Experiences as a Development Practitioner

Livelihood Pathways: Sequencing for Sustainable Market Integration of the Poorest

2012-01-25T01:07:00.000-08:00

Blog posts have come to be recognized as a form of professional writing that can be consumed in real time and en masse by fellow practitioners. They, like articles, can be digested quickly and provide a forum for a rapid exchange of ideas, debate, and clarification. While I’ve written and shared quite a few through various sites, including my own, I’ve been busy these last two years researching, documenting, and writing more formal technical pieces that I’m thrilled to report are under review for publishing. On the first day of this new year, a case study on the ‘Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest’ project in Bihar, India was published by USAID's Microenterprise Development Office as part of a series under the Advanced Microenterprise Advancement Program (AMAP). The publication, titled, 'Livelihood Pathways: Sequencing for Sustainable Market Integration of the Poorest,' details the flow of the integrated livelihoods model and how our interventions, products, and services are strategically sequenced to support the poorest's elevation out of poverty. Please click here to access the full study.

Where the 'Integrated Livelihoods Model for the Poorest' (ILM) Stands Today

The Value of Group Savings and Lending to the Poorest People

2012-01-21T11:46:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to my readers! I've lagged yet again on keeping the blog updated on recent travels from India to Qatar to Montreal and Quebec City that concluded 2011- a tremendously active year on the travel and professional front. I hope to eventually write 'catch up' posts over the coming weeks. In the meantime, I'd like to share a very touching story from the field in Bihar, written by one of our field executives (equivalent to an officer), Sudarshan Behera, which was posted on the Grameen Foundation blog, 'Creating a World Without Poverty' in December 2011. In this post, copied below, Sudarshan shares how nominal savings has proven to be a tremendous resource for our clients in Bihar:

Sugia Devi was a changed woman on November 7, 2011. She had just left the free cataract clinic in Bodhgaya in India’s northern state of Bihar and was grateful for her improved eyesight. She couldn’t wait to thank the people who had made it possible: the members of her adapted self-help group (ASHG), Durga.

The group is part of Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest, a joint project of Grameen Foundation’s Solutions for the Poorest group and BASIX/The Livelihood School that is designed to enhance the skills of the ultra poor, link them to income-generating activities, and build their savings habits.

Sugia lives in Khaneta village with her husband and her son, and his family. When she first heard about the ASHG in August, her husband did not want her to join the program because of mistrust and a lack of understanding on the benefits of participation. She persisted and began attending meetings and saving a small amount each week. Starting with an initial deposit of Rs. 10 (US 2 cents), by November, she had saved Rs. 130 (roughly US$2.40). But it still wasn’t enough to pay her fare to get to the free clinic in Bodhgaya some 30 kilometres (19 miles) away.

That’s when Sugia turned to the members of her ASHG. In addition to providing a safe place to save, the groups also provide its members with quick access to short-term loans. Sugia’s group members approved her loan of Rs. 100 (US$2), enabling her to cover her transportation costs for her operation.

Today, Sugia’s husband has a better appreciation for the value of the self-help groups, and she knows that her family can rely on the group when they need help. As her husband noted, before the ASHG, the family would have had to borrow from moneylenders who typically don’t lend less than Rs. 500 (US$9) and at very high rates.

Sugia has recovered from her operation and now Friday – the day her ASHG meets – has a special importance in her life.

Building Skills, Building Confidence: Ultra Poor Women in India Are Taking a Step Toward Self-Reliance

2011-11-11T07:35:00.000-08:00

Until our households are able to build their skills to engage in more productive livelihood activities that can help them to generate increased income, through the Livelihood Pathways project, we have identified ways to help households meet their immediate consumption needs in the interim. The first is to link households to government welfare schemes that provide them with a minimum guaranteed wage employment or the equivalent wages, food rations, and other cash tansfers. The second is to train members of the household to engage in low skill activities, such as kitchen gardening and incense stick rolling, and link them to these local markets to generate relatively small but immediate and stable incomes. Avinash Kumar, our project manager in Gaya, blogs about these activities here. Special thanks goes to Julia Arnold for her immense editing contributions.

Building Skills, Building Confidence: Ultra Poor Women in India Are Taking a Step Toward Self-Reliance

Asha Devi’s eyes sparkled as she rolled agarbatti (“incense sticks” in Hindi) for the first time. Asha is a member of an adapted self help-group (ASHG) in Pali, a village in India’s Bihar state, where the Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest, a joint project of Grameen Foundation’s Solutions for the Poorest group and BASIX/The Livelihood School, is being implemented. The sparkle in Asha’s eyes reflects newfound self-confidence and pride that by selling handmade agarbatti, she will be able to supplement her family’s income.

Women from the program hold up their newly-rolled agarbatti (incense sticks) during training

Nearly 100 women from six village ASHGs participated in our week long training. Agarbatti rolling, which is a common activity in almost all of the villages in the Gaya district of Bihar, is one of two income-generating activities being promoted through the project. These activities require simple skills and provide modest increases in income to help households meet their immediate consumption needs. As the clients’ confidence levels and skills increase, the project team will transition them into entrepreneurial income generating activities, such as poultry farming and goat rearing, which require higher initial capital investment and skill sets but can significantly help fill income gaps throughout the year.

The agarbatti rolling training was unique not only because it was the first time women from the poorest families were receiving it, but also because it was the first time local women were given a leadership role to train their fellow community members. The experience of having a local woman train them in this skill helped increase the participants’ confidence, leaving them optimistic about their prospects and ability to contribute to their families’ income. While agarbatti rolling is common in the region, many of the households participating in our project had never done it because they live in relative isolation, making it more difficult for them to access agarbatti agents and vice versa. Instead, they have depended largely on wage labor from agriculture production, construction work, and road building.

Faced with very unpredictable and insecure income sources, these families have not had the luxury of time nor the opportunity to experiment with an entrepreneurial activity. In fact, these households often lack the necessary self-confidence to take up and learn a new activity, even such low-skill ones as agarbatti rolling. One of the aspects of the project is building the self-confidence of the members and, which, thus far, has been successful.

This training is the beginning of a change in this aspect of these women’s lives. As their self-confidence grows and they see their income rise, this positive change cycle will encourage them to seek out other opportunities. As they move forward, our team will work with them to continue on this path.

Take A Walk In Her Shoes

2011-11-10T14:04:00.000-08:00

The Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest project was featured in this month's Grameen Foundation newsletter. The piece can also be viewed on the Grameen Foundation website.

We all know the old adage: you don’t really know someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. This has taken on greater meaning for the Grameen Foundation team helping to build income-generating opportunities for poor people in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states. Together with colleagues from The Livelihood School at BASIX India – a noted livelihood-development organization – they have been slogging (sometimes barefoot) through muddy fields and monsoon rains to meet with clients of our Integrated Livelihoods Model project. One of team’s most challenging tasks involves understanding and working through the daily challenges of clients, who have faced a lifetime of chronic poverty, as well as the sacrifices that everyone in the household has to make to survive, irrespective of age.

The project’s goal is to identify and build immediate and long-term support for these households, which have been organized into groups. Over the past few months, the team has been working with the local government to link households to existing support programs that are available to them, such as child and women’s healthcare and short-term employment. These state services, which many of the poor did not even realize they were eligible for, help the households meet their immediate needs, while the livelihoods team develops and tests products and services that will offer long-term support.

In addition, we are working with groups to create an internal savings process that will give members access to funds in cases of emergency. Some of our more advanced groups have a savings box with a lock, which is held by one elected member, often the treasurer. There are also two sets of keys that are held separately by other elected members, typically the president and secretary of the group. This balance of powers allows no single person access to the group savings.

Two months ago, our team visited the group of Sunita Devi, whom you met back in April. The 35-year old widow and mother of two young children is her family’s sole breadwinner. Her sporadic work as a laborer earns her 21,600 Indian rupees (about $462) per year. Though her fledgling group still needs a higher level of support, she is already benefiting from our work with the local government. As a widow and head of household of a family living below the poverty line, she is eligible to receive a stipend and other services she didn’t know about. Our team will continue to make household visits, hold meetings with the village and provide concentrated mentoring to help strengthen her group, and will continue working with them to start their group savings plan.

Once our team’s target households have stabilized and the groups are further strengthened, we will begin training and introducing them to more high-skilled activities that generate stable yearly income. We hope this gradual transition will lead to a more effective and committed uptake of entrepreneurial activities and a very different approach to life itself. To ensure this, the final piece of our project will focus on financing products that support livelihood development, such as microloans and microinsurance.

Luckshmi Sivalingam, our program officer for the Integrated Livelihoods Model project, has been working on our project in Bihar since April 2010. Read her blog to learn more about her experiences living in and traveling through these poor communities.

Learning from Different Approaches: Grameen Foundation's Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest Pilot

2011-10-28T14:12:00.001-07:00

I'm very thrilled to share a blog post that was recently published on the website of a prominent economic development initiative, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), funded by the World Bank. CGAP is an independent policy and research center dedicated to advancing financial access for the world's poor. It is supported by over 30 development agencies and private foundations who share a common mission to alleviate poverty. Housed at the World Bank, CGAP provides market intelligence, promotes standards, develops innovative solutions and offers advisory services to governments, financial service providers, donors, and investors. The full post can be accessed here or on the Grameen Foundation blog. Happy reading!

Luckshmi Sivalingam, Program Officer within SfP, overseas the Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest (LPP) project at Grameen Foundation and has been working with the field team in Gaya since April of 2010 to design the livelihood and financial products, services and methodology comprising the integrated livelihoods model.

Grameen Foundation’s Solutions for the Poorest program has been working since last year to implement its own “ultra-poor “program , which takes inspiration from the BRAC graduation model, Fonkoze’s Ti Kredi program, and BASIX’s Livelihood Triad Strategy, as well as social enterprises that are experimenting with models to reach poor AND poorest households sustainably. The model we are testing – the ‘Integrated Livelihoods Model for the Poorest’ – combines financial services and livelihood support, sequentially providing these services to our target households as they gain confidence and momentum in the program. Our services are designed to have some measure of cost recovery as we aim to build a program that makes business sense for a double bottom line institution to implement.

Sunita Devi, a participant in Grameen Foundation's Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest Pilot

The current pilot – dubbed “Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest” – is operating in partnership with BASIX India’s The Livelihood School (TLS), in Gaya district in the Indian state of Bihar and is reaching two hundred very poor households. We designed and implemented a composite targeting tool to ensure the inclusion of households currently excluded from microfinance services and government social welfare schemes. Another fifty households of similar demographics are being monitored to make a comparative assessment of the impact of the products and services against a set of socio-economic indicators.

Developing a process to define and identify who the poorest are was a challenging one. Who are the “very poor”? What does poverty look like in their context, and what are its propagators? What are the needs of the very poor to propel them on a pathway out of poverty? It seems like it was only yesterday that I was in Gaya for the second time, working closely with the BASIX TLS team, trudging through our target villages to design and implement a targeting methodology to help us identify the poorest households and help us answer some of these key questions. Last August, our team of three slogged through kilometers of muddy or flooded lanes through villages absent of sewage and waste management systems. The monsoon rains, albeit short-lived, were particularly heavy those few days we worked to test the targeting process with a sample group of the target population before the final process would be scaled up across the entire project area.

We began by holding a community meeting to share the project goal and objectives with the entire village and its leaders before engaging in Participatory Wealth Ranking (PWR), an interactive and inclusive method of rural appraisal, whereby the community members themselves define what poverty means in their own context and categorize individuals according to local definitions. Shortlisted households in the bottom wealth category were visited individually and further surveyed to collect the Progress out of Poverty Index® (PPI®) score, a tool commissioned by Grameen Foundation to determine the likelihood of a household or individual falling above or below a specified poverty line. A household survey also captured a range of data, including their cash flow, livelihood portfolio, food security, health, and other indicators. The final data was measured against selection criteria that helped us identify the poorest households in a given community.

Such a multilayered filtering process ensures that interventions are reaching households not only living on less than $1.25/day, but also well below localized definitions of poverty. While an institution can target clients of varying poverty levels, the products and services it offers must be customized to meet the unique needs of these clients. Poverty targeting can strengthen market research outcomes and better inform institutions on how to service different gaps through appropriately designed products and services. In the case of the ‘Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest’ pilot project, this understanding proved invaluable in executing subsequent key activities such as product and service design and identification of viable delivery mechanisms.

For more information, you can refer to the full use case on this process here or on Grameen Foundation’s Solutions for the Poorest website.

Orissa: A glimpse into the past, perhaps history in the making

2011-10-08T06:07:00.000-07:00

Imagine the land of India as it once was, not as a single nation, but as a mosaic of a plethora of kingdoms and tribes whose people and traditions had not yet been touched by even Brahminic or Vedic influences. Imagine a time when the divinity of the cosmos, earth, and all within it was an acknowledged force that was inseparable from soul to soul of all life, whether it be human, flora, fauna, or the forces of nature. This animistic and/or pantheistic life philosophy, prevalent in indigenous traditions, embeds, then, a moral imperative to respect and recognize the life force or spirit in all. Hinduism today, I believe, is predominantly a hybrid of this indigenous outlook coupled with the Vedic philosophy. The Hindu greeting, ‘Namaste/Namaskar/Vanakkum,’ for example, literally and very humbly means ‘I bow to you’ and essentially expresses one’s acknowledgment of the same divine force in the other. The palms pressed together symbolize this concept of oneness. As I traveled through the eastern Indian state of Orissa (commonly referred to as Odisha by the Orya people), I observed in awe what appeared to be history unfolding itself all over again—the transgression from the untainted, animistic tribal populations to the in-between state when one world has touched the other to finally, today’s India as I’ve known it.

