Muck, Sweat and Meditation

Laxman Jhula Divine Mega-Clean Up

2008-10-02T17:51:00.011+05:30

Last Sunday we had a very successful public clean up event. We called it the Laxman Jhula Divine Mega-Clean Up Day. Our local reporter on the site (also the author of 99.9% of this blog) Ms. C Telfer, did a write up to submit to the English press here in India. The title is a response to the fact that there is a certain way of thinking where people

here feel it is fine to throw plastic into the Ganges or generaly polute the local environment because "Ganga will take care of it.." or "God will take care of it.." Hmm..:

Giving God a Helping Hand

Are you worried about how the Ganga is being desecrated and the environment destroyed by the unrestricted disposal of all kinds of waste direct into i

ts waters? Would you like to be part of the solution? Do you think it’s time to do something about this situation? Well, you are not alone.

As part of the global campaign ‘Clean up the World’, Clean Himalaya, a Rishikesh-based solid waste management NGO, organised their ‘Divine Mega Clean Up Day’ last Sunday.

The garbage on the banks of the Ganga in the Rishikesh area has reached crisis point. Not only does this disfigure this holy and beautiful place, but is a cause of pollution and disease. This has largely been caused by thoughtless and unrestricted dumping of household and business waste in the streets or directly down the slopes of the nearest ravine in thereby directly into the water.

Clean Himalaya addressed the practical issue of garbage removal on Sunday, from both the banks of the Ganga and the streets in the Laksmanjhula area. But more importantly, their main aim was to involve the local citizens and fire their enthusiasm to help protect and maintain the sanctity of their own area by keeping it clean. A variety of people took part - all volunteers. From the rafting companies who donated staff and rafts to clean sites that were inaccessible by any means other than from the Ganga itself, to the school children who gave up their free time to clear the beaches and streets. It was impossible not to be inspired.

Many people expressed their delight and support of the Clean Himalaya ‘Divine Mega Clean Up Day’ and also their regular waste management programme. Several companies did this in practical terms by signing up on the spot for Clean Himalaya’s daily garbage collections.

Clean Himalaya’s goals are to continue to expand its operation in the Ganga and Himalaya region, to develop public awareness of the importance of protecting the sacred environment and to provide an example of working together to serve the unity of all life and its future. No one is suggesting that one ‘Mega Clean Up Day’ will solve this huge problem, but in Rishikesh, at least it is a start.

Feels Like I Have Never Been Away....(Or, Only in India!)

2008-10-01T13:58:00.010+05:30

I flew back to Delhi on 17 September - nearly 2 months to the day after returning to London. It was as if I had never been away from India!

Marc met me at the airport and we spent the day fairly quietly in Delhi, catching up and passing time before catching the sleeper train back to Rishikesh that night.

All the Indian quirkiness was still there - the press of the crowds on the pavements and the road, the noise, the smell, the filth... Now add to this a torrential rain storm (the monsoon should have been over 8 weeks ago...) and nightfall coming earlier and just as we were trying to get to the station. We were drenched before we found a taxi... but out of the rain and with plenty of time to catch the train (ha! We are getting the hang of this India thing... leave loads of time when travelling, everything always takes longer than you think it will...) we sat back and relaxed (well, as much as you can in an Indian taxi) while our intrepid driver headed off into the dark of storm, peering through fitfully-working wipers.

About half way to Old Delhi Station, while in a higgeldy-piggeldy queue at traffic lights, a traffic cop stopped and tapped on the taxi window. What had we done? Was he checking for road tax, insurance, MOT? As if these things exist in India!?! The roads would be a lot quieter if they did!!!! No, the cop wanted a lift - so he just hopped into the front seat and off we went! We had not gone very far on our journey when we passed one of the ramshackle public buses. The cop wound down his window and flagged down the bus. He then left us, got into the stationary bus and continued his journey home.... I was trying to imagine the same scenario happening in London - a PC stopping an already occupied black cab, joining the current occupants on their journey until he passes the 73 bendy bus to Seven Sisters. Leaning out of the window, he waves down the no. 73 between stops, leaves the cab without paying, jumps on the bus and heads home. Unbelievable!

Rishikesh has not changed either! Home is still Green Valley Cottage - but there is a new addition to the family! Marc has been looking after an abandoned puppy, named Bunti, for the last few weeks. But more of her later.

Still on the subject of 'only in India.....' . The first morning, while on the way to breakfast, there is a terrible smell with a trail of fetid water running away down the hill. A blocked drain - Yuk! Is Dynarod available? - no one needs them! Do it yourself plumbing is the order of the day!

The fun and games on the roads remain unchanged... It's disorganised chaos as a bewildering selection of rusting, delapidated cars, motor bikes, buses, tuk tuks, hand carts, tractors, lorries, bicyles all jostle to be first into a blind bend or a tiny space on the road through the town. The results can be nerve-wracking, either as a pedestrian or as a passenger and are also usually ear-splitting (an unimaginable cacophony of horns and bells accompany the revving engines). Occasionally, the results can be horrific. This is a bus, just visible through the jungle, which came off the road in the early hours of one morning this week. It ended up at the bottom of the ravine by the foot of the slope leading to the Clean Himalaya workshop.

Not suprisingly, some people were seriously injured - but we did not hear of any fatalities, thank goodness!

Belated Goodbye.... (And Wow!!!)

2008-09-30T20:15:00.006+05:30

Back in July I said a temporary goodbye to Marc and India.... I had promised to go back to work, while Marc really wanted to stay on in Rishikesh for longer.

Most of you will know that. I think I have been in touch with most of our families and friends. We have caught up a little bit, exchanged news and I have probably produced a thick wad of photos taken on our travels for you to browse through. There would have been a glaring omission from these pictures, though.

Just before I flew out of Delhi, we spent a day visiting the Taj Mahal. After winding our way through the dusty, narrow and noisy streets of Agra, standing in separate queues (one for women and one for men), being jostled and pushed around in the sweltering heat, everyone trying to squeeze through the bottleneck of security, we emerged into the relative peace of the grounds of the Taj Mahal. It seems impossible that anything this impressive or tranquil can exist in such surroundings, but it does....

The first sight of the Taj really is one of those 'WOW!' moments. No matter how far you may have travelled or what other glorious sights you may have seen, the Taj Mahal really has an impact.

Our traditional, long distance shots are good - but don't really convey how the white marble is gleaming in the sunshine or the true majesty of the place.

The close up views shows just how much delicate and skilled work went into the construction and decoration. All different coloured stones, each individually cut and set together to produce, what is in effect, a giant mosaic.

Pictures are fine, words can paint a picture, but neither do justice to this magnificent place. If you get the chance - go there. You will never forget it!

