Irish family in India, Calcutta

Himalayan foothills - possibly last blog

2007-05-10T01:44:00.000-07:00

Himalayas
A wee series of pics from the Himalayan foothills. Sunset, a tea factory near Darjeeling, the prayer room of a Tibetan Bhuddist Monastery, A view over the tea gardens, political slogans from the Ghurka National Liberation Front, A hot stroll in the hills with three pale faces and finally the last Irish Christian Brother in Bengal, Brother Walsh.

In the last few days of the Indian Adventure, and will be back in cool Ireland within the next few days. See you all then.
Raymie and Clan.

Floating down the Ganges

2007-04-24T07:29:00.001-07:00

Click on pics to enlarge
In the final part of the Helix of Hope art project the sculpture was ritually immersed in the full Hindu tradition of giving the sculpture to the Goddess Ganga. This Thursday we are taking a break from Calcutta and will be travelling to Darjeeling to watch the sunrise over the Himalayas. Paddy I'll bring you back a cup of tea! Beyond that I will let these pics speak for themselves. It's the journey from the school to the Ganges and the immersion; followed by my own immersion dressed in a longie.

Good luck until we do some tourist stuff in the Himalayas.

Immersion Malarkey

2007-04-24T03:44:00.000-07:00

Hello Baberino
Glad you like it. You made a fair comment - 'What is all this immersion malarkey..' Maybe I assumed that everybody knew 'immersion.' After the idol makers produce all the images of Shiva and the other Gods of the Hindu religion, the communities or families who commissioned the models, build pandals, or public alters, place their idols on the pandal and have a Pooja (festival) in the vicinity of the idol model, which becomes the actual God by this point. After 10 days they take the God/idol/model to the Ganges and place it (immerse it) in the sacred river - thereby giving the sacred idol back to the mother goddess, Ganga. That is one reason why the images have to be made from clay, bamboo, jute, rice straw and water paint - although they do use nails here and there.

So my god idol will be immersed in the Ganges on Sunday, and it will float off and sink. This is a piece of installation art/performance art. Designed to reflect the spiritual nature of the Hindu people - but for me a positive image portraying a hopeful future for children. The Hindu gods are not known for their benevolence, but have more to do with the general force that defeats evil. Shiva the main chic has ten arms nine carry weapons the last carries something nice.

I paid a visit to the site of the immersion on the Ganges today. Sunday should be interesting. Will try to put a report up by Monday. Here is one of many sites of what are called 'roadside dwellers' inhabited by scores of children.
Until the, slan.
Click to enlarge

The big heat

2007-04-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge

The term 'I'm melting has suddenly taken on a whole new meaning! The temperature is up near forty somewhere and the humidity is high. We have started to use the local pool a lot more often, but even there you have to swim like a whale only coming up now and again for a breath of air. It's that warm that the pool water is warm. There are a number of other facilities in the club like a Jacuzzi, and wait for it - sauna and steam room. Over here you go into the sauna to cool off.

We had the launch of the sculpture on Sat. 21st. Sujata Sen the head of the British Council made the main speech and spoke very strongly about the work. We had a couple of musicians playing and Sister Cyril made a great speech. There was a good crowd at the launch, a very mixed bunch everything from dignitaries to those involved in radical organisations. There will be some new pics of that within the next few days. From tomorrow onwards my big problem is the process of immersing the work in the tributary of the Ganges.

Look at the images above and imagine in 40degrees. Some of the images of the sculpture arriving at the school.
Amongst others The Indian Express did a great article and pic, if you google Helix of Hope India it should come up.

other email

2007-04-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Any one that wants to contact can use

raymiewatson@yahoo.ie

DNA sculpture finished

2007-04-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge images
The last 3 weeks are upon us. Time here has flown in, with its ups and downs, this has been a great trip. I am sitting listening to the Lonesome Boatman on the computer - Good man Steven, your CD has been played many times.

Last week we traveled to Agra, Dehli and visited The Taj Mahal. An amazing place to visit, it took 22,000 people 20 odd years to build. Afterwards most of the trades men had their hands cut off so that they could never repeat the same job again. We would put a few images up only Dara deleted everything off the digital camera. An Indian fella took her photo on the sly and she seen him so in the process of her trying to delete that one pic we lost the lot. Such is life, but I have loads on the 35 ml, so all is not lost. One more trip out of Calcutta/Kolkata, we hope to free up a four or five days to travel to Darjeeling, and visit the Himalayas as real tourists before flying home...

The Sculpture
I delivered the big sculpture to Loreto Sealdah School yesterday, and today the kids painted pictures and wrote their hopes for the future underneath the paintings. These images will be hung from the bars joining the DNA spirals. This pic shows some of them posing with their pictures. We are having an official launch on Saturday 21st. at 2pm. We hope to make it a bit of an event. The Head of the British Council in East India will make the main speech, Sister Cyril will say a few words and some one from Khoj Arts Calcutta, will also be in attendance. A traditional Bengali group will play some live music. Hopefully some of the local press will turn up too.