There are roughly sixty-four tribes residing in Orissa, each with its own traditions, rituals, style of attire and décor. Women still drape their saris as they have done for hundreds of years without the blouses introduced by the Mughals and the British. Many other tribes live unclothed and use beads, grass, and other “cloths” of nature of various local significance and symbolism. The predominant tribes are the Desia Kundh, Koyas, Oraon, and Dongoria Hill tribes, who gather and trade once a week in a common market in each of the major tribal centers. They survive off of agriculture, hunting, and fishing, and the produce is sold at these markets along with tobacco, jewelry, and other locally produced items. One morning, we visited the Majhiguda market about 40 kilometers from the small town of Rayagoda. As I walked through the market observing in fascination at scenes that seemed to come straight out of the past, I was hesitant to take out my camera and erect that barrier between what felt like two worlds. After some thought, I did manage to capture a few images when granted approval by the subject. Often, the Dongoria women requested no photos be taken of them for fear that each photo snapped reduced their lifespan in some proportion. It was an opportunity to mingle and immerse myself in a traditional, vibrant marketplace of what I had thought was of a time past. Though we drove hours and hours each day exploring the different tribes and their ways of life, the tribal culture, in its purest state, can only be found in the far more interior south of the state, moving towards Chhattisgarh, which required far more time than I had made time for on this trip. But, who knows for how much longer? In the villages we did visit of the Desia Kundh, I noticed an interesting fusion of indigenous and Vedic practices. As government welfare schemes and modern technology slowly creep into these regions, so do the traditions and ways of the old gradually dissolve or assimilate with the modern.

Dongoria and Desia Kundh Tribal Groups at the Majhiguda Market and Rayagoda:

Shortly before visiting Rayagoda, we had broken journey in the small town of Gopalpur on the Bay of Bengal. Gopalpur is a local tourist destination which attracts visitors with its tiny boardwalk and long stretch of beaches. When we reached there, I found it to be more of a struggling, dilapidated little town. I hadn’t realized how close we were to the Andhra Pradesh border until I observed the large fisherman community residing on the beaches. If they hadn’t started indulging in the local toddy liquor and passed out in the sand, I made attempts to communicate with them in Hindi. When I realized that they didn’t understand Hindi, I asked if they knew Orya, and before I knew it, they were expressing to me that they were from Andhra Pradhesh in their mother tongue of Telugu. Many Telangana people live along Orissa’s coast, as their livelihood is rooted, or shall I say, anchored in the sea. Each evening, they sell the day’s catch which can be enjoyed fresh in nearby restaurants or transported in ice-filled storage boxes to neighboring cities and states. After three months in landlocked Bihar, I completely indulged in fresh, delicious prawn and crab curry at every opportunity.

Before starting the drive out of Bhubaneshwar to visit some of the tribal groups, my driver was adamant that we stop to worship at the Kali temple just on the outskirts of the city, a tradition followed by most travelers for protection and to preempt any potential calamities. I was pleasantly surprised by the good conditions of the main roads until we reached the periphery of the tribal areas some 40 kilometers outside of the capital. The state of the infrastructure degraded the further interior we traveled, taking up to 7-8 hours just to travel 150-200 kilometers. Our first stop of the day was to Chilika Lagoon, the largest lagoon in India and the second in the world. From here, we took an old wooden boat to Kali Jai Island, known for its abundance of rare species of flora and fauna as well as an old temple, again dedicated to Kali. Here is one of many places where one can observe the transition stage from tribal to current practices of acknowledging the divine and practicing Vedic rituals to evoke life into the Kali deity. As I exited the moolasthaanam, where the main deity is housed, I was instructed to tie a set of black and red bangles, a part of my prasaadam, onto a part of the temple as I thought of something I would like to either leave behind or realize once I left the grounds. A man struck my head with a bouquet of peacock feathers “to ward off evil eye” as I made my departure from the main shrine. As I looked upon the external face of the moolasthaanam, called the vimaanam, I was surprised to see one of the oldest symbols of the divine to be discovered on Indian land, a yoni, symbolic of the female or life force. As we traversed through Orissa, I was soon able to identify the older temples from the new by this symbol. It was mind blowing.

Orissa is a mystical place saturated with some of India’s most stunning architecture and art forms. The land is referred to several times throughout the Hindu epics, the Ramayanam and the Mahabharatham, and in the 3rd century BC, flourished as part of a Jaina empire. Significantly, it is also where the bloody battle between Kalinga and Akhoka of the Maurya Empire transpired and ultimately turned Ashoka onto the path of non-violence, leading to his embrace of the Buddhist philosophy. Monasteries, temples, and other structures from the 3rd century BC through the 12th century AD pepper the state’s landscape, mostly so in its capital city, Bhubaneshwar, aptly referred to as the Temple City. The temples of Orissa are unique in structure, erected vertically in a rectangular shape before rounding over at its peak. The entire façade is covered with an overwhelmingly intricate set of carvings depicting scenes from the various Hindu texts. Most notable, however, are the erotic carvings, primarily from the Kama Sutra, that I’ve only seen on the temples of Khajuraho. There are several interpretations or explanations of these images that range from philosophical to mythological-cum-superstitious ones. As I walked through each temple complex, sliding my hands against their intricately carved surfaces, looking up in awe as many peaked high into the skies, my breath as well as my mind were taken away momentarily.

Udyagiri Caves, Bhubaneshwar:

Lingaraj Temple, Bhubaneshwar

Gangeshwar/Yamunneswara Temple Complex:

Parashurameshwar Temple, Bhubaneshwar:

Sidheshwar Temple Complex, Bhubaneshwar:

Mukhteshwar Temple Complex, Bhubaneshwar:

Hirapur Yogini Temple:

Chilika Lagoon:

Gopalpur, Bay of Bengal:

The next stop was Puri, the holiest of Orissa’s cities, where the renowned Jagannath temple is situated and attracts thousands of pilgrims each year. About a half an hour’s drive from there is the most spectacular of Orissa’s architectural feats, the Konark Temple, in honor of Konark or Surya, the Sun god. They say it took twelve thousand sculptors twelve years to complete this stunning structure, full of symbols and carvings. On the way to Puri, we stopped at the village of Raghurajpur, home to the community of Pattachitra (silk) and Pothichithra (palm leaf engraving) artists. I was surprised to learn that all such paintings come from artists from this single village, which is now deemed a heritage site. I met with master craftsman, Maga Nayak, whose sons are also now engaged in this art form, which like many ancient arts is passed down from one generation to the next, skills and patience honed from a young age to generate some of the world’s most revered artists. As I saw the master painter engaged in creating a Pothichithra (engraving followed by painting on palm leaves, the ancient method of record keeping), I was nearly overwhelmed to tears by the beauty of the art form- the patience, devotion, and skill required to create something of unfathomable beauty. After this experience, each time I laid my eyes upon a finished product, I loved it deeply and respected both the art and its creator. A short morning encounter transformed into a day’s immersion with the artist’s family as we discussed and reviewed art before enjoying a thali lunch on their rooftop, surrounded by the green and calm of the palm trees and the lagoon. As I departed for Puri, we passed by a small river running alongside the village, where crème colored garments dried on the surface of a small peninsula protruding into the river. The artist’s son relayed to me that the revered Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, one of the most beloved saints and devotees of Krishna, stayed here for some time with his devotees during their travel through the region. Another tiny piece of history was stamped on my experiences venturing through this magical state.

Guardian of the Jaganaath Temple, Puri (photos not allowed)

Master craftsman, Maga Nayak, in Raghurajpur

Konark Temple:

After only six days of exploration through Orissa, I left feeling it was one with immense depth, full of unforgettable interactions and memories, and yet, I also felt I had barely scratched the surface of what the land and its people had to offer. It was an accidental, last minute trip that was meant to substitute the one planned in Darjeeling and Sikkim. Last month’s earthquake, its epicenter being in Sikkim, changed that plan, and ultimately, me along with it.

Reflections from the Field

2011-09-23T01:10:00.000-07:00

It seems like it was only yesterday that I was in Gaya for the second time, working closely with BASIX’s The Livelihood School (TLS) team, trudging through our target villages to design and implement a targeting methodology and tools to help us identify the poorest households for inclusion in the ‘Livelihood Pathways for the Poorest’ (LPP) project. One and a half years have flown by like the blink of an eye, and with age, my cognizance of the speeding up of time is both exhilarating and flustering at the same time. Last August, our team of three slogged through kilometers of muddy or flooded lanes through villages absent of sewage and waste management systems. The monsoon rains, albeit short-lived, were particularly heavy those few days we worked to test the targeting process with a sample group of the target population before the final process would be scaled up across the entire project area to complete the final selection of the two hundred poorest households. We began by holding a community meeting to share the project goal and objectives with the entire village and its leaders before engaging in what is called Participatory Wealth Ranking (PWR), an interactive and inclusive method of rural appraisal, whereby the community members themselves define what poverty means in their own context and categorize individuals according to local definitions. Shortlisted households in the bottom wealth category were visited individually and further surveyed to collect what we call a Progress out of Poverty Index® (PPI®) score, a tool developed by the Grameen Foundation to determine the likelihood of a household or individual falling above or below a specified poverty line. A household survey capturing a range of data on each household on their cash flow, livelihood portfolio, food security, health, and other indicators coupled the earlier tools. The final data was measured against selection criteria that helped us identify the poorest households in a given community. A multilayered filtering process ensures that interventions are reaching households not only living on less than $1.25/day, but are living well below localized definitions of poverty.

Yesterday was a day of achievement for us, as a team. After months of hard work to identify the “right” livelihood activities to be promoted through the program and develop training modules and resources, we finally launched our first set of trainings in the supplemental income generating (SIG) activities- wage based, low skill jobs that provide nominal increases in income to the households to help meet their immediate consumption needs. We are focusing for now on two activities- kitchen gardening and agarbatti (incense stick) rolling. While both are existing activities in the panchaayat we work in, these women are either not engaged due to a lack of awareness or confidence in how to take up the activity or have been unable to access value addition in the form of skills enhancement to roll higher quality (and hence, higher priced) agarbatti or training in agriculture methods to grow vegetables more efficiently throughout the year. In the case of agarbatti, the activity involves direct contact with harmful substances that are breathed in by women and children alike. Food is often eaten without washing the substance off their hands, so incorporating health and hygiene practices into the training module is another value addition. An interesting fact I learned during my time here is that Bihar is the second largest producer of agarbatti in India! Many of us were raised with agarbatti (commonly referred to as oodhupaathi in Tamil) lit in our homes, sometimes each evening, but without doubt, on religious holidays and festivals. Each time I light an agarbatti stick, I will always think of these poor women from whose hands it originated. I hope you will too!

ASHG members in Shivrampur village proudly show their training outputs

ASHG members giggle shyly as the field project manager discusses agarbatti income potential

Rekha Devi, already a highly skilled roller, is helping to enhance her peers' skills

I’ve begun sensing a deeper, intangible change among these women with each and every visit I’ve made these last one and a half years—something more profound than any monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan can capture. It is a change based on the human connection, largely due in part to something called trust. The women have extended this invaluable commodity to us, as service providers and as individuals intent on helping improve their lives with no expectation of anything in return from them. Yesterday, as they opened up to us at the advent of our first set of livelihood promotion activities in Shivrampur village, I was touched by the apparent shift from their skeptical, introverted selves, constantly averting eyes, faces absent of smiles, to vivacious, outspoken, and empowered women, who were keen and proactive in sharing feedback and a sincere gratitude: “Many others have come and gone. We have been cheated many a time. You people have worked so hard for us, more than our own family members would do for us. And, now you are doing something for us.” As discussed in my post 'August Field Visits,' these women and their families have lived their entire lives knowing nothing more than depravity, exploitation, and neglect. As they practiced rolling more and more fine incense sticks, they proudly raised their finished products, seeking our approval and that of the trainer. We laughed together during those subtle moments of humor that we’ve all grown to silently notice through over one year of interactions.

For the first time, they opened up and shared the initial reservations and reason for opposition from their husbands to partake in the program. Their husbands would desperately ask, “Do you even know who these people are? Do you know their background or their intentions? How do you know that they won’t actually sell you on the market?” To share such content, which in itself is considered too shameful to be discussed with strangers, and men at that, was another indicator of their newly cultivated trust. My heart became heavy when I learned that women from these very communities had been victims of human trafficking. In a society where honor and dignity are directly correlated with a certain notion of “purity/tarnishing” of the body, this so-called livelihood “option” (or coercion, in some instances) can tip the life-or-death scale weighed by narrow-minded local leaders and destroy the lives of so many.

Last week, 4 Community Resource Persons (CRPs) from the World Bank-funded Bihar Rural Livelihoods Program (BRLP) visited each of our ASHGs to assess their current development levels and identify areas requiring further strengthening over the next few months. CRPs are women leaders who've demonstrated a will to effect positive change in their own lives as well as those in their communities. Through interactive training sessions, these incredible women shared their own stories of self-empowerment and imparted to our members the importance of the Paanch Sutra or Five Rules adhered to by a strong self-help group: 1) Regular meetings 2) Regular savings 3) Routine inter-lending 4) Regular repayment of loans and 5) Routine record-keeping. It was an incredibly inspiring and humbling experience for us all. These women I call the Fantastic Four are an example, not just for our own clients, but for women everywhere.

