The boys are back in town...

So I have spent quite a while droning on about India’s little quirks and idiosyncrasies that I haven’t really had a chance to talk about the boys town – specifically what makes the boys town tick – the boys who live there. By the way though my title for this post is completely wrong - the boys are just leaving for the hols... oh well its a good song and it sounds nice!

It is an odd bunch of people who live here, each and every one a unique character with their own ways of doing things… whether that is an obsession with cars, marbles or even flared trousers (Although an unhealthy interest in flares isn’t actually unique to one kid, the whole of Chennai are smitten with them – they even make an appearance in the majority of school uniforms). There is even one boy who has been trying every Mission Impossible aerobatic, James bond sleight or Covert-op sneak to try and get past me to grab an extra pack of biscuits from the office – forget not being able to watch BBC, I have my very own ‘Spooks’ right here…

Oops – a toad just leaped into the office and over my foot…

But I digress – the boys’ one overriding interest is cricket, which is brilliant as I can’t stand the game! They play it morning, noon and night – except if its raining, drizzling or even slightly spitting – schools get days off due to rain storms, which despite being labeled monsoons just remind me of a rainy day in England except slightly hotter – nothing really to complain about. I find it funny that if a patch of rain comes along India grinds to a complete halt, people dive for cover and the power cuts suddenly out… thank God they don’t get snow, eh?

Back to cricket however as the overriding interest, generally the boys play four games simultaneously in their playground (which isn’t very big) with four rubber cricket balls which tend to accidentally bombard anyone passing by. I still, despite having several attempts at playing the game, cannot see the attraction in standing around for five days hitting a ball with a stick, but they seem to love it…

When not playing cricket typically the boys will play marbles, do their washing or even study. I noticed the concept of studying in India is different from that in the UK – in India when studying they sit on the floor or at a desk and read their books write out class notes in complete silence for many hours on end. In the UK (Note: this is for me at least, and I can admit this only now I have finished my A2s with half decent grades) studying was lying on my bed, watching movies on my laptop whilst trying to psychically absorb the course information from the textbook open on the desk, halfway across the room…

The boys also have a real love for Tamil movies – basically Bollywood but in Tamil – the local language. These are all musicals and really the sole form of entertainment – all of the music they listen to is from their movies (which means you end up hearing the same songs from the latest movie about 20 times a day which drives you mad!) If you turn on a TV you can only really either watch movies or cricket… neither of which I understand! They couldn’t comprehend why when I whacked out the Ipod, before it broke RIP, I didn’t even have a single Tamil song – they completely believe that apart from Michael Jackson, Tamil songs are the only and most famous music in the world! In honor of the ground-breaking Xmas number 1 in the UK, I played them RATM and their reaction was hilarious as they tried to be polite about it… I guess they aren’t ready for rock yet…

But the boys are brilliant, intelligent, funny and caring. Every single on of them works harder and is more dedicated to their studies than I ever could be – for a starter their universities don’t have the opposite from the UK culture of drinking, clubbing or partying – they just go to learn, and learn completely sober... One day I tried explaining ‘Fresher’s Week’ to them - they couldn’t grasp it, they were shocked by the idea of people their age drinking. The ethics in India are so different – no wonder India is growing technologically so fast when universities are actually places of learning!

However whilst I make quirky little jokes, there is more... Behind the smiling faces there are children who have known complete abject poverty, children who have lived in slums made from materials salvaged from the rubbish tips. Some of these boys will, at the end of this very week commemorate the anniversary of the great Tsunami that indiscriminately stole their homes, their sibling and their parents. There is even one boy in the project, a boy who dreams of one day working for NASA and reaching the stars, a boy who only survived bone cancer by having his infected leg amputated above the knee; he is now condemned to spend every day hopping around on old crutches because his prosthetic leg gets caught in the bike he has to pedal everyday to school… These boys are incredible, young, vibrant people and they have seen things we cannot imagine, still however they get on with life and strive for more with a cheeky little grin and the odd pinched pack of digestives bikkies…

Waitlist...................................

OK, now i actually have several excuses for why its taken so long to publish a new post - these range from sporadic Internet connection, the worst power design in a building EVER and the fact that I just had my birthday so I had to 'ahem' celebrate in the Indian family fun sober way!

