I faithfully did my work on Monday, grading the 38 semester term examinations for my English students. Those 38 reasons enough not to profess teaching as a formal career choice. Never the less the work was done and continued to do work on the NGO website. It’s beginnings are coming along nicely.
Tuesday I embarked on a journey to Delhi to spend the night with a group of friends before I would join students from the school the next morning to Kolkata. The journey from the school to this eastern region of India would be a distance of 2200km by land, primarily railways as our means of transportation.
Upon arrival in Kolkata, our group of 31 students, 4 teachers (including myself), and 1 guide proceeded to the hotel. On the train journey I finalized documents to send into an undergraduate journal for consideration to be published. An exciting prospect, thus as soon as we reached the hotel I logged onto the Internet and sent in the necessary documents before the deadline.
Being the youngest teacher of the four by far, added to the curiosity of my being foreign, attracts continuous attention from the students to me. An entertaining blessing that doesn’t have a pause button. Throughout the weeks activities there would always be at least one student on my side asking me about this or that, and I happily oblige in conversing with them.
Kolkata is on my top list of the Indian cities I’ve visited, I found that it seemed much more organized and maintained then other cities. In part, I’ve been told, this is because of the exuding influence that has been left over from the time when Kolkata was the capital of the British East Indies Company. The traffic police controllers with their bucket helmets were just one of many examples. Of course, an ever bigger obviousness of the British exists with Queen Victoria’s Palace jutting out of the city skyline. Visiting the place put me right back into Europe with its roman styled columns and Victorian architecture. It’s Indian touch altogether there with white marble reminiscent of the Taj in addition to lack of general maintenance.
A nice change for the week was the cool, although certainly rainy weather versus the normal 35 degree Celsius with humidity in the village (I will say I think I’ve been handling it very well!). The rain was pattering down on us as we took trips through the extremely crowded market places, along with thunder when we walked along the riverside. On one shopping trip, after chaperoning a group of buys for their purchases I was finally allowed to pick out a button up to wear. The boys helped me in picking out the right style and quality, and when I was ready to pay the marked price that I thought was reasonable, one boy pushed it down another 10%. I won’t complain!
The trip has been a load of fun and was a good experience for me to get to know the dynamics going on in the lives of Indian students. Much like my high school days it’s full of the usual drama, boys and girls flirting, as well as the urge to have dance parties. Differences certainly exist, mostly in regards to how students think of their teachers and elders, mostly about how worried they are if their teachers might catch them in doing something wrong or breaking social norms about gender relations. This last bit was always especially alarming. When I was in high school if students were dating each other it wasn’t always the biggest deal. Teachers would know and frankly if it didn’t disturb class time they could care less. The students here hide every bit of that knowledge from their teachers. They shared with me who is going out with who and all that under the assurance I wouldn’t speak about it with the other teachers. Clearly these are the effects of a society still deeply holding into its ideals of arranged marriages and parents living with children after their working age is over with. It brings me back to studies in economic history that have shown that when love marriages became the main way of family regeneration in other societies (both Western and East Asian), societies thrived more. Many causes and effects are not being considered here, but for me it makes me believe India has a long way to go before it can claim the super power status so many of us in the West believe it is ready to have (myself included). India has a long, rich, and varied history by area. It’s a country I can respect and as many of its own inhabitants want the modernization of India to continue at a rapid pace, it must embrace change. This will be the most difficult part.
This coming week I’ll be taking on English classes full time for the next 8 weeks. At that point the end of my trip to India will arrive and it will be back to the Netherlands and then the states for me. 8 weeks is certainly a nice chunk of time and it will be sure to go by fast. Time to plan the details out! Until next week!
