We Venture into Delhi

The directions we received to get to the nearest metro station from our neighbour: 

“It is a straight walk. Follow the metro line that is under construction”

The one next door only opens in 3 months - Great! Just after we leave! 

Nearly there, we were confronted by children begging for money, one of which grabbed Steph by the thigh, slightly modifying her walking pattern. And Emma practiced her newly learned Hindi: “Na-hee” for no.

Merci à Delhi d’avoir établi une section reservée pour les femmes dans son metro: well-appreciated today!

Connaught Place. Walking around Delhi is like a relay race of curious people asking us the same question over and over again. It is tiring to repeat the same answers, but instead, we turned it into a game, pretending we were from a different country every time.

Crossing the street – there is no method to this madness. Au fil de notre wandering parmi les round-about, nous avons fini par trouver la rue qui allait nous mener au Jantar Mantar. Un sentiment étrange nous habitaient. Il y avait tellement de policiers en uniforme, s’en était plus inquiétant que rassurant. La rue était tranquille, trop tranquille. Arrivées au bout de celle-ci, après avoir marche à travers des dizaines et des dizaines de policiers, on a cliqué: Jantar Manta est aussi  un point de rencontre pour les manifestations. Good timing girls, we entered the gate before it started. 

Jantar Mantar. It is a collection of astrological instruments, capable of ascertaining the position and altitude of the sun and the planets as well as the time in four of the world’s time zone when Delhi time reaches noon.

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib - SikhTemple.

Sacred Heart Cathedral.  

“Give Me Strength”

This is my prayer to thee my Lord..strike

Strike at the root of penury in my heart

Give me strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows

Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service

Give me the strength to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might

Give me strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles
And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with God. 

On our way back to the metro station, we meet familiar faces from the morning. One of which asked us: “ Where have you been? Your bums are white! ” He followed us until the metro entrance, commenting that we were like magnets!

Walking home from metro, Emma received an unsuspecting poke from the children begging for money, jumped two feet let out a shriek –scaring the wits out of the poor child.

We are connected...!

We woke up and Auntie said: “Dr. Nandy – gone to mountains for 4 days.”

This is the day we realized we live in a time warp circa 1960s. The neighbor, who graciously let us used his internet, lives in newly renovated apartment, marble countertops and wireless internet.

After feeling like zoo creatures, trying to explain what we wanted (calling card), we are connected. We got our SIM card and a phone.

Before bed, Auntie commented on Steph wrapped in many layers: “ You come from snow country and you are cold?!?”

Our Arrival

50 minutes silent car ride with Raqib Ali to Ghaziabad, a suburb of Delhi.

2am: we crossed the entrance gate of Neelpadem Kunj.

Only when Dr.Nandy greets us did he say that we were picked up by our supervisor, Occupational Therapist, Raqib Ali. Did we get the chance to sort out those details?

7am. Emma is waking up to the sound of the nearby ashram  - Confused as where she was in the world - WHAT IS THIS?! Steph had been awake for the last couple of hours, woken by the 4am meditation.

At breakfast, we met Chitra, the lovely and endearing Auntie who has graciously let us stay in her apartment during our placement. Then came the formal presentation with Dr.Nandy and his wife, who  curiously asked us about our cooking skills – more precisely: “Can you boil an egg?...Oh well, if not, there is Dominos Pizza closed by.” Hahahaha like we were to eat pizza everyday! With Dr.Nandy’s daughter, we explored our surroundings and bought a few groceries.

Jetlagged, we fell asleep at 5pm, missing on Dr.Nandy’s departure for the next 4 days.

Expect the unexpected, or so they say…

We once thought our hiccups period was over.  Well, well, turns out we were wrong.  Things started smoothly as our parents drove us each to Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport and we received some tacit advice from Emma’s mum - “Don’t smile at anyone!”

