A Reality Check - December 12, 2010

Namaste Everyone!

My new favorite dish - Dim Sums (which means-
a little bit of heart) !

Well, I’ve been in India for officially one week now and I am absolutely loving it.  There is so much culture here, and the food is great! One of my favorite dishes thus far are Dim Sums (spelling), which are dumplings with vegetables in the middle of them.  I eat sooo much here it’s unbelievable . . . I just can’t stop eating!!!

On another note, I started my co-op this week and it went extremely well. The office is set up in a building in the middle of the Bhogul market in Jangpura. It is 4 floors and very busy. On any given day and on any given floor there are lawyers, social activists, and interns running around, making phone calls, and working relentlessly to help those in India that need help; the people that don’t have a voice; the people that are treated wrongly because of their caste, lack of wealth, and social status.  HRLN is a wonderful non-profit organization. 

The Human Rights Law Network.

The road HRLN is on. You can see a bicycle rickshaw in the pic.

I work on the First Floor of the HRLN office

My work area in the HRLN office - Working Hard

Sukti and I

Throughout the winter I will be primarily working with the reproductive rights division. India’s maternal mortality rate is 25% of the world wide rate with an estimated 120,000 deaths happening each year. Most of the deaths are caused by women not having the proper health services (ie. Blood banks, doctors, nurses, even hospitals to deliver in, etc etc).  I am currently working on a petition regarding the maternal mortality rate. I can’t talk in much detail about the petition but it feels great to be working on something that may potentially make a difference in thousands of pregnant and nursing woman’s lives. 

Yesterday I went with 2 of the sisters, and one social activist on a fact finding in a slum in Delhi.  A fact-finding is when lawyers, social activists, and interns go out and try to find information about a case they are working on.  This fact-finding was about the maternal mortality rates.  The poverty in the slum was unimaginable.  There were pigs, chickens and hogs running around, and a sewer right in the middle.  I've never seen anything like it . . my heart goes out to those people.  

Bob, Nadia and I at Hindi classes.

In other news. . . I started Hindi classes this week! As stated in my previous blog I was under the misconception that most people here spoke English. Because I want to be able to communicate with the people around me  I decided to take take Hindi classes. They are going well thus far. Nadia, Bob (fellow interns from England) and I are all in the same class.  Along with speaking Hindi, I am learning how to write it too!!! WOOHOO! I hope when I get back to America I can find someone to speak my new learned Hindi with, if not, I’ll be sad.

This past week I also went to a bonfire for Rukku’s going away party. (I’m sad that she is leaving).  The bonfire was on the roof of Jayshree’s  (a lawyer at HRLN) house. Anant (another lawyer for HRLN) made the fire. To be honest, at first I did not think that he was going to be able to make the fire because

Although I had my doubts . .  a fire lit!

of the set up but, despite my doubt in him, he actually made it!  At the bonfire we danced to Bollywood music and just had a great time.

You can see why I had my doubts about the bonfire.

Bob, Sukti, Chloe and I at the bonfire.

Anant and I at the bonfire.

SO, guess where Sukti brought Chloe and I this week?!. . . to Saket Mall!!! I was AMAZED at how lovely this mall was.  It reminded me of a mall from home. There was even a Zara store which of course reminded me of Lara! . . .  Although I enjoyed my experience at the mall, I just couldn't help but think -->  Seeing the poverty around the HRLN building and the poverty of the HRLN clients, and then seeing the fancy mall was definitely a reality check. I was reminded that only a small portion of India has the means to shop at the mall.  This week I have seen both extremes of Delhi: the slums and the fancy parts.  I am still trying to process and make sense of how just 10 mins away from eachother people live so differently. The poverty in India doesn’t even compare to that of America, I have seen anything like it before. 

Sukti and I at the mall.

Saket Mall

Christmas Tree! 

In talking about the “nicer” places in Delih, Rukku, Nadia and I went to South X to look at the suits and sarees.  The Indian suits are three pieces, a scarf, a kurti (which is like a longer shirt), and pants.  I tried on a traditional Indian suit and not only did I put it on backwards but I got stuck in the kurti!!  The lady working at the store had to come in the dressing room to help me get out of it. I was embarrassed. Nonetheless, it was still a beautiful kurti that I wanted to buy (but it was waaaaay to expensive).  Oh, and another thing, I got in trouble for taking a picture  of the kurti! The lady at the store was like "no pictures please!" . . .oops.

The Kurti that I tried on. . . Beautiful!

Rukku and I found a McDonald's while in South X!

The Christmas Concert. Excellent Choir!

This past week I also went to a Christmas Concert! Yes, a Christmas concert. It was at the Hungarian Culture Center. Chloe and I got to the concert a bit late so we weren’t able to get a seat, but it was still lovely.  The soloist and choir sang Christmas songs for about an hour and it made me really want to go home for Christmas. I may ask my landlady if she will put up a Christmas tree.  We’ll see how that goes. Lol

Tomorrow starts another work week and I am sooo excited because I get to go with Collin (the founder of HRLN) to The Supreme Court of India and watch him argue the different HRLN cases tomorrow.  It’s going to be great.

I’ve decided to update my blog once a week, twice on really interesting weeks, so until next time, peace and love.