On The Way to Bangalore, Karnataka - 19th Jan 2011

The whole day was travel today from Palagat to Bangalore. Leaving before sunrise is always an adventure. Like you’re doing something in secret under the blanket of dark and gonna surprise people later.. Fun it was leaving at 4:30am...

We stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant and it was crowded as it is, without the 30 of us streaming in. Since there was no way to get tables exclusively, we scattered and sat wherever we got place. It was funny to see peoples faces as 2 or 3 us randomly came and sat with them as they ate. Complete strangers.. Haha..

At tea, we stopped at one of those roadside dhabas and there were the cutest puppies running around! I know all puppies are cute, but these were like extra cute only! And they kept on playing around with each other and running around and allowing us to feed them and all.. Puppies always make people happy...

We enter Bangalore on what Rakesh tells me is the longest flyover in Asia. Something like 5 long km or something. It was pretty cool.. Like you’re on this huge bridge and I don’t know about other people, but I like to pretend when you’re that high, and you cant see what’s below you,  that you’re going to some magical kind of place and you’re bypassing civilization to get there..  Eeeeeee....

And Sister and Prashanth (who are from Karnataka) kept teasing Joice that we’re not in Kerela anymore. “See see outside, see all the gardens.. You don’t have gardens like this in Kerela,” “See see we have flyovers here.. Longest flyover in Asia. Waat you have in Kerela huh?”

When we reached Bangalore, we had a really awesome welcome committee who received us and took photos and gave us flowers and handshakes and lots of smiles. And we took this group photo and Solomon was like, nooooo.. “I’m looking so bad abhi.. We’ve just been travelling the whole day.. They should take tomorrow when we’re fresh.” Later we found out they’re gonna use it as the backdrop at the event. You should have seen Solomon’s face then. Haha! I said, “Jab u see the backdrop, aap ‘back drop’ ho jaoge in shock.. Hai na?”

And at dinner, someone poured water into Solomon’s glass and he said thank you in Malayalam. And the guy just moved on. Then Solomon realized that this isn’t Malayalam country anymore. And he had no idea how to say anything in Kannada. The look of realization on his face that he’ll have to learn a new set of words now was soooooooooo funny!

And the weather was a lot cooler than Kerela and Tamil Nadu. Especially at night. The other 2 places were kinda warm and humid. But Bangalore was very pleasant with bright sunshine during the day and a cool cool breeze.. So fresh! Looking forward to what the Garden City brings tomorrow!

Bangalore, Karnataka - 20th Jan 2011

We meet Jennifer’s mom today  morning (Jennifer’s from Bangalore) and they’re standing next to each other and Deepika says, “Bilkul Aunty jaise lag rahe ho.” And Jennifer puts her hand on her hip and says, “Main aunty jaise lagti hoon???”

“Ab.. Nahi, matlab.. Tum apni mummy jaise lagti ho. Main tumhare mom ko to aunty hi bolungi na?”

We visited Mount Carmel College and had a session with them. By far this was the most enthusiastic one we’ve had. The girls were so spirited and lively and had such drive in their energy. They also already have a bunch of programs on women education and other social programs and they had the force within to take initiative to speak up and start something as well. I was really impressed with their spirit and their willingness to start new programs based on our suggestions. And they had also banned plastic in their college. Making rules or setting up something somewhere is one thing, but to practice it whole heartedly is something else altogether, and here these girls were doing it. They are quite an inspiration and I really commend their efforts and encourage them to keep at it.

Made some really awesome friends in these refined young ladies.

After the program we were having brunch in the canteen and Jennifer and Solomon got into a friendly-ish argument of who is better – Carmelites or Josephytes (You can figure out who is from where). And both were saying that both were the best (duh) and Solomon kept saying that when a Josephyte is near, there is no need to fear. And Jennifer said that that is the reason to fear. And Solomon quipped back saying that Josephytes are dynamites and then Jennifer said, “Exactly. They’re all sound and no matter. They explode and then nothing.”

 Haha! And Solomon was like “Ae! We can take you guys anytime haan!”

