So at the Illam in the front room there's also the 'Life Centre', which is a Dhan initiative running at cost courses in computers, tailoring and beauty therapy to help people start small business and generally up-skill.
The teachers are Kalachelvi and Mugeshwari (spelling!) for tailoring, Raji.... for beauty therapy and Deva and Kalachelvi for computers.
Last week I was invited to Raji's house for lunch, so after one class lesson at the primary school and a bit of general faffing about Mugeshwari and I hopped on the back of Raji's moped and zoomed off. I have to say I really enjoy the freedom of helmet-less squashed together scooter riding, with multiple assertive beeps being made while coming up to a typically haphazard Indian intersection. basically all these beeps translate to "I'm coming through!", or "just letting you know I'm coming around the corner". I like it. It's like how you negotiate a busy street as a pedestrian, there's a general order but lots of crossing over- except on wheels.
So I gave my talk on back injury prevention, exercises and some simple massage and general back pain acupressure to a womens' outreach group, then had lunch. Unfortunately I didn't tell Raji that I was vegetarian! And assumed that she- being Hindu- was also a vege. Mugeshwari explained (she being a good translator) that the first time you are invited to a person's house as a guest you get a very special spread.; It was Fish, chicken and Mutton! oh man. I asked for vegetarian, and She served me some rice and Sambal instead which I really liked, but it's not special enough so Raji wan't very happy. I have to say I find these cultural mistakes which i (often) make quite excruciating! I felt even guiltier when i realised that me feeling guilty was making her feel even worse as a host. So anyway it was sorted out when I was invited back to a proper special vegetarian spread :)
It was a big surprise, and I feel very lucky to have been dropped into a middle of a family factory. Raji's family have for generations been working 'silver' (steel). Right next door to her house was a factory with about 45 workers that worked 8 hour shifts (so the factory went all day). Here are some pics! I loved seeing people actually making the stuff BY HAND you just take for granted around the place.
M in Red, R in Blue, R's Uncle making water Pots. Also an outside view of part of the factory. Which kind of merged from a house at the front to a factory at the backyard! She said that the worker families and hers had been working together for generations, I thought it was great! though I think OSH would have a field day.
Next we visited Ragi;s husband's work. He is a traditional Gold Smith (three Generations). There are about 8 men working in a house, all sitting facing eachother across the room. Cricket on in the background, get your blow torch out and go for it. EXTREMELY intricate work.
Raji's husband in the checkered purple shirt, and his brother. 12 years of training and still learning off their father :). It was really nice to see they are doing so well, when in the paper the other week i was reading that the traditional goldsmiths were having a really hard time competing with machine made jewelry, being paid very low wages and also receiving less 'wastage' gold that they used to (people supply their own gold to the jeweler and they would get some wastage gold dust). THese families seem to work for them selves, ad supply about 3 shops in Madurai as well as ones in Chennai and Dindigul.
xo
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