Reflections on my Meet the People Tour in India - Canon Andrew Nunn 

I had always wanted to visit India and so when I was planning the sabbatical I was on the look out for something that would provide that opportunity.  As these things happen, an email arrived at my desk from Traidcraft advertising some ‘Meet the People Tours’.  One of them was to India at exactly the right tome to fit in with my sabbatical programme.  It was advertised as a ‘Basket-Making tour in South India.  To be honest the basket making wasn’t the exciting element for me.  What was exciting was the opportunity that would be given to live with a local family who were associated with this fair trade project and in visiting mainly Tamil Nadu, not an area that is on the usual tourist trail and one that suffered as a result of the tsunami.

However, it did mean that I was going to be exposed to a very different culture and language of which I had little or no experience.  I didn’t know who else would be in the group and I had a number of fears.  The first was the food – I always choose a mild curry when out for an ‘Indian’ – could I survive day in – day out of real curry?  Then there were the toilets – how would I cope? And then, perhaps a Freudian based fear – what would I do if I saw a snake?

A couple of days before leaving for the tour I received the final itinerary – and I became excited, nervous, but excited.  We would be seeing and doing a great deal.  And the group would be small – just 5 of us, so the experience would be intense.

I arranged to meet at Heathrow a member of the group who would be teaching us basket-making skills and we flew out to India together.  Meeting Sandy immediately calmed any fears about the group that I might have had and in fact all the members of the group were fantastic.  We shared a common political stance, which was to be expected, but I was to be the only Christian among them.

We finally arrived at our hotel on the east coast of Tamil Nadu, close to Chennai at 4.30am.  I had to keep pinching myself as I could hardly believe I was in India.  The tour began gently, visiting the famous rock carvings and temples around Mahabalipuram.  It was here that I began an encounter with Hinduism which was something of a surprise to me.  I was expecting to learn about fair trade and life for the rural poor – this was a real bonus!

After two days we left the coast to travel inland to Vellore District to SHARE (Self-Help Association for Rural Education and Employment) a group established in 1992 to empower local women through education and employment.  We arrived at the SHARE compound and were greeted by a huge crowd of women with garlands ready to place around our necks.  They placed tika on our foreheads as a sign of greeting and took us into the multi-faith prayer room that stands at the entrance.  Inside were the symbols and sacred texts of the three faiths represented at SHARE – Islam, Hinduism and Christianity.  For my friends this overt sense of religion and spirituality was something of a shock and the inescapable presence of faith and practice during our time in India would challenge all of us in different ways – and would lead to some fascinating and significant conversations.

After hearing about the work of SHARE we went with our hosts to our homes for the next 5 days.  We were each placed singly, in separate villages, as much as 14 km apart.  I was the first to be dropped off with Kavidar, my hostess.  The village we arrived in, Veppambattu, was very small and basic.  The family were waiting for me on the steps that led up to the compound where the extended family lived.  Some one had warned me before I went about the numbers of people in India and the consequent lack of private space.  The family was huge!

In the house in which I was staying lived Kavidar, her husband, son David (21) and adopted daughter Jenifa (15). They were Christians and members of a local Pentecostal congregation.  Within the compound were three other dwellings containing three other families and Kavidar’s mother.  There were 12 children in the compound and of course everyone was directly related.

This is a poor family.  They had electricity (intermittently!) but no running water.  There was a ‘bathroom’ behind the houses consisting of a large cistern which held the water, a dirt floor with a hole in the low wall which allowed the water to flow out.  They did provide me with a bucket of warm water for me to wash in and a measuring jug with which I could have a makeshift shower in the open air!  The toilet – paid for with my contribution to the family through the tour – was of course Indian style but with the concession of toilet paper for me!

The house consisted of one room with a low divider to create two spaces.  At the front was the kitchen/living room/bedroom and the space behind had become my bedroom but I think that ordinarily some other people sleep there.  Again, with the money I had paid, a western bed and pillow was provided.  The rest of the family of course slept together on the floor.  It seems that David is to be the inheritor of my bed.

The routine of the day began for Kavidar and Jenifa at about 5.00am with collecting water from the standpipe and beginning the preparation of breakfast.  When the men had got up they then swept out the house and the portion of the yard directly in front of the house.  Kavidar washed down the steps and then drew the kolam on the path in front of the steps.  I was provided with hot water for washing and breakfast was served.  This consisted of a mixture of sambars, daals, dosai, idli, poori, sometimes chapattis and on occasions omelettes.  All of this was cooked on the two rings in the kitchen, the breads being rolled out, often by Ama (the Grandmother) on a stone on the floor.  The food was excellent!

Then we left for SHARE, leaving the other women to look after the children, wash, shop, etc.  The junction where the bus stopped was a 30 minute walk form the house.  Of course in typical Indian style Kavidar insisted that her brother take me on the back of his moped up to the junction where the bus would stop and then wait for her to walk there!

The bus rides were amazing – crushed into these vehicles that I doubt would have passed any MOT!  I was the only white person around and so people were desperate to meet me, shake my hand, talk with me and ask me the most amazing questions.

At SHARE we then began the days work.  The women are paid 40 rupees for 6 hours work.  The rate of exchange when I was there was £1=73 rupees. They sit on the floor of the workroom producing a wide range of craft and gift goods from palm leaves and sisal.  We worked alongside them, trying as best we could to weave the palm into something that looked half decent!

Lunch was provided – usually something like a South Indian Tali – a mixture of different curries, daals and rice.

Then we worked again until it was time to catch the bus back to the village.

