Fairfight Varanasi

7.8. Final goodbyes

Update: Ginie and I are alive and…well, alive. We’re both home now and just when we thought we were in the clear, COVID struck and typhoid struck again harder (we really do not recommend these as souvenirs). Anyway, we’re slowly returning to the Land of the Living, so here’s our last post from the trip!

Last Thursday, it was finally time for Ginie and I to leave Varanasi, but we made sure to visit the Disha girls one last time before we flew out.

When we arrived at Saint Thomas, the girls welcomed us with open arms as always. We originally planned to stay until noon, but ended up spending a couple more hours there, and we sure made the most of it! There was origami, drawing, dancing, nail painting (the girls made sure I couldn’t leave India without another set of sparkly nails) and, of course, putting a beautiful silk saree on Ginie – a kind gift from Anjali and the girls.

Frogs, birds, butterflies, fish and fans!

Ginie being gifted a saree by the girls and Anjali, their carer

When it was time for us to leave, we made sure every girl got a hug and headed out to the car together. As a final parting gift, the girls decorated our hair with roses from the yard and waved at us as we left Saint Thomas.

Then it was one final lunch with Elisabeth and Jean Max from Act & Help, before we fetched our bags and headed to the airport.

It’s amazing the relationships you can build in just a week. I wasn’t sure what to expect from my first outreach visit, but I could only hope to have met and learned from so many fantastic people. It’s one thing to tell their stories online, it’s another to actually come to know them – to turn names, places, words and photos into something real and something that you come back to time and time again.

And with that, I wrap up this blog series with some important thank you’s to:

Uday for being the most generous and hospitable host, who did everything he could to take care of us and help us get where we needed to go.

Moyee for being our trusted translator, always looking out for us and making sure we had everything we needed.

The Disha girls, Devesh and Pankaj for many great trainings and fun memories.

Sensei Sohan for welcoming us at his dojo.

Ajay and Sushmita from Red Brigade Trust for travelling all the way from Lucknow to meet us, and Ajay for opening our eyes to the situation of Muhasar communities in Varanasi.

Mukesh from Project Mala for meeting with us and taking the time to show us around their schools.

Elisabeth from Act & Help and her husband, Jean Max, for many interesting discussions about our projects and for treating us to lunch.

7.7. Old city and new karate fun

We woke up this morning in good spirits, despite it being day 3 of no coffee for Ginie. I told her there are better ways to curb her coffee addiction than catching typhoid, but this woman likes a challenge I guess.

Illnesses and caffeine withdrawals aside, we were feeling up for a trip into Varanasi, so off we went with Moyee to Assi Ghat.

Our first stop was Aum Café – a place that serves clean comfort food, and a welcome relief for our stomachs.

I tried lassi for the first time, which Ginie reassured me was made from the milk of happy cows (here ‘free range’ means “allowed to roam wherever the cow wants on the streets”).

After brunch, we took an auto rickshaw to the old city of Varanasi, an area made up of narrow alleys and blind corners leading to hidden market stalls, restaurants and temples. Walking through there feels like you’re constantly getting lost and discovering something new.

It’s a bit like a real life game of Pac-Man – weave through the maze, avoid the cow manure and don’t get eaten by motorcycles.

We returned to Sarnath in the afternoon and visited the Disha girls for one final training before we leave tomorrow. When we arrived, the girls were practising poi in the yard and looking a lot better than they did on Sunday.

Then began the karate. While Ginie led the girls through some kihon, I took Neha and Diviyanshi aside to work on their basic techniques. This time, I taught them some kicks too. I really can’t with these two.

We then split the girls up into two groups. On one side, the girls trained kumite drills with Devesh. On the other, the girls practised elbow strikes and self-defence combos demonstrated by Ginie against her uke – hereby known as Pankaj the Punching Bag. One of them may or may not have been elbowed in the face and thrown around like a rag doll. The girls loved it.

We trained until it got dark and then it was time to say goodbye again.

Tomorrow, Ginie and I are saying goodbye for real and flying out of Varanasi in the evening. There’s still one more blog to go so stay tuned!

