What the hell am I doing here!?

Things here are going quite well, on the work side of things anyway. I still have little to do socially, and equally depressing no one to do anything with anyway! I went to see an English friend who’s running an NGO about an hour and a half away and we were pressed trying to find interesting or fun things to do! Since coming back from Nepal I’ve been busying myself with work though, and have had only 2 days off in the past month, but that’s ok. It’s my choice, as my entire schedule is. I’m here for work, and enjoy this side of my time in India, so don’t mind.

The reason I write today is to tell you a bit about what I’m up to now, the new organisations I’m working for, and the projects I’m trying to get going.

If you’ve read this before or been in contact with me, you may know that I am trying to initiate a project for female prisoners and their dependents inside as well as outside the prison. In India children until the age of 6 stay with their inside the jail if there is no one willing to care for them outside. There are children that have beenborn in jail, as well as those in jail since such a young age that they don’t remember what it looks like outside the high prison walls. They’ve never seen a typical street scene or a man, never ridden on a bus, never been into a shop, etc. They are locked in the cells with their mothers from 7pm until 7am. There is little for mothers or children to do.

Following a meeting with the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, a Christian community of brothers engaged in social work (and no evangelism) I learnt that they have a programme which currently supports some 10,000 children across the 4 southern states (Tamil Nadu, Kerela, Karnatika and Andra Pradesh) who would be otherwise unable to study due to their family’s poor income situation. They have a programme for children of life convicts, but after I met them they told me they would be happy to support children of any convict, as typically convicts come from the poorer sections of society. Those with money are able to buy their way out of prison, or send someone else to do their time!

A few weeks ago I went for a meeting in a place called Thiruvanelli, almost in the tip of India to meet the director of the child support programme. Whilst I was there they also arranged for me to meet 4 women who previously served time at Tritchy’s female prison. From these 4 women only one woman was actually guilty, the others had been framed. In India you have to remain in prison under the same conditions as the convicted women until you’re actually sentenced. It can take months, and even years before you are able to see a judge. I have heard of cases where the woman has spent longer in jail waiting to be sentenced than the sentence of conviction actually have been. If this is the case and she is found not guilty there is no compensation and no one says sorry to her.

Just to tell you a little of the stories I heard from the 4 women I met:

The first, Nagomi was accused of killing her baby daughter, and served 3 months whilst waiting to be sentenced. She was found not guilty. What actually happened was that she delivered her baby a month prematurely in her village home. She bled until she was unconscious and was taken to a local hospital. From there she found herself being taken to prison. Her husband and in-laws used to constantly abuse and torture her as they said she didn’t give them enough dowry (gifts from a woman’s family to her husband) and they demanded more. Her husband was a known tyrant in the village and had many enemies. A neighbour wanting to punish or get revenge on the family for something the husband earlier done informed the police that the family killed the baby girl. The couple were arrested along with Nagomi’s parents who were present at the birth. Her parents and husband were released after one month, but Nagomi and her 4 year old son remained in prison. After she was released she managed to divorce her husband and now lives with her own parents. Others in the village no longer speak to her, and you can tell from talking to her she is quite psychologically scarred. She works as a beedi (small cigarette made from leaves) roller for just Rs. 10 (13p) per 8 hour day. She also found out since being released that her husband killed his first wife, but got away with it as he claimed she had a cooking accident, rather than claiming the truth which is he poured a bottle of kerosene on her and set her alight!

The 2nd woman I met, Rani, was falsely accused of prostitution at the age of 20. Rani and a friend were visiting a male friend in his home. His parents were out. The police were called to the neighbourhood for a village disturbance and went knocking on every door. When they found the 2 women unaccompanied in the house they were instantly arrested on charges of prostitution. Rani and her friend were first taken to a local jail. Her friend was released a few days later when her family paid for her release. Rani’s family however couldn’t pay for this, and so Rani spent one month in the local jail, in the female cell, mostly alone, being sexually harassed by the prison guards most nights. When she was in prison her father and brother came to visit her. Her brother was very angry that she had been so stupid and careless and shouted at her. Upon her release after being found not guilty, she returned to her father’s home where her brother had prepared a poison for her and tried to force her to drink it, believing her death would be the only way to restore the family’s dignity and honour. Rani refused to drink it, and instead took a severe beating from her brother. She still lives in the family home, but still 6 years on after her release the villagers and her family, apart from her Dad don’t talk to her. She is worried as her Dad is getting old and she knows after he dies she will have no place to go after she is booted out of home. She has no job and no skills and still gets hassled from the police, trying to arrest her for crimes she hasn’t committed, just so she will pay them to leave her alone.

