No sympathy for paparazzi by kt

Sympathy for movie stars. That is how I feel after today. What did we do? We visited Tumkur and three deaf schools in the area as well. This brings our total number of schools visited thus far on this trip to 12. Wow. Just when we think that we cannot possibly see nor learn anthing new from yet another school, we are quickly proven wrong.

The city of Tumkur sits amongst the mountains that my discerning Colorado eyes gave a stamp of approval to, even if they were a tad but on the small side. it also has forests of palm trees, a dichtomy I couldn't quite get used to. Tumkur reminds me a lot of Goa. More of a nature place with farm animals, herders, villages, dirt roads, and so on. It was a nice escape from the hustle and bustle of Bangalore, albeit for only one day.

First up on the docket was the Helen Keller Integrated school for the deaf. My excitement at seeing hearing and deaf students attending a deaf school quickly dissipated when it was explained to me that the hearing students are only there because their parents have no choice. You see, many Indian parents seem to believe that if you send a hearing child to a school with children that aren't "normal", that hearing child will acquire whatever disability the "abnormal" children have.

The parents of said children are simply too poor to afford the school fees so they are "reduced" to sending their child to a deaf school.

We posed for the obligatory group pictures, shook dozens of hands, and loaded up into a too-small van: which seems to be the theme of this trip.

Next up was the Red Cross School for the deaf that was established and is operated under a trust fund from the Rotary Club. The students learn Kannada and the schoolhouse itself is tiny with only a few rooms. The purpose of our school visits are to interact with the kids and to learn more about what we can do to support the Indian deaf. However, the whole trip turned into one huge political event full of photo opportunities and that left me and some others feeling a little bit violated and used.

I met and shook hands with various leaders of the school, members of the rotary club, community members, etc. They all seemed more excited at the prospect of us being Americans rather than members of a delegation; the GRO delegation.

The purpose of our visit was quickly lost when I was continually sought out to pose for many many pictures for and with many people. Did I mention the number of people I posed for pictures with? It was a lot of pictures.

Everytime I sat down, I was asked to stand up and pose for another picture. I didn't get to interact with any of the kids really. Even the kids' games with the delegates were constantly interrupted by adults wanting to take pictures of them with the Americans. I kept wanting to switch places with Smitha as she is the coordinator and should be the one in all of the pictures. Or Chandru, Anandandev, or Tamer. They even kept grabbing the researcher, Michelle, to pose for pictures even though she is not a part of our group nor does she contribute one iota to our team nor our mission, all because she was a token white person as well.

The women workers were of lower caste and they were often ordered around and not included in the pictures. I asked them to pose for a couple pictures with me because I felt bad about their exclusion, and that seemed to make their day, which disgusted me. Not because I don't like making people happy, but just because I view myself as plain and ordinary old KT. There is nothing special about me, there is nothing about me that should make the focus all about me and have the children and the purpose of this trip be neglected.

I was just really turned off and unsure of what to think. To get all of this admiration merely because of my nationality or because of the color of my skin felt wrong. At the same time, I couldn't refuse or not participate as that would give off a bad impression or send the wrong message. But, my conflicted mind wondered, what type of message am I sending by participating in the political agendas of some leaders? Perhaps it is merely a choice between two evils and the lesser of either. More on that in a minute.

The original plan for today included only 2 school visits, but we were surprised with a trip to another school. My initial impressions were more of an, "osh kosh omigosh! Look at the sheer number of chillun roaming the streets here!". This was the Integrated Education Center established by Shree Shree Shree Dr. Shiva Kumar Swami, who set up a lot of schools in the area and stuff like that.

When we disembarked the vans, we were treated to a swarm of children, which I videotaped. Ganesh also took pictures, then we inadvertently caused a mini-stampede amongst the children when they swarmed the steps and the older students beat them back with sticks. It caused some students to fall and down the other students went like dominos. We felt so bad as we were climbing the concrete spiral staircase, but we knew that we would have made the situation worse if we stayed behind to help.

