Winding down in Amdabad

The front page of the Sunday Times here states that in a small town in the state of Gujarat there are more Charlie Chaplin impersonators than any other place in the world. 
 

That said – tonight will be our last night in town. We completed the work with SEWA and this morning we will go deliver the DVDs to them with the images we shot. There were some amazing things to see and people to meet. In India there are now women construction workers, women farmers, women vegetable vendors, women garbage collectors and women fishmongers as well as for waste paper collection and office cleaning. Women in these jobs are now organized into trade unions. This union affiliation means they now can collectively negotiate salaries rather than be at the mercy of a benevolent boss who would pay them what he wishes. 

Traditionally, women of India worked in the home and as servants for the wealthy in posh neighborhoods and did menial labor depending on their abilities to read and write. Many of India’s poor are illiterate. Life for the poor classes and illiterate is not a bowl of cherries.

SEWA has set up for these poor women ways to bank and get micro loans to use for their business and sometimes other personal needs. They conduct training for every type of job and we witnessed trainings in video production, photography, writing a business plan, working an embroidery machine, and apprenticing in hand crafts. We also saw women gathered together because some big issues arose in their collective with unfair labor practices. We went to the SEWA bank where many women were gathered to put away a few rupees each day to begin to build savings and the ability to then obtain loans. The bank is owned and operated within the banking system of India by the women members of SEWA. SEWA also goes to women who cannot make it to the bank to help them to put something away each day for savings. SEWA also is an insurance provider for health, life and home. Members can save a substantial amount of money with this insurance. Again, the insurance is owned and operated by the women who are trained to work in this industry. I could go on and on about this organization. (above is a picture of two women and a man with his motorcycle. He is one of the residents were SEWA waste collectors work and he is giving the heads of the waste collectors coop a very hard time for my benefit. He was being a jerk!)

The traffic here is very busy and chaotic. There are stoplights but no one seems to pay attention to them unless a policeman is at the intersection directing traffic. There are no walk lights, and the only logic in crossing the street is to hold your ground and walk when there is a break in the traffic. The drivers dodge you and each other here. This is the land of Gandhi so Live and Let Live seems to be the motto. Children walk in the streets, ride triple or more on motorcycles with the parents. Sometimes you will see as many as 6 people on a small motorcycle. Women sit sidesaddle in their saris. Hardly anyone wears a helmet, shoes or protective clothing. You can see as many as maybe 12 in an auto-rickshaw with children standing on the back bumper and hanging onto the little railing back there.

They do take driving lessons to get a license but as Uravshi (our guide, mentor and SEWA member) says, as soon as you really begin to drive you throw all that away. Keith and I were out trying doing a mp3 guided walk in the old city – no, I should say, we were attempting a heritage walk, but neither of us could get very far on the walk with the earphones in our ears because we kept being stopped by curious people wondering “how much the little Sony player cost”, “what was this for” and “why we were in India” and “did we want to give them some money also”. Oh, yes, “don’t we want to photograph them”. And “did we love India”.  

We stumbled upon the beginnings of the last day of the marriage party near one of the old mosques out in the street. Half the street was filled with people all decked out in beautiful new clothes. The other half was used for cooking for the party. The street was decorated within an inch of its life but still the goats were trying to eat the food that was being cooked in these huge pots over wood fires. And all the while motorcycles, bicycles, and small cars are driving through the party area. Now these streets are not like our streets. Think about the width of your driveway and add a couple feet and picture all kinds of things protruding into the space. That would be how this wedding space was.

However the people at the wedding were happy to have us come through and photograph them, their food and their decorations. But remember there are lots of goats running about eating whatever they can get in their mouths and climbing on everything. One particularly aggressive goat kept trying to eat the rice out of the baskets that were draining into the cooking pot. We saw one of the girls I photographed at the SEWA video/photo training class. She was dressed so beautifully and came up to me with her friends to talk. They liked to practice their English, wanted to know more about me and wanted their pictures taken.

Earlier while we were still attempting the Heritage walk, we saw a “parade” coming down the street with silver metal covered carriages pulled by people, horses or camels and decorated with ribbons, flowers and shinny banners. We were told this was a wedding party and all the families and friends attending the wedding. The women mostly carried red silk banners with gold edging. The marching people all waved as smiled at the onlookers. There were probably 10 carts or so in a row and some flat bed carts being hand pulled with women and children sitting on them. That parade had about 8 camels, and a couple cars.