BRLP CRP reviews the Paanch Sutra with members

The Fantastic Four: "Yes, we can!"

Our members try to mimic but are still too shy to raise their arms!

Members from Shanthi ASHG receive their savings box, lock, and keys

Photo stream of our clients' children in Pali village:

Coimbatore Calling

2011-09-07T23:22:00.001-07:00

As I looked upon the rich, red soil we were descending over from my airplane window, I couldn’t help wondering, “Is this what it feels like?” Denied by our native Sri Lanka and dispersed across the world, my generation of Eelam Tamils raised within the Diaspora are mostly children of immigrants. Gratitude and a particular patriotism for our homelands have been cultivated from birth, but can we ever know a pride for or feel the embrace of our motherland? Given the traumatic events of the past few years, touching ground in Coimbatore felt like the next best thing. After seven intense weeks across Hyderabad, Delhi, and Gaya, I warmly welcomed a reprieve at a home away from home in the rapidly growing Coimbatore or Kovai with arms wide open.

On the way home from the airport, I was overcome by bittersweet emotions as I breathed in the Tamil Nadu air and voraciously absorbed all that is Tamil through my remaining senses- street and shop signs in the Tamil script, conversations and street callings in the Tamil language, and women clad in colorful saris with fresh jasmine flower garlands strung in their hair, bells ringing from their anklets and gold ornamenting their wrists, necks, and ears as they and their families fearlessly made their way to the local markets or to temples to worship. As I conversed about my family’s wellbeing and my work in Gaya with relatives, Tamil trickled off my tongue, and I felt something of a mother’s embrace in that moment- at ease and alive. From birth, we had visited both Eelam and Tamil Nadu every other year to visit family. In the latter, they were relatives who had fled the former in response to the 1983 riots of Black July. In the government-sponsored pogrom, thousands of Tamils were massacred, homes and shops burned to the ground, and tens of thousands more fled as refugees into the arms of other sympathetic and accepting mothers. It was a time I witnessed too young to remember now but has eternally scarred many far more than any physical wound is capable of.

I have the fondest memories of visiting Coimbatore as a child and enjoyed every moment playing tag and hide and seek with my cousins in their three-level rented home in Gandhipuram. My favorite hiding spot was up on the mottamaadi (rooftop) from where one could escape the chaos of the fast growing city and relax meditatively with views of Coimbatore, the sunrise, and the sunset. I loved walking down to Ukkadam and Oppanakkara streets with my Amma and our female relatives, who never passed up the opportunity to buy strings of mallikai poo (jasmine) or kanahaambaram poo, a small, orange colored flower, referred to as ‘paper flower’ in English, to loop into their long, black plaits. I indulged in the kadalai (garbanzo) and kajju (cashew nuts) we bought from a man who sold these roasted and wrapped in newspaper cones from his cart, as he announced his goods for sale throughout the streets of Gandhipuram, plastered with posters of Tamil movie stars cum ‘Gods’ cum politicians. It was incredibly comforting to experience this all again, though admittedly, a bit strange as well to do so on my first trip to Coimbatore without my immediate family.

Tamil movie star cum politician campaign poster

Religious and cultural fusion

Craftsman enlays gold into a necklace; Coimbatore is renowned for its manufacture of gold jewelry

Campaign poster of Jayalalitha, TN's current chief minister and former actress

Auto driver waiting for business

Increased flower sales during Vinayaka Chaturthi

Antique film posters of MGR, Chief Minister of TN in 1977, and a legendry figure of the Taml film industry

Cotton candy in Gandhipuram

Charity

Massive statues of Vinayakar, commonly known as Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity of wisdom and good fortune, were erected in temporary mandapas throughout the city, and street vendors displayed hundreds of colorful clay statues of the deity for sale in a range of smaller sizes. The day following my arrival was Vinayaka Chaturthi, commencing a widely celebrated ten-day festival, honoring Vinayakar as superior to all other deities. Each Hindu home installs a clay Vinayakar, specifically purchased to celebrate the festival, and life is symbolically invoked into the statues through the chanting of mantras and offerings of coconut, jaggery, sweets, grass, flowers, vermilion, and sandalwood. Throughout the ceremony, hymns from the Rig Veda, Upanishads, and the Ganesha stotra are chanted. At the end of the poosai (ritual) in our home, I was asked to sing Carnatic songs in praise of the deity before we enjoyed prasaadam (food that has been first offered to God) in the form of delicious aval, a mixture of aval grains, grated coconut, jaggery, and sugar.

A silver Ganesha murti

Ganesha, lord of wisdom and good fortune

Another, more traditional Ganesha murti

Relatives had flown in from all corners of the world to participate in the wedding of my cousin. We shuttled back and forth between relatives’ houses, visiting newly arrived relatives and indulging in meal after meal, snack after snack, and cup after cup of milky, sugary, tea. The gastronomical bliss could also be perceived as agony by the meek or simply an act of overindulgence. The day always starts with one of those ‘out of this world’ cups of tea that never fails to hit the spot, followed by a breakfast composed of idli and sambar or thosai with podi and sambal. Available throughout the day are king coconuts to quench one’s thirst with their fresh water and pulp, additional cups of tea or juice, fried snacks, such as vadai and samosas, and sweets interwoven between rice-and-curry lunches and dinners. I was naturally, then, a happy Coimbatore camper.

My darling nephew, the newest member of the family

Traditional and auspicious Tamil vilaka or lamp

Traditional welcome to any Tamil Hindu wedding

Traditional Tamil wedding band, comprised of nadaswaram and mradangam instruments

Madapam, a sacred structure under which couples are wed in Hindu and Jain traditions

After nearly three days of wedding festivities and a couple more indulging in both family and exquisite, silk sari shopping, it was with a heavy heart that I prepared for my journey back to Gaya, back to work. I was suddenly devastated to leave another de facto home and a place where a large part of my identity flourished. But, I know I’ll be back very soon.

August Field Visits

2011-08-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

After slogging barefoot through a kilometer of muddy fields and monsoon rains, we reached our first ASHG (adapted self-help group) meeting of the week. We were greeted with warm smiles from the female members of one of the strongest ASHGs developed through the project to date. Trust levels and self-confidence are building incrementally, and a savings habit is being nurtured amongst our members. Over the next couple of weeks, we will work with the local government to link households to various welfare schemes (e.g., child and women's healthcare, NREGA, guaranteeing at least 100 days of employment or the equivalent payment of wages, etc.). Already this week, after meetings with district and block level government officers, we’ve been guaranteed that all of our households will receive their NREGA job cards in addition to 1-2 fruit plants per household by the end of September. While our households are eligible to avail such government cash and in-kind transfers, they either don’t have the required identify proof or the awareness of the schemes to pursue them. Our facilitation here allows them to see immediate, tangible benefits of engaging in the program as they begin to gradually access and experience the much-needed services that are rightfully theirs.

Understanding the mindset and the conditioning of a lifetime of chronic depravity of our clients is one of the most challenging aspects of this work. We, with our immense worldly exposure, an education, urban, modern lifestyles, and access to an abundance of amenities, are almost at a disadvantage. These luxuries suddenly become our greatest limitations, as practitioners, to relate to and understand a very different reality—that of the majority of our world’s population. A few visits allow one to skim the surface of this reality. And, it is a painful one, more so according to our perceptions than it is for these individuals, as this is all they know. We, however, compare it to our own conditionings and biases. In their case, I wouldn’t say ignorance is bliss; it simply relieves them of an awareness of their own, comparatively harsher reality. To live amongst them, or, at the very least, interact with them on a daily basis for an extended period of time provides us, practitioners, a window into their daily life challenges and garners our own understanding of their needs, the context in which they live, and the rationale behind the difficult daily decisions they must make such as how to feed themselves and their families, what they must forego for the survival of their children, and the sacrifices that must be borne by the entire household, irrespective of age. Designing a methodology, products, and services to create “livelihood pathways for the poorest,” as the project is aptly named, will be a process of trial and error these next 2 years.

One such household is that of Sunita Devi. Sunita is a 35-year old widow with 2 children in the village of Pali. She is the only breadwinner in her household, with an annual income of 21,600 Indian rupees, which is equal to 41 US cents per person per day. While Sunita’s ASHG is thus far one of the weakest ones, we hope through continued household visits, engagement with male members of the village, and concentrated mentoring services, her group will gradually catch up with the more quickly progressing groups. To help meet immediate consumption needs, we are linking households, like Sunita’s, to various government welfare schemes, such as NREGA discussed above, which will provide Sunita 100 days of employment or the equivalent minimum wage payment. As a widow and a BPL head of household, she will be eligible to receive cash and other transfers that she was not able to avail on her own. We are gradually working with her ASHG to begin internal savings on a monthly basis so that in urgent times of need, she will understand how savings can become a risk management tool. More advanced groups have been given a savings box, held by the Treasurer, and as a cost share, the members will purchase a lock and 2 sets of keys, to be guarded by the President and Secretary of the group. This balance of powers allows no single person access to the group savings. In September, we hope to provide Sunita and her peers training in kitchen gardening practices and agarbatti (incense stick) rolling. These two supplementary income-generating activities, combined with government linkages, should hopefully provide immediate relief for Sunita and her children, from both a financial and food security standpoint.

Mud and Other Stuff

Child of an ASHG Member in Shivrampur Village

Collecting Savings During the ASHG Meeting

Counting Her Change

Individual savings are noted in the individual's passbook as well as in the group savings register

Taradevi, an ASHG Treasurer, proudly holding the register she safeguards

Another sort of field work

Sunita Devi with her 2 children

Beautiful children of Pali Village

Once our households have stabilized and ASHGs are further strengthened, we will then begin training and introducing them to more high-skilled activities that generate stable, year around income. We’re hoping this gradual transition will lend to a more effective and committed uptake of entrepreneurial activities and a very different approach to life itself. To ensure this, the final key design will be of livelihood financing products, such as credit and microinsurance. But, how to customize these for such a poor population without adding to their indebtedness and daily strains? This past week has been one of stimulating financial product design, through discussions with some of BASIX's greatest minds and visits to local livestock markets. This process has developed in parallel with the final design of livelihood development services. Important questions we've been pondering and answering include: How should the introduction of supplemental income-generating and entrepreneurial activities be sequenced? Which elements of shariyat (Islamic) banking can actually be applied to vulnerable and poor populations? How can repayment be structured to sync with projected income cycles? What aspects of traditional systems can be embedded in the product design that will lend to greater understanding and acceptance of the financial products by our households? The answers to these are shaping some very innovative, finely blended products that we're looking forward to testing out over the next year.

Child in Shivrampur Village

Mesmerizing expressions

Children lingering after the week's meeting

No words, at least for me

Raginidevi places her passbook into the savings box

ASHG members finish depositing their savings for the week/month in Shivrampur Village

End of the meeting and time to start the day's work

Seeing is Believing*

2011-08-14T05:49:00.001-07:00

*Written for the Grameen Foundation blog, Creating a World Without Poverty: http://grameenfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/seeing-is-believing/.

After what seemed would be a third year of dry spells during the critical monsoon season, the rains have finally come in Gaya district of Bihar, India. Agriculture is one of the primary revenue sources for both farmers and wage earners, like the 200 households that the Grameen Foundation is reaching through the Integrated Livelihoods Model for the Poorest (ILM) pilot project being implemented in partnership with BASIX/The Livelihood School. The rains bring increased wage earning opportunities, which, translates into enhanced income and food security for most rural poor households here.

To mitigate the risks of volatile and erratic income generating opportunities, the Solutions for the Poorest (SfP) team aims to gradually enhance the skill sets of the primary breadwinners of our households and link them to more stable livelihood activities. These activities include daily wage activities, which are often seasonal and low skill, and entrepreneurial or productive activities, which lend to higher income generating potential and often require increased skill sets and start-up capital. Through our project, livelihood promotion will be sequenced to first enhance existing or introduce new daily wage activities that can rapidly increase household income while enhancing clients’ self-confidence and trust in our project team and partners. Subsequent to this is the introduction of new, productive livelihoods that generate higher incomes and can sufficiently fill gaps in income flows throughout the year. Examples of these include goat rearing, poultry farming, and vegetable vending. This approach moves away from creating an immediate dependency on credit to meet daily consumption needs and avoids disrupting clients’ existing livelihood patterns.

Over the past month in Gaya, we’ve engaged our clients in exposure visits as a means to enhance their understanding of new livelihood activities- both wage-based and entrepreneurial. Exposure visits entail visiting actors and observing processes along entire supply chains of the activities we will link households to. This deepens their understanding of the benefits and challenges associated with each activity and better informs their decision to commit to the “right” livelihoods for themselves and their households.

This past week’s exposure visit was to the neighboring village of Orr, where our clients met with women of the same socio-economic background and have successfully engaged in kitchen gardening, a method of small scale vegetable production that involves very little or no land and mostly organic inputs. Home grown vegetables significantly increase nutritional levels while also contributing to income through the sales of excess produce. Our clients also received a demonstration on gunny bag gardening, which is essentially a garden in a bag that grows along creepers against the walls and roof of the house. Prior to the visit, our clients expressed self-doubt in their capacity to start new activities, but after seeing how their peers have engaged successfully in these, they claimed, “Now that we have seen them do it, we know we can do it too! And, we are ready to start!” Seeing really is believing.