7.6. Kali, katas and kenpo’s funny names

Let me just say this – Ginie has been a real trooper. She’s been running around this whole time with typhoid fever. Thank you to Uday for taking her to the doctors and looking after her today!

We took it easy for most of the day, then headed back to Sensei Sohan’s dojo in the afternoon for one last training there.

Before we arrived, Ginie told me: “I’ll go to the dojo but I think I’ll just watch the training” and “I brought my gi but I don’t think I’ll put it on”.

Yeah right, I think we can all guess what happened.

Ginie got changed into her gi, whipped out a few rounds of kali drills and even went through the Seisan kata a couple times with Anjali and Ganga. Is anyone surprised?

Ginie started off by teaching Devesh and Pankaj how to use their new kali sticks – going through the basic strikes, blocks and combinations/drills. It brought me back to when I first learned kali, but thankfully there were no bruised fingers today!

Devesh trying a disarm technique on Pankaj

We then moved to the mats and watched Anjali and Ganga demonstrate a kata each. I don’t think I’ve said this enough in the blogs or on our social media, but Anjali and Ganga are very talented karatekas. It’s clear to see why they are FairFight-sponsored students.

Anjali’s kata

Ginie leading Anjali and Ganga through Seisan

Even though they just learned Seisan a few days ago, Anjali and Ganga make it look like they could’ve been doing it their whole lives.

You can tell they both work really hard, are very self-motivated and are always striving to improve their karate. Anjali will be going for her black belt soon and Ganga told me she trains six days a week, as a blue belt! It will be so exciting to watch them grow as martial artists in the future.

At the end of class, I was invited onto the mat to demonstrate a Kenpo self-defence technique with Anjali, called “Destructive Twins”. It’s a defence against a two-handed grab/choke from the front, and is the first move in the Kenpo Short 3 kata. It also has a pretty fun name, like all Kenpo self-defence techniques. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time today for “Dance of Death” or “Gift of Destruction” (which is a defence against a handshake – yes, a handshake). It sounds like I’m making all of this up, but I swear I’m not. Please just Google it.

By the time we’d all returned to the hotel, a wild thunderstorm came through and blew all of the hotel’s outdoor umbrellas straight across the yard. Cue the horror movie music.

That’s all from today. Watch out for tomorrow’s blog when we’re planning to have one last training with the Disha girls!

7.5. The road to education with Project Mala

This morning, Ginie, Moyee and I got up early to visit Project Mala in Guria, around 40 minutes from Sarnath.

Honestly, I’m not sure how we did it, especially after the long day we had yesterday. Between the three of us, we have two night owls and one coffee addict (I won’t mention any names) who only drank half a cup of coffee this morning. But somehow, we managed to pass ourselves off as fully functioning human beings, for the most part anyway.

Project Mala aims to eliminate child labour by providing education to children who might otherwise go off to work in the carpet industry. They currently operate six schools across Uttar Pradesh and have 1500 students in total.

Today, we visited their main school in Guria and were kindly taken to two of their more rural schools in Mujehra and Turkahan.

The playground of the Guria school was completely flooded from the rain!

At every location, we noticed how orderly the students were. We first arrived at the Guria school during their 9 am assembly. All the students stood in three neat lines, patiently watching everything happening at the front. When the assembly ended, the students all turned around and filed away to their classes, still in their lines, without any fuss.

The students kept everything neat and tidy, including their shoes!

In the classrooms, the students were always attentive and responsive to their teachers. Every question was answered promptly, every request complied with, and there was none of the extra chatter or mischief you might see in western schools.

The students were also taught to be very respectful. Every time we entered a classroom through the front door, all the students would get up and say “namaste”. We eventually started taking the back door to avoid disturbing the students!

Learning is never over, even when you’re taking the stairs!

It was clear that the schools care about their students’ learning and are constantly thinking about how they can improve educational outcomes for these children. At the Mujehra school, we heard that they actually start the girls’ education two years earlier than the boys, as a way to help level the playing field and ensure the girls were given more opportunities to learn and develop.