There was a near disaster transporting it from the workshop to the school - the top caught in an overhead electric cable and nearly toppled it out of the Matador truck. The strands cracked and loads of the clay work chipped and broke off - which we then spend most of today repairing. How we are going to immerse this in the River Hoogli still remains a mystery even to me, but it should be an event! Nothing is easy here.

This wee series of images show the final piece of clay work going onto the base. Dara doing a bit of painting when she claimed to have a sore stomach to get off school. The hands on the base painted up. The children in the school painting up images and finally posing with them. That's Dara on bottom right holding her painting in front of her face. Toraigh had run off at this point.
The two girls and Shona are all keeping well. Although Toraigh and Dara are always checking their email addresses for news from relatives and friends and any stories from home - hint hint.. We all hope to see every one soon.

Key time - big plans - last month

2007-04-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

Click on images to enlarge

As we speed towards our last month in the weird, wonderful, wacky and warm city of Kolkata and west Bengal, we are approaching a number of key moments. Sculptures are coming to key stages, projects are nearing completion, we have a number of trips planned, Calcutta children are keen tin whistlers and our two are starting to love their school.

1. The big sculpture will get its first coat of paint on Tues 3 April. The total design work is complete, I think. For the interests of Sheamie and of course every one else, I have two quotes that spread around the four sides of the base.

One is the perhaps most positive quote to be stated by any Irish man this last 30 odd years, Bobby Sands, 'Our revenge will be the laughter of our children'. A quote that looks forward to a happier time for the next generation. We had some crack translating those sentiments into Bengali. See pic. Every man and his Bengali dog had there own take on how it should be written, even after it was modeled in clay I was convinced that I had to take it off and change it. The English version is on one side and the Bengali on the other. It is impossible to photo the English version yet because the workshop is too narrow. But for anybody that wants to learn Bengali I have included a pic of the Bengali version (still in its raw clay state).

The second quote is from Rabindranath Tagore, 'On the shores of the oceans of the world, children frolic'. Originally written in Bengali it was translated by Prof. Tukki from Seagull. Tagore was/is Bengals father of art and literature, Nobel Laureate, who was awarded a knighthood but later returned the award in protest at the Julianwalabag massacre (over 400 innocent Indians) by British Soldiers.

I was invited to the Santiniketan University, established by Tagore, and toured round Tagore's house. The ethos of the entire site is about learning in and from nature. Some of the class room seating is arranged in the shade of large trees, there is a forest nearby and generally it is an outstanding spot and the most uplifting spiritual experience I have had since coming here. See pics.

While at the Uni I was also taken on a tour of some of the tribal villages, met a local tribal sculptor and drank a load of sweet spring water from a traditional well. The tribals still build their homes (huts) from clay and use rice straw thatch, and dress differently. The village felt much cleaner and healthier than anything in Calcutta, but there is probably more poverty. Still one of my most amazing weekends since arriving in India.

The sculpture will be located in Loreto Sealdah School after completion, where the children will paint on A4 boards and write their hopes for the future. These boards will then be hung on the struts between the strands of the helix.

Toraigh and Dara are progressing well in this challenging school. Where there are now a number of Kolkata children who can play tunes on the tin whistle. We hope to somehow engage a music teacher to continue the music classes after we leave. Many of the teachers have acknowledged the fact that these children never get the opportunity to play/experience music or own instruments. We will be leaving approx 28 tin whistles with the school in the hope that the small beginning that we have introduced will grow. This is a much longer term project that we have not figured out yet.

Brenda, from Conway Mill, if you or any one else is reading this, thanks for the help via the phone in setting up the projection system in Santiniketan. The students and lecturers were a bit blown away by the fact that people from Belfast were in live contact in an effort to sort out there technical problems; so a big Slainte.

We are off to Dehli on Wednesday evening to meet up with some friends, be tourists for a few days and hope to take a day trip from there to the Taj Mahal. More on that when we return next week. Shona will be putting a report up soon about her projects etc and Toraigh is currently writing a blog for her class in St Patricks and St Brigits in Ballycastle. Both Toariagh and Dara say a big hello to every one, schoolmates and friends and relatives.

