All About the Class

Monday, after the "auto towing" fiasco, I rushed to take a shower and then go off to class. Since nearly all of us went to Udaipur, our teacher delayed our start time till 10:30 and gave us a light day. We took a field trip to the hospital to see a prosthetic fitting clinic. It was really incredible. I wrote a FOR on it, so I will spare you from reading the details twice and attach it at the bottom of the page. I am so happy I brought my laptop here, because computer time is limited with how many people there are. Garland came over to use my computer to type something, and then I went over to her house to visit. She has a very interesting family, very different than my living situation. She has grandparents, parents, children and a daughter-in-law all living under one roof. It is a little more typical of a family situation. The daughter-in-law is named Anu. She is 24 years old and really fun and interesting to talk to. She had an arranged marriage last year, and her living situation is not in the least hostile. She seems to be more traditional than other Indian women I have met, but that may partly be because things have worked out for her. Garland and I were asking her questions about her marriage and wedding, and she was very open. Anu said that, to her, 80% of arranged marriages don't work and it's a 100% gamble. She had only met her husband twice before they were married, and both times it was with numerous family members around to observe and chaperone. She teaches social studies at a local school, and there is a daughter in the house around her age, so I think it helps. Her interpretation of marriage was interesting to me, since everyone in India seems to feel differently about the arranged marriage issue.

Tuesday we had a long day at school, but we had some good news. We are going through a hectic school schedule now, and then we are getting two 5 day weekends to travel, which is wonderful! Our teacher for International Development couldn't come, so at the last minute Rima, our main academic administrator/advisor, brought her father in to speak. I find her whole family fascinating. We all had the opportunity to meet her mother shortly after we came, and we saw her art studio. Rima's mother is a sculptor who has done many commission works in India, and they are impressive, at least to me. One of her projects was a memorial statue that sits in the center of a traffic circle here in Jaipur. She was very interesting to talk to and answered all the questions we asked her about her work and life. Rima's dad, who I know as B. Hooja, spoke to us a little about his perceptions on development. They were a total 180 from what our teacher, Ahuja, believes. One of the comments he said was "We have the technology to go to the moon, but we don't yet have the technology to eradicate poverty." He claims we are putting too many resources in the wrong places.

In the afternoon we had a young lawyer come and speak about the judicial system in India. It was very interesting to us, because we kept pressing him about the law enforcement issues we all had read about in the States, and he kept insisting that it didn't exist. He told us a story that was interesting. He was assigned to a case where a couple from different castes married against their family's wishes. The young bride was taken hostage in her parents home and was not allowed to see her husband. A suit was filed, and it was this lawyer's job to find out what was happening. Before he left to interview the girl, the husband showed him pictures of what she looked like and told stories of things they did together. When the bride's parents showed up with their daughter for the interview, she had veiled her face. The lawyer requested that she remove it, and he saw that it wasn't the girl in the pictures he had seen. He interviewed her anyway, asking questions about her and her husband. She wasn't answering the way the young man said she would, so he knew that it wasn't the wife at all. When he gave his report in court, the judge issued an order that the girl appear in person. This time, the parents produced the real daughter and she told them how she was held against her will by her family, and that she wanted to live with her husband. The judge granted her request. It was an interesting story, and not unlike many other legal cases I had read about before I came.

Today, we had lectures in the morning and then Rajul took us to a women's shelter for abused women and children. They had been running since 1987, which is a long time in India. They have the capacity to hold 30 women, and take female victims of family violence, rape victims, battered women, and mentally impaired women. One of the young women there was just 16 and in the 11th grade. They were really excited when I told them my mom worked in the same type of place, and asked alot of questions about how things work in the U.S.