24th March - 02 April : including Indiana Ingram and the Temple of the Lost Doom

Heres the latest entry going from oldest and the top going down to new. Including my weeend trip to Hampi.

24th – 26th march
Days at the boys home are filled with an array of games including human pinball, duck duck goose, fire in the mountain, hokey cokey, the list goes on.
One of the days we made clocks with the boys, as a first step to learning to read the time in English. It was a big crazy as there was a lot of glitter and glue involved. We now have a room filled with sparkly clocks which the boys can be proud of as their work. The majority of boys respond well to concentrated work such as arts and crafts and I do believe it’s a good activity to do with them as it gets certain parts of the brain going.
I found it challenging sitting with the two new blind boys while the other boys are playing cricket. Speaking no Hindi and only a few words of Kanada verbal communication was minimal but spending time with them to count using fingers and touch and feel things seemed a good use of time and over the last weeks both boys have become a lot more chatty and confident and I get the feeling they have let their guards down for us.
One of the boys is fully blind, Ramesh, has no eye balls at all, just sealed eye lids. At first I found this very difficult and disturbing but gradually I got used to. The fact that he nearly almost sits alone singing while swaying his ahead is a sure fire sign to me that he was picked up off the street where he has been doing exactly that for many years. Singing is all he knows and it has taken the volunteers a long time and lots of work to get him to speak and show signs of awareness of his surroundings. I’m sure he has some mental disabilities and is on the autistic spectrum, but obviously I am not able to say what and to what extent.
The other boys is partially blind and I have been spending more time with him. After a couple of hours he managed to count to ten using his fingers. I don’t think teaching English is very important for this boy particularly but it was just something to do where we could be together and I could give him some individual attention.
[It is now extremely late and the last couple or paragraphs probably don’t make sense, I may come back to this at a later date]

26th – 29th March A weekend in Hampi
Thursday Night
Fabric, Tranzmission, Sanctuary and the walk out of the millennium stadium is the last time I can re-call seeing so many people in one place. Majestic SRTC but station has to be the new place to add to that list. It felt like the busiest place in the world, people in every direction. Closing your eyes for just a second and you can hear; bus conductors shouting their final destination, Samosa sellers shouting out to a hungry crowd, policemen and security shouting at passersby in Kanada and Hindi, huge busses revving their engines, people chattering and asking eachother where to go, an orchestra of phones going as well as the voice in the back of my head saying “Oh my god how the feck are you going to find the right bus”
After ditching the advice of a guy standing near us we ventured into the sea of coaches and people and managed to find our bus. I asked a million times to check it was the right one and it appeared so. The three other interns were sat down while I was sorting tickets and stuff out. I realised that a man was talking to the girls, asking the usual questions and shaking hands. I could see they were uncomfortable and then his hand shaking turned into face touching and general inappropriateness at which point I told the guy “hoggi” which is hindi for go, very loudly. I ended up shoving this guy, in his fifties, with some force down the isle and out the bus. What a creep!
The journey itself was pretty tough, eight hours all in all. The seats reclined but I had the usual constant adjusting of position as no way of sitting felt comfortable for more than 15 minutes. To top it off we were sitting above the coaches wheels so every time we went over a big bump (this is India, there is a lot) I would be jolted upwards. The journey wasn’t too bad, nothing a couple of ibuprofen couldn’t cure.

Friday
We arrived in hampi and settled into Rocky’s, the hostel we were staying in. After a walk to register at the police station we went for walk to see what was around.
A guided tour around the main temple was, to be honest, extremely boring. The guide was definitely a waste of money and was making crap up, not my idea. At this point I thought this was about to be a very long and borring weekend (I was wrong). The highlight of the tour was a monkey trying to nick my water bottle from my pocket and being “blessed” by an elephant, I thought it rather cruel to train the elephant to stand their and tap tourists on the head all day for a rupee. However the elephant looked as if was smiling…do they always smile?