15 Minutes of Fame.....

2008-07-11T16:04:00.002+05:30

Marc has hit the (Indian) national press!!!! He wanted to stay incognito, thus the hat and sunglasses... Nothing to do with the heat and the sun!

Now that Bollywood has a new eco-friendly trend, Marc will be considering all offers that may come his way!!

Seriously, this article was the second one in Amr Ujjala, an Indian national daily newspaper, about Clean Himalaya this week. It is a story about the street clean up campaign which has been going on all this week. Great publicity!

More Rubbish..... (aka Street Cleaning Week)

2008-07-10T09:55:00.025+05:30

There is a revolution going on in Rishikesh..... (No, the workers have not gone on strike again!).

Previously unheard of events are taking place and strange, never seen before items have landed by the roadside with mysterious messages written in the sky!!!!

No, the sun has not finally got to me, nor has the incessant noise driven me around the bend... The new Clean Himalaya rubbish bins have been installed on the streets with accompanying publicity banners strung above them, across the roads.

Installing the strange object....

Decorating it....

Hey Presto!.... The Finished Rubbish Bin

The Message in the Sky!

Although this may seem to be a bit of a non-event, through western eyes, it is a big help for Clean Himalaya (CH). Instead of just asking people not to throw their rubbish on the floor, there is now somewhere they can ask the public to put their bottles, cans, papers etc... Marc and I were out early this morning photographing the bins and banners. I know, I know... really exciting? No? Well, hopefully it will be useful as CH had a good write-up in a national circulation hindi language paper this week - and with any luck there will be a follow-up to that with pictures and also a further story about the CH clean-up week. More of that later... Anyway, a picture of someone using the bins was needed, but with very few people on the streets at that time, we could have been waiting around for ages to get the required photo. It was quickest to ask one of our friends from the internet cafe if they had any rubbish and did they mind being photographed putting it in the bin? No problem... but it was when our friend walked straight past the new CH bin and went to empty their rubbish on the ground behind it, that it became clear just how far outside the Indian mentality it it is to put anything in a bin. Even as far as not recognising a bin when it is right their in front of them, clearly labelled!! And if this guy didn't manage it..... Getting everyone to use the bins could be a long job!!

This is not to say that the job is impossible or that Indians are not interested.... A Dutch girl, Louise, last weekend organised a clear-up of the area immediately in front of the "German Bakery", a popular western tourist hang-out. There is a good view of the Laksman Jhula bridge from the bakery which is completely spoilt by all the junk that is thrown into a small, steep ravine right by one end of the bridge. Although Clean Himalaya makes daily rubbish collections from the bakery, there is just not enough staff to clear up the streets and areas in the vicinity. Louise took matters into her own hands -organised a few of the tourists to do a clear up and asked Clean Himalaya for help with sacks, gloves and disposing of the collected rubbish.

There were about 20 people involved, 3 of us came from Clean Himalaya to help out and spread the Clean Himalaya word! Louise and her gang slithered down into the steep, muddy ravine and spent an hour and a half clearing it of all the foul gunge down there. The attention it created was amazing! Crowds gathered, jostling to get a glimpse of what was going on, cameras flashed, jaws dropped when it was realised what the bunch of westerners were doing! It certainly made a difference to the view from the bakery and hopefully made all the people that witnessed the clean up, think about what was going on.

Meanwhile, back with Clean Himalaya.... To accompany the new bins and the publicity push, CH had also organised a street cleaning campaign, but spread over 5 days. The usual CH people are all taking part, Jitendra, Steve, Swami Susan, Amit, Marc and myself, plus as many other volunteers as we can get together. We are just asking people to spare an hour or two whenever they can. So far we have some very enthusiastic kids from the local school, guys from rafting and trekking companies, a lady who looks after stray dogs, swamis and many others associated with Sivananda Ashram and a few people who have been walking past, wondered what was going on and then deciding to join in!

Today (Tuesday) was the first day. Despite the current monsoon season, it was a blistering hot, sunny morning. As a result, we have now got sunburn over our tans!!! The prospect of spending the afternoon picking up rubbish out under the merciless sun was not too appealling. In the event, of course, I should not have worried about it as we had only just got stuck into the task in hand when the sky darkened and the heavens opened. The monsoon struck!

We had been out for about an hour and made a really good start on the area where I was clearing up, before the heavens opened. But after the rain stopped, there was more rubbish washed down the centre of the road than was there before we started! Thankfully, no other groups had this experience. We had all made a good start on the week-long clear up, although we all got a soaking for our trouble. Even the kids were drenched, but chattered excitedly about everything they had done while we all went for a well-earned and warming chai (Indian, sweet, milky tea).

Worms & All That.....

2008-07-03T16:43:00.010+05:30

Ahead of schedule and in time for the visit by the World Bank representative, the Vermi-Composting Unit has been opened.

Vermi-composting is an eco-friendly way of turning organic waste into compost. All the peelings, scraps and food waste from hotels and businesses will now be turned into cash for Clean Himalaya.

Very briefly - the organic food waste is sieved and as much moisture removed as possible. It is then piled on the floor, covered in cow dung and left to decompose on its own, with regular checking for temperature, moisture content, acidity. When the temperature of this waste is correct it, worms are added and get to work on this lovely mixture. They chomp their way through it for 25 days, eating 5 times their body weight every day! The organic waste turns to fine compost, the worms are sieved out and put to work on the next batch of yummy waste! The beauty of this process, apart from its simplicity (and I am sure I have oversimplified it here..) is that it is entirely environmentally friendly. It is an aerobic process (i.e. it uses oxygen to break down the materials) with the result that no harmful gases, like methane, are produced. The resulting compost will also be entirely beneficial for the local farmers as it has no chemicals to harm their lands.

Another friend to Clean Himalaya, Ashish, who has his own large vermi-composting unit in Dehli is the man with the know-how and drive for this project. Clean Himalaya (CH) have built a new, large, monkey-proof shed, specifically for vermi-composting, on a site he selected at the edge of the nearby forest. It is a short walk from the CH workshop, where the sorting of dry waste, is done.

Last weekend, the shed was officially inaugurated and blessed by Swamis from the Divine Life Society (DLS) and opened for business by Ashish, by setting up the first composting troughs. The shed was decorated with flowers, and petals scattered on the paths leading to the entrance. Traditional snacks of vegetable pakoras and rasmali awaited the guests after the blessings and (very short) speeches. There were guests from Clean Himalaya, DLS and a number of interested passers-by. It was a truly beautiful occasion.