But seriously I have also spent the last 17 days stuck inside of the local 'Railways of India' corp ticket office... This is due to me deciding i was much to cozy and lazy here so i have completely changed my January schedule. Originally this consisted of me going to a different boys town and generally hanging round Chennai a bit longer but I decided to something a bit different, how i do not know though - I have somehow conveniently forgotten to work that bit out yet... but one part I know have decided (as with every other backpacker in the entirety of south Asia) to head to Goa for new years... if you haven't heard it is famous for its parties (esp. new year and on full moons - the full moon this year happens to be on the 31st - double party!!), it also has some of the best beaches in the world and is within a days travel from me - or so I thought...

I was impressed with myself as i walked into the ticket office on the morning of the 9Th of November for being so organised and early in booking a ticket... the hour long queue seemed like minutes and I didn't even notice the incorrect English on the reservation sheet... then I got to the lady at the counter and handed in the sheet thinking how wonderfully simple India is...

I first got the impression that this wouldn't be so easy when the lady opened her mouth and started talking with one of the thickest Indian accents I have ever heard - and it didn't help that she was only whispering over what i was beginning to notice was a more of a mad angry mob than a queue. I told her that 'I wanted to go from Chennai to Goa - though not on the direct train but through Bangalore' this was because the direct train only leaves once a week and it was leaving to early... She promptly spent the next ten minutes trying to book me on the direct train , (O.k. - I know it would be very easy to blame me here by saying she probably couldn't understand my accent, but I had handed her a sheet with the exact itinerary of what I wanted) - when I pointed this out she then spent ten minutes undoing everything before typing it back in and ending up with the same direct train... as soon as she realised this she told me I had filled the form out incorrectly and she started helping the customer next to me. After four more attempts at filling out the form she finally accepted it (I only actually filled out two forms - the one that in the end she accepted was the same one she had turned down - I just gave it to her again without her realising)

Eventually she worked out that a if a man wants to get from point A to point B but there aren't any direct trains he can connect through point C (point C being a place nicely in the middle of point A and B)... five minutes later it had even clicked into place that Point A: Chennai B: Goa C: Bangalore, a few bits of data entered in and BAM - a result!!! I would be wait-listed...

It turns out that whilst India has a population of about a billion people they actually have the rail capacity of Luxembourg. The trains are apparently so few and far between that to actually get some of them you have to tell your mum to start queueing before you have even left the womb... it is however very hit and miss because some trains fill up randomly and with no rhyme nor reason why there was a sudden boom in tickets...

so we checked about 37 different routes to Goa through the most roundabout ways possible all of them either impossible (ending up spending 3 days waiting in a rice paddy in the middle of nowhere) or *Tada* wait-listed behind 200 other people - One pretty major part of the problem is that there is a quota on the amount of foreigners on a train. It's obvious though if you think about it - too many white people in one place - we might break out into an impromptu game of golf...

So in the face of hoping that 200 people spontaneously decide not to go on that new years holiday trip I just did what any sensible person would have done - I walked out, drove home, logged on, had a cup of tea and booked me an overnight coach ticket on the world wide web...


** Apparently a lot of you can't leave messages - if you click the title of the post it takes you through to the posts individual page where you should be able to leave a comment

Club Club night and Spot goes crazy...

Oops... It’s been a week since my last post - sorry for not posting sooner but everything has been crazy busy here in India...

Why has it been busy? Basically a president of one of the rotary clubs in the UK, Northampton Beckett, is visiting due to the fact their club has fundraised money for the Madras Rotary Club's charity foundation (who run and fund the boys town that I am staying at). He is of Indian heritage himself although he has lived in the UK for many years and his British wife grew up in Calcutta... so therefore I have been very interested in their opinions on this insane place – I found out he had to move to England because he had an Anglican name – when searching for a job he found that, despite having all the right qualifications and more, the Sangeeta, Kamal or Bhattacharya always got it... This is due to the nationalist bias that was instilled in the post independence population.

