Indian women, napkins and the dream of Europe 

Today we stay at a huge and vivid “function” in a small town. It is one of the festivities where year per year thousands of women come together for celebrating the international women day. Some women sell self-made products: tailoring, jewelry, sweets and spices. In one corner there is an overloaded booth with sanitary napkins…

7weeks in India – The tribal cooking invitation

Arnattokadu, Kalekkadu – these are the names of two small villages in Tamil Nadu, South India I have visited in the last weeks.  During the visits these women showed me their houses, told me about their lives, their self-help groups and how they want to create their own future. I learnt also about their challenges, poverty…

7weeks in India – Meeting the cashew nut maker

Cashew nuts are a popular snack – probably all over the world – and a healthy food source, full of energy, antioxidants and minerals. Have you ever seen where they grow and how the processing from the tree to the final nice eatable nut works? We visit a rural region in the surroundings of  Pondicherry,…

The beauty of old tribal women 

The beauty of old tribal women – and their role as change agents Isn’t it amazing? In many big cities, with the ongoing globalization and higher education, huge changes of family structures are taking place – also in India. Young families need to go for work in other areas and personal independence gets higher rated…

7weeks in India – A travel to the past, a life without mobility

The importance of mobility:  For us in the developped world reaching from A to B is always possible, sometimes it might take some more time, but every village, every place is connected. If  some trains or busses are on strike we get crazy, but ….can you imagine a life without any mobility? A life where…

7weeks in India – Momos in Ooty

I see them and can hardly resist: momos, veg balls in garlic sauce, boiled in water. One my preferred foods in India. I spend the weekend in Ooty, a hill town in the Nilgiri mountains at 2.240m. Talking with the momo lady The lady is preparing momos at a cooking stand when I pass by….

7weeks in India – Tribal culture and an unknown artist

At noon we arrive in a small tribal village in the mountain region, close to the border of Kerala. The view from this place down on the hills is beautiful. Less than 20 families live here, a hundred people. Under a tree, in the middle of the road (there is just this only one) they…

7weeks in India – From woman to woman, part 1

When I decided to go to the rural and tribal parts of India there was a special thing I wanted to find out: Who are these women living there? What is in their mind? How does life look, what do they think and feel, what are their thoughts? What do they perceive and think when…