Madeleine’s Travel Blog

Tuesday, December 22nd 2009

A haunting call echoes through our living room. No, it is not the amplified sound of the local Muezzin, but a second, immediate imitation by its newest interpreter, a gentleman currently going by the name of Mistar Grrrrreck.

We are two days into our stay in Bangalore, 3 days out of Shanti Bhavan school life. The Shanti Bhavan children remain with us in spirit, however – our current favourite colloquialisms, besides ‘Mistar Grrrreck’, are using ‘paining’ instead of ‘hurting’ (ie ‘my arm is paining me’) and constant references to a rather primal State game we filmed the younger students playing, called ‘Kabadi’, which involves pouncing on one’s opponents and forcing their heads to the ground, all the while calling out ‘Kabadi Kabadi Kabadi’. You’d have to see it to understand it, and even then it requires a certain amount of explanation. The guys picked up on the instructions a lot faster than I did, and seem to have formed a particular affection for the word ‘Kabadi’. Everything is ‘Kabadi’ now. And chanting it at any time appears to be constantly entertaining as well. I am perpetually impressed with their ability to find amusement in the same thing over and over… While perhaps not having the same affection for the term, I definitely appreciate its success in generally causing amusement. If never-ending repetition helps ease the long work days, dirtiness, and general chaos that seem to be forming a structure for this trip, I’m all for it!

All in all, things have been going pretty well. It was fun being back at Shanti Bhavan, I was surprised at the number of students who remembered me. Some even confused me with Evy, and a number of them wished to know if I remembered teaching them line-dancing two years ago – as if I could forget being completely put on the spot in terms of teaching a ‘typical Canadian dance’, and Evy’s and my late-night attempts at creating new line-dancing moves because we’d both forgotten how it should really go!

The guys’ first introduction to the children was pretty great. We arrived late on Thursday night, and so on Friday morning I took them on a little tour of the school grounds before breakfast. As we made our way around, we accidentally stumbled upon the first to sixth graders morning exercise session. Aunty Shanti Mary, upon our arrival, encouraged the children to ask us questions – as the sun rose over the reddish floor and green half-walls of the basketball court, we were swarmed by a mass of children wanting to know everything about us, from our names, ages and countries of residence, through our favourite colours, film company names, and how we’d heard of Shanti Bhavan. ‘Miss, Miss, do you remember me?’ was a common one for me, as I struggled to recall names like ‘Bharat’, ‘Puneet Kumar’, and ‘Gayathri’. On the whole I think I did ok, my particular classes from last time seemed impressed at least.

We were limited in terms of filming the older grades through the first weekend, due to their taking exams, which put a slight hold on production – a delay that I found to be a little distressing. Fortunately we were able to kick into full gear as of Monday though. It’s been rather crazy since then. We did interviews with all of the twelfth graders, as well as the principal, vice-principal and class teacher, and those were really great. I enjoy the rapid low-down on a person’s life and thoughts that a documentary interview can provide. I don’t think I’m digging immensely below the surface or anything, but it’s nice to get at least a sense of character.

School closed for the holidays on Sunday, and we’ve been living in Bangalore since Monday. We’ve visited two homes of children so far, with plans for several more. Originally we were only going to spend time with a couple of the students and their families, but for a variety of reasons that hasn’t ended up being as feasible. For one, the home life of the children is hard to determine without seeing it. Also, parents/family members & community need to be willing to participate, something which requires at least a basic initiation. Unfortunately I think the longer visits will have to be on a separate trip.

That’s all I have to write for now - we’re enjoying our first real day off since we started filming the older grades today, and it’s time to go for food!

It’s Christmas Eve here, and if all goes well we’ll be spending part of Christmas day in a Stone Quarry. At this point, that would be the ultimate Christmas gift! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!