Saint Patrick's Day and no Slemish

2007-03-10T11:54:00.001-08:00

In serious Mourning for St Paddy's

We are in mourning for St Paddy's! Especially me! There were a couple of local visitors in the Apartment tonight and we were showing them images of home - amongst those images were the Slemish pics of a few years in a row. Toraigh and Dara were asking if they could go up the next time - unfortunately that will have to be 2008. No Irish Stew, Guinness, music, honey roasted ham... Aidan Short falling out of his wheel chair and Sheamy Murph talking the leg off the table - Marty Max doing Ti Chee, and Micheal and Vinny talking real sense. Ah man! What I would give for the prospect of a St Paddy's hangover! Anyhow, I hope the sun shines and the uisce beatha flows in equal measure. Hope to hear how it all went

Hello Sheamey, good to see you are still out there. I have decided not to use a Ghandi quote as it is too easy. Beyond that, Ghandi is not very popular in Bengal and Kolkatta. A legacy of the whole partition issues with Bangladesh former East Pakistan. I am using the Bobby Sands quote, 'Our victory will be the laughter of our children'. It will be written in English and Bengali. I will accompany this with a quote from a local Bengali poet possibly Rabinandrath Tagore. Have not decided which quote to use yet but I will let you know.

Beyond that bring me back a rock from the top of Slemish or I'll put a curse on yous that'll make the potato famine look like a Sunday Regatta.

The images are of the clay base on the double helix sculpture, with the first faces being sculpted. Also a craftsman at work plus a wee boy who wants to be on TV.

There has been a city wide strike over here after the police shot dead 15 farm workers and wounded loads more. The entire city came to a complete stop in protest. The Naxalits (could be spelt wrong) a Maoist group attacked a police station in central India and shot dead at least 50 police men in a completely unconnected incident. They don't mess around in this place. Will be in touch soon. Good luck , Raymie.

A big sculpture in a medieval workshop

2007-03-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

(click on images to enlarge)
Hello any one.. Despite everything I am working full speed ahead on my DNA Double Helix God! This first pic shows Aloke Paul, middle, and Gorum, two of the Durga craftsmen that I am working alongside. It is Aloke's workshop, about 6 ft wide and 30ft or more long and dark. These people work in circumstances that feel like they have not changed in a thousand years. Aloke and his family live in this workshop in basic conditions. They cook over an amazing primitive open fire set up half way up the workshop. On my first day I asked where the toilet was which created a ripple of amusement. Since meeting them all I can say is that they are great. Anyhow after a few days of meetings, talks and work on designs and models, and gathering raw materials (through and interpreter) we began the real hands on work a few days ago. Tomorrow (Sun) after work I am invited for dinner; I know chicken was mentioned, really looking forward to it. In this place there is no fridge and there is only one way to keep meat fresh until it is required.

Gorum comes to assist with certain elements of the work - his main speciality is the construction of the skeletal bamboo and rice straw interior of the Durga models. So he was key in the initial stages of building the strands of the Helix shape (see next image). Above we are sitting on the base. It will be completed last - Does any one know a quote from Ghandi about treasuring children? I will be inscribing quotes with those sentiments on the base.

The sculpture will be ten feet high and will be finished with clay and painted. As we work I am getting a great insight into how they construct the Gods for the Pooja (holy festivals) and what all the rituals are. My plan was to utilise the same construction methods but make something totally different and slitghly subversive - I am thankful that Aloke seems to totally get the goals of the project. Although I must say that the work is getting some curious attention from his fellow craftsmen in adjoining workshops.

The next main challenges are.. well you judge.

It has to be made.

After that I plan to get the young people at Loreto Sealdah to make artistic images to decorate the links between the strands of the Helix. Images that tie in with the theme.

I plan to sculpt the clay of the strands into faces of children and children's games.
After the whole thing is sculpted it will then be colourfullypainted.

Then it will go to the Nehru Children's Museum for a number of days and be decorated.

After this the final fling will be to take it to a tributary of the Ganges for a ceremonial immersion (as this is what happens to the Idols). The ones pictured here a fairly small scale and unpainted. When completed they will have black hair and be extremely colourful. The main God is Shiva (I think) with ten arms - nine of them will be finished carrying weapons and the tenth hand gives a blessing!

Oh yea, I forgot one other thing, I am trying to get three white fellas, to help me pull the finished sculpture through a number of street of Kolkata (Calcutta for Rajaphiles) on one of the traditional carts that seem to keep this city running. We will all be wearing 'longies', Aloke is wearing one in the first pic. It is the dress of the labouring classes.

A view from outside my new home for the next lot of weeks. That's my interpreter taking it easy. So for now, Shubar Rattri. (Good night in Bengali)

So what next for each of us

2007-03-10T08:49:00.000-08:00

Shona's update, projects I have planned for India:

1. Setting up a Youth Leadership programme with Seagull
2. Helping to focus the Seagull Peaceworks project across schools in India
3. Presentation of my work in NI with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation
4. Heading to Singapore to work with Kentake, my Nesta co-fellow

Project 1: The Nesta placement at Seagull with Naveen Kishore. My work is always harder to explain than Raymie's but here goes. I spend my time between two of the Seagull Foundation centres. One is a publishing house where they publish an amazing selection of books, beautifully produced and on all kinds of subject matter, from art, poetry and literature to film, history, social science and politics. A fascinating range of people come through the place to discuss book projects, films, animations and there is a great creative energy. Books are edited and designed from this space so I can see the whole process. The team have made me more than welcome and there's always a great supply of coffee and chocolate. The project that I am developing with Naveen and the team in this space is a youth leadership programme. India, like everywhere else in the world right now, puts an enormous pressure on school going young people to achieve. Don't forget there are still mind boggling statistics of young people without access to any education. Parental pressure to achieve and work your way to a good paying corporate job is enormous.

