LKG

I realise that all of my posts since coming to India have been about trips, functions and celebrations so I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you a little about some of the work that we do here at Devnar. Living and working in the same place means the the lines between what feels like work and what feels like fun and games feels very blurred. The kids will be up and knocking on our door expecting a chat (and sweet treats) from 7.30 am onwards and, as conversation is central to the students' learning of English, this means that this is the informal start of the working day. 

The real school day starts at 9.45 with an assembly followed by seven 45 minute long lessons with breaks for snacks and lunch. Classes end at around 4pm but, as most of the students live in the school, this is only half way though the day for us. The rest of the day is spent chatting to the kids, playing games, singing songs which is great fun (draining but fun) and often doesn't feel like working at all. 

I thought that in this post I would try and explain how Lottie and I teach LKG; the Kindergarden class of around 14 students aged between 4 and 7 years old. We take this class everyday at 11.30 for a class called 'Activities'- this entails getting the kids to complete a number of practical activities to improve their sensory and problem solving skills. Sometimes we sing songs or give the kids some toys (which is met with delighted cried of 'Bombalu!' (Toys!') from the students), but most of the time we will give each student a basket containing a sensory task for them to complete. These include a basket with beads that need to be fed onto a shoe lace, towers of shapes that need to be placed onto a central spike in size order, plastic shapes that slot into each other to create a chain as well as a big basket full of plastic animals that are felt and then identified. 

While these tasks may sound very simple, for the young visually impaired students, they can be a real challenge especially when the majority of the class members have very limited sight- if any. The difficulties levels of these activities are significantly heightened by the language barrier. Children do an awful lot of their learning by watching what their peers do and copying them especially when they see some kind of action rewarded, however, our students can't see what each other are doing. To someone with perfect vision who has also been watching their classmates complete basket after basket, it might seem instinctive to thread the beads onto the lace without having to be directly told to by the teacher, however, we will often find that a student doesn't know how to proceed when they are handed these activities. 

This means that these students need us to sit with them individually, take their hands and place the lace and beads in either one and then try and guide them into completing the task a few times before allowing them to attempt it independently. Sometimes this is enough for the student to understand what they have to do to complete the task, but often it is not. The LKG students are still developing their ability to perceive distance and force meaning that, even if they know that the lace is meant to go through the bead, they will often sit there jabbing the end of the lace into thin air as they struggle to co-ordinate their actions without sight or, alternatively, they will locate the hole in the bead but not understand the need to push the lace through. 

We have similar problems with the wooden shapes that slot onto a central spike. While nearly all of the students can place the blocks into the spike within a minute or so, only half of them understand that, for the activity to be complete, they need to go in size order. In an attempt to overcome this problem we will place the blocks in the order they should be then take the students hand and make them feel the completed shape before asking them to replicate it from the beginning. This has had a few successes, but the children's short attention spans and the fact they are used to doing it in another way has meant that this is quite a challenging task. 

As I mentioned, with limited language skills on both sides, it is difficult for us and the students to over come these hurdles but slowly and surely they make improvements each week. When one of the children who struggles with the wooden shape task shouts 'MAM FINISH' and we see that the shapes are in order there is an immense sense of pride for both us and the student once they sense our reaction. It takes an awful long time and requires more patience then I ever thought I could dedicate to wooden triangles but it's so rewarding. 

LKG waiting between exams 

This week has been an odd one in that there have been exams for all grades before the holidays that start on Monday. It has meant that Lottie and I have been 'off timetable' and therefore searching for ways to make ourselves useful around the school. LKG has been where we have found ourselves most days this week, helping Anna Teacher conduct their exams. 

As far as exams go, LKG's are pretty relaxed. One at at time the students - who sit quietly on their little chairs- are called up to the desk and then asked a series of questions (the subject of which vary depending on the day.) On Monday, Lottie and I took them for their Activities exam. A few weeks ago we had been asked to draft an exam paper which was then checked by the teacher and principle to make sure it was suitable. We had thought we had been quite kind with the paper, however the children found it more of a challenge than we had expected. The questions included asking the children to 'put eight beads on the string', 'slot five plastic shapes together and count them' and 'Which one is the elephant?' (after being giving 4 toy animals to examine). While most students could thread the beads, slot the shapes and identify the animals, most didn't understand that we asked their to be a certain number of beads or shapes.

