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rhyllThe last few days have been pretty weird, something which I'm being less and less surprised by. Actually the moments when I feel strangest these days are when I'm relaxed...I'll be watching a monkey sit under a tree in a village somewhere or feeling the wind in my hair as I ride through crazy Indian traffic, and allofasudden I realise "oh! I'm in India and I forgot for a minute and felt normal!"
I'm not sure I explained that terribly well.
Once again I apologise for the lack of coherence. I'm sure there were more interesting ways to write this but I'm a bit tired so it'll have to all just fall out on the page for now. (Maybe if you're lucky, I will come back later on and rewrite this so it doesn't turn a very interesting experience into a rather dull read.)
First off, Thursday. I got on the bus in the morning and called Prasad, as instructed, and he told me to hand the phone over to the bus driver. He explained where I was going to the conductor, and told me how much to pay. Pleasant, because I didn't need to stress about getting off at the right place. So I ended up in Ramnagar, somewhere on the way to Mysore.
Once I arrived I interviewed more people from the Raithya Sangha (KRRS), and got a lot of excellent information, and then Prasad took me to see how silk is made, and to the silk market. He gave me some silk cocoons, which I've been checking every few minutes to make sure that they haven't been crushed in my bag. After the silk market we went and hung around with some youth activists for a while. One of the young men sung a revolutionary song in Kannada, accompanied by others with traditional instruments, and it send shivers down my spine.
Then Prasad and I got on the bus and went out to a village which, as far as my sense of direction goes, was in the middle of nowhere. We walked down a dirt track for half an hour and came to a guest house where one of the oldest surviving members of the Raithya Sangha was staying, and I talked to him and Prasad for a long time. Prasad and I sat in the moonlight and talked about politics and activism and our own plans. And I saw fireflies! And bright stars!
We stayed there overnight - so wonderful...fresh air and no city noise and I woke up to a rooster's crow.
The next day we had breakfast at a Raithya Sangha house, and I bothered more people with questions. I also went to a organic farm and drank coconut water out of coconut that was cut off the tree right in front of me, and then they split it open so I could eat the flesh. (I thought it was pretty nifty.)
Prasad and I met some of the other Raithya Sangha guys, and I piled into the back of a jeep with them and we set off to another small village in the middle of nowhere to go talk to some farmers who've been having trouble because of granite mining in the area. It's a very direct kind of activism - talking to small groups of people, arguing with them, trying to convince them to take action. (I keep making notes in my margins on the consequences of oral transmission of information in activism.)
I am very glad that the Raithya Sangha puts such an emphasis on members being morally upright - I spent a lot of time hanging around with them while we travelled to different villages in the area, and last night I stayed at Prasad's bachelor pad. (His family don't approve of his activism so he lives alone in little flat full of newspapers and pamhplets and books on Mao. He apologised for the mess while explaining that it's very hard to be an activist because no woman will want to marry him and live that kind of life. It was amusing because he looked rather martyred about it, but I think his life is definitely rather difficult at the moment - he can't work because of his KRRS activism, but his position in the KRRS isn't paid.) I was impressed that the entire time I was around the KRRS men I never felt in the slightest bit threatened, and they always treated me with extreme respect. Prasad was especially courteous and always made sure that I felt comfortable. Once again I felt very looked after.
It was a little unnerving at one point, because we drove past some men protesting (peacefully), all wearing the white caps that some of the Muslims here wear. I asked, purely out of curiousity, what they were protesting about, and was told that it was protest against the cartoons. I panicked momentarily, but noone looked in my direction for more than a second.
On to less paranoia-inducing things.
This morning Prasad and I hung around his place for a bit, washed and read newspapers and tut-tutted about the budget that had just come out. We had breakfast and went back to the youth activists' place, where I tried ineffectually to have conversation with some of the high-school girls there. Then we went to a protest on water privatisation, where I got to ride a bicycle. (The students are riding to Bangalore. I think they're very brave.)
