Name: Alistair MacKay Role: Producer / Director

They say that you have to prepare yourself for India and that people often experience a culture shock upon arrival and that’s exactly what we experienced when we reached Delhi! The first thing that you notice apart from the heat is the noise of the city. Everywhere you go there is hustle and bustle no matter the hour and there is a constant tooting of horns. For that reason it was a rude awakening for us as we arrived at our hotel late at night. The other thing that hits you fairly quickly is the obvious poverty. There is no doubt affluence in India and during our visit there were many signs that India is a country rich in resources but despite that it is a developing country and for that reason it is a country of extremes.

All around our hotel there were people sleeping on the streets and perhaps just like western cities, these were people who have failed to seek their fortune in the capital or quite simply just have nowhere else to go. Unlike the UK however, the sheer amount of beggars is incredible. We saw many people with disabilities and deformities you would not expect to see apparently abandoned on the streets, whereas back home provision of some sort is usually made to help such people. However, it is obvious these people have nothing and at many times the scenes we witnessed as we travelled around were not unlike something you would expect to see hundreds of years ago. For us as a crew, we often had to decide which images we filmed and which we didn’t and often we were on the move as we passed by poverty stricken areas making filming of them difficult.

After meeting the rest of the group at our hotel in Delhi we travelled to Agra and it was really here that the trip began for Deirdre and Derek. The following morning we visited the Taj Mahal which was amazing but caused us infinite problems trying to film the group’s visit. This was largely down to the many levels of Indian bureaucracy, on site filming restrictions and a local guide who just didn’t understand what we were trying to do. A quick rethink was needed in order to make the best of the situation and our Idex group leader came up with a solution which saw us jumping into Tuk Tuk’s and travelling right around to the other side of the city to a suitable vantage point of the Taj Mahal. This in fact worked out great as we saw a side to this magnificent structure not often witnessed by tourists.

That night we began our journey north to the camp in the Himalayan foothills which was to be our base for the trip and the reason for Deirdre and Derek’s expedition where they would be working as volunteers on a charity project. I’ve been in some unpleasant places in my time and am well used to travelling by train but I have to admit that that train journey was a bit of an ordeal for all! We had to be very careful of our kit as theft is a real problem to the point that people buy chains from chain sellers on the platform in order to secure their belongings as they slept. The main thing however that caused a shock for the group was the infestation of cockroaches in the train carriages, they were everywhere. It took a bit of getting used to having them crawling across your sleeping bag or up the walls beside your head but it was very funny for us to film Derek and Deirdre’s response to it all! Needless to say it was a sleepless night for all and this wasn’t at all helped with the constant stop start of the train combined with shouts of “Chai, Chai?” all night from the porters serving Indian tea as they walked along the carriages. It was 15 hours or so later when we arrived at our destination but it was another 3 hours by minibus to our final destination of Sungal camp in Himachal Pradesh. Unfortunately, it was this leg of the journey that proved to be the most unpleasant for Derek with a combination of the previous night’s dinner and the bumpy and windy hill roads to camp!

Himachal Pradesh was literally a breath of fresh air from the cities of Delhi and Agra with beautiful mountain valleys and greenery everywhere. It was easy to see why India is such a fascinating country by contrasting the cities and the rural areas and why indeed people fall in love with India. For me I really enjoyed my time in this region and I found the people there very kind, friendly and helpful. It was a real pleasure for us to film there and to cover Deirdre and Derek’s progress with the nursery school refurbishment that they worked on. The group of international travellers in Deirdre and Derek’s group working on the project were also a good mix of people from all sorts of backgrounds and were very patient with our filming! Niall and I had some very surreal moments during our time in India often finding ourselves in the most unexpected of locations and occasions. I think it would be fair to say though that these greatly added to our trip for the four of us providing moments of amusement, heartache and enlightenment. The greatest moment has to be the delight of the children and their teacher when they entered their completed nursery following its facelift by the group. It really put into perspective the point of us being there filming the group’s efforts in trying to make a difference to other people’s lives. I sincerely hope this is what comes across to the viewer in the final programme.

Our filming in Himachal Pradesh was greatly helped by the local organisation Idex which runs these projects. The people at Sungal camp from the minibus driver to the cook and the project leaders were fantastic and always willing to help or make suggestions for us in order to aid our filming which was invaluable. They made our visit very pleasant and as a team we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude and I would like to thank them all for their hospitality and kindness.