Unhealthy Ideals

Time to take a break from the tourism posts and write about about something I've noticed in my time here that is slightly disturbing and difficult to address.
In England and the Western world we undoubtedly have unhealthy beauty ideals to do with weight shoved down our throats on a daily basis in the media. Achieving the 'perfect' weight thankfully doesn't seem to be a huge concern here, but that's not to say Indian media doesn't have it's unachievable ideals.
From the day I first stepped into a supermarket in Trichy I was stunned by the amount of 'whitening creams' and 'lightening creams' on offer from numerous different brands.
Not only this, but the beauty salons offer 'bleaching treatments' as standard and the magazines are packed with images of impossibly pale Asian women who look nothing like the real women of India. At first it tickled me and I thought it ironic that in England people strive to be more tanned and crispy looking to the point where they pay money to risk skin cancer on tanning beds, whereas in India they are bleaching their skin to achieve the opposite result.

I choose to ignore and make a mockery of the hideous beauty publications in the UK who obsess over who looks lumpiest in their bikini this week or who has achieved the most fabulous beach bod. But I can't help but think that if every one of my favourite movies, which was supposed to be representative of my culture, showcased a female star who's skintone was completely different to the one I saw in the mirror, I would eventually be affected by it.

To me it's sad that the norm is chemically changing the colour of your skin to the point where you resemble a different race. Every skin colour is beautiful and the media should be reaffirming that not encouraging even more unhealthy ideals.

Tanjore

2/08/14

Saturday was a lovely day. Me and the two Finnish girls I am staying with ordered a cab to take us around for the day (a service which would cost a bomb in London!) and we travelled about an hour to Tanjore to see the Brihadeeswara temple. The temple grounds were amazing and grand and had a calmer atmosphere than Trichy's Sri Ranganathaswarmy temple which was packed with merchant stalls. These temple grounds were large and spacious so we took a leisurely walk around to visit all the shrines. I enjoyed visiting each shrine and meeting the priests, each with something different to say and a different coloured powder to rub on my head or liquid for me to drink. A little Indian girl ran up to me, shook my hand and said "happy friendship day", which was a small exchange of kindness that left a lump in my throat. Another woman and her husband asked to take a photo with me, which was strange but they were friendly and we walked for a while together chatting. School children flooded the temple grounds and young girls lined up to whisper their secrets in the ear of a cow statue. It was a place of calm but at the same time life, a place for all ages and walks of life.

After exploring the area a little we took the cab back to Trichy and ended up getting head massages from a beauty parlour in town. Whilst there we found a flower shop so thought it would be nice to buy some flowers for the special party we were attending the next day. From what I gather, flowers are mostly reserved for weddings here but we wanted to buy them to give with chocolates as a European style gift.

In the hotseat

30/07/14

Today at school the year 6 Tamil teacher asked if her class could interview me with some questions about England. When I sat in the hotseat, the children approached me one by one with fear in their eyes as if I were some kind of ravenous monster, and nervously whispered their questions to me. One of the strange ones was "What is your national bird?", to which I answered "err.. Pigeon?" (that one flew straight over their heads.)
One child asked what mountains we have and I couldn't remember a single one, how embarassing! To the question "what festivals do you have?" I struggled to think of anything other than easter and Christmas. Overall they must have thought I had a very strange lack of knowledge about my own country. I made up for this next lesson by taking in some photos I'd found on my phone of famous London sights.

Note to self: brush up on being British.

Sri Ranganathswamy temple

29/07/14

Today was a national holiday so in the evening Simi and Sathappan took me to see one of Trichy's most famous temples.  The locals do most things late in the day here because it's cooler, so I got to walk through the temple grounds just as it was turning to dusk. There were a few different brightly coloured temples and 49 separate shrines. Simi was a great tour guide and told me stories of the different Hindu gods and their different names and incarnations as we walked around the temple grounds. My favourite story was that two of the shrine buildings that were next to each other are dedicated to a god (the name escapes me- there are so many) and his wife. Through the day these gods stay separate in their own shrines and at night the temple priests take ash from both shrines, mix it together and scatter it around both buildings so the gods can be together at night. The whole of the temple grounds smelt of the incense that was burning in every shrine combined with a delicate scent of Jasmine flowers. 

Even through there were market stalls in every corner of the grounds and the constant beeping of scooters and cars, it was a very calming and spiritual atmosphere. 

