shock, the rest of the kids enjoyed adding their handprints to the mural. We even got the teachers, the principal and some of the staff to join in. Doctor and Professor Prasad, Shyam, Mahesh and we eight engagers also left our handprints.

The mural was a great way to bring the whole of Safrani Memorial School together and we created quite a buzz while doing it. Even some of the weavers came out to see the work as we progressed. The handprints really added to the appearance of the school’s new auditorium. The mural was a great way to show how far we have come in working with the school. We were no longer random foreigners to kids, but personable visitors that could be trusted to leave a permanent mark on the school. We all had fun too and it was a great way to foster unity as the whole school helped to paint a rainbow of hands on the wall.

Given the intense push on quantitative learning in Indian schools and their competitive nature, art is a subject often neglected and is the reason why we were at Safrani. Luckily, Safrani was taking measures, like having us there, to combat the state curriculum’s neglect of the arts. Everyone has a little artist in them. Even though the teachers, staff and kids did not get to do much on an individual basis (only one or two handprints), just that tickle of the artistic spirit was enough to leave the partakers with a smile and a better mood. Whenever they could, kids would return to view the mural as we continued to progress through the grade levels. We learned a lot today about the power just a little art and colour can have on the spirit of an institution. Our mural of bright colours, despite only covering one wall, seemed to brighten the whole campus. By having everyone take part in the work, the mural became everyone’s work.
 

Tonight was Anita’s 21st birthday party and it was a party to remember, Indian style. Don’t get me wrong. We did not completely forget why we were in India. Today we went to the college we are working with and held our traditional Friday science experiment demonstrations and creative writing workshop. We also continued training our replacements to take over our jobs for when we leave and continued to set up a school student council, newspaper, community service club and drama club. However, once our work was done, it was party time.

We felt like it was prom night. We spent the past week getting our proper attire. The girls had to go to the tailor several times and ask for help dressing on multiple occasions to make perfect every detail. All six girls wore saris and bindis. Daniel and I wore traditional Indian formalwear, but I distinguished myself with my first turban. In order to capture the beauty of the moment, we spent about forty minutes taking pictures before we left. Looking at us, you would think we were heading out to an Indian wedding. The drivers were very impressed with our outfits and we were all excited to show them off at the party. The girls would probably not be the only girls at the party wearing saris, but we two boys would probably be the only males not in Western dress.

All four Prasads joined us for the party. We arrived at Chiraan Fort: “The Club for the Privileged” according to the slogan. The club is in the Deorhi Nazir Nawas Jung Building of the Palgah Palace Complex. Translation: it was really, really nice, first class, top notch as they say here. We sat at tables in the garden between the fountain and the palace’s imperial entrance. Anita got to meet many members of her extended family and reunite with family members she had not seen for a long time. Her uncle, who hosted and organized the festivities, is the club’s oldest member and saw to it that we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I think Anita’s family was very excited that we all attempted to wear Indian formal clothes and much fun was had by all. The food was great and Anita’s uncle gave us a private tour inside the palace. We had a blast to put it mildly and were some of the last guests to leave the club.

We have certainly seen firsthand the two Indias on this trip: the India of the impoverished and the India of the privileged.
 

Matchmaker, Matchmaker,
Make me a match,
Find me a find,
catch me a catch
Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Look through your book,
And make me a perfect match…

While it is now uncommon for Americans to consider first-class matchmaking a key factor for marriage, this is not the case in Mother India. Just reading the five pages of matrimonial ads in each of the Indian newspapers we have delivered each day is evidence enough to convince us of this point.

As part of DukeEngage, we Hyderabad-Engagers are all very enthusiastic to experience local culture and what could be more important to any culture than love? Thus, many of us have created profiles on Shaadi.com (the world’s largest matrimonial service). Point of interest: Shaadi means marriage.

Anita’s profile is the most active. She has had hundreds of prospective suitors view her profile and received lots of “interesting’ inquiries. This may come as a surprise to some of you for Anita to receive some much attention in less than a day, but a profile picture, English literacy and an American passport work magic to any profile.

My profile is less exciting. I have not received any inquiries as of yet and only three profile views. We attribute this to there not being very many Jews in India. Since fair skin and American citizenship are major matrimonial pluses here, the others in my group figure that if I changed my religion on the profile to something less specific, like spiritual, I would start receiving inquiries. My group members might just be saying this to make me feel better, but it is worth a try. I cannot come to India for two month and not try marriage brokering. If this still fails, I might have to take out a matrimonial ad. However, for now, I sill have faith in Shaadi.com. I did not come to India for a bride, but anything is possible.

Happy forth of July! Though today is an American holiday, it would have been inappropriate for us to take the whole day off.

Today was our first workday at the RK middle school and college. We split into two even groups at the middle school: a science and a creative writing team. The science team went to an eighth grade class to demonstrate basic (yet captivating) air pressure experiments. The students really enjoyed having the experiments in class since their curriculum is all textbook based and involves no classroom demonstrations. The creative writing group took around thirty handpicked students, whom our group will work with every week, and taught the students about journalism. The creative writing students will learn a new field every week. Journalism is Jiajia’s specialty and both the students and her fellow Duke Engage students learned a lot.

Our normal work schedule at this site would typically involve working at the middle school from morning till noon and at the college from after lunch till the late afternoon. However, due to the regrettably high number of hazing attacks against incoming freshmen (or freshers as they are called here), only the incoming college students were allowed to come to the college today. Thus, we had the afternoon off after we met with faculty about what we will do next week when all the college students are available.

That evening we picked up our Forth of July cake. We requested it to be red, white and blue since our baker refused to do an American flag design. To our surprise, our cake was not only red, white and blue, but also featured purple, green, pink and an orange flower, but at least we tried. We then dressed in our Fourth of July attire, wearing whatever blend of red, white and blue clothing we could scavenge for. The eight of us, except for me, wore typical western clothing, but I wore red, white and blue Indian clothing from a wedding store. On seeing my Indian appearance, the Prasads’ eldest daughter commented that I look ‘very refined.’

We had tried to plan a Fourth of July party, but most of our last-second plans fell through. However, in typical Prasad power-couple fashion, Leela-ji and Dr. Prasad saw to it that everything was taken care of and made it look easy while doing so. They ordered American and Indian food, including Hyderabad’s signature dishes, chicken hot dogs (remember no beef or pork here), French/freedom fries, ketchup, ice cream, fish, grilled chicken, corn on the cob, American sodas and cake. The cake the Prasads ordered, designed by their eldest daughter, outdid our cake by leaps and bounds. The left half of the cake featured the left portion of the American flag and the right half of the cake featured the right half of the Indian flag. The baker also wrote “hmmm, 4th of Julay” on top (it was supposed to say Happy 4th of July, but this was close enough). The meal was a true Indian-American fusion.

The Prasads even invited guests to our party. Unfortunately, many of the guests cancelled at the last second because of a sudden rainstorm, but a few guests did end up coming. It was great to have company and to talk to other Americans and former American residents in the city. With the guests, we compared notes on Hyderabad, India and America. We held the party (thank you Prasads) at a community center near our house and ignited sparklers and fireworks in front of the building. The Prasads saw to it that we had sufficient decent combustibles on hand for every pyromaniac in our group to fulfill their deepest desires.

We had a wonderful time celebrating Independence Day!