Chandigarh

Our plane from New Delhi was met in Chandigarh by Roberta and Frederick Shaw, with whom I had made contact through Sally Williams. Frederick (who admits to being 80 years old) is a bright, witty and charming man. Roberta is warm and very talkative - frequently interrupting Frederick, who takes it with good humor.

The day was clear and warm and we went directly to their home and got to experience the planned town, built in the 1950s. It is laid out in a big grid with wide and well shaded boulevards flanking about 50 neighborhoods all of single family homes, each with park areas and a small shopping area. Many of he houses are of flat-top 50s vintage, some are quite good examples of the era.

After a convivial tea and conversation on their veranda, we were taken to our quite pleasant hotel in the main shopping district. We returned to their house at 7 for a dinner party where we met 4 Indian couples, all except one with understandable English. One man was an entrepreneur - manufactures pharmaceuticals. There were two female and one male doctors, a retired teacher. Very pleasant.

The next a.m. we went out to the “slums” where Frederick for the past 5 years has been establishing a social program among the very poor - a one-man anti-poverty program. The program has several aspects.

Preschool for 4-6 year olds to prepare for exams that will get them into high quality public schools, which by law must enroll at least 15% of their students from the poor.

Health education supplied by Health Promoters, young women who are trained in basic hygiene and nutrition. The women work in the slum neighborhoods -- some live in the neighborhoods they serve -- and over time have built up the trust of many if not most households. They make regular house calls to determine if children are undernourished and identify sickness in the homes, including making sure TB patients take their meds every day. They teach parents how to select and prepare nutritious and affordable foods. They carry around a scale and charts to measure conditions and progress in underweight children and ill children and adults.

The Health Promoters are similar to the Visiting Nurses that I recall in the U.S. Tom calls them “intermediaries” between the poor and the services they need.

The area that they serve is just beyond Chandigarh’s border and contains about 15,000 people. The slum is made up of tiny handmade brick and concrete homes that line the streets that may be 10-12 feet wide, most families living in one or two rooms, many with small courtyards where kitchens and vehicle storage are located. Streets are paved poorly or not at all, with open sewers and water that must be stored in tanks. Many people have low wage jobs that pay the equivalent of $100 per month, plus or minus. They work hard at keeping their little places and the fronting street clean -- a daunting task with the dust and dirt and lack of garbage collection.

On the way to Varanasi we had an 8-hour layover in Delhi. We hired a car/driver and did some sightseeing. When we got to the RR station, we were accosted by a flurry of porters. We ended up hiring one and showed him our ticket. He put our 2 cases on his head, motioned for us to follow him, and took off like a rocket. There were thousands of people in the station, and by the time I got off the escalator leading to the open corridor that fed the 15 or so platforms, I had lost sight of both Tom & the porter. Not remembering which platform our train was located on , I looked around for them for a few minutes to no avail. I then went back to the main hall, found my platform on the giant electronic arrivals/departure board and went to our train. With some difficulty I found the right car and - a few minutes later our luggage . . . but still no Tom. I sat down to wait for him, and sure enough he showed up a few minutes later. He had gone back looking for me (bad move!) and was relieved to find me. Since I had our tickets in my pocket, I was less anxious. Fortunately we had got to the station early enough so that we had time for all these shenanigans.