Final Farewell to India for the moment

Teaching English to MSC Brothers in India, 2013 & 2014

18 March, 2014

I am 8 weeks into Term 1 back in Australia after my 10 weeks experience in India. I am moved to report to you all on the achievements and events I experienced. Now that I am back and enmeshed in my full-time teaching life, it is possible to provide an objective reflection on the enterprise.

I spent a week last November here at Monivae getting all the details of reports and preparations for exams finalized and when I boarded the plane on Saturday Nov 16^th I was both excited and very tired. The flights to Bangkok and then Bangalore were enjoyable even though they were long, but I was very grateful for being greeted at the airport by the friendly MSC community members.

I slept most of Sunday but was happy to be back in the Chevalier Bhavan community again. I was welcomed and cared for as a member of the MSC Family. Catching the train to Mysore on Monday and being collected by Fr. Baskar and Fr. Immanuel was an adventure and then the ride south to the Brothers community at Hridhayalaya Bhavan gave me a glimpse of the life of the city and the rural setting of the postulancy house. The Brothers greeted my with warm friendship and I immediately became part of their community. Teaching started that day.

While I concentrated on conversation, I tried to engage them in Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking each day. We started the lessons with the topic of “Identity”. They told me where they came from and then they wrote a response to the question, “Who am I and how did I come to be who I am?” It delved into their background, their families and the events of their lives and their stories so far. They wrote these out for me and I corrected them minutely so that they had a perfect draft. This they presented to the class. I recorded these on video with the intention of showing them back late in the stay.

They then did a poster presentation on various topics relating to “Indian culture” choosing from a long list: Music, love and relationships, government, dress and fashion, food, history, sport – cricket and hockey, movies and drama, agriculture, terrain and geography, climate, resources, proximity to other neighboring countries, philosophy, rituals and religion, education, wealth and resources, the class system, transport, languages, technology, entertainment, architecture and medicine.

Incidentally, I taught them also about positive attitudes to life under the heading of “Victors or Victims”. I also did a First Aid course with them as a result of an accident which we attended on the road from Mysore. They also learned the William Blake poem, “Tiger”. They did an exam for me after Christmas and the standard varied greatly. Some were quite fluent and some were struggling. I gave a report on each to Fr. Baskar.

One marvelous feature of the early part of my experience was the wedding I attended in Kerala in the weekend after my arrival. Friends of ours from Hamilton had returned to their family to get married. The help I received from Fr. Tijo collecting me and showing me around the area around the novitiate was wonderful. What a beautiful place for the novitiate. 

When I returned from Kerala I moved up to live with the Daughters of the Church sisters and started teaching them as well. I really loved my life in the convent. Each morning I attended Mass with the sisters and then had breakfast with them. I taught the Aspirants for an hour starting at 9.00am. I concentrated on their speaking and their reading as these seemed to me to be their areas of greatest need. I rode the motorbike up to the brothers in time to teach for 90 minutes starting at 11.00am. I really enjoyed teaching the brothers as they were very fervent and keen. They were very interested in Australia and my life here. Likewise, I was very keen to learn about India and they were keen to teach me. We kept everything in English so I learned only a few words in a couple of languages. I also taught them a few basic guitar chords.

After prayers I enjoyed beautiful lunch with the community. I really enjoyed the diet although I occasionally had to temper my enthusiasm as some of the dishes were quite spicy. This was despite Mary, the cook, preparing them especially for me.

Then when the brothers had an after-lunch rest I usually connected with my family in Australia and Cambodia via email, Skype and phone. I enjoyed keeping in touch and some of the brothers looked forward to seeing my family members.

I had another lesson after lunch with the Brothers and then another with the sisters. This hectic pace was challenging but very enjoyable. For both groups we concentrated on reading after lunch. Tea in the evening with the sisters at 7.45pm closed my day. I loved being part of their community as well. I do not sleep well at night at the best of times so I usually communicated with family and friends during the night by email.

Another highlight for me was to welcome my son Liam to Mysore. He fitted in well with the brothers and taught both them and the sisters for a few days. Fr. Baskar was particularly welcoming of Liam and Fr. Immanuel and Fr. Gerald took us on a tourist treat on the weekend including the Palace, the Zoo, the Hindu temple on Charmundi Hills and the Brindarvan Gardens. It was a wonderful day with lovely memories. Liam then caught a train to Chennai and spent two weeks touring Tamil Naidu meeting me in Kerala for Christmas.