Our members touring the kitchen gardens of the women in Orr village**

Despite the heavy rains, the women stuck through the entire visit

Our lovely hosts of Orr village bid us goodbye

**Unfortunately, due to the heavy rains, supporting photos are limited.

A Sunday Outing in Gaya

2011-08-07T03:47:00.000-07:00

“Ma-jee, paisa dedo, ma-jee, paisa…” “Mother, please give us money,” was the pleading, out of habit and necessity at the same time, of the children and the elderly on the way up to the temple. The children had the energy to follow me up the 400 plus stairs, so halfway up in the scorching heat, when their pleading became an added weight, I succumbed and gave them a 10 rupee note, demanding that the recipient evenly share the money with the second boy, 5 rupees for himself and 5 rupees for the other. I was drenched in sweat as I reached the very top of the hill to the place where Buddha gave his third sermon after attaining enlightenment in Bodh Gaya. The sermon at Brahmayoni is referred to as the Adittapariraya Sutta or the Fire Sermon and was preached to a thousand former fire-worshipping ascetics on the subject of liberation from suffering through the detachment from the five senses and the mind. However, the temple there existed much before this sermon and derived its name from a natural fissure on the mountaintop, giving the appearance of a yoni, symbolic of the female energy. Believed to be the yoni or the female force of Lord Brahma, the temple became known as Brahmayoni. The main deity worshipped is a 5-headed goddess, Savitri, and before the shrine is the synthetic footprint of Brahma. The view of Gaya town, the sacred Falgu River, and the many other religiously significant sites of the area from atop the temple is marvelous.

Earlier this Sunday morning, after passing through several paddy fields in my somewhat flashy, white Amabssador, the glorious car of India’s past, we reached the Mangala Gouri temple, atop another of the many hills that pepper Gaya’s landscape. The temple is believed to have been constructed in the 15th century, but the location is believed to be the same mentioned in several puranas and various tantric texts dated much older. Many believe that this is another Upa-Shakthi Pitha, or one of the places where a body part of Shakthi fell to the earth. I had visited another Pitha in Kathmandu last year, dedicated to the yoni, so while a strange concept, it was not foreign to me. Here, Shakthi is worshipped in the form of a breast, a symbol of nourishment.

The Ambassador

In my 7 visits this past year, this is the first time I've seen the cursed Falgu River with water

Women clearing the paddy fields for sowing

Vimanam of the Mangala Gouri temple

A hazy view of Brahmayoni from below

Savitri temple

The 5-headed goddess

'Matha Yoni' shrine along the way up

After only a half a day’s outing, I was drenched in sweat and exhausted from the heat and hiking up to the hilltops. After picking up pomegranates and mangoes at the tail end of their season, I headed home for a nice shower, lunch, and preparations for the week ahead. Stay tuned for an upcoming post on this week’s “field trip” planned for some of our members, where they’ll be observing and learning about the techniques and benefits of kitchen gardening, an easy, low cost way to grow vegetables at home to enhance food security and even make a small income from selling excess produce.

Lady clearing the paddy fields

Preparing for sowing the fields

By the Grace of the Rains

2011-08-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

The rains have come. India undergoes two monsoons- one from the northeast and another from the southwest. Bihar, falling within the former zone, has not been so lucky the last three years. Dry spells have diminished the rains of the monsoon season, beginning in mid-July and concluding around end August, and for a substantial rural population whose income patterns reflect seasonal needs, this has been massively detrimental. As discussed in previous posts, people like our clients in Gaya, Bihar, rely entirely on daily wage activities to generate irregular and nominal incomes that barely allow them to feed their families. Households can typically afford only pulses or vegetables for their daily meals- both would be too costly. Imagine then, as they wait for the monsoon, the period during which they generate the largest portion of their annual income from working the fields of the wealthy farmers, which is then staggered to help them survive throughout the remainder of the year, and it fails them. After two months away from Gaya, I returned two days ago to immense rainfall that has finally come after a harsh dry spell. Our clients may not be as focused and engaged, for the time being, in our interventions to mitigate these risks in the long run by gradually building their skills and linking them to more productive, stable income generating activities, but we are glad to know that opportunity, albeit small and precarious, has come knocking on their door to enable them to find food security today.

During the prior two months in Gaya, our work was primarily focused on five larger pieces. The first is what we call institutional development services, or more simply, forming the women heads of households into adapted self-help groups (SHGs), a proven model of aggregating skills, finances, and support for the greater benefit of each member. The other pieces involved assessing appropriate livelihood activities to link households to, preparing the training modules to build their skills to successfully engage in these, designing the financial products to help finance the activities, and finally, developing a monitoring and evaluation plan that would help us to track impact and changes in the households over time to inform whether we are essentially doing our jobs correctly.

SHGs are typically comprised of 8-10 women of homogenous social and economic backgrounds who come together on a weekly basis to deposit small scale savings (which may later be used for inter-lending) and serve as a means for peer to peer support and learning and effecting change in the community (or the household) cohesively, natural resource management being an example of such change. The SHG also serves as a platform for providing external technical support such as financial literacy and accounts management and facilitation with other external services such as government welfare schemes and bank linkages.

Facilitating the forming of these groups has been an immense challenge for the project team over the last few months. Building the social capital and diligence to engage in such a group for extremely poor women who have been neglected by all sides their entire lives is something we’ve learned cannot be done in six months to a year as has been proven with better off communities. Skepticism is still rampant as women (and their male counterparts) remember the bad taste that exploitative moneylenders have left in their mouths (and pockets). Time is money, and naturally our clients want to know the value of the outputs of their time and efforts to engage in the program. During our poorly attended meetings in scorching hot schoolhouses, male members would storm in with their rods and rocks in hand, threatening to beat their women for not being home to tend to meals and the children. We would turn these into exercises for empowering women, knowing that many would bear the brunt of their husband’s ignorance and wrath that evening. Can we view this as the price to pay now for greater empowerment and stronger income earning capacity in the long run?

Members collecting savings during an SHG meeting in August

Using audio and visual aids to conduct SHG meetings in August

To mitigate such responses, we’ve changed our approach to further engage male heads of households through ongoing dialogue on the benefits of their counterparts’ engagement and helping build their understanding that the entire household benefits through the woman. This has certainly helped, and we realize that ongoing dialogue with the women, both at the SHG as well as household levels, can help to clarify their misconceptions and skepticism of the services the program offers and build their trust in us as service providers. I think the most valuable lesson for me was realizing that this is a psychology program more than a development one, and our support should be sought by the women based on their own ability to articulate their situation and needs, rather than it being supplied by external parties such as ourselves, based on our own biases. We can add value by helping the people we serve to preserve their identities as citizens, as one very brilliant and wise practitioner advised me, so that they can access the government and private services that are rightfully theirs.

I love photographing this village elder every time I visit Raili village in Gaya

Singing school children back in May

Peeping into the SHG training session where his mother sits

SHG trainings in May

Children often sit or play among the mothers during the trainings

Children of clients

Happiness

Over the following two months, I’ll try to keep up with my blog posts on the story of these women. Keep reading!

The Mayan Experience Concludes: Mexico

2011-07-10T12:23:00.001-07:00

We had finally come near to the end of the Mayan experience, but we still had Mexico to go. From Caye Caulker, we boarded a speed boat that took us directly to an “expedited” Mexican border, allowing us to avoid a 13 hour chicken bus ride and a rougher border crossing. As we docked the boat, we could see several Mexican guards armed with guns and sniffer dogs awaiting the arrival of travelers like ourselves and some not, I’m sure. Once we cleared immigration and customs, we were on our way to Playa del Carmen, the fastest growing resort town in the Americas.

Tulum, one of the last cities to be built and inhabited by the Ancient Maya, is about a 45 minute drive from Playa, and is situated along the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in the Quintana Roo state of Mexico. Tulum is believed to have been dedicated to the planet Venus, hence, the female force of nature. The main shrine at the center of the city, directly facing the gorgeous blue waters of the Caribbean and the sunrise and the sunset, is for Venus, but after Spanish conquest, came to be known as the Pyramid El Castillo (The Castle). Two other significant buildings are the Temple of the Frescoes and the Temple of the Descending God. The former was used as an observatory for tracking the movements of the Sun. A description at the entrance to the ruins reads:

“Religious life and a pilgrimage to the sanctuary, a cultural expression associated with economics, politics, and nature. Mayan gods were present in one or more elements of nature. Some were manifest in the stars or in atmospheric phenomena like rain; others in plants like the ceiba (cotton silk tree) and animals like the jaguar. Each season of the year and each daily activity, such as the harvest, were marked by a ritual dedicated to a deity, aimed at making sure human labor would be rewarded with optimum results. Tulum was a city dedicated to the planet Venus, a deity with a dual nature; that of the morning and the evening star. The descending god symbolized by the setting Sun is closely related to Venus, and so it can be said that the evening star was worshipped at Tulum; thus, the image of this deity is found in the façade of some of the buildings, and its accesses are oriented to face the point where this planet sets. Another important deity was Ek Chuah, the god of trade, to whom tribute was paid in the course of commerce interchanges.”

This description resonates again with Hindu philosophy as well as the many ancient philosophies of the eastern world. It also demonstrates the Maya’s recognition of the sanctity of life, nature, the elements, and the cosmos. Interestingly, the site is run over with iguanas that appear to be guardians of the sacred temples.

Temple of the Descending God

Temple of the Frescoes

Under the watchful gaze of the guardian iguana

Templo Dios del Viento (Temple of the Wind Gods)

Temple to Venus, the main shrine

The back of the Venus Temple, facing the Caribbean

Another view of the Temple to Venus

Our last days were spent lounging on the stunning beaches of Playa del Carmen, swimming in its crystal and turquoise blue waters, or simply walking along the promenade, lined with restaurants and shops. A variety of street performers entertained passersby, who could rest over a cold beer, refreshing gelato, or very cheap massages. This wouldn’t be considered authentic Mexico, but it was a relaxing way to end the trip before returning to the madness of work!

Street performer poses for the camera

The Cotton Candy Man!

Nacho Libre masks for sale

A "shining" street performance

Care for a cigar?

The Mayan Experience Continued: Belize

2011-07-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

The border crossing between Guatemala and Belize is a crude one that we were able to traverse through rather quickly. Once across, it was another 30 minutes before we reached our first stop in the English-speaking Caribbean nation of Belize, San Ignacio. “Go slow!” is the motto of this tiny country, cushioned between Guatemala, Mexico, and the Caribbean Bay. The small town comprises the most intriguing mix of Indian and Chinese business families, who run the hotels, convenience, and liquor stores, the Amish, who oversee the organic production of cheese and other dairy products, descendents of the Africans forcibly moved to the Americas during the slave trade era, the Rastafarians, and of course, the indigenous population of Belizeans. Even a small Sri Lankan population resided here!

The most adventurous part of the trip was probably here in Belize, roughly an hour’s drive out of San Ignacio. After a 40 minute hike through thick, lush, tropical jungle and thrice crossing the Mopan River, we had reached the mouth of the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Cave, known as a living museum of Mayan relics. We stored our cameras in waterproof bags (which, unfortunately meant I couldn’t photograph the stunning green waters we plunged into as we swam our way into the cave) and strapped on our mining helmets. While some guides allowed other explorers to strip down to their bathing suits, ours was extremely particular about observing the ancient traditions of the Mayans, and at the very least, ensuring we showed the respect due to such a holy place, highly concentrated with thousands of years of built up potent energy garnered through faith, chants, and rituals. We were requested to remain clothed with our swimming suits underneath, and upon entering the chamber of rituals, further requested to remove our shoes and vigilantly navigate around the intentionally strategically placed remnants of the ancient Mayan people.

Team Intrepid crossing the Mopan River

Pottery shards from Mayan rituals

The famous frog symbol on Mayan ceremonial pottery

Strategically positioned ceremonial pottery in their original places

Spirit catchers, left tipped over

I fully understood why this was referred to as an Indiana Jones activity upon reaching the mouth of the cave. Caving requires swimming, hiking, and climbing through body deep waterways, jagged crevices we could barely squeeze our bodies through, and massive caves several meters high, with only our head lamps showing the way forward. Gazing above and around, we gasped with awe at the natural limestone formations protruding from the walls, ceilings, and floors of the cave in the form of stalagmites, stalactites, and pillars formed over thousands of years once these two ends met. Jellyfish-like and other configurations hung over us in hues of whites, creams, corals, and reds, glimmering at the touch of light from our torches. The cave is 3 miles deep, however the Mayans took their rituals further into the cave only a few hundred meters every 300-500 years before finally reaching the ceremonial room to conducts their rituals over a 1,400 year span. The ceremonial hall contains the remains of altars, spirit catchers, and other ritual instruments left in their original, very strategic positions based on astrology and formations configured by auspicious numbers, the most significant being 3, 5, 7, 9, and 13. Skeletal remains of the shaman elders and sacrificed young people, most likely for rain in such a freshwater-sparse region, are also strategically scattered throughout the hall, the most famous being that of an ostensible young, princess of a Mayan kingdom, known as the Crystal Maiden, who was believed to have been killed by a mortar stone to the back of the head.