It was made even more of an Indian experience, blessings, chanting and flowers notwithstanding.... The smell of the incense in the shed competed directly with the buckets of cow dung. Some of the singing and speeches were hard to hear over the honking air-horns of the passing buses and trucks, the road diggers working directly outside and the chatter of the ‘guests’ who had just popped in for the pakoras!!

Industrial Action, Rishikesh Style....

2008-06-30T14:19:00.009+05:30

The workers were on strike for 4 days.

They really dug their heels in.... They wanted a pay rise - no strings attached. The pay rise was agreed, but in return Jitendra and the rest of the Clean Himalaya management team want to implement the new workers package of a pay rise and bonuses, but also fines for non attendance or sloppy work. The workers would just not agree, despite their wage demands being met.

At this point, the general sense seems to me is that the importance of the work they do is not very high on the workers' agenda. Yes, it is very hard work, but high profile, for Rishikesh, at least... - the workers are familiar figures in their Clean Himalaya uniforms. But there seems to be little interest in helping make the area a better place to live in or visit or any wider pollution or environmental concerns.

On the 5th day, 2 of the workers came back. Interestingly, it was the longest serving men, Chotilal and Vikas. They have also agreed to sign up for the management package of pay, bonuses and fines. In recognition of their loyalty, (and because they have more work to do...) they have been given more money than was originally asked for and a small delay before the system of fines is started for real. Call it a trial run!

CHOTILAL

VIKAS

By the way, one of the workers, Sonu, has gone home to his village. He does not know about the strike, but equally, Clean Himalaya has no idea when he will be back!

The other men who we had been out collecting with, Sanjay, Arun, Aswani and Surinder will not now be taken back, should they appear at the workshop wanting to rejoin Clean Himalaya. Jitendra has some temporary staff sorting the rubbish and is looking out for permanent recruits.

So, Clean Himalaya is back on track - much to the relief of the volunteers (us!). The day after we all went collecting in the monsoon downpour, we were back out again making the same collection runs. Marc and I were on foot again, on the other side of the Laksman Jhula bridge. It was a bright, sunny and most importantly, dry day. Compared with the previous day's misery - we were sorting and carrying the junk with light hearts, though it is something that we don't really want to have to do on a daily basis. Hurrah for Chotilal and Vikas!

Clean Himalaya, The Workers & The Monsoon

2008-06-23T17:10:00.001+05:30

There is always stacks to do at Clean Himalaya - after all, the rubbish doesn't ever go away and always needs collecting and sorting... However, there are extra items on the agenda at the moment.

A representative from the World Bank, the organisation that awarded Clean Himalaya funding last year and gave the whole project a real shot in the arm, is coming to see how their funds are being used in the first week of July. There are several projects that it would be good to get in place before the World Bank show up - new bins in the public areas, publicity banners across the main roads. The new vermicomposting shed is ready ahead of schedule and only awaiting the training from the expert from Dehli before all the organic waste can start to be turned into compost and cash. All this is all in addition to the regular daily collections. It really is 'all hands on deck' time for everyone involved with Clean Himalaya.

So what happened this week? The workers went on strike!

They want more money... That is OK, there is some funds available, but in return the Clean Himalaya management want to go ahead and implement the new workers package - that means yes to a pay rise, yes to bonuses available for good attendance etc, but also system of small penalties for non attendance, sloppy work etc. The workers just want the money and are not interested in the overall package so there is an impasse. And the rubbish is piling up. There is nothing for it but the management and volunteers to don their rubber gloves and get out there on the collection runs!!

Jitendra, the driver Sohan, and another friend to Clean Himalaya who happens to be in Rishikesh at the moment, Amit, take the van and start the collections on the Tapovan side of the river. Marc and I set off on foot for the Laksman Jhula side. Jitendra has also secured the temporary services of 2 young men from the recycling unit in Rishikesh where the Clean Himalaya junk is processed. One of these boys joins each team, meant to do the worst of the carrying, and we are ready to start.

Oh, I don't think I mentioned - it is the most filthy day. The monsoon has hit hard. The sky is dark and the heavens have opened. The downpour is continuous and torrential.

Much to my eternal regret, we have no pictures for this day. The camera's battery had just about run out and it was also far too wet to risk using it. But picture us, wearing light-weight green rain protectors (effectively like a bin liner, but with sleeves and a hood), armed with dirty, dripping sacks, picking our way through the mud and ankle-deep puddles marching out to do battle with the rubbish and the elements!

Collecting rubbish is a horrible job, even under good conditions, and it is immediately obvious that our temporary helper from the recycling centre is not very enthusiastic about it. Apart from the abhorrent nature of having to stick your hands into bins full of someonelse's rubbish, today there is double the amount to collect, as no collections were made the day before. Although we are meant to be collecting dry waste (paper, plastics etc) as soon as it is added to the ever growing junk in the sacks, the new rubbish is sodden and double the weight.

We must have been a sight! The green protective clothing was not much use against the rain, which ran in down the sleeves and neck. I gave up with the hood as it was too big and I couldn't see where I was going. The whole thing was too light-weight and would tear every time you hoisted a sack over your shoulders... We were completely and thoroughly soaked, not to mention comprehensively covered in unmentionable filth from the 30 or so collection sites....

It was too much for our temporary 'help'. Marc and I were collecting from a hotel and needed a new sack that we had left at the entrance with the boy. Marc went to get the sack and witnessed our 'help' creeping away down the road into the continuing downpour!

By the end of the round, the sacks were so heavy that Marc, let alone I, was unable to carry them back to the pick up point. The slightly lighter sack we carried back between us the other, heavier one we were forced to abandon to wait for stronger and hardier souls to come and collect between them.

Exhausted, dripping and filthy, we trudged back to our room to get clean and warm.

While we are still recovering, Jitendra phones us - he needs help, there is more stuff to be collected - but we will have better help this time. He says that Pushpa, the only female Clean Himalaya worker and who is not included in the strike action, will come with us. There are only a few places to collect from.... So off we go again - fully expecting to do the lifting and shifting ourselves.

How wrong can you be? Very wrong in this case.. Pushpa was amazing! We collected sodden mass after another sodden mass of rubbish in sacks we could barely move, let alone carry anywhere. With a bit of help, Pushpa was balancing these sacks on her head and then walking back to the workshop, carrying weight that 2 of us could not manage. What a girl!

Not suprisingly, there is always a variety of insects, mainly ants and cockroaches to be found amongst the rubbish. This was also the day Marc found our first snake, albeit a very small one! And in the same pile of sacks, he found a spider as big as his hand!!! Thankfully both animals disappeared swiftly back into the jungle - but it is a good reminder than broken glass is not the only danger lurking in the dustbins!

It's Raining Again.....