And yesterday we also drove by a “parked” elephant on a city street. Also, goats, cattle, dogs and cats run freely throughout the town and are eating whatever they can find in the trash. It is not unusual to see big old cows or water buffalo on one of the busiest streets just standing there in the midst of traffic. No one thinks it is strange but us. I asked if the cows belonged to anyone and was told yes and that they know how to find their way home at night. 

The Heritage Walk led into this market in the old city where we gave up on trying to listen. This place was so crowded that all parts of your body were in contact with whoever was near you. I would have shopped there but we were already collecting too much attention just walking. Also we stopped taking pictures when asked because any crowed control was not in effect. It was chaos whenever we did a picture and others wanted to see what we did.

The markets are teeming with color, noise and so many people. You can buy just about anything at a market and usually they are arranged in area by the types of things you want to purchase. So one area might be toys, another might be clothing, and another might be house repair goods. Local people shop here so the prices are generally low except for non-locals, then the merchant will just adjust the price. We still feel it is low. They say that many markets grow up around where the mosque is due to the fact that 5 times a day locals come to pray and when they are done praying, they will pick up a few items for dinner, or whatever purpose suits them. The fruit and vegetable markets near the mosque are not for wholesale.

Last night we ate at the House of MG, where our Heritage self-guided walk began. This is a boutique hotel in an historic building that was once the home of a rich local textile merchant. Mahatma Gandhi even stayed here with the merchant when first came from South Africa. The two men continued to be friends and MG was an ardent supporter of Gandhi until his death in 1930. His great grandson turned the building into a hotel because without that income, the place was falling into disrepair. It is the “favorite” of many travelers for dining and for those who can afford the cost of their rooms. I don’t know what the rooms look like but the food was really delicious. They also are well known for their own homemade ice cream, which we enjoyed. Our multicourse dinner was served on the roof terrace and was all veg. It was called a thali which roughly meant all you can eat meal in three courses. It is a traditional way of eating here in Gujarat. The food was wonderful and eaten with your fingers. Neither Keith nor I were very proficient at this way of eating and luckily we were seated off toward the edge of the terrace. I am sure we gave the waiters a good laugh since we had no idea how to eat. Luckily they gave us a printed brochure trying to explain how one eats this meal and what to expect. All I can say is that it was such a big meal; we did not eat breakfast this morning because we were still full.

We are thinking that tonight we will return there to eat in the street level outdoor casual restaurant and have some more of their ice cream for desert.

Tomorrow we will try to see the Calico Museum. We went there today but it was closed for the afternoon viewing times that were mentioned on their website. We also went to the City Museum and Kite Museum to find both closed but a nice guard let us look at the Kite Museum, a small museum residing downstairs from the larger City Museum. We are finding that opening and closing times differ from current websites. So, we will not see all the highlights of Amdabad that we had hoped for. The guards at the Calico Museum tell us to be there by 9am tomorrow to assure we will be able to see what is known as one of the finest textile museums in the world. Amdabad was once a thriving textile manufacturing and business center and like many in the world, mills have closed down and moved to places less expensive to produce goods. The tradition of block printing still is done by fine craftspeople and it only exists now on a small scale.

Today we delivered the DVDs full of images shot for SEWA. While over there we were fortunate to meet with their wonderful doctor. She is an ob/gyn who about 20 years ago joined SEWA from her own hospital and practice. She had been made aware of the horrible conditions for pregnant women in the small rural villages and felt compelled to begin training midwives to use scientific procedures in order to reduce the infant and mother mortality. 

Folk practices in the villages included a few men pressing their hands with all their might on the stomach of the pregnant woman in order to pop the baby out of the womb. There were no such things as pre-natal care; postnatal care, infant care and this caused a host of problems. The midwives attended training sessions for 36 days in order to earn a certificate proving they knew correct procedures. Immediately this reduced the mortality rate among rural women.