The pandemic was a very difficult time, especially for the rural schools during lockdown. In some cases, they managed to use WhatsApp to distribute homework to students who had access to a smartphone.

But the question remains: how do we keep the students motivated? How do we make sure they finish their education, especially the girls?

Even though lockdowns are now over, other barriers around poverty and gender inequality still remain, and have become even more pronounced because of the pandemic. Under these difficult circumstances, how do we prevent children from quitting school and becoming child labourers to support their families? How can we help girls dream of a different future than just getting married off in a few years?

We might not be able to eliminate these issues completely, but there may be ways to better the odds.

Education is Ginie’s field of expertise, and it was really interesting to hear her talk about the benefits of less traditional, student-centred teaching methods. Ones that focus less on students memorising and regurgitating information, and more on developing them into self-motivated learners, critical thinkers and capable doers.

It was great to see Project Mala’s desire to upskill their teachers in these new methods, and we hope we can run some trainings with them on a future outreach visit. It’d also be interesting to see if we can expand the self-protection workshops that Mary ran at the Guria school, to the other Project Mala schools.

And that wraps up the halfway mark of this visit. Stay tuned for more to come!

7.4. Road trip to the ghats

Today was probably the day we were all looking forward to the most – a trip to Assi Ghat with the Disha girls. Ginie unfortunately came down with a fever last night, but being the superwoman she is, she fought it off and was back on her feet this morning. (I don’t know how she does it, but then again, I don’t know how she does all the other things in her life).

Ginie, Moyee and I met the Disha girls at Saint Thomas and headed out together on a bus. The Bluetooth speaker was blasting, Australian lollies were shared, poi’s were given out, and the girls tried their hand (literally) at folding origami cranes for the first time.

Elsie gives an impromptu origami class on the bus

The drive passed by quickly, and before we knew it, we were off the bus, walking along Assi Ghat and sitting down in Ashish Café, FairFight’s old home base. Here, the girls tried chocolate pancakes for the first time and Ginie was finally reunited with some strong, black coffee.

The girls waiting for pancakes at Pawan’s Ashish Café

Pancakes weren’t to everyone’s taste but Neha and Diviyanshi liked them!

After eating, some of the girls started practising poi in the restaurant – a very brave choice and amazingly no one got whacked in the head (win #1 of the day).

Another of the girls suggested we play Truth or Dare with an empty Coca-Cola bottle, and I said yes without knowing what I was getting myself into. Soon enough, we were asking questions like “Do you snore in your sleep?” and doing dares like dancing in front of everyone in the room, lying on the floor and counting to 10, or walking up to another table and laughing hysterically without any context.

I totally dug myself into a hole when I picked ‘truth’ and the girls asked me “Who is your favourite girl here?” (subtract the previous win). I tried to get away with saying Uday (not a girl, I know, but I was desperate) or Anjali (the girls’ caretaker), but the girls weren’t having it. In the end, I resorted to closing my eyes, spinning around a few times and picking the first girl in front of me. Phew, crisis averted.

We finished up our food and then made our way back to the Ghat, where we met up with Elisabeth from Act & Help and her husband, Jean Max. We sat down and, along with many curious onlookers, watched as Ginie taught the girls some mind-bending poi moves. It seems that some of the girls already knew poi, so they picked things up very quickly.

Poi on the ghat – no broken noses, so we’re good!

We then headed back to Ashish, got changed into our gis and walked to a nearby park for karate training. I led the girls through some punching and blocking partner work, then taught them the Kenpo Short 2 kata. During the bunkai part of the training, the girls seemed to enjoy it when I told them they could throw strikes at me, and when I did that in return to test them. I knew I liked these girls for a reason.

We were all having lots of fun, but it was starting to get late and finally time for the girls to go home.

We said our goodbyes and Ginie, Moyee and I went for a walk around Varanasi, before heading to the rooftop restaurant of Hotel Banaras Haveli for dinner with a scenic albeit smoggy view.

