June 23: Working at the Newsline in Ludhiana

It has been more than a week since we have been on a train!!! Ludhiana transportation consists of rickshaw rides, autorickshaw rides, scooters, and cars. In my opinion, while the scooter has been the most exciting, the rickshaws are the strangest. The whole concept of the rickshaw is a bit irksome- it is the indian version of a horse drawn carriage but a very skinny person with a family is pulling the carriage! Everytime we have to go up a hill the rickshaw cyclist gets off and has to pull the rickshaw while I want to get out and walk to lessen his load. The autorickshaw's in ludhiana are quite high tech. Aditi, Sailaja, and I were going to the Newsline office and had a nice conversation with our autorickshaw driver. Apparently his sister is in Vancouver and his brother is in Glasgow! They say everyone in punjab has family abroad and they are not kidding! We are thinking of doing an article about him at the Newsline.

I have spent the last week at the Indian Express office in Ludhiana. This office publishes the Ludhiana Newsline, a daily supplement to the national newspaper, The Indian Express. There are seven staff reporters and two trainees. So far I have written an article about a doctor who is also a cricket player and a girl who had an 11kg (22lb!!) tumor removed from her abdomen. Quite amazing! I have also accompanied the reporters to press conferences and sports games, so it's been fun and learning.

Being at home is wonderful! We are all enjoying the food, mangos, ice cream, and bollywood films. Our projects are moving along as well. Lindsay and Crissaris are doing a study on prenatal care at CMC. Krishan and Elizabeth are collecting blood samples from families with a history of early onset heart disease, Sailaja is doing a study of water quality effects on health, and Aditi on women's education.

Yesterday, Krishan and Elizabeth found their first family which was very exciting. Sailaja planned to go to a meeting of the city councillors about water quality but it was cancelled. At lunch we were 'interviewed' by my boss at the Newsline who plans to write an article on our group for the main Indian Express. At four Aditi and I went to see a women who had started an NGO, "Punjab Istri Sabha" to provide counseling and a support network for women who have been harrassed or abused. She has a daughter and a son so we were able to ask her the prenatal survey questions as well! After that I went back to work and to Punjab Agricultural University to report on a field hockey match and to drive a scooter! It was fun, a bit like riding a bike. While I was at the game, Crissaris, Aditi, Lindsay, and Sailaja had an interesting experience at the free yoga class at Rakh Bagh near our house. Prose, apparently, cannot describe the exprience - someone will try I think.

We then started a wonderful movie, "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai". We stopped at intermission for dinner (Palak - a type of sag - paneer, dahl, then mangos and ice cream). The movie was just amazing. It was dramatic, heart wrenching, we could barely pause for a bathroom break. At then end, we knew we had watched a real movie. Inspired, we decided to go to summer camp in Shimla (in the foothills of the Himalayas a few hours away) this weekend for singing and dancing. I am wrting this in an internet cafe which has played 'you are my soniya' at least three times. We leave for chandigarh in a few hours hours.