Lottie conducting Sri Lehka's Activities Exam 

A problem we often encounter with LKG is that they learn primarily by repetition. This means that they only understand questions if they are posed in the exact same way they have been before and that, if you haven't been asking them to thread specific numbers of beads for the last month, they will just go ahead and thread them all like normal. This had been a complete oversight of ours which became more and more apparent as we attended the other LKG exams throughout the week. Each subject, be it Maths, English, or listing things had chanting and repetition as it's sound foundation. The children would come up one by one and shout the numbers 1-20, numbers 1-10 backwards, counting up in 10s, spelling numbers, the 1 times table and 2 times tables with such ease that, in some cases, we weren't even giving time to ask the students for the next question- they just answered automatically because that's the order they had been taught to chant in. 

One the one hand this is great because it shows a great ability to remember- the kids really can count to 100 if they have to, and spell the numbers and say them backwards- as well as a good grasp of basic numbers, but on the other hand it means that the students are rarely able to answer questions they aren't prepared for. 

Despite this and considering the age of the students, it is clear that these children are remarkable young people. Their ability to work out that questions can be asked in numerous ways will come with time as they progress through the school, as will their problem solving abilities. Their exam results were brilliant and I am sure that these students are as bright as any other LKG student who happened to have perfect vision. What I am also sure of is that these students are wonderfully happy and hilarious kids who will not let pesky beads, laces and wooden blocks get in the way of them having giggles and just being normal, fun-loving kids. 

Birthdays, Walks and Saree Celebrations

This past weekend, like every weekend I have had since arriving at Devnar, was a busy one. Three functions in one day is a record for me so I thought it was worth while noting down what we got up to. 

Saturday was the Birthday of Bharavi's (our country host) grandson who was turning one. This meant a large function was held at a swanky hotel in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. A car came to pick us up from the end of Mayurimarg and we set off to LVP to pick up two other Project Trust volunteers (Anna and Jos) who work at the Eye Institute teaching the nurses there English. Having not been to many babies birthday parties in England, I wasn't completely sure what to expect from the function; I guessed family, balloons, food and possibly some form of entertainment. I was right with all of these predictions, however, their scale was not quite what I imaged. There were balloons, but rather than there being a few of them dotted around the room they covered the ceiling, pillars of the function room and were arched around the entrance. There were also very large cardboard cut-outs of the adorable baby Vivaan stood on balloon covered pillars around the room- some of him alone and others of him being held by his parents. There was also a stage complete with Winne the Pooh backdrop and sound system ready for the ventriloquist who to form the basis of the event's entertainment. Much to our delight there was also a full buffet with a pasta salad starter (Lottie nearly cried with happiness at this).  The room soon filled up with more members of Bharavi's family than I could ever hope to remember the names of. It was lovely to see so many people come together from all over the city, country and world just to be together as a family to celebrate. Kindness seems to fun in their family and everyone we were introduced were eager to make sure we had settled in the city, make sure our health was okay and had many words of wisdom and advice ready to share. Along with it being lovely to meet all these new people, we were also so happy to see Anna and Jos. We haven't seen any of the other volunteers since our stay at the guest house exactly a month ago so, naturally, we had a lot of catching up to do about the past four weeks. 

The Hyderabuddies

Just a few members of Bharavi's family

Having stuff our stomachs with naan breads, butter chicken curry, pasta salad and an embarrassing amount of ice cream it was time for the car to take us all home. This proved to be a very comical trip through the city as Anna and Jos had decided to take a pillar of the blue and white balloons to use as decoration in their hostel room. Lottie, having a fear of balloons that she had been battling all day, took a seat in the boot of the car while the remaining three of us sat across the back seats covered in a sea of blue and white plastic. It is not uncommon for people to try and sell us things while we are stopped in traffic but, for some unknown reason, on this day the only item that people tried to sell us were large Winne the Pooh balloons which made for some very confused looks from the balloon sellers- many of whom didn't seem to know whether or not to approach us or, if to, how to go about it when we were already had more than enough in the way of party decorations. 

This being an all day event, Lottie and I spent the evening relaxing in the courtyard preparing for Sunday.

