"Big India"

And to think in Australia we're worried about cracking 36 million population by 2050. India - a smaller (yes, more fertile) land mass, has just hit the 1.2 billion figure.


As reported in today's The Hindu:

India’s population is now pegged at 1.21 billion, an increase of more than 181 million in the last 10 years, according to the provisional 2011 Census report released on Thursday. 

The population comprising 623.7 million males and 586.5 million females is almost equal to the combined population of the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan put together.

The population has increased by more than 181 million during the decade 2001-2011, the report said. The growth rate in 2011 is 17.64 per cent in comparison to 21.15 per cent in 2001.

The 2001-2011 period is the first decade — with exception of 1911-1921 — which has actually added lesser population compared to the previous decade, Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner of India C. Chandramauli said in the presence of Home Secretary G. K. Pillai.

Among the states and Union territories, Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state with 199 million people and Lakshadweep the least populated at 64,429. The combined population of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra is bigger than that of the U.S. The highest population density is in Delhi’s northeast dstrict (37,346 per sq km) while the lowest is in Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh (just one per sq km). 

Child sex ratio in 2011 is 914 female against 1,000 male — the lowest since Independence. 

According to the data, literates constitute 74 per cent of the total population aged seven and above and illiterates form 26 per cent. The literacy rate has gone up from 64.83 per cent in 2001 to 74.04 per cent in 2011 showing an increase of 9.21 per cent.

These figures just blow my mind!

The Morning Ritual

We are lucky to be located where we are in Delhi, right near the beautiful Lodhi Gardens, which is a huge park complete with tombs and a mosque. The mornings are generally quite cool and thousands of locals converge to Lodhi Gardens to take their morning exercise, whether it be walking, yoga, jogging, badminton or cricket.

VSO has arranged a yoga instructor for our time in Delhi - you just need to be up at 5.30am to make it to the 6am class. I have gone most days and have really enjoyed it although I've been surprised at the difference in yoga here to other places where I've practiced. It seems to be much more like exercise, less like meditation. And it also incorporates "laughing yoga" which you can hear across the park. One can't help but laugh to hear others doing it and we've certainly had our share of passers by who have stopped to laugh with (at?) us. All you do is bend down, come up with your arms open wide and laugh the whole time. Repeat that five or ten times and you're sure to have a great day!

Which Delhi?

Delhi is actually a bunch of cities that has morphed into one big city. Populated since the 6th century BC, it has seen Mughal emperors in Old Delhi and when the Brits took over, they set up a new city south of that called New Delhi which is the current capital. Practically speaking though it is all one big huge city with loads of people.

New Delhi is where we are staying, right by Lodhi Gardens. South or New Delhi is well planned with wide tree lined streets, embassies, hotels and pretty much where the well-heeled in Delhi reside.

Up in Old Delhi, things are quite chaotic. It is a riot of colour, sounds and smells with centuries old buildings, narrow laneways and bundles of cables providing electricity to all of the residences. Turning a few corners off a main road can open up a whole new world, different markets and streets specialising in wedding sarees or paranthes. You just never know what you're going to find. And of course, there are crowds and crowds of people, particularly on a Saturday.

We had one of current volunteers take us on a bit of a tour around Old Delhi today which included rickshaw rides down narrow laneways, lots of food, a Jain temple, a mosque and of course the spice market. I can't think of anywhere else in the world where you would find so many chillies all in one spot. It is impossible to walk through and not sniffle and sneeze and cough. Even the men who work there have their nose and mouth covered.

Holi colour explosion

After nine days in Bhubaneswar, I was to board the Rajdhani Express for Delhi to meet the other new volunteers and begin our three week (or so) In Country Orientation course. This time the train took 28 hours and for the last six or so hours I was the source of amusement for an eight year old boy which I suspect was more fun for him than me.

The purpose of ICO is to learn language (Hindi) and run through many of procedures, policies and practicalities of living in a different country and being involved with an NGO. The other part is the bonding of the volunteers and exploring a new city together. The group is currently nine and I believe we will be joined by "the man" next week, the rest of the group is female.

This first weekend coincides with the Indian Holi Festival - the festival of colour. All over the city people are covered in coloured powders and paints and throwing water balloons and squirting water pistols. Today we were meant to go to the home of a volunteer here in Delhi to 'play Holi' but the metro doesn't run 'til this afternoon. Last night was a beautiful traditional concert at The Habitat Centre which happens to be next door to our hostel. We watched some enchanting musical and dance performances and I am now inspired to investigate some dance classes in Bhubaneswar - that hip action is fantastic!

The Network

The most important thing when moving to a new place is developing a social network. The great thing about the volunteer community is that in many places this is instantly created and the volunteers who've been here a while are all eager to show the newbies the ropes which is very necessary in a place like Bhubaneswar.


For a start, there's not really any maps - nothing reliable anyway I'm told. It is a big sprawling town and after getting around for a few days I am still as confused about where I am as when I first arrived. Forget addresses, street signs and landmarks - you really need to know where you're going or at least have someone take you the first couple of times until you get the hang of it.


I was lucky after meeting Ashley in Berhampur, she connected me to the volunteers in Bhubaneswar and it turned out to be a relatively productive week with Paul taking me out to a dance festival and a ride around town, Evans helping me try to register at the foreign office, clothes shopping and various other practical necessities.


This was topped off by a weekend at Gopalpur-on-sea with group of volunteers and expats. I wasn't expecting it to be so soon that I'd be swimming and relaxing at the beach - albeit an Indian seaside resort and swimming with clothes on. I'll take any opportunity I can while I'm here to cool off. Gopalpur is a really nice and quiet seaside town and one I'm sure I'll be back to and write more about later.

