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GOING NATIVE

Neck deep in water

A face in the crowd Claire Glendenning in a North Indian village and (below) with husband Vivek Umrao

You know Claire Glendenning has made herself at home in India when she calls it “a crazy country.” No true blue Indian could say it with more affection or more experience. Claire, who came to India as a tourist, returned to do volunteer w ork and is now a bahu of an Indian family. She has seen the country from the grassroots. Quite literally, she helped the grass grow. That was at the Tarun Jal Vidyapeeth, a now defunct institution established by India’s ‘Water Man” Rajendra Singh, where he encouraged the community to work on the environment and recharge natural water sources.

When Claire first came to India in 2004 from Sydney, Australia, it was with a couple of girlfriends, on a break after university studies. Drawn to the country, she looked for opportunities for volunteer work. Claire had a natural resource management degree in soil and water science and, finding the Vidyapeeth on the Internet, applied there as a teacher.

There, she was not only impressed by the villagers’ work in water harvesting and their self-governance, she also met her husband Vivek — which is another “story”, says Claire cheerfully. “So I ended up staying here, and I never expected that!”

India is a “challenging” country, says Claire, who now lives in Sahibabad and shuttles to Rajasthan for her research on the effects of water harvesting projects on the region. The customs and traditions and the “strong hierarchy” of India have taken some getting used to. Claire converses with some effort in Hindi and is learning. “I kind of have to,” she says, referring to her work with the Rajasthan villagers. “My parents-in-law (who live in Kanpur) don’t speak much English either.”

The age-old existential question about how this country manages to function hits Claire every now and then. “A simple thing like going to the bank takes so long. If you think, ‘I’ll go to the bank, then the post office, it takes all day.” And sometimes when she is sick she asks herself, “What am I doing here?” But it is here, says Claire, that she feels “alive”. “I have always got some kind of emotion, whether it is up or down.” In contrast, with civic amenities, public facilities and general civilities all in order, Australia offers no challenges. Currently pursuing her PhD from the University of Sydney, looking at the work done in the area of Rajasthan’s Arvari river, Claire hopes to stay on in India after her doctorate to work in water development.

“I know I won’t ever be a local,” notes Claire, mentioning the tendency of men here to become licentious when confronted by white skin. “I’ll never be accepted as part of the crowd.” The community kids still shout “Gori gori!” when she passes by, yet, says Claire, she loves and respects India.

“Those who have the least give the most.”

ANJANA RAJAN

( anjanar@thehindu.co.in)

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