Skeleton head of a shaman elder

Limestone formations in the ATM cave

Jellyfish-like limestone formations

More ceremonial pottery

The Crystal Maiden

From San Igancio, we boarded a chicken or local bus for the 3 hour drive to Belize City, one large shanty town rife with poverty and criminal activity. From here, we caught a 45 minute water taxi to Caye Caulker, a limestone coral island measuring 5 by 1 miles. By this point in the trip, a virus turned sinus infection was taking its toll, and while the rest of the group went sailing and snorkeling along the Belize Barrier Reef, I tried to enjoy brunch on the beach and catch up with emails before crawling back into bed for some much needed rest. For the remaining 2 nights, we did, however, enjoy some of the juiciest lobster and fresh fish dinners. It was time to get ready for the next and final stop, Mexico!

Our drummer friend, Emmit

Cotton candy!

Man, cutting freshly caught lobster

Drying laundy under the house

Toys

Caribbean waters off the Caye Caulker shores

The full team Intrepid

Fresh lobster, shrimp, and other crustaceans

The Mayan Experience: Guatemala

2011-06-28T16:02:00.004-07:00

On my exit out of India after two intense months (which, yes, I have yet to write about), I followed my minimum 24 hour ritual of transitioning from a wholesome life of the rural east to one of a very fast-paced Western urbania. And, what better place to do it than New Delhi, this time amidst the enjoyable company of my very good friends, Madhavi and Gil. Given that I’ve sublet my apartment in DC, my nomadic lifestyle is evermore intensified by once again having to live out of a suitcase under the hospitable wing of good friends. I had another 24 hours upon arrival in DC to unpack, repack, shower, groom, and finish up expense reports before enjoying one of the most memorable evenings with my dear friends. This time, I was off to Atlanta for the Hindu wedding ceremony of my cousin and his Argentine-Peruvian wife before engaging in a Mayan experience through Central America. This is a three-part blog series, beginning with Guatemala.

This is a post of firsts. It was my first time in Atlanta, and I found it to be a rather sleepy city, at least compared to New York City and Los Angeles, though we had little time for sightseeing to prove otherwise. My grandmother on my father’s side is the mother of sixteen surviving children, dispersed all over the world, though largely concentrated now in the States. It was the second wedding among the grandchildren and was the perfect catalyst for a family reunion long overdue. After a family dinner on Friday evening and a meet and greet between the Sri Lankan and Peruvian/Argentine families, we celebrated in full force on Saturday, beginning with a thali ceremony at the local Hindu temple followed by a reception with good food, drink, merriment, and dancing. Come Sunday, it was with heavy hearts that we said our goodbyes as each of the families departed for home or onward travel. It had been, in some cases, nearly ten years since we had met, and I couldn’t believe how much many of my cousins had grown into young, achieved adults. I felt a renewed pride all weekend to be a part of such a large, generous, and wonderful family.

The Matriarch

Hindu Temple in Atlanta's suburbs

The gorgeous couple: My cousin, Shankar, and his wife, Fernanda

After a four hour flight from Atlanta that had been delayed at least four times due to a passing thunderstorm, I finally reached Guatemala City at 1:00 AM. My very good friend who lives in the City was kind enough to give me a lift from the airport to the quaint, former Spanish colonial town of Antigua, located in the central highlands about 45 kilometers outside of the capital. I think I may have done one group tour my entire adult life, and that was a Greek cruise while I was still a college student. Given how much I wanted to cover in such a short period of time and the dearth of time I’ve had these past few months for research and trip planning, not to mention increased criminal activity particularly linked to the narcotics trade, a group tour seemed like the perfect option for me, and I decided to go with Intrepid. They are known for their small groups, typically comprised of folks older than university students, and cognizant of the environment. Within minutes of meeting, I felt the camaraderie building amongst us.

I had a full day to myself to roam the cobblestone lanes, lined with the most colorful of Spanish homes. The architecture naturally mirrored much of what I saw in Cartagena. Antigua, in the Valley of Panchoy, is full of old churches and ruins from the colonial period and is overlooked by three spectacular volcanoes—Agua, Acatenango, and Fuego. I found myself crossing between Hindi and Spanish while purchasing a local SIM card among other things before I realized it would take me a good couple of days to transition my brain into Spanish mode. Before enjoying an evening in the local artisan’s market, I decided to take a brief tour of the Finca Filadelfia coffee plantation, where coffee marketed under the name R. Dalton is grown, processed, and exported to various international coffee brands such as Starbucks. I found the process much more complex, yet more fascinating than I ever imagined, particularly how the roots of the bitter Robusta breed plants are fused into the base of the Arabica breed to stave away microscopic worms and protect the plants. I can say that while I am not an avid coffee consumer, I now appreciate the effort and care that goes into a single cup of good, gourmet coffee.

Guatemalan artisan

Finca Filadelfia Coffee Plantation

Finca Filadelfia Coffee Farm

Arabica coffee beans

Manual splitting of the Arabica plant root to implant the Robusto root

Coffee beans before final cleaning and roasting

My second day in Antigua started at dawn with a couple of members from the travel group. We had opted to hike up the Pacayo Volcano, 2,500 meters above sea level, from which we could view all three of the major volcanoes overlooking Antigua town. It had been pouring rain the last few days, and we lucked out with the clearest, sunniest day Antigua had seen in weeks. The terrain of the active volcano, which was still steaming from the internal heat, was sometimes lunar and other times Martian. The colors of the porous, hardened, jagged lava ranged from smoky gray to fiery reds. Caverns and crevices from which exceptional heat protruded became more prevalent as we ascended the volcano. Those who had brought sandwiches or packed lunches wrapped in foil were able to essentially toast these in the caverns’ pockets over its hot rocks.

Cobblestone roads of Antigua, overlooked by the Volcano Agua

View of Volcano Fuego from Pacayo

Traversing across the Pacayo terrain

Graffiti along the way

Hardened lava

Volcanic rock of Pacayo

Guatemalan artisan in Antigua

Weaver

Iglesia La Merced

Colorful streets of Antigua town

Mayan and Aztec culture and replicas of its art and ware are prevalent all over Guatemala and throughout Central America. This is one of the most fascinating cultures for me, personally, and what particularly resonates is the philosophy and what I like to call spiritual science that rationalized the divine, creation, and cause for existence for the Mayans* and Aztecs alike. The similarities between Hindu philosophy and these two ancient philosophies are fascinating, from the legends of hero twins to the concept of dualism -- creation being the result of complementary opposition and conflict. The Aztecs embodied this interdependent opposition through their god of creation, Ometeotl, God of Duality, who is believed to reside in the thirteenth heaven of Omeyocan, Place of Duality. Common to the Hindu concept of dualism, embodied in the fused Shiva Shakthi, Ardhanareeshwara, Ometeotl, too, possesses both male and female creative energies and can be further depicted as the couple Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl, “Lord and Lady of Our Sustenance.” Serpents, monkeys, and other symbols of divinity to represent life and fertility, the natural elements, and the cosmos are prevalent in all art of these two cultures. There are over 4,000 Mayan archaeological sites peppering Guatemala and many more yet to be excavated.

En route to Flores in the department of Izabel, southeastern Guatemala, our first real exposure to the ancient Mayan remnants was in Quirigua. During the Mayan classical period (200-900 AD), Quirigua was at the crossroads of several important trade routes and also served as a ceremonial center. The Mayans used the local red sandstone to sculpt and erect some of the tallest freestanding monuments in the Americas here. Some of the best preserved monuments are stelas, depicting the rulers of the city at the time, dated and captioned using their own, very sophisticated hieroglyphic script. The constant struggle, wars, and usurping of power from one Mayan tribe or kingdom to another is apparent in the recorded time periods and depictions of various rulers on the stelas. Often once a kingdom was captured, its ruler would be sacrificed to the gods in a grand public ceremony.

Stela D, representing King K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat in Quirigua

Stela F, representing another Mayan king

Zoomorphs, depicting symbolic animals

Another stela of a Mayan king of Quirigua

Carvings alongside the stelas

Stela D

Acropolis at Quirigua

Probably one of the most magnificent of the Mayan heritage sites is Tikal, one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the ancient Mayan civilization. The site is located in El Peten and is a part of Guatemala’s Tikal National Park. I have wanted to visit such sites full of the temples that Mayans to this day continue to practice their rituals at for years. Their philosophy and advanced integration of it into daily life had sparked my interest since I had first started studying Vedantam and was able to identify the parallels of the two. As noted in the Celestine Prophecy, many believe that many of the Mayans, who disappeared without a trace, actually evolved into higher beings or, as Hindus would say, attained enlightenment, existing at a much higher frequency that we can fathom, so much so that they are no longer visible to the human eye. Another theory is that rather than living among us, they have crossed over into another dimension or vortex. When asked about prophesies of the end of the world in 2012, the Guatemalans or present day Mayans laughed and said they did not believe in the end of the world. Rather, like in Hindu philosophy, the world and its people evolve through cycles, and just as Hindus believe that we have entered the final stage (Kaliyuga) of another cycle of creation, preservation, and destruction, also known as life, the Mayans calculate 24,500-year long stages, the date in December 2012 marking the commencement of the next stage. During this stage, homo sapiens begin to evolve into homo sapiens “light,” marking a period of greater spiritual awareness and a return to the old truths of the past.

Tikal, like Quirigua, reached its peak during the Mayan classical period which lasted from 200 to 900 AD. During this period, the kingdom oversaw much of the Mayan region politically, economically, and militarily. The structures, primarily temples, platforms, and royal palaces, were built of limestone, and many of the ruling dynasties integrated burial sites amidst these, continuing to build newer structures atop the older ones. The temples resemble the pyramids of Egypt and their condition over 2,000 years later is remarkable.

Platform in Tikal

Hieroglyphic records of the Mayans

Temple III of Tikal

Aguada del Palacio

View of Temple V

Northern Acropolis, facing the Grand Plaza

The Grand Plaza from the Central Acropolis

Temple I aka The Great Jaguar Temple- the landmark of Guatemala, built in 810 A.D.

Frontal view of the Great Jaguar Temple

View of Temple II, Temple of the Masks or Faces, built in 700 A.D.

Another view of Temple I

View from Temple IV, the highest in Tikal, also known as the Temple of the Two-Headed Snake

Temple V, the first pyramid of Tikal, constructed in 600 A.D.

Fascinating display of ants at work

Parrots in Renata

Amidst all the travels, my body finally succumbed to fatigue and ailments. While others took a dip in the gorgeous blue-green waters of Lake Peten Itza, I took time out to rest and reflect on all that we had seen the last few days, and I really felt blessed to be immersing in the energies of the ancient Maya. I was looking forward to more in Belize the following day.

*It is important to note that unlike the unified Aztec empire, the Mayans were neither politically and culturally a single, unified people. In the 16th century, there were at least thirty clashing Mayan groups with distinct languages, customs, calendrics, and religions.

Hyderabad from the Golkonda

2011-06-28T16:02:00.003-07:00

So, this is where the Hope and Koh-i-Noor diamonds came from before becoming the crown jewels of another land. As we looked over the world’s oldest diamond mines within the walls of the Golkonda Fort, I found the history of the place so rich, yet very overwhelming, to fathom all that had taken place here in such a relatively short period of time but had changed Hyderabad so deeply, touching upon every thread of the city’s existence. Though the region had been governed by original Telanganas under the Chalukya and Kakatiya dynasties from the 700s to the 1300s AD, Hyderabad city was founded more recently in 1591 by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shahi of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, one of the many Nizam rulers, whose origins are Irani, to rule the region before it succumbed to the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb. The long reign of the Nizams has made the city one of the largest homes of the Shia Muslims of India. This fascinating blend of South Indian, Hindu, Islamic, Persian, and Arabic cultures at the crossroads of north and south India is mirrored in the city’s stunning architecture, cuisine, language, and arts.

The Qutb Shahi dynasty has probably left some of the greatest treasures in the region in the form of palaces, a total enhancement of the Golkonda fort from mud to a full blown 11 kilometer radius fort and architectural wonder, the Charminar, Chowmahalla Palace, and the seven Qutb Shahi tombs located just 1 kilometer from the fort. The dynasty was renowned for its tolerance, and in fact, praise and preservation of the local Hindu religion and Telangana culture. The art form, Kuchipudi, was formalized and named after the village it originated from, classical music flourished, and it is believed that Muhammed Quli Qutb Shahi himself fell in love and married a Telangana woman, named Bhagmathi. The city was ostensibly named after her, Bhagyanagaram, and once she was given the Muslim name, Hyder Begum, the name changed to Hyderabad.

Charminar, the landmark of Hyderabad

The Bala Hisar, the highest point of the Golkonda fort

Intricate details of the Charminar

Tourists resting on the original foundations of the fort

Minar of a mosque inside the fort

View of the living quarters and gardens of the old dynasty

Apparently covered with mirrors, this was the bathing and adorning chamber of the female royal members

Another view of the ruins

Details of Islamic architecture

Hyderabadi women

Details of Nizam architecture

Intricate molding on a Qutb Shahi tomb

Masjid next to the grandest tomb of Hayat Bakshi Begum

The grandest masjid on the tomb grounds

Walkway around Hayat Bakshi Begum's tomb

Windows of the masjid minar

View of a Qutb Shahi tomb

Stunning architecture

The grounds had 2 twin tombs- one set for the sultan's favorite hakims (physicians) and the other for the courtesans Taramati and Premamati

Another Qutb Shahi tomb

The tomb of another ruler

Details of the tomb moldings

I couldn't get enough of these structures- my favorite in all of Hyd

The cuisine is out of this world! South Indian cuisine and spices were blended with the rich culinary styles of the Nizams and eventually with that of the Mughals to create some of the most mouthwatering Hyderabadi biryanis and haleem (a stewed meat and pulse dish, garnished with tempered onions, fresh cilantro, ginger, and lemon), two of my favorite dishes across all cuisines. The sweets are equally divine, made of sweet milk, vermicelli, porridges made with sweet gourd, and of course, ghee. Hyderabad is an absolutely blissful (and hence, dangerous!) culinary experience.

