Spectacles

The most surprising part about this trip so far has been the way people have been treating me. The way the people in Delhi looked at the group, like we were special, shocked me. We are not a spectacle, they are. It is amazing how little they have and are able to survive. Again at the orphanage the children looked at us like we were strange, yet they are so happy and friendly. No one I have met before has acted like them. Doesn’t that make them the strange ones, the spectacles?

It is hard to describe the interaction between our two apparent spectacles. I had expected hesitation. There may have been a little, only visible in the slight stiffness of our actions. Soon even that was gone. It is hard not to relax when a little kid decides to sit on your lap and orders you in their little voice to teach them a game you play or to share with them whatever is in your hand. The difference between them and me is in the way we approach the unknown. I tend to watch and wait, proceed only once I have determined the way not to do harm. The children do not seem to wait or watch, but jump into the mess and try to sort it out with questions. Where I miss many beginnings, they are using the beginnings to skip right to the end where they already treat me like family. Their questions and actions make me feel like I have known them for as long as I have known the people in my class, although it has only been one day. I am grateful that they have been able to pull me out of myself and into the beginning of my stay with them.

-Kristen van’tRood

New Family

I have officially added another country to my list of homes. This update leaves my abode-like areas as follows: my various familial houses, Naveen’s house, and the Sri Ram Ashram.

When you first arrive, the children are reserved in a relievingly polite way. Equally relieving, but much more entertaining is when this resolve is ruptured by familiarity and the children break into playful comfort. Merely hours into my stay the children no longer parted way for my passage, but rather mobbed me with questions and hugs. They have terminated their elegant silence, replacing it with a cacophony of laughter and loving chides.

Seeing such radiant happiness is somewhat surprising considering the backgrounds that lay in their shadows. Sri Ram Ashram is, after all, an orphanage. How blissfully ironic, considering that this is among the strongest and most authentic families I have ever encountered. So utopian is this family that, should I live in India, I would want my child to grow up here. I want to be a child here. Fortunately for me, I have recently been indoctrinated into this family. They have made me part of their beautiful union, and I am forever grateful. Thank you brothers and sisters for the laughter, love, and happiness you have provided for me.

-Jonji Barber

Integration

The sun beat down on our face’s as we stepped out on a dirt volleyball court. This was it. The game SN has been waiting for: the Mount Madonna Hawks versus the Sri Ram Vidyha Mandir. This was the time for the Mount Madonnians to show our true skill – volleyball.

The game waxed on as our spirits soared. All the cheering in English and Hindi made us happy, and both teams played well. We made friends quickly as we mixed up teams. Everyone seemed so happy, even as we played in the intense heat of the sun. Somehow we were able to communicate in a haze of bad English and even more battered Hindi, as we tried to learn some of the native language. After leaving the volleyball court we went to play Frisbee and jump on the trampolines before we were asked to get ready for tea and then work. The kids were sad, asking us not to leave and to come back as fast as we could. I feel as if I have known these kids for much longer than one day, and surprisingly, here at the Ashram, I feel at home.

-Luke Sanders-Self

Aarti

We got on a Bus from the Sri Ram Ashram and rode to Hari Ki Pauri to watch the nightly Aarti of Ganga Ma. Aarti is a celebration that occurs every night on the shores of the sacred Ganga river (known in the West as the Ganges). The belief behind the Aarti is that Vishnu stepped down to Earth, making a foot print in the river. Therefore every night thousands of people gather at Hari Ki Pauri and take a bath in the river, believing they are washing away their sins as they do.

Before making our way to the celebration at the river’s edge, we bought leaf boats filled with flowers and a candle. The boats carry a special prayer that will be sent out into the Ganga river, carried away by the current.

As the celebration began, the air was filled with flames from hundreds of candles all lighting at once. As I was watching Aarti, a meaningful connection to the project came to mind. Watching all of the leaf boats float down the sacred river, a special prayer harbored in each one, I realized that our mission to India, our quest for Happiness, is very similar to that of the leaf boats’ journey down the river. We, like the boats, have been sent off with a special prayer by everyone who wants us to achieve great things. And, like the boats, our purpose and challenge is to stay afloat against the strong currents of challenge. As we get swept down the river of opportunity, we must ensure that we do everything we can to keep the flame of our journey alive. That burning flame represents all of the people that have helped us get this far, and by committing ourselves to the project with all our hearts, we honor them.

