I'm starting out with some places that we visited on our Sight Seeing Tour at the Beginning of our stay in India, and then going to to explain places that I visited with my Host Families.
....................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................
..................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................
 |
Lake Palace--A sonnet in stone created by the desire of youngMaharana, Jagat Singh II to woo a beautiful maiden from the Royal Zenna on an island palace in Lake Pichola, His father, expressly prohibited this indulgence with a stern, "Build your own palace". When Jagat Singh II became Marahaja, that is what he did. |
...................................................................................................................................
 |
The Lake Palace Garden--There were many beautiful interior courtyards with ponds water fountain, shrubs & flower gardens |
 |
| The Taj Mahal was constructed between 1631 A.D and 1654 A.D. by a workforce of 22,000 laborers, painters, stonecutters, garden-layers, gardeners, embroidery artists and masons. The Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan commissioned its construction for Arjumand Begum, his favorite wife who died at age 39. |
 |
| A Elephant ride on our first week of sight seeing |
................................................................................................................................... |
| Cori is a fiber extracted from the husk of coconuts used in making mats, brushes, mattresses, etc. White Cori is from unripe coconuts used in making fine brushes, string, rope & fishing nets. Whole villages would engage in rope making. ............................................................................................................................................................... |
 |
| The Carpenter making Bullock Plow |
| ............................... | ||
| VISITING PLACES--I have mentioned Host Families taking me places but I haven't been specific. Maybe I should probably explain more. I was taken often to give talks and show slides at schools and gathering of landowners and farm groups. I was taken often to visit farm CO-OP's. The same concept of CO-OP's in the U.S. but of a much different type of facility, but with the concept of marketing agriculture produce, improving farming techniques, fertilizer and seeds. There would be test plots of seeds and fertilizer. Many had a type of Farmers Market, it was hard to deliver crops very far since bullock cart was the main transport of agriculture products. I was taken to a lot of villages where the whole village was involved in a cottage industry, pottery, cloth weaving, matt weaving, yarn making, basket weaving, rope making, making of brass utensils & pots or pans. Just to name a few. I was often taken to visit Temples. Always thousands of years old, not just hundreds. Parks in cities were another place. They didn't always have fancy stuff like equipment and statues but with the warm climate they were full of beautiful flowers, trees & shrubs, sometimes ponds or streams. I was taken to visit city market places, business and industrial plants. In Gujarat I was taken to visit several Industrial parks. The spooky thing there was to see the USSR flag being flown right below the Labor Union Flag at each business, very seldom was the flag of India flown in these Industrial parks. Maybe one at the entrance. One of the first businesses I visited in such a place was a paint plant. I was asking their daily production thinking it was a daily full time production. The answer was confusing until my host explained they only produced what orders they got for each day. If they got an order for 5 gal. they produced 5 gal. If they got orders for 50 gal. they produced 50 gal, etc. He proceeded to explain the plants got free land, free utilities for 10 years and paid no taxes for that time. The Govt. did this to stimulate new businesses. With everything the government was offering the business to get going, I wasn't sure what the Labor Union was doing for the benefit of the workers. The Govt. did this to stimulate new businesses. With everything the government was offering the business to get going, I wasn't sure what the Labor Union was doing for the benefit of the workers. Without the government aid there wouldn't be a business to employe them. Blacksmiths made rims for wheels or moldboard for plows, perhaps a few other things. Pots & pans made of copper and brass seemed to be made by special craftsmen. Carpenters had more work as there were lots things to be made of wood. The wooden Bullock Plow was an interesting thing. A lot of the far machinery, carts, wagons and other things made by the Carpenter was totally hand crafted with minimal tools, but I was always impressed with the superior work they did. All the village craftsmen [carpenter, blacksmith, tailor, shoe maker, ect] made things with minimum hand tools but their craftmanship was superb. The most agriculture productive and cleanest area I was taken to was at a village in Tamil. The village leader proudly announced they operated under the Communist form of government, which at first made me apprehensive. As he spoke & toured the village I realized it was the pure Communist theory. They labored together, grew everything together and shared it equally together. I was not the Communism practiced in the USSR & other European countries. MAY