Early days

Arriving in Bhubaneswar I was struck first by the warm air and dust. Sujata, my new colleague, was there to meet me at the station and the auto-rickshaw managed to squeeze three of us and all my luggage to take me to my temporary home at the CYSD which is an NGO with training and accommodation facilities.


Sujata told me that I will be collected at 7am the following morning to go on a field trip. She told me more than that but that is all I could comprehend at that point in time. Kelis, the guy here who has been asked to take care of me said breakfast is at 7.30am and offered to bring me tea at 6.45 which sounded good. So I am down at reception at 7am but don't get collected until 8.15am - in the meantime I had more tea (fantastic) and breakfast (curry). Then I get collected in a big 4WD with a group of people, then we get more people and then we're off. So there's 10 of us in this 4WD and another 4 in another car in front. At 11am we stop for what I thought was early lunch and had curry and this gorgeous milk cake. At around 1pm we stop for lunch. I'm already full - at this point I've had two curry meals but I can't offend so I order a vegetarian thali and each some of it. I am absolutely amazed at the appetites these people have, they can put away serious amounts of food. I have also started to eat with my hand. It is difficult getting used to using my right hand and really quite a weird experience but I have to do it. One of the delegates complimented me on my ability which was nice since it was my first day of trying to eat like that.
 
Then after lunch we finally arrive at the place in Behampur where we are meant to be going to visit an RTI clinic. There is another vol there so we had a good chat but she is leaving in two weeks. She has put me in touch with another vol here in Bhub which is great. Anyway we sat around on the floor for a few hours and they talked about the RTI Coalition (where I'm working) - mostly in Hindi or Oriya and little bits in English. I had a tiny bit of an idea what was going on. Then afterwards we went to a nearby slum colony where we sat on plastic sheeting in the middle of the road for the next meeting where some of the locals came to talk to us about their experiences with RTI. About 20 or so cows walked through and there was one dog who took offence to the cows so the people were giving the dog a hard time - no one is mean to cows! Then we get back in the car and go to Gopalpur - a seaside town. By now it is 7pm and we walk onto the beach and get our feet wet and someone brings us coffee. Then we get back in the car to go home. Nishi tells me we'll be home in three hours but in about two hours we stopped for dinner - yes, more curry but at this point I was able to eat something, then another three hours more after that to get home. I arrived here about  12.15am. So that was day one.


The temperature here seems to rival Sydney that week of the heatwave and it is going to get much hotter in April and May.


On Tuesday afternoon Nishi picked me up on his bike to take me to the office where I will be working. Gobinda is the guy who runs YDF which is the NGO the RTI Secretariat will now be based, it rotates between the member NGOs each year so it has just moved to YDF which turns out to be good as it is nearer the apartment where I'll be living. Gobinda runs me through things and loads up my laptop with heaps of docs on RTI and the Coalition, then the Jharkand delegation from yesterday arrives so I sit with them for a while for another session then I'm called to a meeting with another bunch of people to talk about mobilising youth against corruption where there was also a journalist. At this meeting they tried to talk in English but reverted to Oriya a bit so it was hard to get the gist.

The other thing I should tell you about is Kelis, my guy here at CYSD. See I am quite a novelty here and am usually just stared at but sometimes groups of women say hello and giggle together. I think Kelis is proud to be in charge of me and is doing everything he can to make me comfortable. Yesterday he came to my room to tell me about breakfast - he was concerned I hadn't arrived home the previous night but I told him we got back late. Whenever he comes to the door, he walks into the room and curiously surveys my things - all my undies were hanging on the line above my bed yesterday but what can you do. On the first night I had had a rum when I arrived and had the bottle sitting on the table so he asked me about that - it has been hidden ever since. I have a balcony but sneak around to smoke on it. This morning he came at 7.15am and woke me up to tell me that the bathrooms were busy and if I wanted to use them I might go downstairs and find another one. He then offered me tea (which is a huge privilege - no one else gets that service) so since I was now awake I thought that would be nice. So about half an hour later he  brought it to my room (I was still in my PJs) and decided he would come in and sit on my bed and talk to me while I drank it. He told me breakfast would be at 9am. Then at 8.30am he came again to tell me breakfast was ready so I got up and had a shower to get ready. Then at 12pm he came again with tea (again he sat on my bed while I drank it) and I said I needed to find Reeta to get on the internet so he waited while I got ready. Literally stood in my tiny room and watched everything I did until I walked out with him. So I feel very much public property here - there is no harm meant, everyone is just very curious but it is going to take a little getting used to.

I think after here then three weeks in Delhi I'll be very happy to move into my small apartment.

Delhi Bound

It was great to finally arrive in Delhi after a long flight via Dubai and a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing about when I would actually leave. See my visa came through a few days before I left but some of the other volunteers had delays which meant the In Country Orientation (ICO) was now to be delayed by two weeks. Sick of sitting around Sydney I managed to arrange to go anyway. At the very least, a few weeks in Delhi to shop and sightsee would be a great way to kill some time.

Alas, my hopes of extending my ridiculously long holiday were thwarted by the reality that I am here in India to work so after a day of acclimatisation in Delhi, I was on the train for the journey across the sub-continent to Bhubaneswar, Orissa, my new home.


I was pleasantly surprised by the train journey. I mean it is India and the distances are huge but for a 26 hour train trip it was very comfortable - bed, linen, air conditioning, constant delivery of food and tea and water, a powerpoint even! Sharing a compartment with three middle-aged Indian men who snore extremely loudly was only manageable with ear plugs and headphones. One needs a large selection of entertainment material on these journeys - books, music and music.