-John-Nuri Vissell

Thoughts on President Abdul Kalam

President Abdul Kalam entered the room and everything went silent. Although certainly not a big man, his presence commanded attention. I had researched him and I knew that he was an engineer turned president. In India, the president is less like a politician and more like a national icon. The thing that I didn’t know and would soon find out was that in addition to being an engineer, mathematician, and national figurehead, the president is also an amazing teacher. The bits of wisdom and various anecdotes he shared were all captivating and packed with meaning. Like any good teacher, at the end of each lesson he shared, he looked around the room to make sure his lesson was learned. He would say “Understand? Understand?”

Generally, his lessons weren’t difficult. He spoke simply and always to the point. One lesson in particular stood out to me. It was a simple equation from a poem he had written. Righteousness of the heart leads to peace in the home, which in turn leads to order in the nation, which ultimately leads to peace in the world. He skillfully built from the individual level to the global level. In his understated eloquence, he answered the very complex question: What are the guidelines we can live by that will bring about positive change?

Before the interview, I spent some time looking through the President’s autobiography, Wings of Fire. In the very beginning, he talked about the importance of prayer. Prayer is something that I’ve always been curious about, never finding it a key part of my own spiritual practice. I was curious to know about how prayer had served him in his life. After a couple of opening questions, I asked mine. The answer he gave was truly beautiful. He spoke about how the most meaningful prayer is one made for other people. Upon reflection, I find that this rings true for me as well. I don’t feel the need to pray for myself, but I can still give forth gratitude for what I have by praying for others.

He was not one to talk for the sake of talking and he loved to keep his students (who were us on the auspicious day) on their feet. Sometimes this was an endearing quality and on occasions it was truly terrifying. He was prone to turn a question back on the inquisitor and at points during the interview I was forced to ask myself who was truly being interviewed. Perhaps due to jet lag, the president’s quick wit occasionally caught us off guard, but overall the interview was a positive experience that I won’t quickly forget.

-Daniel Nanas

Railway Musings

It is about 12:00 am, and I am sitting on the train to Haridwar. Seated across from me is an Indian man, probably in his 70’s. He looks at me. Without a smile or a frown, but rather a look that showcases the fact that he knows me all too well. India had, after all, once been new to him, and he now appears to be comparatively analyzing the way in which I react to my surroundings.

Observing this man, I can’t help but notice the resemblance of his manner to that of President Abdul Kalam. During our interview, those same curious and knowledgeable eyes that now peer at me through curtains surveyed our class. These two men, venerable as India itself both know what I am experiencing better than I do.

This wisdom is some of what I’d like to take home with me from this trip. I believe that if I can harness even a fraction of India’s knowledge, I will be more acquainted and comfortable with myself.

Now the man on the train has noticed the inquisitive reply of yes, and at last breaks into a smile. I smile with him, and for a moment we are connected in delight. But my eyes are still naive and shallow, whereas the eyes of the man, resting placidly above his dancing smile, remain the omnipotent eyes of India.

-Jonji Barber

Homecoming

I keep yawning but I feel wide awake. We’re finally at the Sri Ram Ashram, a place that I have been dreaming about coming to for ten years. We stepped on the sleeper train out of the light rain at 11:30 last night, and I slept despite the lack of room and privacy. At 3:45 am the conductor came by saying Haridwar, Haridwar. I stuck my head over my bunk to see if Prabha was jumping off the walls yet, but that didn’t happen until we got off the train. I can’t imagine the excitement of returning home after being away for three years, especially with the anticipation of seeing so many brothers and sisters.

They surprised us with leis of marigolds at the train station, and our short trip to the Ashram was filled with Prabha’s excited voice finally talking in Hindi with her few brothers and sister that had come to meet us.

I was helped up the stairs this morning by an adorable four year-old. She led me to a room full of dancing girls. Prabha was in the middle swinging the small kids around. I am going to savor these three days, I can tell. I mean how often do you get as many hugs from children as you want?