WE STAY ALL NIGHT---Lois & I returned by train to New Delhi from Bombay. The other IFYE's returned from their last States. We met as a group & went to check into our assigned hotel & found all Hotels were closed because Govt. workers were on strike & Hotel workers were Govt. employees. All youth hostels & train station accommodation were full. In D.C. the 4-H Orientation Staff said if we ever got in a serious dilemma to call the American Ambassador. We figured this was it! Our group leader, Janie, called the American Ambassador & explained we were 9 American college age youth in India on a culture exchange program & we needed a place to stay because all hotels were closed & no other accommodations were available. She got hung up on. She called several times & got hung up on each time. The group wanted me to call, so I did. I called the American Ambassador & explained again, “We are 9 American........'' The ambassador asked how I got his number, “From a New Delhi phone book, I replied” I don't think he believed me. I said your number is listed in the yellow pages. He sounded shocked to hear that, and hung up. I called a couple times & finally said, “We all have sleeping bags, we would sleep in anyone's enclosed back yard”, I figured it would be in a compound with a wall surrounding it so it would be safe as most foreign political representatives or foreign govt. employee lived in a compound. They lived in a secluded little world having everything brought in & were served by servants, and seldom made contact with the people in the city, even New Delhi, which we as IFYE's thought was so sad. The Ambassador finally gave me the name & phone number of an American Embassy worker, John Panos. I called, & after a short explanation John said we could stay the night. KIDS FROM HOME--- We got 3 Taxi's and went to the address he had given. John and his wife met us. We visited with them & got acquainted & learned that they were among the very few foreign personnel that went out into the market place and traveled about the city. They told some funny stories that authenticated their statements, stories we could relate too. They had 3 children away at college so the girls shared 3 bedrooms, Bill & I slept on the living room floor. We spent the evening telling stories of our stay in India, what we had done back in the U.S. & our IFYE group sang songs. After some time John said he wanted to call someone to come over & he wanted us to continue to be just as we had been. He called this person and said. "I want you to come over, we have some Kids from Home.” John had shared earlier they had come to India from New Jersey. I thought it curious that they were from ‘Back East’ & he called us IFYE’S that were from Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, & Kentucky. ‘Kids from home’. We were very curious as to who this person was but John would not tell us. Soon a man, his wife, a teenage daughter and a Jr, Hi. age son arrived. We visited with them, sang songs and told our stories of life in the U.S. Laughed and talked of our experiences in India & had a good time. They ask a lot of questions & by their accent we could tell they were European. We asked them a few questions, but they were more interested in listening to us. They stayed several hours. After they left we ask John again who they were. He then told us it was the Ambassador from Switzerland and his family. HEY TAXI---This little incident happened the last week in India when Bill and I were going around New Delhi. From the beginning of our time in India it seemed like everyone was trying to get a few extra Rupees from the 'Rich Americans'. In India things are priced according to what they think you can afford to pay, there is no set price so you bartered for everything. This really grew old on me so I began to watch everyone very closely. There was a preset fee for Taxi's, whether bicycle, scooter, rickshaw or car. For the car, the driver would flip the meter lever and one rupee would appear. On this particular occasion Bill and I had been trying to hail a taxi, finally one stopped & he got in on one side and I got in on the drivers side. I watched him flip the meter lever and 4 rupees appeared instead of 1. I shouted, ''Bill, bail out!'' and opened the door and jumped out of the Taxi as it started to pull away. Bill followed suit. The taxi pulled away with the width of a car between us & Bill standing there with this puzzled look on his face. I said the guy was ripping us off when he flipped the lever. So the taxi driver was going to get 50 cents instead of a 10 cent surcharge, but it was just the whole principle of everyone trying to get some extra money out of us. Another incident happened in Delhi involving a taxi driver that was a Sikh from the Punjab obviously by his dress, beard and turban. I was by myself, I remember getting in the taxi & he started asking questions, "Where are you from?''; ''What are you doing in India?'', ''Where do you want to go?’', etc. After a pleasant visit he said, "I tell you what, we'll forget the meter, I’ll take you there for $5.'' I accepted. I wondered afterwards if he was really giving me a bargain & maybe it would have cost less if he had used the meter or if he just put the $5 in his pocket & never turned it in to the cab company. Anyway he was so pleasant that if he did get a couple of dollars extra I didn't mind. I mused at myself later and smile at myself now when I remember that.