After eating, we went down to Assi Ghat again to see the lights and candles at night, then rode a boat along the Ganges River. I’m happy to report none of us fell in the water and had to incinerate our clothes (win #2 of the day).

We ended our day by taking a nice, quiet stroll through the main marketplace in Varanasi to meet up with our driver back to the hotel.

No, of course that last part didn’t happen. Anyone who knows anything about Varanasi, or Indian marketplaces, will know that we wade through waves of people and it was a miracle we didn’t lose our bags, lose each other or get run over by motorbikes (wins #3, 4 and 5 of the day). There were bright lights everywhere, the sounds were sometimes deafening, the streets actually felt alive, and when we surfaced on the other side, Moyee told me: “you haven’t truly seen Varanasi until you’ve walked through that”. I now understand why.

And with that, I leave you with another very long day and equally long blog post. Tomorrow, we’re having an early start to visit Project Mala in Guria. Until next time!

7.3. The forgotten people we need to remember

Ginie told me something that Mary always says: “We make plans so that we can throw them out the window.”

After some delays and schedule changes this morning, we met up with Ajay Patel and headed 40km out of Sarnath to see the tribal villages he told us about yesterday. Uday’s cousin, Krishna, kindly helped us out as our driver for the day.

(Two observations about driving in India – lanes and road markings are merely a suggestion, and everyone seems to be fluent in car horn.)

We were in the car for maybe 20 minutes when we suddenly pulled over next to a highway, and Ajay told us we were getting out. We followed him down a dirt path littered with rubbish, and saw the first village almost immediately.

It’s hard to believe the village is just there, separated from a busy road by a building and some trees. We could still hear the cars on the highway rushing by. If no one told us it was there, we would’ve never known. The village belongs to the Musahar community, from the lowest caste in India. And it became clear that these people are not just considered ‘Untouchable’ – they’re also invisible, forgotten.

We walked around and saw the mud houses they live in, which only have one room for both cooking and sleeping. The pond they bathe and wash their clothes in is green with filth and teeming with rubbish. During monsoon season, the land becomes so muddy and unliveable that they have to relocate to the road.

The central part of the village – Moyee said the red writing says “Women’s freedom, women’s rights”

An outside stove made from mud and goat dung

Ajay told us that the girls marry very young, around 10 or 12 years old, and have children when they are still children themselves. They have no access to medical care or vaccines. Their life expectancy is only around 45 years, whereas India’s average life expectancy is 70 years.

The pond where they bathe and wash clothes – this is the cleaner side

It’s the sort of utter destitution that dumbfounds you and makes you wonder how this could be allowed to exist in the same world as commercial spaceflights and new iPhone launches every year. It is so far from the most basic standard of living that you question how anyone could possibly change things for the better.

But Ajay has done just that. He has committed his life to helping these communities fight for their rights and access education. Ajay took us to two other villages that showed us what’s possible when these communities are given the resources they need and the education they deserve. They have built homes out of concrete and bricks, and have access to clean water and toilets. The children go to school, including the girls, and the adults are able to get jobs.

A baby that liked Ginie (there was another that Ginie made cry, but we won’t talk about that)

It can be so easy to forget about these people. It can be so easy to leave them behind and think they are worth less just because they have less.

But then you see the way they all take care of each other, how there’s always someone to watch over the children or hold a baby.

You see villagers young and old carry out chairs for us and offer every bit of hospitality they can.

You see a little boy fall flat on his face on the rocky ground, but instead of crying, he gets up slowly all by himself and starts joking around with the other children.

It reminds you that these people are not to be forgotten. They are not to be given up on simply because the fight for justice is long, difficult and uncomfortable.

It’s so much easier to look away, but our ignorance is a luxury we can’t keep enjoying. We all need to be part of this fight, whether for this community or another.

And with that, I leave you with this photo of Moyee and a tiny baby goat that she couldn’t resist picking up.

P.S. We got permission from the communities to take these photos.

