A rather bizarre few days
Jan. 22nd, 2006 07:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhyllProbably the oddest part of the last few days has been getting mobbed by highschool kids for my autograph.
So, starting on Thursday morning I had an interview with Chukki Nanjundaswamy, working president of the KRRS. I thought it would take up maybe the morning, and then in the afternoon I would do some work. When I got there, though, she said she was going to a workshop and it would be a good idea if I came with her - I could meet people there, and interview her in the car. So I got in the car and asked how far away it was. It turned out to be four hours drive away, in a village called Arsikele. So I interviewed her in the car, and also had a long chat about the anti-globalisation movement, and the challenges of being an activist, and being a woman in India, and lovely young men. When we got to Arsikele, the KRRS workshop was in full swing - it would have been a perfect research opportunity, except that I can't speak Kannada. After the workshop there was a KRRS meeting, in Kannada again, so Chukki sent me off to interview Subash Palekar (?) and meet some of the farmers. That part was pretty cool - everyone made a big fuss of me (again! I will be utterly spoilt by the time I get back!), told me a heap about 'zero budget natural farming' (a system involving companion planting and immense quantities of cow dung), gave me some jasmine flowers, and fed me silly. And after all this, I went back to the KRRS president's house to sleep, and met up with Chukki again. We were sharing a double bed, and that in combination with our late-night conversation topic - boys, and how very nice a couple of them in particular are - made it feel a lot like a highschool sleepover.
On Friday morning we were stuffed full of food again (chapatis and a delicious coconut-groundnut paste that tastes kind of like peanut butter), and I did a few more interviews with various KRRS presidents (they have quite a few). We also went to some offices that the KRRS have occupied where they're running a nira (the sap from coconut trees, as far as I can make out - it's the stuff that they ferment to make toddy) campaign, so I got to try some nira juice and eat some nira and ginger sweets. Finally we got back in the car and head towards Bangalore - more interesting conversation, more food, some napping. Eventually I got back to my hotel, and hurried through packing and relocating to the new place.
In the process I discovered that most of my backpack space is now taken up with books - quite a few bookcrossing books I haven't managed to release yet, and also a lot of books about environmentalism, social movements, nira, etc that people have given me. I think I'll have very little room for clothes by the time I get back.
Friday night I went and hung around with Akshay and Suresh Heblikar from Eco Watch again - more food, more fussing.
Saturday was just as unexpected. I went with Akshay to a demonstration Eco Watch had organised on air pollution issues - about 2,000 students, mostly highschool-aged girls in saris and salwar kameez. After the demonstration all the students sat down in a hall, and I was ushered onto the dias along with the Minister for Education (or something like that), Suresh Heblikar, and a collection of impressive figures. That was odd enough - I'd been expecting to sit around on the sidelines and take a few notes - but then after the Minister, Suresh, and a few others had given their speeches, Suresh pushed me up to the microphone. So I ended up giving an impromptu speech on air pollution to 2,000 students! It wasn't terribly coherent - I talked a little bit about the importance of the way we choose to live our lives, and how usually things that are healthy for us are also good for the environment, and then enthused about bicycles for a while. Still, it didn't seem to matter, since a) I get triple bonus points for novelty, and b) I think a lot of the students don't speak much English. So I got heavy applause, and when the speeches were over I got surrounded by students wanting my autograph...something which happened every time over the next few hours that there was a break!
After the workshop, Akshay, Ullas (Akshay's journalist friend), guy-from-Eco Watch-who-writes-stories (I haven't figured out his name yet) and I all went to the launch for a book on native birds, written in Kannada. Actually, it was more of the pre-launch event. We didn't stay long - but people managed to feed me yet again.
And after that we went and picked Suresh up from a conference where he'd been the closing speaker, so I got to catch the end of his talk - he's a very impressive speaker.
And then we head out to a small village school, which Prof. P. K. Shetty from NIAS has set up - an amazing and very generous thing to manage. Suresh gave a speech, and handed out the prizes, and I saw the mathematician who I met earlier at NIAS again - he seems like a pretty cool guy...he looks like some kind of prophet with his long beard and carved walking stick.
And then we went back to Eco Watch, were I was fed yet again and stayed up talking to Suresh about movies and drinking and books.
Which only brings me to the night before last, but I'm going to take a break here and go hang out with Akshay and his friend Arjun for a while.