So, we walked across the balcony into a great big room full of obedient students lined up in neat little rows and making nary a move. The teachers and directors explained that the area had at least a thousand school children, and most attend schools established by that man I mentioned earlier. He is still alive at the young age of 100, but not doing well at the moment as he was just admitted to a hospital a couple days ago.

So, the children that are poor migrate from the villages and see their parents maybe once a year. The deaf children live, eat, and sleep at the school. They also have school everyday too, imagine that. The girls are sent home in order to keep them separated from the boys, I believe the exact quote was, "so that the boys don't make whores out of the girls.". Lovely, comments like those make me love the patriarchial society of India more and more everyday.

No, I shouldn't be sarcastic as I do love India more and more every day. Comments like those frustrate me because I see a different India emerging that is trying to break the shackles of that oppression.

When we left the school, we could see that the mob was growing from the balcony. All of the children were waving to us and of course we were waving back even though it felt funny to do so. It felt like we were famous and we all kept commenting on how we were just *insert skin color here* Americans.

Weaving through the crowd, I saw one of the Indian delegates, Bharath, holding the most adorable puppy and props to Smitha for calling me over immediately to show me. I asked to hold him and he fell asleep in my arms, so cute! I wanted to adopt him. I want to adopt all of the dogs that I see in india! Well, not the one in the yard that jumped up on a fence the other day as I walked by and started barking inches from my face. India can keep that particular dog, he nearly made me mess me pants.

I digress, walking to the tiny vans, kids started swarming us wanting to shake our hands which was fine at first. However, they started to refuse to let go of my hand and this was escalated by them grabbing me and pulling me further into the crowd.

I started to become very concerned for my safety and the safety of the other members of my group. It was like mob mentality, the crowd was simply unruly and out of control and becoming increasingly agitated. The older boys and some adults had to beat off the kids with a stick just to get me out of the crowd that I was entrapped in by the kids who wouldn't let go of my hand nor me. Then they had to beat a path to the waiting van in orfer to usher me and others inside. The children surrounded the van and started to reach inside to grab at us as well as bang on the walls of the van and windows. The van was completely surrounded with children four or five deep at one point. The driver got out and closed our windows and started yelling at the kids and hitting them. That didn't work and he eventually had to just speed up and plow through the crowd just to get the heck out of there.

Meanwhile, we were all sitting inside the van wondering if this was really happening.

After that, we went to a deaf club. The Tumkur Federation for the Deaf. I knew that we were going to a deaf club to meet deaf adults, but I didn't expect to walk in and be on a panel. To make matters worse, the other bus got lost, so it was just Wyatte, Smitha, and I sitting in front of a crowd of 40 or so people smiling all awkwardly because we had no idea about this: another theme of our trip.

It wasn't so bad, it was nice being able to explain GRO's mission and our goal of empowerment. Many seemed to have the misconception that we were there to help them or do something for them. Tamer and Bus kept trying to explain that we were here to empower them, to see what the issues were as identified by them, and to support them in addressing those issues.

There was one vocal man in the crowd that the others kept trying to shush as they seemed embarrassed by his antics. He raised some valid points, however, such as the need for unity. He was clearly very frustrated at the caste system, both in the hearing and deaf world. I wish that they would have let him talk more. As a professor at Gallaudet once told Smitha, there are three things that are needed for change: unity, a common language, and what else?

After we left the club, we ran out of time to do what we planned to do. This is another thing that frustrates all of us immensely. We make plans, but the plans aren't followed or they are modified without our consent and we feel like we have no choice but to follow. For, if we don't, we give a bad impression of us. However, it is also our time and we already give so much of it as it is.

I don't know what the solution to that is. The concept of time here is obviously very fluid. Is it a problem on our part because we are from America and very used to punctuality and getting things done in a timely manner? Or is it a problem on their part for not following the plans that were established and agreed to? Are we trying to cram too much in a short stay? Is it a genuine problem or just a clash of cultures? I don't know the answer to that. All I know is that I don't think the workshops were what we expected and that we would likely have done things differently had we known. Then what we know now. Hindsight is 20/20, c'est la vie. All we can do is learn from it, move forward, and be happy that for the most part, our experience here in India has been very positive even if it has not been what we expected at some points.
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