This was my second work trip to Hyderabad, and the first sadly gave me glimpses only of my hotel and the office. This time, I was determined to work hard, but shop and eat hard as well. Hyderabad also cultivates a shopping gluttony in some, and I was surely victim to it. Charminar is famous for its many wholesale markets and pearls, but my personal favorite is the Choodi Bazaar, an entire lane with off-shooting, smaller alleyways that will blind you with the rows and rows of the shiniest of shiny bangles lining its walls and counter tops. My first visit there, I believe I walked away with 12 dozen sets of bangles in a variety of reds, greens, golds, blues, and purples. It’s a marvelous, yet maddening experience that draws one back for more and more.

After working for over a year in the northern regions of India, I’m glad our partner agency’s head office is in Hyderabad, granting me so many visits to explore this wondrous city bit by bit. I look forward to being back in another month.

Land of the Gods

2011-06-28T16:02:00.001-07:00

Before the arrival of the Mughals, Afghans, Islam, Ashoka, and Buddhism, Kashmir was called Deva Bhoomi or the Land of the Gods by the Brahmins. And, after witnessing the extraordinary beauty of this land, no one can question the reasoning behind the decision of the Gods to make this their home. The Pandavas and Draupadi, too, made their home here for a short while, and their royal palaces and sleeping and bathing chambers still remain just outside of the state’s capital of Srinagar. I was surprised to learn how many of the Hindu stories I was raised with had taken place on this holy soil. Shrines so ancient that their age cannot be placed have been erected to mark these events. I began unearthing these towards the tail end of my trip and describe here a few of the many significant places I was able to visit.

Just one mile outside of Pahalgam, the gem of Kashmir in my opinion, crowned by the “children” of the Himalayas, is the fascinating, yet petite Mamaleshwar Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva. According to Hindu tales, Ganesha, when he was still a young boy, was asked by his mother, Parvati, to stand guard while she bathed in a natural spring that still flows into a basin at the front of the temple today. She demanded that no one, under any circumstances, be granted entry until she had said so. Shiva, who had arrived in disguise, demanded entry, to which Ganesha defiantly denied him. Some would say the temple derives its name from this, ‘Mam mal’ meaning, ‘Don’t go.’ In anger, Shiva decapitated him, leaving Parvati in utter remorse and despair. To appease her, Shiva agreed to bring Ganesha back to life with the head of the first creature he saw, which of course, was an elephant. This is how Ganesha or Pillaiyar became the elephant-headed God in Hinduism. Of course, all Hindu tales, including this one, are symbolic of life’s grander lessons, which I won’t attempt to go into here. The landmarks of its stories, however, are marked by miraculous events and concentrated levels of energy derived from the faith and prayers of worshippers.

Mamaleshwar Temple houses a Lingam, for which rituals are still conducted by a pandit in the mornings and evenings. The temple also contains extremely old panels and sculptures depicting other deities. When I reached the temple, milk from the drip above was still pouring over the lingam, and unlike in most temples, devotees are permitted to enter the adhimoolam or the center of the temple and touch the statues during worship. The devotee in me was overwhelmed by this experience as I fought the urge to tightly hug the Lingam.

Mamaleshwar Temple in Pahalgam

The Shiva Lingam within

The inner chamber of the temple, ancient panels at the side

On route from Pahalgam to Srinagar, we stopped at two other sites of importance. The first was the Mattan Temple, dedicated to Lord Surya, the Sun. Alongside the original Surya temple and statue of the Sun depicted in human form, is a more recently constructed temple and statue. In front of the temples is a massive basin of crystal blue waters, crowded with catfish, considered to be holy by Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus alike. This temple is not to be mistaken with the original Mattan temple in Martand, of which only ruins are left, though reminiscent of the skillful architecture of the time. It was built by King Lalitaditya of the Surya (Sun) dynasty, ostensibly in the 700s AD. Unfortunately, I missed seeing its stunning ruins this time around.

Mattan Temple, dedicated to the Sun

The Sun, depicted as Surya Man

The older Surya statue

Small shrine in the basin, shivalingam enshrined

Close up of the Lingam

Even more spectacular were the ruins of the Avantisvamin temple, dedicated to Lord Vishnu, in Avantipur, constructed by King Avantivarman of the Utpala dynasty in 853 AD. It is widely believed that this site was a sacred center even before the construction of the temple here. The king had constructed several temples in the region, Avantiswara, dedicated to Lord Shiva, being another renowned one just down the road from the Avantisvamin temple. The temples were constructed in very similar styles, resembling courtyards enclosed by arches and columns, 69 to be exact, with varied forms of the deity enshrined within each. At the center of the “courtyard” is the main shrine, built on a double base with four subsidiary shrines at the corners. Reliefs and panels have been sculpted into the stairwells, sidewalls, and rails, ornamenting the entire temple grounds. Sadly, very little of the superstructure or adhimoolam remains, however, the central shrine once contained a four-armed Vishnu, its whereabouts unknown to me. Other prominent figures include those of the holy rivers, Yamuna and Ganga with their respective vahanas, the king and queen with their attendants, Kamadeva with his consorts, and Ardhanarisvara (!). While some sculptures are preserved in the S.P.S. museum in Srinagar, many, inconsolably, were lost during the pillaging and destruction during foreign invasion.

Entrance to the Avantisvamin Temple

Sculpture of Ganga in human form

The ruins of the temple and the main shrine at the center

2 of the 69 arched cells in which statues of the deity once were enshrined

Kamadeva with his consorts

Apsaras, female demigods, carved into the stairwells

The columns and broken archways of the temple, very similar to Greek architecture

Base of broken columns, again simiar to Greek architecture

Sculpted railings

Maybe the king, maybe Kamadeva?

Intricately sculpted pillars of the archways

Structural supports, resembling rectangular lingams

Beautifully sculpted panels

Upon arrival in Srinagar and after another delicious, mouthwatering Kashmiri lunch, my appetite for immersing amidst these ancient sites was not yet satiated. We moved on to the next shrine at Hari Parbat. After a drawn out questioning by the army, who guard all major Hindu sites, I finally made my way up a remaining set of stairs to the shrine. It is believed that the Goddess Sharika, an 18-armed form of the Goddess Shakthi or the Divine Mother, manifested herself in the form of a Shilla (natural rock formation). The Chakreshwar shrine was built to enclose the Shilla for preservation and worship. The large, orange formation depicts the back of the Goddess, seated on a lion. On her back is believed to be a natural protrusion in the shape of the Sri Chakra Yantra. If you know me well, well then you can imagine by excitement to see this symbol here and all over the walls of the shrine! It is, by far, the symbol of Hinduism that resonates most deeply with me and captures the essence of existence cosmically, mathematically, and philosophically. The ‘Sri Yantra,’ as it is commonly referred to by Hindus, is composed of circles and lotus petals and contains nine independent triangles mystically drawn, one within the other. The four triangles pointed upwards represent Shiva (the male force), while the other five triangles pointed downwards represent Shakthi (the female force). The intersecting triangles represent the play of creation, protection, and absorption of the whole universe by the pure divine force known as Sudha Shakthi. The central point in the chakra is the Bindhu, which symbolizes the union of Shiva with Shakthi. It is one of the most densely meaningful, yet concurrently, most simplistically designed symbol that captures it “all”.

Entrance to the Chakreshwar Shrine

The enshrined Sharika Shilla

The Sharika Shilla

Where meditators claim to see the natural Sri Yantra

The last place I could visit before closing times was the Shankaracharya Temple, overlooking Kashmir Valley and the Dal Lake. This petite temple is believed to have been originally constructed as early as the 5th century BC by the Pandavas themselves and is situated at the very top of the Gopadari Hill, now known as the Takht-e-Suleiman. The temple, before Shankaracharya’s visit, was known as the Jyesteshwara Temple and is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It, too, contains a Lingam, which can be touched by worshippers, and is considered to be the oldest shrine in the Kashmir Valley. Here, too, I felt significantly humbled and emotionally overwhelmed to be literally rubbing shoulders with the divine and with history. The top of the temple provides one of the grandest panoramic views of the entire valley. Most of the sites did not allow photography, and I was left with the option of purchasing postcards and photos of the shrines and the deities within, which I will hopefully scan and upload here soon.

Hazy view of the Shankaracharya Temple

Photo from http://www.rainbowskill.com/ of the Shankaracharya Temple

In the meantime, those interested can visit the many websites describing the many wonders of the ancient Hindu world of Kashmir. One I referred to while there was http://ikashmir.net/temples/index.html, which also describes some of the holiest pilgrimage sites of the religion, including Kheer Bhawani, dedicated to the Goddess, whose waters turn black during significant events of turmoil in the world, the Amarnath Caves, believed to be 5,000 years old, in which an ice stalagmite resembling the Shiva Lingam rises and falls with the phases of the moon, and the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine, where statues depicting the three primary forms of the Goddess, Durga, Laxmi, and Saraswati, are worshipped. Kashmir is a gem and a wonder I can’t wait to return to and continue exploring.

Charms of Kashmir

2011-06-12T04:40:00.001-07:00

There are very few places that have mesmerized me as much as Kashmir. It is entirely a world of its own and a fascinating one at that. Its breathtaking landscape, tepid climate, rich culture and flavors, and intriguing history kept me in a captivated state my entire time there. After six weeks of intense field work in Gaya, Bihar (weekends included), this brief rest and recuperation was just what I could have only dreamed of.

Jammu& Kashmir has a rich and ancient history intertwined with the great Hindu epics and with the Gods themselves, however, in more recent times, the state has fallen under the rule of the Maharajahs and Sikhs of India, the Mughals, and the Afghans. I was awestruck by the stunning features of its people, almost mirroring the land’s history. Particularly fascinating was their strong resemblance to the Afghan people in both appearance and dress. The architecture is also a peculiar and beautiful fusion of these different cultures incorporating some adaptations to climate and terrain. Kashmir had stolen my heart the moment I landed.

As we drove through the streets of Srinagar to the Dal Lake, I noticed many of the homes mirrored the styles of those found in the mountainous regions of Europe with the exception of their tin roofs. Similar to Kerala, Kashmir is known for its houseboat culture, born in the 1800s when Indian Civil Service members who vacationed in the city in the summers designed and resorted to houseboats when the local government did not permit them to build permanent homes. There are now over 500 houseboats along the Jhelum River flowing into the Dal Lake, and mine was named The Pakhtoon.

The scene and mood are soothing when being paddled on one of the many “taxi” paddle boats known as shikaras from the mainland across the lake to reach the houseboats. The Dal Lake is cushioned in the Kashmir Valley and surrounded by mountains with Mughal gardens, palaces, and ancient Hindu temples perched along their slopes. Shikaras of vibrant reds, blues, yellows, and oranges ornament its lotus petal-covered waters, transporting tourists and locals to and fro. The townships built on these waters are an intriguing display. The men are either merchants or boat paddlers, and the women farm the lands to produce vegetables for household consumption or for daily sales in the early morning vegetable market- a fascinating exchange or selling of the produce between wholesalers, farmers, and individual buyers from their boats. Whether observing this placidity from my houseboat veranda or gliding through the townships on a shikara, for me, the experiences were some of bliss and otherworldliness.

Shikaras on Dal Lake in the Kashmir Valley

Shikaras or water taxis of Srinagar

Child dressed in Kashmiri traditional clothing

Kashmiri women shyly turning their faces away

Typical Kashmiri houseboat

Local woman farming in the lake's marshes

A state of peace

Traditional Kashmiri dress, typical in the winter season and weddings

Evening relaxation on Dal Lake

Hundreds year old traditional homes along River Jhelum's banks

Sheeshah or hookah pipes with clay bases

Buying and selling at the Dal Lake vegetable market

Waiting for customers

Care for some fresh lettuce?

Talk about fresh produce

And, talk about drive thru service!

After an hour, the market comes to an end

Shikara's vibrant colors

Given the limitations on livelihood activities that the harsh winters cause as well as the historical inaccessibility of Kashmir Valley that made trade a challenge, the state became, as author Dr. Paramjit Singh Jaiswal puts it, “a crucible of innovation where diverse ideas rubbed shoulders and threw up an altogether new concept of art, architecture, and craftsmanship…the entrepreneurial traders had to identify tradable items that were small and light and having intricacy and high sales value which were transportable on narrow, serpentine, steep mountain paths to the plains.” Architectural designs of domes and embroidery skills from Samarkand, the concept of minars and calligraphy from Persia, and carpet weaving and intricate painting styles developed within Kashmir have resulted in some of the most irresistibly charming handicrafts. Gorgeous paper mache vases, silk carpets, intricately carved wooden items, and elaborately embroidered scarves reflecting the colorful and abundant fruits and flowers covering the landscape are just some of the treasures I favored. After hours long negotiations turned into humorous chats with the merchants, I soon realized that the actual purchasing was such a tiny part of the entire shopping experience in Kashmir. The hospitable nature of the people nurtured hours of comedic chit chat over cup after cup of chai or Kehavah, a rich brew of saffron, cardamom, cinnamon, sugar, and green tea. On one occasion, it led to a full feast of rice, tandoori chicken, spiced lamb kebabs, juicy lamb meatballs, and lamb cooked in a saffron and yoghurt sauce.