I was meant to on Thursday night go to a jazz night with some Rotarians and our guests, which I was very excited about, me loving a bit of the jazz every so often, however everything from clerical errors, a fiercely nationalist doctor and a (as it turned out a not-so) rabid dog bite… A dog went a little bit psycho and bit me though it was more of a nibble than a bite – barely drew blood! basically when I was asked why I didn’t make the night my reply was invariably “India!” – I got to see the medical facilities of India however (surprisingly impressive), met a few doctors (infuriatingly obnoxious) and only after having several irritating syringes stuck in several annoying places did the owner of the canine decide to reveal that the dog had been vaccinated for rabies a few months ago (extremely annoying)… so don’t worry I’m OK and I promise not to keel over dead any time soon!

Over the past week the rotary club has been putting on a lot of events and programs, last night however was by far the best - a rotary club night! When I say ‘rotary club night’ I don’t mean a ‘rotary club’ night I mean a full on nightclub event for the Rotarians – it was an experience! More importantly however it was an experience with an open, free, fully stocked & overflowing with alcohol bar… it was a unique sight to see some of the older members of the club spilling their drinks whilst trying to shake their hips to Shakira or singing along at the top of their geriatric lungs to my great delight ‘Alice, Alice, who the f**k is Alice!’ – This in contrast to the normally strictly reserved and uptight moral culture…

But it is now tomorrow morning and I managed to get up relatively nice and early – feeling almost 100% and fine!!

I promise to try and post again soon - but no promises - the electrical students here for some reason decided to rewire the whole building through one tempermental fuse - electricity is sort of a bonus at the moment! By the way feel free to leave comments - it would be nice to know I'm not just talking to myself...

Papa's got a brand new bat...

Sorry for not posting sooner - the Internet has been down for the whole area for the past 3 days, I hereby also apologise for the bumper double size posting that follows - I've got to catch up on lost time...

Today I went shopping... and it was crazy...

The director of the boys town, two of the kids and I headed into the centre of Chennai to one of the main shopping districts, a place called T.Nagar - a place full of market stalls, shops and giant, humid & busy megastores. We ended up in one of these previously mentioned megastores, but only after walking through the markets, where of course, myself being white (Indian logic = Rich), I was accosted by hundreds of day-glo plastic flutes, baby clothes & tacky ball games...

The boys town had to stock up their supply of raincoats by about 40 - thus the two boys who acted basically as walking, talking shopping trolleys! While we were there I strolled randomly into the Sports section (in between the raincoat and the mysteriously named Fancy section...). There was, it appeared , no logic to the mapping of the store but I suspect there was some sort of crazy genius to it that went straight over my head...

But I digress, as I said - I ended up making an expedition to the sports section - where I decided to purchase a cricket bat for the younger boys - who often made do by playing with a large stick! After wading through the chess department and circumnavigating the Antiperspirants (see the crazy genius - chess is a very stressful game!) I found the till - at least I think the till was somewhere inside the mad throng of people surrounding an circular station where the staff were working with all the energy of a manic 13 year old child on speed...

After refueling with some butter masala (wow!) and some Butterscotch Ice cream (double wow!) we walked back to the bus stop carrying our shopping, which meant having to go back through the market... I got ready, psyched myself up and braced myself for the barrage of brightly coloured tat - but it never came! One man started towards me with a brightly coloured holographic picture of a baby before he exclamed "oh, you have a cricket bat" and retreated prompltly to the safety of his stall. I think they thought I had 'my weapon' (the bat) for their benefit - There must have been rumours that a crazy white guy was out on the rampage with his trusty child sized cricket bat - I think I might not actually give it to the kids and just take with me every time I go shopping!!!

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Quick breather before part 2 - cup of tea suggested! (sorry again for the length....)