Life on the streets is busy and noisy.  Waiting for the bus was an amazing experience.  Of course you are surrounded not just by people but also by animals.  Dogs are everywhere, the ‘Indian dog’ as we dubbed them, seemingly owned by no one, cows and buffalo, goats – all of them wandering across the roads, oblivious to the traffic and the horns.  There is the constant smell of food being cooked at stalls on the street.  Huge crowds of children, coming and going to school, on foot, on bikes and on the buses are everywhere.  And then there is the traffic - heavy, brightly painted lorries, buses, cars, ‘tuk-tuks’ auto-rickshaws, motorbikes and peddle bikes all trying to occupy the same bit of road, all with horns and bells sounding, playing the Indian equivalent of ‘road-chicken’.  The biggest vehicle of course wins and if you are smaller then it is the verge or the ditch for you.

When back at the house Kavidar’s work began again, preparing the evening meal, more curry, rice, chapattis – more sweeping and of course getting the room ready for sleeping.  The came the treat – every evening 2 hours of ‘series’ – ‘soaps’ to us – which along with musicals are an Indian obsession.  Kavidar gathered with the other women for 4 series every evening.  Then it was early to bed – all of us – so that the lights could be put out and we could get some sleep before the whole thing began again.

To interrupt this routine a number of special things happened.  On my first evening I heard the bells ringing at the small church opposite the house and Kavidar took me over.  It was an RC church and Mass was about to begin.  It was great being part of that congregation.  Then on the Friday Kavidar’s brother and son took me to a wedding in the village.  Friday is wedding day.  We had been preparing for it with three days of constant music broadcast across the village 24 hours a day on loud speakers!  I was sat in a seat of honour and had the privilege of presenting a gift to the bride and groom.

On the Saturday we had a day out with our hosts.   We made the journey to Tiruvannamali where there is both a fantastic temple and an ashram.  It was a lovely day and particularly good for me to be able to spend time in the relative tranquillity of the ashram.

On the Sunday I went with Kavidar to the early Mass at the large RC church in the village.  It began at 7.30 and finished by 9.00.  I chose this rather than the 4 hour service at the Pentecostal Church.  It would have been good to have worshipped with the family but 4 hours of sermons and worship in Tamil might have proved too much for me.  However, the Mass is the Mass and I could both understand something of what was being said and participate in a rite with which I am very familiar.  The priest who looked after both that church and the smaller one opposite where I lived was very welcoming and said he would have given me the sacrament if I had come forward – but then we both agreed that the right thing to do at the present is to hunger for the unity which we both desired.

Leaving Kavidar and the family was very sad.  However, to be perfectly honest it was the right length of time to be there.  I found the washing and toilet facilities very challenging.  The rest of the people with whom I was living all looked very clean – I felt filthy.  Their generosity with food was overwhelming but I felt obliged to eat everything they put in front of me but this became increasingly difficult.

The other thing I desperately needed was privacy.  There were people with me all the time.  The family and particularly David would sit on the floor of my room all the time until I asked them to leave so that I could get changed.  It was lovely but completely beyond what my life is ordinarily like.  I needed space as well as a decent wash!

The tour then continued taking in Mysore, then Thanjavor and the final destination before Chennai, an NGO close to Dindigul.  ‘Reaching the Unreached’ is an organisation founded and still led by Br James Kimpton a member of the La Salle congregation based in Chester, UK.  The first part of the RTU mission statement (see website www.rtuindia.org for more information) says ‘Reaching the Unreached was founded with only one purpose and aim; to serve the poorest in our area by whatever means are needed and suitable and possible, according to the felt needs and priorities of the people.’

This is achieved in so many ways.  The principal work is providing homes for orphans.  Many of these are girls abandoned by their families – female infanticide is still an issue.  Some are orphans as a result of HIV/AIDS and some of the children are themselves infected.  Some have recently arrived as a result of the tsunami (interestingly there was a problem with faith-based organisations helping tsunami orphans.  The Indian government banned such organisations from taking orphans because American evangelical groups were muscling in with a mission imperative – so places like RTU were not able to help even though they had rapidly built new accommodation to help the children).

They children are all put in mixed age family units with a ‘mother’.  The mothers are usually abandoned, rejected women who are also helped by RTU.  There are always 7/8 children in each home.  The mothers cook and wash for the family to make life as ‘normal’ as possible.

The children are educated in a primary and secondary school which have been built on site (at lunch the kitchens cook for 2000 children and staff) and RTU becomes their family.  Br James even arranges the marriages of the children when the time is right and financial support if given for those going on to higher education.

RTU began with the provision of a simple clinic and grew form there.  Health care and education continues to be an important piece of work.  In addition there are employment schemes, weaving, batik, tailoring, the manufacture of concrete blocks and roof tiles.  These are sold through the fair trade scheme including via companies such as ‘People Tree’.  Beyond this RTU runs a large credit union that covers 28 villages and is completely into the empowerment of women.

The place is beautiful, clean, ordered and the people and children are obviously well cared for.  Br James is inspirational.  We stayed there for 24 hours and had a fantastic time.  We sang and danced for the children and they sang and danced for us.  What they made of our demonstration of the children’s game ‘Oranges and Lemons’ I will never know – but they did ask for something cultural.

The tour ended back where we began in Chennai.  I hope that I have given the impression that it was fantastic – because it simply was.  For most of the time I wanted to cry – because I was so happy, because the people were so kind and because they lived so simply and I had forgotten how to do that. I will never forget my experience.