2008-06-17T13:48:00.003+05:30

Followed by 3 consecutive nights of thunder storms and lashing rain, the temperature has dropped and the humidity risen. Now it's raining in the day too...

It's official - For the first time in 108 years, the monsoon has arrived 2 weeks early!

The tops of the surrounding Himalayan foothills are often swathed in cloud. Mist lies over the surface of the Ganges, giving the whole place a mystic and ethereal feel.

Pushpa's Son & the Tantrics

2008-06-17T13:16:00.007+05:30

We have been in India for nearly a month. You would have thought that after a few weeks we would be pretty used everything Rishikesh has to offer? Wrong! We are still in turn delighted, shocked, angered, amazed (and any number of other emotions) with the sights and sounds of daily life here!

Truly hospitable people, Jitendra and his wife Bibeta, have asked us to join them for several meals at their new house up on the Clean Himalaya workshop site. These are always pretty boisterous events with their 3 lively sons running in and out, the family pet dog, Coco, craving attention and cows mooing and lumbering past the door. Set this against a background of the endless, piercing, chirping of insects in the surrounding woods and the tiny TV, belying its size, belting out music from whichever colourful Hindi film is playing and you have a good idea of the atmosphere.

This atmosphere was disrupted recently - one of the Clean Himalaya workers, the only female, Pushpa, arrived in the middle of dinner. She lives just down the slope from the workshop, in one of the make-shift huts in the shanty village that has sprung up there. Pushpa was clearly agitated and upset. Although we do not understand Hindi, we knew something was very wrong. Jitendra explained that one of her sons was ill. It sounded as if he was having fits. Pushpa had taken him to the doctor, who had recommended that the boy have a CT scan. Whether this was too expensive or just did not mean anything to his mother, she had then chosen to take the boy to the tantrics, the local mystic healer. Our shock at this was nothing to when Pushpa added that the tantrics had said to sacrifice 2 chickens, but this didn't work, and this time he said that they should try a goat! She did not have the money for a goat, so had come to ask Jitendra for it.

Jitendra did his best to explain that the boy should go for the CT scan and the tantrics' so-called powers are just a load of superstition. He asked how much the CT scan would cost - it was 2300 Rupees, which would be totally feasible for a few of us to have a whip-round to get the funds together. This was all explained to Pushpa and although visibly still upset, she went home again soon after.

A few nights later, Jitendra and his family were kept awake all night by a puja down in the shanty village. A puja is very broadly translated as a ritual invocation of the gods. A bit more of an informed description can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puja

There was intense chanting, singing, shouting, drumming and music until the morning. No sleep for anyone , including the the neighbours. During the puja, a sheep was sacrificed, though whether this was in addition to or as a replacement for the goat, we don't know. Also, one woman claimed to have been possessed by the gods and declared Pushpa's son cured. Well, let's hope so, if only for the boy's sake.

It is incredible how people in the 21st century can still think the same way as our ancestors did thousands of years ago. Things are changing in India, in some fields, like communications, incredibly quickly - almost everyone's got a mobile phone now. But until the population as a whole, not only the more privileged few, develops its way of thinking, large sections of the population is destined to remain in the dark ages for years to come. This is also true of their attitude to the environment. As one man put it to us, when we questioned why people on a pilgrimage would through their junk into the holy river Ganges - we are thinking about it in reverse. The holy river will purify the rubbish!

This kind of medieval attitude makes Clean Himalaya's work all the more important. Educational programmes and raising awareness are a big part of their programme. Anything that can be done to start to inform and educate can only be a good thing!

Back on the Road...

2008-06-05T17:15:00.016+05:30

After a few days taking it relatively easy, armed with our new spreadsheets, we are now back out on the road, starting to collect some data for Clean Himalaya.

Although each run collects from the same places each day, trying to keep track of where we have been is not made easy when there is no name on the shop or house. Also, depending on which man is doing the collection run, the places are often visited in a completely different order so keeping a numerical ordering of all the collection sites would not work every time...

There has been quite a swapping around of jobs for each man from day to day. Although this can be a good thing, combats boredom and complacency etc, this has been happening because a few members of staff have simply not turned up for work. Apart from the sheer scale of their task, staff non-attendance is Clean Himalaya’s biggest problem.

During the course of our travels here, already there have been numerous sights, sounds and smells that are alien to western eyes. Just about the strangest has been seeing a small child mugged by a monkey! It is pretty strange seeing the large amount of animals roaming loose in the streets. Avoidance of the cows and bulls on the roadside is part and parcel of daily life. They are often trying to swipe odd cucumbers or tomatoes from the stalls and then are driven away with kicks or beaten by branches by the outraged stall holder. There are also any number of dogs in the streets and wild pigs wallow in the muddy edges of the dried up river beds. Lizards and endless insects are inside every building. To this picture add small silver or brown coloured monkeys surveying the scene below from the trees.

This cheeky monkey had obviously been watching and waiting for the right opportunity. The small boy’s left hand was being securly held by his mother, but in his right hand, but was a small bag containing 2 onions. The monkey leapt out of the tree, ran across the road, snatched the bag out of the startled boy’s hand and was back up in the tree almost before anyone realised what had happened. The child was completely traumatised and wailed long and loudly. I bet the monkey was not too impressed either when he found out he had pinched onions instead of a bag of nice, juicy mangoes....

However all this looks to western eyes, there are some sights in Rishikesh that must seem very strange to Indians. While out on rubbish collection runs, proudly wearing our Clean Himalaya tops, usually extremily hot, sweaty and dishevelled, more than once, people have asked to take our photographs! Usually with their children in the picture too! Do we look so unusual?

Some more unusual or just wonderful sights........

Burn Out.... (What! This Early??)

2008-06-05T16:03:00.006+05:30

We have overdone it…

In our enthusiasm to get involved and hands-on immediately, ignoring warnings to take it easy in the heat and acclimatize slowly, we have definitely overdone it.

We need to rest up a bit, but one thing we have discovered… Clean Himalaya really does need some help on their admin. At present, no one has had any time to collate any information on the different rubbish collections runs, how long they are taking, who is sorting their waste into organic and non-organic etc, etc. This is all data that could be useful and help paint an overall picture about what is going on. As an IT specialist (Marc) and an administrator (Corin) we undertake to get information collated.

The first job is to get some spreadsheets written so that we have some data collection forms to work on. We agree a plan with Jitendra and Susan and retire to the cool of the EnlightenNext office to make a start.

The office computer seems OK at first. Marc gets it tidied up and we get to work. After 20 minutes or so, it shuts itself down – it has overheated…. There is nothing to do but wait for it to cool down. As soon as we get up and running again, there is a powercut! This sequence of events carries on – what should have been a morning’s work, in fact, takes all day.