Sunday was World Sight Day and, to mark this, Grishma (Dr Goud's daughter) had spent months preparing a walk to raise awareness about how 80% of cases of blindness can be prevented and to show Hyderabad about the amazing work Devnar does for it's students as well as how inspiring they are. 

This event meant a 4.30am wake up for Lottie and I meaning we were hauling ourselves out of bed at the clock struck midnight back home in England. While the students walked up Mayurimarg to get onto a couple of coaches that were waiting for them, Lottie and I were bundled into the mini bus along with a few of the students, Padma, and a drum kit. When we arrived the venue did seem slightly empty and sleepy (as you might imagine Necklace road to look at 6.30) but as the buses of children rolled up people started to turn up in great numbers. Grishma had arranged for a special guest to attend the event. His name is Ram Charan and is apparently a very famous Tollywood actor. His arrival was met with a swarm of photographers meaning we didn't get to see him until they had been asked to part to let him say a few words to the audience. This was then followed by a few song by some of the students and the older boys dancing (they had learnt the dances from Ram Charan's latest movie only the day before and were excellent- as always). Some of the students have also been spending the last few evenings creating some art work for the actor. One evening Lottie and I had helped trace the outlines of some pictures of the actors which were then marked with Braille dots so the children could paint between the lines to make these amazing high-contrast-effect paintings.

Dr Goud and Ram Charan saying a few words 

Selfies 

The boys meeting one of their heroes 

Following this we were all handed blindfolds and invited to walk up and down Necklace Road for one kilometre with the children. I am proud to say that I did not peek but I do have to admit that it wasn't a pleasant experience in the sense that I felt completely lots when not holding on to Lottie even though there were loads of students around and a number of volunteers who were making sure we didn't veer off into the road. It had the desired effect of making us more aware of how the students at Devnar, as well as blind people everywhere, live their day to day lives as well as highlighting how fantastic the achievements of these kids are. 

After a number of photo shoots for the event's photographers, newspapers as well as people who just wanted photos with me and Lottie for the novelty of it (including the Hyderabad Police), we were bundled back into the school bus to go back to the school. 

As we jumped out of the bus we were approached by one of the teachers who asked if we were coming to the function that afternoon. Confused, Lottie and I said we didn't know about the function but did want to come so quickly asked Padma for permission (we took the distracted head wobble as a yes despite how disconcertingly similar it looks to someone shaking their head) and soon found ourselves in a very crammed Auto. We managed to fit 6 full grown women and one child into the back of the Auto designed for three passengers. I drew the short straw and spent the 40 minute journey sat in the baggage rack with the child, hugging my knees. Within 5 minutes my legs were completely asleep and I couldn't move them at all. The roads here are a little scary wherever you go and whatever you are in but I hadn't feared for my safety at any point before this one. There was clearly more weight on the right side of the Auto meaning I was holding my breath involuntarily every time we took a sharp right turn or hit a bump in the road as I was convinced it would topple and I would be done for.    

Me. Terrified. 

Luckily we made it to Radika's rooftop apparently to rest for a while before attending the function. It was the most beautiful location for the house with amazing views of the city from all sides. I was very envious.
We took rest in the living room, drinking tea, mango juice and eating dry chocolate filled cereal while Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire played on the TV. After the teachers had made quick outfit changes and lent me a dress because my Sari was starting to fall down having been curled up like a baby in the back of the Auto, we set off down the road to Gaini (another teacher)'s house. This was another lovely little house; like Radika's it had only a few rooms but was brightly coloured and very homey.

The short trip between this house and the function venue was one of the best I've experienced since coming to India. Gaini took me and Lottie on the back of her Scooter and it was brilliantly surreal to be sat between the teacher and my partner, clinging on for dear life once again and weaving through the small streets of Hyderabad- all in very fancy Indian attire. 

The function was a Saree Celebration for one of the students; Geyani. A Saree Celebration is basically a 'coming of age' event for girls to signify their entry to womanhood. This is done with the gathering of friends and family, the exchange of presents and then a dramatic outfit change into a new beautiful Sari. There was also another buffet full of great curries and roti that was sent from heaven.
This was a very strange event for myself and Lottie as we couldn't really compare it to anything we'd been to in England. While it was lovely to see Geyani and her family so happy, there was a part of me that was a little confused as to why someone would want to invite their teachers to an event when your new 'womanhood' was being celebrated, but, I guess, India is not a place where the chance to celebrate is allowed to pass by so it does make sense. I wish Geyani all of the best!