-Emily Crubaugh

Arriving at the Ashram

We arrived at the train station after a wonderful meal at a Japanese/Chinese restaurant called Aka Saka. The train station was not too overwhelming, even though the train arrived late. Our travel agent Karan helped us to navigate our way through the station to A2, the “executive class sleeper car”. Much to our surprise, the executive class was not as posh as we had imagined it to be. We crammed into the very crowded compartments, some of us getting yelled at for sitting in other people’s seats. When we finally figured out all of our seating arrangements, the four hour ride went relatively fast.

“I didn’t find it to be as shocking or scary as the other students, as I had traveled the train to the orphanage before.” (Maddy). “It was definitely a surprise to me to be in a train cabin with people that I didn’t know and whom I couldn’t understand a single word from.” (Nina)

We arrived in Haridwar, the nearest large town to the city, with a wonderful greeting from some of the kids at the Ashram, and Dayanand, our World Religions teacher. They had flower malas for us, which are like leis made of marigolds and carnations. We all packed on the school bus that they had brought for us from the Ashram. We arrived at the Ashram at 5 am, and all found our rooms, which had welcome signs on them with our names that the kids at the Ashram had made.

We rested for a couple of hours until we were awakened by the children singing and the sun coming up. We took a quick bucket shower and went out to see all of the different kids singing and dancing and some practicing volleyball for our upcoming match.

“The hospitality and welcome that I felt was unlike anything that I have ever encountered before. Within about an hour I had at least three children following me around hugging me and calling, Ninadidi, (didi meaning older sister and offers a level of affection and respect) when they thought that I was leaving” (Nina). “When Prabha had one of the students come and get Emily and I and bring us over to the girl’s dorm to watch them practice, they stopped and performed a dance from the Bollywood movie for us. It was really wonderful to experience their enthusiasm and willingness to honor us as visitors. We just don’t get that kind of treatment everyday” (Maddy).

At ten we sat down for breakfast and had a scrumptious meal that was very filling since we hadn’t eaten for several hours. After that we passed the time sipping tea and getting ready for a volleyball game against worthy adversaries at one. All in all the Ashram has a great feel about it and we can’t wait to spend a few more very promising days here.

-Madeline Weston-Miles and Nina Castañon

The Streets of Delhi

The bus trip from our YWCA lodging to Kingsway Camp was one of the first cultural shocks that I have experienced since coming to India. The bus simply owns the road, driving straight and aggressive, in a sort of constant bluff saying “I will run over anything that doesn’t yield.” Motor and bicycle rickshaws travel in groups everywhere, and in India honking is the preferred way of announcing your position and thus saving your life. To my right an open-backed truck passes, holding what looks like the local Delhi SWAT team. Cows are positioned in random places along the road; one is lying down in a small patch of grass in between several lanes of busy traffic on both sides of the street. A small scooter is pulled up next to five or six other ones, but this one is slightly special. A young boy of about ten is sitting in his father’s lap as his father drives and the mother is perched precariously on the back of the scooter, holding a small child She’s holding it casually, with one arm, apparently without even the thought that the whole enterprise is slightly dangerous. Might I mention that the only one wearing a helmet the driving father? A small village is created at each stop light due to the large amount of people amassed. A young man walks among the scooters, rickshaws, cars, and buses selling slices of coconut. The light turns, and the man deftly dodges the chaotic rush of Delhi traffic. An elephant is chilling on the side of the road, and I am forced to wonder how such a large, slow, animal is able to negotiate an area where space is at such a premium. There are a ridiculously huge amount of walls and fences in Delhi; it’s almost as if everything is broken up in some kind of indirect effort at deterring the ease of travel and freedom of movement. We finally approach Kingsway Camp and the Gandhi Ashram, the area and group of people dedicated to celebrating Gandhi’s life and achievements. It’s been quite an immersion in Indian culture just in our first 24 hours, and I can’t wait to see what else this wild country has in store for me.