But then Jennifer said that if the Carmelites decide to gang up on him, he aint got a chance. And Solomon was like they cant do that coz they don’t stand a chance against a Josephyite. And Jennifer was like, “Acha?? Should I call my friends??”

We were in the college where she was from. And Solomon was like that’s not fair and everything. And Prashanth who was sitting there said, “Ya Jennifer and all can totally win.” And Solomon is like, “Whose side are you on?? You’re on her side? The girls? What about men empowerment yaar??”

They should add that to the Millennium Development Goals. For Solomon.

In the evening, we had an interaction session with a few members of the VAZ Foundation. They work for education and all in schools and their flagship program is career guidance. Here we spoke about climate change and the environment and what problems we’re facing in preserving it, and then we all spoke individually about 1 thing we do that is harmful to the environment and what we can do to change it. 1 thing I noticed was that there were a lot of things that a lot of learned from each other that day with each suggestion that came through. Some of it was a real eye opener too. And at the end we had this excercise where we stood in a circle and Aman from VAZ led us through an action song. It was something completely out of a children’s tv program to me, but it really helped everyone feel more free and lose their inhibitions a little bit more. It was a very enriching session. For all of us.

Mysore, Karnataka - 21st Jan 2011

We left for Mysore at 5am and got a kick-ass welcome with a cycle, motorcycle and car rally/escort who met us at the border and took us into their beautiful city. The first thing that strikes you when you come here is the architecture. The quaint, very artistically sculpted buildings with their arches and carvings really stand out.

 

We got the good fortune of visiting the Mysore Palace. Father Christopher and Father Franklin went all out and arranged a tour for all of us of the Palace. It was soo beautiful! It didn’t matter that the sun was scorching the ground and burning our bare feet, there was so much to take in! There were such intricate designs on the walls and the ceilings and even the floors, plus amazing carvings in teak on the doors and mirror borders (there were a lot of mirrors in the palace.. Really big ones too). Rakesh set his hair everytime he passed one.

And the colours and patterns everywhere you looked was spellbinding.. But most of all was the scale of the whole thing.. Huge would be an understatement. It was just majestic in every sense of the word. Rakesh plans on buying it someday. Either that or building his own..

Unfortunately they didn’t allow us to take photos inside.. And I know my words don’t do full justice to what we saw, but I’m sure you know what I mean.

There were some really phenomenal art students there too!

After lunch we had a program organised by the Mysore diocese. We got to interact with the younger youth here who put up some brilliant performances focusing on how the youth is the future and there was one on donating eyes too. The ideas and presentation these young people put up was astounding. It took us by surprise, and enriched us at the same time. Kudos to them! They are gonna do some really great things one day. And not too far ahead in the future too.

At dinner, we were teasing Solomon. He’s the National Spokesperson for the ICYM (Indian Catholic Youth Movement). We implied that ‘spokes’ comes from the spokes in a wheel.

“Arre no!! What are you making it yaar?? And what does that make me??!”

Later Kiran wanted me to take a picture of her for her profile. She said, “Kisi din jab ache kapde pehenge na, to meri photo lena.. Sirf face-face ki.”

And Nimisha was like, “Sirf face-face ke leni hai to kapde ka kya lena dena?”

Mangalore, Karnataka - 22nd Jan 2011

Originally we were supposed to leave for Mangalore early in the morning, at about 3-4am, but we got news that there’s gonna be a bandh in Karnataka on the 22^nd, so we left at night only about 10:30pm. Sister came and woke us up and within 10 minutes we were all downstairs and loaded our stuff on the vans and started off for Mangalore in the still of the night.

I really have great respect for our drivers.. They drove so responsibly for 8 hours without rest and without a word of complaint or exhaustion.. 

On reaching, we catch up on some sleep and I awake to hear a voice from down the hall, very overdramatically saying “Ha ha ha ha! Jaante ho main kaun hoon? Main is duniya  ka raja hoon, raja!” Ha ha ha ha!”

It takes a moment to realise that it was Ravi talking. They were practicing the street play on Eradication of Plastic to perform later. Then I heard the dialogue again. And again. Ravi. He probably relished saying it over and over. Typical.