So I am tasked with developing a programme that gives young graduates and post graduates a chance to pursue other options before they make their minds up about their futures. Seagull have come up with an idea called Choice funded by the Ford Foundation and I am developing it as a programme to place graduate students into internships of anything between 3 months and one year, all of the placements will be with organisations who are in some way working in the development sector to create better quality of lives for their fellow human beings.

Right now I am meeting with NGOs, organisations working in health, disability, child poverty, trafficking, women's rights, education, arts, and more to get a sense of what kind of young person, with what kind of skills, working on what kind of project, would be of benefit to them. Later I will do a call for young people (18-25 yr olds) who are interested in interning, and the real task will be to ensure the right fit so that both the hosting organisations and the young people going to work with them have a mutually beneficial experience. Ultimately it may even result in some of the brightest young people setting up their own social enterprises...
It is a great project to be working on and much needed to develop new young leaders for India's future, but much is still to be done so it's a busy time.

Project 2: I spend the other half of my time at another of Seagull's Centres. An Arts and Media resource centre with an excellent archive of books, films, music, photographs and artworks. It also houses a gallery with a new exhibition each month. From here the team run arts and education programmes in schools. One of their major initiatives called Peaceworks arose as a response to the Gujarat genocide in 2002, where almost 3,000 Muslim people were murdered by Hindu nationalists. India prides itself on being a secular society and the shock of what happened in Gujarat provoked many into a proactive response. At Seagull they embarked on an ambitious programme to try and raise awareness and interactive activities that underline the core values of living in peace in schools across the subcontinent. Many interesting initiatives and resources have been developed through this programme with artists, theatre groups, film-makers working with young people in schools. They have published a book of young people's peace poems, embarked on major kites for peace project, conducted visits to Pakistan and now a call for peace stories for a new publication.

With continuing conflicts on many of its internal borders, as well as the ongoing violent conflict with Pakistan, and secularism in India under constant threat, this is a vitally important project.
As with any risk-taking project with such a huge ambition Peaceworks has had its successes, but also been fraught with difficulties in terms of its reach and impact.
It has a great team and excellent resources and my task is to work with them to develop a long-term and developmental plan for the project that can be delivered in the short and long-term. No small task, but we begin in earnest this Monday by coming together as a team to start to map out a plan. It has a long way to go, but from humble beginnings.......

Project 3:
One of the things I do at home, along with business partner Frances Macklin through our company Rubyblue, is find good projects for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to fund. Over the last 4 years we have supported many excellent projects in rural and urban areas that give young people the chance to develop through innovative arts activities. This week I had the real privilege of seeing presentations on all the work that the Paul Hamlyn Foundation fund in India, from improving the rights of rag pickers in Delhi to supporting the impoverished children of migrant workers and prosititutes; women's empowerment programmes in Rajasthan and peace building programmes in Gujarat. In turn I presented on PHF's work in NI with young people in a post-conflict society. Although the context and focus is different, it was really interesting to see how many of the same issues emerge. A struggle for governmental recognition for this kind of voluntary sector work, always a battle for funding, uncertainties about the future, concerns about whether any of it really makes a difference.
The Paul Hamlyn Foundation have asked me to carry out research for them during my time here so I will be involved in an ongoing exchange with organisations across India looking at creative approaches to helping young people who are excluded from access to basic human rights. You can only be humbled by both the dedication and the scale of the difficulties people working in this area face here in India, I have no doubt that I have more to learn than offer. It will be a real challenge to draw together useful research in a short time frame but I am passionate about the task, will encounter amazing people and projects along the way.........

Project 4:
As part of the Nesta fellowship we are each assigned a co-mentor or fellow. I am delighted to be working with Kentake Chinyelu Hope who has completed her placement at the Science Centre in Singapore. We are all committed to doing a presentation of our findings in the host country once the placement is completed. Kentake is doing hers next week in Singapore, so I'm off on Monday to Singapore for a different adventure and can't wait to hear about the work she has been doing, in an area that is unfamiliar turf for me. So I will come back from that experience with a story to tell......

Holi before and after

2007-03-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

The photographs should give you a real sense of what happens at the Holi festival. I know, not pretty, Raymie and the girls definitely decided to target me. Family loyalty eh? Here we are before and after: For a better view you can enlarge any of the pics by clicking on the photo.

