Delhi

From February 10-13 I attended a conference held by the Delhi Federation of Deaf Women, a self-help organization that provides educational, economic and social opportunities to women with hearing impairments;. The conference was rather last-minute, or it seemed so to me, as I had to push to get the address the night before! But I was happy to find out there was a conference. It was held in a green part of New Delhi called Chankyapuri, and I flew up there from Bangalore.

Delhi is a surprisingly Western-looking city, especially when compared to Bangalore - the avenues of Delhi look a lot like parts of Washington, DC. During the conference I stayed at a youth hostel in the new part of the city, near the foreign embassies and expensive residential districts. It wasn't until the Monday following the conference, when Gilles and his parents arrived, that I went to Old Delhi, which is really a lot more like I imagined India would be than Bangalore is: narrow streets, cycle rickshaws, food vendors cooking in the streets.

Old Delhi

One difficulty is that English is much less widely spoken in Delhi than Bangalore, at least among merchants and rickshaw drivers - I realized that on the linguistic level we're quite spoiled here. But of course I wouldn't mind being somewhere where I could learn the local language. It's not that easy here, where half the residents don't speak it themselves.

The highlight of the conference for me was meeting the participants, especially the other foreign organizers. Vivien is a Danish film and media student who is currently leading the youth division of the World Federation of the Deaf, and Jamie and Michele came to India for some long-term traveling. I hope to see them all again before too long!

I was supposed to present a drama workshop, but the schedule kept getting pushed back and in the end I only had about an hour to talk about drama. I led the participants through a few exercises, such as mirroring and "the human machine" - I think it was pretty successful and the participants enjoyed it. The highlight of the conference from the dramatic point of view, though, was one woman from Hyderabad who does the best impersonations I have ever seen!

Before we left Delhi Gilles and I visited the DFDW workshop, where we bought a few of their gift items. They really make high-quality items, such as binders and purses. Hopefully we'll be able to lend them a hand in selling their wares.