The preparations for Christmas and the liturgical celebrations were very holy and most engaging. I have some beautiful photos of the Mass and the crib.

I had a most marvelous trip to Kerala for Christmas after a very long bus trip from Mysore to Cochin. I met Liam and we travelled by train to Calicut for Christmas Eve with friends of ours from a Hamilton connection. Then we had a few days in Thiruvananthapuram at a resort before he flew back to Cambodia on December 28^th. I flew to Bangalore on New Years Day and stayed with the community until Fr. Gerald and I went by train back to Mysore on Jan 5^th. During my stay in Bangalore I purchased as many secondhand books as I could carry for the brothers. It is important that they continue to read all the time.

I settled into the routine again for another 2½ weeks, adding guitar lessons for the sisters in the evening. I found it a little harder to concentrate on my teaching, as the end was in sight, so I kept busy and focused until the end.

On Tuesday January 21^st the Sisters and the Brothers both said farewell in their own lovely ways. The Mass, the Program and the meal are a special highlight of my stay and I cherish my friendships in the community. The skits and the musical items are so clever and funny. Jules Chevalier cherished a sense of humor and it is being fostered in these young men. Again, the photos from Fr. Immanuel bring back these beautiful memories.

I caught the train to Bangalore on the 22^nd and stayed for a couple of days, purchasing more books for the brothers and some gifts for my family and friends. I left India very early on the morning of January 25^th and was met by my wife and daughter that night at 11.00pm in Melbourne. I had travelled for 22 hours. It is always longer getting home. Then it was immediately back into work here at Monivae. We took the year 12s on Retreat for three days on Wednesday Jan 29^th. 

My life here in Hamilton is very full. My wife and I live across the road from the school and spend a lot of my free time here. I am an officer of cadets and this takes a lot of my time. I am involved in my parish and I tutor a young Indian adult in an English course. While I am very conscious of my Indian connection, I am engrossed here in this busy life.

My school has offered me the opportunity to attend a Heart Spirituality course in Issoudun in September. This will give me a resource that I might share with the brothers in India should I be able to return. I have also been in contact with Br Greg McCann who will spend some time early in the year in China and then some time in India in the latter half of the year. He and I will meet when he comes back to Australia and it is my wish to come back to India for more teaching early in 2015.

I have informed my school that this is my last year as a full-time teacher at Monivae. I will take the first half of next year as Long Service Leave. I hope to come to India in February and March for about seven weeks. I wish to go to Andhra Pradesh for a week to meet with the four brothers doing philosophy there and perhaps be of some help to them. Then I would like to visit Amritsar and the Golden Temple of the Sikhs. After my sightseeing I would go back to Mysore via Bangalore and spend about a month with the brothers.

The Lord had truly blessed me through my membership of the MSC community and I am very grateful to all those who welcomed me and made me part of their lives. These lives are given generously for the service of God and the people that they meet each day. I am so pleased to share a small part of them.

Farewell from the Brothers & Sisters.

Gerard Bourke

Pongal, The Hindu Harvest Festival Post 2

Each day of the four-day festival has its own name and distinct fashion of celebration. 

Day 1: Bhogi Pongal 

Bhogi Pongal is a day for the family, for domestic activities and of being together with the members of the household. This day is celebrated in honor of Lord 

Indra, "the Ruler of Clouds and Giver of Rains". 

On the first day of Pongal a huge bonfire is lit at dawn in front of the house and all old and useless items are set ablaze, symbolic of beginning a fresh new 

year. The bonfire burns through the night as young people beat little drums and dance around it. Homes are cleaned and decorated with "Kolam" - floor 

designs drawn in the white paste of newly harvested rice with outlines of red mud. Often pumpkin flowers are set into cow-dung balls and placed among the 

patterns. Fresh harvest of rice, turmeric and sugarcane is brought in from the field as preparation for the following day. 

Day 2: Surya Pongal 

The second day is dedicated to Lord Surya, the Sun God, who is offered boiled milk and jaggery. A plank is placed on the ground, a large image of the Sun 

God is sketched on it and Kolam designs are drawn around it. This icon of the Sun God is worshipped for divine benediction as the new month of 'Thai' 

begins. 

