Is my lipstick ok? A Visit to the Ministry of Education

Thursday, 16 December

Jeremy arrived in Hyderabad at 5:30 this morning. The bad news is, he arrived without his luggage--just in time for our scheduled visit to the Ministry of Education. But this is Hi-Tech City, and thanks to the InOrbit shopping mall adjacent to our office, he is ready to go in no time. Kiran, Shridhar and I are still riding our high from the day before, me feeling sassy in one of my new Salwar Kameez. Off we go!

Now hurry up and wait. Field time in East Africa and lobbying time with the US Congress had fully prepared me for the ritualized waiting ascribed by most elected officials. We passed the time chatting, and were rewarded with a delightful coffee service when we reached the right assistant at the right time. This was hours later, though we had finally made it to the inner waiting area of the ministers whose audience we sought. Jeremy's stomach began gurgling and mine had begun twisting into some sort of cruel Pilates move all on its own. We asked for more coffee, in hope that being wide awake would somehow mitigate the intestinal distress we were both now feeling. A different kind of urgency now permeated our waiting.

Adrenalin took over as we entered our first meeting. Both of the ministers with whom we met, were equally joyful/perplexed, that we had not come to launch a complaint, but rather ask how LaVya might be of service in their quest to serve the educational needs of Andhra Pradesh (AP). With another round of coffee, the ministers shared the following:

*The government has not been having success with education interventions in the "Scheduled Tribes Areas". Due to a checkered past, the government is seen as adversarial. In a nutshell, the "Scheduled Tribes" are very much akin to the Native Americans, with "Scheduled Tribes Areas" bearing striking resemblance to reservations. Once this was explained, I began to view the term "adversarial" as too kind.

*Exisiting schools in these areas are riddled with broken infrastructures, such as sanitation, clean water, etc. (Was this becoming a theme?)

*At present, there is no concrete way of collecting/disseminating feedback to the government from these areas.

*Primary school enrollment is dropping anually in Scheduled Tribes, though schools, students and teachers are there. Problem is implementation.

*Reiteration of day before's assertions, that metrics for measuring teacher performance are not in place, teachers becoming "merely collectors of salary".

*English teachers are needed.

*The government has collected approximately 30,oooINR (about $667USD) per school, designated for toilets. Again, the problem has been implemenation and oversight.

At the conclusion of our meeting, we were offered a proposition: Identify 100 schools in need within the Scheduled Tribes Areas, and the ministers would pledge to match our investment of 1.5Lakh(150,000INR/$3337USD), in order to address basic needs such as toilets, libraries and kitchen facilities. From there, if successful, we would be invited for Round 2, which was to match our intervention(s) for providing computer education.

We emerged both happy and a little shell-shocked! Had we heard right??? WOW. Riding the elevator down, Jeremy leaned over and whispered, "If I don't eat soon, I'm going to reach through my soul and kill myself". Stiffling a laugh, I replied I needed something fizzy. Fast.

Driving back along the river, we gazed out at the giant Buddha, now an icon for Hyderabad. As Kiran began to regale us with history, we passed a roadside corn stand. "Stop!", he instructed. Chargrilled, roasted corn. Who knew the three of us shared such joy in this small, simple delicacy?

Returning to our Buddha conversation, Kiran relayed that the Gautam Buddha statue was erected atop the Gibraltar Rock in the Hussain Sagar Lake in 1992. It was carved from a single piece of granite and is the largest singly-carved Buddha in the world today. What most travel guides won't tell you, however, is that the Buddha had some infrastructure issues of its own back in 1988. Kiran went on. Before landing gracefully, the Buddha's hoist was broken, leveling him in a tributary of sewage for nearly four years. That's right, the Buddha was in deep shit. Today, jutting majestically above it all, one would never guess its history, save for the wafting aroma of the neighboring waste water treatment plant.

Giggling like 14 year-old boys, we took our corn and returned to the car. Weaving through rush hour traffic, Jeremy remarked that he couldn't wait for dinner. Why did he have to say that? My stomach lurched at the mention of food. "Hold this", I said, handing him my ear of corn. I leaned my head on the back of the seat. All of a sudden, I began to sweat. Cold sweat. "Keep it together, keep it together", I kept telling myself. Traffic came to a stop. "Oh, hell no...." I began to get that metallic taste, that could only mean one thing. My pride had to be broken. "Veema, can you pull over", I asked meekly? "What's wrong", inquired Kiran? "I think I need to throw up".

And there she blew. In all my glory, reliving the former party days with Jeremy, Veema our driver, and Kiran my boss looking on. Not once, mind you, but three times. Enough to gather a small crowd of spectators. "Done", asked Veema, as he handed me some water?Horrified, I pulled my body and fractured ego into the car. Managing a strain of vanity, I splayed across the back seat looking at Jeremy. "Is my lipstick ok"?

I spent the rest of the night anchored to my bathroom. Morning would come soon enough, another field day calling. Wrapped in every piece of clothing I had, I fought the chills. David and Jeremy took turns looking in, bearing gifts of Immodium and Coke. Finally, sleep came.

At 6:30, I pulled myself up. I wandered toward the guesthouse kitchen, in search of more Coke. "How the hell are you up", asked Jeremy? "Field work is my superpower", I replied. "Well, you just a spent a night like the Buddha spent four years", he shot back. I smiled. If wallowing the night before meant I could rise and look into the future of India, I would do it all over again. Only this time with better lipstick.

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Photo Credit: Google Images