Earthquake & Ghetto Living
I am sure by now everyone has heard about the heartbreaking news of the earthquake in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan.
My own experience was pretty scary and that didn’t include any buildings collapsing or deaths. I was teaching class on the 3rd floor of a building that doesn’t look very stable to begin with so naturally when the ground below me started to shake my first instinct was to get out as soon as possible. To make sure it wasn’t just me, I asked my students if they felt it too and when they agreed I left the classroom, by myself, and got my purse and cell phone. I realize now that is the exact OPPOSITE of what a teacher should do but in the moment I was really worried the building was going to collapse. India isn’t exactly known for following building codes. As everyone was leaving the building, the shaking stopped and my poor students were more concerned about me than themselves. I was obviously shaken and they could tell, again not something a teacher should do, but what the hell, my students are adults! Over the next few days I started to hear how major this earthquake was, and today the death toll is estimated at 30,000 to 40,000. We’re not talking a few thousand here, an entire generation of children has been lost. Really hard to believe…
I spent part of this week in Rohini (very close to the Inlingua centre in Pitampura) at my grandmother’s home. She lives with my 4 cousins so there is always something going on in that household. But the big news wasn’t what was going on with them, it was what was going on in that part of town. The first night I was there the power went out, as always, but this time it happened when I was going to their house, in the dark. It felt really unsafe walking around in that area with no street lights or house lights on; foreshadowing of how the next few days would be. The next day I got out of class early so, I decided to go home, have lunch, and then check out the new shopping mall down the street. After lunch my cousin came home from work and told us there was a shooting at the McDonald’s at the shopping mall. A father was going to meet his daughter’s husband at the movie theatre to sort out some differences. He didn’t agree with the marriage that had happened secretly. The father warned passersby, including my cousin’s rickshaw driver, to move out of the way. Of course everyone stood around to see what was going to happen out of curiosity when the father pulled out a gun and shot his own daughter in the head and his son-in-law in the shoulder. The daughter died immediately in front of everyone and the father threatened to kill anyone that helped his daughter. Needless to say I didn’t go shopping that day. Last week a son killed his mother in Rohini over some marriage dispute and this week a father killed his daughter.
The next day news came of my grandmother’s neighbour, a 19 year old that would always help her out and take her to the doctor. He was arrested in the middle of the night at home, taken to jail and beaten into a confession that he was involved in an illegal business. His family, who was out of town, wasn’t even informed of his whereabouts.
In Rohini, at least in the area where the apartments are, you can hear family disputes out in the open at night, children crying, and loud music playing. In Canada we would call this the ghetto, in Delhi they call this middle class. With all these negative happenings somehow I started to feel at home. I suppose I am getting accustomed to everything here and I also found out that I will finally be moving to the Inlingua centre closer to home, in South Ex. Also, it is holiday season in India so things are always a little more upbeat and I have realized that it is really nice to live in the same city as family. In Canada we feel so far away, but here I have a regular update of all the family members.
My own experience was pretty scary and that didn’t include any buildings collapsing or deaths. I was teaching class on the 3rd floor of a building that doesn’t look very stable to begin with so naturally when the ground below me started to shake my first instinct was to get out as soon as possible. To make sure it wasn’t just me, I asked my students if they felt it too and when they agreed I left the classroom, by myself, and got my purse and cell phone. I realize now that is the exact OPPOSITE of what a teacher should do but in the moment I was really worried the building was going to collapse. India isn’t exactly known for following building codes. As everyone was leaving the building, the shaking stopped and my poor students were more concerned about me than themselves. I was obviously shaken and they could tell, again not something a teacher should do, but what the hell, my students are adults! Over the next few days I started to hear how major this earthquake was, and today the death toll is estimated at 30,000 to 40,000. We’re not talking a few thousand here, an entire generation of children has been lost. Really hard to believe…
I spent part of this week in Rohini (very close to the Inlingua centre in Pitampura) at my grandmother’s home. She lives with my 4 cousins so there is always something going on in that household. But the big news wasn’t what was going on with them, it was what was going on in that part of town. The first night I was there the power went out, as always, but this time it happened when I was going to their house, in the dark. It felt really unsafe walking around in that area with no street lights or house lights on; foreshadowing of how the next few days would be. The next day I got out of class early so, I decided to go home, have lunch, and then check out the new shopping mall down the street. After lunch my cousin came home from work and told us there was a shooting at the McDonald’s at the shopping mall. A father was going to meet his daughter’s husband at the movie theatre to sort out some differences. He didn’t agree with the marriage that had happened secretly. The father warned passersby, including my cousin’s rickshaw driver, to move out of the way. Of course everyone stood around to see what was going to happen out of curiosity when the father pulled out a gun and shot his own daughter in the head and his son-in-law in the shoulder. The daughter died immediately in front of everyone and the father threatened to kill anyone that helped his daughter. Needless to say I didn’t go shopping that day. Last week a son killed his mother in Rohini over some marriage dispute and this week a father killed his daughter.
The next day news came of my grandmother’s neighbour, a 19 year old that would always help her out and take her to the doctor. He was arrested in the middle of the night at home, taken to jail and beaten into a confession that he was involved in an illegal business. His family, who was out of town, wasn’t even informed of his whereabouts.
In Rohini, at least in the area where the apartments are, you can hear family disputes out in the open at night, children crying, and loud music playing. In Canada we would call this the ghetto, in Delhi they call this middle class. With all these negative happenings somehow I started to feel at home. I suppose I am getting accustomed to everything here and I also found out that I will finally be moving to the Inlingua centre closer to home, in South Ex. Also, it is holiday season in India so things are always a little more upbeat and I have realized that it is really nice to live in the same city as family. In Canada we feel so far away, but here I have a regular update of all the family members.
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