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Whilst on the bus home I also began thinking about the Indian rules of the road... and therefore I have listed for your pleasure the Indian Highway code (as viewed by me):

1. Drive on the Left (unless the right looks nicer - then just go for it!)

2. Maintain a constant speed of 50 km/h at ALL times - even in the face of heavy traffic, wayward animals/children & oncoming buildings

3. If you have to break, do it properly! i.e. as fast as possible - no point in not putting 100% effort!

4. Concerning animals on the road:
Dog - rev engine violently (you always have right of way over dog)
Cow - Honk horn (respectfully!) then drive round
Pedestrian - slow down slightly, then get angry and accelerate shouting wildly

5. Your skill of Driving is only as good as your proficiency to honk - it takes a real man to be able to suffer from a mad bout of road rage and still be able to honk the chorus of MJ's Thriller... (and it is your duty to practice honking at any nearby vehicle, animal or empty stretch of road)

6. Before any long journey collect all non biodegradable items in your house (plastic, metal or preferably any nearby spare crude oil) and randomly throw it onto the side of the road periodically through the trip - plastic makes the boring earth really nice and colourful plus it gives the cows food!

7. The lines painted on the road (if any...) are completely coincidental and have no bearing whatsoever... Feel free to weave about and change lanes as much as possible - doubly so if on motorbike and in heavy traffic

8. The bigger the vehicle, the more likely it has right of way

9. Traffic lights are only guidelines...

10. If in doubt stop, exit vehicle, start shouting loudly and threaten to slap all near drivers, pedestrians and/or animals

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Wow, that was a marathon entry - maybe I should have done that in two posts... Oh well, it's written now and I'm officially knackered!

Now what happened about that cup of tea...

Cheers for reading!!!

Tim meets a super mega movie star... apparently

Whoa - 2 posts in 2 days... Don't expect this all the time!

I promise to keep this one brief!

Today I met a man named Kamal Hassan - apparently he is a major Tamil movie star (Chennai is in the region of Tamil Nadu, who have a different dialect and movie industry to the rest of India).
I was told that Kamal was the Tamil equivalent of Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks & Tom Jones all rolled into one... he was being given the Rotary club of Madras 'Lifetime Achievement Award' - and promptly he gave a speech thanking his family and friends who he couldn't have done it all without - I guess he must actually be famous then!

To tell the truth it was an interesting afternoon except for the fact a large portion of the presentation was in Tamil and I was the only person in the room who didn't speak it. Don't tell anyone but I was secretly more impressed by a beautifully preserved Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle in the car park... A very famous Indian/British motorbike that holds the record for the longest production run of any bike model having been made non-stop since 1948 (oops - I'll put the anorak away - I promise!)

I did notice one interesting & quirky fact at the meeting though - ever since I got here I thought there was something slightly odd about the way Indians talk (apart from the accent) and today I finally put my finger on what it was: they use words that are deliberately long-winded or extravagantly Victorian... things are not definite or certain - they are manifestly indubitable. I even recently passed an old poster in a slum part of Chennai that was telling the passing crowds to bank with their firm due to their 'predilection to expedient enterprise'. To my great surprise the sign didn't seem to be attracting many of the market goers attention...

Tim's school trip...

Today I visited a few of the local schools in the area near me. It was a bit of a shock!!

One that I visited was a government school for those who are below the poverty line. When I first arrived I reckoned the facilities were suitable maybe for a school of 400 but 1200 pupils attended it, despite this it only had 24 teachers... Class sizes easily reached up to 120 pupils

Picture trying to teach a class the size of a whole year in a school in Belgium or the UK squeezed into a classroom built for maximum 40 - especially as the class is full of energetic teenagers! In a discussion I had with one of the teachers he said 'the size of the school and the needs of the pupils, there ought to be at least 70 teachers'.

That however does not tell the truth about the facilities: The classrooms were blocks of bare rooms, the classrooms not large enough though for any chairs or desks - the kids did their school work on their laps...

I visited on an exam day to see the pupils doing some important tests. I saw the kids trailing long lines out of the doors of the classrooms into the playground, sat cross legged on the floor in the dust next to where children were playing and running around, all the while trying to answer an important exam paper. As is the norm for India goats, dogs and cows were also wondering around grazing freely - just imagine trying to sit a gcse or A-level equivalent exam sat on the floor outside, surrounded with children playing and goats wandering around you! Then couple it with the fact that we are coming to the end of the monsoon season and at the moment flash storms are common - you maybe sat outside writing a paper, with all mentioned above, under a small overhang of the roof in thunder & rain...