Goodnight children! Much love to all of you, and especially to Giagia and Papou!
So, starting on Thursday morning I had an interview with Chukki Nanjundaswamy, working president of the KRRS. I thought it would take up maybe the morning, and then in the afternoon I would do some work. When I got there, though, she said she was going to a workshop and it would be a good idea if I came with her - I could meet people there, and interview her in the car. So I got in the car and asked how far away it was. It turned out to be four hours drive away, in a village called Arsikele. So I interviewed her in the car, and also had a long chat about the anti-globalisation movement, and the challenges of being an activist, and being a woman in India, and lovely young men. When we got to Arsikele, the KRRS workshop was in full swing - it would have been a perfect research opportunity, except that I can't speak Kannada. After the workshop there was a KRRS meeting, in Kannada again, so Chukki sent me off to interview Subash Palekar (?) and meet some of the farmers. That part was pretty cool - everyone made a big fuss of me (again! I will be utterly spoilt by the time I get back!), told me a heap about 'zero budget natural farming' (a system involving companion planting and immense quantities of cow dung), gave me some jasmine flowers, and fed me silly. And after all this, I went back to the KRRS president's house to sleep, and met up with Chukki again. We were sharing a double bed, and that in combination with our late-night conversation topic - boys, and how very nice a couple of them in particular are - made it feel a lot like a highschool sleepover.
On Friday morning we were stuffed full of food again (chapatis and a delicious coconut-groundnut paste that tastes kind of like peanut butter), and I did a few more interviews with various KRRS presidents (they have quite a few). We also went to some offices that the KRRS have occupied where they're running a nira (the sap from coconut trees, as far as I can make out - it's the stuff that they ferment to make toddy) campaign, so I got to try some nira juice and eat some nira and ginger sweets. Finally we got back in the car and head towards Bangalore - more interesting conversation, more food, some napping. Eventually I got back to my hotel, and hurried through packing and relocating to the new place.
In the process I discovered that most of my backpack space is now taken up with books - quite a few bookcrossing books I haven't managed to release yet, and also a lot of books about environmentalism, social movements, nira, etc that people have given me. I think I'll have very little room for clothes by the time I get back.
Friday night I went and hung around with Akshay and Suresh Heblikar from Eco Watch again - more food, more fussing.
Saturday was just as unexpected. I went with Akshay to a demonstration Eco Watch had organised on air pollution issues - about 2,000 students, mostly highschool-aged girls in saris and salwar kameez. After the demonstration all the students sat down in a hall, and I was ushered onto the dias along with the Minister for Education (or something like that), Suresh Heblikar, and a collection of impressive figures. That was odd enough - I'd been expecting to sit around on the sidelines and take a few notes - but then after the Minister, Suresh, and a few others had given their speeches, Suresh pushed me up to the microphone. So I ended up giving an impromptu speech on air pollution to 2,000 students! It wasn't terribly coherent - I talked a little bit about the importance of the way we choose to live our lives, and how usually things that are healthy for us are also good for the environment, and then enthused about bicycles for a while. Still, it didn't seem to matter, since a) I get triple bonus points for novelty, and b) I think a lot of the students don't speak much English. So I got heavy applause, and when the speeches were over I got surrounded by students wanting my autograph...something which happened every time over the next few hours that there was a break!
After the workshop, Akshay, Ullas (Akshay's journalist friend), guy-from-Eco Watch-who-writes-stories (I haven't figured out his name yet) and I all went to the launch for a book on native birds, written in Kannada. Actually, it was more of the pre-launch event. We didn't stay long - but people managed to feed me yet again.
And after that we went and picked Suresh up from a conference where he'd been the closing speaker, so I got to catch the end of his talk - he's a very impressive speaker.
And then we head out to a small village school, which Prof. P. K. Shetty from NIAS has set up - an amazing and very generous thing to manage. Suresh gave a speech, and handed out the prizes, and I saw the mathematician who I met earlier at NIAS again - he seems like a pretty cool guy...he looks like some kind of prophet with his long beard and carved walking stick.
And then we went back to Eco Watch, were I was fed yet again and stayed up talking to Suresh about movies and drinking and books.
Which only brings me to the night before last, but I'm going to take a break here and go hang out with Akshay and his friend Arjun for a while.
Goodnight children! Much love to all of you, and especially to Giagia and Papou!
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on 2006-01-22 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
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