In order to resolve the overheating (the computer, not us..) problem, we need to travel down to the main town of Rishikesh, which is much bigger than Tapovan and has computer and tool shops. We take the equivalent of the local bus, a motorized rickshaw, that you can hop on and off for the rupee equivalent of a few pence.

Rishkesh has the same kind of feel as Tapovan, but just on a larger scale. It is more colourful, dirtier, noisier, smellier and even more packed. However, if you need to buy a particular item, it is the best place to go. The shops are all open fronted and seem to be grouped into shops selling the same kind of item or service, all the fruit stalls together, clothes shops together etc etc. Wandering through the market, it suddenly opens out on to the water front by the Ganges, where all the stalls are selling incense and orange garlands of flowers. It is a treat for the senses!

In Rishikesh, we have discovered the best eating place we have come across so far. We have no kitchen, so all meals have to be eaten out. That’s OK, as it is easy to get a cheap, tasty meal – but the Rajasthani is a cut above the others places we have been to.

It does not look much from the outside or the inside, to be frank! There are 5 or 6 rows of marble effect tables, and the walls are lined by garish and exotic pictures of Hindu gods. To keep the temperature bearable, 8 fans whirr at full speed overhead. Each table is taken, but service and eating is very speedy and it does not take long to get seated. The staff are all eager Nepalese waiters and cooks, it is very busy, but everyone seems to know exactly what they are doing and soon your selection from the menu of India and Chinese dishes arrives fresh at the table.

Marc has also had a visit to a local barber. This was quite an experience – not only a good haircut, but a full head massage too, complete with eucalyptus oil! He looked very smart, but completely spaced out after the pounding, rubbing and twisting that he was subjected to.

The weather is worth a mention – my English conditioning has finally got the better of me. It is can be a lot hotter than we were ready for. About 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Both of us have lived and worked in hot countries, but this has taken us by surprise. When the sun is high in the sky, it is a fantastic sight, but just walking a short distance feels like a big deal, let alone traipsing along for a couple of hours collecting rubbish. The nights are cooler, but it is still hard to sleep despite cooling showers and ceiling fans.

It can cloud over, though, very quickly. The temperature drops to a more manageable level, but this has proved to be a warning of an approaching thunderstorm. The storms are spectacular. Great dark clouds forming over the hills save everything they have got and finally hurl their full weight of wind and rain down on the world below in short, but intense bursts. Black sky, shutters banging and trees bending to the ground in the wind, rain drenching everything and everyone who can’t get to shelter quickly enough. We are still a month or so away from the monsoon season, what on earth will it be like then?

Second Day with Clean Himalaya

2008-06-01T17:39:00.007+05:30

The previous day’s trips up and down to the workshop and the afternoon collecting rubbish in Laksman Jhula have taken their toll! Marc has huge and very unpleasant blisters on the soles of his feet! Nevertheless, we set off again for the workshop to see what Jitendra has planned for us next.

We are off on a morning collection run, this time with Chotalal and his Clean Himalaya bicycle and trailer. It is very hot, the sun burning in a bright, clear sky and it is only 9am!

If anything, Chotalal’s morning run is more strenuous than that of the previous afternoon, in the alleyways of Laksman Jhula. There is an equal amount of truly unpleasant waste to be collected, but in the full glare of the merciless sun.

We are flagging a bit behind Chotalal, who is cracking through his round at a fair pace. Being a one man team, he collects all the rubbish in one sack, carries is back to the bicycle trailer, where he does the sorting and separating into food and non-food waste. There is a terrible, smelly bucket slowly filling with the slops from households and hotels, as well as decently concealed sacks of other waste.

Some places have obviously diligently been collecting their rubbish, some have made a token attempt and a few places have nothing at all despite the fact they are paying for the collection to take place. Since many of the places today are private homes, quite a few holiday homes for tourists from other towns in India, a lot of time is spent hanging around outside, waiting for a small bag of paper to be finally handed out by the householder.

At one point, Chotalal parked his bike and headed up a steep slope away from the road, carrying a couple of sacks. We duly set off behind him, not realising what lay in store! Up, up, up… along a single track road without any shade, dodging the bikes and motorbikes that are freewheeling down the slope in the opposite direction. After what felt like about a day of trudging along, we turn left, follow a small stony track for about 30 yards and stop, red-faced and out of breath, outside a private home. We are immediately confronted by a snarling, barking dog, doing its best to squeeze through the gates to get at us. At this point, the householder puts her head out of the window and calls out the Hindi equivalent of ‘no rubbish today!’.

Shattered, we turn down the hill. Some of the other houses do have some rubbish to collect, but the effort of getting to that top house for nothing has had a deep effect!

Marc’s injured feet are too painful… he is hobbling badly. He heads for the relative peace of Red Chili internet café and I trudge on behind Chotalal followed by curious looks and clouds of flies.

In the afternoon, there is a change from the regular rubbish collections. It is time to get out and about on ‘Public Service’ which is basically picking up recyclable waste from a public area. In the full heat of the day, we are going to clear up a stretch of nearby dirt pavement – Aswani on the left hand side of the road, Surinder on the right.

As the afternoon wears on, the sacks get fuller. As well at picking up litter lying loose on the floor, both men are clearing the rubbish that is choking the foul and stinking gutters at the side of the road. Pavement or gutter, they are having to dodge in and out of the heaving throng of people, vehicles and animals to be able to do their job.
It takes about 2 ½ hours to finish this stretch of road. The sacks are sealed to await pickup by the Clean Himalaya truck and we start of the walk back to the workshop. You only have to go a couple of steps before you realize what a soul-destroying, not to mention back-breaking, task this could be. There is already a fresh showering of sweet and ice cream papers, banana skins and plastic bottles beginning to show on the floor not 5 minutes after we have finished this afternoon’s labours. Tomorrow’s work is already waiting for us!

As we get near to the workshop, Aswani and Surinder stop to point out the ravines that are used for the usual method of waste disposal. From the top to the bottom, which is by the edge of the Ganges, there is a solid covering of multi-coloured rubbish. It would take an army of Aswani and Surinders to clean this lot up, and then it would be back again the next day…… We stand at the top staring into the garbage abyss, shaking our heads, stunned at the task in front of Clean Himalaya.

It does not matter how many people there are to make rubbish collections, however useful they are in getting out there and raising awareness of the pollution issue. If there is not any kind of change in the attitude of the people so wantonly undertaking such destruction, no amount of ‘Public Service’ work is going to help.

Introduction to Clean Himalaya

2008-05-31T17:40:00.012+05:30

www.cleanhimalaya.com

It is a delightfully hazy, cool morning. The only sounds outside are those of droning insects, chirping birds and barking dogs before the day gets fully underway and the honking traffic is back on the road.