As the teachers we had come with lived so close to the function itself, Lottie and I made our way back to Begumpet on the bus with another teacher; Param Eshwar. Not only did he help us navigate the bus systems but he also invited us back to his home in Chikoti Hills to see his wife and have some tea. His house was very different to the houses of the other teachers. Having spent 25 years working for Emirates Airline, teaching is now something he does for the passion of it rather than for a living a such. Both he and his wife were very proud of their beautifully designed apartment that had been decorated by their daughter- a very talented interior designer and artist. We were treated to a full tour was well as a look through all of the photos and spent a pleasant afternoon chatting about India, ourselves, our plans, Param's family and life.

It was evening by the time we returned to the school, but it felt much later due to the early start. For this reason, Lottie and I basically collapsed into bed and had a well earned good night of resting.  

A Day Trip to Alampur Medical Camp

While I am sure plenty of organisation goes into the planning of life at Devnar, I can't help but feel that so much is spontaneous and decided on a spur-of-the-moment basis. This is probably as Lottie and I often don't seem to understand what is going on until after it happens let alone any time before.

On Saturday afternoon we were called into the main office by the Founder Chairman of the school, Dr Goud, who wanted to know if we were interested in joining him on a trip the next day. Of course we jumped at the idea but, information-wise, we were a little clueless about what we were actually going to be doing. He had mentioned a medical camp, some town we hadn't heard of and a boat trip. We were told to be ready in the courtyard for 6am the following morning. 

So, after our 5am wakeup on Sunday morning we bounded downstairs, still with no real understanding of what our outing had in store. Padma handed us a tub with 4 boiled eggs, a jar of jam and half a pack of milk bread which we added to our only little picnic (which consisted of mango juice and Nutella). We were walked to the main road by one of the Uncles and were then greeted by Dr Goud who told us to get into a rather large Toyota parked a few cars before him. This car would have felt luxurious to me had we been in England but, having spend the last 3 weeks either crammed into Autos or Mini Buses at double capacity, this car was heavenly. The cars picked up a few more people from around Hyderabad before we headed south and out of the city. This was the first time we'd left Hyderabad since our arrival and, as a result of this, I spent most of the next few hours sat in awe as I watched the Indian countryside roll past the window. I love a good long journey, but this is will go down as one of my favourites; sat in the very back seats of the 7-seater, eating our hard boiled eggs and Nutella sandwiches while Telugu music boomed out of the radio. It was all very surreal. 

3 hours later we pulled up at a grand house in what felt like the middle of nowhere. There were a number of large cars already parked outside, their drivers standing around chatting, and a number of middle aged men (mostly dressed in white trousers and shirts) had congregated ready to greet Dr Goud.  Here, in this house that was probably owned by a local doctor of some kind, we were treated to another, more traditional breakfast of idly, chutneys, and samba before heading back onto the road again. 

It was another hour and a half before we reached Alampur which is where the medical camp was being held. There seemed to be some kind of school or training facility in which drop in clinics for those with eye problems had been made, however, do to the language barriers and the business of the doctors we never fully understood what the place was. 

After a while watching the patients have a diagnosis and prescription written onto their pink card after a swift consultation, Lottie and I decided to go outside to try and make ourselves useful. We attempted to ask a number of the helpers (who seemed to be students at the institute) what we could do to help but, because of the language barrier, each interaction ended up with them rushing about trying to get something for us meaning we were being more of a pain than a help. Abandoning our plan we turned our attention to the hundreds of people staring at us. Realising that we were going to be there for a while, many of them came up to us and asked for 'one photo, Mam' and would stand next to us like we were the next big thing in Bollywood as their friends took photos on a number of phones. Other people told their children to go and stand beside us or handed us their babies and lots of school aged children took the opportunity to test out some of their English. 