And then bus back and
phew!
i am tired!
(I do want to try and rewrite this so it's a bit more interesting. I'll see what I can do over the next few days.)
Also: Hi Rob!
I'm not sure I explained that terribly well.
Once again I apologise for the lack of coherence. I'm sure there were more interesting ways to write this but I'm a bit tired so it'll have to all just fall out on the page for now. (Maybe if you're lucky, I will come back later on and rewrite this so it doesn't turn a very interesting experience into a rather dull read.)
First off, Thursday. I got on the bus in the morning and called Prasad, as instructed, and he told me to hand the phone over to the bus driver. He explained where I was going to the conductor, and told me how much to pay. Pleasant, because I didn't need to stress about getting off at the right place. So I ended up in Ramnagar, somewhere on the way to Mysore.
Once I arrived I interviewed more people from the Raithya Sangha (KRRS), and got a lot of excellent information, and then Prasad took me to see how silk is made, and to the silk market. He gave me some silk cocoons, which I've been checking every few minutes to make sure that they haven't been crushed in my bag. After the silk market we went and hung around with some youth activists for a while. One of the young men sung a revolutionary song in Kannada, accompanied by others with traditional instruments, and it send shivers down my spine.
Then Prasad and I got on the bus and went out to a village which, as far as my sense of direction goes, was in the middle of nowhere. We walked down a dirt track for half an hour and came to a guest house where one of the oldest surviving members of the Raithya Sangha was staying, and I talked to him and Prasad for a long time. Prasad and I sat in the moonlight and talked about politics and activism and our own plans. And I saw fireflies! And bright stars!
We stayed there overnight - so wonderful...fresh air and no city noise and I woke up to a rooster's crow.
The next day we had breakfast at a Raithya Sangha house, and I bothered more people with questions. I also went to a organic farm and drank coconut water out of coconut that was cut off the tree right in front of me, and then they split it open so I could eat the flesh. (I thought it was pretty nifty.)
Prasad and I met some of the other Raithya Sangha guys, and I piled into the back of a jeep with them and we set off to another small village in the middle of nowhere to go talk to some farmers who've been having trouble because of granite mining in the area. It's a very direct kind of activism - talking to small groups of people, arguing with them, trying to convince them to take action. (I keep making notes in my margins on the consequences of oral transmission of information in activism.)
I am very glad that the Raithya Sangha puts such an emphasis on members being morally upright - I spent a lot of time hanging around with them while we travelled to different villages in the area, and last night I stayed at Prasad's bachelor pad. (His family don't approve of his activism so he lives alone in little flat full of newspapers and pamhplets and books on Mao. He apologised for the mess while explaining that it's very hard to be an activist because no woman will want to marry him and live that kind of life. It was amusing because he looked rather martyred about it, but I think his life is definitely rather difficult at the moment - he can't work because of his KRRS activism, but his position in the KRRS isn't paid.) I was impressed that the entire time I was around the KRRS men I never felt in the slightest bit threatened, and they always treated me with extreme respect. Prasad was especially courteous and always made sure that I felt comfortable. Once again I felt very looked after.
It was a little unnerving at one point, because we drove past some men protesting (peacefully), all wearing the white caps that some of the Muslims here wear. I asked, purely out of curiousity, what they were protesting about, and was told that it was protest against the cartoons. I panicked momentarily, but noone looked in my direction for more than a second.
On to less paranoia-inducing things.
This morning Prasad and I hung around his place for a bit, washed and read newspapers and tut-tutted about the budget that had just come out. We had breakfast and went back to the youth activists' place, where I tried ineffectually to have conversation with some of the high-school girls there. Then we went to a protest on water privatisation, where I got to ride a bicycle. (The students are riding to Bangalore. I think they're very brave.)
And then bus back and
phew!
i am tired!
(I do want to try and rewrite this so it's a bit more interesting. I'll see what I can do over the next few days.)
Also: Hi Rob!