She told us about the new laws in India requiring countrywomen to go to a hospital for delivery of newborns. As good as this sounds, it means that women in areas far from a hospital who are poor must somehow find their way into the city. Most do not own a car so they might ride in on the back of the husband’s or some friend’s motorcycle while in labor. They can call for an ambulance but that ambulance comes from inside the city and that will take time to travel what might be hundreds of miles up to their remote village. If a woman is having a fast labor, she might not make it in to the city in time. Women and midwives are now fined if they participate in home delivery. The support for sterile kits that were available to the midwives is no longer there. She has seen this increase the mortality rate again but the bureaucrats are not seeing the cause and result of their actions when changing the laws which she thinks is mostly about money.

She also told us is that many families who find out they are expecting a baby girl, will abort because they often feel that it is not worth the money it takes to raise a girl, pay the dowry and then have her go to the family of her husband. So now she says in 1000 births 800 will be boys. I don’t know if what she says is fact but this is what we heard from others also. Countrywomen who are poor and give birth to baby girls might sell them to make money. This selling is illegal but happens under the radar. This is something I think I will try to do further research on.

Day 1 India

We flew out of Istanbul Monday and arrived in Mumbai Tuesday morning at about 4am. The wacky Mumbai airport has been modified since we were last here. You no longer have to fight for your place on a coach to the domestic side of the airport!!! Instead, you arrive at a location near the end of the international terminal and wait inside until the shuttle arrives and then they load your bags in the under compartment and you climb on board. There is no pushing, shoving or climbing any longer. BRAVO. Then you arrive at the domestic terminal, go to the check in at the airlines, wait in a long, long security line but it does move along and then voile’ you are inside the gates area. 6 years ago, this was a nightmare. This year - only slightly so, Keith did not get a security tag for his carry on because someone down at the men’s side forgot to put it on his bag and stamp it. So he had to return to security for the bag to be rescanned and get the tag. We had a momentary panic but it worked out. We left Mumbai and flew into Ahmedabad (Ahmadabad) arriving at 9:30AM. By the time we got through baggage and were pretty tired having slept only a short while on the 6 hour flight from Istanbul and certainly no more on the short up and down flight from Mumbai to here especially with a breakfast served and collected within the 1 hour flight.

OK, so we get to Ahmedabad (Ahmadabad) and at the airport we find a Airtel shop that will sell us a sim card for Keith’s old phone from London. But to buy that, we have to have a copy of his picture, show our passports, have a local address (the hotel) and fill out tons of paperwork. But they sell him the sim without putting minutes on it so of course, it does not work for more than trying to call a couple times and hearing in Hindi that there is some issue. Since we do not speak Hindi, or Guijarati, this means nothing to us. We were picked up by the hotel car but they had the wrong names on their display sheet but it was not until we noticed the hotel name did we realize that they might be able to take us with those other people….Nice guy took care of us and got us to the hotel. Now the fun is beginning…

For those who never heard the story, we were owed about $400 by an arts residency house where we were supposed to stay, but after 6 weeks of having our reservation and our money they told us that there was a mistake and the room was already booked. After much haggling back and forth on email about getting a refund, they said they were unable to process a refund. I was not happy with this at all but today the man from there arrived at our hotel with this envelop filled with $18,500 Rupies in small bills from a bank to give to us. That is a big pile of paper. (It’s a longer story but I will save you the details).

Then we went to eat lunch in the hotel dining room but were too early by 3 minutes so we cooled our heels in the lobby. At 12:30 we were the only diners. The meal we ate was good. During that meal, the woman from SEWA.org returned a call that Keith had made while trying to learn to use the mobile phone. We arranged to go to their offices and meet them at 3pm. So, we took an auto-rickshaw from the hotel to where their website says their building is located. The rickshaw driver spoke no English and had never heard of them and only vaguely knew about the location. We will supply either photos or video of part of the ride. To say the least, you are riding in an open sided three seater motorcycle on roads with hundreds of these loud machines moving every which way with no thought of lanes, rules of the road and always, always beeping their horns. We finally found SEWA and left that driver who was yelling what we should have asked for in terms of an address and waving his arms.

So, then we met with the charming Pritaba, who is the administrator of SEWA now, and another woman who will certainly be our lifeline and take us to the visits I will need to photograph. They had a dense schedule for us and suggested that they could accommodate it to make sense to me while I work on this project. At the end of the meeting it gets really fun. We were told of a meeting of the paper pickers out in the front of the building and that we could photograph them. On the way to do that, I was photographing some of the interior of the space but never really got much done because a woman spotted us and took us to her “shop” of goods made by SEWA workers. I must say I wanted to buy the entire table of cloth goods, which were not only beautiful but well made and extremely inexpensive. I bought one beautiful piece, which may eventually will go to Joyce and Tim since it is like their table.

