This will most likely be one of my last posts from India, though I’m considering writing a post about Ghandi and his memorial in New Delhi, and possibly sharing a couple portraits of students I shadowed in Dehradun.  We’ll see.

One of the first places I visited upon arrival in Jaipur was the Monkey Temple.  The temple itself wasn’t anything spectacular, but the view from the path up the mountain was quite beautiful at sunset, and the best part: there were more animals than tourists – quite a change from my time in Delhi and Agra.

The next day I took a trip to the Amber Fort – former palace of Maharaja Jai Singh II, who Jaipur is named after.  The best part about it, other than the elephants that give visitors a ride up to the palace, was that the entire place was open to explore.  I literally spent hours finding new staircases and passages to explore, and the place was so big that I rarely ran into a tourist as I discovered each new path.  I even found the underground escape tunnel, which was lined with bats.

And finally a few photos of Jantar Mantar, the World Heritage recognized observatory created by Jai Singh.  It wasn’t really the most beautiful place for photos, but the enormous astronomical instruments the Maharaja built were quite amazing and extremely advanced.

For anyone who’s wondering, I’m currently in China with my brother Dillon.  We just saw the Terracotta Warriors today, which was quite amazing, and we’re really excited to climb Mount Hua in two days (where the temperature is expected to be below freezing).  Then we’ll finish off our time in Guilin, which apparently looks a lot like the landscape in the movie Avatar.  More photos to come.

The EIC is for children aged 6 mo. to 5 years with multiple disabilities – physical, intellectual, visual, and hearing – but it’s specific function is to help the families of those children learn how to give their child the attention and nurture needed for their specific disability.  Originally, the Latika Roy foundation started with a school for disabled elementary aged children, and they began to realize early on that parents weren’t addressing their child’s disability until around the time they were sending them to the school, at which point it was much more difficult for the children to learn even some of the more fundamental things they should have been taught long ago.  According to Dr. Sebastian, the foundation’s staff physician, it often takes the parents years to even accept that their child has a disability in the first place.  Certainly denial plays a big part, but to compound the problem, they don’t get much help from doctors either.  In fact, it’s not unusual for doctors in India to lie and tell the parents everything is okay with their child, and that the symptoms will go away with time, because they don’t want to be the bearers of bad news.  This obviously confuses parents, and they end up spending most of their time going to various pediatricians looking for a cure, instead of learning how to provide proper care for their disabled child.  Once parents have accepted that their child really is disabled, there simply aren’t many programs that exist in India like the Early Intervention Center.

As Nirmala Rawat, the EIC Project Head and Special Educator, put it, “the school only spends one hour with the kids per day, but the parents are with them 24 hours.”  So, while the educators are teaching the children new skills, it is almost always done in the presence of the parents, because the EIC understands that they’re going to have the biggest impact by equipping parents to properly care for their children at home.

Here a child is taught to say “Namaste,” the standard Hindi greeting in India:

Even something as fundamental as how to blow out a candle can be a difficult, yet important skill for a disabled child to learn:

For some families, an important first step is to help them teach their child to eat solid food, because many of the parents have only previously fed their child by bottle:

Parents are also taught simple games to play with their children to help them improve social, language, and motor skills.

Currently the Early Intervention Center serves 48 children, but its ultimate goal is not growth.  Rather, they hope to be a model organization for other special educators in Dehradun, and throughout India, who might be inspired to start a similar service.  Even so, at the request and funding of the local government, the Latika Roy Foundation will soon be opening another EIC at the Doon Hospital, where they will be able to provide support even earlier to new parents, with an emphasis on serving poorer families who wouldn’t otherwise have the means to receive the services the EIC offers.

It’s pretty amazing the impact the EIC has had on so many children and their families, and with such an amazing staff and vision, it’s clear they will continue to be the example for their city, India, and people around the world of how to be inclusive of people of all levels of ability!

Special thanks to my brother, Dillon, for recording the video on his Flip Camera, and putting together a quick edit in Final Cut.  Feel free to follow his blog about being an exchange student in Japan at dillbond.blogspot.com.

When I received the assignment, I learned that the school was very small and underfunded, but I really had no idea what that would look like until I arrived.  I was confused when the auto rickshaw dropped me off in front of a roadside fruit stand, until I saw the sign above the gate to my left.  The building behind the gate was small and dilapidated, and quite easily could have been mistaken as “ancient” ruins.