The 3rd woman, Mariama, was convicted of murdering her husband. She had been having problems with her husband for many years, he was lazy and a drunk and would often beat her. It was known to all that they had problems, which is why after he was murdered by his own family, as he had property rights they wanted for themselves, they were able to put the blame on his wife. The murdering family paid the police to frame and convict Mariama. At first when she was arrested and in the police station she refused to admit to something that wasn’t true, but in the end she could no longer bear the torture inflicted on her by the police. To get a confession from her they would beat her, spoil her food and push needles under her nails. She got 12 years, of which she served 6.

The 4th woman, Kannabodi, comes from a very poor village, out of the 4 woman she is the poorest. Her house doesn’t even have proper walls, they are just one foot tall and made of mud and dung. She was convicted of making and selling arak (local liquor) illegally. She was convicted, but upon her release did it again, as she had no other way of making money. In all she has been to prison more than 10 times, and the longest time she served as 5 months. She hasn’t now been for more than 10 years as the judge told the police to stop arresting her for this.

The reason why I wanted to meet released prisoners was to get their opinion of how best an NGO could have helped them whilst they were in prison and upon their release. However, it became apparent to us that NGO intervention is still needed many years after their release. Also the women were not able to answer my questions properly. These are semiliterate, uneducated village women, who have never had any contact or don’t even know what an NGO is. When asked the open question of how did they think an NGO could best help they were unable to answer as the idea of someone helping them was so foreign!

So for this prison project I am linking the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, using their name to obtain funds, and also some convent sisters, who have experience with female prisoners in counselling, and also another organisation, Tamil Nadu Depressed Women Welfare Society (TNDWWS). We had many ideas for projects to run in side the jail as well as outside. However, last week I heard of a local NGO currently working in the prison, so I arranged a meeting with them to see what they were already doing, as there was no point to duplicate work. They are called Sevai, and are actually doing quite a lot. I don’t know about how effective their programmes are though, and I got the impression they didn’t want anyone else in their territory. Besides, when I met with the prison’s Inspector General the following day, she basically said that all things in the prison were fine, and that it wasn’t necessary for more NGO intervention. This differed greatly to what I heard from the 4 released women, who told me about the lack of water, sanitation and personal hygiene, about not having any soap or change of clothes for 3 months. All woman also made negative comments about the food when asked about the worst aspects of being inside, they said it was like poison, so disgusting that they often preferred to go without.

The Inspector General did agree to a few of our programmes. I have arranged that TNDWWS who have experience with HIV/AIDS education and working with prostitutes (a common crime of the convicted women) be allowed access into the prison every 3 months to hold a one day work shop on STDs, HIV/AIDS and safe sex. This is a really cheap programme which I will be funding from the donations from friends an family. Each training session will only cost the travel expenses (£2.30) for TNDWWS staff as all materials and condoms are provided free by the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Agency. Also we found an experienced retired teacher who is willing to go to the jail every week to give classes on yoga, meditation and counselling. It will be through her, Mrs Bala that we hope to be able to find information about where the released women are, as the prison officials refused to release us any lists. The yoga, meditation and counselling programme will also be very cheap, it’ll cost about £1 each day she goes, which will be 2 to 3 times a week.

We plan for a few long term projects in addition to the above 2. We have plans for a half-way home for released women unable to go back home. We are thinking to buy a farm house where the women will live and work together, in support of each other, giving support and solidarity to each other. It will be a safe place for them for rehabilitation and reintegration. They will be taught vocational skills which will enable to generate income, which will be spent for their own needs, as well as feed back into the running of the house. They will also maintain a vegetable garden, and have a chicken farm. One woman will be employed to live there and serve as the ‘mother” and counsellor. This of course will cost more than we currently have funds for, but I am hoping to get funding from either a Christian agency (who are prone to fund other Christian organisations, and hopefully programmes involving convicts and prostitutes) but I know it will takes 6+ months before we are able to get anything, if we’re successful at all.