Day 3: Mattu Pongal 

This third day is meant for the cattle ('mattu') - the giver of milk and puller of the plough. The farmer's 'dumb friends' are given a good bath, their horns are 

polished, painted and covered with metal caps, and garlands are put around their necks. The pongal that has been offered to the gods is then given to the 

cattle to eat. They are then taken out to the racing tracks for cattle race and bullfight - an event full of festivity, fun, frolic and revelry. 

Day 4: Kanya Pongal 

The fourth and final day marks the Kanya Pongal, when birds are worshipped. Girls prepare colored balls of cooked rice and keep them in the open for birds 

and fowls to eat. On this day sisters also pray for their brothers' happiness  and give them new clothes.

Like all Hindu festivals, Pongal too has some interesting legends attached to it. But surprisingly, this festival has little or no mention in the Puranas, which 

are usually bristled with tales and legends related with festivals. This is perhaps because Pongal is preeminently a Dravidian harvest festival and has 

somehow managed to keep itself away from the preponderance of Indo-Aryan influences. 

The Mt. Govardhan Tale 

The most popular Pongal legend is the one associated with the first day of the celebrations when Lord Indra is worshipped. The story behind it is, on this day 

Indra being honored by all, became proud and arrogant. To teach him a lesson, Lord Krishna asked his cowherd friends to worship Mount Govardhan instead 

of Indra on the Bhogi Pongal day. 

Awfully infuriated, Indra sent forth the clouds to generate thunder, lightning and heavy rains and flood the land. But, as the tale goes, Lord Krishna lifted up 

the Govardhan Mountain on his little finger and sheltered the farmers, cowherd and their cattle. Indra then begged Shri Krishna's forgiveness and the latter 

re-permitted Bhogi celebrations in honor of Indra. 

The Nandi Bull Story 

According to another legend associated with Mattu Pongal, the third day of celebrations, Lord Shiva once asked his Nandi bull to go to earth and deliver a 

special message to his disciples: "Have an oil bath everyday, and food once a month." 

But the baffled bovine failed to deliver the correct message. He told the people that Shiva asked them to "have an oil bath once a month, and food 

everyday." The enraged Shiva then ordered Nandi to stay back on earth and help the people plough the fields, since they would now need to grow more 

grains.

Pongal, The Hindu Harvest Festival Post 1

This is one of those occasions when Christianity has embraced and converted a festval from another religious tradition into a Christian Feast. Pongal is celebrated in Tamil Nadu as a 4 day Hindu festival and holiday. They spend the first day cleaning out and burning all the old linen and appliances and replacing them with new things in preparation for the celebrations. The second day is about the offerings of food and harvested crops to the gods. These are then eaten by the cows and the crows. The third day is the day of the cows. All the cows, goats and sheep are washed and in the evening they make a fire of coconut tree branches and hay across the road and make the animals jump through the fire to scare away spirits. I can't remember what the fourth day is bit I have copied a web site which may interest you.

Seventy per cent of India's population lives in villages, and a vast majority of people solely depend on agriculture. As a result, we find that most Hindu festivals are directly or indirectly linked to agriculture 

and related activities. Pongal is one such big festival, celebrated every year in mid January - mostly in the south of India and especially in Tamil Nadu - to mark the harvest of crops and a special thanksgiving to God, the sun, the earth and the cattle. 

Pongal is celebrated during the same time as 'Bhogali Bihu' in the North Eastern State of Assam, Lohri in Punjab, 'Bhogi' in Andhra Pradesh and 'Makar Sankranti' in the rest of the country, including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal.

What's Pongal? 

'Pongal' comes from the word 'ponga' which literally means 'boil' and so 'pongal' connotes 'spillover' or that which is 'overflowing'. It's also the name of the 

special sweet dish cooked on the Pongal day. Pongal continues through the first four days of the 'Thai' month that starts on January 14 every year. 

Seasonal Festivity 

Pongal is directly associated with the annual cycle of seasons. It not only marks the reaping of the harvest, but also the withdrawal of the southeast monsoons in southern India. As the cycle of season rings out the old and ushers in the new, so is the advent of Pongal connected with cleaning up the old, 

burning down rubbish, and welcoming in new crops. 

Pongal follows the winter solstice and marks the favorable course of the sun. On the first day, the sun is worshipped, signifying its movement from Cancer to 

Capricorn. This is also why, in other parts of India, this harvest festival and thanksgiving is called 'Makar Sankranti'. [Sanskrit Makar = Capricorn] 

For Pongal on Tuesday we celebrated Mass with special offerings and then had a feast to which we invited some of the Sisters of St Anne from the local hospital and had lots of special foods whose names I forget.

