The Parade in Valor

My first field trip in India was to go and meet, supposedly the Chief Minister of Gujarat who was visiting a nearby school. Our school was invited to march in a parade in the man’s honor. Although the Chief Minister of Gujarat turned out to be only one of his representatives it was still a successful day.

From the beginning there was quite a big difference from a field trip in the US. While a field trip in the US is strategically planned with emergency procedures and precise timing and agenda planned to the T, this was suggested to me less than 24 hours before the event.

We arrived early in the morning and the students were placed on the back of a flat bed truck, boys in the back girls in the front. The sides of the truck only came to the students’ waist. The thing about India is that they really know how to use space. Although I thought there was no more room, child after child managed to pile onto the truck. It is the same way for morning prayer. The children file in and out so orderly, using every inch of space available to them. Kids in the states sprawl out informally using vast amounts of space, but in one of the hottest countries of the world the kids are stacked together like sardines.

When we arrived at the parade I could not help, but feel pride for Bajipura High school. Not only are our uniforms so sharp, we also came prepared with green, white, and saffron flags. We also had signs made up that spoke on the importance of education.
As is standard in India the function started one hour late. The teacher’s were jokingly referring to this as “Indian Time.” The best part about the down time was entering into a small street restaurant, where we served my favorite treats cumonie, a yellow cake like treat that is made from chick pea flower, and also fried potatoes with green chiles, and pieces of fried onion. None of these small restaurants are elaborately decorated or even clean, but the food is delicious. All the teachers are amazed at how we gladly devour large amounts of street food and usually don’t get sick.

As we started our march down the street I observed a worker finishing up a paint job at the traffic circle, just the last touch for the government officials arrival. My favorite part was a band of drummers that play loudly down the street accompanied by some recorded music that blares over a giant speaker.

When we arrived at the location there was a large tent set up that had beautiful colorful designs. The stage was elaborately decorated with large arrangements of flowers and all the government officials were given flowers , which is the tradition at the opening of any event. When I arrived some young girls were dancing in traditional clothing. I went with some of the teachers to squeeze into the tent and find a very tight spot on the floor. I always feel so big in these situations trying to cross my legs like the other teachers but finding that my knees are all over the people to my front and to my sides. We stayed for about five minutes until we all had sweat flowing from are arms faces and legs. We then decided it was time to head back to the school.

Thankfully there were no accidents with the students. We all made it safely back to the school and my pride for my new school was ten times multiplied.