Talking about our work

We were asked today by some of Amma and Appa’s fellow church members about our work with people with HIV. It seems odd to talk about what is often a very grim subject when we are in such a season of being pampered and fed – when all around us is the greenery of coastal Andhra Pradesh – when we are enjoying games with the kids and long conversations over tea and cake.

But talk we must. Here of all places. Andhra Pradesh leads the country in the largest number of estimated people with HIV. Our dear friend John Forbes tells us that the Nireekshana clinic’s Vishakapatnam branch has registered 1200 cases.

And so we do talk. We tell people about how lives are changed. We try and share the challenges faced by people when the get the disease and find out about it. I shared with the concerned family this evening that we are seeing people’s lives change – but that these changes do not mean that everything is smooth sailing for people with HIV. Each family has their own set of challenges - and once one set of pressing issues is dealt with (which itself is nothing short of miraculous for most) there are often other sets of problems cropping up like mountain ranges just as you get to the top of the first pass.

In everything, however, there is hope. Hope based squarely on the person of Jesus Christ. He who became flesh – and still is in human form – which he will be forever – knows what we are experiencing. He cares. He has compassion. He wants to be part and parcel of who we are. And he wants to change us. He will not always change the situations – but he will always change us – if we let him.

At the end of the day, we see that families who have embraced Jesus are so much better off than those who do not. HIV continues to spin out complex sets of issues in both groups – but those who follow the Lord have hope. Its as simple – and as complex – as that.

New family shot.

We take a lot of pictures – but rarely seem to be in one all at the same time. Well, thanks to Amma’s photo prowess, here is our nuclear family all in the same frame, taken outside Amma and Appa’s home in Tungalam, Andhra Pradesh.

Beach

Sea, sand, kids' legs without shoes on, squeals of delight. What more can you ask for? We are so grateful to God for his manifold goodness that we have experienced this year. Our ultra-short beach visit on the way back from the Zoo is just another example - so many blessings. Thanks!

Zoo story

We had a lovely time at the zoo today. The Indira Gandhi Zoological park which is nestled in between the steeply rolling hills just outside Vishakapatnam. A superb location – this zoo is an open park with largely open enclosures nestled in wonderful scenery. We arrived just as it opened and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the animals with hardly another soul in sight.


Enoch spent most of the day running. He was always ahead of us. Every animal was something new and amazing for him.

And yet the old questions keep coming up. Is it right for these beautiful animals to be in enclosed areas. Some of the cages were clearly not what the animals are meant for.

Sheba was most upset by the sight of two huge bison rutting around a bucket, trying to lick something in it. It just seemed so wrong for an animal of such power and majesty to be rummaging like a stray cat.

Then again, for me the sight of a magnificent white tiger walking across open ground was awe-inspiring. The sheer majesty of muscle and sinew took my breath away. I also came away a little better informed - the signboard told me that white tigers were not albinos (as I had supposed) but rather an expression of a recessive gene.

The sheer blue of a peacock at close quarters remains in my mind. But the black grating of the enclosure also does. The wrongness of having animals cooped up is mirrored by the wrongness of having these magnificent animals killed ‘out there’ because they and their habitat are in the way of the ever widening human footprint. Even as we look at these animals - and the efforts of the park authorities to make at least a semblance of their original habitats - we sense an unease - a knowledge that all is not right.

Perhaps knowing that things are not right is itself worthwhile. We know things are not as they should be - and that points us to an ache in our heart that tells us that we were actually meant to be in a garden - actually meant to be living in harmony with the animals instead of in fear of them (or them in fear of us). The Bible opens with Adam and Eve in the garden - from which they were expelled - and we still feel the homelessness they did. It ends in a city - but nothing like the crude piles of excrement we call cities today - the new Jerusalem is a city of light and life - where the lion and the lamb are together - and where a river flows and a tree provides healing for the nations. That's where our home-sick hearts are yearning for. And that's where the picture of nature - even when framed in the bars of a zoo - points us to.

More statues

I can't help but show you these beauties which adorn the RK Beach in Vishakapatnam.

Exhibit one is Mr. ? The name plate hasn't been chisled out yet - so he (or she) remains muffled in a sheet till a dignitary will come to unveil the statue.

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Our second exhibit is a man heroically letting a dove fly. Alas there is a lady who is far larger than life behind him trying to get us to shop at the CMR Mall.

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Most poignant of all is this statue of Subash Chandra Bose - revolutionary, founder of the Indian National Army, progressive to a fault. A man who even today arouses deep passion in West Bengal where to even publicly say that he is dead (he died in a mysterious plane crash in the last days of WWII) can lead some of his followers engage you in fisticuffs. Here at RK Beach the great man is totally dwarfed by a huge hoarding for Chevrolet - and his plaque looks miniscule compared to the name of a mobile phone provider which embraces him on both sides.

Strange how even the tallest look small when even larger idols are placed behind them.

The village through the eyes of our children.

Lankalakoderu is no ordinary place. Lankalakoderu is a totally ordinary place.

This sleepy village of 5000 odd people, nestled in the rice and coconut bearing bosom of the West Godavari district is not just a 20 minute autorickshaw ride away from the town of Palakollu. This is the ancestral village of Amma, Sheba’s mother.

Coming ‘home’ to this tiny hamlet (no more people than your average Thane slum settlement – but spread out over 10 times the area). Come walk the shady lanes with Asha and Enoch. Take a look at the place through their delighted eyes.
Here chickens live with David Thatha (Sheba’s uncle David). They all go up to sleep on a roost when it gets dark and the rooster has announced his intentions repeatedly.

Here eggs are laid - not bought from the egg-wallah. A warm one – straight from the nest early in the morning is held by Enoch – and soon becomes part of the omelet that the kids have for breakfast. Talk about fresh!