Just behind her “shop”, table, was the meeting of the paper pickers. I stepped over to take a couple of snaps after making a couple of the shopkeeper. All hell broke loose as all of the women wanted to be photographed and I was a bit mobbed. Some of what I shot today is quite nice, but I was so tired and unprepared to mix and mingle and work that I only had my one lens, no flash, no tripod, and only a part of a memory card. Finally one of the women from the office saved me from these ever so willing subjects.

You know in the States, how when you want to photograph people on the street, there is a hesitation and a bit of a dance happens to give permission for you to make the image? Well throw all of that out and here you could continue to make pictures until the line of people jumping in front of your camera finally ceases. There were about 50+ willing subject who wanted their pictures made with a variety of best friends. They were so willing, vunerable, sweet, and it seemed happy to be singled out. They work each day picking paper from office buildings, streets, markets, and dumps, making their money selling this paper back to the recyclers. They live on a tiny fraction of what we think is way too small an amount for our lives. They seemed joyful, empowered and warm.

I will have to learn to control the situation better than today. The thing got away from me but the photo gods gave me a few images that I can use.

So after this ½ hour with the SEWA women, we came back still having only slept a little in the last 24 hours and wanted to stop in the dining room for a Kingfisher beer. We were told by the hotel staff that this is a dry town because of Ghandi, who lived here. “No beer or alcohol is served on this block”, which led us to believe if we walked a block further, we might imbibe. Wrong. However they have a “Wine Shop” downstairs under the hotel around the outside. Funny that you can buy a permit to buy the equivalent of 10 units of liquor every two weeks. A unit seems to be two bottles. Bottles of whatever don’t seem to be clarified A N D the Wine Shop has no wine. In order to get a permit to buy, you must have a letter of declaration of registration from your hotel with beginning and end dates, your passport with specific pages copies, boarding pass or documents showing you were indeed traveling. Sounds simple but the hotel guys sent us down without any letter of declaration and said we get the permit downstairs. We were up and down a bit between the “shop” and the hotel lobby but finally we were allowed to buy 3 bottles of Kingfisher. They were delivered by one of the shop workers although we could have easily carried them up the driveway and into the hotel and to our room. Each in the purchase chain of events needed a small tip to be given. Some were more forward in demanding. They just said when we protested the guy carrying the beer upstairs: “This is India, we all need to work” implying that the other guy needed to make some money. They were warm so we are just now drinking one of them some 4 hours later.
During all this time, Keith and I were laughing about the system, the fact we were so tired and the absurdity of our day. The hotel staff thinks we are crazy for sure.

Recent visit to Basilica Cistern

Before we depart, I'll attempt to add still one other detail regarding what we've done while in Istanbul. Focusing again on the historical portion of the city, there is a location referred to as the Basilica Cistern, which is an underground reservoir that used to provide water to the city. I don't believe it's currently used for this purpose, but it remains an amazing link to Istanbul's past. For the time being, I'm simply incorporating some photographs from our fairly recent visit.

Last day in Istanbul and tonight to India

This evening we fly to India from Istanbul. Today we see the Palace and whatever else we have time for before having to make the trip to the airport for an overnight flight. We should get into Mumbai at about 4:30amish and then go to the domestic air terminal and fly up to Ahmedabad.

Flashback to Friday night

I apologize in advance for any formatting issues with this portion of the blog. Both Barbara and I seem to be experiencing problems in aligning photographs in a reasonable order. In any case, last Friday night, our friend Aysem (who is a native of the city) invited us to accompany her to another portion of Istanbul that's referred to as Taksim. Up to that point, we'd really only explored the most historical part of the city. Riding the Metro to the central square of Taksim, we began our walk along an amazingly busy street, the likes and energy of which I don't recall ever having experienced previously in any location. The street was boisterous, full of life and very nearly packed with amazingly cheerful people for as far as the eye could see. There were thousands and thousands of people taking part in what we understand to be more or less a regular social event during each evening...and even more particularly weekend evenings. I've seen some reasonably serious social scenes....but never anything on the scale of what we experienced in Taksim. You'll find pictures above and to the right....and there's more even further below.