7.2. Getting those gis (back) on

Jetlag is no joke. Luckily going backwards from Australian time isn’t that bad, but I think I saw Ginie down 5 cups of coffee in the space of 15 minutes this morning. If she keeps Fibonacci-ing her coffee dosage tomorrow, I’ll have to cut her off.

We were fortunate to meet with Ajay Patel and Sushmita Bharti from Red Brigade Trust this morning. They’d taken an overnight train from Lucknow, with very little sleep, to meet us in Sarnath, so all the hats off to them!

Sushmita, Ginie, me and Ajay at Buddha Park Hotel this morning

Ajay is one very busy but very impressive man. He is the chair of Red Brigade, which teaches women self-protection through a team of female instructors based mostly in Lucknow. But outside of that, he is a dedicated advocate for the educational rights of the most marginalised, tribal communities in India. In eastern Uttar Pradesh, he has started around 30 educational centres for these communities, and runs awareness-raising campaigns to teach them about their rights and about how they can access education through the Indian school system.

The work that Ajay does is extremely important and, sadly, very much-needed – he is hoping to expand his campaigns into southern and western Uttar Pradesh. It also highlights social inequalities and class disparities that are, unfortunately, not unique to India. Tomorrow, Ajay will take us to see some of these education centres and meet people from the communities he works with.

Sushmita has also been keeping busy with her work at Red Brigade, only getting 2 days off before she goes back to teaching. She’s only 24 but is mature beyond her years and a wonderful leader for the Red Brigade team.

Back to Disha

Hot and smiling after a wonderful training in the afternoon sun

In the afternoon, we headed over to the Disha girls for their first training in a month (they have been busy with exams). By the time we got there, the girls were already in their gis and ready to go, including little Divyanshi in her mini gi and belt (yes it deserves a special mention again and no we’ll never get over it). Just look at her dragging this mat that’s double her size.

Diviyanshi and Neha assembling the tatamis

As the mats were getting cleaned, Ginie asked me to lead the girls through the warm-up and stretch. I decided on a game of tag where you join hands with the person you tag, and go after a new person together. As you can imagine, doing this with 19 girls = all hell broke loose, the rules went out the window and dust was flying everywhere, but all the girls had a good laugh and got in a good run – so I’d call that mission accomplished.

We came back to the mat and Ginie went through some basic kihon, and then taught the girls traditional Goju Rya kata Seisan (or at least the Shito Ryu interpretation of Seisan). Meanwhile, I took aside the two smallest girls, Neha and Diviyanshi, and taught them some basic punches and blocks. It was worth kneeling on concrete for an hour just to see Divyanshi throw her first punches and yell her first kiai’s.

After the training, we quickly handed out some gifts I’d brought from Australia – sweet treats, mini koalas and kangaroos, and hair accessories – it’s impressive how the girls make sure that everyone has their fair share! And then we headed over to Sensei Sohan’s dojo at ICM Sisters.

The girls collecting koala keychains and various sparkly hair items

Sohan’s dojo

A short drive later, we were at ICM and the iconic blue walls were in sight. As guests, Ginie and I got the privilege of teaching katas from our respective styles – Ginie taught Seisan to the more advanced students while I taught the Kenpo Short 2 form to the white and yellow belts. Anjali and Ganga, the two FairFight-sponsored students, made us proud as always and picked up Seisan immediately.

At the end of class, we gathered around and watched Ginie present Sensei Sohan, Devesh and Pankaj with a special commemorative picture frame and FairFight t-shirts, to mark 7 years of working together on FairFight India. Ginie also gifted Devesh and Pankaj with a set of kali sticks each – they’ve never used them before so it’ll be fun to see them try them out when we’re back at Sohan’s dojo next week.

That’s all from this very long but productive day in India. Tomorrow, we’ll be travelling further out to visit education centres and communities with Ajay. It’s sure to be an eye-opening day so watch out for tomorrow’s blog!

7.1. Touchdown for FairFight India 2023!

Hi! My name is Elsie Cheung, FairFight Outreach Officer and Australian Kenpo black belt (the martial art that you’ve never heard about but I promise you actually exists), and I’m taking over Mary’s blog for the 7th FairFight outreach visit to Varanasi!

