Solapur

On Sunday evening Maxi and I took the train to Solapur for work. It took 4 hours to travel the 150 miles and we finally arrived at 10pm. Dilip who works for Shelter and is based in Solapur met us at the station and took us to our new home for the next few nights. The house was practically empty but the conditions were similar to the hostel so we managed just fine!

We had been warned about the spicy food and the mosquitos in Solapur but neither seemed to affect us too much. Surprising for me I didn’t get bitten once but I was using 50% deet. I guess it is much more effective in an urban town than in the jungle of Thailand! As for the food I am feeling much better about Indian food now – think it’s a combination of everything settling down and hunger for more than just rice! I still can’t really handle the very spicy dishes and I’m pretty sure Dilip made sure I avoided the worst!

Whilst we were in Solapur we spent a lot of time in the Municipal Corporation talking to the slum department and the city engineers. It was quite difficult to understand all of the conversation due to the language barrier. They did speak good English but it is always difficult to understand the precise details when people are translating. We also managed to visit some of the slums in Solapur and were shown around by the slum leaders. I was struck at how colourful the slums were and in many ways how much the people looked after their houses. Some of the houses were quite substantial with walls and roofs but many were made from anything the people could find – corregated iron, tarpawlin, banana leaves, newspaper etc. We also saw the beginning of the redevelopment of one of the slums which was being led by the government. They were building G+1 concrete structures where the slum dwellings had been. Shelter disagrees with many of the government’s designs for the redevelopments so it will be interesting to learn how this project is received.

We are now back in Pune and I must admit it made a nice change to have a sandwich for lunch. It’s nice to be back in somewhere more familiar but at the same time we definitely get more hassled here. It’s tiring having to argue with the rickshaw driver everytime you go anywhere! But that’s for another post.

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