Along the way, we also encountered a peaceful demonstration which was already in process. We don't really have enough knowledge to talk about this....but it seemed an interesting encounter as we continued to acquaint ourselves with Istanbul.

After making our way to and being seated at the restaurant Aysem had selected, we were joined by her friend Pinar. Both Aysem (seen to the right) and Pinar (to the left) can be seen in the following photograph. Even after dining and then stopping later for dessert, the streets still remained almost every bit as packed and lively as before, despite the fact that it was nearing midnight as we made our way back to the hotel. I remain dumbfounded at the life and energy Istanbul has!

Yesterday it was the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar!

But one of the better things was Aysem reading our Turkish coffee grounds and telling us our predictions. After you drink your coffee, you place the saucer on top of the cup and turn it over toward yourself very quickly. You can see mine was not as neat as Keith's. Then you put your ring on your cup and wait for the china to cool. The remaining grounds leave patterns and your future predictions will be read. After the cup, the saucer is read. I went first and Keith went second. It was fun.

We also looked around and saw a lot of interesting stuff, but we had to moderate ourselves since we are at the beginning of the trip and will be bringing things home from India. We then wandered over to the Spice Bazaar where we saw mounds of spices, amazing teas, candies, outside that building we saw animals for the farm or for pets pet food by the scoop, garden supplies and hundreds of bulbs and seeds.

After our shopping we ate at a rooftop restaurant over looking the harbor and the bay called the Golden Horn. 

After several hours in Hagia Sofia...

Friday we visited Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine Cathedral that was refashioned to better suit Islamic tastes through a hybridized combination of the Byzantine and Islamic styles, after having been captured from the Christians centuries ago. Being essentially impossible to adequately photograph, I'm including a couple of images below that just begin to describe a couple of pictures showing aspects of the interior of this great building.

And of course, Barbara seen amongst her "kin."

Call to prayers slideshow with sound at Sultanahmet or Blue Mosque

Friday, Barbara and I spent the day visiting several of the must see locations in the old portion of Istanbul. Among them was Sultanahmet (otherwise referred to as the Blue Mosque). I've assembled a few pictures from our visit there that can be seen at the accompanying link noted immediately below. ALSO, be watching for more to come from our other visits and adventures from Friday.

http://artwork-inform.com/travel/turkey/sultanahmet.mov

Pictures from the night of our arrival in Istanbul

Barbara has already provided a general description of our first visual "taste" of Istanbul the night we arrived. I'm providing two pictures, the first revealing an aspect of Hagia Sophia, which is partially veiled by the spray from a fountain, and the second which shows a nighttime view of Sultanahmet, otherwise known as the Blue Mosque.

Awakened by the Call to Prayer.

This morning in Istanbul, we (or at least me as Keith was already awake) were awakened at 6 am by the call to prayer from the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet). Keith recorded some of it on his iPhone. What a beautiful sound. I slept like a rock last night being beyond tired from the flight.

We went out walking after checking in to the hotel and visiting with Aysem, our friend who lives here and works for City Bank. She is helping us to get the most out of this short visit to her beautiful city. We met Aysem last May when we went to Italy to visit with Robin and Rosita in Lecce. Ayshemm was in for a wedding of mutual friends of theirs. She is an adorable person full of smiles and good cheer. As it turns out Ayshemm is just beginning a project with City Bank and some other agencies to help Kurdish women in the north with micro-banking. We will have to talk more about this after our trip to India where we will photograph some of SEWA's micro-banking successes.

We walked in the neighborhood by our hotel with our cameras. There was a light drizzle but the temperature was pleasant. We are near the Hagia Sophia and the Sultanahmet (The Blue Mosque) within a couple blocks. The Hagia Sophia is one of the 8 wonders of the world. I did not do a great job making pictures last night but I am putting two up and Keith will add at least one more.

(images - top: Hagia Sophia through a fountain; Keith at the pub on the corner where we drank some Turkish

Small Earthquake in Chicago

We are not off the ground yet but will leave later today. Since we arrived in Chicago, it has snowed a ton and at about 4am this morning there was a small earthquake here. I slept right on through it but Keith was awakened by the big boom and the shaking. Plus mom went into the hospital yesterday after being dizzy and disoriented. Good news is that the nurses say she seems to be fine and will probably go back home. Let's hope that we can get off to Istanbul tonight without any more drama.