As we sat in the courtyard we were often confused as doctors and people kept bringing us their pink cards and prescriptions to sign off which was a little embarrassing but most people seemed to understand that we weren't doctors, especially when the girls we were sat talking to repeated 'English Teacher! No Doctor!' to those who had been confused. There was one man, however, who did not want to accept that I was not the right person to fill out forms. I don't know anything about anything about eye sight nor can I read a single word of Telugu. He ended up approaching me twice and, when he refused to remain calm despite my polite attempts to tell him I couldn't help him we entered a shouting match (it was more of a raised voice match on my side- I didn't want to create an even bigger scene). The people around us laughed at him which, unfortunately, only made him more angry. I could only respond to his shouting with 'I'm an English teacher not a doctor- go over that way' so many time so ended up telling him all sorts about how my GCSE Biology really wasn't enough to be giving him medicines I didn't know the names of. He only stopped when I eventually grabbed the pink card he was waving in my face and stared at him blankly in silence. This seemed to confuse him enough to cause a lull in his anger so someone else could step in and lead him to someone who was more helpful than me. I did feel very bad about the situation- it must have been confusing for us being there when we had no reason to be other than to observe how life works out here. After this uncomfortable situation, some of the people we were talking to noticed our slight discomfort due to the heat and the angry shouting match so went to buy us small pots of ice cream which we were very grateful for. 

At 2 the clinic started to close and, again, we were bundled into a large car and driven to another house on the outskirts of the town. This time it belonged to someone in a local government but, as the women ate in a separate room to the men (because the men were drinking) we were never able to find out exactly where we were. Lunch was a delicious selection of curries with roti, my favourite being an amazing fish dish. After having as much food as our bodies could handle, we waited in the room with the few female doctors that had come to the clinic while the men took another hour or so to eat their food. 

Our lunch venue 

The view from Lunch 

After lunch we were informed that the day would not be ending there and that we were headed for the boat trip on the Tungabhadra River that had been mentioned the day before. On arrival we realised that the boat trip was not quite what we expected. I guess having spent time in very fancy houses and in nice cars we expected something a little less basic than a coracle boat that was to be pulled across the river by a man stood in it's centre but that is what we got! I was a little apprehensive. It felt like there were a lot of us getting into such a small boat and I didn't quite manage to sit comfortably at any point- I was worried for my camera mainly- but it was actually really enjoyable. At points, it was nice and peaceful and at other points the group of mostly retired, serious doctors thought it would be a laugh to spin the boat around which was funny but did make me nervous. 

Our numbers being put to shame

Along the river bank there were a number of temples that we then visited. The first was a temple dedicated to one of the forms of Pavati and here we were blessed by a holy man after listening to his prayers (in Telugu). Rice was thrown at us, the smoke of burning incense was wafted in our faces and over our hair and then we were offered a mixture of herbs and water which was poured into our hands for us to drink. 

A similar blessing took place in the next temple, Jogulamba, which is a one of the 18 Shakti Peethas as legend says it is the location where a tooth of devi fell. 

 By this time it was 5.40 and, considering the trip home would inevitably involve a stop for chai, it was time to head back to the city. As I mentioned before, I really love long drives and the evening trip was as great as the morning one had been. We spent the trip listening to music and watching the beautifully lit little towns and stalls it was truly bliss. Thank you, Dr Goud, for inviting us! 

Ganesha Chaturthi - Our First Festival

Ganesh Chaturthi is a nine day celebration during which Ganesh visits in the form of a beautiful clay statue that is worshipped morning and night. As well festivities inside the school, there were trips, performances and the celebrations of everyone in the area seemed to spill together to create streets full of colour, music, drumming, dancing and laughing on a number of evenings.

Some of the boys listening to the music being played next to Ganesha

Festivities started on Thursday the 17th. As I had been ill during the previous few days I got very little sleep the night before meaning I was up to witness the building of Ganesha's shrine though the little glassless pane in our window. A number of male staff and a few older boys worked through the night to assemble poles and sheets, decorate them with religious symbols, place the covered 3 feet tall clay Ganesha statue inside, and cover it's base with a number of beautiful flowers, fruits and gold cups of burning scented oils. 

For Lottie and I, Thursday was our first opportunity to wear our lovely new Saris which we were very excited about. Once it was put on properly by one of the Aunties (following my failed attempts) I did feel truly elegant and I enjoyed it far more than I had expected I would. Sadly, some time in early afternoon, as Lottie and I sat in our favourite spot looking out into the courtyard waiting for the celebrations to begin (we had been told there would be an 11am start but we have since learnt that timings in India are never anything more than a vague estimation of when something may or may not happen) I became very ill again and retired to my room to 'take rest'- as they often tell me here. 

