Nourish in India: Female Representation in Community Leadership

My most memorable time in Malaaria was the hot afternoon when we were  sitting in the small women’s resource center room on the floor with the entire nourish team, the ladies of the village (leaders of the village I should say), women that had come on foot from other villages to come speak with us, and a Seva Mandir worker, and in the middle of our interview questions our tape had run out.  This was pretty crucial since most of our work involved replaying and replaying each of our footage pieces to translate the information we were gathering from the various interviews.  Although Cayley and I know Hindi, Mewari (the language spoken in Malaaria) is extremely extremely difficult to understand.  We were heavily dependent on getting that info translated in Hindi so that we could take it from there. We had three scheduled trips to Malaaria.  This was our second one.  Most of our work needed to be done before the third meeting, so getting all this on tape was pretty important.  The first trip to Malaaria, memorable in many ways with the bumpy and incredibly dusty one hour ride to get there in an uncomfortably packed jeep (3people in the front, 4 behind them, and 2 in the back), was done to get the initial impression of the village.  You know look at the lighting, look at the scenery, get some footage, and meet the people of course.  During this second meeting, we were actually meeting the women, who would give us their accounts and their experiences which comprises the meat of our video. And before going through all the questions, we were out of tape.

The initial staff meeting with Seva Mandir, a panel of all senior members (experts I should say in their own fields) had made the message very clear.  The Jati Panchyat (the topic of our documentary) used to be a male only platform, even though it was and still is a governing body that acts pretty much like a civil court whose ‘rulings’ affect women with a heavy hand.  These rulings are not legal, but societal and they dictate how people are treated in the village. Many of the cases that are brought to the Jati Panchyat deal with women’s issues, and marital conflicts. Through decades of work, this traditional institution has had to make a lot of changes to have the women’s perspective be heard (this includes obvious leadership from women who despite a lot of hard hitting obstacles keep on fighting for their rights, but also men who have also had to reform their mentality).  Had it not been for Seva Mandir stepping in to create dialogue and space for the women in this village,  the progress of this institution and the fight for equality would have been slowed down significantly to say the least.  This is not to say that things are perfect now in 2009, a lot more needs to be done to ensure equality.  However the catalyst to move towards that progress had been started.  Our task was to show that or show a glimpse of this change through our short documentary (which couldn’t exceed 10 minutes).

After the second meeting, the only meeting we had left was to sit in on an actual Jati Panchyat meeting where cases would be reviewed.  Since that would happen at the tail end of our time there, it was important that the content of the video be gathered before that.  So this hot afternoon, when the tape ran out, the tension was slightly palpable.  There was a definite language barrier.  And these women had done a lot merely to come and speak with us.  And we didn’t really have a prepared back up plan.

So we did the best we could.  We took out pen and paper, went through every woman that was there and told them that they can say whatever they would like to voice, and whatever they wanted to express in term of speaking about their experience in gathering together to collectively mobilize.  Looking into the eyes of these women, who have no desire to be recognized in a formal fashion but are silent warriors in their own rights, going on in their ways of voicing what they feel is right and wrong, was eye opening.  Most of the group members had no idea what was being said, because in that space and time nothing was being translated into English.  I felt myself in this position which felt slightly absurd but unique and rewarding, to be able to understand both tongues and being able to connect these two groups via a language bridge.  For me it was more important to have these women, who have never before seen us in their lives understand that more important than the documentary and filming was to connect with them, and to have them know that we are listening to what they have to say, and that we respect them for giving us their time and admire them wholeheartedly for their life long journeys.

