TAMIL NADU

Scribbles, thoughts and stories from a short trip around Pondichery, India.

Impressions from South-East India

Dominik Heilig

In Progress!!

TAMIL NADUImpressions from South-East India

© 2013

TAMIL NADUImpressions from South-East India

by Dominik Heilig

Many thanks toAnthony Samy for your time and hospitality,

Mary, Ragavan “Schumacher”, ....more to come

ballet of thesnowflakes...

... outside my

window. each flakeseems to have ...

... its own role, one pompuos

choreography.

combined with a hot cup of

- as if i knew -

spicy and sweet indian tea. chai as they say.

chai-kovski’ssnow-lake, he he. ... but i didn’t know.

i like

i comment

and i wait

while in a not so far and even snowier place ...

... my charming photographer friend

aida ...

... was plotting hernext adventure.

her thoughts swirrled around the globe.

through whitened unrecogniazble

streets.

and also familiar social

networks

india, that’s what the divine

lottery came up with. less snow,more chai!

and for sure,little monkeyman is in! hanuman of kazifornia shall prepare....

little did i know, that we’d stay in a shelter ofa local christian school

behind theshiny curtain of

tourism ... ... where the magic of real people happens, not of gods, maybe with their help,

who knows.

ragavan took the “wrong” turn,

05.00 amairport, chennai

hello india,

we expected some crazy traffic.

here you go!

we knew itfrom moscow

the difference, indians don’t swear...

in the city ofrapamarakapapuram

or so,his face

turned white- instantly!

... thaT much, they just honk and smile.

we stopped for a cup of tea.

sweet indian chai!

my choice of pens and colors was very limited.

because, i left my ...

aida didn’t care.

ragavan didn’t even know about.

... big pencilcase at the

stop-over in london.

the nearby templewas almost empty.

calm beauty of morning grace.

and i didn’t waste time on choosing the

“right” colors!

While Anthony worked under Brother Windey S. J. , a Belgian missionary, he everyday saw the misserable situation in his area and gained a lot of experience in village development. So finally in 1989 he founded BLESS, an organisation that concentrates on empowering the poor village community like women, youths, farmers, fishermen, artisans and disabled people to become econimically selfsustainable.

The portfolio of BLESS offers a range of interdis-ciplinary programmes to build a solid ecosystem; to tackle also the sources of problems not only its symptoms.

Self Help GroupsA registered or unregistered self help group is an association of micro enterpreneurs, who have a homogenous social and economic back-ground. They voluntarily come together to save small ammounts, contribute to a common fund and to meet their emergency needs on a mutual help basis. Collective wisdom and peer-pres-sure ensures an end-use of the credits.

The Open SchoolThe Open School in Reddichavady has opend it’s doors for 30 Adivasi* children, who have dropped out of the traditional school system. The children were generally not passing their

classes, psychologicaly fragile or forced to go to work instead of school. The school has an opposite approach than tra-ditional ones. The programme ensures, that the children learn through independence and emancipation with a focus on responsibility and

especially environmental aspects.

ShelterBLESS strongly believes in

the community. So build-ing shelters became a very crucial part of BLESS’ priority list. It often happend that the

people evolved and were able to manage their village

and the inveronment.

Building a house can be done by anyone, but building a communityis a process

Rehabilitaion Programmefor Bicycle Fish-VendorsDuring the tsunami desaster in 2005, many NGOs, INGOs and government departments worked for the fish vendors as a temporary re-lief activity, like organizing meetings, distrib-uting relief materials, conducting awareness camps and so forth. But the fish vendors were unable to receive governmental support, as they were not registered in any fishery depart-ments. According to a survy from Bless, these

BLESSin 1989 Anthony Samy founded BLESS, a charity organisiation in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, in south-east India. With different kinds of educational programms, BLESS empowers people from all religions in Tamil Nadu’s rural areas, mainly poor families and children.