First stop this morning is to meet Jitendra Kumar, the man responsible for starting off Clean Himalaya (CH). He is responsible for the day-to-day running of the project and it is him we need to check in with.

The CH workshop is up a steep, stony track, set some way back from the road snaking away below. It is basically the collection and sorting point for all the waste that the Clean Himalaya staff pick up during the day.

Under the shade of trees hanging with mangoes, lychees and jackfruit there is rubbish everywhere! When sorted it is left in piles before being sealed into sacks to await transport to the local recycling centre. The unsorted rubbish is in a large metal, monkey proof (!) shed. When we arrived, there were 3 people literally sitting amongst all the unmentionable junk, sorting it. There was a fourth worker who was having first aid on his hand, after he had cut it open on a broken bottle left unprotected in the sack he was sorting.

The Problem......

Jitendra gave us a quick run down on the day to day activities of Clean Himalaya. There are daily pick ups from local businesses and homes that pay for CH to come and take away their waste. Also, what they term, public services, which is clearing up rubbish and tidying roadsides or other designated areas. There is constant activity in trying to get new businesses signed up and also a programme for local schools, to teach them about the value of recycling, dangers of pollution and climate change. Clean Himalaya posters are in evidence all over the town and the rubbish collectors are instantly recognisable in their Clean Himalaya tops.

It does not take any time at all in Tapovan to know that Clean Himalaya faces an uphill battle. And it takes some pretty special people to take this seemingly impossible task on at all! There is junk everywhere, every single slope is covered with a cascade of multi-coloured rubbish. Littering is against the law, but is never enforced. The environment, pollution, climate change are just not on the agenda in India, seemingly for anyone, in the same way that they are in the West. The whole area around Rishikesh and the Ganges is some of the holiest in India, but this does not stop anyone, from the most well-do-do, educated tourist to the poorest tea stall holder, from just chucking their rubbish down, wherever they may be!

We also met Swami Susan, from the Divine Life Society, who is the CH secretary. Together, she and Jitendra told us how different this project is for India. First of all, the whole organisation is run with integrity and clarity. This, in practical terms, means that they do what they say they will and everyone knows it. They were first met with suspicion – after all, anyone could say they were collecting waste for recycling and then tip it down the nearest convenient hillside along with the rest of the junk. This is the regular method of waste disposal, even by the local council….Who would know? The CH answer was to ask people to come and see what they were really doing.

A completely revolutionary aspect to Clean Himalaya is the way they treat their staff, and in return, how they expect them to behave. They are the process of introducing a contract, making clear they hours they are expected to work, bonuses they could earn, fines that will have to be paid for lateness etc etc. This is a totally new concept for the workers.

After lunch, we went out on a regular daily pick up run with 2 of the Clean Himalaya collectors, Sanjay and Arun. Sanjay has been with CH for 2 years, Arun for 2 months.

By this time, it has got really hot. In the sweltering heat in downtown Laksman Jhula, we spend the afternoon following Sanjay and Arun in and out of shops and hotels, watching them cheerfully rummaging in bins, separating out food and non-food waste, tipping the results into separate sacks, hoisting the sacks on to their backs and moving on to the next place.

In the process of putting a festering, slimy dustbin back where it belonged, Arun trips up and manages to the spray the nearest person with some vile, yellow slops from the bottom of the bin. The nearest person???? It was Marc!! He received a good splattering of the disgusting substance – all down one side from chest height to his ankle. Arun was mortified (Marc was not too impressed, though took the whole thing very well!) and insisted on wiping Marc down with bottled water and the only clean paper available, some loo roll…

Back on the route - Up and down slopes and alley ways, through stinking puddles of unmentionable filth, weaving in and out of the heaving crowds (who might have been a bit quicker to move out of the way if they had any idea what was in the sacks they were pushing against…) . It is a smelly, sweaty, disgusting job and my respect for these 2 men grew with every step.

There were a few reactions to Marc and I following the Clean Himalaya trail. Some were encouraging and supportive, realising that this is a job that really needs doing. Some were incredulous that anyone, let alone foreigners, could be interested in this small project in a tiny, though not insignificant, place in India. At one hotel, they did not think we were with the Clean Himalaya boys and asked if we would like a room for the night!

At the end of the collection, the Clean Himalaya truck comes to pick up the bulging sacks and take them back to the workshop. They will join the pile of rubbish to be sorted in the shed.

Shattered and grubby, we stagger back to our room, reflecting on the monumental task ahead of Clean Himalaya and how we can play our part.

Off to Rishikesh

2008-05-31T17:06:00.007+05:30

It’s a hazy early morning (6am) in Dehli. Peaceful after the din of the night before, but still pretty noisy!

We have only a few hundred yards to go to the railway station, but it has been raining and the streets are rutted and filled with puddles. Neither of us fancy dragging our cases through the mud. The taxis are too small to get 2 cases in, so we take a taxi each and head for the station.

Long before we enter the station gates, the traffic is at a standstill. This looks like a very popular time to travel! We are sitting ducks as the red shirted station porters do their best to grab our cases out of the taxi and ‘help’ us into the station! It takes a great deal of firmness to resist their attempts and be able to manoeuvre our cases ourselves.

We set off for the station building, pursued by porters outraged that we are depriving them of carrying our bags! The next hazard awaits inside…. Unbelievably, there are a hundred people or so, asleep on the floor. Not just the old, but mothers with babies too, wrapped in shawls and seemingly oblivious to the feet passing inches from them. They are not neatly tucked away around the edges, but lying right in the middle of the dusty and muddy floor, with all the travellers stepping over or around them. It is not an easy task to thread the suitcases between the sleepers.

We stop to check the signboards to find out which platform our train is leaving from. The porters stop with us too and try to advise which platform we need while making a fresh grab for our cases. Choosing to believe the signboards rather than the different opinions we are being given from the porters and some not-so-helpful passers by, we set off for the platform. Of course, our train, no. 2017 Shatabdi Express to Dehradun, is leaving from the furthest platform. Here we go again, dragging our heavy cases up 3 flights of stairs, followed by a remarkably persistent and annoying porter who still won’t believe that we are not going to let him take the cases, pushing through the crowds to the other side of the station, down 3 flights of stairs, to the relative peace of our train, standing ready on platform 11.

We are taking the train to Haridwar from where we will have to take a bus or taxi to Rishikesh. Our names are posted on the list of passengers for carriage C3, we find our seats and settle down to watch India pass by during our 4 ½ hour train journey.

