Surendenagar and Wild Ass

Democracy

As my ID badge says I am from the US I am constantly fielding comments on Bush, though have to admit that I am quick to explain I am really from Scotland! It is remarkable that I can guarantee with 100% confidence that whether I am talking to a leading political journalist, like my friend's father, Mr Thaker, or a teacher from Sweden, or the concierge at my hotel or a student from Nepal they will have no respect for Bush at all, and express incredulity that the American people voted for him not just once but twice. Mr Thaker wanted to assure me that he knows the American people are good people but that the administration is problematic and the cause of America's problems. He even said that when the democrats are in power things are good for India although I would have thought there was not much difference between the two parties.

The United States shouts about democracy, and yet it is dishonesty and powermongering that rules the motivations of this country. At one of the sessions at the conference, ministers for the environment from several different countries came to discuss the environmental issues facing their nations. Problems and successes were posed, and questions invited in all but two presentations. These two presenters claimed that their countries are doing everything possible for the environment, and that there are not further challenges they face. Both representatives also refused to allow any questions. Which countries were these? Iran and.....the United States.

"My notion of Democracy is that under it the weakest should have the same opportunity as the strongest....No country in the world today shows any but patronising regard for the weak. Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted facism.....true democracy cannot be worked by twenty men sitting at the centre. It has to be worked from below by the people of every village"

Mahatma Gandhi.

I have to say that it felt sweet to be reminded that the US is not as invincible as it believes itself to be. Here, as in many countries around the world, prices are listed in dollars as well as the local currency (rupees). Today I went to pay for a walking tour and was told that they would not take dollars anymore because the dollar is too unstable. You know our economy must be bad when the Indian rupee is considered a better investment than the dollar.

Rajal

Last night I got to meet a dog with backwards forelegs. Not to worry, he was as happy as could be because he lives with my new friend Rajal. She actually has 7 dogs but they live in the courtyard behind her house. This little guy though has his own bed in her apartment. When she found him he had fractured both legs really badly but, as she is a senior doctor at the hospital, she arranged to have his legs fixed with some pretty extensive surgery. His legs bend forwards now, in the way most dogs feet do (like an ankle joint) and he sort of plops around on them as happy as can be. This was the first surgery of its kind in India and Rajal and her dog had their story reported in the newspaper.

Rajal, besides being a dog guardian angel, a gynecologist and a professor at the medical school provides sex education for young girls and boys. She also works with blind and deaf kids and takes them out into nature to experience the world outside the city, while throwing in a few facts of life along the way! You may have heard the quote "my life is my message" by Gandhi - Rajal won several awards for her work doing outreach as well as her work treating women who live on the street and in a newspaper article the headline was "her life is her message". I have to agree.

Rajal invited me to stay for dinner as well as stay with her on my return to the city. And she refused to let me even thank her. I tried to help her cook so I could learn but her mother would only let me roll out the very last roti, certain that I would botch it up. I learned a lot though, including how to make roti (which is puffy kind of bread).

Exploring Ahmedabad

Today I nearly got married but our plans were thwarted by logistics of conference transportation............

This morning Laura and I went on a walking tour of Ahmedabad which was fantastic. Laura is from Warwick but lives in the Czech Republic and we met on the first day of the conference and are now best friends for ever! You know how I am, but she really is a winner - we really clicked. Anyway, as I was saying..we took a really wonderful walk around the city which is beautiful. Housing communities are separated by caste, with each community having a gate (or at least an archway) a noticeboard, and a bird feeder. The bird feeders are fairly large structures, and are simply a reflection of the Jain and Hindu influence of tenderness toward all living things. Even the dogs on the street here are fairly well loved. In one of these communites we saw three houses next to one another - one from the Mogul Empire, one Persian, and one British - all adjacent to one another. Our guide was a beautiful man called Neo (as he said just like the Matrix) and as we passed a store he grabbed a little green turban and adorned his head with it, explaining that this was the hat one would wear for a wedding. However, he explained he just needed to find a bride to which Laura goaded me into inviting a proposal. So Neo and I decided to go and get breakfast, but the tour organizers wanted us all to come back together so ah well....my Indian 3 day marriage is not to be.

We visited Jain temples, Hindu temples and Mosques, found monkeys right in the middle of the city, in these tiny alleyways that we explored and let me tell you camels now seem blase since seeing an elephant in the street today! Children followed us, not asking for money, but asking for 'just one photo' - they love us to take their pictures and then show them their images on the digital screen.

