Rohtak

Rohtak, on the way we visited an AIDS orphanage (I think in Delhi). We went to a Chinese restaurant. Stayed at a University, went to a bird sanctuary. Were entertained by university students dancing for us and went to a local government meeting (sort of, for show).


Ok so at the AIDS orphanage, we found out how people with HIV/AIDS were treated in India, what the government was doing about it (very little) and what this particular establishment had done to help. Basically the children’s parents had contracted HIV/AIDS and had died, and all of these children had contracted it through pregnancy. For the most part throughout the country these children would be left to die, but at this orphanage they were taken care of and medically treated. It was not a pretty picture of the country, and sort of showed how despite India having a large government that is generally attentive to people’s needs, in some cases (especially when there isn’t cultural or religious precedent) people are ignored or left to deal with it on their own. The woman we talked to was also an advocate for non sexual education and equal rights for people of other sexual orientations. She said some of the biggest problems as far as HIV transmission that they are dealing with were the trucking industry and men who have multiple female partners while married. As far as the gay community, she noted that they were rarely tolerated; a silent minority –who often times lived heterosexual lifestyles to keep up appearances (loved their mates and families, but were not sexually attracted to their partners). One of the problems seemed to be the cultural and religious precedent, both of taboos on homosexuality and also that culturally people in India get married very young (arranged marriages) so the people often have no choice in who their partner is.
A third problem that faced the community is that there is a precedent and to some extent toleration of eunuchs –a concept that to most westerners seems very outdated. But apparently in India there are still many thousands of people who choose to (or are forced into) become eunuchs. This culturally accepted (to an extent) role is a very mixed topic. Sort of glorified in stereotypes and neglected in a lot of cases.
Prostitution, though not specifically talked about is also a huge problem for many people in the country.
While at the orphanage we also heard about the changing roles of a traditional caste of entertainers. These people would traditionally be the musicians, dancers, actors etc. They have however been replaced by Bollywood and Western entertainment which either steals their traditional music and acts, or requires them to live up to new expectations including things that are traditionally considered quite degrading in India culture like stripping or prostitution.
It was interesting to hear about the changing roles of Castes in this sense, although the Government has officially outlawed discrimination based on castes, the traditions still thrive, but the importance of the role of each caste seems to change dramatically as globalization occurs. (sort of like American laborers having to enter the service industry).

The Chinese restaurant was notable for a few reasons, first that it was Indian-ized Chinese food, second that they served things like toast, cheese sandwiches, (just sort of odd items) and that it made most of our group feel ill.
There was a book store about 50 yards from the restaurant that sold text books to the university students. It was quite interesting, more like a stand with books packed into shelves and stacks all over the place. The books all looked quite warn, but it seemed like people could buy and sell text books sort of like our book store.

The next day we went to a bird sanctuary. Its kind of interesting that India has set aside so much land for nature. (yea!) but the birds weren’t there when we went so not much to look at. All along the way on the bus throughout the trip we noticed different agriculture. In some areas it was bright yellow mustard (plains), other areas rice (swamp like areas) in the north we saw brick makers with smoke stacks and mud bricks stacked for hundreds of yards. We were told that the government was trying to get farmers to switch from traditional crops (subsistence farming) to cash crops like spices, herbs and such to bring about more foreign trade. We did not see much evidence of the switch.
-Anyway at the bird sanctuary we were followed by a group of boys and young men who owned about 3 bikes between them (they traded off).
The boys were curious about us, but didn’t speak to us, just watched and joked amongst themselves. I have gotten similar treatment in Africa. It sort of freaked out a lot of the American girls.

The university wasn’t very notable. It was a very cold gray looking building. We ate sandwiches (Jelly or cucumber) and drank coffee to warm ourselves up.
The dorms we stayed in were freezing but quite comfortable otherwise, they each had a bathroom and shower. (I think we were told they were used for special guests rather than students).

The government meeting was interesting, we had very little understanding of what was going on –but later it was open for questions, and then they played a movie for us that was meant to represent the struggle of women trying to get into the local governments and their struggle to get many basic needs.
There is a quota system in place in India for women and low castes to be included in local governments. The system works well in some areas but in most the women are the wives of politicians and play a sort of puppet role. We heard from several of the women at the meeting that they had male counterparts who told them what to do. At another point one woman sort of gasped and covered her face after seeing a man from her town in the doorway. She explained that it wasn’t good for the people to see her –or something… sort of confusing.
The movie was about a town that struggled to get a well dug and operational. Basically the women (who were in charge of house necessities) ended up getting little support from local leaders and ended up having to go around them to get help from the government for money for the well.
-I think it’s interesting that the gender roles were so distinctly different that men in the town didn’t realize the necessity of water. But apparently it is a problem in many areas.


Lastly we had a nice dinner and a performance by some student dancers. The ceremony was more to honor cultural connections between countries (local leaders, Pareena) but it included several performances which we all loved… but it was interesting to see how many of the gender roles were noticeable in the dances. We didn’t understand the lyrics but you could tell that the woman played a submissive role to the man, but was also in charge of protecting her honor. So a pursuing man could be quite un front about his intentions and the woman had to back him off and make sure he was promising her a future together. Also just a lot of cool dance moves.


I guess there is probably too much information here to come up with a sort of end all for the experiance... as far as globalization i think this section, talks about changing roles more than anything, changing gender roles, changing subsistance patterns, changing culture, changing careers. Changes in institutions....

(im sorry im tired and sick and cant think...)