BLESS in Fabruary 2012,after beeing hit by a heavy thunderstorm.

vendors were then bonded to credits with huge interest rates. Bless successfully grouped these scattered vendors under one roof. The bicycle fish vendors are men between 18 and 60 who are below the poverty line. They buy fish at the local markets and resell it to their communities on the countryside, by bike. Everyday they cy-cle over a hundred kilometers, in the south-east Indian heat.

Livestock PromotionsThe livestock promotions programme has three main objectives. Objective one: Empower pro-ject groups to contribute to family and social harmony. Objective two: Create livelihood opportunities for sustainable and increased income. Objective three: Improve a family’s nutrition hygine and sanitation by also being environmentally friendly.

Micro Enterprise Development A new initiative of identical self help groups who come for a collective income, where it’s profit is used to scale up.

Water, Sanitation & LivelihoodSince 1996 BLESS is implementing water sani-tation projects. This includes promoting eco-logical sanitation such as dry toilets and water purification for keeping up the health and hy-gene and thus improve the people’s life-quality.

ContactExecutive Director: L.S. Anthony Samy Website: http://bless.org.in/

*ADIVASI is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups claimed to be the aboriginal population of India –Wikipedia

kara probably told you aboutour projects.

yes, a bit, about the school and the

bicycle fish vendor’s. can’t imagine

to cycle with a box full of fish

through this heat.i guess the men are

in good shape, ha ha!

he he, at least after a month.but, there isa lot more

to see.

we also run water sanitation project, then

mary’s anbalayam, a house for women.

but, aida, i’d really like to see some of your photos.

oh, very, very nice. we’ll show you around

and keep you busy. for the fish vendors, we’llhave to get up at

4 am, he he.

don’t worry, anthony! we’restill jet-laggy.we might be already up

and dancing by sunrise.

no chanceno mercy!

they don’t care!

my shoes are spattered with blood, and so

are the walls.

no chanceno mercy!

they don’t care!

hunting mosquitosin india

because they came for you!

and they didn’t eat much today!

sometimes, you’re lucky and you catch one.

mostly, you’re not.

The struggle over water has been always there, but now, in a more global world, water becomes a global good and is no longer only local. It gets shipped or licensed. Not only that it became a global good, but we also realise its global im-pact due to e. g. ecological catastrophies.

The IndustryWater was always vivid for technical processes. As a means of power, cooling or also cleaning. In many cases, companies don’t pay much at-tention on their water treatment. Unfortunately they often get backed by polititians with the ex-cuse of generating working places.

Bottled Water vs. Tap WaterBottled water is a fairly new invention. It came up with the brand of Perrier in 1898 as a Brit-ish marketing action and has been followed by many others, such as the globel players like: the Coca-Cola Company, Nestlé, Danone, Uni-

lever and others. They bottle and sell valuable groundwater near villages that often can’t af-ford clean water. So people have to buy and also carry home the expensive and mainly (plastic) bottled water - a source of waste problems.

Human right vs. PrivatizationNot only countries who are part of the UN, but also corporations must stick to the UN’s princi-ples and keep the human rights. This often is in conflict with water-privatization. In the short-run it’s cheaper for local governments to sell botteling licenses than to develope and main-tain a proper water supply.

Sources

• Study: Behind the Brands by OXFAM • www.indiaenvironmentportal.org• www.thehindu.com

IINDIA’S WATER SITUATIONUnlike many other third world countries or so called emerging markets, also India has huge potable water issues. They can’t be only addressed to the heat but also to ecologic side-effects of a growing world industry and especially economic politics.

the land of my parents has been contaminated by a neighbouring factory.

so, i became a cab driver.

once i visited my brother in switzerland. even their tap water is far better than our

bottled ones.

anthony andfather daniel took meto see how their new

water-filters could helpin the villages.

so now we try to raise some money. the main problems started in 2005, when the tsunami

hit the coastal area.

and, just two months before you

guys arrived, a heavy hurricane hit the tamil nadu coast.

the water filter is very simple and it’s,very cheap, but even the people in ...

...the villagescan’t afford it, it is about $ 10,50.

especially those, which were hit by the recent

hurricane

the poorerpeople often live veryclose to the coast, sothere is no chance to

escape, when there arebigger waves.