Holi Holi Guacamoli

2007-03-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

It's Saturday morning 8am the 3rd of March. We're all up and dressed and in our old clothes. Because today is HOLI. It's the Hindu spring festival, a festival of joy and colour. Which in reality means that everybody goes out from 9am and throws colour at each other, it can be chalks, paints, coloured water, any kind of colour, but apparently it gets messy and is not for the faint hearted.
We have been warned that it can get aggressive and foreigners can become a favoured target.

So one of the other parents at the school has invited us to join her family for a bit of Indian hospitality and to play HOLI. Us girls have decided that we'd like to see Raymie in pink so we've plotted our plan of colour attack. Our plan is to try and stay off the streets, so we'll be making a sheepish escape from the house and hoping that no colour fanatics spot us in transit. We'll take photos and keep you posted. In the meantime HAPPY HOLI.

to Vinny

2007-03-02T03:22:00.000-08:00

Hello Mucker
Have you seen the design of the blog? Bit of a problem. Send me an email and I will reply with password etc. I want to be able to layout the whole way across the blog page but can not figure out how to do it.

Do you reckon you might have te to figure it out?
Good luck
Raymie

Real challenges kicking in...

2007-02-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

Hello any one - if any one is still looking at this..
After a bit of a break from blogging we hope to get back to some sort of regular update on these pages.
Well we have settled in now. Apartment organised and school organised, broadband organised andtransport problems largely sorted. We have made connections with a number of locals and met with organizations. Various state and semi state bodies have invited us out to a number of gigs, some of them fairly salubrious. We have gotten to know a number of locals and are acquiring a great social circle, people are very friendly here.

A Hindu and Muslim in Rickshaws

Toraigh and Dara are becoming very well known, many of their classmates are starting to invite them to their homes. Out here you see whole families traveling on 250cc motor bikes through what appears to us to be crazy traffic. Husband driving, wife sitting side saddle and a couple of kids sitting everywhere from the handle bars to the back seat. One parent wants to pick up Toraigh and Dara on her motor bike.. we are not sure who else will be riding pillion?

We traveled to a resort called Puri at the weekend. It is in the next state - Orissa, a state that is even poorer than Bengal and Calcutta. It was great to get out of the smog and noise of Calcutta, I was swimming in the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal, and every day we were basking in the hotel swimming pool. The journey was on an overnight sleeper train, which was an experience! The girls loved it, they were on the top bunks, there were eight people sleeping in our birth, four of whom we did not know. The trains here are about thirty carriages long with every part of them being occupied.

The real challenges are now kicking in.

I am winding up for the production of a sculpture with the assistance of kids from Loreto Sealdah School. I have refocused on the possibilities of using clay as the primary material, with bamboo as a supporting core. I have been trying to make contact with local craftsmen who produce the Durga Pooja models since arriving. I was out yesterday negotiating with one of the craftsmen and his family. The family live in the back of the workshop as most families here do. All I can say is it is an amazing set up and I am looking forward to starting the project on Monday. I will post a few pics after I start. I now seem to have gotten access to material technology and an infrastructure, workshop etc. Nothing here is as easy to organise as it is back home.

The court yard of the school is manic so I will be working in the area where all the Durga model makers work and live - which is a place that I will try to describe at a later date, lets just say that it feels like it has not changes in 1000 years.

We have visited the Nehru children's museum - there is a specific arts rationale to the museum and I have proposed to the director that he might facilitate aspects of the sculpture's production. At some point the sculpture will be located there.

I traveled to Kalighat Temple (Thought to be the source of the name Calcutta or Kolkata because the toe of the God Kali was cut off and landed there), the first journey had to be abandoned because of crowds and so called priests who view white people as sources of income. Some times this place can be a bit over bearing, as certain groups here, especially in areas where innocent tourists frequent, have come to view white people as soft touches for real money. The guide who was with me refused to hand me over to the 'care' of the priests, after being bribed he was threatened with physical violence the next time he returns to the shrine. Generally religion here and our European views of its inherent wisdom is just not as clearly cut as it appears while sitting in the comfort of a pub in Belfast or over a cup of tea in Conway Mill.

some images

2007-02-12T09:28:00.000-08:00

Top Toraigh and Dara teaching some of the Rainbow kids how to play the tin whistle.

The Hoogly River in late afternoon (a tributary of the Ganges) The Indian rhino

Our first weekend with a car

2007-02-11T06:33:00.000-08:00

As this was our first weekend with a car we decided to be the real tourists in Calcutta and get out and see a bit of the city. Raymie and the girls went to the zoo, more of that later from the girls and some great photos too.