And then there were the vikrams…

-Mark Hansen

Life of an Orphan

Passports, visas, curriculum, clothes, packing, everything went by so fast. Even the plane ride, the takeoff, landing, just the whole thing – it was fast. But as soon as I came out of airport it felt like the Earth had stopped. The people here just don’t have the urgency to run after life like they do in America. They don’t rush to do anything. Simplicity in living is everywhere. For example, yesterday we went to Kingsway Camp where the Harijan orphans board and are educated. Harijans are the lowest class in India. They are the neglected and street dwellers. It was really sweet because when we walked into their boarding school’s courtyard, they all yelled “Welcome!” at the top of their lungs. It reminded me of the days when I was one of them and would get really excited when somebody came to our orphanage. The students invited us to sing prayers with them. We had our lunch while they all went to the Gandhi kutir where they do their prayers and also where Gandhi used to sleep. We all walked towards the kutir and saw all the shoes beautifully lined up. The fact that I was in India hadn’t really hit me, but when I walked up and saw their faces, my heart just melted. They all started to sing their prayers and that was the moment when I lost it. I saw the faces of these orphans full of life and happy to see us. They had nothing, but in a way had everything. The prayers they sang were the prayers I used to sing every day. I think they were surprised about the fact that I knew the words. Just those 15 minutes with the Harijan orphans were precious to me because I am one of them. They have been given a home, a place to grow up with love and education. I had the sudden realization that the opportunities I’ve been given, my education, my community, my caregivers are incredibly valuable to me.

-Prabha Sharan

Nirmala Deshpande

During the second half of our stay at the Gandhi Ashram, we were blessed to have an audience with Dr. Nirmala Deshpande, also known as Didi (big sister), who was a follower of Gandhi. She was a disciple of Vinoba Bhave, Gandhi’s spiritual heir, and the man who took over Gandhi’s work after he was assassinated. She walked thousands of kilometers across India with Gandhi’s movement, giving land to the landless. She had a lot of wisdom and experience to share with us.

The interview for me was a pure joy to experience. She had something special to bring to the conversation that few people can. Her experience with Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave was inspiring and incredible to hear about. The many amazing things she had seen and done in her life gave her answers to our questions a certain depth and understanding. I asked her a question that I had asked others concerning our project. The question went something like this, “Part of our work with Project Happiness is trying to make our material accessible to as many people who want to take part. This accessibility includes opening the project to people regardless of religious or spiritual differences. With all of your wisdom and experience, how do you think this can be accomplished?” In her answer she focused on prejudices. She posed the question “Have you ever seen small children playing together?” Her point was that children have no concept of religious differences. They do not think about all of the reasons they should not play together due to conflicting values or beliefs. All they think about is the present moment and just playing. While she was talking, all of the sudden I had a major moment of discovery. For this project, I’ve been working to meet people at as deep a level of thought as I can. I’ve been trying to find gems of profound wisdom in all facets of our experience and I found it in her dialogue. I never thought that the answer could lie in pure childlike innocence. It gave me joy to think that in order to make our project accessible, we may have to invoke our childhood experiences, remembering our innocent bliss playing together in with no prejudices conflicting with the present moment, no complicated thoughts interfering with simply existing together in harmony.

I am very happy to have talked with Nirmala Deshpande. She gave me a new insight on this project and showed me that sometimes the answers to life’s tough questions can be as simple as getting back to our most innocent forms and letting our experience and pure instinct lead our responses. I thank Nirmala Deshpande for sharing her wisdom with us and feel that I have been given a true gift of knowledge through the experience.

-John-Nuri Vissell

Insights

There’s nothing I can write, or even a photograph that can encompass how vastly different India is from where I’ve grown up. I can look out the window of the bus at any given time and see something that resembles nothing that I’ve ever seen before: cows strolling down the sidewalk (if it can be called such, for it’s not always paved) and rummaging through the garbage for a bite to eat. As I ride through the innermost part of New Delhi, I continue to look for that perfect shot on my camera that will embody everything new and exciting about India, but I can never seem to capture the essence of the scene, let alone the essence of the country, which I couldn’t even begin to profess to understand. And yet, everything I see still makes a profound impression on me. The contrasts are stark.