A little later and the day go even hotter, we decided to go for a bit of walk. The following walk of discovery is described as below:
Indiana Ingram and the Temple of the Lost Doom
Indiana Ingram accompanied by his fellow explorers braved the sweltering heat of the 37°c sun. Through the main thoroughfare out of Hampi Baazar, past the Bull temple, up an endless number of steps, over the top of scorching stone, dodging in-between ancient temples, scaling giant rock formations, around lizards and over rusted barbed wire. They had discovered the lost temple. Indiana Ingram stood and looked from left to right assessing what stood before him; a huge temple stretching to either end of the horizon that lay ahead of him. This was just part of the ruins of the Vijayanagara empire; ancient arches and columns dating back to the 1300’s still standing as a reminder of the destruction of this beautiful city in 1565 by the Muslim sultans. Indiana continued to walk down some steps into the vast main temple area which was as big as a football pitch. A giant walled courtyard with small rooms dotted inside the perimeter where carvings of G-d forms stood from thousands of years ago. This would have once been decorated with flowers and colored pooja powder, accompanied by incense to create a stimulus for every sense. Now these rooms lay empty with a warm and powerful energy beating out of them, an aura of spirituality and holiness.
In the centre of the courtyard was the inner sanctum, as in most Hindu temples. A raised building which Indiana took no hesitation to walk into. Through the first doorway and a few lizards scuttled. The powerful aura of the building struck Indiana as we walked through the second door way. Facing him now was a blank room where the mandap pedestal stood empty and no carvings of G-d forms could be seen. This was not unusual, hundreds of disused temples in Hampi stood in similar states. To the right of the inner sanctum was a pitch black doorway, Indiana ventured down the steps through the darkness, treading carefully with his fellow explorers behind him.
As the sound of steps filled the dark crypt bats started to fly around Indiana’s head. That’s when it dawned on him that the black glossy ceiling was alive and was in the form of hundreds of bats hanging upside down with their veiny wings folded shut. The bats that were previously sleeping had just disturbed.
Venturing further and further in cautiously, the beauty of this undiscovered (by any other tourists in the last few hours) crypt became clear. The nearest wall was a maze of columns and intricate carvings with the familiar lingam carving. The lingham, a phallic icon symbolizing Siva was positioned above a bowl like carving representing the female sexual organ. Shards of light came down from small square gaps in the roof to perfectly illuminate the strange sight of these carvings. With the movement of bats and Indiana’s feet disturbing the sand below dust started to rise creating perfect beams where light shun though and what looked like smoke started to rise from the ground. The more Indiana ventured into the dark room to view this spectacular wall of carvings the more the bats began to fly. The gentle noise of fluttering disturbed the perfect silence, the sensation of the occasional bat catching Indiana’s hair became a comfort to him rather than a source of trepidation or alarm.
Indiana Ingram documented the events with some photos and it became the highlight to his trip.

Dinner at the Mango Tree
Every guide book and anyone who’s been to Hampi says you simply must go the mango tree, so where do you think I chose to eat that night? We arrived at the sign marked Mango Tree and a long path which took us through farm land growing corn and then a huge plantation of Banana trees, which strangely reminded me of home, as our garden is filled with them, one of Dad’s favorites I’m pretty sure.
The restaurant is on multiple levels in the side of the cliff/valley which descends into the Tungabhadra river. Tables are just inches of the ground, and a bamboo matt was provided to sit on. Only one side of the table was for sitting on, so I had a clear view of the stunning landscape. As the sun went down on this incredible rock and temple filled landscape, with greenery, mountains and a river I was in awe of just how stunning the landscape is. I had a curry and plain chapatti served on banana leaves, which I assume were taken from the trees just meters behind me. I finished off the meal with a coffee, the perfect way to finish off a perfect day.
There are no words to describe just how amazing the landscape of Hampi is in every direction you can look.
The night was hot, really hot, spent a lot of time sitting outside on the mezzanine as the room was like a sauna, eventually I dropped off into a deep sleep after a long day and no sleep the previous night.