A DROP OF WATER

the infrastructure was torn appart and most of the villages were leveled.they live in simple straw- huts, you’ll see.

or they’llhave only polluted water

for cooking, get sick or even die, which is not only tragic,

but also a problem...

... for the economy, as these people are farmers, a cruical part of ...

Tamil nadu’sfood production.

the state helps, but it’s not enough!

you see, many of the huts are still torn down and othershave been fixed.

some haveelectricity, some

even tv. it’s easier to geta dozen channels out

here, than clean water.

no one’s here,i guess everybodyis on the fields,

working.

here’s amuddy river, the

only water-source around,and lots of industry, bad

water. they need filters!

we meet youngasok, who left work

to study for school and to help his mum. maybe he

could get a properjob once.

his gradesare quite good, but

the chances are still very low for dalits to move up

the ladder. but, who know’s. maybe anthony

can help.

he’s stillyoung, but at the

moment he rather needs clean water to stay healthy to work and

study.

... ground-water level. which

is also often causedby neighbouring

industries, a realmajor problem.

a nearbyfertilizer company,

pollutes the water andair and they use up

a lot of cleanground water.

another problemis the heat andthe sinking ...

it’s a mess! and it’s just so

common. but even ifthere was access

to clean water, the fields and animals are contami-

nated and at the endit’s us, who eats it,

ironic, isn’t it?

and likeeverywhere, the

government is supportingthe industry, not the

people. so we try to fill a gap, at least.

now, weneed water from

the river and pots. daniel, tried the filters already?

allright, anthony i’ll just organize some

pots and water. then we can set it up. some villagers

are on the way,just a second.

exactly,ragavan, please

bring them along.daniel, you can youturn the heat down

a little?

sure, where’s the ™*#^ switch? ah, here on that tree, now wait

a bit anthony

thank you, it’s always abig pleassureto work with

you!

well, the water is onit’s way, than let’s start. first the filter must be.

assembled, this little pipe goes here, and where is the pump? ah, you

have it, ...

so, this little fellow purifies about two liters of water in one hour. and let’s say, 15 liters a day. it can be used for roughly three months

then, changethe filter element.

hello anthony, thank you for coming. since the hurricane, the river is very dry and dirty ...

... we sometimes go to the neighbour village. but itran dry. it is just too hot. it took anyway too muchtime to go there by foot, and for the young ones it’s still to heavy and kids like Asok have to go to school or help with the field work.

this one works with an active-charcoal element and something like an inverse osmosis filter, which cleans out even particles from chemical factories. a big thanks to the people whoinvented this little filterhere. it is light, small and very powerful, the best for cases like our’s.

oh look, the first drops!after the filter is

soaked, it willgo faster.

last week wemet some people from the

local government, we wantedto convince them to support these filter, at least in emegency situa-tions like after natural catastro-

phies. let’s see, they willthink about it.

a bit, at least. later it

will help a lot tohave it in the shade,

before the waterevaporates from

the heat.

and more than once a day none of us could go there.that is just not enough for cooking, cleaning and drinking. but, anthony, tell me how is your wife doing?

esmeralda is fine, she is busy with the school, it got hit a lot by the storm. so we need to fix many things like the roof or windows. but, we have a very big water filter now. it’s enough for all the kids andus. they need water, when they learn.

let the water run, but you

should cook it anyway - the heat.

and then weleave the village.one of so many

heading into the evening.

on the way back we’ll pass another village where

bless is runninga water project.

because the period,in which he got baptized was so hot, that the holy water had dried up during the service, so the priest

had to run home.

daniel told me, that anthony had a special knack for this

one, because he gotbaptized there, in the

church of saint anthony!

therefore, anthony gotnot only baptized with

water, but also ...

fortunately it’s getting a little cooler.

so, let’sget in the car, imagine it ran

on water.

horrible,we’d be lostout here!

... with its absence.

i wish, i could also hear

the story again from anthony’s

grandmother.

later, they built a new well. it hadn’t run dry, since anthony started

taking care of it.

i finally foundout how priests get holy

water - boil the hell out of it.*

with someextra time! theholy spirit made uphis mind carefully.

and sometimes he just needs a glass of it, to keep his super powers up

and running.

