I published the first part of the interview with Kasia Lechowicz about how to organise a trip and work in India here.

Today I'm coming with the second part - DESTINATION: INDIA. PART II

Have you changed your perception of India?

- Yes, very. A lot of people imagine this country as an ideal tourist destination, a place where you can experience nirvana, go to Rishikesh and smoke a joint, where the Beatles smoked it. However, as you start to live there, you see two things - great poverty and a lot of money. I had never seen such a scale either of them. What’s more they coexistence. However, despite the physical proximity, people are very far away fro, each other. Those who are very rich, do not notice the poverty. We get into the air-conditioned car, close the windows which is tinted. We do not see, we do not want to see what is on the road. We live in the neighborhood, which has three and a half meter high wall. We live on the twentieth floor of the building. We do not want to see the poverty. That is why there are these corporate foundations, because as the institutional units, they are able to do more than a single person.

Could you feel divercity of society into your own skin?

- Yes, for example, that for everything you are served. When you rent an apartment, a service inherit the domestic servants. And you can not resign from there, because it is their job, source of income. I did not like that, but I had to get used to it. Sometimes there were absurdities. I remember once we had a meeting at work and I wanted to go to the kitchen to make tea. My boss was shocked. He came to check whether I really know how to brew the tea, if I do not hurt myself  ...

 Did you meet many volunteers during your stay?

- Yes, but most of them came from Norway, England and Sweden. They had  money for their stay with various programs. They do not need to worry about that, or look for money - they simply get them.

What about young people from other continents?

- In Europe, young people are far less independent than, let’s say, Americans. In the United States or South America it is quite different. There, the people themselves organize everything. So I think that we, in Poland, since we do not have the facilities in a variety of volunteer programs and internships, we need to draw more inspiration from there. Americans are taught to make a research. However, we just do what someone tells us to do, we do not find, do not think that there is some other option. We use what is proven, any information that eavesdropping, and only then we are ready to act. And they do not need to hear from others to do something. They are themselves able to come up with something new.

What is the most important thing to decide to go for such a way to go to India?

- First, you have to answer the question why you need such a trip. As we go just to go, it's no good. We must answer what is the purpose and what is the reason why and what we want to learn during this stay. Unsubscribe, point by point…. Because if you do not think about it at the beginning, usually you will take something that appears as the first and easiest to go. It's important to ask questions. I think that Poles (though I do not want to generalize) are afraid to open mouth, are afraid to write e-mails with various queries. From the very beginning, we assume that someone won’t respond to us. Instead, we must believe that we will succeed. This is the basis.

Have you changed your perception of India?

- Yes, very. A lot of people imagine this country as an ideal tourist destination, a place where you can experience nirvana, go to Rishikesh and smoke a joint, where the Beatles smoked it. However, as you start to live there, you see two things - great poverty and a lot of money. I had never seen such a scale either of them. What’s more they coexistence. However, despite the physical proximity, people are very far away fro, each other. Those who are very rich, do not notice the poverty. We get into the air-conditioned car, close the windows which is tinted. We do not see, we do not want to see what is on the road. We live in the neighborhood, which has three and a half meter high wall. We live on the twentieth floor of the building. We do not want to see the poverty. That is why there are these corporate foundations, because as the institutional units, they are able to do more than a single person.

Could you feel division of society into your own skin?

- Yes, for example, that for everything you are served. When you rent an apartment, a service inherit the domestic servants. And you can not resign from there, because it is their job, source of income. I did not like that, but I had to get used to it. Sometimes there were absurdities. I remember once we had a meeting at work and I wanted to go to the kitchen to make tea. My boss was shocked. He came to check whether I really know how to brew the tea, if I do not hurt myself  ...

Did you meet many volunteers during your stay?

- Yes, but most of them came from Norway, England and Sweden. They had  money for their stay with various programs. They do not need to worry about that, or look for money - they simply get them.

What about young people from other continents?

- In Europe, young people are far less independent than, let’s say, Americans. In the United States or South America it is quite different. There, the people themselves organize everything. So I think that we, in Poland, since we do not have the facilities in a variety of volunteer programs and internships, we need to draw more inspiration from there. Americans are taught to make a research. However, we just do what someone tells us to do, we do not find, do not think that there is some other option. We use what is proven, any information that eavesdropping, and only then we are ready to act. And they do not need to hear from others to do something. They are themselves able to come up with something new.

What is the most important thing to decide to go for such a way to go to India?

- First, you have to answer the question why you need such a trip. As we go just to go, it's no good. We must answer what is the purpose and what is the reason why and what we want to learn during this stay. Unsubscribe, point by point…. Because if you do not think about it at the beginning, usually you will take something that appears as the first and easiest to go. It's important to ask questions. I think that Poles (though I do not want to generalize) are afraid to open mouth, are afraid to write e-mails with various queries. From the very beginning, we assume that someone won’t respond to us. Instead, we must believe that we will succeed. This is the basis.

USEFUL LINKS:

http://www.companiesindia.com/

 http://asiafoundation.org

http://timesfoundation.indiatimes.com

http://www.auroville.org
http://www.auroville.org/organisation/supp_fund_list.htm