After an hour of just scribing and listening, it was important to leave with having these two groups (the nourish group and these ladies) understand each other’s appreciation.  Being in the spot I was in as the translator, I understood how much admiration each group had for the other, but I wasn’t sure if they knew this themselves.  So all six of us took turns saying in English what being in that room for that afternoon meant for us.  And then the women took turns saying in Mewari what that experience being in that room was like for them.  As the Mewari was translated into Hindi, and as I was translating the Hindi into English, I found myself completely touched by how they were both saying the SAME things to each other without understanding it.  The Americans in the room conveyed how inspired they were.  And what did these women say? They also spoke to the Americans how inspired THEY were that these students were taking an interest in hearing their stories.  The tongues were different, but the emotions were quite the same.  It was truly unbelievable.  I couldn’t stop thinking about how far away we were from each other in terms of language, culture, country but here we were for those several hours connecting with each other and feeling the same emotions.

We didn’t catch any of that on tape, and if I look back on it, I’m very happy that we didn’t.  We weren’t distracted by any equipment, nor distracted by our to do list or our list of questions. Without battery power, or tape, or the video camera, we were able to truly be present with them.  And that afternoon was definitely a day that really impacted a lot of us.

It is easier to blog about my travels now that I have returned from Udaipur, Rajasthan. While abroad, I was constantly reflecting on my experiences, but every time I attempted to write an online entry I'd feel overwhelmed by all the thoughts swimming in my head.

I am so honored to have worked with everyone involved in the documentary process. Our relationship with Seva Mandir was crucial to our exposure to the Malaaria village we filmed and documented. The NGO introduced us to leaders of the Malaaria community and briefed us on the local social climate. Our understanding of complex judicial law and practice in the rural area was basic, but those we interviewed inspired me to think in stratified terms. The women we heard from are beautiful and strong people. Their stories reflect a universal struggle for human rights and progress. They have worked to support women in regards to voicing claims against domestic violence and gender inequality. In particular, I left the village understanding that their fight for change is confronted with obstacles that are similar to those our own country faces.

The editing process was a positive reflection of all our hard work literally "coming together." The footage we compiled consisted of personal interviews with female leaders in the Malaaria village, members of the Seva Mandir women's resource development committee, and those involved in the fellowship program. Our documentary would be a reflection of the NGO's efforts to foster a dialogue between the fellowship ideals for gender equality and more traditional views of the caste panchayat system. Our short film would serve as a catalyst for future sustainable projects within the Seva Mandir fellowship program.

My personal experience with editing was influenced by a new understanding of the potential of documentary film making. In order to communicate their story, we used resources we had access to--cameras, computers and editing software. The community we learned about was advancing and struggling socially, and with that in mind we would help expose their reality. We are looking forward to sharing our short piece with other Nourish students.

06/02/2009

This last weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. We traveled to Jaisalmer, a small city about 10 hours from Udaipur. Jaisalmer is famous for its Jain temples and desert scenery. I think the group was ready for a change of scenery, but we didn't expect to appreciate Udaipur even more after this trip. Getting there and back was a bit of a challenge, but once we got on those camels and starting riding out into the desert, we knew it was well worth the trip. The sand dunes were incredible and the stars were brighter than you could imagine. We knew we riding to some sort of "camp" (which I imagined to be tents of some sort). After riding on the camels for about 2.5 hours, the man leading my Unt (that's camel in Hindi) told me it was just around the corner. I stretched my head out further to look past the sand dune and saw... a big cement platform. We slept on the platform that night with some blankets. The wind was relentless, and so was the sand, but it was beautiful. We didn't even notice the layer of sand the covered our faces (and the rest of our bodies, even inside our underwear!) until we got back to the hotel in Jaisalmer.

The filming is going well. The past two days have been productive... lots of interpreting (some from Mewari and some from Hindi) with Tanvika and trying to wrap our heads around how exactly these women are making change in Malaaria (the village we are concentrating on).

