Hope for Women
So, it’s come to my attention that my recent India entries, while true, missed a lot of the wonderful and “normal,” (i.e. not scary, outrageous etc.) experiences that I had this trip. One of the main purposes of our traveling up north was to visit and film some of the Fair Trade company, Hope for Women. The business, in which women attain self-sufficiency, dignity etc. while handcrafting greeting cards with flowers from the base of the Himalayas, is quickly expanding, and the idea was to document some background for possible promotional use, or just for the “records.”
When Saji (sorry if this is spelled wrong, if it’s any consolation my name is mispelled all the time. Saji is basically the director of the on-sight operations in Indian, while Evan, who I know from VT, directs the sales etc in the US) picked us up at the Dehra Dun train station at 6 a.m., relief flooded over me. Though we’d been up all night in the train ride — though adrenaline, fear of being molested and robbed, and excitement for the next adventure — we didnt feel tired. I had felt so claustophobic and trapped with the first family (see first few entries, this is from the beginning of the trip), their views on everything from child labor and woman’s roles were so opposed to ours that finding common ground for even polite conversation proved nearly impossible. We sat with Saji sipping Chai in our guest house and, after our bodies and minds had felt trapped in the previous house, conversation poured forth like . . . (what analogy to use? I was thinking something about flood waters, or greyhounds, but they all seemed stupid and cliched, but you get the idea — it was a great relief to be able to speak freely and honestly with an intelligent and thoughtful person who’d spend years in the NGO, leads trips for Canandian youth, has a family, and runs HFW. We discussed caste issues reservations, the cycle of oppression and motivation in India and the US; woman’s place in the workplace, international development and business, and just casual conversation about Evan (dont worry, Evan, while Saji, as you must know, is hilarious, he refrained from telling us any embarasing stories about your past, ) VT and India.
So, after a much needed nap and some yummy breakfast (at this point in the trip Aloo Parathas — oily, flaky flat bread with potatoes and spices — were still delicious, but the plain, sour yogurt that accompanies them, made vasi “want to vomit” but somehow didn’t bother me, either because I’d grown up with the idea that yogurt, or curd doesnt have to be sweet, or being a vegetarian, had gotten used to downing less than appetizing food “to get protein.” Anyway, we finally made it to the HFW office which I’d seen through Evan’s pictures in our many meetings at Muddy Waters (planning meetings turned rapid-fire India story-telling and reminiscing hour. As draining and trying as India can be, there is something so charming, so intense that gets under your skin, that keeps bringing me back year after year of telling myself that I’ve had enough). There is something wonderful and surreal about going somewhere you’ve discussed and seen in photos but don’t really yet understand until you are there.
Anyway, I was a little nervous because the woman didn’t speak much English and my Hindi, while enough to elicit smiles and basic conversation couldnt really express any deeper conversation. Saji had told us that in the past there was some issues in the past that led some of the woman to be suspicious of people taking there pictures. So, at first I felt sort of squashed in between various cultural and linguistic barriers and didn’t know how to proceed. On the one hand, I knew that the ultimate goal of the footage would be to help HFW and therefore its employees. So, I did have the agenda of getting as much footage as possible. On the other hand, I knew that it can be disconcerting to have a camera stuck in your face and to be drilled with questions, especially when you’re not sure where that footage will be used. I tried to be friendly and casual but was confronted with the “call to ask a favor dilemna” — let me explain. You know when you need to call someone you havent spoken to in a long time to ask them a favor? Even if it’s really small, i always get nervous because I had all the “hi how are you?” mumbo jumbo, and then the awkward transition to “so, um, the reason Im calling is to ask you . . .”. Not that I don’t care how they are doing, but somehow too much of that in the beginning feels so fake and plotting. Similarly, even though I wasn’t going to personally gain from the footage, I felt somehow “fake” in making too much small conversation because in the back of my mind i was thinking, “this is good, so that they trust me to film,” so rather I tried to just be genuine, that I was there to film, and of course that was based on my genuine interest in the Women and their jobs. When I wasn’t filming i felt like a bit of an imposition, as there were training sessions going on, and the office was crowded, so this spurred on my tendency to “do” rather than just “be.” Overall it went well. We chatted, laughed, drank tea, of course. I filmed some of the lovely flowers blooming in the garden outside of the office, and of the process of them being dried and pressed onto the cards. Though i think some of the younger women were still a bit wary of our presence, when I put down the camera, or alternately, showed them how crazy i was by videoing just about everything that they thought was mundane and I found fascinating (like cows munching away in the tea plantation), things eased.
Though cameras can, as I’ve explained create a barrier to real human interaction, the irony is that they are often the catalyst, and then get in the way (ie the camera was my initial purpose of the visit). We were very privaledged to visit two of the women’s homes, meet their families and speak to them about, well to be honest a bit about their work, dreams etc, but a lot on just fun, universal topics — marriage, my Hindi, their English, pet names (one of the women had a dog named, i honestly forget, but Sammie or Meghan, and my dog’s name is VK — go figure), family problems (one of the women is supporting her three grandchildren and trying to make improvements to their house while her son is an alcoholic), etc. I ended up with way less footage than planned, and realized that in the beginning I’d been too agenda’d for people not used to video cameras, but i hope that by the end my efforts at stepping back, and the women’s efforts to stretch their comfort zones, will prove beneficial. It was certainly memorable, and a great way to start our, often more chaotic travels.
Tags: India, Travel
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