Visible Minority

Visible minority

I bet that the combination of words, visible minority, have flown past you without giving the literal meaning much thought. That changes quickly when you look like me (born in Ireland) and you travel in India.

When I travel, I like to observe, take pictures and try me best to soak it all in. I want to blend in, become invisible, and, above all, I don't want to feel like a tourist.

On our trip to India this has been next to impossible. I am constantly targeted by street vendors, store owners, taxi drivers, and the poor.

I am truly in the minority because of how I look and I am often treated differently because of It. Sometimes it works out in my favour ( like when I need help at a hotel) but just as often it works against me (like when I'm waiting in line for something and someone ignores me in favour of someone else).

It's something that followed me in all 6 of the weeks we have traveled in India. On one hand all the relatives want to make sure that I, the foreigner, am OK and looked after. But I also have to put up with people, staring at me ( and my kids).

It also manifests itself in an usual way. When we go to visit a fort, or some other tourist attraction, people often ask me about taking pictures. Usually, I expect that they want me to take a picture of their whole family

But it's not what you think. They don't want me to take pictures of them with their family. They want me to be IN the picture with their family. I have become a tourist attraction. At first I said no to these requests, especially if they asked about taking pictures of the kids. Now, I laugh it off and happily get in the picture with strangers and let them take as many pictures as they want.

Of course, the take home lesson here is that I have had a life changing trip. I have walking in someone else's shoes and found it distasteful. I, now, can more readily emphasize with people in our Canadian society who may be marginalized based on the color of their skin.

And I find it funny that their are probably about 10 different individuals that are showing group photos to their loved ones and explaining about the big Canadian guy standing right in the middle.

Photo journals

Alas, our trip is almost over. I have taken over 1000 pictures (many of which I've edited and posted from my iPad).

My workflow f choice has been to take a most of my photos with our DSLR. Then I take out the card and import the pictures to my iPad using the photo connection kit. Once imported onto the iPad, I've been using iPhoto to crop, enhance and organize them.  I have really enjoyed getting to know the iPhoto app. It is a real powerhouse when it comes to taking a good photo and making it spectacular.

Finally, I have been using the photo journal component to post the collections to to iCloud to share with Granny and Grandad back in Toronto.

Here is a link to all our photo journals from our trip:
http://bit.ly/Oddsr5

The only downside I've encountered is that once you edit the photos in iPhoto it can be difficult to get them back out  to the camera roll because. Currently you need to export them back one at a time rather than as a batch..hopefully it's just a glitch which can be correct later.

Giving Back (by Sunjay and Sangeeta)

For my birthday this year, I decided that I would like to raise money to take and donate in India because I felt like we have so much and they have so little. My sister and I also brought stuffed animals to give away.

When we got to India, we found out that one of our aunts volunteered in a school in Dharavi, the biggest slum area in Bombay. Families live in shacks one on top of the other, with an "outhouse" that drains into a creek. Parents have very little time to supervise their children because they are often out working when the kids come home from school. School is free until grade 7 and for only three kids per family. If you have a fourth child, you have to pay for their education.

We decided to donate the money and our stuffed animals to this school. We wondered what the school might need...should we buy pencils or books? Our aunt spoke to one teacher who said she wanted the kids to do some writing, so we took the money and bought writing notebooks for the students.

That day at the school was eye-opening. The kids were curious to see 4 foreigners walking in the school. Some of the kids were friendly, but most were shy. They were wearing school uniforms, yet some did not have shoes.

The classroom looked so different from what we are used to...there were 3 kids to one desk, paint peeling off the walls, and no visible school supplies. The noise level when we entered was very high and the teacher was trying to control the class, by pulling some kids apart who were fighting.

We were introduced and we handed out the notebooks and the stuffed animals one by one. The expressions on their faces made us feel good. We could see they were happy and excited and we felt great to be donating to such a needy school.

At the door stood more kids from other classes. How can we do more? Having someone from our family helping us is a huge advantage because now we have a connection to this school. When we can donate in the future, we know the money is going to kids that need it.