 First we visited Suresh’s friend, Bill's host for a couple days. and then we visited Suresh for about the same period of time. After coming home Suresh had found a dwarf Russian wheat similar to our wheat that fit their cooler climate in North India. Wheat from the U.S. just wasn’t quite adaptable. He had also put in a false floor between the two levels of their house to store their grain. It served a purpose much like our grain elevators. I met his father & mother, wife & 2 sons, it was a great visit with his family & parents. In the picture at right is Suresh's father, myself, Suresh and Suresh's son. PATNAGAR UNIV. & E.E. ORMISON ----Bill and I ask Suresh & his friend if one of them could take us to Pantnagar Univ., they said sure. So we went & they dropped us off. Bill took me to the office of E.E. Ormison the Dairy Professor from Michigan. He told us some of the humorous and crazy things he had encountered trying to teach the India Farmers better Agriculture methods. He'd give instructions and sometimes they would make changes that didn't work or made it a flop. We had been talking awhile when he asks me where I was from. [While changing states in India we would be in a large city and meet American tourists at a restaurant or Hotel, they would ask me where I was from and what I was doing in India. Most had the concept that Kansas was pretty much in the middle of the U.S. & some knew that Wichita was kinda in the middle of Kansas]. So when E.E. ask me, “Where you from from?”, I replied, “Kansas”. He repeated the question, “Where you from?” I replied, “Near Wichita.” He responded with, "Yeah, where bouts?”. So thinking to myself, ‘’ OK Smart Aleck’’, [actually that’s censored], I answered, “Argonia”. His response was faster than I could have said it, "Oh Yeah, that’s 27 miles NW of Caldwell, 24 miles NE of Anthony, 15 miles E. of Harper, 19 miles W. of Wellington. Then he ask a question that gave me goose bumps, made the hair stand up on my arms and I got so weak that if I had been standing instead of sitting you could have knocked me over with a feather. He asks, "Do you know a guy named Bill Dusenbury?” I was so taken a back & emotionally shocked, I feebly replied in almost in a whisper. ''OOhhhh, Maaannn,..... [actually thats censored too] I answered, ''I got my first dairy heifer from Bill Dusenbury! How in the world, do you know Bill Dusenbury?” He told me that he had been a field man for the Ayshire Assn. in Kansas & Cowley, Harper & Sumner counties had been his territory. {The Dale Wacker Family south of Argonia had Ayshires]. He then ask. “Did you ever hear the singing pipe in Bill's pasture?” That made me laugh & recover from the shock. I said, “No, but I had a lot of people ask me that, who had heard it.” We talked a lot about Kansas after that. He said he had come to Kansas to work wheat harvest 3 years. He said his last year to come was the last year stationary threshers were used, which was probably pretty accurate, I'd imagine they all pretty well went out at the same time. Suresh and his friend took Bill Boheret and I back to New Delhi after 4 days so we could continue getting ready to go home to the U.S. After getting back for home I saw Bill Dusenbury at the State Fair, told him about the encounter in India and ask if he remembered the guy. He said he did. I ask if he knew what the E.E. stood for. Bill Boheret and I had ask E.E. a few times but couldn't get an answer. Bill Dusenbury was pretty sure it was Emmett Ezekiel. I said no wonder he went by E.E. INDIA & FAMILY PLANNING--One topic we IFYE's talked about on several occasions was why people of India were so slow to accept family planning. We had come to the conclusion that education and financial standing were a big factor, but the last day or two I was in India I met a person with a Christian Organization in India that had researched that Question and had come up with these answers. #1- it was deeply engrained in all people of India that they needed two sons to carry on the business and look after the parents in their old age. There was no Social Security, old age pensions, 401K or company retirement plan, no means of support when they could no longer earn a living. #2- With the mortality of children at about 50% you needed to have 4 sons to make sure 2 lived. All the girls that came along didn't count. #3- having sufficient shelter, food and medicine to raise healthy children. Their research showed that if the parents were confident they had the medicine, food and shelter that would allow 2 sons to live to be adults, then no matter how rich or poor, educated or uneducated they were, then they were ready to except family planning. I had learned that a transistor radio was a big draw in getting men to get a vasectomy. But it wasn't to be-bop to music like in the U.S. It was contact with the outside world. BBC radio was popular. Villages often had a radio with a loud speaker & people would gather at night to hear the news. People of India were always asking me what Americans thought of different things going on politically or economically around the world. I was ashamed to admit most Americans didn't know, didn’t want to know, & didn’t care. I could only admit we didn't pay much attention to what was going on in the rest of the world outside the U.S. For India what went on in other Countries often affected what happened in India very much. GOING HOME--We met with Rodge and Natiell again in New Delhi a couple of days that last 2 weeks to talk about our stay in India & give suggestions for the IFYE program. In our visit with them when we first arrived in India they ask us pat questions and we gave answer they knew we would give, pat answers from information given us in D.C.. This time the questions were personal and the answers were personal. It was like visiting with old friends about a country and people we both loved. I grew to Love the country of India and it's people very much. We saw Mom and Dad Wilcox one last time to pick up things & money we had left with them. As I was walking out the door, suitcase in hand, I remembered the $10 money order and the little Christian Church in Senji Post, Tamil Nadu. I ask Mom if she got the money order back and could get a refund, did she know anyone in Tami Nadu who could buy Bibles and send them to the Church at Seji Post. She said she thought so. Many of the IFYE's wanted to go on around the world, but I wanted to return to Europe, mostly to visit Scotland & Ireland. I also wanted to stop in Greece Austria & Holland. |
No comments:
Post a Comment