As part of my minor ISDC (International Sustainable Development Cooperation) I have had the opportunity to do my minor internship in India, Bangalore. The project which I worked on was based on the nutritional status of children in a Day-care centre in a slum called LR Nagar. The Day-care centre is a project from Centre for Social Action (CSA), which is the NGO of the Christ University in Bangalore. My Indian experience was once in a lifetime, and I really appreciated every single moment.

Working together with very helpful and enthusiastic people like CSA staff, the teacher/caretaker of the day-care centre, the teacher of the Transit School (a school in LR Nagar were drop-out children have class), the worker of the nutrition centre in the slum and the parents (especially mothers) of the children who really wanted to learn how to take better care of their children, was a really wonderful experience. I think words can’t explain how great it was, the satisfaction, fulfilment and happiness of working together, and being able to give and take from each other, was just ‘wauw’.

Yeah, having small talks with people in the slum, seeing little children happy and to hear them saying ‘hi sister, hi ‘Batla’ sister (the children were calling me ‘Batla’), how are you? Tomorrow come?’ To see them so eager to learn, their willingness to share their lunch meals with me (even though some of the children were living in very poor situations), their pure thankfulness when someone gave them just an apple or a few grapes, and to witness their amazing dancing skills, was really beautiful. I also had the opportunity to do some home visits in the slum, I saw in which kind of houses the children live, which really touched me. Yeah, I can say everything was just something to be experienced, words can’t always describe.

Let me tell a little bit more..

The day-care centre is about 1 hour away from the Christ University, by walk. It was great to walk sometimes, just to see and experience different things a bit longer than while I was sitting in a rickshaw. For example, when I was walking, I could, ‘experiment’ with ‘how to deal with beggars’ and, to cross very busy and chaotic roads in a safe way, drink out of a fresh coconut while I was taking rest in the hot weather, see children play cricket, see the cows walking on the roads (in a very chill way) and taking rest in the shadows of the green trees, I could enjoy the beautiful smells of freshly prepared Indian food, but I also had to try my best not to puke when I smelled very bad things which I never smelled before I was in India.. I saw different kind of little stalls where people were selling hand-made accessories, clothes, toys and educational stuff for children, fresh vegetables and fruits (especially the famous mangos), nuts, seeds and dried fruits. I said ‘stalls’ but some ‘stalls’ were just a piece of cloth on the ground with stuff above it. One of these ‘stalls’ was an accessory selling family. The man was making the accessories (like necklaces, earrings and bracelets) and the lady was trying to sell the accessories while she was holding her baby in her hand and trying to take care of the baby at the same time. The baby was wearing minimum clothes, and the parents were wearing old, dirty and torn clothes, but this family was sitting on the ground, working together and really trying their best to make beautiful things and sell them to earn money for their living. Yeah, these kind of situations really make you think..

Another option to reach my internship place was to take a rickshaw (also called tuk-tuk or auto). Okay, the traffic in Bangalore is very chaotic and the rickshaw is a small vehicle, me and my sister call it the ‘national vehicle of India’ which can drive in any small space that the driver wants, as fast as he wants.. I remember the first time when I sat in a rickshaw. I was enjoying my first time, but ohhh.. I have to admit it was scary man. The rickshaw driver was driving crazy and very fast, and I was literally praying that we could reach the internship place safe and well. Luckily we did. After that experience I didn’t had the feeling of not driving in a rickshaw anymore because I realised the traffic was just like that, and I had to get used to it. Bargaining is another thing with rickshaw drivers. They all have a meter in their rickshaw, but they won’t put it on always. I just experimented bargaining and used my skills, which were sometimes very funny. For example, my sister and I needed a rickshaw driver to visit a place and we didn’t know how much it would cost in average to reach that place by rickshaw. So the rickshaw driver didn’t want to put the meter on but he told us a price, which was very high according to me. I told the driver about 1/4 of the price he mentioned. He was surprised, and said ‘okay meter, meter’, and he put on the meter. Most of the time the rickshaw drivers didn’t really know English, but they knew the word ‘meter’, ‘right, left, straight’ and some English numbers. Yeah, communication with the rickshaw drivers was sometimes quiet funny, but most of the time we managed understanding each other.

These were some parts of my experiences in India. 4,5 months in India gave me really a lot, not only on professional level (study) but even much more on personal level. I would like to say, if you have that feeling to go abroad during your studies and to see more of the real world, just go, just do it, don’t think too much about for example ‘oh my English is not good’ (yeah I can say this because I was always doubting my English, still I think my English needs a lot of improvement, but when I look back at my Indian experience, worrying about my English wasn’t even worth it) or how scary it may be and all, because this opportunity could be once in a life time, and going abroad during your studies will give you so many amazing things if you are willing to experience and to learn..

If you’re interested in my project, feel free to take a look at this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9y3ye9gq6f36ion/AACNAiV7pg1i3b27R4FixCIUa?dl=0