Shikara "driver"

Carpet weaving at home, a traditional livelihood

Silk threads

Carpet weaver with his children

A meal with the carpet seller and Munna Bhai

Mughal gardens and palaces are in abundance throughout the state. In the 1600s, Jahangir commissioned the construction of the Shalimar gardens for his wife Nur Jahan, and he and his successors subsequently commissioned the Pari Mahal (the palace of the fairies), Nishat Bagh (the garden of spring), and Naseem Bagh that continue to flourish with the most colorful array of flora amidst stunning fountains, serving the dual purpose of providing air flow during the summer seasons. The words of Perisan poet Jami are inscribed on the walls of the gardens, "If there is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this." The typical Mughal architectural styles were often modified to sustain the heavy snowfall of the winters, and large domes, especially on mosques, were replaced by tall, sharply-inclined spires made of wood. Many of the mosques, including the 14th century Dargah Dastageer Sahab, somewhat resemble even the pagoda styles of China.

14th century Dargah Dastageer Sahab

Little worshipper

Unique Islamic architecture of Kashmir

Green, the color of peace for Muslims

Intricate style and paintings of the mosque's door frames

Original wood panels of the mosque

Entrance to the Dargah

Gardener at the Nishat Bagh, one of the Mughal gardens

Pari Mahal, palace of the fairies

Entrance to the Pari Mahal

Are these daffodils?

Bird drinking the sap from the flowers

A view of the lake from the gardens

Fountains of Nishat Bagh

As one ascends the pavilions become more grand, reserved for minister and finally for the king and queen

The grandest pavilion of all, the Royal Pavilion

Outside of Srinagar and past its saffron fields, there are many hill resorts lush with pine, poplar, and fir trees, the most notable being Sonmarg and Gulmarg. The latter, originally called Gaurimarg by the shepherd folk, is especially attractive because of the variety of wild flowers that bloom here. It was ostensibly frequented by Emperor Jehangir who is said to have collected 21 different varieties of these. Gulmarg is frequented primarily by domestic tourists for pony-riding through its hills, which I ended up doing, as well as riding up the gondola that takes visitors high up onto the mountain tops of Khilanmarg. Remnants of the winter’s snowfall covered the trees and slopes even during my visit in May.

Pony guide in Gulmarg

Mountain ranges of Khilanmarg

Most beautiful of all, however, is Pahalgam, at an altitude of 2,130 meters. When my eyes first sighted this hidden gem, I was awestruck, and I finally understood why Kashmir was called the Land of the Gods by the ancient Hindu people. Everest’s babies stud its landscape while the Aru and Sheshnag Rivers from the Himalayas flow down the mountainsides as waterfalls and through the town as the Lidder River. Here too, pine trees line the slopes of the snow-capped mountains. Pahalgam offers some of the best trekking and most stunning views in the world. During a brief, two day trek to Tulyan, while I was disappointed that the snow hadn’t melted enough for us to pass through its mountains to reach the stunning Tulyan Lake, I was still captivated by the charms of the Baisaran, Daban (gypsy), and Pahalgam valleys and its mysterious gypsy people.

Pahalgam was a small shepherd village until it expanded into a tourist destination. Three gypsy groups continue to inhabit these regions, typically maintaining two settlements per tribe- one high up in the mountains during the summer and a second in the plains during the harsh winters. The Pahal (shepherds), Gogar (local gypsies), and the Bakarwal (traveler gypsies) all rely heavily on livestock for their income and can be seen traversing the hills and mountains of Pahalgam with their herds of goat and sheep. While they tend to speak local dialects and Kashmiri, many are conversant in Urdu, and to converse with them in my broken Hindi/Urdu resulted in a personally remarkable connection that I will cherish forever. The one common set of questions I was asked by gypsies and city Kashmiris alike was around their intrigue to see an “Indian” woman traveling alone. Was I not scared? Was I not married? Had I really been traveling all alone? I amusingly responded that I was amidst them after all, so had I any reason to fear? Smiling and laughing, they agreed and said that I am, after all, a part of their family and always had a home amongst them.

Gypsy man

Gypsy woman

Her gypsy hubby

And their gypsy baby

Gypsy temporary settlement enroute to their summer settlement

Father with child

Woman with her children

I loved the gorgeous nose studs!

Perhaps, the grandmother?

Hospitable and charming people

Pahalgam's nature

Gypsy children trying to earn a little money through photo opps

My trekking guide and tea stallers- chai break!

Wood for cooking and warmth

Pine trees of Pahalgam

Goat shepherd trying to nap

Wood collectors

Sheep of Pahalgam Valley

Now, I miss my Amma!

Trekking up that moutain to Tulyan Valley- no small feat!

Homestead of a gypsy family

Simple and happy living

Another chai break! My favorite pastime! This time with sheep's milk!

Onwards we go...almost there!

Stunning mountain ranges of Pahalgam Valley

Tulyan Valley just over these mountains

Tulyan Valley- Incredible!

Formidable snow did not give us way to the stunning Tulyan Lake- next time!

Mountain pass to the Lake

Gypsy woman taking the "kids" to their summer settlement

Father following behind

Kashmir is a magical place that not only stirred my imagination but often materialized these into unforgettable experiences. I deeply hope to return in the near future. On his deathbed, it is believed that when Emperor Jahangir was asked about his cherished desire, he responded, “Kashmir, the rest is worthless.”

Stay tuned for the post “Land of the Gods,” which will describe the Hindu sites I was fortunate to visit on my last day in the state.

Medellin, the Colombian City of Art and Plastic

2011-06-11T04:10:00.001-07:00

March 8, 2011. I had 5 days left with the Gorditas to explore Medellin before restarting work in Grameen Foundation’s regional office for another week. My first two targets were the art galleries and best restaurants that the city had to offer. Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia, though often referred to as a town, and capital of the Antioquia region. The exact opposite of Cartagena, Medellin is a landlocked, bustling city in the Aberra Valley, surrounded by the Andes mountains, and studded with high rises and skyscrapers.

There are two predominantly blatant aspects of the city’s culture to look out for. Outside of LA, I haven’t seen as much plastic on both men and women until arriving here. Cosmetic surgery is apparently commonplace in several South American countries, most so in Venezuela, as every young woman’s dream is to qualify into national and international beauty pageants. This enthusiasm extends to a girl’s entire family, and parents save up for the various “enhancements” that can determine her future “success.” The second, and more praiseworthy, is the enthusiasm and talent for art, which is displayed in galleries, museums, private homes, and most passionately on the city’s walls. Across from the Museum of Modern Art, we discovered some of the most impressive graffiti art.

Medellin graffiti art

More graffiti art

Chance upon a photo shoot amidst the art

Incredible local talent

Door to the Museum of Modern Art

Colombia’s most famous sculptor and painter, Fernando Botero, boasts museums all across the country, displaying his world-renowned art. He is particularly famous for his crude depictions of so-called fat people, claiming, “I fatten my characters to give them sensuality. I’m not interested in fat people for the sake of fat people.” I’m glad he cleared that up. Irrespective of one’s preferences, Botero’s art continues to fascinate. Even you are likely to have seen his work and not have realized it.

Botero painting in the Museum of Antioquia

Botero's Adam and Eve

We wished we had planned enough time to visit Eje Cafetero, where the majority of Colombian coffee is grown and produced. The Paisa region is known for its lush terrain, which nurtures coffee cultivation and the country’s native Wax palm tree. With the little time we had for day trips, we instead visited Guatape, a small town on the outskirts of Medellin. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side and limited the spectacular views offered from the top of the Penon de Guatape, a 70 million year old rock, taking 644 steps to ascend. The rock borders the lake, which intriguingly flows through inlets and outlets of land, giving the illusion of hundreds of islands floating across the horizon. It’s absolutely stunning.

Penon de Guatape

View of the lake from the moutain top

Another view of the lake

Homes in the small town of Guatape

Inside a church in the town

Sidewalk stools

Medellin is a party town, and different barrios offer very different scenes to choose from. We had an absolute blast, and I was going to miss my girls as they departed in twos for home. It was time to get to work, and while I realized the foolishness around my planning, absent of foresight around the difficulty of transitioning from vacation to work mode overnight, I was still looking forward to another few days in the art city with my colleagues.

Colombia in the Spring Time: Cartagena

2011-06-11T03:16:00.001-07:00

March 1, 2011. ‘Tis the season for South America. After a remarkable time in Argentina, I couldn’t wait to experience another one of the continent’s flavors, this time mixing business and pleasure. My next stop was Colombia with the girls, beginning with Cartagena de Indias on the northern coast of the country.

Cartagena’s history can be traced as far back as 7,000 B.C. and was inhabited by a slew of indigenous and regional tribes before finally falling victim to colonization in the 1500s under Spanish, French, and English rule. This mixture is mirrored in the features of its people. During this period, walls were erected around what is now known as the Old City and the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas to defend it. By the 18th century, Cartagena had become a lucrative trading port vied for by many for trade in precious metals and sadly, slaves. In the throes of its desirability and hence, caught in a vicious cycle of rise and subsequent pillaging, its people and traditions suffered most from such turbulence. The city also served as one of the three seats of the Inquisition in the Americas, and the Inquisition Palace, facing Plaza Bolivar, is open now as a museum, displaying the instruments and methods that thousands of innocents were victim to. It was very surreal to physically be in the places that I’ve read so much about in history books and novels, where so many tragic, historical events have transpired. I couldn’t help wondering how many uneasy souls still wandered the place.

It is ironic that some of the most horrendous occurrences in history would have taken place in the beautiful port city that is Cartagena. The Old City is comprised of cobblestone lanes lined with the most colorful houses, bougainvillea brimming over their balconies and ornamenting the skies above. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera takes place here, and though I couldn’t match the images conjured in my mind when reading the book (one of my absolute favorites) with what I saw, I couldn’t deny its suitability for a tale of romance. A horse-drawn carriage ride through these lanes is a must!

Traditional palenquera fruit vendor

Botero's Fat Lady in Plaza Santa Domingo, once a place for slave auctioning

The Fat Lady

Typical house color and window structure of the Old City

Typical massive donors of colonial architecture

Something romantic

Street entertainers

We stayed in a gorgeous villa, which we ultimately had to ourselves, situated across the stunning Heredia Theater and the beach, just around the corner from Marquez’s home! The staff spoiled us rotten, always at our beckon call, serving us villa-delivered pizza and wine while we relaxed in the rooftop Jacuzzi or arranging manicures and pedicures for us around the courtyard fountain. It was pure bliss and just what we needed to start off our holiday. We had little trouble, thankfully, communicating in Spanish, which came back to us in a rush, and Colombia’s Spanish is, by far, the clearest, most enunciated Spanish I’ve heard. Cartagena’s sites can be seen within a day, including the Castillo, the Convento de la Popa, and Bocagrande, the modern, skyscraper studded part of the new city. The rest of our days were spent relaxing and shopping in the many plazas, spas, and boutiques. Though not my typical travel style, I have to admit enjoying being a lady of leisure! And, of course, there was plenty of feasting! The food in Cartagena, particularly the seafood, is divine in this port city. Fresh fish, shrimp, squid, mussels, and lobster are doused in butter and garlic as part of various delectable, mouthwatering creations served with patacones, biscuits made of green banana, mashed and baked. For dessert, Colombians offer delicious coffee (and I’m not even a coffee drinker), arequipe (Colombian dulce de leche), and obleas, which are similar to the alfajores of Argentina.

Home sweet home

Church near Plaza Bolivar

Sculptures within the church

Inside the Teatro Heradia

Another view inside the Teatro Heredia

Teatro Heredia

Another view of the Teatro

Castillo de San Felipe be Barajas

Original canons of the fort

Colombian flag, soaring over the fort

Casa Roman

View of Bocagrande's skyline

Streets of Cartagena

The Charleston

The spotlight of the Old City's skyline

Entrance into the Old City

A view of the Old City

Surprisingly, the best beaches are on the islands off the city’s coast, the most notable being the Islas del Rosario. Among these, the best is Majagua, which took us about 1 hour to reach via speed boat. We spent the day relaxing amidst its white sandy beaches and clear blue waters and did a bit of snorkeling, which was actually quite phenomenal. We weren’t quite yet ready to leave this romantic, relaxing town for the “small big city” of Medellin.

We reach Majagua

Our snorkeling guide

Pelicans of majagua

Everyone's stylin' in Cartagena

Rooftop view of the Old City

Another rooftop view of the city from the Charleston pool

Caribbean Sunset

The Gorditas

Northern Argentina: A Summer in the Winter

2011-06-11T03:14:00.001-07:00

We ate and ate, and then ate some more. I’m an eater, and yet I had never eaten so much in my life. Argentina is known for its carne asada, the most delicious, juicy meats prepared with minimal spices. Dishes are served with a variety of side supplements such as vinagered onions and pickles, eggplant, potatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, and a variety of cheeses. The Mendoza wine, particularly the region’s specialty, Malbec, complements the savory and the sweet, allowing the palate to taste a little piece of heaven. I took it another notch higher and indulged daily in delicious gelato, a mix of passion fruit, raspberry, and mascarpone. The final high was the result of a daily dose combination of dulce de leche, empanadas (origins of Sri Lankan patties), and alfajores, dulce de leche sandwiched between 2 buttery biscuits, dipped in either powdered sugar and coconut or milk chocolate. It was a gluttonous experience to say the least.

