Five months in Puthupedu…

 

My name is Claire, I am French, and I chose FSL India to do my internship for my university in Paris. I came to India not only to work but more with the desire to experience the Indian way of living and its philosophy. I think it was a success thanks to my host family!

I stayed in a very rural village named Puthupedu, located 17 kilometres from Sriperumbudur office. I was not used to live in the countryside, since I have lived in Paris in France for many years. It was a very nice experience because I met a lot of people thanks to my host family which was quite known in Puthupedu. Esther, the grandmother, is a teacher and she is doing a lot of social works in and around the village. Everyone came to the house everyday to ask for money or for food. Esther and her daughter, Lalitha, have begun to lend money to people in need in the village. I didn’t understand first why people were coming and asking for money and Lalitha was writing the amounts in a small book. I thought she was doing a small business but I understood that they actually lent money to people. They were also selling night dresses and saris that they bought in Chennai. It was very lively in the house then!

So thanks to all these activities, I met most of the neighbours during these five months in Puthupedu. I shared a lot of things with the family too: washing clothes with the mother, cooking with Esther, playing games with the two children, Alfrik and Alvin, and watching TV with the father, Siva. I felt really as a member of their family. We also went to Chennai sometimes to go shopping or bade into the sea.

I was the third volunteer to come in this family. The two formers were boys so it was different with a girl. The mother and grandmother were very caring about my clothes, my hair dressing, and they didn’t let me go out without checking that everything was okay. I felt like a small girl sometimes but like this, I really experienced the Indian way of living.

Communication was hard in the beginning, because no one spoke English in the family, except the older child, Alfrik, and the grandfather, Nelson. But we finally managed, I learnt several useful words in Tamil and Lalitha tried to learn English too. I was worried that we could not share anything because of the language, but I think, after a while, it worked fine! And the really good thing is that they were all interested in me, they always asked questions about France or my family. For example, we skyped my parents together and it was really nice!

Living in this family was a gift, I learnt a lot thanks to them and understood better their philosophy of life. I spent a lot of time with them, but since I had my own room, I had intimacy and I could have times alone too. So it was a perfect balance!

I really recommend this family to everyone who wants to experience India in its deepness. You will feel at home from the first day!