Episode 10

On Wednesday evening, I started feeling a little uneasy after our rural visit. That uneasiness quickly evolved into that famous Indian sickness that strikes down most travelers at some point. I finally got what everyone warned me about... They say Montezuma’s revenge is bad, but let me tell you, Mother India is far more revengeful. After a horrible night of paying my dues to the porcelain god, I woke up exhausted and fluidless. My wonderful auntie and uncle (what you call your host family in India) took great care of me all day on Thursday, and truly made me feel as if I was their own. I really hated having to stay home, but it was nice to finally have a quiet moment to digest all that had happened in the last 2 weeks. Quiet moments are few and far between here, but once you finally get one, you begin to realize the immensity of this experience. I'm sure there will be other quiet moments, where what I think just happened meets reality, and crystallizes into a beloved memory.

I woke up on Friday feeling MUCH better, and was ready to embark on yet another interesting day. First, we visited one of the urban slums in Chandigarh to evaluate one of the women’s reproductive health programs. Sadly, the program was most definitely not working… The program set out to improve maternal and infant health, push for institutional deliveries, and provide pre and ante natal care. After speaking with a number of pregnant women, we found out that many of the women were not having institutional deliveries and had little to no knowledge of reproductive health care. Yet, the most alarming thing was that not a single woman knew about family planning methods. A program meant for reproductive health, and not a single woman knew about family planning. It was really quite tragic to see hundreds of little children running around, playing in trash, with no shoes or pants, no one watching them, and putting whatever they could find in their mouths. Many of the mothers had six or so children, and were yet again pregnant because the six of their children were girls and they were not going to stop until they got a boy. Another tragic reality… 4,5,6 little children with barely enough to eat, no chance of education, and born into a slum with very little hope for the future. What does prenatal or infant care matter if you don’t have family planning? Here was a day where you saw the crux of the perpetuation of poverty and the sad realities of gender inequity.

After the slum visit, we met with the director of the NGO, who really put everything in perspective. He was very aware that some of his programs were not working and told us the main constraint to their improvement, the government. He was a really inspirational person, had this great critical eye, and an uncanny ability to see the bigger picture. I really enjoyed our visit with him.

We then hopped on a train and began our trek back to Delhi. I awoke from a fairly deep nap on the train to the hustle and shouting of about 10 young boys ages 8-16. They had these enormous bags over their shoulders and were scouring the train for any left cookies, water bottles, tea packets, and of course belongings forgotten passengers. If you happen to be one of those unlucky people to leave a purse or cell phone on the train, consider it gone... The street kids live at the train station, and like vultures wait for most of the passengers to get off so they can pick up any left over loot and sell it on the streets. A rude awakening… Welcome back to Delhi. Yet for all its madness, I was glad to be back. Like any other city, Delhi has a pulse, a character; it’s a big playground that I am eager to continue exploring.