The obvious truth is that New Delhi is nothing like California, but beyond that, one block of New Delhi can be nothing like the next. Government buildings or offices of elected officials can be mere feet away from various stalls and shops whose patrons could only be the most impoverished members of society. The thing that I’ve heard said so often that keeps coming back to me is that India is a multifaceted place, and I’ve only seen one city. And to say that I’ve “seen” New Delhi would be a gross distortion. What I’ve seen are several blocks of New Delhi, each one full of scenes so remarkably packed full of little complexities that I have trouble digesting even those. But there are things that will stay with me, even in the first twelve hours of our journey. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the wisdom shared by Nirmala Desphande during our interview today, or the thrilling vikram taxi ride through the city taking us to dinner which may only have felt immensely dangerous. Looking back on it, I’m sure that the danger was, indeed, only in my mind, because I haven’t seen a single accident and the city continues to function despite what I might perceive as dangerous driving. With this said, I can only hope that each coming day is as full of surprise and delight as this past one has been.

-Daniel Nanas

The Mount Madonna students arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, tonight. After months of preparation and planning it was almost dreamlike watching them push their baggage carts up the ramp to the arrival area.

The students have been working extremely hard to prepare for this trip while in the classroom at Mount Madonna School in California. They have beendeveloping ideas for the curriculum on Ethics for the New Millennium since September, emailing theircounterparts at the Tibetan Children’s Village at Dharamsala, working on questions for interviews, and no doubt dreaming about what it will be like to be in India in a culture many times older than ours. What they have not seen are the preparations on this side of the world where my wife Kranti and I have been doing our annual stint at Sri Ram Ashram (home for previously orphaned children and school for the village children of the area) for the past two months. www.sriramfoundation.org .

From this side with so much help from our friends we have been working on visas for the Nigerians, permits for our film crew, and additional interviews with some of India’s leading figures such at the noted Gandhian and member of the upper house of Parliament, Nirmala Deshpande, and thanks to her an interview with His Excellency the President of India, Abdul Kalam and the top American in India Ambassador David Mulford.

One of the great lessons of The Dalai Lama’s book, Ethics for the New Millennium that is at the core of this project, is that we live in an interconnected world where nothing arises independently. This is exactly the case here. So many friends here have been helping us prepare this experience for the Mount Madonna Students: people like Raman Bhatia, networking to find us help when our friends from Nigeria were having difficulty getting their visas, Vivek Sharma my colleague on the Gandhi Ashram Trust, skillfully following up with the President’s office to secure the interview that Nirmala Deshpande requested from her friend President Abdul Kalam. Every person we asked for support in some way or another has added to the potential of the adventure that our students are about to experience.

After a brief orientation the students have all gone to bed. Tomorrow we will breakfast here at the YWCA in central Delhi, and prepare for our Nirmala Deshpande interview. This tiny woman now in her 70’s was part of one of the most extraordinary projects in Indian history. The chief disciple of Vinoba Bhave who was known as Gandhi’s spiritual heir, Nirmalaji as a young girl joined the Boodhan movement where, after independence Vinoba and his disciples spent 13 years walking through the Indian countryside collecting land and distributing it amongst the landless. Now a member of the Rajya Sabha, Nirmalaji, or Didi, as she is known to her admirers, is a leading proponent of peace between India and Pakistan. We will meet her at the historic Kingsway Camp where Gandhi stayed in the early days of the freedom movement. This beautiful old campus is still home to a small school for the Harijan children who come from the lowest of the casts and who were particularly dear to Mahatma Gandhi. It is Nirmalji’s fond hope to fully restore this national treasure and create an international center dedicated to the Gandhian values and the uplift of all human kind. It is a fitting place to begin our story at this is where the modern nation of India began.

Over the next two weeks these Mount Madonna seniors will begin sharing their experiences through postings on this blog, so stay tuned. Much, much more to come.

-Ward Mailliard

We at Mount Madonna School are so honored and excited to be working on this wonderful project with our friends at the Dominion Heritage Academy in Jos, Nigera and the Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharamsala, India.

In seeing the emails that our students are exchanging and experiencing the developing bonds between myself and my counterparts, Yeshi at Dharamsala and Emmanuel in Nigeria, I am struck by how powerful the basic question, “What is lasting happiness?” can be. It is a question that can take us into the mystery of what makes a human life worthwhile. (more…)