Delwara and I have entered into a cautious truce, and the last two days have been quite enjoyable. Wednesday was the turning point, when after two days of the old frustration I went in desperation to Chandrika back in Vikas Samiti and asked if there was anything else I could do besides the Delwara project. She suggested that rather than trying to do something outside Delwara I could try to do more within Delwara. In particular, I could organise a careers fair. Having been to a few of these myself, I find it hard to imagine replicating even the most basic ingredients in Delwara, let alone the bustling stalls, glossy brochures and powerpoint presentations typical of such events. In the spirit of a good challenge and a good joke I have taken it on.
Meanwhile, there are still frustrations, mainly the product of having to depend on other people’s availability and working with a language barrier. Mohan, the boss, although fundamentally decent, is hard to work with. Unless you have his full attention, usually only obtainable through a specially arranged meeting time, it is entirely useless trying to communicate with him because he simply doesn’t concentrate. With Haider, I have long discussions about our various projects – the DSK youth training, and now the careers fair – and although he generally agrees with me and respects my ideas without being unhelpfully subservient, he never gives me the impression of having fully grasped and retained everything and it sometimes feels like we have to start from scratch each time. We generally speak in a sort of Hinglish – me skipping between the languages with an unmerited air of ease, and Haider sticking doggedly to English (where so many sentences seem to start: “But Jon!”) and occasionally reverting to Hindi to explain something difficult, which is usually beyond the limits of my understanding anyway.
Still, there are rewards. I feel that somehow in all this tangle I am contributing something - in ideas, in organisation and a determination to get things done. Since yesterday, as a preliminary to thinking about the careers event, I have been traipsing round the town and talking to young people in an attempt to get an idea of their career objectives inasmuch as they have any. These range from the obvious, if unlikely, paths of teaching and medicine to the more unexpected but very understandable aspiration towards hotel work (Devigarh looms large in every sense) and samajik (social work), the seemingly cushy option of a largely office-based job at the Nagrik Vikas Manch. One boy even told me of his ambition to make films about the life of the surrounding village, while a number of others expressed an interest in working with mobile phones, in some unspecified way.
My trips around the town have also allowed me to meet new people and strengthen existing alliances. I can’t walk five paces without encountering Javed and Shaheen, a pair of charmingly raffish self-appointed tour guides who are Delwara’s answer to Hari and his colleagues. They hang about near the entrance to Devigarh and ingratiate themselves with the millionaires who venture out to explore the town (“So many gay people from Denmark” as Javed put it) and usually end up pocketing a handsome tip. They are regulars at the Nagrik Vikas Manch and make it a point of honour to know exactly what I have been doing and what I am about to do, and even seem to have acquired that indefinable tourist-ville knack of appearing just a little above everything.
Next Post - Saturday 6th January 2007: Delwara (will be posted Friday 6th January 2012)
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