We also hope to find as many released prisoners as possible, which is difficult as there are only 2 female prisons in the state, so prisoners can come from a 500km area, and as travel is so slow here, about 50km an hour, it can take ages to reach all these women. Our intention is to arrange the women into district clusters and give them micro-loans for them to start their own businesses. We also will run a survey to se what their other needs are. It will also serve as a support network. I’m trying to get training from a village handicraft organisation in Chennai which has links overseas, plus shops in Chennai to sell the products. Most of the things village groups make are a bit cheap and tacky, and most groups make the same thing. I hope to be able to get the women to do something a bit more unique and profitable. Hopefully once Mrs Bala is able to give us information on where some released prisoners are, the network and information will quickly snowball.


Another programme I will be trying to get money for, with TNDWWS will be an anti-trafficking grant. Yesterday I met with a commercial sex worker (CSW/prostitute) who used to be a broker as well as a hooker. She was very open and informative with me, and answered every one of my questions during our hour interview. She now works for TNDWWS and has left her old life. Anyway, she explained that there are 2 types of prostitutes, those that are willing, and those that are forced. For those that are willing we will try and give them safety education, and for those that are unwilling we will try to rescue them, by buying them from their pimps/brokers. This will be very difficult, and may get TNDWWS staff in trouble. I don’t know whether they really have the capacity or organisation to do this. It will require some undercover work and total dedication, and I just don’t know if they’re up to it. We will try and get word out to the CSW network there’s an organisation they can contact if they want help. We may be able to combine the farm house with the house for trafficked women, but don’t know whether the prisoners would be up for this. There is a stigma against both groups, and they may hold a stigma against each other.

I spoke to TNDWWS today and they said we can do this project, but we will have to get female police and police inspectors involved. We also will have to find brokers who are against trafficking. It’ll be a tough project, but ultimately worth it.

Also I was supposed to be going back to Kodaikanal this week, but UK friend Lesley will be in Pondicherry before she goes back to the UK at the end of the week, so have put it off until next week. In Kodai a tribal organisation I am working for needs help with grant seeking for 2 projects, one is for housing for people living in tents, the other is for productive tree plantation. I also will try my hand at amateur documentary making to try and make a grant seeking promotional video. I don’t even have a proper video camera to use, so will be using the movie mode on my normal digital camera! The organisation is called Action for Community Transformation (ACT) India Foundation. They do great work with the 26 tribal villages in the Palani hills. These tribals are the lowest in Indian society, actually they are so low, they aren’t really in it. Anyone above the age of 20 would generally be uneducated, those that are younger typically only stay in school until they are 8. They have a life expectancy of just 45 years, and until 2generations ago lived in the thick of the forest in make shift homes as hunter gatherers. Their homes are little better now, and they eat a little more than what they find in the forest, but they remain malnourished, exploited, without skills, are completely illiterate and own no land or houses. They live in houses they’ve made themselves from sticks, banana leaves and any waste materials, such as sand/cement bags, or scraps of plastic.

Today I heard from a work colleague he may be going to Sri Lanka to conduct a study on Tamil tsunami victims. He invited me to go with him, so am waiting to hear if that will be possible. If we do, we’ll go for 45 days from the middle of May.

I am thinking about coming home in August, before the start of my (hopeful) masters in September. I still haven’t heard whether I have definitely got in, but only need to give a week’s notice if I want to defer for a year. Thing is, if these projects really start I think I may not want to leave, but at the same time am getting pretty tired of India and Indians! I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t get on the course this year. I guess I should stay, but will return to the UK for a few months over the summer anyway. I’m finding out whether I can hang onto the house for a little longer, or else I’ll have to crash at various people’s places until I go back to England.

So this is news of my work and projects. It probably sounds a lot more impressive and exciting than it actually is. Things are slow to happen and there are always many obstacles in the way.

I am currently trying to register my own NGO, to be called HoldingHands International, but haven’t heard back from the Charity Commission yet. But you can be assured I’ll contact you when/if it goes ahead.

If you have managed to get this far, do me a favour and leave a comment as I don’t know how many people are actually reading this. It may be better to stop blogging and return to e-mails again. I think because I blog at random times people who may be interested don’t check anyway. So let me know whether you think I should keep this going or not.

If you want a copy of the prisoner profiles of interview with the CSW for your own interest you can e-mail me.

So thank you to those of you that have taken the time to read all of this. I hope you enoy reading about what I do.

Until next time be good, be happy, work hard and play harder
Love Ruth

Himilayan tales

Ok, so I’m writing about something that happened almost 2 months ago, but until now I’ve either been unmotivated or busy!