Dara took this photo of the Victoria Memorial from the moving car, not bad? She's got an eye for a good shot. We went to Millennium Park which is a beautiful green space right on the edge of Calcutta's Hoogly river. The river is an offshoot of the Ganges and runs right through the city, you can cross it by two huge bridges, one is called the Howrah and they say it is the most used bridge in the world with millions of commuters crossing between Howrah (Calcutta's old industrial centre) and Calcutta every day.

We went to the Children's Museum which has a huge collection of dolls from every country in the world, enough to give you a phobia in fact. It included a couple of barbies but sadly bratz haven't been consigned to history just yet. There was a great project going on in the courtyard outside, where hundreds of children were being supported by artists and teachers to paint different images around the walls. The atmosphere was great and the children were just getting on with it, with confidence, so Dara joined in whilst Raymie and I talked with the organisers. We are going back this week to do some filming. Check out Dara getting stuck in with paint brush, and see if you can see any familiar images amongst the wall murals, 'lions and tigers and bears oh my!' even in Calcutta, 'there's no place like home'.

Hinduism has two great epic stories, The Mahabharata and the Ramayana, like the Odyssey or the Tain Bo Cuailgne full of heroes and Gods and princesses, flying monkies and great battles. I can't help thinking the Wizard of Oz and Lord of the Rings must have taken some inspiration from these. The Mahabharata is 8 times as long as the Odyssey and Illiad put together. The Children's Museum brilliantly abridges the epics and takes us on the journey through miniature sculptured scenes. Here's one monster who got his comeuppence.

We have much more travel planned. At the end of February we hope to go the Sunderbans, a huge area of mangrove covered islands that we will have to travel to by boat. A conservation area known as the 'beautiful forest' it is home to the Royal Bengal tiger, a ferocious man-eater. It is also home to crocodiles, sharks, dolphins and sea turtles. We eventually hope to go to Darjeeling too, tea country and spectacularly located at the foot of the Himalayas with views of Mount Everest. But for now there is much more exploring to do on the streets of Calcutta itself.
That's it until our next post, Shona, Raymie, Toraigh and Dara.

The Maidan and sun burned baldies

2007-02-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

Myself and Toraigh journeyed to The Maidan, the Field, in front of the Victoria Memorial that was the heart of the British Raj. It was originally a large cleared space built in front of Fort William to give the 'gunners' a clear shot if under attack from the restless natives. The Maidan is used for various useful things now, grazing goats is one of them. Playing cricket is another - it's as popular as hurling in Ballycastle. As we get to know Kolkata better it is appearing to be a city in transition. There is real evidence of an economic hub and growth alongside the poverty - which unfortunately is still very real is the first thing that strikes visitors like us.

Anyhow the Maidan is a great place to go if you want to get the top of an almost baldy head sun burned. Makes me think of the phrase, 'Mad dogs and English men go out in the mid day sun'. While I may not be an Englander, I think Irelanders have inherited the sentiments of the phrase. Also makes me think that those weather men who say 'we're in for an Indian summer', need to come here for a while! Anyhow, I have a few more pics taken on the low quality digi cam. I hope some one enjoys them. We are organising projects but until there is something real to say, let's just say the groundwork is being prepared.

By the way Dara would really love to hear from her class, or anybody. Either through the blog or my personal email. A pic of Clio would be classy - Bridgeen.

Until the next time, I'll wear a hat at mid day. Good luck Raymie and Clan

Getting Warmer

2007-02-06T10:33:00.000-08:00

Hello Folks
Tues 6th of Feb, and all is going well. We went across the road tonight to enquire about joining the local sports club. They gave us a wee tour round, a restaurant, pool table, billiards table and squash courts. There is of course a swimming pool on the roof - with no water in it. They say it is still too cold! It's that warm we can hardly go out sometimes. But there are people walking about here wearing woollen hats, jumpers, shirts and even coats - and who knows what else! They still see this as winter. Anyhow for us it is getting warmer by the day, although people here say it hasn't started to heat up yet.

With the heat is a lot of pollution, we give up smoking totally when we got on the plane but the fumes and smells are so strong that I don't think my lungs have noticed the lack of nicotine.

A few more images. One is of what they call 'Roadside People', in stark contrast the second is of a property advert that illustrates the promise of the new Calcutta that is arriving, the third is a fairly common scene where people who may have a house of sorts but do not have running water go and have a roadside bath. They turn on a water pump and all shower each other or throw buckets of water over their heads. We pass scores of people doing this every morning and I am starting to get the urge to go and join them. In the hot dusty weather it actually looks like it might be refreshing.