I was greeted by the director and founder of the school, Dr. D. S. Dahiya, who appeared slightly reserved, and even concerned about my arrival.  It didn’t take long for him to reveal that he was worried I might focus too much on the poor condition of the buildings, and miss the quality of the experience the students were receiving.  I assured him that I was there only to help, and that I planned on creating photos that not only communicated the need his school has for increased financial support, but also the excellent work the school is doing to give students the opportunity for an education they wouldn’t otherwise have.  I saw the edge drop from his demeanor, and I spent the next hour learning about the school, his heart for disabled children, and his vision to create other similar schools.  In fact, Dr. Dahiya’s credentials are quite impressive; he’s been involved in social work since age 15, has a B.S. in Mental Retardation Studies, an M.S. in Special Education with an emphasis in Learning Disabilities, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology.  Furthermore, he worked at one of the top private high schools in the nation, Doon School, for five years, and was principal of the prestigious Raphael school for another five years.  He had the education and resume to work just about anywhere he wanted, but no one was really doing what he had a vision to do.  As Dr. Dahiya described, the situation for disabled children in India is still very confusing and complex.  Many parents don’t know how to interact with them, let alone how to do the things that will help them properly develop.  So, he started Laxman Ram 15 years ago with his friend, Dr. Archana, who is still the school’s principal, and the two of them use their personal finances and donate their time to keep the school going.

This is a photo of Dr. Dahiya.  He’s laughing after one of his students told him that his parents were annoying, and that he’d like to move in with the Dr.:

I could have done a profile entirely on Dr. Dahiya, because he is a pretty inspiring guy, but he is much too humble, and preferred that my focus be on the kids.  So, here goes…

Students begin their day with Hindu morning prayers, and a series of stretches.

There are only ten students currently attending Laxman Ram, but the school has served close to 150 students since its inception.  There are three small rooms at the school, but only one of them is used as a classroom, and students generally spend the morning outside in the sun until it gets too warm.

The current students range in age from 6 to 22 years old, seven of them being either completely deaf or severely hearing impaired, and the other three having major learning disabilities.  One of the main goals of Laxman Ram is to help prepare them to assimilate into mainstream schools, and to give them the knowledge and tools they need to excel once they get there.  According to Dr. Dahiya, there has been a huge rate of success, and many of his students end up receiving better grades than most their classmates once they transfer.

Unfortunately their computers were broken when I was there, but when they’re up and running, students learn everything from typing to graphic design – training that most mainstream schools don’t offer.  Dr. Dahiya says this also adds value to students in their home; where they were once seen as a burden to their family, because of their handicap, they are now viewed as an asset, because they can do things no one else in the house can.

There is only one instructor at Laxman Ram, Mrs. Sunita, who is clearly passionate about both her job and the students.  She uses a combination of materials and workbooks created by Dr. Dahiya and Dr. Archana – covering topics from mathematics and science to English and Hindi reading and composition, and geography – and also tries to be interactive with the students in order to make learning an enjoyable experience.

Though the studies are thorough and intensive, Mrs. Sunita also gives the students plenty of time to rest and play, something that is not usually valued in the Indian culture.

Another area where Laxman Ram is different from the mainstream is that it tries to give its students very practical skills that they can take with them into the workplace should they need to help support their family finanacially, or if they  decide not to pursue school any further.

When I asked Dr. Dahiya what his vision was for the future of Laxman Ram his eyes lit up.  First he was working on moving the students to a better facility, where they would have more space to play, better equipment, and even land to learn gardening.  Also, they would be able to admit twice as many students.  The new building is only one month away from being finished, and is located in the beautiful surrounding area just outside Dehradun.

Though the current students will be bussed in to the new building, Mr. Dahiya explained that there are now quite a few schools for handicapped children in the city, and that the bigger need was there in the countryside.  Apparently there just isn’t anything there for disabled children, and what ends up happening is that parents literally chain them up at home while they go to work, because they don’t know what else to do with them.  So, Laxman Ram is just the beginning of his response to the bigger issue he sees in and around Dehradun.  Eventually he’d like to start a boarding school in the rural communities that is large enough to take in 100 handicap students, but before he can do that he has a lot of fundraising to do.

