Morning Bath, Prayers, and Inner-city Slums

My roommate, Shaun, has a knack for finding the most non-touristy parts of town. She woke up this morning at 6 and asked if I wanted to go on a ferry ride across the Hugli River (an small branch of the Ganges). Sure! So we get 2 other guys from our program, grab a cab. He, at first, tries to take up to a dock where tourists supposedly go, but Shaun points to a specific place she wants to go. It ends up that this ferry is a local ferry that mainly men take to go back and forth between 2 Hindi temples and ghats (ghats, I think, are places on riverbanks where people bathe, have religious ceremonies, and sometimes drop off their dead to float down the river). The ghats on the Hugli are usually only for bathing and religious ceremonies and some are these wide stairs that go down to the river’s edge. It was so fascinating. We took the ferry back and forth and got to see a small part of daily life. We saw Hindi priests “anointing” practitioners with holy water, men bathing their children and brushing their teeth with Neem Tree branches, many Hindus praying to their gods, and even a wedding ritual. I asked Shaun how she found out about this place, and she said she just asked where the locals go. In the last 5 days, she’s ended up at orphanages, a women’s embroidery factory, and a school for the needy all because she wakes up early in the morning and asks where the locals are.

Today, we also went to Sir Syed Schools, a privately funded, volunteer-run school for children living in a slum of Kolkata. Another fascinating experience! This whole trip, we’ve only got to see the poor on busy streets and from bus windows, but this time we had the opportunity to see where they live. Narrow, 2-feet wide brick wall paths are lined with doorways covered by a hanging cloth or battered wooden door. Saris, kurtas, and T-shirts hang on strings throughout. Water spouts near the ground are used for washing plates, feet, clothes and hair. 4’ x 5’ rooms house families of up to 10 people. Courtyards with trash and broken bricks are where children play paddle tennis. The school is in this neighborhood. Finally, a school that is not for the elite. There are people that are teaching this population. It’s not funded by the government even though they have asked repeatedly for money. There is not enough money to educate all children born in India. They rely on private donations and volunteer teachers to run their schools. Some teachers volunteer at Sir Syed from 8am-noon, then take a 2^nd shift job at a government school from 1-6pm and teach night classes from 7-9pm! As we talked about the problems they have in their schools, they seemed very similar to U.S. students who typically don’t succeed in our system. There is little parent support because parents either aren’t educated, do not know how to help their children do homework, can only speak their mother tongue (Yurtu, not even Bangali or Hindi), do not have a space for the child to do homework, and/or need the child to care for other children or help run the family business (usually selling a homemade food product). Most of the children that go to Sir Syed school dropout before Class 10. We plan on keeping in contact with this school and finding out more of what they need. Many of us were moved by this neighborhood and the workings of this community. It’s amazing that this school survives.