On the 3rd of Feb I started my journey to Nepal from south India. I decided to be cheap and travel over land. First I was to take a bus from my town to the state capital, Chennai, 6 hours, then get on a train from Chennai to Calcutta, 24 hours, then change train and go to the Nepalese border at Bihar, 17 hours, then catch a bus to Kathmandu, 10 hours. It was all planned out, it should have only cost me a total of £15, but of course, this being India things don’t run smooth, and they never run to plan. The bus I was on from my place to Chennai crashed into a metal/concrete road divider. I think the driver was drunk as there were no other vehicles involved, and we crashed into something big and stationary in the middle of the road. We hit it head on, crumpling the front of the bus and smashing the windscreen in all over the driver. The bus was going nowhere. I had to change onto another passing bus after waiting around in madness and confusion for a while. The police showed up, but the driver pegged it! Of course no compensation, alternative bus or ticket refund was given. It didn’t matter so much anyway. I made it to Chennai in time for my morning train, with bruising and swelling coming up on my face where I smashed it into a pole on impact.

The first train journey was slow. We were delayed by 4 hours, and by the time I reached Calcutta I had missed my next train by a mere 20 minutes. There wasn’t another train until the next day. In Calcutta I had a couple of options. I could either take the next day train in 3rd class, having to spend 1 hours on a wooden bench with the Indian masses, or I could pay for an upgraded ticket to 1st class. I knew there may be problems crossing into Nepal on the date I was due to arrive as it was 2 days before elections. Which were causing problems in the country as the king had overthrown the government as he didn’t think they were doing enough to curb the growing Maoist threat. The elections were seen to be a sham by all, and the Maoists were causing country wide trouble, and it was possible that the border would be closed. So seeing as I had to spend the night in Calcutta I phoned my Dad to ask him to try and find out what the border and Nepal situation would be. After a few phone calls back and forth I find out the border would be open, but there was a forced strike of all shops and buses for 7 days, so even if I made it to the border, I would have to wait there until the strike was over. I was contemplating going to Bangladesh at that point, as it’s only a few hours from Calcutta, but I really wanted to go to Nepal, so had to pay for a flight, costing me US$105 for one way, and left the next morning.

I arrived to Kathmandu without any problems and took a free taxi to a hotel with a Cuban guy I met. I was obliged to stay for 1 night in an expensive (by my standards) hotel, and was glad to be able to leave the next day to a hotel of my choice. I had previously been to Nepal in September-October of 2003 and wanted this Nepal trip to be something different from before. I also wanted to lean something that would enable me to make easy money when I eventually get back to the UK, so found a guy that gave Thai massages, and asked him whether he would teach me for a fee. He agreed on charging about £40 for 2 weeks worth of lessons. I stayed in Thamel in Kathmandu for a week, going to massage class daily. I didn’t really want to stay in the tourist hub of Thamal, but seeing as there was no public transport, and a threat of civil unrest I thought it best to stay in a well touristed area. As it turns out there was no problems with violence during the elections. There were a few bombings around the country at that time, but in remote village places.

Learning Thai massage was quite hard. I had to learn a sequence of set moves, which by the end of the course was some 100+ moves.

After my one week in Kathmandu, going to places such as Buddhist Boudanath, the Tibetan area, and Syambu temple I headed to places not many tourists go to. I first wanted to go to a place called Manikaramana, it’s a place where there’s a temple on top of a hill. They have a cable car running up there, but when I got off the bus to go up I found the price for foreigners to be extortionate, and decided not to go up, so got on another bus and headed to a beautiful traditional village called Bandipur. In Bandipur I met my gorgeous new friend, Sujan. He was the brother of the guy that owned my little guesthouse. When I arrived I expected to spend just a day in Bandipur, as beautiful as it is, I didn’t think there was much there, but I was wrong. The following day Sujan, a friend of his and myself trekked for 2 hours to Asia’s 2nd largest cave. We explored the immense cave ourselves. It was totally awesome. The trek wasn’t. The views in this mountainous place were superb, but my fitness levels are so low at present that the walking side wasn’t so enjoyable. It also didn’t help that I have knee problems, which triggered pain from walking up and down. There isn’t much to do in the evenings, and people sleep very early. After my 8pm dinner I retired to my room to read a book on the mystics and magicians of old Tibet. The next day the three of us walked round mountain passes to a Mongol village called Ramcot. Ramcot is only accessible by foot, there are no roads, no electricity, and water piped in for only 2 hours each day. Te village and people there were beautiful. Totally traditional Mongolian style mud huts. The villagers of Ramcot survive on subsistence farming, taking their produce tied on a strap round their head when they managed to produce more than they could consume. I have never been to a village quite like this before, and took the opportunity to take great photos and interact with the people, able to speak to them through Sujan and his friend.

