The Boys at Indora

Our main scheduled activity for today was the visit to Indora; a district of Nagpur where there is another Aryaloka Computer Education centre, also home to the boys’ residential course. I had mixed feelings about the journey; normally I would be relishing the opportunity to engage with the real ‘nitty gritty’ of daily life, jumping on a bus with the locals to get about and explore, even if that would be hot, sweaty, dusty and uncomfortable. However, due to my residual sniffly thing (which does seem to be subsiding now but of which I am still aware) I was feeling a little low energy and I had also picked up on some of Shakyajata’s travel anxiety so I wasn’t feeling as up for it as I’d have expected. I was then, quite relieved when having just missed the bus, she negotiated our transit by rickshaw and we were at our destination very fast and really quite comfortably.

The building at Indora was purchased by Aryaloka as an incomplete structure; a project that had been abandoned by two brothers who had encountered irreconcilable differences half way through! They may as well have started from scratch though; there was no electricity, plumbing, glazing or any kind of finishing in the space. They purchased the property in February 2015 and began using the spaces for teaching in July of the same year. At that time the boys were accommodated in local rented rooms. While I had not seen the building works, aside from a few photos that were difficult to contextualise in abstract form, I could tell from Shakyjata’s reaction just how much had changed and how improved the rooms were. With a fully functioning computer lab and teaching space downstairs, the upstairs rooms are very close to completion and the boys are now living reasonably comfortably on site, though their bathing and toilet facilities do still require improvement.

After being shown around by some very enthusiastic young people, one of whom was almost as dangerous as I am with a camera, and given shockingly sweet, gingery black tea, we settled into meeting and delivering an introductory class to the boys. Following the same structure as our previous session with the girls, it went just as smoothly and while we had to focus perhaps a little more on some areas of pronunciation, I feel every bit as optimistic that we have a really strong group of learners there. I will not be so close to the young men, nor would it be appropriate in a culture that still recognises more formal distinction between genders; however, I am confident that the relationships I do build with them shall be strong and productive. I have never taught in a single sex environment before and was unsure how I would feel in situ as I have always held to the belief that learning to interact with a group is every bit as important as the academic content of a course but I must say that I’m feeling fairly convinced so far! It certainly seems to be an easy way to cut out a lot of distraction and the inevitable dramas that often coagulate in the heady hormonal soup of the mixed teenage classroom.

With our work done, it was time to head home but we managed to get our rickshaw driver to stop off at a couple of shops for some errands and provisions; thankfully, I have discovered that my bankcard does work in at least one atm so I now have some cash (it will be interesting to see if I have correctly calculated the charges and exchange rate when that comes out of my account!), I now have a yoga mat (it seemed like unnecessary weight to bring from the UK), and we got a good selection of fresh banana, pomegranates and papayas for breakfast!

The Plaque at the Door

Our Eager Guide!

The Enthusiastic Young Men

Tomorrow's Lesson!

We got in a good chunk of lesson planning before supper too; so we are all set up for our next class with the girls on Tuesday; question forms to complement the introductory phrases we covered on Saturday. We’ve also started introducing English to the puja and meditation sessions in the mornings and evenings so gradually we’re settling in to the swing of things and I’m almost developing a routine already. A flexible one though; we are in India after all..!