We headed out to a rally in the later where there were like 100 motorcycles and tempos and auto and buses and all escorting us to another location where we addressed everyone there and performed the street play and gave their messages. In particular, when Rakesh spoke, there was something different about him today. He had such a fire burning under him about what he wanted to put across to the youth and the way he was speaking to them was like that fire was getting transferred to his audience. He spoke about how we as young people should take responsibility to make the changes we want to see, and that we should raise our voice when we can see something is wrong and we want to change it. Not just be people standing by anymore. We have so much energy and we need to use that in the right place.

The way he delivered his message reminded me of watching a recording of Martin Luther King Jr. and his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. It was with that much force to drive the message home in peoples’ hearts and minds.

After this we visited St. Antony’s Ashram nearby. We got to dance with this troupe who played the drums and breathed fire and everything! It was soo cool! And then we got to interact with the residents of the place who were introduced to us by Father Anil. There were some mentally and physically challenged persons and many retired priests staying here. The former priests, despite their age were still bubbling with youthful energy and some had such illustrious careers like being a diocesan director for 50 years. Another source of inspiration for all of us.

Mangalore, Karnataka - 23rd Jan 2011

What an eventful day!! I think, by far, this has been the busiest day we’ve had!

We start off at Sacred Heart Church with our program where our girls performed their dance on women empowerment. Rakesh drove the issues into the minds of the crowd, explaining the Millennium Development Goals and why they are so important and what we can do to help get closer to them. I really appreciate Rakesh’s ability to relate to any kind of audience, regardless of where they come from. He figures out a way to communicate in a way the people in front of him get what he’s saying. Everytime.  I would really love to learn that from him.

And he kept rocking back and forth on his feet as usual. He he..

Prashanth also spoke to the crowd. They christened him the ‘Son of the Soil’ coz he’s from Mangalore. He spoke in his native language and really connected with everyone on a level the rest of couldn’t. But apart from that I noticed that he was a very different person here. I haven’t known him all that long, but there was a marked difference watching him now addressing his own people. The tone in his voice, his body language.. It was interesting to see...

We head over to St. Aloysius College to find an auditorium full of people waiting for us. We start having our regular program where Sister and Ravi and all speak and the girls put up their dance. The students seemed to be present and listening, but they didn’t show much of a response. Then Rakesh comes up and throws convention out the window. He started running out of the auditorium shouting that no one is responding to anything we’re asking and that he doesn’t want to speak to the crowd. He mixed it up completely and used different language from the previous sessions and really woke up the audience to give a reaction. Then they gave such answers that it surprised us! Rakesh mentioned how someone had asked in a previous session that our country needs to develop further and part of that is to make more roads. But to make more roads there is a need to cut trees to clear the way. So how much do you compromise your environment in the name of development?

And this young girl gave a very insightful solution. She said, “Someone said that if you cut down 1 tree, plant 10 instead. It is important to build more roads in our country to grow, so if you are cutting any trees, then plant 10 trees anywhere else, nearby, in your home.. Anywhere. That way you can find a way to sustain both the environment and development in the country.”

Ok – wow.

After this we got to visit a Mosque just outside the college. Since women aren’t allowed inside, all the girls waited outside and the men folk met with the Mosque officials and priests. While waiting outside, we had a question – How come women aren't allowed inside Mosques? Women also pray. And to the same God as the men do. Then how come?

We find ourselves next in this beautiful chapel that is reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel in Italy. It’s virtually covered in paintings all over like a storyboard of the life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga. It was painted solely by 1 person – a Jesuit called Antonio Moscheni. It’s hard to believe that one person single handedly created such a masterpiece. Check out the photos. It’s truly breathtaking.. And there is a real peace and serenity in the Chapel. If you ever get the chance, do visit.

Today we also visited a temple – Shree Gokarnanatha Kalyana Mantapa. We got to witness the pooja and drink the holy water. It always made me feel like if incense had a taste, it would taste like that water. People were ringing the bells here and there, and I remember reading somewhere that they are there to awaken the spirit within. What a feeling! Ding!