* Joan Rivers

Anbalayam’s vision is engaged in the social and economical empowerment of women in the rural and urban area of Pondicherry, Karaika, Cud-dalore and the Villupuram Districts of Tamil-Nadu. We are working past 8 years. In the first years we worked with the government of Tamilnadu and Pondicherry to empower women folk by giv-ing skill and skill upgrading trainings in various trades. We also promoted some successful micro enter-prises which are run by women Self Help groups in Cuddalore and Villupuram areas.

We also offer care and support linked with skill development and vocational trainings todestitute women in distress and the many sexual trafficking victims.

Creating awareness on social, moral and eco-nomic issues as well as to facilitate rural and poor women to enjoy the welfare measures is on of our objectives. Many poeple don’t know their rights, and they wouldn’t know as they are still illiterate.

Similar problems we face with children and their right issues.So our so called target audience are poor chil-dren, rural poor women / young women, and adolescent girls.

It is not easy, a lot of our enterprises were closed because of a lack of understanding and competition existing. also a big problem is to teach a culture of duiscussion to grown ups. Many don’t know situation with problems that

can be solved. So they just leave Aba-layam, as if they had something to

fear.

One of our most important empowerments is teach-ing women to say NO. Even they idea of it is so abstract for them, and they

are so afraid of men or their husbands. That is why we

also develop ways to communi-cate certain issues especially to men.

because it takes always two.

Anbalayam78, Villianur Road, Puducherry, Pondicherry

Contact: A. K. Mary ( Chief Functionary )Mobile Number: 9443469358E-mail: anbalayamforwomen@yahoo.co.inWebsite: www.anbalayam.org.in

ANBALAYAMAnbalayam is Hindu and means «House of Love» or «Temple of Love». We met Mary, who founded Anbalayam in 2004. It is a also a project within BLESS and targeted to many issues especially rural women have to face in India.

we got invited....

an indian wedding, in two days.

betweena tamil

christian...

and a hindu girl from another cast.

withouttheir

parents!

but with one hindu and one christian

priest.

religion - is like a shirt, you could change,

but your caste is your skin!

this couple goes beyond their

traditions.

there aremany ways to

oppose - the laws -

of man.

rise upon the given

structures ...

...you open new perspectives,

a whole ocean!

... with the wings of unconditional

love ...

they have no time

for yoga.

their lives start at, let’s

say, minusseven.

but some people are busy with just barely surviving.

and if they’re lucky, they make it to solid zero, maybe

a bit more. zero point four?

with all its wonderful

people

to see the beauty that is -

in life and nature and culture.

oh, how lucky am i? to choose and have chances.

no need to get up at 3 am

to buy some fish

i can hardly afford.

to people,with little

money bargain

deal

survive

but, i can withdraw from

the struggle

to live my chances and

passions.

like getting a wedding present and my wild beard

trimmed!

andsellit

and my shirtironed.

andand, and get

on board please!

on board that ship

......

boat!

which takes you deep into

the ...

...endangered and

enchanted jungles of your soul.

full of creatures and things and wonders, within

the sounds of a savage- silence.

to where man-made laws do not

apply ...

and even trees can grow the way they

please!

... until the malstrom of reality drags you back in.

he he.

like, what will i wear to that

wedding, tomorow?

where souls speak to souls and hearts to hearts

and things get done the right way

...

i’m sure their love won’t go «pop» as quickly as these cheap balloons.

for many years, they have been waiting and

struggling for it.

that wedding,

that unarranged,

love marriage!

so much is possible

...in the house

of love!

Some Random Sketches

my mariage wasarranged, sure!

love-marriages are quite new. people say, arranged

marriages are prostitution,i dont want to see my wife

like that.

the marriage ofmy son was also some

sort of a love marriage, one day, he proposed

a girl to us.

whereas ourdoughter wasalready in love with the boy we chose.

Pondycherry, probably Indian tourists or locals enjoying

(like us) an evinng at the ocean.

guests of the wedding.

