Sharing India Cultures in SMA 12 Surabaya by Harshid George
Even though my activities with Tunas Hijau are situated in Malang, I have come to Surabaya for five days . So here I will be accompanying Curtis and the Tunas Hijau for the coming days. The day started early at 9 am today. Bram and Ronnie came to pick Curtis and I today at Mr Andre’s house. We were ready and then we proceeded to Santa Theresia ISchool to give back their stuff. After that we proceeded for the long journey. The roads were good so there aint any problem in travelling. Taking about an hour and a half, we reached the school without any further delay.
It was time for some environmental interaction with the students at SMA 12 Surabaya. The principal of SMA 12: Surabaya gave us a warm welcome. He welcomed us with snacks and lunch comprising of ayam goreng. The food in Indonesia has been delicious. (I have had tasted food like mie, nasi goreng ayam, and always got confused between nasi goreng and nasi ayam goreng.) Moving forward with the activity, the students were all so excited to welcome us. I greeted the students and the teachers in an Indian traditional way called NAMASTE. This greeting is done by holding your hands together in a praying motion, i.e. holding your hands together close and putting them close to your chest. I started with a presentation on India. The presentation was supposed to be all about the diversity and the multicultural status India enjoys around the globe. The presentation included information on India’s IT (Information Technology) industry, festivals, food, tourism and Bollywood.
Here in Indonesia everyone is as interested in Bollywood movies as it is back there in India. I observed that Bollywood was one of the common things that connect Indonesians and Indians. I went on to speak about the different aspects of global warming in India, the effects and the solutions. As India has a big range of mountains in the Himalayas, covered with glaciers, and a lot of rivers flowing down from them, there is an increased risk of floods on the Indian cities. Some big Indian cities are settled along the banks of the rivers.
Global warming in India has become a big environmental concern as the sea level in the water s off the western and eastern coast is steadily increasing. There is increased cyclonic activity, and the precipitation patterns have changed over the time. The global warming concerns have also started showing big effects. The temperatures have started increasing. Speaking about the Indian IT industry, the students were aware about the IT industry, which is a good sign. The IT industry in India is booming from the past 8 years and is still on the rise, even though there was a slow moving during the recession period, but again now it’s on a rise.
The food (comprised of a lot of herbs and spices) and the tourism in India aroused special interests among the students. I showed them a couple of videos on India, which informed them about Indian culture and the emerging India. When I was done with my presentation and the videos, Roni took over to discuss with the students about world environment day and things on how to celebrate them. Curtis had also finished with his presentation by this time. After answering the questions from the students, the students took us on an observation of the various environmental activities they have been doing by themselves in the school campus. It was impressive to see them do composting and planting by themselves. They also had the cooperation of the local villagers in some of the activities.
Having finished the activity well, Curtis and I bid farewell to the school with Roni and Bram. I wished them in the Indonesian language, terima kasih .