I was sad to leave the next day. Bandipur was such a special place. So quaint, quiet and traditional. It was like taking a step back in time in rural Nepal. I was also very sad to leave Sujan. We had become close, it was obvious we liked each other very much. We were just friends though. Most people in Nepal don’t have any kind of relationship before they get married. Although Sujan was 25 and totally gorgeous he had never even kissed a girl before, so I resisted my temptations and didn’t try anything. I did tell him though if I was a local villager he would definitely be my husband, and we would spend a very happy life together.

After leaving Bandipur on the back of a pickup truck with inward facing wooden benches and too many people than the capacity really could accommodate I made my way for Gorkha. Gorkha is famous as the British recruited many soldiers for the army here after battling wit hem and being impressed by their strength and courage. There wasn’t so much to see in Gorkha, and it certainly wasn’t nice to be in a town with modern concrete buildings after spending time in beautiful Bandipur. I met a Tibetan there who was born in the area, but moved to Delhi to be a 5 star chef. We went together to see the ancient places of Gorkha. That night the guy running my hotel up graded my room as I had no water, he then asked whether he could sleep on the spare bed in my room! As if!! He asked more than once, and my answer never changed. In the end I practically had to push him out of my room and lock the door!

I didn’t stay long in Gorkha and headed next to Lumbini, Buddha’s birthplace. It was suppoed to be a 8 hour journey or so, but there wasn’t a direct bus, and I found myself in a horrible town called Narayanghat by 9pm so decided to stay the night there. I took he opportunity to watch some cable TV. Normally I wouldn’t take a room with a TV, but I underestimated how much I would be reading (seeing a there was nothing to do in the evenings), so had finished my book, and needed something to occupy my time in a busy, modern, polluted city. The next day I get on a bus heading for Lumbini. We go all of 1/2km when we stop in a line of traffic. The driver turns off his engine. We sit for more than an hour before it becomes known to us there was a road block. Caused by local people protesting against police negligence when a 12 year old girl was killed in a road accident the day before. We don’t know how long we have to wait, and a couple of the local guys I was talking to on the bus tell me it can be some time, so best we get our bags and walk. We end up walking for about 6km, fortunately I was only carrying a small backpack. We pass protesters whose methods of protest include burning tyres on the road. It smelt foul. T was madness. For 6km there was no moving traffic, just long lines of vehicles going in either direction. It takes us a while to pass it all and get to a stretch of road where vehicles were permitted. We eventually get on a small bus heading for Lumbini, but there’s no chance I could have made it that night, so stop in a town about 30km away called Butwal. Butwal is nothing special at all. There’s nothing there. That night when I was getting a late dinner of momo (Tibetan dumplings)I meet a local guy who says he has a friend that is local, but has lived as a chef in Japan for the past 20 years, he says he’ll go with me to Lumbini and take me by bike. This saved me a lot of hasstle. Public transport isn’t as good as in Nepal as it is in India.

We get to Lumbini and I find a monastery that allows guests to stay for a donation. I drop my bags, then we go off on the bike around the larger than expected site. At Lumbini different Buddhist countries have erected a temple in their country’s traditional style. We go to a few of these, they’re pretty empty. I thought this being one of the holiest Buddhist places the area would be teeming with monks and devotees, but there was hardly anyone around. We also go to the place where Buddha’s palace once stood, and the exact place of his birth. The palace is little more than a 2 foot wall of the building it once supported. There was more people in this area. My friend leaves me for the night, but not before he’s taken me out for dinner and too many drinks than I really could handle. I ended up going to bed very early, but then waking a couple of hours later. The next day I borrow a bicycle and go to temples I hadn’t yet seen. I also go to the Buddhist library and museum. Both were a disappointment. The library had only 2 cupboards of books, and about 20 in total. I stay for a couple of hours reading from the small selection. The museum contained only photos of Buddhist temples and statues from around the world. It contained no real artefacts, but only replicas. It didn’t take so long to go round. On my bike I visited Lumbini village. It was extremely poor. All houses were made out of 100% natural materials, mostly mud and bamboo. My friend came to pick me up that evening and took me back to Butwal.