Nagooa, a young volontary and student from another organisation on a business visit from Chennai, disussing girl issues with Maya, a volontary from Denmark.

yes, she’s my girlfriend

she smiled at me, sosweet.

before going back,back to moscow and berlin,

we wanted to see the famous auroville.

a spiritual place, that sells incense,

was all i knew.

but, do you need to know more, when you’re

touched anyway?

banyan trees! aerial roots, a tree with wings,

it feels a bit like a brother.no place to climb though for little

monkeyman.

this one is overa hundreed years old.

it stood there alone, until the garden appeared, waiting!

born before the independenceof india

well, a hundred years is nothing in cosmic meassures.the matrimandir, the golden petal platted ball, the center of the garden is the place to be for cosmic meassures, meditations and wordly contemplation.

it bundles the rays from the infiniteness of the universe.

a straw of light, your soul can quench its thirst with - star nectar.

far away from planet earth and yet

- amidst it

even houston, texas is within

the cosmos, you know?

and as we wentthrough it, i slightly got the feeling, ...

... that this was the «incal» and thatevery moment ...

...i’d bump into john difool.moebius must have known

this,... been here ...

i thought of him, the hours wewere there ....

while he, notso silently

...

... passed away in peace and paris.

that moebiushad just gone, was yet an

unknown fact for us, and busy chennai!

closed shopsit feels so unreal.and after all, we got nothing left to do ...

tomorrow we’ll be back in europe. back in ourreality, which some indians

might dream of.

... but drive around ... ... kiss, and say good bye.

Christianity After showing the first pages of this book to people, I got asked, why I pointed out, that we were at a christian place. Well, for several reasons, first it’s a fact. Protestant christians are a quite big minority in Tamil-Nadu. Second, I had went to a Franciscan Catholic school as a kid and some rituals, stories, values or cultural patterns were already familiar and inter-nalised, but to many also less exotic than the Indian Muslim world (Which we didnt dive into.) and es-pecially the original colorful Hindu world. And third, I really liked the surprise of meeting local, “exotic” and yet so close christians that merged Hindu approaches with Christian ones, as Eu-ropean pagans did, just with way more flowers and less focus on the suffering part.

Waste Walking though the countryside is a bit like walking through a snow storm of all sorts of wrappings and packages. Snickers, Coke, Wrigley’s, water-bottles, cleaning agents, you name it. It looked like, as if it wasn’t from the people around, as they couldn’t afford it, but carried away by widns and storms and spread around the are like the anti-advertisment of fast moving consumer goods. So what can one do then curse these companies who give a tiger’s

ass about nature and eat less of that wrapped up sugar crap?

Hospitality We were received in a very respectful and gen-

erous way. People were so open end friendly. The question of how they

must feel if they come to Eu-rope, where people give a

dog’s ass about forreigners went around my head.

Water Being form a normal Ger-

man family, I never faced water shortages during my

life. But in India, it’s not the same commodity. Tap-water is rare and

often germ-infested and definitaly has to be treated with heat and filters. Whereas bottled water comes in small containers and is far more expensive in the long run,probably by the factor 20. Further bottled water comes in plastic bottles which are not receylcleable and the influence of the plastic on the water, I don’t know, I just dont trust it.Bottled water is a billion dollar business of less then 20 global companies. So, after this trip, I really reduced my bottled water consumption. And if possible, I avoid the big players. I’d feel like feeding some monster.

My collection on more Info www.dominikheilig.com/link_to_come

QUO VADIS?India, it seems so far away, but yet, a lot of issues they have to tackle are the same we have, especially the more modernised the society gets. May it be salary inequalities or women rights, cultural differencies in the society or just food, water, waste and / or health issues.

A poetic documentaryTamil Nadu or former Madras, is a state in the south-east of India

with a stong culture dating back more then 200 years. Hindus, Christians and Muslims speak its only language -Tamil. The differences between castes seem strong, whereas technology and nature threaten rural people of all religions

alike. Anthony Samy takes us along the beauty of his cultural heritage and and shows us the gaps he’s filling and the windmills he’s fighiting.