Pune and volunteering

In every touristy city we've been to here, there's one German Bakery. It doesn't really have german things in it, just croissants, cinnamon rolls, apple pie - things like that. It's the place where you'll see loads of foreign visitors, sucking on lassis and reading their lonely planets.

A week before we arrived in Pune, a bomb went off in the local German Bakery, killing 16 and wounding 40. Hmm. Before planning to come to India to spend some time working, I'd never even heard of Pune. Now this little town of 4 million is front page news, now? Why now? Seems unreasonable.

But then, I figure, it has to be one of the safest places on earth now. Who ever heard of terrorists striking the same place twice?

But foreigners are a target for the pro-conflict islamic/pakistanis. It's an attempt to hit India money-wise and start up the war again. It kind of sucks, you feel a bit like a pawn in a game you never stuck your hand up for. Stupid extreme people.

We get into town at about 4am, and are picked up (!!) the luxury... then taken to our host's house for a 4 day stay. It's time to be trained how to volunteer. The people at Interserve are great, we spend our days with a bible study first (has anyone else noticed that Psalm 139 is amazing? ahhh), then lessons on Hinduism and Islam (answering loads of questions in my head about things I've always wanted to know), Indian culture, common pitfalls for us individualistic, argumentative westerners and stuff like that.

Indians on an individual basis like to preserve peace and harmony with everyone (if we are speaking groupwise then rioting is ok). We on the other hand like to debate, sort our right from wrong, seek justice and stick to the truth etc etc. For Indians generally, the truth is kind of nebulous, it just has to fit the situation to preserve harmony. These differences have countless implications when you converse with a local, you have to kind of make yourself remember and stop pretending that everyone here thinks just like me.

Hinduism and India are almost mutually exclusive. It's fascinating and a little unsettling. Also, learning a bit more about this religion has made me realise that some crafty persons took a look, plucked out a few ideas and created (1) post-modernism AND (2) modern 'religion' both. By modern religion I mean the popular idea that god is in every one of us (or we can all be gods), we just need to get inside ourselves, find peace and meditate, we can do anything, and everything will be OK.

Who knew? Feels almost like a cut and paste for both schools of thought. Ah, there is truly nothing new under the sun, only new people to take things up and think they are new (and shiny).

Anyway, 3 days of class with some other fledgling volunteers was cool. It was nice to be able to laugh about a lot of what we had experienced here already - and not feel like the odd ones for a while. We bought new local clothes (them's the rules for our women's home for the next two months), exchanged read novels for unread ones at the luxuriously big bookstore (just starting one flew over the cuckoo's nest, and bought a jack reacher to indulge the laaazy side of my brain) and found some supplies: Jalepeno pringles (oh yes), some cadbury chocos etc. We visited the blast sight, the exploded German Bakery. Never seen one of those before, eerie as. It's very close to an ashram, where lots of middle aged western people live, used to be run by a famous sex guru. All the ashram folk wander around in long red robes.

Oh yes, and got my shoes stolen. Eyes roll heavenward - but it's kind of funny now. We had survived the Taj Mahal, had even watched Slumdog the night before losing my shoes.... We were visiting a Hindu temple with the Interserve folk in the afternoon, so shoes off of course. Everyone does, same pile, but mine are white and flouro yellow nikes.... oh how I miss you, my flash shoes. Far too tempting in hindsight. And even though it's a holy place, to be fair I don't even have a caste, I am as bad as an 'untouchable' (the people you shouldn't touch or eat with or you'll need to pay some priest and purify yourself for a week), so stealing from me isn't even a bad thing. Karma remains all good for the new owner of my dirty but pretty underneath shoes.

We leave for the village we will call home next, one hour out of town.