Naturally, I was sad to have missed the opening prayers of Ganesh Chaturthi but I was unable to leave my room for a few hours. I could hear prayers through my window and the occasional cheering of the crowd. Lottie later told me that festivities had only got under way once a guest speaker came in to read prayers for a few hours. As these where in Telugu Lottie and I didn't really understand a word but they were oddly comforting to listen to from my bed on the second floor. What I didn't see was that the whole school was gathered around the shrine with the mass of students extending down the steps that led up to it. As the prayers were being read they each had took it in turns to walk up to the statue, say a private prayer, have red powder placed on their forehead and had two lines of turmeric paste on their jaw lines. As well as this, dried rice was thrown to Ganesha as well as placed on the children's heads. To be completely honest, there was a lot of this festival that we didn't understand; our Telugu is still pretty limited and, while the children's English is very good, they seemed to find it hard to explain a number of things that they seemed to do out of tradition and habit. While it would have been nice to know the significance of more of the little touches, it was nice to just sit back and enjoy everyone having a good time.

Ganesha after his unveiling

Later in the afternoon I managed to prise myself from the room to join in with the evenings festivities. Luckily for my ill stomach these didn't involve too much movement. The little boys danced around to the modern Hindi and Telugu music that boomed from the loud speaker placed next to the shrine. As well as it being a special day for us to wear our saris, all the girls were dressed in their finest, most colourful outfits complete with necklaces, earrings, beautiful bindis and yellow painted feet (no one could tell me why they did this but it looked great). 

Some Yellow Feet- I love the colour coordination here

Bravilika and her friends in their outfits 

According to Lottie, the evening prayers were very similar to the morning ones that I had missed. The only major difference was that the speaker had been replaced with Padma who is the most devoutly religious lady I've ever met. She stood reading from the prayer book as we all sat and listened and the some Aunties and their daughters lit more flowers and slowly tossed rice at the statue. More turmeric paste was smeared on our jaws, red powder was placed between our brows and we were given our own rice to throw as the prayers drew to an end. As soon as the ceremony was finished, the music began again and the children broke away from their already lose formation and the boys danced. I'm sure that if I had not been so ill I would have noticed more of the beautiful details and might even have joined in more rather than just observed, however it really did feel like a feat to make it down from the bedroom- we had been at the doctors every night for the three nights building up to the festival. 

Padma and Ganesha

Over the next few days my health improved enough for Lottie and I to take a few little walks around Mayuri Marg (with a plain ice cream as a treat) to explore our new surroundings a bit more.  As seems to be the norm here, we had a trail of small children following us everywhere we went, holding our hands, asking our names and (more importantly) wanting to tell us theirs. There enthusiasm and joy to see us wandering about is imminently heart warming but a sight around the corner made cheered us up even more than ice cream and adorable small children. Down a very small alley there was a crowd of around 30 women and children surrounded by even more bystanders who, like us, where also watching what seemed to be an amazing party game. There was a pinata-like object suspended from a rope that was being pulled at the opposite end so the object swung all over the alley. Rather than being blindfolded to add an element of challenge to the game, the children were having bucket upon bucket of water emptied over them by the women who, along with the spectators, were laughing as the participants squirmed as the water hit them. We stayed until the pinata was hit and got back to the school feeling much happier and in the festive spirit than we had done when we left. 

The moment when both the water was thrown and the pinata opened 

It was this evening that a few of the little boys who often stop by our room to ask for chocolate decided to bolt the door in without us noticing meaning that we were unable to make our way down stairs for dinner at 7.20pm. We've been locked in before, often in the morning, however it isn't normal for the culprits to flee the crime scene so normally we are able to call someone to set us free without much inconvenience. This time we had clearly taken too long to notice the situation and the boys had given up on their attempts to gain our attention. This meant that that next half an hour was spend trying to work out how to set ourselves free which is a lot harder than we thought it would be. Luckily for us the dinner bell still hadn't gone meaning the courtyard below our room still contained a sea of children and a few staff who, we thought, would able to help us out. What Lottie and I had failed to consider was that, not only was the wave of noise these children created far too loud for our voices to over come, but also many of the children who could hear us weren't able to work out where our voices were coming from or what we were trying to say. After around 20 minutes of shouting at the top of my voice we decided to lower a message from the window (it read 'We're locked in! Send Help') attached to half a pack of strawberry Oreos. This plan was successful in the sense that the message did make it to the ground, however it was picked up by one of the Auntie's sons who was only 3 years old, unable to read Telugu let alone English and found the whole thing a massive game. His amusement seemed to render him unable to detect our desperation so we changed tactics to throwing scrunched up pieces of paper at any member of staff we saw walking past. Eventually, someone noticed us and a young boy was sent running up to unlock the door. Very warm, and crying with laughter at our situation, we made our way downstairs to be greeted by the kids to whom we had been crying out to for the last 30 minutes who found our situation hilarious. 