I wanted to leave Butwal the next day, but the guy I met on y first night here, Santosh told me if I waited until the next day he would take me to the near by places of interest on his motorbike. The next day came and Santosh was busy. He asked whether I could stay until the following day. So stupidly I did. And again the same thing happened, he got busy and couldn’t take me. When he profusely apologised and asked whether I could wait another day I reluctantly said ok. Then the following day he took me round for 30 minutes!! 30 minutes!! I stayed in one of Nepal’s worst towns, spending my time and money, watching TV and using the internet for 30 minutes!! I left the next morning by shared taxi back to Kathmandu, the journey took 7 hours, it would have taken 10 by bus though.

Back in Kathmandu I got busy with my massage course again, but this time, instead of spending the 4 hours per day I spent in the first week I spent only 2 a day. This was due also to the fact that the massage teacher, Sushil had fallen in love with me, and thought I was his girlfriend. He kept asking me to kiss him. It pissed me off, so I hooked up with a friend I met last time in Nepal, and went exploring in the Kathmandu valley.

There are some great places in the valley, as we were on motorbike we were able to get to places tourists struggle to get to. We went to beautiful, old, traditional places, Kirtipur and Bungmati. Here I saw really old temples and village people doing their daily things.
Both were very interesting. I saw a women making a woven mat from sweet corn skin, a man carving images on a wooden door, beautiful scenery, and quiet village scenes.

Sushil, my massage teacher borrowed a motorbike from a friend and took me to Chengu Narayan, another superb, beautiful, traditional place, with ancient temples, shrines, scenery and a great atmosphere. We also travelled to nearby Bhaktipur, a traditional place with so many ancient buildings. We were just wondering around when we came across an area that had many clay artisans. I went a little crazy shopping here, buying clay incense holders, that when varnished look like they’re perfectly sculptures wood carvings. I was supposed to pay a large entrance fee to go in some places in Bhaktpur, but wasn’t willing to, and fortunately didn’t see a ticket office anyway.

During my final week in Nepal it was Hindu festival Shiva Raatri. This is the day when all of Nepal gets stoned. Shiva, amongst other things is the God of ganja. I went to the Pashupatinath with a local friend I made during my first week and we went round at night laughing at all the crazy stoned people and naked babba’s (holy men). It was interesting for a few hours, then it got too much of the same thing. Crazy young guys (only guys were that at that hour) who really need to get out more!

I was also in Nepal for Tibetan New Year. During my first week I made friends with a Tibetan lady who owned a bag shop in Tamel. She invited me to spend New Year at her home, with her family. I met up with her in Boudanath where it seems all the Tibetans of the area had come to celebrate together. It was really nice, totally pack and busy, but to see all the Tibetans with their best dresses on was priceless. We meet up, and I meet her daughter. I go back to their house and for the first time since being away I feel like I’m with a family which I have real connection to. Although I’ve been to a lot of family homes in India, they never feel like my family. This Tibetan family did. I don’t know whether it was because of their relative economic affluence, or their level of English, or their skin tones, but it was nice. I spend the night watching movies with their daughter.

To sum it up, I had a great time. I spent a total of 4 weeks in Nepal and had a totally different experience than I previously was blessed with. Nepalese people are so kind, warm and generous. I was taken to dinner so many times I don’t remember. People would go out of their way to help me, and these guys became good friends of mine. No one tried to scam me, all took to me as though we had been friends for along time. I didn’t hang out with any European travellers, as I didn’t meet any. For the 2 weeks I was out of Kathmandu I didn’t meet any foreigners at all. The guesthouse I stayed in Kathmandu during my final week was catering mostly to Chinese and Japanese guests. I stayed in a 6 room dormitory, but for the majority of the time had it to myself. I was also fortunate to meet a super cool guy Lakpha, from Lhasa, capital of Tibet. It was very interesting for me to meet him, as although I have many Tibetan friends in Nepal and India none have actually lived there. Some of my older friends did when they were young, but no one stayed after the age of 5 or so. Lakpha is half Chinese and half Tibetan, so he’s part of modern and changing Tibet. We talked long into the night about Tibetan history and how it’s changing and the Diaspora community. We concluded that it is likely the Tibetan traditions will be lost as daily more and more Chinese flood Tibet, and as the youth follow other cultures rather than their native, traditional special Tibetan.

