Wow, what a whirlwind trip. I can’t believe it flew by so quickly. I just got back into Delhi after our team’s eleven-day research trip. Alright, I think before I launch into all of the super surreal parts of the trip I’ll give a brief (as brief as possible) overview of the project. Basically what the work in our trip entailed was surveying what are called “Sarpanches” and “Pradhans” in the states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Both Sarpanches and Pradhans (the same thing but the states have different names) are essentially local government positions similar to city mayors in the states. The Sarpanch/Pradhan is the head of the village council and leads/make development and policy decisions for villagers in India. In 1992 this entire system (of decentralized and local government within the state) was formalized in the Panchayat Raj Act. Also in this act was included a 33% reservation or quota for women for the position of Sarpanch/Pradhan. What our study is doing is interviewing both men and women in these positions to gauge whether the reservation has effectively empowered women.
So! On to the trip! Our first night we stayed in Chandigarh, which is the only ‘planned’ city in India. It serves as the capital of both Haryana and Punjab and is a really clean and fun city. We stayed in a government guest hotel which was absolutely beautiful. Here I thought I would be sleeping on dirt floors. This place was absolutely majestic. Other notable parts about Chandigarh were Sukna Lake, which I wish I would have taken a picture of. The first morning in Chandigarh, Kavita and I got up really early and went for a walk around it as the sun was coming up. The park surrounding the lake was really nice and the sun was rising over the hills behind the lake. Believe it or not, more intriguing was my conversation with Kavita. She is a completely brilliant woman, totally strong, and aware, and yet perfectly traditional. Her and Pareena met at the IAFFE conference several years back and they are the most adorable best friend couple.
Maybe our second day in Chandigarh (we stayed two days) Diksha, Shiva and Himanchu took Dot, Katie and I to “Rock Garden”, which is the COOLEST sculpture garden, made out of only recycled materials. Ok, I’ll back up a bit. Shiva (16) and Himanchu (14) are Kavita’s children. They are incredible. Completely the most kind and loving people also goofy, fun, outgoing, talkative. I have fallen completely in love with them. Diksha Di (24) is also fabulous! She is Kavita’s niece and is beyond description. She is currently working on her MBA in Bangalore and spent the earlier part of the summer interning for TATA motors if anyone is familiar. Diksha has the most funloving soul in existence. She has zero inhibitions and I would be shocked to ever see her without a genuine smile. Her combined with Shiva and Himanchu absolutely electrify any situation. So back to the Rock Garden…totally surreal. It was huge and basically a giant playground/maze. If you can picture an Indian style Rivendale (Lord of the Rings) you are getting close to understanding Rock Garden. Later we went to a urbanite paradise called Sector 17. Loads of Indian hipster clothing stores, coffee shops, book stores, etc. Hanging out with these guys was the best. Alright I need to move a long with the trip because I’m only two days in!
From Chandigarh we went to Una (in Himachal Pradesh). We stayed one night. There were loads of roaches in the bathroom of our hotel room. Katie and Dot were terrified. I killed the roaches with my shoe and then ants carried their dead bodies away. Nuff said.
From Una we went to Kullu! Kavita had gotten us a cabin which we really knew nothing about except that it was a “Forest Guest House.” So, here’s the thing about India. No one uses maps, or ever knows where they are going. When they don’t know where they are, they stop and ask. We did this for 8 hours!! It was dark and we had been driving up a mountain for a LONG time. We finally got OUT of the car and started walking. It was gorgeous out and with our team, nothing was ever tasking, always fun and lighthearted. So we walked…and we found the cabin! It was really beautiful but we were all tired so we just cleaned up and went to sleep having really no idea where we were. I woke up the next morning quite early and stepped outside of the cabin to one of the most amazing views I have EVER witnessed. Giant wooded mountains and valleys (the river that runs through the area is the Biyas River), towering conifers, it was breathtaking. We got to stay here for four nights, each day traveling to different cities to work.
The people of Himachal Pradesh are unlike any others I have met. They are tranquil and their tranquility is contagious. They are uniquely communal in their work and exert overflowing amounts of kindness. We met one woman who was the Pradhan in a neighboring village. We had hiked to her home which was literally teetering on the side of the mountain, and the honor that she felt by our visited was overpowering. She seemed close to tears as we sat and chatted, sipping chai and gazing out at the ridged landscape.
Moving on, our last day at the Forest Guest House we took more of a day off, caught up on some different things and that night Himanchu was bound and determined to have a bonfire. After dinner he got it started and we all joined him around the blaze. There is this thing that Indians have with singing…they do it ALL the time. So of course we had to sing around the bonfire. Now, I have no problem with this because I LOVE to sing, but it just so happens that right now Himanchu, Shiva and Diksha are all OBSESSED with the song Rockstar by Nickelback. So we sang Rockstar… while dancing in a circle…around a bonfire…. on top of a mountain in the Himalayas. I haven’t mentioned yet Vickas and Subhash. They were the final members of our team, both Ph. D students at Rohtak University where Kavita works. Subhash is adorably sweet though he doesn’t speak much English and Vickas… well Vickas is Vickas. He is brilliant, and I have to admit, quite fun to torment. At first he comes off as kind of an Eeyore, but later I realized he was more lighthearted like the rest of the group. So after Rockstar we played a game where we went around and each person had to sing a song, when they stopped, the next person had to start a new song that started with the phonetic sound the last song left off on. Of course all of the songs were in Hindi, but we did our best to play along anyway. :P
This blog is getting unbearably long so I will quickly sum up the rest of the trip, even though it will mean leaving out our day trip to Manali (snow capped mountains, lots of drugs, hippi capital of the world). From Kullu we headed south for the first time on the trip, to Mandi. In Mandi we stayed at another guest house behind which there were apparently five wild tigers that come our regularly and prey on domestic (not stray) dogs. From Mandi we went to Bilaspur stayed two nights and and from Bilaspur we went to Yamuna Nagar. Whew. There is so much more…food, music, Hindi, people. For the details you’ll just have to hit me up when I get back to the states.
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