The village has small, shady neat paths that wind between the different homes. Over everything is the green roof of coconut leaves. This makes for a very cool and beautiful feeling all day. It also means that it gets dark quickly.

Most of the homes are small and neat. This is the house where Mummy’s cousin Agnes and her Mummy live. Agnes' Daddy died a few years ago and Agnes now works as a nurse in Vishakapatnam. She came home with us to see her Mummy and brother.

Agnes, her Mummy, Amma and Chunti took us around the village for a walk. Everywhere we went we saw new things. And people saw us too! Daddy was trying to take pictures with the camera. We felt a little like tourists – but it was so nice to be able to run and see the whole place.

Some houses are very nice and made of bricks and cement. Others were simple with mud walls and thatched roofs. Some had walls of brick with thatched roofs. Most of them were kept neat and clean with bright white designs on the road infront of their doorsteps and along side their walls. A few homes were not so neat and clean. David Thatha said that some people in the village have gone to far off countries to work. His own son Wesley is working in Dubai. They are in the process of building a pakka house too.

Wherever you go, there are animals. Especially the great majestic water buffaloes!

Lankalakoderu village has a water tank. Mummy’s great-grandfather – one of the first people in the village to become a Christian – gave his field so that a permanent pond could be made. This is the same pond which Mummy swam in as a girl.

It was fun to bring water to Agnes’ home in a small pot. We saw that our uncles and aunties in the village did that every day. Many times a day.

The village is where many of our relatives are. We did not know Telegu so we could not speak much with most of them – but some knew Hindi – and when Amma or Agnes was with us they would translate for us. It was amazing to meet so many relatives. Most of the people we met seemed to be related to us in some way.

Everything is used in the village. The droppings from cows and buffaloes are collected and stuck onto trees and walls to dry. They are then used for burning in cooking fires.

People also used cow dung to make their floors smooth and to put on the sides of their houses.

In the village, our relatives cook with gas and with fire stoves. Agnes’ Mummy made some special treats for us on our last night there.

The previous night we had a grand meal at David Thatha’s home.

Most people in the village bring water to their homes by carrying it in pots. Asha learned how to draw water from the small well near David Thatha’s home.

Enoch had a bath next to the well early the next morning. I think this was the first time for Enoch to wear a dhoti.

Daddy got calls from Thane on our mobile phone. There is now a mobile tower near by. He told people in Mumbai what we were seeing around us. We also saw pay phones outside some homes.

It was strange to be in homes with thatched roofs and see that families had more than 1 mobile phone!

It was so much fun to play games with our relatives. Here Enoch is playing ‘memory’ against the prodigious talent of Chandu and Lulla – his distant relatives!

We were very sad to leave this place and all our relatives – many whom we had met for the very first time.

We were also very very sleepy as you can see from our final group picture after prayers in David Thatha’s home on Christmas Eve.

Graven images

Besides the statues of the gods – there are plenty of statues of mortals to be seen.

Dr. B.R.Ambedkar has now become part of the pantheon. More people than you can shake a stick at have claimed him for their own. The latest entry into the Telegu world of politics is the film actor Chiranjeevi (him of the 20,000 odd fan clubs) and in his pantheon of heroes that he adorns the back drop of his Prajya Rajam (People’s Rule) party posters – Ambedkar takes pride of place. Interestingly enough, Mother Theresa shows up too.

So wherever you go, there is an Ambedkar statue to be found. A few posts ago we saw Ambedkar at Christmas. This is a more standard version. Note the amazingly pink skin he is painted with. Though he did prefer suits to Gandhi’s khadi, and did have a foreign wife, he certainly did not undergo the kind of treatment that our dear friend Michael Jackson did. It is interesting, though, to see the colour that he has been given. What does it tell us of the place that the “Englishman” still holds in our colour-conscious society.




Then there is Gandhi. We don’t see so much of him these days. For some reason, the Gandhi statue at Tungalam (the village Amma and Appa live in) is golden. The garland around him has withered away to a dark crust. Could it be from his birthday celebrations on Oct. 2nd? We hear very little about Gandhi these days. For all intents and purposes, nobody seems to take him seriously at all. I have yet to hear anything about him brought up in the context of the Mumbai terror attacks.






And then there are various local notables. This gentleman blowing what seems to be a shennai was seen in Palakollu near a prominent intersection. I don’t know Telegu – and he doesn’t seem to be NT Rama Rao. Any gentle reader with Telegu skills who can help me out?









More Ambedkar. This time a golden Ambedkar bust – with a Jagjivan Ram bust to go with it. Spotted at Tungalam. Maybe they like their statues in a golden hue here? This twosome was outside a small school which we pass when we take a short cut to Amma and Appa's home. I had to ask Appa who they were as I could not recognise these distinguished gentlemen. Maybe I need Ambedkar's blue suit after all to clue me in!

What is a Communist to do with all this false consciousness floating about? Well, we are not deep in Kerala, so no Karl Marx or Lenins around. But the humble flag post outside the local Marxist trade union deserves something substantial - hence this concrete reminder of the CITU - complete with local loafer smoking a bidi and Bible verses written on a wall nearby!

Finally, the whole pantheon. Obviously a staunchly Congress pantheon, with Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru on the left, next a very muscley looking Gandhiji, and then various other leaders overlooking a main traffic circle in Palakollu town. Subash Chandra Bose makes a saluting appearance – and I think I recognize Andhra’s own prime minister PV Narasimiah Rao (3rd from left – holding what looks like a cane in his hand). Below these giants of yesteryear – are the film posters of the giants of today's Telegu heartland. There are a bewildering number of he-men and she-ladies (usually half the age of their male counter parts and always wearing far less clothing – the recession perhaps?) that make up Telegu cinema.