The day is quite drab and the scenery not particularly appealing as we pass through the suburbs of northern Dehli. All sorts of shanty towns, piles of rubbish line the tracks. Cows and dogs, both tethered and roaming free. The rural areas are pretty flat: green or brown muddy fields but there does not seem to be any great activity going on in them. A few open spaces have impromptu games of cricket being played on dirt wickets. With the cool and rainy weather, we don’t even have the benefit of looking at the scene in the sunshine. With the air conditioning on the train going full blast, we are absolutely freezing!

Arrival in Hardiwar is complete pandemonium! Just as frantic as the scene we left behind in Dehli. Once again, we are descended on by porters and taxi drivers in equal measure, all demanding, virtually bullying us into taking their services. They surround Marc, ignoring me… but he stands firm and we are eventually able to make our own way to the bus station to see if a bus journey to Rishikesh is a good option. After looking at the state of the bus, and remembering the state of the roads, we decide that another taxi would be the better choice. Once again we set off on another ‘your-life-in-their-hands’ journey with our taxi driver weaving in and out of oncoming traffic.

After a nerve-shredding hour or so, we drive through the main town of Rishikesh, up the road a little to our final destination of Tapovan. It is a tiny place, a tarmac road with dirt edges that serve equally as a pavement or grazing ground for the cattle that roam free in the streets. There are small shops on each side of the road that all have open fronts. There are also a maze of guest houses, tiny restaurants and temples, alongside, behind and above the shops, that all supply the needs, physical and spiritual, of the myriad of pilgrims that have descended on this area.

Yes, it is the Indian holiday season. It is packed in Tapovan, not only with people, but also the accompanying vehicles that bring them here and take them up into the mountains on their pilgrimage. There is a motorized taxi dropping off area – they also serve as the local buses. When a few of them are trying to manouevre at the same time, it is just like watching the dodgems at the fair!

Marc recognizes it all, and just as we are looking around deciding where best to go, Steve Brett, who runs the EnlightenNext centre here, and is expecting us, walks past.

We are home! Steve shows us to our room, then as we have lunch together, he gives us some background on the Clean Himalaya project. It seems that there is a lot more to it than we thought – it is not just another recycling or tidying the environment project. It has the involvement not only of EnlightenNext, but also the local Divine Life Society. Clean Himalaya seems to be making progress, not only in making small but significant inroads into the huge pollution problem, but also in the way that everyone, from the top downwards, is working together. We will be joining them and finding out more tomorrow.

Another evening walk finds us acclimatizing to our new surroundings. We follow another road downhill to a narrow bridge, called Laksman Jhula, the literal translation of which is ‘Bridge of the God Laksman’, which spans the Ganges. This bridge is no more than 5’ wide and packed with people trying to cross the river both ways. Add to this, mopeds and motorbikes being ridden through the mass of humanity and you have a fair idea of the chaos created. Meandering through packed alleys of tourist shops, the scene then opens up on a wide path that runs parallel to the river and down to the second bridge, a little further downstream, called Ram Jhula. This is the brother bridge to Laksman Jhula, named for Laksman’s brother, Ram. We stop to buy the essentials – water and loo roll, cross Ram Jhula and turn for home.

First day of work tomorrow!

A Day in New Dehli

2008-05-29T13:28:00.006+05:30

Our day in Dehli – starts late. Tired after our journey from London and with a certain amount of nervous exhaustion after our first few hours in Dehli, we sleep until midday.

First things first – the railway station is down the road. That is where our journey to Rishikesh will start tomorrow, so we go to get our tickets and check the time of the train.

With that out of the way, it is time to explore a little in what time we have available.

Daylight reveals just how contrasting Dehli is. There are splendid colonial buildings alongside homes that are no better than single room mud covered huts. There are parks with tended lawns sitting next to stinking piles of rubbish. Wherever you look, though, it is vibrant and colourful. Especially the women – there seems to be no such thing as a dull-coloured sari. Every single one is a bright shade of yellow, pink, orange, red, purple, turquoise. Every woman wears jewellery, with multiple bangles on each wrist and further adornments on ears, fingers, wrists and toes. Even the tiniest baby girl is bejeweled with tiny bangles and earrings.

The noise of the traffic can be deafening. Not just the hum of the engines or the revving up of the vehicles, but virtually every single one will keep up a constant stream of beeping or honking. Occasionally, a particularly loud bicycle bell will join in too.

Another note on the traffic – it is a common and strange sight, to western eyes, to see whole families riding on a motorbike or moped. Dad will be driving, usually in a crash helmet that would be more use to Bob the Builder, than as a life saving device. Riding pillion will be the rest of the family, with anything up to 3 children, all cheerfully bare headed, with Mum riding side-saddle right at the back. There seems to be no quarter given for the number and nature of the passengers as Dad will still be weaving in and out of the rest of the traffic in the most alarming fashion!

In the centre of Dehli, the main tourist, shopping and business area is Connaught Circus. We head there for a look around and some lunch. Even the most modern building or shop has taken on a dirty and uncared for look on the outside. Cars are parked 3 abreast – no idea how anyone would try to make a quick trip to the shops or make an early get away from the office….

Once again, the contrasts of India are very much in evidence. Unwary shoppers, exiting the air-conditioned environment of Nike or MacDonalds, will immediately trip over the goods for sale outside. There are street traders on every available inch of pavement. Lots of book and magazine stalls, jewellery and toys are on the floor awaiting buyers. Shoe shiners and barbers are waiting for the next customer. Every corner has motorized rickshaw drivers trying to tempt the next customer into their cab. There was even one man who was selling ear-cleaning! We did not find it too hard to resist that tempting offer, though!

We decide to leave Connaught Circus behind and caught a rickshaw to the south of the city, to the Bahai’s Lotus Temple. This was a half hour ride, with a splendidly turbaned and bewhiskered Sikh as our driver. It was fairly testing on the nerves, but really worth the journey.

The temple can be seen from a distance. It is gleaming white in the shape of a lotus flower, hence the name. It stands at the edge of a busy financial district and had the usual Dehli chaos going on at it’s doorstep. As soon as you step through the gates to the temple grounds, though, all the chaos drops away. And I mean instantaneously. A sense of peace takes over immediately.

Once we have removed our shoes, there is a short walk through the lawns and trees up to the temple. Once again, it is a very colourful scene, with the queue of brightly clad people, winding through the grounds up to the temple entrance. Surprisingly, the queue is very patient and quiet – maybe this is something that the Indian people picked up from the British during the days of the Raj! But more likely it is the serenity and atmosphere around the temple taking effect on us all.

Inside, the temple is very simply furnished. There is a white marble floor and wide marble benches arranged in rows under the towering summit of the lotus flower. There is peace and silence, except for the quiet slap of bare feet on marble, the rustle of clothing and tiny chink-chink noises of the ladies’ bangles and decorated saris. Most people file in, sit down for a few minutes and then head outside into the gardens again. A few stay longer to pray or meditate .