Namdroling Temple, Kurshalnagar

On the weekend of the 11th and 12th of January, Fr Immanuel and 4 of the Brothers and I visited the Tibetan Buddhist Monastery near Kushalnagar. People call it the Golden Temple for reasons that will be obvious when you look at the photos. Their web site is:  http://www.namdroling.org if you are interested in learning more.
There are thousands of monks and nuns there.  I learned something very important. The only reason we experience disappointment is that events and circumstances do not meet our expectations. There are two ways to think about this. Either we can blame the experiences or we can recognize that our expectations are the problem. This is a very buddhist approach which is lucky because the only other thing I got from our visit today to the Namdroling Temple 80 km west of Mysore are some photos and some unfulfilled expectations. It is a huge place and when we arrived I was so excited and explained what I knew to the Brothers. I asked a few of the monks if we could go in and join the chanting community in puja as they were chanting and banging drums and gongs. The answer was no. We could watch from outside and take photos but not join them.
The place is full of tourists and souvenir shops with crappy stuff. It is the Indian way of coping with the intrusion into their monastic life on the weekends. They carry on as usual and put up signs to protect themselves and shut everyone else out.
We booked into a hostel just outside the monastery and enjoyed a quiet time but once you have taken all the photos you can, all that is left is to go. We went to Kushalnagar that night and then headed home the next day. I shared a twin room with Fr Immanuel so I hope he got some sleep through my snoring.
On my 29th Anniversary I woke up with a priest in a foreign country. When I got to Mysore I Skyped Jen and had a good talk. 

To Michelle who was so jealous of me for going to a buddhist monastery, the only way you get to play with them is to join them.

Christmas and New Year in Kerala

It is 2014. I have to extend my finger further to the right to add the 4 instead of the 3. We are all living in another year. It is 10 years since 2004 when Shell did Year 12, 20 years since 1994 in Ballarat and so on back to 90 years since 1924 when dad was born.
Who knows what the future holds and where we will all be in 2024.

I know where I am now. I am in my comfortable room at Chevalier Bhavan with the priests and brothers. Since I was here at Easter 2012 I have not lost the connection with this place. They accept me as one of their Australian Brothers and I am part of the community. They are fairly protective of me and keep an eye on things for me. Today Brother Anthony took me into the city so that I could buy some second hand books for the Brothers in Mysore. I want to extend their library so that they become avid readers. I bought about 20 books for an average of $4.00 each. I hope to send some over when I get home. Until Br Greg gets here in mid-year they will need to keep reading and writing about what they read.

I also bought some printer cartridges for printing books for the sisters. They also need to keep reading but their level is not as sophisticated so I download books for them from a system Olga found for me and print them off. When I wake up in the middle of the night (I am still on Australian time I think) I will download some more and print them off when I get to Mysore.
I have written the Brothers Exam which they will do on Wednesday Jan 8th. I will give them two days practice on Monday and Tuesday then administer it Wednesday. After that I have a number of articles from the Warrnambool Standard and Herald Sun to read and answer questions about. Thanks to Jenni for that idea.

I had a long chat with Fr Tijo this morning about how they learn English. For most who enter the houses of training, English is pretty sketchy. Most have done it as a subject until Year 12 but their mastery is dependent on how much emphasis the school gave to it and how good the teachers were. Usually both of these are pretty weak. So my job is not so much to teach them English but to move them along a bit in writing and speaking. For the sisters it is much worse. That is why there training is so long: two years as aspirants/postulants, two years of philosophy, a year of Novitiate and then two more years of Theology. They need this long to master the language as well as the subjects.

When I go back to Mysore on Sunday morning with Fr Gerald I will have 13 days left to teach them as I come back here to Bangalore on the evening of the 22nd for a couple of days before flying out on the 25th. I have a couple of things to do before I leave here and will have a couple of days break at the Priest's insistence.
I am enjoying this phase of my adventure and look forward to the last sprint to the line. You all seem so close and yet so far away. Brucknell is tomorrow and the whole Vogels clan will gather. I will miss them but be there is spirit. The children are no doubt having a wow of a time in Cambodia and will need to dry out for a while when the party ends.
May God bless us all as we are spread out over the globe and bring us safely back together soon.
Happy New Year to all.
Gerard in India.