As I say it was a bit of a shock - especially as the students were not moaning or complaining - they just wanted to learn, to do well in exams, to get to a good uni. The fact is that these facilities were what they were brought up with, what they were used to. But most of all they were adamant that a little thing like astronomical class sizes, minuscule class rooms and not even a stray cow during an exam would get in the way of their dream of the money, the job and the all important BMW...



P.s. I have now got a camera to show you all the things that I write about! However at the moment I have no way of uploading photos to the computer off of said cam... but expect photos soon!

So this is India...

Sorry for not posting earlier - everything has been a bit mad! India is an incredible place, it has a culture that is so different to that of the west, EVERYTHING is different here.

The first thing I noticed was the visual differences from that of Europe. I got a Tuktuk ride from the airport after i landed at 4am local time (an amazing, if not slightly scary experience) and saw that the roads are encased by thousands of short squat terraced garages, these little buildings form the shops for the city. In front of those actually on the edges of the roads are carts and stalls which sell everything under the sun - The whole city is a giant marketplace. Even more in contrast to the UK is the amount of colour, the buildings, the lights and even the clothes are awash with seas of yellows, greens & pinks - compared to the greys, blacks and navys of the average European high street. it is like someone cranked up the hue to full on the TV and somehow made it a country!

However once you get into the country and begin to see more you realise that the colours and sights are just the start of the differences. The sounds & the smells of the city are completely indescribable...

The weather is also very different - it is the end of a particularly long monsoon season - it rains everyday 24/7. Heres how it feels in UK weather terms - imagine the worst winter rainstorm continuous for months in July high temperatures with the humidity of a steam room to boot. My air con is on constantly and it feels like I am getting through a can of antiperspirant a day! The worst thing is it is only going to get hotter! The boys are expecting me to play cricket when the playground dries up. I have no idea how I am going to play in this heat (actually that says very little - I've never really played cricket - I have no idea anyway!).

The boys are great. They are so intensely different from school kids in the UK that it really, really shocked me. I was talking to one boy who was quietly studying in a corner and he told me he wanted to be a civic engineer after going to uni and getting his masters - when I asked him how old he was he said he was twelve. They all are really working hard to further their education, to go to a good uni and get a good job. Some people I know in the UK didn't work out what they wanted to study until the week UCAS statements were due. The kids are trying so hard to better themselves and their families. The boys here really are appreciative of what they have.

One example of this is that the boys town recently got a TV for the library (read: large room with three small bookcases of old tatty textbooks). Now when I was boarding in Cranbrook, the Cornwallis TV room usually had about 10 or so people there in the evening and there would always be an argument over who had the remote, what channel was on or what seat people could sit in. Yesterday I walked into the boys library and saw 100 kids quietly sitting on the floor watching TV - no arguments, no fights and no unnecessary throwing of objects (or cushions - a Cornwallis favorite). One of the boys would have the remote & they would scroll through the channels however not one boy would complain - they just enjoyed sitting there watching TV...

I know that is a really small thing but to me it was huge... it highlighted the great cultural divide between the UK and India!

Wow... It's really happening!

Hi and welcome to my pathetic excuse of a blog!

Ok - so most people who read this will probably know me... and be amazed that I have actually got this trip organized! This is my first post on this or any other blog so please bare with me!

In 2 days I am leaving my home in Belgium and traveling to the UK where I will board a plane to Chennai in India. From there my trip will start...

I will travel to India, Australia & the USA.

First things first, however - Chennai. The Boys Town is a charitable organisation that teaches young Indian boys the skills they need to suceed in trade and of course life... My big brother James went a few years back and really enjoyed it so it was top on my list of priorities for my trip... I am facinated by the whole of the culture and history of the country and really want to go and meet the people that live there. I dont want to do the Thomson package tour of India nor do I want to live in luxury. I want to live, eat and sleep like a local, I want to be at the grassroots of the country - actually seeing the real India not the 5 star resort India.

I have virtually no plans for this trip apart from my flights and no preconceived expectations of what may happen... It is to be a year free from School, a year free from Duties and a year spent almost completely out of my comfort zone! I will be living with my pack on my back, the shoes on my feet, and the road steching in front of me into the distance. my main contact with my family and friends will be this blog.

I will try and post once more before I leave but now I have to pack a solitary 70 liter backpack with everything I need for a year... good times!

Tim
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