Leaving behind this quiet scene, it is time to head back into central Dehli. We decide to stretch our legs again in the market place of Paherganj. Having said that, it is difficult to stretch anything with the crush of people around us. It is also difficult to know where to look – on the floor to see what you are about to step in, in front to see who or what is about to walk into you, or behind to see who is about to run you down!

That evening, the noise is even more raucous than before. A deafening mixture of speaker announcements from the railway station, loud music being played from roadside stalls and cries of the stall holders trying to attract some trade. Add all this in to the cacophony of horns, beeps and bells from the traffic and you have some idea of the decibel level.

The mixture of smells is almost undescribable. Virtually every market stall, whatever it is selling, is burning its own type of insense, there are cooking smells from pans of hot oil or ovens making their own kind of Indian fast food. On the not-so-good side, there is the stench from piles of rotting rubbish, animal dung and blocked drains. It is not particularly savoury, but all part of the what makes up the Dehli atmosphere!

We are off on the next step of our trip in the morning. An early start to Rishikesh ….. so we decide to get some sleep - decibel level permitting!

Arrival in New Dehli

2008-05-28T20:51:00.010+05:30

Stepping stiff and weary off the plain at Dehli Airport, India shakes you out of your comatose state very quickly.

The airport is in the process of a total rebuild and so is pretty shambolic. There are several clocks on the wall which are labeled with the names of capital cities, but showing all the wrong times. However, on switching your mobile on, it quickly tunes in to the local network and automatically adjusts its time to the local hour. Passport control, collecting luggage and customs are all managed with the minimum of fuss. What awaits us is test no. 1 – the taxi to the hotel…..

Avoiding the numerous touts offering rides in to the city, it is relatively simple to get a taxi from the official taxi rank. Tell them where you want to go, pay the money and find the cab. Our cab is a rickety, old fashioned, grubby affair. We only have one suitcase each, which should fit easily in the boot. No, it doesn’t… When the boot is opened it reveals a big tank, which we assume is for fuel, taking up half the space inside. One case goes in, the other will just about squeeze on top of it – but the boot lid will not close. There is no rope to hold it down, so we just have to leave it as it is and hope for the best.

We hop on board. The long-haired rug-like cover on the back seat looks as if it has had the whole population of Dehli sit on it at one time or another, without ever having had any kind of clean. I shut the car door – the handle to close the window falls off. It immediately starts to rain. There is nothing that I can do to close the window, so sitting on a flea ridden seat, getting wet, we are now ready to hit the road to town.

As we start off on our journey, we bounce along over the ruts and potholes that are unavoidable on the road leaving the airport. There is a slight, but definite, uneasy feeling that we are sitting on a car bomb, as thoughts turn to that tank in the boot. But at least we don’t part company with the luggage!

The road to the centre of Dehli looks pretty new and seems really good. The driving, however, is atrocious! And I mean, completely, unbelievably, atrocious. There are 4 lanes, all clearly marked, but completely ignored by everyone on the road. If any space opens up for a second or two, it will be immediately occupied by one of the swerving, honking vehicles. Due to the sheer volume of traffic and the state of repair of most of the vehicles on the road, progress can only be made at a fairly sedate pace. This is just as well as there would be multiple fatalities if it was any other way. The countless vehicles are a mixture of battered taxis, like the one we are traveling in, dirty, dusty, packed buses, 3 wheel motorized rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, motorbikes, mopeds, and smattering of newer cars, which are not destined to stay new looking for very long!

To my eternal joy – there was an elephant!!! It is the equivalent driving into London from Heathrow and passing an elephant in the slow lane of the M4! I wish I had had the camera ready…. The elephant was plodding along, seemingly unconcerned by all the chaos going on around. We had enough time to see it’s beautifully decorated face and trunk and we put-putted by in our ancient taxi, before it disappeared into the distance behind the mechanized hoard.

The closer we get to Dehli, the traffic gets slower and more cramped. There is a sense of a seething mass of humanity being squeezed into a tiny bottleneck, simultaneously passing, jostling, shouting, honking, arguing, scraping, braking……

At one point, while at a complete and utter standstill, there is a very vocal argument between the driver of a bus stopped alongside our taxi and some of his passengers. While the bus creeps forward, inch by inch, the voices get louder, decibel by decibel. Very soon there is no room to move and the bus is literally an inch away from our taxi. At this point, the bus driver’s patience seems to snap and he expresses his displeasure by standing full on the accelerator and revving the engine as hard as he can while going absolutely nowhere. He could shoot forward any second, obliterating anyone and everything in his path.

It is about now that our driver reveals that the price we have paid for the taxi will get us dropped off in the centre of Dehli, but if we want to be taken to our hotel, there is an extra fee to pay…. It is raining and chaotic, we are tired and dirty, so agree to the cash-in-hand supplement. It is not too long before we are dropped off outside the Raja Hotel – home for 2 nights.

I won’t dwell on the hotel – it worked out at approximately 9 pounds each per night. There was a relatively comfy bed and hot water, and we were so tired we weren’t too worried about anything else!

A little later on, we were back out into the streets of Dehli, this time on foot.

Pedestrian Dehli is not that different to traffic Dehli…. There is another massive crush of humanity, men, women, old, young, loads of kids - now add to this mangy dogs and cows wandering loose through the streets alongside the 2 legged population.

It is night time in an area called Paharganj. It is a fascinating stroll up and down the road. It is completely dark and there is no street lighting, but everything and everyone is lit up by the towering neon lights from the hotels, single light bulbs dangling over the roadside stalls, along with the fires under the food sellers pans of bubbling oil. There is the impression that you could buy virtually anything you could ever need, clothes, housewares etc, from the side of the road, but we settle for some bottles of water.

Not to be outdone, the sky now joins in as flashes of lightening are added to the other lighting effects. We can feel big, fat globules of rain starting to splash our faces. A storm is coming – time to get inside and prepare for tomorrow.

The Story Begins.......

2008-05-24T20:04:00.004+05:30

I heard about Clean Himalaya about this time last year, Marc, my partner, was asked to help create a website for the project. The project was created as a response to the overwhelming pollution problem in the in the holy town of Rishikesh, on the banks of the Ganges, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Recycle your rubbish - don't just throw it on the ground. It immediately struck me that this is something we should get involved in - hands on, if possible, not just long distance moral support. In India, the environmental, not to mention aesthetic, effects of this wholesale and catastrophic littering are monumental. So here we are in Rishikesh - mucky, sweating and meditating! Please join us on our journey during the next 2 months.