Teaching Finished for 2013

It is 6.00pm on Friday afternoon the 20th of December. I feel like I have been teaching up till Midnight Mass. I have just had my "ultimate" class with the sisters. The "penultimate" (second last) class this morning was reading silently and aloud. I get each of the ten sisters to read to me aloud while the others are reading silently (well semi-silently. Many sub-vocalize and it sometimes gets a little noisy in our small classroom.) In our last class we held a conversation circle. We put the chairs in a circle and we discuss a series of topics ranging from pets at home to religion and life in Australia; their favorite. Today they got to choose the topics and it was slow to start but after it warmer up it was really interesting. I try to say as little as possible but end up having most of the questions directed at me.

Today the Brothers left for their homes for Christmas. It was a couple of days early as the departure dates were supposed to be tomorrow and Sunday. Only two are left and they leave for Chennai on the evening train. They go home to their villages, towns and cities all over southern India as far north as Hyderabad and as far south as the bottom tip of the continent where Liam has been recently.
It is lonely without them but I have some work to finish off and then I can relax tomorrow. My bus departs at 11.45pm and arrives in Cochin at 9.00am Sunday. There will be a car to take me to the hotel and Liam will join me there sometime during the day.
Teaching these young men and women in India has been elating and challenging. I have struggled, despaired and rejoiced in their learning. They vary so much in the degree of acquisition of English that I sometimes don't know at what level I should pitch my lessons. 

Christmas Destinations

There are three Novices in the convent who are pretty competent and their only struggle is to turn, "His name, what is it?" into "What is his name?" Their mother tongue influence is rea

lly dominant. I listen to the older sisters in the community speaking and I think that most of them will not ever get to more than a doggerel English where the words are thrown out in any order and the listener has to make sense of them.

The aspirants (younger ones) are only Year 10 so they sometimes struggle to understand what is going on. They wobble their heads in that Indian way which means Yes brother I understand but I know they don't. I have taught them to say, "Brother, I don't understand" and then they get the best smile and encouragement I can muster. They are learning to nod and shake their heads for "yes" and "no".

My gift to them was a 2014 calendar showing Australian animals in their native habitat.

I will be back here over the weekend of the 4th and 5th of January. Classes start on January 6th. I hope to have lots of activities and resources for them courtesy of some shopping during the holidays.

The lights have come back on so I am no longer typing by the light of a torch. Power and internet are very fickle here.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. Liam and I plan to do just that with Jineesha's Parents and baby Albert.

May God bless you all this Christmas and for the coming year. (2014 already? Will this be my last as a full time teacher? Will I come back to India next Christmas? Where will we all be in 12 months time?)

Gerard in India.

Twas the week before Christmas, almost.

It is Monday  December 16th and the Brothers and Sisters are preparing for various Christmas events. The Brothers are preparing a Skit and some songs for tonight's celebrations. I think they may be including my First Aid lesson in their skit. I wouldn't be surprised to to see the volley ball inside a dress getting some compressions.
On Friday the sisters had their Program for the Disabled event with the Bishop and the local politicians and religious assembling. They danced in their saris and looked fantastic.
I had a trip to Mysore on Saturday morning and helped with the brothers Christmas Shopping. I am helping the brothers and sisters with their English as much as possible. They need help to construct their sentences, speak them in the proper order and read and write in English not in the structure of their Mother Tongues.
Yesterday, Sunday I went into Mysore on my own on the motorbike. There was a market and it was exciting. I got lost but didn't care.  I just kept looking for a sign that said Bogadi and I was on my way home.
Christmas will be great if our plans come together. Jineesha's family then a resort for  week.
Liam will be with me until Dec 28th when he will fly to Cambodia to meet Shell.
I am correcting student's work after a lunch of rice, curry, vegetables and fried onion donuts. I will be eating the pink equivalent of Quickeze all day and I have to struggle to stay awake.
My health is good and my spirits are high. I got word this morning that two of my R&S (Religion and Society Unit 3 & 4) students got 40s. One got a 46. This is the first year in the last 6 years I have been teaching it that I have had such successful students. I was hopeful since I usually don't have students putting in that much effort for their 6th subject. 
This is an interrupted week with singing practices and a variety of distractions but I am looking forward to an overnight trip on Sunday morning to Cochin. I will keep teaching and marking until them.

Gerard