Enjoying northern Argentina at the cusp of its spring and summer, just as DC was entering its winter was bliss. Buenos Aires is an intriguing city, where the old and classic is constantly juxtaposed by the modern and sleek of Puerto Madero. My cousin and I were fortunate to have a resident cousin and his wife with whom we stayed with while in the capital and exposed us to a more authentic albeit high class taste of the city life. We were accommodated in classy Palermo, one of Buenos Aires’s 48 communes.

The cousins in Buenos Aires

Our fancy accomodation in Palermo barrio

Much of the old city’s structures mirror the classic European Spanish architectural style, including the former Post Office, now Pink House or the Casa Rosada, housing the offices of the President. Facing the palace is the Plaza de Mayo, which is stamped with the symbol of the Madres de Plaza, a white head scarf around an invisible face. Each madre’s head scarf has the name of her kidnapped child embroidered into it from the Dirty War (1976-1983), a period of state-sponsored violence during which thousands of left-wing activists, students, journalists, and other socialist sympathizers opposing military dictatorship and harsh elements of capitalism were abducted, tortured, and murdered. The madres continue their marches around the pyramid in the square every Thursday to this day.

Madres de la Plaza Del Mayo

Demanding and waiting for justice

Casa Rosada

I’ve heard that if there’s one must see in Buenos Aires, it would be the cemetery in La Recoleta. It is virtually a town within a city, filled with crosscutting lanes lined with the grandest graves of the wealthiest and affluent families of the country. Some have even built mausoleums of marble, decorated with ornate statues and stained glass. The main site here, of course, is the grave of the late Eva Peron.

Other commonly visited communes that offer spectacular markets, restaurants, and good night spots, which we could not refuse, are Retiro and San Telmo. Here, one can opt for formal tango shows with dinner or enjoy the street tango. And, following unintentional, uncontrollable tradition, I heard my name being called out yet again through the market streets, as I ran into another friend from elsewhere on the globe, whom I happened to bump into in San Telmo’s antiquities market. These unanticipated run-ins are always so delightful and never cease to amaze me.

Basilica Nuestra Senora del Pilar, Recoleta

Statue adorning a grave in the Recoleta cemetery

The grandest of graves

Recoleta cemetary: a town within the city

Another view of the Basilica

Street tango in Recoleta

Floralis Generica, blooming with the sunrise and closing with the sunset

Mate tea cups

Don Qixote

Basilica in San Telmo

From Buenos Aires, we moved onto Iguazu, home to the glorious falls at the crossroads of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. There are various pathways once can traverse to lower and upper Iguazu that all offer stunning, breathtaking views of the falls, including Dos Hermanas, Bozzetti, San Martin, Escondido, Rivadavia, and even Adam and Eve. We maneuvered them all, and when you think it just can’t get better, well, the views become experiences and even showers under the falls. The most entertaining experience was taking the speed boat into the Devil’s Throat (Garganta de Diablo), a U-shaped part of the falls through which runs the Argentina-Brazil border. Travelers can also traverse various islands, though we found the most worthwhile to be the Isla Grande San Martin which takes one closest to the falls.

Upper Iguazu Falls

Another view of the falls

Garganta del Diablo

Motor boat ride into the falls

The lower Igauzu falls

Another view of the falls

Our last stop in the north was, of course, to the wine country of Mendoza, which lies along the eastern side of the Andes. Mendoza produces some of the best olive oil and wine in the world, which I can certainly affirm. We particularly indulged in the wines that are not currently exported and only available for those in Argentina to enjoy. I, very happily, carried back the 12-bottle limit to the States, to continue the Malbec experience.

A view of the Andes from Mendoza town

The Mendoza vineyards

Aging wine

Grapelings

Wine tasting! Leading to....

Wine shopping!

Marine Patagonia

2011-01-15T03:22:00.000-08:00

Well, after revisiting my blog after a 5 month absence, I find this entry in draft status, and sadly, it's from my trip to Argentina in November/December 2010! Since January, much has happened, so I have lots of catching up to do before my next adventure in July to southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Stay tuned for more photography and hopefully some very interesting stories.

In the first week of December 2010, my cousin and I were at the tail end of our Argentine adventures, making our way back up to Buenos Aires after 8-9 phenomenal days spent in Patagonia. But, we couldn't leave the region without making a brief stop in Puerto Madryn, home to some of the hemisphere's marine wonders and, interestingly, Argentina's Welsh community.

After making our way to our hostel after a slightly spooky, reckless night drive from the Trelew airport, we were finally on Valdes peninsula, where most of the wildlife can be found. It was whale watching season, and we kept our fingers crossed for accomodating weather and some grand appearances by Southern whales in the following day.

The tour around the peninsula stops at various ports, where tourists are limited within a certain distance from the wildlife to simply observe and take photographs. Argentina's tourism management is a phenomenal example of order and eco-cognizance absent of the need to compromise on the traveler's experience and exposure to what the country has to offer. In Morre Nuevo and Punto Norte, we were able to watch herds of penguins, sea lions, and elephant seals swimming in the Atlantic's blue waters, playfully wrestling with each other, but mostly napping along the shoreside.

Adorable sea lions swimming to shore

Now, this is the life.....

About to wrestle or mate? Is there a difference?

In Punta Norte, we were lucky enough to sight Orcas, famously known as the killer whale. These creatures are magificent, and in our case, a little elusive, but we were able to catch a few glimpses of these shamus.

The Orca

Patagonian Penguins

Sunabthing penguin

Penguins observing equally fascinating creatures

I believe it was from Punta Delgada that we boarded our boats for whale watching. We definitely could not anticipate what awaited us. The whales were undaunted by our motor boats and the clicking and flashing of our cameras. In fact, I wonder whether they actually adored the attention and excitement they aroused. After a series of backflips high into the air, the whales swam aside our boat, occasionally raising their famous black tailends or flukes into the air before crashing them straight back down into the water with a massive splash. They were natural performers who clearly new how to please a crowd.

Whale tail, thrust into the air

Coming up for air

Showing off its fluke

The fluke show continues

Heading back down

A grand finale

Gandhi, Zedong, or None of the Above

2011-01-14T20:13:00.001-08:00

The cacophony of vehicle horns and ring-rings blares from rickshaws, motorcycles, autos, and other vehicles maneuvering without the slightest care or attention to traffic rules, pedestrians, and the free-ranging livestock that over-capacitate the streets. The fumes from these vehicles and burning rubbish on the roadside permeate the air, and this pollution is compounded by the thick dust and odors that plague many Indian urban centers. Movement leaders and party representatives gather crowds on street corners and preach their propaganda through obnoxiously loud speakers, earning the supportive chants of followers as fists are thrown in the air. The economic activity is remarkable despite being the center of one of the poorest districts in all of India. Vendors for nearly every imaginable good line the colorful market streets, engaging in the daily transactions that keep their businesses running. Strings of fluorescent, metallic packets of shampoos and tobacco flap beneath the kiosk windows. The merchant of diesel pumps counts the notes for a recent payment, while across the way, a woman inquires about the cost of a live chicken-one of the many stuffed in the displayed cages. She’s certainly one of the better off to afford such a luxury. Crude photo kiosks line the gates to the district magistrate’s head quarters, and a couple, without revealing the slightest trace of emotion on their blank faces, are seated in front of a dusty black cloth as the moment is captured with a massive, ancient contraption, resembling a harmonium, that must be the camera. Nearby, a vendor manually squeezes out the juice from sugar cane through another winding contraption and adds some cilantro, lemon, and salt before serving it to a waiting customer. It’s another Monday morning in Gaya town.

Poultry farmers selling live chickens for meat

C'est la vie en l'Indie

Women undergoing vocational training in an army camp institute

Freshly squeezed sugar cane juice

Getting my passport photos taken the old fashioned way...good times!

Filling in the negative....

Final development of the photo...fascinating!

This month, we’ve been tasked with developing the livelihood interventions for our clients living in extreme poverty based on a market study done in the latter part of 2010. The questions we are aiming to answer include: What are the livelihood activities that are the most income efficient but can be initiated immediately to generate cash and help meet the consumption needs of today? Which livelihood activities can be initiated to diversify and supplement the income streams three to five months down the line? What comprises the start-up of each of the proposed initial activities? What do the business plans and financial models look like? How does this influence the design of a production loan that we intend to offer our clients? My work these last couple of weeks has centered around these questions, and answering them has involved a series of meetings with wholesalers and traders among other key value chain actors in the agarbatti (incense stick), livestock, agriculture, and artisanal sectors. The costing data required to assemble a financial model has been the most challenging aspect of this work because of the inconsistencies in the information provided by the different market players coupled with general fluctuations in market prices. And so, our work continues in this regard as we assemble individual livelihood plans that comprise the modeling and answers to the questions posed above.

During my downtime in the evenings here, I resort to watching TV, flipping between 9XM (India’s Bollywood version of MTV) and the BBC. Yesterday evening on BBC’s Hard Talk, Stephen Sackur interviewed the Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, Harriet Lamb, and challenged her with the question of whether developmental organizations, in their desperate attempts to find quick solutions to very large, systemic problems, ultimately ending up sustaining the unsustainable conditions that may nurture poverty. As we struggle to find solutions for the poorest, as my department is so aptly named, I can’t help wondering the same thing- at least with regard to some of our own proposed interventions.

Village meeting in the morning cold of Gaya

Daughter of one of our households

These concerns are heightened when we are occasionally reminded of more fundamental flaws in the system from which spring the provocations of poverty. The system can range from international trade policy to village level politics. What have been some propositions to change such systems (or just parts of it) that propagate poverty? Gandhi’s political philosophy of Sarvodaya, the welfare of all, preached a “social ideal that encompassed the dignity of labor, an equitable distribution of wealth, communal self-sufficiency, and individual freedom.” The concept that the good of the individual is contained in the good of all was complemented by Gandhi’s adherence to a nonviolent (ahimsa) struggle. Around the same period, another character had arisen to power, Mao Tse-tung (Zedong), whose inspiration from Marxism resulted in an as red Maoism. Beginning with his “Report on the Peasant Movement in Hunan,” Mao sought to overcome feudal and imperial suppression through violent revolution with an army of peasants and industrial workers. To take from the rich (‘enemies of the people’ amounted to 5% of China’s population), put in the mildest of words, Mao believed in redistributing this wealth to all by any means: “Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly, and modestly. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.” While socialism, in theory, may have sounded like a viable solution from an eradication of poverty point of view, in practice, it failed miserably, and particularly in the case of Maoism, which utilized extremely inhumane methods. The violent nature of his dictates is widely believed to have caused the deaths of between 40 and 70 million people. Still, Mao continued, “let us imagine how many people would die if war breaks out. There are 2.7 billion people in this world, and a third could be lost. If it is a little higher, it could be half…I say that if the worst came to the worst and one half dies, there will still be one half left, but imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist. After a few years, there would b e 2.7 billion people again.”

At what cost can systems be changed, and by what means? Are we already witness to a gradual, yet subtle change more closely aligned with Gandhian principles? At our project’s last advisory council discussion, when I expressed my frustrations over the causes of poverty and how much more effective our interventions could be if only the system were more conducive to the needs of the poorest, one member responded, “Well, should it be Gandhi or Zedong?” But, really, is it none of the above as is? And so, I set aside my idealism and resign to contentment if we can, at the very least, facilitate the gradual progression of our small target population on a pathway out of poverty. Perhaps they can now be assured enough meals in a day today, as a result, but my hope lies in the potentially more profound impact from today’s efforts in bettering the lives of their children and children’s children. Because at this rate, it will take that long, but at least change is now foreseeable.

let's hope for a better future

Todos en la Argentina! Patagonia: Parte Dos

2011-01-14T10:00:00.001-08:00

(See December 2010 for Parte Uno). After a short 4x4 ride high into the mountains, nothing could have prepared us for the view--- deep turquoise blue waters surrounded by mountains, and edging into those stunning waters was one of Argentina’s largest glaciers, Upsala. The scene immediately conjured up in my mind the gorgeous blue waters of Afghanistan’s Band-i-Amir lakes. I honestly have not an inkling as to how to even begin to articulate the splendor of this tongue of ice and the milky blue waters at its terminus. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

From here, we began the 14 kilometer trek back to the Estancia via the Canyon of the Fossils, unexpectedly one of the major highlights of this trip. One can see where the tectonic plates collided, forming layers upon layers of sedimentary and volcanic rock. The sharp yet juxtaposing colors of the rock, mountains, and the river flowing through these complement the extraordinary texture of the terrain. Our guide pointed out fossils, primarily of squid, mussels, and coral, dating back to 60 to 120 million years embedded in these layers. It was truly magnificent and felt not of this world in every sense!

We concluded our time in this part of Patagonia in El Chalten, Argentina’s trekking capital. We only had time for a full day’s trek to view Mount Fitz Roy, the main attraction in this part of the Andes. It’s actually a rare sighting, given the unpredictable weather, and while we were able to catch the view on the drive to El Chalten, by the time we began our trek, the clouds had swept in and obscured a more up close view of the majestic peaks.

Argentina really does have it all, and each region we visited had spectacular, yet very different things to offer in every aspect, but Patagonia stole my heart! I can’t wait to get back to this winter wonderland!