By this point we were very hungry and confused about the fact that dinner hadn't occurred at the normal time. When we asked Padma what was going on we were told that the whole school was going to be fed by the local community at the large Ganesha statue situated just outside the apartment block complex the school is in. Along with the rest of the students, we made our way to a car park below an apartment block right beside a very large Ganesha. At the entrance to the car park there was a large folding table on which there stood a number of buckets and pots full of Curry, Samba, rice and water. Under strict orders from the doctor to avoid anything spicy (which is quite a large ask in India) Lottie and I decided not to join either of the seated lines that snaked their way down the car park and instead offered to help carry and serve the curries to all the students, Aunties and Uncles. We marched up and down the lines calling out 'Samba' or 'Rice' and then poured the food onto the large paper plates of the kids that responded. By the end our backs hurt due to the constant leaning with a heavy pot but the whole evening was thoroughly enjoyable. We laughed with the Aunties at our role reversal and our slight incompetence at handing out quite the right about of samba per portion and chatted with the organisers whom we had met before and were eager to thank us for our help and even pass on some encouraging words about our illness and acclimatisation. They have been providing these meals to the school for free every year for the last 20 years and seemed to enjoy themselves as much as the children enjoyed the food. We were told to come back on Monday night when our stomachs might be a little better to give the food a second try which we were very happy to agree to do. 

The Mayuri Marg Ganesha 

On the way back to the school we were greeted by a group of men dancing around a to drums. They were prancing about with the same enthusiasm you might see  in England at a pub after the local team had one some important game and everyone had been drinking to celebrate. It was the kind of drumming we could hear late into the evening, and while they did invite us to join them (and it was very tempting) we did notice that there were no other female participants so we gave it a miss and simply bobbed along to the music with the kids as we made our way home. 

Late on Sunday evening Lottie and I were informed that we were going to chaperoning some girls on a program that evening and that we need to be ready to get the bus in the next few minutes. Slightly confused but eager for any trip we ran up to gather our stuff and by the time we got back down to the courtyard the small, 10 seater mini bus that had taken us to Hi-tech city the weekend before was waiting in the courtyard and was already full of students from the college that most students attend after completing their education at Devnar. There was a lengthy reshuffle of students and eventually we found ourselves inside the bus, pressed up against one of the windows (I perched half on Lottie's lap, half on mid-air). The bus was already at double capacity but there were still twice the number of students to be transported to the mystery venue to it was agreed to make two trips. This was the first time we had seen Hyderabad at night and it was beautiful- especially with the abundance of brightly lit and decorated Ganesha statues. Lights that you would expect to find at an English fairground were all over the city and, in our childlike fascination with the bright lights, we must have made very poor conversation with the girls from the college. 

The venue turned out to be Sundar Nagar, only 20 minutes or so away from the school. There was a brightly coloured stage with a Ganesha sat in the corner and a crowd that was slowly building. Before the second bus load of Devnar students arrived, the acts had already started. They consisted of four consecutive traditional dances performed by 2 pairs of Kuchipundi dancers. After 40 minutes these were over and, with the all the children now seated and eating chocolate bars they had been handed by the organisers, it was time for them to start taking to the stage. They preformed a number of songs and dances, mostly traditional but the older boys stole the show with their enthusiastic modern Hindi Pop dancing just as they had done at Hi-Tech City. There were also new acts I didn't seen before including large group dances with the college girls as well as a a beautiful guitar performance from one of the college boys which far better than I could have managed despite my 5 years of lessons and perfect vision. 

