Published in the Livingston Enterprise May 6th, 2008.<\/p>\n
Bike trip pauses battle with Indian traffic to smote rural poverty\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Three gaudily decorated trucks careened down the road towards me.
\nBehind me, a cacophony of deafening horns indicated another convoy
\nfast approaching from the rear.\u00a0 The road being barely wide enough to
\naccommodate two trucks, I had to jump my loaded bike off the pavement
\nand onto the rock and refuse-strewn shoulder.\u00a0 The trucks roared past
\nme, not slowing a bit.\u00a0 I regained the road, only to be forced off a
\nfew moments later by more trucks.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It took us little time to discover biking on India’s national highway
\nwas no fun.\u00a0 For a major road, the traffic is light, but passing cars
\nleave no room for bikes.\u00a0 Luckily, India has a considerable network of
\nsmall roads that wind casually through the countryside.\u00a0 On these, we
\ncould take time to enjoy the fresh green rice paddies gliding all the
\nway to the horizon, the huge trees standing protectively by the
\nroadside, and the small villages clinging to high spots.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because it is impossible to legally bike through Myanmar, we
\nreluctantly boarded a plane in Bangkok, Thailand that took us across
\nthe Indian Ocean to Kolkata, India\u00a0 We intended to push as far west as
\npossible.\u00a0 Although other routes to Europe from Thailand exist, they
\nwould involve considerable time, and would have forced us to bike over
\nthe Himalayas in late winter.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Flying meant missing out on the gradual changes to which biking had
\naccustomed me.\u00a0 While I missed easing into Indian culture, I wasted no
\ntime appreciating it.\u00a0 Kolkata, unlike most Chinese cities was never
\nrazed to the ground and rebuilt.\u00a0 Decaying stone buildings erected by
\nthe British connect one with India’s past. Rebuilt fifties-style
\nautomobiles serve as taxis, and streetcars, rickshaws, bikes, ancient
\nbuses and motorcycles compete with pedestrians for street space.\u00a0 Few
\ncities possess such energy as Kolkata’s bustling thoroughfares and
\nback alleys.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The women of India wear the most striking fashions I’ve seen on the
\ntrip.\u00a0 Bright saris and shalwar kameezes in pastels and neon colors
\nset women apart from the drab clothes of their male counterparts.
\nHowever, it seemed the women were always on the move.\u00a0 They rarely
\npaused in their march through the streets.\u00a0 They never sipped chai
\nfrom the many stands around which men constantly gathered.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In Southeast Asia, women were almost always the owners or proprietors
\nof restaurants and hotels.\u00a0 However, in India, I rarely talked to any
\nwomen, because men exclusively worked in the shops and restaurants.
\nWomen, it seemed, remained at home, and I only saw them on the street,
\nhurrying from one place to another.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After acclimatizing to our new environment, we set out on our bikes
\nto visit a friend of mine doing development work north of Kolkata.
\nThe organization with which he works, Street Survivors India, is run
\nby a woman named Shabnam Veraswamy.\u00a0 This woman, with her perfect
\nEnglish, staff of workers, and private car, seems out of place small
\nIndian village.
\n Her organization aims to increase quality of life in the countryside
\nby providing education and work opportunities.\u00a0 They focus on women,
\nwho not only usually take more responsibility for raising families,
\nbut are more vulnerable to exploitation due to the patriarchy still
\nalive in parts of India.\u00a0 By increasing their knowledge and
\nself-reliance, Shabnam hopes to help not only them, but to raise the
\nstandard of living for the whole village.\u00a0 She saw in our ability to
\nplay music an opportunity to widen the horizons of village life.
\n Consequently, we found ourselves on a stage in front of the Street
\nSurvivor’s compound, lit by lights powered by a generator thumping
\naway nearby.\u00a0 Sound equipment amplified our voices and instruments so
\nthe crowd of villagers could hear us over the generator.\u00a0 Ironically,
\ndespite our location in the middle of the undeveloped Indian
\ncountryside, it was our biggest and most technically sophisticated
\nconcert.\u00a0 Between Shabnam’s spirited explanations of our mission and
\nthe novelty of watching foreigners, we held everyone’s attention until
\na storm threatened rain and everyone retreated to shelter.
\n Later, we visited the Jalgriti School, another Street Survivors
\nproject, and one of the best hopes for empowering the girls and boys
\nin the village.\u00a0 It was the first day of school.\u00a0 Crowds of excited
\nchildren strolled about the grounds in their snappy brown uniforms.
\nYounger children wailed their anxiety.
\n The school had not yet hired a music teacher, so we filled in by
\nplaying for the music classes.\u00a0 We gave those children brave enough to
\ntry brief lessons on how to play the instruments.\u00a0 They impressed me
\nwith their excitement and intelligence.\u00a0 It occurred to me that many
\nyoung minds would go to waste were it not for the school.
\n Regretfully, we took our leave of Katna and headed back on the road.
\nThough we felt welcome and helpful in the village, we still had a long
\nway to go.\u00a0 Our mission is not to fully understand one area, but
\nrather to better comprehend many areas, so we returned to do battle
\nwith the horns and exhaust and baroquely bedecked trucks.\u00a0 Now,
\nhowever, we had a much better appreciation for education’s role in
\nbeating back rural poverty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Published in the Livingston Enterprise May 6th, 2008. Bike trip pauses battle with Indian traffic to smote rural poverty\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Three gaudily decorated trucks careened down the road towards me. Behind me, a cacophony of deafening horns indicated another convoy fast approaching from the rear.\u00a0 The road being barely wide enough to accommodate two trucks, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-here-you-will-find-the-posts-that-jim-wrote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/0708.fueledbyrice.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}