I left Nepal with an extra backpack of shopping and a framed drawing from Sushil, and travel by bus back to India.

It takes me much longer than expected to reach the order. I completely underestimated how long it would take an ended up having to spend the night at the Nepalese side of the border, after finding the passport control guys had called it a night when I arrived. The Nepal border side, Birganj is a horrible horrible place and I’m so glad I didn’t get stuck there on the way in. Before you approach the town a thick cloud of pollution hangs heavy in the air and there’s heaps black power adjacent to the road. At first I didn’t know what it was. There was tonnes of it, then I realised it was factory waste they had dumped just outside their grounds. Whole fields were black and any standing water was a murky, putrid, cesspit of domestic waste, sewage and factory effluence. I stayed the night in the worst hotel for the past month, but it only cost 80p, so I could hardle grumble, but was glad to leave the next day to Bihar, India’s poorest state. The reason I was in Bihar was I decided to visit Bodh Gaya, the place of the famous Bodhi tree which Buddha sat and meditated under until he reached enlightenment. It took much longer to get there than expected, and I had to stay in Bihar city, Patna for the night. Bihar really is horrible. I’ve never seen as many heaps of rubbish as decaying matter as I saw in Bihar. It’s the type of place you really thank god you don’t have to spend time in.

I reached Bodh Gaya and was quite surprised at how different it was from what I expected. Lumbini (Buddha’s birthplace) was very tranquil, and the temples were in a site of natural grounds, with many open spaces and trees. Bodh Gaya on the other hand was a concrete town with many market sellers detracting from the ambience of the place. They had the same thing in Bodh Gaya, with different Buddhist countries having their own temple in their own style. Bodh Gaya was a very friendly place and for the first time in ages I was able to hang out with another whitey. I also made a Tibetan friend there, and had another friend, a Thai monk who I sat next to on the bus from Patna to Bodh Gaya. Behind the special Bodhi tree a small temple has been erected, and the gounds around are littered with small shrines. Bodh Gaya had a lot more tourists compared to Lumbini. Here were big Buddhist tour groups from Sri Lanka, China, Japan and Korea. I stayed only 2 nights before leaving to Varanassi where I found out a couple of bombs had exploded the day before.

I leave by early morning bus to Varanassi to meet up with an English friend of mine, Lesley, who I met in Tamil Nadu as I introduced her to an organisation she spent 3 months working for. Lesley and I had become quite close and would meet and talk often when she was in Tamil Nadu. We spent 5 days together in India’s holist town, walking up and down the River Ganges, watching funeral ceremonies, bodies burning, and being dumped whole into the river. It was Holi festival when we were there. I’ve heard differing stories about the relevance/meaning of Holi, but that’s now expected. If you ask 10 Indians the same question, you’ll get 10 different answers, and all tellers swearing his is the right version. Anyway, I heard Holi is the celebration is the end of winter, and they celebrate by throwing paint at each other. Lesley and I went to one of the many market stalls selling paint, water guns and rubber balloons. If we were going to be attacked, we would be ready. The day of the festival was mad. We were not able to leave our guesthouse during the peak hours as the local lads take it as an opportunity to gang up on the tourists, especially women, soak you thoroughly with paint and have a go at feeling you up as well. So we had war with our neighbouring hotel from balconies. You mix the paint yourself from a metallic powder. Our neighbours made it really strong, and had imported supersoakers. We completely lost against them, but by the end of it all of us involved were soaked in bright pink, green and blue paint. Lesley and I went out for a walk when it was supposed to be over. The scenes in the street s were made. I think it probably was best we weren’t out with the locals at the time. Indians go made during festival time, especially the young guys. All people were covered head to toe in paint, and also a silver or gold paint they put on themselves. I got some great photos.

I left Varanassi on the 10th March to make my long journey back to Chennai. I said my goodbyes to Lesley and others I met there and took a train for what I thought would be 40 hours, but it got held up, and ended up taking 50 hours back to Chennai.

I had very mixed feelings about getting back, it wasn’t helped by my housemate and ex-colleague Terry who met me in Chennai for some intense cinema viewing before he took me by motorbike 6 hours back home.