Karnataka is on strike for the day...

....So why not start this post with a few pictures of monkeys I took the other day!?:

So yesterday was Ganesh Chaturthi - a festival day in honour of the god Ganesh, who looks like this:
We ventured into Ujire's town centre after work to check out the celebrations- there were fireworks, lots of orange bunting, decorated cows, flowers and dancers performing traditional dance (as well as more people than usual there to ask me "what-country!?" and look confused at the presence of a foreigner in this little town). Apparently later on in the week traditionally people build models of Ganesh and float them out on rivers or the sea.

Today is the second day of beautiful weather we've had in a row- yesterday was all blue sky and sunshine and today is much the same. We even did a little sunbathing in our lunch break [insert photo here]. Today is also the second day of not many people being around the college campus. People all across India are striking to oppose some bills that were passed in government last week. Auto drivers aren't driving, teachers aren't teaching and shopkeepers aren't shop-keeping. I'm told that Bangalore (a city of 8 million people) has pretty much ground to a halt The protest is against a bill which would allow foreign companies to own up to 51% of businesses here. This essentially means that companies such as Tesco and Walmart could open up supermarkets here and potentially kill off many small businesses. It however be a good thing for the Indian economy though, the idea being that it will boost the economy (which is currently not doing very well) and create jobs. On top of this, there is also the 14% diesel fuel price increase and changes to domestic cooking gas allowances which won't be making anyone happy.

Work continues at SELCO labs despite the strikes however, and we have been able to get some progress on the rice paddy separator Seb and I are designing. Here's a sneak preview (which probably won't demystify how on earth the thing works... but never mind- use your imagination)

We've found some suppliers for various components such as bearings, and have tracked down materials at some local workshops- the whole thing is designed so that it can be built here in the little town of Ujire. Engineering drawings have been produced- however I have a feeling it will be a little more of a challenge getting them created than just passing them over to a manufacturer. We'll see.

On our day off last week, Seb, Sam, Anantha and I were able to get out into the countryside to visit some waterfalls, see some more of rural life and go for a bit of a swim. Here are a few photographs of our adventures (which, unfortunately, don't feature elephants making noises very close by in the forest, or me sliding into a fast moving waterfall...)

Bull fight

Climbing around the falls

A spot of cliff-edge tree climbing

A nice cool wash!

Through the undergrowth

Under a big waterfall

Feeling settled in...

So project work is progressing, the monsoon rains are beginning to slow (ever so slightly) and I am feeling pretty settled in to life here.

Seb and I are still working on a rice paddy separator machine which  seems to be going quite smoothly.  If I've not mentioned it before- its part of SELCO's work on small scale agricultural machinery to help poorer farmers. We've got some feasible designs sketched up and are now trying to figure out how to bring it all together using the materials and expertise available round here. On Friday we took a little trip in to town to a metal workshop to check out the materials and components they have available. This sounds like quite a simple task- in the UK, and maybe in other parts of India, it would most likely be a case of finding someone at a desk and asking him for a catalogue. Not the case here. We walked around measuring up everything we could and then headed inside the workshop. All around you are people welding (without gloves or masks or any visible safety equipment) grinding metal and going about their work. Back home you'd never be allowed to this, but we pretty much had free reign of the place. We found a helpful guy who was able to show us some things we couldn't find and managed to pick up a sample of steel.  Its a great way to really get a feel for the materials that can be used, even if you constantly have to watch out where you're looking to avoid burning your retinas by accidentally looking at a welding arc.

My project "up north" in Gulbarga has progressed and the cooker I proposed for testing has arrived. Hopefully I will be able to take another trip up there some time in the next month to monitor how things are going for them. I'm hoping that the intervention will really make a difference there and help them save money on firewood fuel- Gulbarga is known by many in Karnataka to be a deprived area, and the institution there is providing for many children from very poor families.

The other day I was asked by Sam to do a presentation at the university's "tech club". SELCO labs have been asked to come along once a month to talk about the projects we're carrying out and facilitate discussion amongst the students. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but prepared a presentation about what I've been doing at SELCO- and giving some focus to my views on engineering for development. I actually kind of expected there to be about 5 or 6 students in a little room who had been forced to come along as some form of punishment... However, I walked into a huge room full of students and a few lecturers (about 60 or so) all apparently eager to hear from me. I found out later that about half of them were first year students who had arrived just the week before (no, there is definitely no such thing as freshers week here!).

So I delivered my talk, and was surprised how engaged the students seemed to be. I opened up for questions, and was really impressed with the student's intelligent, focussed responses. Sam lead a discussion based on my talk and we got the students to split into groups to discuss topics such as "What can our generation of engineers do to help the poor" and "Do we have responsibility to do so?" as well as some questions relating directly to the work of SELCO.

I was able to wander around and join in the subsequent discussions and was really impressed and excited by how these young students were keen on engaging with the problems in their society. I made the point that, for me as an outsider, it is perhaps much more difficult to understand the difficulties faced sectors of society who live in poverty. I feel like these students are in an incredible position to make a difference in their society and SELCO are doing a fantastic job at exposing them to ways they can create change in a country which has vast inequalities.

Its been an interesting week, rounded off with my birthday yesterday which was a good opportunity to spend some quality time with Seb, Nishant and Sam, with a few beverages and a personalised cake from the local baker (it appears they struggled to believe my name was a real one..)