After five months of virtual preparations with Kalyan in India and me in Germany, I've finally made it back to this country full of contrasts yesterday. This means our mini journey team of two is complete now and a new phase begins. A phase of working together side by side. I've been anticipating this day for quite a while now. Whilst collaborating from the most far-away corners of the planet these days is quite alright as long as you've got a computer and internet, it's still a far way from being next to each other and seeing things for yourself.
My first impressions since arriving in Bangalore only yesterday morning are pretty overwhelming, despite having been in India before. It all started pretty exciting with driving onto the highway on the wrong side of the road. After calming down over some idli and a chai I had longed for since London airport, we drove to Hindupur, Kalyan's hometown. We passed mainly through lush green scenery, even vineyards. Whilst that is pretty normal in the state of Karnataka, it wasn't normality for its neighboring state Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) at all. It used to be extremely dry here, so I was told. The villagers of A.P. could literally see the rain right in front of them but it would never reach their region, which made Anantapur one of the poorest districts in India. Thanks to the climate change, perhaps, this has changed. It still doesn't rain heaps but enough to farm the fields and get a reasonable harvest.
Coming off the highway we soon passed through Lepakshi, one of the oldest temple villages the country dating back to the 15th century. It's got the 2nd biggest statue of Nandi (a holy calf ridden by the God Shiva), yet the tourism industry hasn't really discovered it. Being slower and driving through the villages also started yielding the famous Indian stares. Even after having experienced it a million times it was just too much fun to see people pass by and then, all of a sudden turn their heads back in a millisecond realizing there is 'something unusual' to be seen. Without any accidents we finally reached our destination Hindupur: Kalyan's home and the office of InteGreater Foundation.
Kalyan's parents and grandmother were waiting for us already. We had lunch, a first good chat and then drove off to the location of the first ProtoVillage. We hadn't even reached it and already we were surrounded by a crowd of children and adults alike. Only this time I wasn't the cause of it. It was Kalyan who was and is the center of attention every time that he's entering this place. The kids literally cling to him and the adults look up to him and ask a million questions at once. But more about that another day… Now I'm dying for dinner and a good, deep sleep. Talk again soon. W
Photos of the first couple of days are here.
Hello Wiebke, I am glad to hear that you arrived and that you stay well. We are very proud of you, we is Matthew and I , our rds energies team and all people, which I tell form your project -the glass half full-. May all the luck of the whole world be with you and Kaylan and your ideas, and with all people you´ll meet in the next months. Greetings from the cold Berlin, Eva-Catrin
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