After darshan to so many churches, the temple had a different feel. Peace, yes, but it was distinct from everywhere else.

 

Following this we went to Milagres Church. I liked the quaint look and feel to this Church here. Rakesh mentioned later that it was here that he got married. Somehow I liked the church a little more after that.

The penultimate stop of the day was at St. Joseph’s Seminary where we had an interactive session. I had thought that this might be like last time at a seminary and we’d get a luke warm response, but this was the most proactive group of young priests-to-be! They caught it when Rakesh said K2K stood for Kerela to Karnataka and they were really paying attention to what all he was saying and in the question/answer round they were very actively participating. The best part was Ravi’s ‘Ole le’ routine. Normally people would never do the actions in the song whole heartedly, but here they were the most animated lot we’d seen yet! Sometimes it’s hard to believe that a childish bunch of people would be Fathers and leading sermons and all.. But it’s all good. The world needs more cool Fathers.

The final destination for the day was a sea beach for dinner. A resort or some such thing, I think. Rakesh, as usual, free spirited as he is, jumped the fence and started catching crabs that were crawling out of the sands. And then dropping them into all the girls’ hands.. He he..

I don’t remember where exactly this was, or how long we stayed there, but it doesn’t matter. The waves were there bringing their music with them. 

On The Way To Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh - 1st March 2011

You’d think human endurance has a limit, but apparently you can cross those limits sometimes.. We’ve been on the road for 25 hours this time, starting at 11pm the previous night from Bhopal and reaching at 12am the next in Lucknow.  (Nope. It didn’t take 14 hours.)

Oh, correction. We think they were roads. But it was something else altogether. You know how when they’re gonna make the road, they break it up and there are all rocks and stones there, uneven and unsorted? That would still be bearable. What we drove over was 10 times worse. The total journey was some 600-odd km and at least 400-odd was like this. And to think this was the National Highway. Where do all those funds go that are allotted for maintaining roads??? It made the drivers reduce the speed to like 10-15 kmph and the vehicles got some damage too. One got a hole in the diesel tank and a gear lever of the other broke. To add to that, they drove through the night and all through the day. And we thought the last time was bad..

The driver’s plight was their own, but for the rest of the group we were a little better off. It was terribly uncomfortable, yes,  but I think that the reason everyone stuck it out was because the sense of mission that we that came with was so much bigger than anything else, that in the long run, this was actually minor. And like they say, it’s the tough times which make you grow more than the rest. So this was undoubtedly one of them. By the end of it, we were stronger for the experience, in body, mind and spirit. And we realized that we could endure so much more than we thought.

Plus, since we were all together, we got to keep each others spirits up and talk and laugh and all. Like remembering the time in Jharkhand, when after Deepika had emceed for the first time and Solomon, who generally does it, went to her, put his hand on her shoulder and said, “Deepika, mujhe tumpe farak hai.”  And the way we laughed at it! Prashant was like, “Tum ladke ho aur ye ladki hai. Aur kitna farak chahiye?”

And there was a time Solomon, Jennifer and I wanted to talk, but still manage to keep the conversation private. Solomon was working on his laptop, so he opened a new file, typed something and handed it back to Jennifer to read and respond. Jennifer would type her answer and hand it back. Then Solomon typed and handed it back to me. I typed and forwarded it to Jennifer. Jennifer handed it back to me. I gave it back to Jennifer. Then Jennifer gave it back to Solomon. Solomon gave it back to Jennifer. Jennifer gave to me. I gave to Solomon. Solomon gave back to me. I gave back to him. He gave back to me and Jennifer and I looked at it together and laughed. It was like chat, but one where you pass the laptop back and forth. Hahahaha..

And how in this one place Joice was called Kumari Joice Mary Antony and by the end of the same program she was Shrimati Joice Mary Antony. And Ravi Rounak Robin became Ravi Kujur in Chattisgarh. And in Bhopal they announced him as Miss Solomon Gomes. And have you met Rockesh Singh?

Now we have Lucknow to look forward to! Lets see who becomes what!