Sowjanya and Sri Ganges with some of the College girls 

Traditional Kuchipundi hair styles on some of the students 

Bargavi, Chitti and Pushpa 

The beautiful guitar piece 

The boys closing the show 

When it was time to return to the school it Lottie and I ended up not being able to fit into the bus on the first trip. While we didn't mind this initially as the bus carrying even more than two people per seat, it later daunted on us that we should probably have been on the first bus as we had been on the trip to keep an eye on the girls but, with all of them on the bus, we were left with only a few Uncles and the older boys. While, in England, this situation wouldn't have caused any concern, the strict societal rules about male and female integration here meant that the situation felt a little wrong some how. There was nothing to be done about it though so we sat with the boys and chatted about school and music- they forced me to play and sing a little but their demands for songs put me very much on the spot and we ended up reverting to singing a few lines of popular pop songs to see how many the boys could identify. Much to Lottie's dismay it turned out to be very few. 

On Monday evening we for filled our promise to eat the the curry at the car park which made the hosts very happy indeed. Our paper plates were piled high with more 'Curra' and 'Annam' that any human could possibly consume and, while it was genuinely really nice curry, the spices meant that neither of us could manage that much, even when I had mine covered with butter milk to counteract the fuzziness the spices caused in my mouth and lips. No one seemed to mind that much and instead just laughed and smiled; they were happy that, after a week of eating just plain rice, we were eating and enjoying their food. 

Car Park Dining! 

Every night and every morning for the duration of this festival there were prayers very similar to those that had occurred on the first night. The loud speaker also turned out to be a semi- permanent fixture that meant the boys danced around the courtyard as soon as school ended every day. There were also even more visitors coming to the school to hand out chocolate and snacks to the children. It is very common for wealthier families to turn up at the school on the birthdays of their children to distribute sweets and fruit to the children as a charitable gesture however, during this week, there were whole stalls set up making all sorts of sweet and spicy foods (many of which Padma refused to let us try in an attempt to prevent further illness). 

Festivities drew to a close yesterday, on the 25th and, to mark this, Padma called us into her room and dressed us up in beautiful Saris, necklaces and bangles. As I had done the week before, I did feel very elegant, however the material of the borrowed Sari was twice as heavy as my own which meant I spent the day debating weather feeling like an Indian Princess was really worth it in this heat. It's close to call but I probably would wear it again if offered the chance.

Lottie and I sat on the steps by Ganesha 

The girls and Aunties laughing at the dancing

As normal the day started with prayers and it's body was taken up with even more dancing; the number of participants growing throughout the day. Much like the previous Thursday, I wasn't well at all so spent the morning and early afternoon resting to make sure I was fit enough to watch the evenings events. 

By the time I came back down, the drummers had come into the courtyard and most of the school had made their way out. The drums were definitely the centre of attention and attracted the boys from every grade. The girls, in contrast, were all to shy to join in with the jumping about. It did take a fair bit of convincing from both students and staff before Lottie and I allowed ourselves to be dragged into the heart of the dancing but once there we did give it our best go. People seemed to enjoy our participation and the older boys who had performed in Sundar Nagar were very eager to have us copy their moves. This was more than tricky in the heavy Sari I had on and I was constantly worried that the pins would fall out and I would unravel- luckily this didn't happen our dancing caused no injury or embarrassment.  

Our dancing from a distance

Soon after the dancing it was time for final prayers and then to move Ganesha to unite him with the larger Ganesh by the car park. This took at least 10 of the older boys, Uncles and Aunties. By the time the 2 or 3 minute walk out of the compound was complete all of them were covered in so much sweat that they looked liked they had been caught in the monsoon. There was more drumming, singing and plenty of applause when the statues were finally seated together. As the dancing that was happening on the main road seemed to be for the men only, Lottie and I headed back the school with the children before too long and decided to end our first busy festival week reading our books as we sat in our favourite spot. It was at this point that the heavens opened and we experiences the first rain we'd had since the week of our arrival- a very big relief after a day of boiling in our Saris. 

Moving Ganesha 

United 

This week has been hectic, and while it was unfortunate that both Lottie and I were ill though much of it, we did our best to have fun and we definitely did. I am exhausted but I would do it all again in a heartbeat and cannot wait until the next festival so we can wear more beautiful outfits, dance into the night and, hopefully, properly try out some new foods!