Children of the Ganges

As promised, details about my night with Swati. We had often talked about the English class she teaches at Children of the Ganges, but I was never able to go during my Trika month because the schedules conflicted. I think I said a bit about the school in an earlier blog, but here's a reminder. A woman from the Netherlands (but who lives in NYC) named Truike was inspired to start a school for poor children when she was here last summer. Swati is the lucky one who got hired as the teacher. The children who attend go to regular Hindi school during the day, then come to Swati from 5:30-7:30 to get general instruction as well as life skills all taught in English. This keeps them out of trouble in the evening, and opens door for them later in life. Swati told me that many of them were quite violent when they first started there, but they are now calm and incredibly polite. As you may have guessed, that's where I had the privilege of going last night. It's actually located in the same hotel as Anoop's morning yoga classes, but the hall is on the 5th floor, and the classroom is in the basement. It's a small, cozy, nicely decorated room. I walked over with Swati and Arnav (her 4 year old son who often joins her there to avoid being bored at home), and welcomed the students through the back gate. As each student approached the doorway to the class, they stopped, put one hand through, and said something I could not understand. When I asked Swati about this, she told me they were asking permission to enter. Wow! I can hardly imagine my students ever doing that! It took about 10 minutes for all 20 students (aged 6-13) to arrive, and they sat calmly at their desks while waiting. When all had arrived, they stood, closed their eyes, placed their hands in namaste, and followed Swati's opening Hindi songs (as Arnav and I kept peeking at each other), then cute little Arnav led them in an English prayer, followed by Swati's sanscrit chants. She invited me to come and sit next to her at the front when it was time to begin. I sat down, looked at her, looked at the expectant children, looked back at Swati, and she said, "Ok." "Ok, what?" I asked. "You can start," she said. "Huh?" "You are the teacher today!" Hahaha! Thanks for the warning! So, ya, I taught on the spur of the moment. We started by singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, then played pictionary, then I read them a very bizarre story  called The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon (while I read, a woman came in bringing tea for Swati and I), and we ended with me drawing images accompanied by English words for them to copy into their notebooks (one of my best sketches was called: Erika doing yoga!) Then it was dinner time. They all went out to wash their hands, then were served a potato dish with two chapatis (flat round bread). The two students in the front row invited me to squeeze in between them at the tiny desk to eat my meal. The woman who had served us came around with a newspaper page onto which we each placed a small ripped piece of chapati. I looked questioningly over at Swati, who said the first bite of the meal is for the cows. When they were all done, there was a final Hindi song/prayer and that concluded the class. I said good-bye to the kids and told them I'd surely be back to see them before leaving. 

Then it was time for part 2 of the evening, another thing Swati and I had been talking about for a while: she invited me back to her place to see the photo album of her wedding. Holy smokes! As I flipped through the pages, I could have sworn it was a royal wedding! But Anoop, who was also there, said that by Indian standards it was very normal and ordinary.  Swati looked absolutely stunning in her red and gold wedding dress, covered in jewels and  hennaed  forearms and feet.  I asked how many guests there were: 2000! And again, that's quite standard.  Her mother-in-law brought me tea and food, and when we were done with the album, I transfered  the pics and videos I took at Children of the Ganges onto Anoop's very nice new laptop, which one of his yoga students offered him as a gift! Don't think I'll be getting him anything that extravagant, but I do intend to donate quite a few things to C of the G (http://www.childrenoftheganges.com). 

Another incredible night, after a wonderful day :)