First of all I would like to express my gratitude: Thank you to the nice ladies and gentlemen in Hyderabad Samsung Service Center! I know them personally but not to them but am obliged to you. My laptop is, after 6 weeks, again in my possession. The screen was replaced and I had to pay nothing (losing only a few nerves)! What a service.
Yes, what is there to tell? The cows wander around here are still on the road, the Indians still wear collective mustache and rice, there is still enough.
but has now accumulated some experiences in the time that it deserves to be told here on the blog.
For example, my current activity in ChildSafetyNet and the trip to Kerala. Chronological I would only report once on my current work. But I prefer to start first with the trip to Kerala.
From the 13th October to Wednesday 20zigsten thing I took time off to travel to Kerala during this period. It should firstly be a test in the "Indian Journeys", on the other hand I want to visit other volunteers.
Kerala is a small state on the southeast coast of India. Malayalam is the main language spoken and the name of the capital say I can not. All in all, it is a little quieter down there too: the cities are not as big, not so high and not so loud. For decades, Kerala is governed socialist. In Kerala gained for the first time in history a more or less "Communist" party to power through a democratic election. It seems in the end only a social democratic policies to be applied to the day. This is surprising, since in Kerala certainly more red flags with hammer and sickle as a blow across the Soviet Union ever blew. The Indians are just on symbols and icons on which they can collect. My journey started
So on the evening of 13th October. Of course, by train! It is here in India, over long distances, the mode of transport in general. My entire trip to Kerala should be 27 hours, of which a 6-hour stay in Chennai reduced the time on the train to 21 hours.
The trains here are three times as long as I Germany and consist of only a little sheet metal and wood. They seem cast in one piece and built to last forever to be. As far as one can speak of an interior, I would describe it as "Rustic metal. My tickets booked for the true "Non AC Sleeper Class. Are the well-priced in the middle class. One compartment holds 8 trays which are then folded at bedtime. I appreciate the length to 1.70 m because my feet always loomed large out into the aisle.
Well then a look good in the room! Such a room should therefore be my living space for the next 20 hours.
The route from Vijayawada to Chennai I mainly slept. After arriving in Chennai at 4 clock in the morning, I found no more room and slept at the station. err in the third-largest city in India, in the morning to 4 on the streets around is really not pleasant. So I was glad to rise the next morning in the "West Coast Express", which should bring me within 13 hours of Tamil Nadu on the east coast to Kerala on the west coast.
got on board, space searched, sat down and off we went!
short yet checked off the seat neighbors and they can identify as an Indian. Ordinary Indians, in long pants, Shirt, and with the respect bar under the nose. But what was that? My opposite but actually wore shorts! These white tennis shoes and socks! Where was the mustache?
After an hour I was already talking to the nice gentlemen. It started with German tennis star. Steffi Graf and Boris Becker. The conversation was not a small talk. How should it be when you are 13 hours compared to sit? After I had forced myself to talk again about the great dictators 20zigsten century and there are just not managed it in words the horrors of the Holocaust to clarify, it was then but still interesting!
It was about the difference between India und der „westlichen“ Welt. Wo waren die Unteschiede? Die Gemeinsamkeiten? Die stärken und schwächen der jeweiligen Gesellschaften?
Es ist sehr aufschlussreich sich darüber mit einem Inder zu unterhalten!
Er sagte zu mir, was wirklich das schlimmste in Indien sei ist die Verschmutzung der Umwelt. Das benutzten und wegwerfen von Plastik und Aluminium sei unverantwortlich!
„You know what will stay after atomic war between India and Pakistan? Plastic and Cockroaches!
Während ich noch von seinem Umweltbewusstsein erstaunt war, brauste am Fenster das grüne indische Flachland an uns vorbei und unsere Sitznachbarn warfen ihren Müll einfach aus dem Fenster. Ich war froh jemanden gefunden to have recognized the problem! The waste pollution in India is very high. In the cities and in the villages. Everywhere is the plastic waste is not collected. If the waste pile will eventually too large, it is simply set on fire ...
The conversation continued, and after 5 hours of talk you everything is just like a movie. Your answers are less and is formed from a monologue in which opposite. The Lord may have had an endurance! I now know why I'm still not done it, but after 7 hours, I asked, completely out of context: "Tell me about Hinduism" This should occupy him for another 2 hours and my brain activity to a minimum.
had the meantime, the nature of what lay behind the barred window changed. The closer we came to the West Coast ever grew thicker and greener the vegetation. I would not call my corner here in Andhra Pradesh as a jungle. But for someone coming from Europe it is quite thick and green. But what I saw was really a light jungle.
When it was getting dark then went on the train, the "staff" around the dinner spread. I received my curry in an aluminum box. After I had eaten my seat and all their neighbors Aluminum had already thrown out the window, I looked questioning my counterpart, since far and wide were no trash in sight.
I now had a high opinion of him and when he took out on my request a garbage bag from his backpack, I was really glad that at least one person had in the compartment, perhaps in the entire train, a pain threshold. He then grabbed my
Aluminum in its plastic bag and threw out both unexpectedly out of the window ...
"Why did you do this?"
"Because there is no bin
Yes, as simple as that
night at 1h I finally reached Calicut in Kerala. Quietly, I saddled my backpack and left the train. I walked out of the station building and moved me straight in the direction of downtown. Thanks to my guide, I had a city map and the addresses of some hotels in the area. In contrast to the night tour of Chennai, Calicut was really quiet and peaceful. Of the people who were still on the road you were greeted nicely and the rickshaw drivers were not intrusive. It was really nice at night to wander through the city after the wound had been sitting 13Stunden the butt. After some wrong I was referring about the "tension" situated right opposite the city prison. There was a real shower and a toilet westlicche. After I had used both a lot, I only in the double bed and fell asleep.
In the course of my stay in Kerala besuchte ich das Dorf in dem die anderen Freiwilligen in einem Schulprojekt arbeiten und erkundete die keralanische Natur sowie auch die Stadt Calicut. Am Dienstag Abend stieg ich wieder in den Zug ein mit neuen Eindrücken von Indiens Süden. Die Rückfahrt nach Vijaywada war nicht weniger interessant als die Hinfahrt. Leider würde eine detailliertere Erzählung hier mal wieder einmal den Rahmen sprengen.
Ich möchte noch hinzufügen, das ich froh war als der Zug über den Krishna River fuhr und man die Lichter Vijayawadas sehen konnte.
