Wednesday, February 29, 2012

10 Reasons Why I Can't Leave India

India has a way with people. You either leave and never come back, or you’re like me and you keep coming back (Unless of course you’re Indian and have real reasons to come back). There are many reasons that I love this country, a few things make me angry and a ton that I still don’t know much about. With half my Fellowship over, I thought it would be good to make a few goals. Let’s see what I can get done in five more months!

1.) I Don’t Know How to Cook Indian Food
Street Food: A delicious treat that comforts my taste buds and the enemy that keeps me from cooking more Indian food. Can you blame me? Afterall, this side of the world does have some of the best street food. In India, it's the variety, flavors and enthusiasm of eaters that draws the crowd. The range is endless. Some of the spiciest and sweetest food I have ever had has been on the streets of India. And the prices? Unrivaled. How can such delicious and creative street snacks like chaat or dosa be so cheap? Everyday I plan to cook dinner, until I pass the sevpuriwallah. And then the juices. By the time I hit Mughal kebabs, I'm over cooking. Watch out though, there are risks!

2.) Monotony Is Just Too Adventurous Here
Even though the daily grind is not my thing, there is always something happening in Mumbai on the way to work that makes me laugh, feel very uncomfortable, get totally confused, become super angry or almost cry. Like I said in my last post, I appreciate it whenever pondering or just a bad day. Check out this short video to see how even commuting to work is an adventure that never gets old!


3.) Learn Proper Hindi
“Khana khao!”
“Sidha jao aur phir vo nukkad se bayain lena.”
“Yeh hai Hindustan meri jaan!”
“Kya pachaas rupiye bhaiya?? Bahut mehanga hai! Sabse sasta price do, please.”
“Sorry, main samajta nahi hu, aur dhire bol sakta hai?”

These are the basic conversations that I have everyday. Although I give myself credit, there is a lot of room for improvement given that my Hindi sounds similar to that of a rickshaw or truck driver. A lot of what I learn is Mumbai’s version of Hindi, or Bambaiyya - a pidgin form of Hindi that is mixed with so many other Indian languages. I love pure Hindi and would really like to master it. Speaking the slightest Hindi as a ferung will get you a lot of respect (and loads on uninvited attention) since so many foreigners here just don’t make the effort to learn it. Language breaks down barriers and I’ve always believed it gives you more insight into the culture.

4.) A wave of the hand, a nod of the head – Mastering the Nonverbal
Nonverbal communication is found cross-culturally, but Indians master it. I have taken auto-rickshaws and used as little as 1 word, coordinated lunch with a colleague sitting across the office without any words and have even bargained prices down 50% or more with mere sounds, gestures and stern eye contact. Whether it is a half turn of your hand with slightly curled fingers (think of the Bollywood ‘lightbulb’ dance move), a nod up of the head to say ”kya?” or “how much”, someone blinking twice to gret you, a faux slap pose to tell a friend he’s crazy, nodding your head from side to side for almost anything or the dreaded point to warn someone they’ve messed with the wrong bhai, yaar. It is a whole other language here and it a craft.

5.) Finish A Project
Being abroad is never enough time. My first time leaving the US was 4 weeks in Europe when I was 20. I remember thinking, “Wow, four whole weeks, everyday waking up in Europe and experiencing life there!” Then I graduated on to 4 months backpacking in South America after. It felt like a lifetime and impacted me tremendously as a person, but within a couple of months after returning, all of the South America was disappearing from inside of me. Between trips to India, a stint in Ghana for 6 months finally gave me perspective on really building an engaging project and how to make my work sustainable.

Now I have a year in India and I want it to finish work that leaves an impact. Between cancelled meetings and delays, I am about 700 chai breaks away from this goal. The learning curve has been steep. I mean, after 5 months I just found a subziwala who does not rip me off! Luckily, there is so much to do for Magic Bus and my mentors are beginning to give me even more meaningful work – including redesigning health curriculum, creating community reports that would map out our impact and mapping out sports ground across Mumbai. All of them would require some Ethnographic work – which is exciting. The biggest challenge is getting community and team members on board.