Begging in Mumbai

Every journey worth taking, whether it's spiritual, emotional or geographical, has a major obstacle (or two) to overcome.

In India, one of those emotional obstacles are the beggars. Typically,  your first encounter with beggars in India takes place as you first touch down at an airport and you struggle to get your bearings as those sliding glass doors open the assault on the senses begins. If you are non-Indian, like me, then you are instantly targeted by the taxi drivers....and the beggars.

When a pre-teen comes to you holding an infant and asking for money it's impossible not to want to help; to make a difference. To buy that young girl a meal, or just give here the money in your wallet. The feelings of injustice rise up within you...and as you give the money a (short- lived) feeling of satisfaction flows over you. Then you notice the increasingly large crowd starting to assemble. You see the other half dozen pre-teens with infants starting to gather and any feelings of satisfaction quickly dissipate.

My wife Sangeeta is one of those people who wants to help as many people as she can. When we arrived in Delhi, she decided to give to a small group of children near our car. That group quickly became about 20....but she made sure that each and every person got something. Unfortunately, the group continued to ask for more and we had difficulty leaving the parking lot. The crowd kept coming back for more, unsatisfied with our first offering. We left the parking lot feeling annoyed rather than positive. 

I have since searched for a satisfying symbol or representation to put the problem of poverty and begging in some form of tangible framework that I can more easily come to terms with. It's as if you see some small child on the beach and there some huge wave coming ashore...and you are there standing with an umbrella trying to stop it from crashing ashore. Your intentions are noble but the wave still knocks you head over heals and you are left with a a bad taste in your mouth, a bruised ego and the child was still pounded by the wave. You could argue that no one was really helped in the process.

When I am really honest with myself, I know that framing poverty in this way allows me to, if I want to, absolve myself from trying to help for what can you do in the face of a tsunami of hands reaching out...

Often, when you talk to Indians about beggars, they typically explain that the beggars are really working for a beggar master that will take all their money. "Don't give them money because they will just give it to someone else."...it's easy not to help people if you think they are part of some underworld beggar syndicate who borrow babies to extort money from sympathetic strangers.

I will end this post with a story from the other day. We were out shopping and about to spend a small Indian fortune at Cinnabon. (The irony of that last sentence is not lost on me). We were about to enter the store when Sangeeta saw a mother and her barefoot girl begging for money. The girl couldn't have been more than 2 or 3. They asked for money and I had already said no when my wife took them over to a roadside shop and bought them some milk and a loaf of bread. The mother wasn't as happy as we were to see her daughter eating the bread and chugging the bottle of milk as we went to get our Cinnabons.









Sent from my iPad

M and R News

What should you do on a rainy Bombay afternoon? Make some mock news shows of course. Here are two news shows written, directed and produced by my daughter Maneesha and nephew Rohun.

M& R News Part 1

M& R News Part 2

Our Journey

This trip has been an amazing experience for all of us. Camel rides, boat trips, and most of all meeting new aunts and uncles, cousins and friends. Something that was one my favourites was going to Agra and staying at the hotel for two nights and going to the Taj Mahal the first day.The hotel had a swimming pool, a kids club and peacocks that were so beautiful. We shopped a lot not just for us but for other people too. We are about halfway through our trip and there is still lots more to write about. 
 Bye for now. 
 Maneesha

Honk Horn Please

One of the the most exhilarating parts of our trip to India has been experiencing the driving!

To the uninitiated, driving in India is without rules or civility. Lanes, as well as red or green lights, are often only suggestions. Honking your horn means, hello, I'm here rather than get the $@# out of he way.

We have experienced the streets of India in cars, vans, auto-rickshaws, bicycle-rickshaws, and scooters. Still to be experienced are elephants, camels, and horse- drawn tongas...but there's still tons of time left.

Whenever I can, I've been videotaping the frenzied trips, quickly editing in iMovie on my phone and posting the cam videos on YouTube.

Here for your viewing pleasure are some of our "CAM" videos with more to come.

Cheers and honk horn please!

Scooter CAM

Auto-rickshaw CAM

camel CAM