Deep Griha Blog
Deep Griha Blog
A Taste of Deep Griha
Originally intending to stay at least a month, I found that I had to cut my stay in Pune down to two weeks – result? A whirlwind ride through numerous branches of Deep Griha Society, the opportunity to dip my finger into several pies of plenty, all spiced with the masala of getting to know the people I was living with as far as is possible in the space of 14 days.
Arrived in Pune after on a bus from Aurangabad – eerily reminiscent of the description of such journeys provided in the Volunteer handbook, complete with continuous, loud Bollywood tunes; driver plus gang cracking dirty jokes; additionally an elderly woman regaling us with family gossip tales. Loved it! Made sure to bolster my own confidence immediately by attempting to haggle rickshaw drivers down . . . from 70 to 65 rupees. Really giving those pennies the best looking-after of their lives. Oh dear.
I reached Tatya Tope in a state of absolute confusion – (my wondrous rikwallah had turned out to be a bit of a novice) – dusty and somewhat frazzled, to the most welcoming reception committee I’ve ever experienced. Thank you to the Independents, DIA and the Linklets for making me feel right at home on my first day! The Ladies of the House are surrogate aunties, looking after my every wish; passing on cooking tips, religious views and love advice a-plenty.
Wandered around the local area to get familiar with the surroundings and was rewarded with a feast for the senses; the sights – pigs and cows vying with Mercs, buses and pedestrians on the main highway, fruit of every possible colour, shape and texture, and smells I didn’t know existed . . . overwhelming but exciting. I’m still, after a month and a half in India, finding the dichotomy between modern and traditional life; rich and poor people here tricky to get my head around. Don’t know if you ever really can, or whether you have to dissociate from one side completely. Ho hum philosophy.
So on to the juicy stuff – actual work at Deep Griha. Being paranoid that I’d be of no use whatsoever with my truncated trip, I tried to get in on what was going on as soon as I stepped in, with the result that I actually was able to complete quite a few odds and ends during my time. The Tadiwala Road slum area is barely recognisable as a slum any more; Deep Griha has been so successful here. On a busy shopping street leading into avenues and alleyways of residential housing means, the Tadiwala office is a truly lively place to work in. Kids were very friendly, and very happy to meet and greet; the fulltime staff were generous to the nth degree with their time and help! All in all a really great taster course about what Deep Griha does.
So what was I doing? I spent my weekdays in the Tadiwala Road Family Centre, assisting with report writing, research and proposal drafting; occasionally shunting over to the Ramtekedi slum area for meetings with the staff, to observe some of their work with the residents there. Also managed to cram in observing a Wake Up Pune! meeting – never to be forgotten - Dr J is an Absolute Gem.
The DISHA ladies took me into their circle; several luncheon hours were spent most profitably, exchanging recipes and tiffin-box contents, alongside trying to pick up some Marati words. Incredibly garbled English, Hindi and Marati conversations were the outcome, but I think we all had fun – well, I did anyway. Not too successful on the language front, but the recipes will be attempted asap. My family’s definitely in for . . . something, dunno quite how it’ll turn out.
Tried to spend some time with kiddies in the crèche and balwadi; they seemed amused, if slightly perplexed, by my rendering of the two nursery rhymes I vaguely remember: ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ and ‘Little Miss Muffet’. But they listened with good grace, and smiled a lot, and ‘Round and Round the Garden …’ went down a bit too well for my liking. Hmm.
Free-time – a surprising amount of this was available! So we managed to fit in numerous shopping expeditions, various exploratory ambles, the Agakhan Palace, a couple of nightclubs, and regular ice-creams. Could have been even more had I not succumbed to the Lethargy Lurgie. All of which was extremely educational and interesting yadda yadda, more to the point I had FUN!
