india

despite india’s recent economic boom, more than 350 million indians live below the poverty line.  many have become urban poor: living on the streets, begging for a meager existence, and addicted to drugs, yet fighting to maintain the hope that characterizes the human experience.

the salaam baalak trust runs a heartbreaking walking tour of the area around the new delhi train station, delving into the lives of the 2,500 street children living in the area.  20-year old tour guide brijesh tells his own extraordinary story of running away from home in bihar to delhi at age 8, collecting garbage, flirting with gangs, and sniffing glue, before using the support of the salaam baalak trust to graduate high school and achieve matriculation to technical college  on the tour, he’ll introduce you to the street children and provide stories about their relationship to gangs, police, and prostitution.

the experience is shocking.  less than a few hundred meters from a major delhi tourist hub – and the platform for a luxury train that glides through new delhi station every few days – young children on the margins of society crawl under train trolleys, pillage garbage heaps for items of value, and experiment with drugs.  and while the salaam baalak trust has achieved remarkable results in its efforts, the scope of the problem is simply too large for a single organization to tackle.  at the conclusion of my tour,brijesh took me to visit the nearby red-light district: the sight of scantily clad women beckoning at the men on the street from their upper story windows (the better to prevent potential escape) reinforced the horror in his stories.  the sadness and depravity were stunningly, overwhelmingly real.

despite its subject matter, this tour is safe, insightful, and hopeful: this is an experience that will stay with you long after you leave india.

Contact:  Salaam Balak Trust or Brijesh (99100 99348)

high on glue, a street boy poses in the railway station.

three street children in the new delhi railway station.

a teacher struggles to retain his students’ attention at a street school run by the salaam baalak trust.

a street boy at salaam baalak’s school.

cycle and auto rickshaws wait outside of #64, one of delhi’s best known whorehouses, near the ajmer gate.

young, daytime prostitutes beckon for clients from high above the street.

two young prostitutes fight for attention in a window above the street.

low level railway employees make their homes near to the tracks at the new delhi railway station.

delhiwallas from across the city make the pilgrimage to the street-side stall sita ram dewan chand for the best chhole bhature (chick peas in spicy gravy served with puri) in town.  sunday morning comfort food at its best – so good that delhiwallas ration themselves to only once per month…if they can resist!  Despite its incongruous location, sita ram dewan chand serves more than 500 people daily.  a great bargain at Rs24 a helping!

find sita ram dewan chand at 2246, chuna mandi, paharganj. on the same street as the imperial cinema, a few blocks from the paharganj main bazaar.

there aren’t many experiences that will get you into the swing of india like the early morning flower market across from the hanuman temple, on janpath near to connaught place, in new delhi.  at 5 am each morning, hundreds of flower wholesalers line the area to hawk their colourful wares. delhiwallas love flowers; more than us$100,000 is spent on flowers each day in delhi, making this market one of the largest of its kind in asia.  be sure to get there early to watch wholesalers unload thousands of orchids, roses, and colourful garlands out of cars, lorries – even rickshaws!  a great, authentic, and fragrant introduction to delhi’s world-famous hagglers and india’s extraordinary colours.

• 2 t-shirts
• 2 button down short sleeve shirts
• 1 pair of jeans
• 1 pair of shorts
• 6 pairs of underwear
• 6 pairs of socks
• 1 long sleeve shirt
• 1 frisbee
• 1 ipod + speakers
• 7 books
  • the brothers karamazov
  • how to see yourself as you really are
  • the great railway bazaar
  • foucault’s pendulum
  • pale fire
  • beginner’s hindi
  • lord jim
• assorted magazines, guidebooks, and other reading material
• laptop, camera, and batteries and memory cards
• hope, expectations, dreams, ambitions, curiosity and, of course,
• love.

see you when i see you.  read me, write me, laugh with me.

with love - jordan.

most north americans would struggle to understand the importance that film plays in contemporary indian life.  bollywood is omnipresent throughout the world’s most diverse country: bollywood stars grace billboards, splash across newspaper headlines, and own cricket teams.  bollywood itself isn’t merely cinema, but a total business/entertainment experience that inherently includes music videos, ringtones, merchandising as part of the method of expression as opposed to some post-release side effect.  this media is devoured by an imagery (and social activity) hungry public.  while i was in ahmedabad, the public realm debated whether movie theatres should be open 24 hours, in order to sustain the city’s bollywood addiction.

in itself, however, the relationship to film seemed much different for indians than for north americans.  the cinema in india is more of a meeting place, a spot where pre-marriage-aged boys and girls could spend time in relative darkness and anonymity.  the plot is generally not the point - most bollywood movies center on a handful of derivative themes, interrupted only by rich colour dance scenes that bear only a cursory relationship to whatever was going on before and after. india is home to a rich history of filmmakers capable of makin excellent commentary on contemporary indian society, but for the massive majority, pop, colour, sexuality, and music seem to be enough to keep them coming back to the cinema weekend after weekend.  the cinema itself is a sensational experience, filled with talking, ringing cellphones, jeering at the screen, and, of course, singing; pop music is generally disseminated exclusively through current film.  (in that regard, bollywood provides an interesting vision of the future to a north american record industry historically predicated on declining album sales.)

we are so fortunate to live in a society where we can sample the best cinema from around the world.  but for something that isn’t the best, but is definitely lots of fun, check out ‘om shanti om’, ‘dhoom 2′, ‘jannet’, or some of the other hit bollywood flicks from the last few years.  here’s a couple highlights of some of my favourite songs:

the main character in this clip (in the suit with the red collar) is shah rukh khan, the king of bollywood cinema.