Honeymoon is over…

I have been in Baroda for 1 week now. So far it’s been a very mixed experience. The streets here are so empty, people are friendly and everything is less crowded…of course it’s still about 10x as much as in Switzerland, but compared to Mumbai it’s really calm. So I enjoyed the first experience. Unfortunately I’m still living from my suitcase and I haven’t really settled down. But soon I will, hopefully. This is probably the reason why I have lost my honeymoon attitude towards this country: the starring really gets on my nerves,the noise is sometimes unbearable and the heat is just suffocating at the moment. And this is Indian WINTER, I don’t even want to imagine how I’ll feel in summer. L

An indian family enjoying the beach: usually everybody goes into the water with all their cloths!

At least I got used to the food. After some very, very bad 16 hours during my third week here, I was just fed up with anything just close to spicy. As a consequence, I had pizza about 5 times in7 days. J But now I really like the food, although it’s very heavy and a bit unhealthy. I have never seen a place, which mixes so many carbohydrates in one meal. Yummie, let’s have rice with a potatoes and peas… and eat it with fried bread! Whoever thought Indian food is very healthy and who comes here will loose of weight, is totally wrong. Who slims in India just can’t handle the spiciness or the extreme sweetness and therefore doesn’t eat. I would die for a plate of vegetables or a nice fresh salad (the “salad” I get for lunch in the canteen everyday is a handful of cut onions). I’m really looking forward to moving to a place where I can finally cook again by myself.

Have you ever bought milk in a plastic bag ?

At the moment I live with Anit, an AIESEC member, in a 3 room apartment which doesn’t have a kitchen (basically there’s very little furniture), where the shower is a bucket filled with water (very normal for India though), the toilet what we would call a highway toilet (a flushable whole in the ground) and the whole apartment is a bit… let’s say basic and dusty. In 2 weeks one guy from the TCS Janus program (the induction and fast track program I’m in) will be reallocated to Baroda for 6 months. We decided to look for a furnished flat and share the living costs for this period.

Tushar's family invited us to celebrate with them

This weekend I decided to follow an invitation and go back to Mumbai for the weekend to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi with some of my Janus friends. From Baroda to Mumbai it takes “only” 6,5 hours… so it was worth to go even for only 1,5 days. The train ride was spectacular. I was scared to get bored, but no way. I’m glad a bought a non-A/C ticket. In those cheaper compartments, people are allowed to sell and beg. So in 6 hours a saw about 15 children: many of them singing, one boy performing amazing Michael Jackson dance moves, some of them cleaning the chips bags, newspapers, bottles, food rests, tea cups, dust,… from the floor and asking for money as many other do: old people, sick people and transvestites. Yes, no kidding. It seems to be very hard for them to find a job in India, so people give money. But not out of altruism or pity, to some extent it’s pure egoism: Indians believe that transvestites can curse you. So you rather give them some coins than to be punished with bad luck. Logic, isn’t it? J Indians find some superstitious explanations in many things of everyday life. Bird droppings on you are very good luck for example. I got hit twice already, lucky me! J

Hanging out of a Bombay local train as locals do.

I’m at a point where I don’t just blindly admire what happens around me any more. The honeymoon period of my experience is over. I start to question Indian reality a bit more and I realize that often I cannot estimate the reaction to statements I say or things I do because I just don’t have any influence on hem. As an example: it has already happened to me about three times that some stranger starts to talks to me about sex. And it has nothing to do with my revealing cloths. You can’t imagine how much I cover myself. I sweat like hell just to be sure not to show any skin on décolleté, shoulders or too much of my legs. It’s actually just the fact of being a westerner that makes those people think that I would be open to talk about sex with whomever. It’s a mindset they have of white women, no matter what you do, say or wear. And that’s also why guys want a picture with me. Just to show off to have posed an open-minded woman. I have to admit that to be seen this way can be quite frustrating at times. I guess I’ll just have to learn to understand this society… or sometimes rather not think so much about everything, as dear people tend to tell me.

The privileges of being white...

So what does it mean, here in India, to be white as I am? It means that you have the disadvantages of being identified as a tourist immediately and paying more wherever you go. But it also means that you experience certain benefits only because you’re white. …and I guess being white and of the female gender also plays a considerable role.