So to sum up – I don’t reckon I’ve fully absorbed or processed my experience at Deep Griha yet, but I do know that I’ve learnt a lot during my packed, albeit brief stay. Hope to come back next year –
Volunteer, London
A Taste of Deep Griha
Originally intending to stay at least a month, I found that I had to cut my stay in Pune down to two weeks – result? A whirlwind ride through numerous branches of Deep Griha Society, the opportunity to dip my finger into several pies of plenty, all spiced with the masala of getting to know the people I was living with as far as is possible in the space of 14 days.
Arrived in Pune after on a bus from Aurangabad – eerily reminiscent of the description of such journeys provided in the Volunteer handbook, complete with continuous, loud Bollywood tunes; driver plus gang cracking dirty jokes; additionally an elderly woman regaling us with family gossip tales. Loved it! Made sure to bolster my own confidence immediately by attempting to haggle rickshaw drivers down . . . from 70 to 65 rupees. Really giving those pennies the best looking-after of their lives. Oh dear.
I reached Tatya Tope in a state of absolute confusion – (my wondrous rikwallah had turned out to be a bit of a novice) – dusty and somewhat frazzled, to the most welcoming reception committee I’ve ever experienced. Thank you to the Independents, DIA and the Linklets for making me feel right at home on my first day! The Ladies of the House are surrogate aunties, looking after my every wish; passing on cooking tips, religious views and love advice a-plenty.
Wandered around the local area to get familiar with the surroundings and was rewarded with a feast for the senses; the sights – pigs and cows vying with Mercs, buses and pedestrians on the main highway, fruit of every possible colour, shape and texture, and smells I didn’t know existed . . . overwhelming but exciting. I’m still, after a month and a half in India, finding the dichotomy between modern and traditional life; rich and poor people here tricky to get my head around. Don’t know if you ever really can, or whether you have to dissociate from one side completely. Ho hum philosophy.
So on to the juicy stuff – actual work at Deep Griha. Being paranoid that I’d be of no use whatsoever with my truncated trip, I tried to get in on what was going on as soon as I stepped in, with the result that I actually was able to complete quite a few odds and ends during my time. The Tadiwala Road slum area is barely recognisable as a slum any more; Deep Griha has been so successful here. On a busy shopping street leading into avenues and alleyways of residential housing means, the Tadiwala office is a truly lively place to work in. Kids were very friendly, and very happy to meet and greet; the fulltime staff were generous to the nth degree with their time and help! All in all a really great taster course about what Deep Griha does.
So what was I doing? I spent my weekdays in the Tadiwala Road Family Centre, assisting with report writing, research and proposal drafting; occasionally shunting over to the Ramtekedi slum area for meetings with the staff, to observe some of their work with the residents there. Also managed to cram in observing a Wake Up Pune! meeting – never to be forgotten - Dr J is an Absolute Gem.
The DISHA ladies took me into their circle; several luncheon hours were spent most profitably, exchanging recipes and tiffin-box contents, alongside trying to pick up some Marati words. Incredibly garbled English, Hindi and Marati conversations were the outcome, but I think we all had fun – well, I did anyway. Not too successful on the language front, but the recipes will be attempted asap. My family’s definitely in for . . . something, dunno quite how it’ll turn out.
Tried to spend some time with kiddies in the crèche and balwadi; they seemed amused, if slightly perplexed, by my rendering of the two nursery rhymes I vaguely remember: ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ and ‘Little Miss Muffet’. But they listened with good grace, and smiled a lot, and ‘Round and Round the Garden …’ went down a bit too well for my liking. Hmm.
Free-time – a surprising amount of this was available! So we managed to fit in numerous shopping expeditions, various exploratory ambles, the Agakhan Palace, a couple of nightclubs, and regular ice-creams. Could have been even more had I not succumbed to the Lethargy Lurgie. All of which was extremely educational and interesting yadda yadda, more to the point I had FUN!
So to sum up – I don’t reckon I’ve fully absorbed or processed my experience at Deep Griha yet, but I do know that I’ve learnt a lot during my packed, albeit brief stay. Hope to come back next year –
Volunteer, London
posted by Volunteer at 3:22 am
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