We are starting to think about a few trips about the place before it gets too hot, possibly up to Darjeeling, and to the Sunderbands hopefully to see the Royal Bengal Tiger. We also hope to get up to the Golden Triangle to see the Taj Mahal. Tomorrow I hope to visit the Maidan and will get a few pics of that infamous relic of British colonialism The Victoria Memorial. I have to say it is a stunning and grand building and speaks loads about the power of the British Raj.
Well that's all for tonight. Slan, Raymond and Clan

from Toraigh to class

2007-02-05T06:01:00.000-08:00

Hi, I am still missing you all! I can't wait to get back and see you.

In school I am learning Roman numbers from one to twenty! Here are your first Bengali words:
Domer nam kay? means What is your name.
What are yous learning?

I will get my school uniform tomorrow! It is a lot different than saint Patrick's and saint Brigit's. I will send you a picture, but don't laugh!!!

What is the weather like over there?

Is everyone well? Is there any new boys or girls in primary five? When are yous getting a new school building?

But any way, in India it is getting even warmer!!! Here, (in India) there is cycle rickshaws!
After India my dad says I will be able to go anywhere, because this will be the hardest challenge

This is the playground outside our apartment at night

Hello Dara here.
Miss Wisener please give this to miss Higgins. hello class it is Dara. I am having a good time in India . I have started school and my teacher is very mean and she pretends to be nice to me.
hello to yous all and best friends are emer, rachel and orla. I am missing yous all. I have lots of friends here and I like it. I have got 41 mosquito bites. I do not like them. I was on a cycle rickshaw on a busy road, it was scary.
lots of love from Dara.xo

from Toraigh to Cairan

2007-02-04T00:29:00.000-08:00

Hello Cairan, it's Toraigh.

How are you and how is Clio? India has been good so far and I have started school!!! But I do not like my teacher because she is really strict. I have met lots of school friends, my best friends are called Sangeta and shrejony. And tell the class I miss them too. At school I will learn how to speak Bengauly! It wasn't that scary at the top of the London Eye, but it was a little bit. Did you know that the London Eye takes a half hour to do one circle?!!!! In India the food is even spiceyer than Chinese food!!

Well, thats all from me bye.

First day at School in Calcutta

2007-02-02T07:57:00.000-08:00

First Day at School

Friday the 2nd was Toraigh and Dara’s first day at Loreto Cealda School Calcutta. Despite slight early morning nerves the girls were taken off to there classrooms. Myself and Shona went off to organize a few things and came back to the school between 1 and 2pm to see how they had survived. The two chics had become the most popular girls in the school with new friends and everybody asking their names etc. Toraigh was all buzz that her class had been sitting cross legged, meditating as part of their PE. And Dara is starting to pick up Bengali already. She is really good with the accent. Classmates have told both girls that they will teach them Bengali. When we arrived back at the school Dara was whizzing around the playground with an entourage chasing after her.

A message for Ciaran Hillbilly, from the Calcutta clampets Toraigh will send you a reply tomorrow (Sun), as she is just away for a good Indian nights sleep (we only got the Internet installed last night, Fri, when I started this blog). So hopefully we will be able to blog about on a more regular basis.

Toraigh and Dara will also be emailing the Ballycastle school on Sunday. The girls gave the box of pencils from Ballycastle school to sister Cyril, who promptly sent them up to the Rainbow children.

On Thurs 1st, we travelled out to a rural village to teach with some of Sister Cyril's Rainbow children and other day pupils (see bus pic below). We were teaching a group of village kids who were barely out of nursery school. The subject was English. Some of the Rainbow kids and other pupils who were probably about 13 - 14 were taking the classes in both Bengali and English. I took a short spell at the blackboard and then we all played a few games with them. After classes we were mobbed and cheered; and practically every child in the town wanted to shake our hands. White people, especially with two little white girls in bandannas are still a bit of a rarity in these parts that are way off the tourist trail. There are a few images below. Two packed bus loads went out to the villages but there was only one bus for the return journey - it was a bit of a squeeze - six of us were sitting in the cab space with the driver.

Shona will be a jurer on The Young Publisher of The Year Awards, Calcutta, on Sunday, which she will write about after Sunday; but we are heading to the evening reception on Sun night for a bit of social. We wondered if Sarah could baby sit?

The images below are, clockwise:
1. Toraigh and Dara's admirers in the village square. Shona had some of these kids singing etc.
2. Local children looking through the window of the village school.
3. Children/teachers from Cealda school - some of whom are 'Rainbow' children, on the outward bus journey.
4. The village school bell and bell ringer.
5. A sacred cow.

Arrival in Calcutta

2007-01-27T05:56:00.000-08:00

Our Belfast to London flight left us with most of a day to spare so we took the children for a spin on the London Eye. Needless to say they loved it. They took aerial photos of Big Ben etc. Dara kept pretending to push Toraigh off. Thurs morning early we boarded for Kolkata, a long haul but hassle free.