I've been thinking a lot about poverty and my reactions to what I've seen since I've been in and around Udaipur city.  Our group has had a lot of great conversations about the poverty and rural circumstances that so many people live in.  I've often heard the concern that so many people in rural areas "need" development, as if that is the only means of their success and growth in this fast-paced, technological world.  After taking Gangi's class on 'Environment and Society' sophomore year, I've thought  a lot about when it means to live in a truly sustainable way.  People who can actually support themselves by growing their own food, living off the land, and not produce excess waste that ends up harming the environment (and of course this is a very complex topic that could go on for pages and pages...) are the kind of people our world needs to be looking to for guidance.  It's amazing to look around and see the trash that piles up along side the road.  It isn't even just in the cities, it's in the villages as well.  People are eating snacks packaged in plastic, throwing it to the side of the food stall, and not really thinking about it.  It's really scary to think about how fast development is happening in places like India, because the education of how to deal with the fast-paced changes isn't there to accompany all of the changes.  It seems that most people in the developing world (from what I've seen in various parts of northern India, Indonesia and Central America) don't know how to deal with the plastic packaging, because it's everywhere, and it's not customary to consolidate the waste in a specific place, like a landfill (out of sight, out of mind of course), so it seems like Indians are much more wasteful than most Americans... but of course this is what we are seeing on the surface.  How much are we actually learning from our mistakes of producing more and more waste, filling more and more landfills, and somehow convincing ourselves that we are turning in a more environmentally conscious direction?  I'm a bit pessimistic at the moment, but I do hope that people stop pointing so many fingers, and see these changes not as foreign developments, but also as mirror images of our own tendencies to produce more and more waste.  The more we consume, the more we have to throw away, and the more we are tied to our belongings. In a lot of ways, I envy the simpler lifestyle of living from the earth, and not having so many possessions.  In a nutshell, visiting the village has made me think a lot about my own habits and tendencies, especially those that are wasteful.

And women's issues is a WHOLE different topic... more to come on that...

05/21/2009

So I meant to write a lot more last time, but realized towards the end that it was dinner time and couldn't pass that up of course. I've managed to not get sick so far (hoping not to jynx it, considering I got sick on at least 5 different occasions two years ago when I was in Jaipur). The living conditions are pretty baller compared to the non-AC room I had in Jaipur. Granted, the house I stayed it was beautiful and it was a pretty authentic experience for the summertime in northern India, but it was REALLY hot and sweaty. At least when we sleep, we aren't sweating profusely. It is still strange to drink huge bottles of water and not pee very often throughout the day.

We went to a village today for the first time. It was kind of funny because the name of the village was "Malaaria" (but in a Hindi accent of course). The people speak Mewari there, which is really different from Hindi. I tried to speak to the kids and the mothers there (who spoke some Hindi, but not much) and it was kind of funny. I said things about five times and then someone from Seva Mandir (the NGO we are working with) had to change a few words to Mewari to get my question accross. The kids were really adorable, but the families are very poor out there. Most of them were in need of a good bath. It's hard to imagine living in really difficult conditions and in such extreme heat. It was at least 95 degrees today, and its very very dry and dusty outside of the city.

Aside from going to the village, we have mostly been cruising around the city in the mornings until we get really sweaty and tired, take a nap at the hotel and venture out again when we have more energy.  We are still arranging our interviews with Seva to see how this film is going to pan out.  It's been a little frustrating trying to figure that out along the way, because Seva changed their expectations of the film after we arrived, and to a topic that was pretty foreign to us (understanding the Jati Panchayat system).

The first couple of days were really difficult, but taking vitamins I think has made a huge difference! We are lucky enough to have complementary breakfast and dinner at our HO-TUL, but hte past 24 hours have been pretty greasy. Lots of fried bread-makeshift samosa concoctions, actual samosas, and then puri with some cooked veggies. It's hard to get fresh food when you are tyrying to avoid fruit and veggies because of the water..... and the who human feces in the soil situation..... bleh. We saw a 5 year old boy taking a poo in the little water creek on the side of the road today, which was a little disturbing..... we keep making jokes that after we gain all the weight from the fried food, one drink of the water and we'll lose all those kgs real quick. Patrick thinks it might be a good diet plan for weight-crazy americans back home... just export some of the water from the side of the road here! One sip would be a guaranteed laxative!