Saturday
A walk along river gave another chance to take in beauty of Hampi. It was a hubbub of activity as local men, women and children washed themselves and their clothes. The women beat saris against rocks while men carried them to the hot roofs of ancient temples to dry. It really felt like a communal event and watching these Hindus in stunning bright traditional clothing washing in the river seems so timeless. The view would have been exactly the same eight hundred years ago just the temples and giant steps that line the river would have been that bit more shiny and less eroded.
The river is not far from the Mango tree so a break for an ice cold diet coke and breath taking view was perfect. The relaxed atmosphere of travelers, gap year students and hippies that had worked their way over from Gokana was without doubt a necessity.
After a mooch around the market and a light lunch I went about the task of bartering a price for the moped I had my eye on renting for the day. Money was exchanged and the bike filled up and I was off on my way. I spent the afternoon wizzing down the roads with the view of alien like rock formation and ancient temples flying by. I stopped at many a temple to wonder in, soak up the atmosphere and have a bit of an explore round. I had to stop for many herds of goats and ofcourse Cows wondering down the roads, I enjoyed myself and felt confident riding. But I do think it will be the last time I get on a bike for a long time, it was strangely tiring and I now know how nice it is to have a metal structure around you when on the roads.

Sunday
A seven a clock start seemed stupidly early, although only a few months ago I would already be at the Royal Institution schlepping cables and dealing with clients. Two of the interns and I grabbed an early breakfast for energy as we knew we were going to need it for a last day here. A walk down to the river was pleasant enough, we stood with a couple of other europeoan people trying to attract the attention of the rusty little boat (with alarming amount of water in it) it take us across the river. Once on the other side we hopped in an extortionately expensive auto rickshaw to the base of the hanuman temple. It was an absolute scorcher, as the minutes went by towards mid day I swear you could feel it getting hotter and hotter.
The Hanuman temple and the hill it is built on is suppose to be the birth place of Hanuman, the half man half monkey face of G-d.
I stood at the bottom of the steps and braced myself for the 600 steps that zig-zagged up the mountain in front of me. That’s over six time the circular staircase down at Camden town station! We were up in about 20 minutes which was really surprising, even though I stopped every once in a while to marvel at the view. The closer to the top we got the louder the sound of chanting became over the speaker system from the temple above. At the top I was greeted by an old man, the watchman, who dried my forehead and chest with his scalf. I have never sweated so much in my life, and that’s not an exaggeration! Realising we had approached the temple I put my shirt back on and had to take our shoes off. I danced across the blistering hot ground to try and look at the view but found it just to hot. I took sheltie from the sun and hot floors inside the temple to regain my breath and give my feet a break. Next to the temple you could walk across the rocks to the very top of the mountain. The view was phenomenal, the giant temple I had a tour of the day before looked like a toy in the distance. The 360 landscape of ancient temple, rocks and winding roads went on in every direction and was breath taking. The breeze made it so refreshing and added to the euphoric feeling that comes with experiencing such beauty. I could of stood there forever, an amazing meditation spot I thought to myself, but the sun was only going to get hotter.
After some time taking in the view it was time for our descent and auto back to the river. The view at the top must be one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It even competes with the view from the piazza in Perugia Italy where I spent the previous summer, and that’s saying something.
We found an amazing rooftop restaurant/hotel filled with friendly gap year students and more travelers where we spent a good three hours. The ceiling and only structural wall was covered in hangings and material, while the floor had huge mattresses and low tables to sit (or lie) at to escape the sun. I must point out that after spending two months in Bangalore seeing a white person is incredibly strange. I feel Indian and like these gap year students our tourists in my country. The fact they see me the same as I see them did make me feel uncomfortable, I guess I’ve taken to India as home and taken some ownership for my new home Kanartaka state.

A little more shopping and the rather more pleasant bus journey back followed.

31st March
At the boys home I lead some sound games for the second time, after building up a two way beat by splitting the group into two I brought the group together so that they were all repeating my sounds again. Eventually I ran out of made up noises and sounds that we could chant in melody/beat kind of way. So I sang to them “ride da, ride da, rythm” and “ride da, ride da beats” in a Jamaican accent. It was hilarious to see a group of 30 kids singing that back to me, but they were all participating and seemed to be enjoying themselves so I must have done something right!