Naveen met us at the airport at 3am (Indian time)and we were taken to temporary accommodation in his mother-in-laws, a beautiful old 'colonial' house (Naveen is Director of the Seagull Foundation and is the cultural leader that Shona will work with while we are in India). Jet-lagged we headed down Park St. for an afternoon stroll, omelettes and ice cream in Flurrys. In an effort to get the kids used to all this new spicy food - Toraigh ate a tiny piece chilli for 100 rupees. It was like an image from Scooby doo with shaggy and the dog drinking buckets of water to quench burning volcanic mouths! At this point we are still acclimatising and getting over the jet lag.

The two girls will be attending their new school next week which should be an event. We have contacted Sister Cyril and she is expecting us. A message for Sister Grace - I have purchased 20 tin whistles, and a couple of music CD's and a great music book; the two girls hope to be able to teach a few tunes and hopefully learn a few tunes, from their new class mates.

Toraigh and Dara have some things to say to their friends:
From Dara: I AM HAVINg a very good time here it is vary nice p.s i miss you's.
From Toraigh: I am having an extremely great time!! I miss you very much! And I went on the London eye, it takes half an hour to do one circle! I am starting scool in India next week!!! I am looking forwood to seeing you again, but that will be in four months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First input from Shona. Hello to all who care to visit our blog. It is great to be back in Calcutta again and it is a very beautiful time of year to be here. We left the frost and rain and winds of ballycastle and london for the hazy January sun of india. It is just about right for us now, though they tell us it will seriously heat up by the end of Feb and we may be running for the shade. No cries of sympathy out there I'm sure.

Vinny, you asked about the fellowship. I was nominated for and successful in the assessment process for a Nesta cultural leadership award. The main premise of these awards is that not enough people from the cultural sector in the UK and Ireland work in an international context. The award supports the fellow to spend up to 6 months working with a cultural leader in another country and all the learning and expanded thinking that this entails. I chose to come to Calcutta and work with Naveen Kishore who is both Director of the Seagull Foundation and an individual artist (photographer, theatre designer, writer). The Seagull Foundation is a contemporary centre for the arts that has three separate locations and includes a multi-media resource centre, with an archive of nearly 5,000 films and a specialism in documentaries; a publishing house called Seagull books with a wide range of art-focussed books, journals and catalogues; a library and bookshop.

Seagull is an interesting place, on the surface a small venture, but punches far above its weight. They have a great ethos and a genuine commitment to developing work and projects that challenge the status quo and encourage us to think about what it means to be human in the 21st century. They remind me of the Nerve Centre in Derry, in many ways, not limited by definitions, open and responsive to creative ideas and viral. Anyway, there are many ideas for ways that I can work with Naveen and his team over the next 4 months. They have been amazingly warm and welcoming to all of us, and for these first couple of weeks I will take more time to get to know the team and all that they are aiming to do. I've brought over books from Belfast's Lagan press, a selection of films related to Ireland (north and south and examples of work in the arts from NI. At the very least we will make this the beginning of an exchange of knowledge and contacts and networks.

I'm making a documentary film piece of our experiences out here, so we promise to bore the pants of all of you with our films and photos and tales of Calcutta as the weeks go on. This is a sprawling, hectic, colourful, noisy, city of contradictions with an energy and rhythm that is very much its own.

Hope to hear from some body out there who has time to tell us something in return.

Good luck for now

flights booked

2007-01-10T13:31:00.000-08:00

This is a blog site set up by Raymond Watson from Belfast. The aim of the site is to provide an online record of the family trip to Calcutta (or Kolkata)India. It's starting to feel like Derry and Londonderry already. Calcutta is the old British colonial name for the city, and Kolkata is the current Indian name for their city.

Myself and Shona have been to Kolkata in August 06, to get some sort of a feel for the place before we brought our two children out. It is very different from anything that we know in the 'west', but more about that after we set foot in the Kolkata again. We will be staying for 4 months.

The flights are booked and we will leave Ireland on Jan 24th 07, and will go via London to Kolkata.

While in Kolkata we hope to do many things but the main rationale for going is as a result of Shona being nominated for a NESTA fellowship. Personally I hope to be inspired by the place and just learn and soak up as much new 'stuff' as I can. I also intend to produce a large installation piece at the Loreto sealdah school, calcutta, where our two children Toraigh and Dara will be pupils for 4 months. Over 1000 street children and orphans sleep and live on the roof of the school. (see the link site:www.changemakers.net sister cyril calcutta) Sister Cyril the head nun runs an extremely worthy project called the Rainbow Project - geared to provide hope for the poor, street children and orphans. Shona will be spending time with the Seagull Foundation as part of her NESTA fellowship award, where they are developing some very interesting projects. More on all of this later.

Siter Cyril going to school on her scooter

I hope to keep whoever reads these 'blogs' entertained - at the very least. Possibly informed and interested. Hopefully we will hear/read some comments in return.

Good luck for now
Raymond