05/24/2009

This happened last time, but every time I go shopping and have to try on clothes, I have to ask for bigger sizes (being a bigger lady of course) and the shop keepers LOVE to remind me "big BIG size! Punjabi size!" It's kind of a running joke now because I think I've been told that I'm a punjabi size girl about 100 times in the past week and half, and the group just can't get enough of it. To add to it, the cute word for tush in German is "po po," so now the girls in the group (which is the majority, poor Patrick is highly outnumbered) joke about having a punjabi po po when the clothes are too snug ;P

We have been editing our footage for the past couple of days. We have a few interviews with Seva Mandir staff (people who are working on the project that we are filming). The premise of the film is to explain the Jati Panchayat system in a village called Malaaria, which I mentioned earlier. The Jati Panchayat (in a small nutshell) is the governing body in each village, which usually consists of five men. They make all of the major decisions for the village and serve as a kind of court system to deal with issues within the village. There is a lot of pressure on the people to only deal with their respective Panchayat because if they do elsewhere, say to the city, to have an issue resolved, their community with look down upon them. It's very complicated and multifaceted, so it's been difficult for us to wrap our heads around how these systems work in the village and how they oppress women. Seva Mandir is trying to do a kind of women's empowerment program to get woman to be participants of the Jati Panchayat, and to change the governing system itself so that it is more equitable for the women in the village.

I went to the gym with our pseudo host mom Sujata and Ashley and that was a really funny experience. It was super modern and there was extremely loud Euro/old American music/Bollywood music blasting in the background. After only 10 minutes on the treadmill, I was dreeennnnchhhheeeddd in sweat. Even though it was air-conditioned, I guess my body still wanted to sweat a lot more. After that, you can imagine Ashley and I were really really dehydrated. We got back to the hotel and got a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant (as a pre-dinner because we knew that the family wanted to eat at like 10:30 or 11 -- and we just couldn't wait that long).

We are going to Nehru Garden today, which is a poplar spot here in Udaipur. We have to wait until it cools off though, because the middle of the day is always unbearable. THank god we have AC.

No illness yet, yahoo!!

05/20/2009

I've had intentions of sitting down and writing down the events of the past week, but somehow writing only a few emails at a time in the hot, sweaty internet cafe seems likely. But NOW I am committed to writing a lengthy entry with lots of sweaty, detailed and delicious details of the first week here in India!

So I got to Delhi last Wednesday night around 11pm, great time to fly into a crazy country like India when your REAL jet-lagged. Luckily we found our taxi ride to the hotel (pronounced HO-tul in Hinglish) and managed to get about 5 hours of sort-of sleep. We explored Delhi the next day, got really exhausted and took the night train to Udaipur. That was a little sketch because we didn't realize until 20 minutes before boarding that we were actually WAIT LISTED and didn't have confirmed seats (great job on my part, "group leader"). I felt like a real loser then, screwing everyone over. LUCKILY three of us were confirmed since the online attempt to book the seats and we had 3/4 of the seats we needed. We went to the cabin hoping that maybe, just maybe, the fourth would be open. To our luck, we had to share the cabin with a 50 year old strange man. He ended up being really nice, but no matter how nice he was, it was a little irritating... nonetheless! We safely arrived to Udaipur and made it to our swank hotel on a nearly dried-up (but still beautiful) lake in the city. "Hotel Natural" as it's called, has proved to be probably the best place we could have found 9,000 miles from home over the internet. We got really lucky.

Our group has a lot of chemistry and we really get along great. We've had a really great great time together. It seems like we are joking about something every 5 minutes, which is great when you're trying to adjust to difficult weather, not to mention the first phases of culture shock.

In short, we've gotten really used to the city over the past 5 days and feel pretty comfortable. Getting over the jet lag and getting a little, tiny bit used to the heat has made a HUGE difference. I feel like I've been here for months, which is kind of surreal.

Thing I love most thus far: waking up the water buffalos outside our window in the morning. They like to hang out in the water and roam during the day. They're real cute.