We wandered through Manek Chowk, the largest market in Ahmedabad where everyone wanted to talk to us and give us gifts. Eating the fruit unwashed is a bit sketchy so we tried to put them off politely, but when one vendor handed me some limes, I gave him a rupee to say thankyou, and he promptly handed me about twenty limes. At one point, a group of men pushed us along a side street saying "photo" and we found ourselves at a beautiful small temple in a tiny Pol. Suddenly the hustle and bustle was gone and we quietly sat for a while enjoying the peaceful ambiance of the courtyard.

Music and Food

So much has been happening its hard to remember of what the last few days have consisted. Lots of wonderful food and inspiring talks and discussions. New friends. Last night we were provided with the most incredible concert by Bikram Ghosh - a world famous percussionist who has put together a group called Rhythmscapes that incorporates numerous drums and other percussion from all over India, and even a western style drum kit. It was just an exhilarating performance - it was in a different ball park from the drumming at Elin's wedding in Tahiti, but it felt similar - the effect that such intensely passionate rhythmic music has on you.

After the performance we had a magnificent feast consisting of foods from all over the world so I enjoyed Indian version pesto pasta, and Indian version Chinese noodles, as well as some simply incredible Indian Indian food. I also discovered this lovely drink that they have on tap all the time here. Its hot pink, and is made from prickly pear. You add a little spicy pepper to it - so it is a very strange sensation of salty and sweet and sour.

Education for Sustainable Development

The conference has been very inspiring. Gandhi is quoted in almost every presentation regardless of the origin of the presenter. A lot of the talks focus on the interaction of sustainability and education with peace and even spirituality so that is all very inspiring. I had not considered the significance of this conference being held in Gujarat prior to arriving here. Gandhi believed in local empowerment, in women's rights, in equality, and in simple living. His headquarters are within the city limits of Ahmedabad, although when they were built they were far outside the bustle of the city. Here we are, fifty years later still trying to put his teachings into practice and I know he would be proud of our efforts. The working group I attended focused on the role of education for sustainable development (ESD) in formal education. It was the duty of our group to produce a white paper on ESD in formal education to be presented to UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program). I got to know some of the workshop participants fairly well like Shepherd Urenje from Zimbabwe (though based in South Africa) and Rajeswari Namigiri who works for CEE in Ahmedabad. These people are simply brilliant and dedicated to their work and have inspired me tremendously in my life and work.

"My life is my lesson" Mahatma Gandhi

Ahmedabad

I finally got here to Ahmedabad last night - to the Nest Hotel. The taxi ride to my hotel was phenomenal. Did you know that a family of four can all ride the same Moped? We were surrounded on all sides by hundreds of Mopeds with Saris flying all around. You could taste the ozone, and the adaptable sari was being use by many as a face mask against all the fumes. Electric rickshaws were common but so were bicycle rickshaws pulling cart loads of people. I saw a small truck of futons piled 10 feet high with people sleeping on top. The traffic rules seem to dictate that cars drive on the left side of the road but it's hard to tell. We got rear ended once which seemed so inevitable that I was surprised that our driver even bothered to stop and berate the guy behind us. He got back into the car mumbling that this crazy guy was in a hurry.




I saw cows - sacred cows with huge horns - wandering amongst the traffic, and dogs, and I just can't understand the physics here that no-one on bike or foot seemed at all perturbed by the mass of traffic. I sat quietly just taking it all in until a camel stepped in front of us, and then yelled 'a camel' and started laughing. The driver was pretty excited that I had not seen a camel before so after that he was more chatty and pointed out a few more camels for me.

My room was quite a come down after the swank hotel in Mumbai, and last night I woke up itchy and there were BED BUGS in my bed. Ick. I squished the ones found and decided I couldn't worry about it too much - tried to think about them as being no worse than mosquitoes. Other than that I slept well and do not seem to have much jet lag at all.

This morning I met others from the conference at breakfast. Its very easy to talk to people here at the conference because most people are from far away and the Indian people are excited to have us here. I met a group of people from an environmental organization in Nepal this morning - most of them are Indian, but I met a Nepalese boy who works with training farmers in sustainable practices, a man from Kenya who trains teacher in environmental education and a plant systematist from Sri Lanka. I had breakfast with some folks at my hotel who are attending the conference and they were able to introduce me to good food to have for breakfast and the correct way to eat it! I had Puri Bhaji - which is a flat bread that you eat with potatoes and vegetables. They, however, had omlette and toast ;) I asked them about bed bugs and they were horrified and told me to tell the hotel management which I did and was promptly moved into their 'best room' - which honestly was a huge step up from my previous room - its beautiful in comparison so I am looking forward to being there tonight. So there was an upside to the bed bugs!