It's a Bandh!

This post comes a day early (or perhaps 2 days early for most of you) due to the very fact that I actually have a few spare moments today and tomorrow I may not be so lucky. You see, today there is a bandh on (pronounced "Bund"). These can most usefully be described at strikes which can shut down public transportation in the city and close businesses. But that's just a teaser... for more on this later, read on!

So how has my second week at my school gone? Quite well actually, and I am beginning to see the beauty in those moments when I don't have a lot to be doing. I spent most of my day Monday working in the computer lab, creating surveys for teachers and parents, working on vocabularly lists for the kids, and starting to type up my case study. And even though sitting in school on my computer might not be the most proactive use of my time it would seem, in reality, it's a great way to interact with the kids and teachers since most of them are in and out of the computer lab at various moments in the day. In fact, I was able to take many little breaks to play hangman or show the kids pictures of Oregon, which made the day fly by.

I am also actively working with the 8th graders at my school to participate in a really interesting nationwide competition known as Design for Change. I am the facilitator but it is up for the kids to brainstorm a local community problem that they would like to change, and then they have a week to implement this change, all before a big celebration of these projects on Gandhi's birthday, October 2nd. Needless to say, these conversations about change have illicited some interesting responses. One student wanted to stop people from drinking any alcohol (good luck with that one, kid) and another Hindu student wanted to shut down the meat shop by his house (I at least agreed that the smell was awful but I didn't have the heart to tell him that I wish there were many more such meat shops in my neighborhood)! But in the end, they decided they want to feed and clothe the homeless. Noble? Yes. Easy? Hell no! So with a little direction from me, they now have to figure out how they are going to do this. You've got to admire their tenacity given that I was trying to talk them into creating a crosswalk in front of their school to make it safer for younger students to actually make it to the school. But no, they have their sights set on something much higher. I expect to spend a lot of this afternoon wracking my brain for how they can do this, hopefully networking with organizations in the area, but if you have any ideas too, feel free to toss them my way!

Okay, to back to the information on this bandh thing which you are all breathlessly awaiting. Here's a brief background for you with a shout out going to Wikipedia for what I hope is accurate information: Andhra Pradesh was ruled by a Telugu (also the local language here) dynasty during the middle ages and was later controlled by a Muslim Sultanate. When the sultanate began to crumble, a separate state of Hyderabad was established to in order to allow the Muslim Nizam to maintain control. Fast forward a few thousand years to Indian independence where the Muslim Nizam did not want to merge Hyderabad with the rest of India and a peasant Telegana revolt against feudal landlords continued to complicate matters. The region was then divided into Telugu speaking districts and non-Telugu speaking districts which were all eventually merged to form the modern state of Andhra Pradesh.

As seems to happen the world over when you arbitrarily assign borders to peoples and cultures, one side tends to be unhappy with the other. Ever since Indian independence then, the Telangana Party has been attempting to establish their own state and Hyderabad is at this center of this. And whenever there is an important political decision to be made or another event to further spark the simmering tension between the government and the Telangana supporters, there is usually a bandh, or a strike in the city. These aren't generally violent although in some areas around the university district (and far away from me), they can get heated. Public transportation is also very unreliable so to be on the safe side, most of us are staying home today. It will be interesting to see how this develops and I'm appreciative of the fact that this has now given me a reason to find out more about local politics. And as much as I hate to admit it, I can't help but enjoy the "snow day" today as it gives me a chance to catch up on life!

That's all for now - I promise more posts about Indian culture, clothes, and life will be on the horizon. Pher milenge!