01 April
Today was bath day at the boys home and it truly was a surreal and tiring day. After two months of putting off, for one reason or another, we had got all the towels and soap along with correct number of males to bath all the boys that we work with at the home. As the schools projects are fineshed (for summer holidays) there are many more peace child staff and facilitators with us at the boys home making todays mission much easier. While the interns and staff got all the boys sat down outside, I cut each of the bars of soap we had bought into two. Bringing my penknife was a good idea for sure!
Line by line all the boys, aged 5 to 18 got bathed. The older boys known as the leaders helped out and were increadible. It really felt like the leaders were the older brothers helping the littler ones. They would rub them up and down lathering the soap so that all you could see was white, the boys looked like walking soap snowmen. Once covered in soap another would chuck jugs of warm water over them. The leaders chucking water were in sought of concrete and tiled bath that filled up with water, from there they could scoop a jug and throw it over another boy. Another leader was giving out towels. All the boys helped eachother out with soaping, drying and washing, it really felt like I was witnessing an increadible group/family dynamic. I hung up the towels to dry and had to push naked boys into the right direction as many seemed to want to wonder off randomly. I also had to scrub a fair few who did not seem to like the idea of soap!
After the lengthy, loud and laborious process of washing nearly one hundred boys we then went about washing all the towels. This involved scrubbing them with clothe washing soap bars then hitting them against big concrete blocks (the Indian way) then rinsing and squeezing off excess water. As you can imagine this took a long time, but the kids helped us and in no time the job was done. We could not leave the towels to dry in the courtyard while we had lunch because the housefathers, guards and boys would be very quick to nick the towels (that’s known from experience) so we took them all outside to the car park to dry.
After lunch we took out about 40 boys to play cricket. I sat at the side today to guard the gap in the fence. I also played with one of the newer boys called Rakesh, we have a good game going where he sits on my shoulders and pretends to ride a motorcycle. He’s been here for a couple of the weeks and is the cutest little boy; squidgy little cheeks, cheeky little smile and tiny little fingers. He must be only about 4 or 5, his older bother is in the home too otherwise he would be put in the baby home. It kills me to think that he is locked up and sleeping with all those boys that are as old as 18. Although, the bigger boys are so good and look out for him and carry him which is so comforting to see. He told me his story (translated by one of the peace child staff) and said that him and his brother ran away from their father when some men came to the house demanding money. After a while of running they hid on trains spending most the time on the roof holding onto pipes or whatever they could, they got discovered in Bangalore (not the town they are from) and were taken to the home.
Got the bus home which wasn’t too busy for a change and I’m just going to chill out and catch up with the last couple of weeks on my blog.

02 April
I can’t believe I only have three weeks left, time has gone by so quickly! Although the process of understanding the projects and myriad of challenges I’ve been faced with has been a long one.
In the morning we took out the younger boys and the afternoon the older boys. It takes a good half an hour to get the boys lined up and checked by the superintendent usually but recently its been getting quicker and quicker. In the morning I played football with the younger boys, I think cricket doesn’t use as much exercise. I carefully placed two rocks for the goals and drew all the relevant lines with my shoe in the sand. However it took some explaining that the opposite team has to throw the ball in if it goes outside the pitch, you cant just keep running with the ball. Either way, they had a lot of exercise and it was good fun. I definitely enjoyed playing but it doesn’t take much skill to tackle a 7 year old, so after a few goals I settled as referee. I also did a few laps of the pitch with little Rakesh on my shoulders, he is so adorable and far to small to be in the boys home! Over the last week he is becoming much more confident and chatty which is excellent. He’s going to need to stand up for himself in the boys home whether he is there for short term or long.
Cricket in the afternoon, I sat guard again and plaid a few games with boys that were waiting to bat. I also spent some time with Oomesh. Oomesh is a really sweet boy, he must be about 14 or so and you can really tell he is feeling the effects of the lack of personal attention and love. Whenever he seems me he latches on and hugs me, at this point years of “Ofsted” and youth-work training flash through my mind. I find it uncomfortable when he hugs me, partly I have all that training in the back of my mind which you just have to forget and go with your human instinct. On the most part its uncomfortable because I really don’t want him to develop to much of an attachment for me as I know I’m going soon. It will be terrible and potential very psychologically harmful for him to let his guard down for somebody and to feel that person has left him. I find it extremely difficult to keep this in mind as my human instinct is to give him the love and attention that he’s been lacking and obviously craving.
I know I’m going to have to leave soon so for my sake too, I don’t want to get too attached to the boys (even though I know I already have).
On a lighter note I enjoyed watching two cockroaches dancing around the seat in front of me on a boiling hot, jam packed bus. The wrest of the interns and staff have gone off to various bars and clubs tonight. I much prefer staying and chilling out, something doesn’t quite seem right about going out to fancy places spending money when your working with money stricken people and areas.