Nerves and excitement on board our first leg of the journey to Paris. Aucun sommeil et plusieurs heures de vols plus tard, we landed with a bang on the icy Charles-de-Gaulles runway – where we were about to experience one of the longest layover of our lives. We board our flight for Delhi and spent 2 hours at the gate before being informed that there were mechanical difficulties and our flight was rescheduled for 10pm. Chaos ensued – we choose to leave and have lunch and a café au lait in Paris, just steps away from the Louvre.  Before taking the metro back to the airport, we stopped in Saint-Eustache’s church and we prayed that this wasn’t faith telling us to go home after all these hiccups. After going through customs and security for the umpteenth time, we learned that our flight was rescheduled – AGAIN! – for the next morning. During our 2-hours wait for the hotel shuttle bus, we questioned where to fly for Delhi or Montreal.

As Winston Churchill said in more dier times: “Keep calm and carry on”.

Next morning, we leave an hour later than everybody else from our flight to the airport. In doing so, manage to beat them through security. Thanks to our knowledge of French! Before boarding, we made a bet as to what time our flight would take off. Emma optimistically said 9am and Steph, more realistically considering the French organizational skills, said 10.30am. The loser had to call Raqib Ali upon arrival – our taxi pickup.

12pm. – Turns out we were both wrong, mais on s’envole finalement pour Delhi. 

It’s been a bumpy ride, and we haven’t left yet!

Here we are two occupational therapy students, kindling a friendship and preparing for our third clinical placement in New Delhi, INDIA. 

Here’s an overview of what we’ve been through so far…

Around this time last year, we learned about International Placements. Leaving for Christmas break, we each had to write application letters and get supporting letters.

The first hiccup occurred when Emma “failed” her mOSCE examination, leaving her without an option for a supporting letter from faculty, let alone the option of an international placement.  Thankfully, this was only a miscalculation, and the journey continued.

Next came our seminar where we learned about our summer placements.  It was here that we received our acceptance letters.  It didn’t take long for Steph to beeline it to Emma, asking if she would be interested in going to India with her. Love at first sight?

Immediately started the searches for a placement location - something we had to set up ourselves. After help from Sandeep, teacher assistant at McGill and Maureen Simmonds,  then-director of the School of  Physical & Occupational Therapy- who taught us the “how to” for elegant emails - we began mass emailing google search locations we had found (thanks to Steph’s color-coded Excel file). 

Then, we got a whole bunch of replies, which we sat on for a little while.

Things got quiet…. Steph got mono, the second hiccup. She even contemplated annexing the placement. Through Emma’s prodding, we met, in the heat of the summer, at Emma’s place and figure out where we were heading with this project. Being back on track, a pros and cons list was made and our minds were set: Shristi Learning Center it was !

We informed Caroline Storr and she, along with Croce Filteau, kindly helped us in the affiliation process. Third hiccup, Priya, who was an asset and part of this group, unfortunately had to stay in Montreal for her placement. Many thanks to you, amazing lady, for all you’ve done! You are traveling with us, in our hearts.

Down to the nitty gritty details: plane tickets, visas and accommodation had to be figured out. We, genius, bought our plane tickets even before we got our contract signed. Way to go girls! The very least we can say is that we had faith! Luckily, things worked out for the contract.

Accommodations got us worried for a bit. We were challenged with this responsibility - not quite easy to find a place in India from such distance! Thanks to all of those who advised and guided us in this process. We did mention it to our clinical supervisor and chairman, Dr. Rajiv Nandy. Two months later, excellent news were waiting for us in our mailbox: we will share an apartment with an old friend of the family, in a safe apartment complex. Emma (and her North American mind): “Will the kitchen be equipped?” Hahaha! No worries people, it will!

Visas – lots and lots of stress associated with the procedure; but passeports are finally back and visas are IN! Curry for everyone!

It’s now T – 12 days.

The duo, STEM – Steph & Emma - is heading to New Delhi on December 26^th, 2010.

Pray for no more hiccups until this date :-)