Here is a photo story that I recently finished on Sarita, a peer leader and 19-year-old that has been in the Magic Bus program since a child!


6.) Too much Urban. Not enough Rural.
Living in Mumbai is tough and it’s turning me into a city slicker. I love what it has to offer, but really crave more nature and rural excitement. I don’t even use an Eastern Toilet! How boogie is that? Luckily, this guy reminds me how to use it. My goal is to travel to the North-East Region and next month visit APV School in Uttarkhand. Time for some Himalayan adventure!

7.) Praxis
Studying Global Poverty and Practice at UC Berkeley, I remember my professor Dr. Ananya Roy saying that while working in poverty alleviation – theory without action is useless, and practice without theory is hopeless. Before joining the Fellowship, this sentence blended in with a ton of academic one-liners and around economic development stories that always felt abstract and distant in the comfort of the Bay Area. Now, I it stands out to me. What used to be theory or distant stories in an article are now on right at my doorstep. Naxalites fighting in Jharkhand, farmer suicides in Maharashtra, Western frameworks in foreign development contexts, slum residents fighting for their homes, overcrowded cities and mass rural exoduses proliferate, a failing public sector and the continued spread of dangerous diseases like TB. Being in India allows me to get closer than ever to the issues that I care about. My work provides me a platform to combine all this theory and action into Praxis. Economic development is not glamorous and not always fun or efficient. But these challenges are part of the daily process toward progress. As we are swim against the tide as ordinary practioners trying to make small differences, it is the sum of our parts that build the strength of this machine. I can’t do that from anywhere else, but right here!


8.) Bollywood
Whoever says they don’t like Bollywood is lying. I will not leave India until I get into a Bollywood film!

9.) Addicted to Chai
Sometimes without even trying, we just start to fit in to a foreign place. I don’t always understand what is going on around me and I never blend in. Yet, over time I have found myself haggling prices, holding hands with guy friends, nodding my head sideways, modifying dance moves to include my hands in the air. Most notably, I know have stamina to drink 5+ cups of chai a day.


A business closer, relationship builder, a stand in for coffee or cigarettes, a heat-breaker and even a starting point for political conversations: Chai is powerful. And no better place to enjoy it than with spicey Bombay Masala Chai. Chai gives me time to think, while simultaneously speeding up my heart rate in case (don’t mess with me when I’m on my 3rd cup of chai). What will I do without you?

10.) I still don’t get this place
There is no generalization or stereotype that works for all Indians. There is no expectation in India that you can have that will pan out. Not even “no expectations.” The shorter you stay in India, the more you have to say. The longer you stay and the more confused you are. India is Hindu, but also has every other religion on earth. There is rural, urban and every in-between; there are Zoroastrians and Goan Christians; those with traditional family backgrounds mixed with all the disfunction of an American family; love-marriage, arranged and divorced; there are even those who still follow the caste system and those who despise it. You just can’t classify this place – which is what I love about it. I can keep coming back and I will never know it all, but it will still shock me.

Sri Aurobindo, the great Indian Rishi, wrote of भारत माता in 1905: 
‘For what is a nation? What is our mother-country? It is not a piece of earth, nor a figure of speech, nor a fiction of the mind. It is a mighty shakti, composed of the shaktis of all the millions of units that make up the nation.’

I suppose that’s it: the daily strength and struggle is what characterizes India for me.

*This Post is also posted at the AIF Clinton Fellowship Blog here.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A Lot Can Happen Over Chai


The Juxtaposed Skyline of India
Check out my new AIF Blog post, "A Lot Can Happen Over Chai: Analyzing the Extremes, Appreciating the (Indian) Monotony"

After 5 months with the fellowship, chai has become a good thought stimulator on how to analyze what has happened, what to look forward to, and how to enjoy the monotony as Mumbai passes by with every sip. Let see what else comes up during chai time!
The View from the Office Window at Magic Bus