Ideally, that’s where my photography comes in.  Dr. Dahiya plans to use these photos, and the many others I gave him, to begin to spread awareness about the the work Laxman Ram is doing, and the vision they have to reach more disabled children in underserved areas.  Dr. Dahiya and his staff are already doing an incredible job, and one can only imagine the immense impact they would have given the proper resources.

I’ll end, for fun, with a photo of the photographer showing the students a slideshow of the images I created.

These frames were taken from Delhi to Dehradun, and Delhi to Agra:

I was awakened at 4:15 a.m. by the sound of crashing thunder, only minutes before my alarm was set to go off.  I had been hopeful for a clear sky to capture the Taj at sunrise, but instead it was pouring down rain. I headed down to the west gate anyway, hopeful that I would be able to get anything.  I was one of the first people in line at the ticket window, and when we were finally let in, two hours later, I made a point to be the first person to the Taj.  I ran through the enormous gate, which could have been a monument in itself, and snapped my first photo of the Taj: a simple, classic shot, just in case I didn’t find anything better:

I spent the next two hours wandering around, and making photos from different perspectives, many long before the crowds had time to make their way down the long path to this colossal monument.  Unfortunately, the rain wasn’t letting up, the number of people was increasing, and my time was running out.  Eventually I walked away from the Taj, and sat on a bench near the gate.  I was out of ideas, and I realized it was time to just rest and soak in the sights and sounds.  Then, moments before I had to leave, I saw exactly the shot I wanted, and it was worth all the work:

Two Fridays ago, just before bed, we got a call in our hotel room from our Indian liaison/cultural guide/all-around good guy, Ahbay, saying that there was a wedding procession that had just passed our hotel.  So, in good photojournalist fashion we grabbed our cameras and rushed out the door.  Unfortunately, the procession wasn’t still as close as it sounded, so we started running in the direction of the sound.  Eventually, after running for a few minutes and not being sure if we’d get there in time, we caught a tuk tuk (auto rickshaw) and raced on our way.  It would have been impossible for us to not have seen the wedding once we got there; the street was literally full of people.  At the front was a huge sound system on wheels, amplifying the words of the Indian wedding singer who walked along at the front.  On each side of the crowd were men banging drums, and others playing their brass instruments.  In the middle was a huge group of men dancing and shouting, followed by a group of ladies doing the same:

They even pulled Barbara and I in for the dancing:

At the very back the groom was riding on a horse, adorned in a beautifully embroidered Sherwani – an expensive and ornate traditional wedding suit:

When he arrived at the hotel, the Bride’s father and uncles were there to welcome him and his family to the celebration:

We received an invitation from the bride’s brother to join them for the wedding, so we followed the groom inside, and the party began.  The DJ kicked up the music to keep the dancing going, while some just sat in chairs to observe the ceremony, and many others started eating.  There were hors d’oeuvres being passed in the main room, a buffet of Indian snacks outside, another long table with desserts, and a two huge buffet lines of food in another room.  The bride wasn’t there yet, but the groom began with the Hindu wedding ceremony traditions:

About 30 minutes later, once the groom was done with his part, the bride showed up with her sisters and friends.  They walked her down the aisle and sat next to her groom, as some people watched and others continued to party:

Then, after they each hung a lei around the other’s neck, their photographers and videographers stepped in to take photos of them with their families.  It was a really great experience to see an Indian wedding, especially as a wedding photographer.  There were many parts that were just straight up fun, and I loved that the overall feel was more of a celebration throughout, even with all of it’s ceremony.  What’s funny is that it actually made American weddings seem much more formal and traditional, except for one BIG fact, that in most Indian weddings the bride and groom don’t show any affection to one another:  no hugging, kissing, or even holding hands.  Because most weddings here are still arranged, it’s actually very common that the bride and groom barely even know each other at their own wedding.  In fact, some couples don’t even meet each other until their wedding day, which, other than the modesty of Indian culture, would explain why they aren’t so affectionate.  Anyway, once the photographers began taking the family portraits we decided to step out, but I’m told that the bride and groom typically end up partying with their guests until very early in the morning.

We actually ended up crashing two other weddings while we were there.  Apparently Dehradun is one of the most popular places to get married, because the weather is so nice this time of year.  Also, we were staying on Rajpur Road, which has quite a few nice hotels where the weddings are typically held.