It took us over 24 hours to get here, but watching the sun rise over Varanasi as our plane touched down reminded us why we’re here.

Ginie at Schiphol Airport on the morning of March 15

This is Ginie’s first time back to India since 2019 and my first time ever visiting. Mostly, I was just excited to see some cows on the street after Ali made such a big fuss about them in October (spoiler alert: there are a lot of cows. It’s iconic really – why aren’t they listed in any sightseeing guides?).

Uday, the local programme manager and father-figure to the Disha girls, made the early trip to pick us up from the airport and take us to our hotel, welcome flower necklaces in hand, where we met up with our trusted translator and big-sister-figure to the girls, Moyee. At this point, we were both pretty sleep deprived and Ginie was on the hunt for black coffee. I made the mistake of admitting I don’t drink coffee or tea, and having downed 3 cups herself in the space of 15 minutes, I think she regrets bringing me along now, but let’s move on.

Sunrise in Varanasi on the morning of March 16

Uday, Ginie and me with welcome flower necklaces at Varanasi Airport at 7:30am on March 16

After a short rest, Ginie, Moyee and I met up with Uday, Elisabeth Bernard, the 87 year-old founder and president of Act & Help, the French charity that provides the funds for the educational support of the Disha girls, and her husband Jean Max, who’s run youth development programmes in Varanasi for 25 years already. We shared updates about our projects over lunch that was definitely above my spice comfort level and came up with some exciting plans for a new sponsorship student (more on that soon!).

Now is also a good time to remind everyone that Ginie speaks four languages and it’s scary how good she is at talking about FairFight (also she’s currently massacring a swarm of mosquitoes beside me with an electric shock paddle, and now I’m truly terrified – she’s dubbed herself the ‘Mosquito Reaper’).

After lunch, we all headed over to Saint Thomas International School to see the Disha girls. It took us a moment to get over how big they’d grown, especially Ginie, who used to be able to pick up Rishika in her arms. Nothing makes you feel more old than seeing a little girl grow up and double in size, but let’s be honest, none of us are convinced that Ginie is as old as she says she is.

We got to meet the newest and youngest girl, Divyanshi, a the daughter of three generations of prostitutes, rescued from the ghats, who might be the smallest but certainly had a big personality. It was so wholesome seeing the older girls guiding her and acting like big sisters to her. Ujala immediately put her yoga skills on show, to the delight of the other girls.

Ujala, who teaches yoga to the other girls

It wasn’t long before Moyee, the ageless Mosquito Reaper and I were roped into getting our nails and hair done by the girls. When the Disha girls offer to pretty you up, it’s an unspoken rule that you always say yes. Now’s not the time to try and be an intimidating, badass karateka. If you’re offered sparkly nail polish and braids, you say “I LOVE sparkly nail polish and braids”.

Tomorrow, we’re planning to have our first training with the girls. It’ll be Divyanshi’s first time trying karate, and Ginie had the brilliant idea of organising a mini-sized gi for her. We now bless you with the cutest photo you will probably see from this whole trip, maybe even for the rest of your martial arts life. We will fight you if you disagree.

So now the three of us are back at the hotel – finger nails printed, hair braided, waiting for our Thali to arrive, and ready to spend tomorrow afternoon with the girls again before we head to Sohan Sensei’s dojo at ICM Sisters to catch up with Anjali and Ganga. Stay tuned for our next blog!

6:10 Feels on Shuffle

This blog may be a little limited because I’m linking to a wobbly hotspot in the absence of accessible Wi-Fi. So just a few pictures and a brief update on our exit … I’ll put together a couple of post-trip reflections when the dust settles again.

And talking of dust… here’s the smog over Delhi airport – air quality very poor at present.

Ten hour layover in Delhi was an ideal time to upload lots of seminar pictures and videos, however, like all plans here on project, I had to be prepared to ditch it and go with plan B. So here’s a few snaps from this morning and a couple of thoughts. I’ve called this ‘feels on shuffle’ because of the deeply conflicting emotions every time I leave.

