STUDENTS from Okehampton College were given a warm welcome to Mumbai on their recent trip to the Indian city.

They are photographed enjoying an afternoon hosted by the Muktangan Education Trust’s creative arts department.

The staff and students at the trust, which runs seven schools in the city, pulled out all the stops to introduce their Okehampton visitors to the culture of different regions of India.

The Okehampton college students spent a week in February during the half-term break volunteering at three of the trust’s schools for deprived children.

The trip was organised by music and expressive arts teacher Val Berry, who first visited Mumbai herself as a gap year student back in 1987.

‘It was absolutely fantastic,’ she said. ‘The school put on an afternoon to introduce us to Indian culture. They had different stands based on the different states in India and dressed up in the costumes of those states, making food for us to taste from those areas.’

She said the Okehampton contingent was welcomed on arrival with a traditional ‘rose bindi and chai’ ceremony involving the placing of a dot, the bindi, on the forehead.

The Okehampton students then helped the Indian students plan ‘holistic lessons’ of drama, art and dance. They also presented the Indian children with art materials and a set of recorders as gifts.

The trip also saw the students experience the intense heat and traffic jams of the city, bargaining in the market and walking along the famous Chharapati beach. They also visited the Ragnaghopinath Temple and were given the tour of the slum area of Dharavi with local guides.

‘The three local guides took us through the twisting narrow alleyways of the slum to the industrial, bakery and residential areas,’ said Val.

‘We also looked inside a school classroom which was a stark comparison to what we had experienced so far.

‘Dharavi is an incredibly hard-working community which completely fascinated our students who asked so many questions as their eyes darted to look in every nook and dark space whilst watching where they trod.’

This eye-opening visit was followed by a trip to a cookery school, where the students were shown how to make tamarind chutney and other dishes, with the recipes given to take back home to their families. They also met the Muktangan Trust’s founders Liz and Sunil Mehta.

Val first met Liz and Sunil when she lodged with them on her gap year to Mumbai in 1987 when she played with the Bombay Chamber Orchestra.

A few years ago, she looked them up online and discovered they had set up the Muktangan Trust. Getting in touch on a holiday in Bombay, she decided to organise a trip involving volunteering in the trust’s schools, the first being last year.

‘A lot of the children are very poor, they are living in slums, but they are wonderful,’ she said.

‘They are very happy and very willing to learn. I think it teaches our students an awful lot, that you can be happy without having very much.’