27 March 2008

It is as well that I body clock is still set to NZ time. I set the alarm on my cellphone, only to discover that it doesn’t go off if the lid is open. Plus, I’d set the local time wrong by about 20 minutes. (That will teach me to cross about four different time zones in two days, your brain tends to turn to mush.)
I waited in the lobby for Sue and we headed out in the taxi at about 6 am. The taxi was what looked like an old Morris. (Drove like one too). One thing you learn very soon after you arrive in India is that the Road rules are somewhat different to New Zealand. The basic idea is that you give way to bigger vehicles and you toot at everything that gets in your way. Other than that, it pays to drive on the same side of the road as everyone else, … most of the time. There are Traffic lights. Mostly on the more busy roads. Its amazing how many people you can fit onto a motorbike. I think I counted 5 at one point.
The streets we travelled down are really dirty. There’s rubbish everywhere. Walls surrounding the parks were broken down. It looks like they haven’t been touched since the English occupation. Still, I guess that will all change for the Games.
A fairly major area of the route was blocked off by the army. We wondered what that was until we drove past what looked like a main entrance. It was the Chinese Embassy.
Being this early in the morning there wasn’t a lot of traffic until we got to the train station. Then there were taxis, bikes, buses, and wall to wall people. It’s the main form of transport for India. Porters were quick to arrive at the taxi. Sue negotiated the fee before they took the bags. I pity the chap that took my bags. One alone was about 20 KG. He put both of them on his head. The other chap had Sue’s bags on his head and off we went. It was a case of ‘Follow those bags’ because that’s about all we saw through the crowd. I’m really glad they knew where they were going. There was about 12 platforms. We were heading for platform 11. The porters took us to the platform but we couldn’t see any indicator that we were in the right place. When we asked them they indicated that it could be either this on or 10. As you can imagine, that didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the situation. Sure enough, the train came to platform 10, not 11.
The porters put our bags on the train in our exact seat numbers, and counted them out for us to assure us that nothing was missing. About twenty minutes later the train moved out of the station. On the trip you are treated to a long breakfast. First there’s tea or coffee. Then comes the cornflakes, followed up by the main course. An Indian dish. (Quite nice). Along the railway tracks there are clusters of … well what could you call them, … huts, houses, tents, … It’s when you see this poverty you get a clearer picture of what life is like in India. Only 30% of the population live on more than US$1 per day.
We travelled through the greater farm land area of the Punjab. Its such a big country. The distance is obscured by a haze that’s partly dust and partly pollution. As the day moves on so the haze lifts a little. You see many little hut looking things in the shape of a cone. These are carefully crafted piles of poo. They have been dried out and stacked to provide fuel for fires. There are some real creatives in the poo stacking business. Some of the stacks looked really well formed, others just looked like they were thrown together.
In this district there are chimney stacks everywhere. These are for making bricks. A lot of food is grown here for most of India. One half of the year is wheat, the other half is rice. (Thats the monsoon season.)
We arrived in Ludhiana about 11am. We were warned a few minutes before arriving that the station was coming up. They also told us that it would only be a 3 minute stop. So we scrambled for the door and waited for the train to stop. Fortunately there were plenty of people to give us a helping hand.
As with the station in Delhi, there were porters to help with the baggage as soon as we got of the train. This time, however, Our host Khilandeep was at the terminal to receive us. So we waited a few minutes for him to get to us, then the porters picked up our gear and off we went.
This is where I saw my first beggar close up. I have to say it was quite disturbing to see a man right in front of me with no hands, asking for money. If I was on my own, I think I would have struggled to think what to do. (I’m still pondering that one)
Khilandeep took us to our hotel. A quaint, very Indian hotel close to the office. Its called Hotel Neelgiri. He worked out the details with the hotel staff and took us up to the rooms.
We talked there for a while and then headed of to the office. Now there’s an eye opener. We arrived at this building that looks much like all the shops in the area, except there is this enormous Natcoll billboard on the side. The office is on the second floor. There are three main areas to the setup. Khilandeep calls his business ‘Can Able’. One area is set aside for teaching English as a second language, another is the office. This is where Khilandeep, his sister and brother in law work and where people come to talk about emigrating. The third area is going to be the main classroom area and reception for the Foundation course. That’s currently being decorated at the moment.
We were introduced to the family members and offered a drink. There are two office boys. Their job is to … well in the cinema world I suppose you would call them gophers. A lot of the time they are sitting around watching life go by. They don’t say much but they respond when asked to do something. We were also introduced to the couch. I say introduced because, as I found out from Sue, he couch is where you seem to spend a lot of the day. We sat and waited. There’s all sorts of things going on around you, phone calls, people walking in and out, others talking. Its quite fun just watching really.
Lunch here is around 2.30pm. You can expect to finish in the office around 6pm.
We had a look around the classroom. Khilandeep was showing us where everything was going to go. For our first look, the renovations were a bit chaotic. There was paint, dust, newspapers, workers, … I’m sure you get the idea. Khilandeep assured us that the work would be finished by Tuesday. Hmmmmm. Well they do work long hours, and they work through the weekend, so I guess we will see.
We went back to the hotel for tea. By this stage my body clock was telling me ‘Why aren’t you in bed, snoring your head off’. We chatted for a while over drinks and nibbles. 8.30 came and I hit my pillow and was out like a light. That was until around 3am. Then I was wide awake thinking, this is going to be a long day.