So this morning we went to see the girls for a last social call; no training. They did my hair for the journey. But not Ali’s.

Muskan is the hair magician – assisted here by Pooja with Ali admiring their handiwork.

Then a few little gifts – they were delighted with their Tokaido teddies and also some hair accessories kindly donated by the Ramadan family.

Then onwards to the dance party…

Ali coaches Harald through the moves

Then it was goodbye with about 500 hugs and lots of tears. I always wish I could just teleport away at this stage as I’m not good with protracted farewells. But the moments are still precious.

I might say it doesn’t get any easier but that’s not true. The first time, I didn’t know if I was going to be coming back. Now, the sixth time, they know I will, and I know it too. So it’s a different poignancy because we are sadder but also more secure.

Being on project is exhausting and keeps me very much on my toes. Orange alert 24/7. So I’ll be glad to get home to my loved ones (both human and furry). And we’re leaving with some satisfying progress in all aspects of the FairFight India outreach. But more of that when I get to the retrospective blog.

For now from Delhi airport, with seven more hours until we fly, I’m closing the active daily blog with profound thanks for your part in FairFight India. The girls all send their love to you too 🥰

6:9 Ali Sweeps In (and punches for the ippon)

Today was the showpiece seminar of our whole visit: Ali’s advanced competition sparring which brought in keen students from far and wide. One student, Rohit, came 1000 km to train with Ali and many others also came vast distances on trains, bikes, rickshaws, and buses.

Ali worked them hard through the hot sunshine – building footwork patterns to evade and strike using high scoring techniques.

The students especially enjoyed the spectacular takedown section as Ali got the crowd cheering to encourage and motivate those keen to compete but lacking the confidence to sell their techniques.

Neha gives it her hearty approval with both arms flung high to celebrate 😊

Ali taught takedown set ups with simple dance footwork to make it fun.

The Disha girls had already had three sessions with Ali so when it came to working the sequences, they had some great rhythm and flow.

It was great to meet with such a range of keen and talented competitors

Sushmita woting her defensive kick – brave when cornered by a scary Sensei!

It was baking hot but Ali is not looking forward to a chilly autumnal drizzle when we get back

Building 360 vision and reactions, the students were given a ton of fun games to build their skills

Neha impressed us with her excellent focus

Later, she even took her own group of smaller students 🥰

Great group of students – dedicated and energetic

Always special to spend time with these precious people 🥰🥰

Meanwhile, further south the Norwegian team were hard at work all day filming their acid attack documentary. Harald was up at sunrise. Somehow, my ghat pictures don’t flow like this!

Footage taken near the old Orange Cafe site – it’s had
to close due to the horrendous impact of Covid on the tourist trade

Moyee has been a tremendous asset to the team with her sensitive translation and wonderful relationship with the survivors. This documentary will be very powerful.

It’s late here now and this blog feels very incomplete. The story of Sangeeta will certainly resume in the future but I’ll wrap with a big thumbs up to Ali Nyoni for his huge contribution to this project.

He’s coped well with the inevitable challenges of being on project: discomfort, exhaustion, uncertainty around meal times and endless hiking with gallons of water ‘just in case’. He’s participated fully in every aspect of the project, asking valuable critical questions about the work we do, and jumping in to assist whenever opportunity arose. He’s taught with boundless energy and made a skill out of fun.

He’s ok by me ✅

Tomorrow we say goodbye to the girls and set off for the long journey home. We both have to get back to work asap – although I’m taking Monday off (we should arrive at Heathrow for 8am). Ali plans to meet his teaching commitments on Monday afternoon 😳 so I hope our journey is smooth and sleepy. I’ll report from Delhi tomorrow.

Our project gofundme is still a little short of target. If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog you’re probably already a donor, however, if you can think of anyone who might be able to chip in to support all the work we’re doing then the link is here or http://gofundme.com/fairfightindia2022 should take you there.

Goodnight from a very tired but happy FairFight India team 🙏🥋🥰