The very first thing I had to deal with was these looks. How often did I ask myself: Why the hell can’t people stop starring at me? If I hadn’t attentive in history class I’d sometimes really think I’m the first European to come to this country. But I must admit, there is two types of starring. There is the rather perfidious one; a person would pretend to write a text message but in fact take a picture of me with his (yes, it’s usually men) cellphone. And then there is the open type, where they just look at me and just don’t turn away any more. Yesterday, a young couple asked me if they could take a picture with me. If ever I get famous in my life, I’m definitely prepared for those paparazzi and fans. J

One more aspect that I had to learn was that as long as I have any male Indian friend around, I’ll not be able to go anywhere by myself. Not even to the mall that is 100m away. I asked myself where this overprotectiveness comes from that made me feel so constricted. Because...what does it help if you’re an independent person, if people don’t let you do what you want to do? Learning on both sides needed to take place. My friends learned to let me do things by myself and not always offer their company/support for small things until I asked for it. And I learned to take more help than I’d usually do in small everyday activities or sometimes just don’t tell anyone that I want to go to the supermarket. J

The next point is a normally negative one, which can be turned positive : the bargaining. For obvious reasons, I’m usually told a high price when I want to buy something. So you need to bargain. This was actually one of the few things of which I thought I would never feel comfortable with, before I left Switzerland. But then I learned to play the “just because I’m white you want to rip me off”-card. And this has now become one of my favourite games…with a 80% success score so far. (Yes, sometimes I exaggerate and start with a price, which really seems to be too low. But you have to try, right? J)

One more benefit is the fact that I get to meet people I would probably not get in contact if it wasn’t for my skin colour, language abilities and communicative personality. Last week I was accompanying managers to two important meetings at my company. It is a real privilege and I appreciate these opportunities a lot. Still I have to understand and get used to this.

So these are some of the experiences I’m facing on a daily basis, which I attribute to the fact of being a white foreigner in this country. I had never experienced something similar before. Even though in most of the countries I’ve been to, visitors are always very clearly identifiable and also warmly welcomed, but I never felt so foreign in a country in these terms. It seems it could never be possible to feel more like a local, no matter where you live or work, what you wear or eat, what language you speak or what people you’re with. I guess I’ll just need to realize what effect I have on people here and then find my role in this society.

Humidity

When you read my past blog entries, how did you imagine the humidity here really is? You sure believed me that it’s not pleasant, but did you believe it can have these effects?

My cell phone and my camera suddenly have a very long reaction time… somehow they just don’t work properly anymore. It took me some time to realize that people here protect their electronic devices with a plastic cover. When I saw the covered TV in my room, I was convinced it was for hygienic reasons and admired the hotel. …until someone in Switzerland made me think differently. Danke, Fabian. J

Doing your laundry is another challenge. After 10 days I figured I didn’t have so many clean cloths anymore. Easy to resolve, right? Just wash them and in a day or two your closet will be full with fresh clothes again… theoretically!!! In fact, it takes at least four days until your clothes are in a status, which could be described as somehow close to dryness. But at that point, they have been hanging wet for such a long time that a little weird smell already took over the freshness of clean laundry.

But the worst of all: This can happen to your toiletry, if you do not wash your beauty on a very regular basis. Have you ever...? ;) Wherever you have touched it most, mould appears.

I admit, I left the fungus grow 3 days longer when I noticed… just for the sake of taking this disgusting picture. J

A tourist's day in Mumbai !

For the first time since I’ve arrived here in Mumbai, today I’ve finally gotten a chance to visit the centre and explore the city.

A breathtaking 45min train ride (“Nadja, just push as much as you can and jump in!”) started our journey. Different compartments for women and men make the ride more comfortable. And girls selling hairclips, stickers, etc. made it even a little shopping experience. J

Haji Ali Dargah is a muslim (sikh) tomb on a small island you can only reach at low tide. While the way is totally flodded with water during high tide, the low tide attracts many visitors: believers, tourist and also beggars. I honestly had a hard time walking through them. Many people with visible diseases, most leprosy, tiny children and other unfortunate border the way to this holy shrine. I was glad to have my friends around. However, the visit was totally worth the hastle, it was a very nice experience. This place just has a very special charism.

Seeing the huge garbage piles on the shore on our way back shocked me a bit… but somehow it just seems to be an accepted part of the city.

Afterwards we walked around in Colaba, probably the richest and most touristy place in Mumbai. Beautiful heritage buildings and street shops made me walk up and down. And I’m very proud that I was able to bargain like an Indian and got my pants for 120 instead of 260 Rupees. J

All in all: an absolutely amazing day! I love the impressions in my mind, the great fun we had and that I’ve finally had the chance to see a beautiful little chunk of this huge city. Mumbai is an extraordinary place; I hope I’ll have more time to explore it.