Tamil movie madness

Evening of 28/07/14

After going for a huge spicy meal with some of Simi and Sathappan's* family, they all took me to the cinema.
The cinema car park was packed with families and the film started at 11:30. Inside the cinema was HUGE and there were big fans all around which blasted cool air onto the audience. Halfway through the fans made my eyes sting to the point that I could barely keep them open!
My verdict on watching my first Tamil block buster:
The audience was very lively and whistled and screamed from when their favourite actors were mentioned in the opening credits, until the end. I think the film title translated into English was 'man without a job', not such an appealing title to me but the audience were certainly excited!
Halfway through the film at about 90 mins, it abruptly ended and the lights came on. I asked the person next to me if that was it and everyone laughed and told me it was the interval and Indian films typically run for about 3 hours. In that 3 hours, SO MANY things happened in the bizarre plot. The film was like every genre under the sun squished into one film (apparently this is typical of Indian movies.) I liked the loud music and the dancing in the film and although I didn't understand what was being said, I could pick up the gist from the overpronounced facial expressions. The film ended at 1:30am, overall it was a fun and very tiring experience!

*school principle and his wife

First day of school

28/07/14

After settling in over the weekend, today was my first day at school! I was quite nervous because I've been told that I can come across as shy and this isn't ideal when trying to make friends/colleagues in a workplace (must work on shaking off the newly acquired 'shy' label). That said, I wasn't too worried as I am quite confident working with children.

The school day was kicked off by the daily student run assembly. Classes lined the hall, standing. One older student on the stage led the hall in a pledge, followed by an army-like "attention! At ease!" Following this were a couple of songs sung by the school in perfect unison and times tables repetition led by a year 10 (which I struggled to keep up with!)

After assembly I met and briefly talked with the English teacher then followed her to class 7* grammar. I introduced myself as Miss Rachel and they all laughed as I attempted to pronounce some of their names. During that lesson I mostly observed and questioned students on verbs and adverbs, which they had perfectly memorised answers for.

Later in the day I went to Class 9. In England year 9 has a bit of a rep for being the difficult year in terms of behaviour, but this class definitely didn't fit that mould. They were quite shy when I spoke to them at first.. I think this was the class that found my accent the hardest to understand. I led the class, reading a traditional Indian short story and questioning the class as I went. The teacher asked me to read to the class so they could pick up the English way of speaking, but when I stopped to ask questions I was met with a lot of blank stares.

Class 10 has about 13 students and begun with a girl giving an impressively detailed summary of a short story 'The Bet' which they had read in the previous lesson. I went through the sections on themes, characters etc with the class and I think they also had difficulty with my accent, but as they got used to it they were putting their hands up more to answer questions. In my second period with this class, the pace picked up a bit and I noticed some very intelligent students in the class. The plot of the story involved two characters having a debate over capital punishment vs life imprisonment. One question about their opinions on the subject led into a very interesting debate which I recorded in a pros/cons style chart on the board. I was surprised by some of the well thought out and mature responses to the question. I look forward to teaching this class more, I think I will learn a lot from them.

*In England we call it year, here they call it class.

On being a foreigner

A little background info: For a month I'll be in India volunteering in a school in the South in the state of Tamil Nadu. This is a travel diary of my experienceces so I'll write what I can, when I can. Some posts may ramble on for paragraphs and some may resemble a postcard in length.

What I've noticed about being the only English person around Trichy:

I get stared at ALOT (this was expected). They aren't threatening stares, more curious ones. One child in my apartment block hides behind a wall and peeks out to look at me. This morning was my first school day here and I felt quite nervous walking out of my apartment through a pathway lined with school children waiting through their morning busses. There were a few curious glances and one wave.

I have never felt like the 'foreigner' before. Having English as my first language has always meant that I've had it easy in most countries I've visited. Most places I've stayed have been catered towards tourists or are European countries that understand the British accent well, so this is a completely different experience for me! Staying and teaching in the south of India, in a town that is not a typical tourist hotspot has meant that my mannerisms and sense of humour is not understood so well, so I'm starting to overpronounce everything in the hopes that I'll be understood. Feeling like the foreigner is not a bad thing. I think being English and speaking the universal language, I take being understood for granted. I think it's important to step out of your comfort zone and spend some time standing in other people's shoes.