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.

Welcome to TATA !

My first week here in Mumbai has been quite exciting so far. On the day I had left Switzerland, the coordinator of my internship at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) told bet hat I would stay the first 3 weeks in Mumbai and participate in an introduction programme of MBA graduates starting in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) department right now. I felt honoured, it sounded like a great chance to have a good start. But when it started on Monday, I felt very lost. I was the only one not to have done an MBA and I just had no idea about all those theoretical models and processes they were talking about. This programme is the first edition of a fast track programme which will put the participants in middle management positions in only 1,5 years. The 15 people admitted were selected amongst more than 1000 applicants all across India. In the first session we were told clearly that the ultimate goal of this „Janus Programme“ is that one of the participants will eventually be TCS’s next CEO. To be honest, I felt a bit überfordert and stupid. But soon I realised that the people leading this workshop were not so keen on all those theoretical things and that the participants were extraordinarily great people: young (22-32), intelligent and very open and interested. We all live together in a nice hotel (ca. 4 stars). The programme is very interesting; we get to learn about all the fields of BPO. But it is quite though. We leave the hotel at 9am, come back around 10pm and than have to prepare group assignments and presentations. So we get around 5 hours of sleep per day as a maximum and there’s no free time at all. It is a hard but very good start into the company and a smooth start into Indian culture, I’m glad I can be part of it

During this week I learned a lot about TCS but also about the whole TATA Group. Historically, the Tata family initiated the development of India by starting off the textile and steel production for export in the second half of 19^th century. The Tatas are an important part of Indias national history and identity, everybody knows and many admire them. There are TATA companies in every field you can just imagine: steel, automobile (land rover, jaguar, tata (cf the tata nano the cheapest car of the world 2500$... and it meets all the international security standards), telecom, chemicals, watches (slimmest watch of the world), tea (Tetley tea), leather (production for zara, etc.), energy (provides half Mumbai with electricity), hotels (all the taj hotels, including the one attacked), airlines (air India), etc. The Tatas are very innovative companies; there were many “firsts” developed. What stroke me most is the community focus of the group: 66% of all the TATA profit goes to charity all over the world, Ratan Tata (the head of TATA) lives in an apartment (not a house) downtown. Sounds like a good PR strategy, doesn’t it? But the thing is that it’s not PR at all. All those facts are hardly being talked about in public, so most of the people don’t know about it. Humility is a very central value of the Tatas.

The company I’ll be working in for the next year, Tata Consultancy Services is an IT company working with companies from all over the world. TCS started in India what this country is now known for everywhere in the world: the IT industry. I’ll stay here in Mumbai for 2 more weeks and then head to Baroda (about 400km north). To be honest I don’t really know what I’ll be doing there. J My job description said I’d be introducing and leading an internal structure for cultural and language training in the market research department. But some days ago I was told that my first 3 months will be very busy because I’ll have to help 30 Hungarians arriving for a project to settle down in Baroda as well. If there’s one thing I’ve learned here is that I should expect the unexpected. You don’t need to know things that don’t yet matter at the present point of time because it’s very probable to change again. Just some examples to illustrate this: While presenting a group assignment, they suddenly tell us that now they want someone else to speak. I was told 5mins before that I’ll now have to deliver a 1hour German language session for our group. It might seem difficult sometimes, but it is a great way to make you learn the maximum possible.

A bit out of context I want to tell you about how I manage with food and climate over here. After a couple of days I was a bit proud to be able to handle the spiciness of Indian food. I could eat everything, so I did (but still sticking to my rule of not eating any street/”dangerous” food during the first month). Soon I was to realize, that to be able to eat spicy food does not mean to be able to handle it. From last Wednesday on I couldn’t eat anything spicy anymore. My stomach could just not cope with spicy food for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack time. I had stomach-aches and didn’t want to eat anything any more because everything here is spicy (except the sweets). So during 3 days I tried to eat only plane rice and bread. Absolutely tasteless but now at least I feel better. I’ll definitely stop eating spicy for breakfast and try to be more conscious with the other meals as well.
The climate is a bit harder to adapt to. During the monsoon time it’s hot and humid… no matter were you are. So there is A/C everywhere. And it’s very cold: I always need to carry a sweater/jacket when I go to the office. Consequently, I don’t turn on the A/C in my room… which is ok in terms of temperature because the building is well built. But not in terms of humidity, everything is a bit wet: the bed sheets when you go to bed, the clothes you washed, the walls which build mold. I haven’t really figured out how to handle this, but I’ll get there eventually.

To sum up: I’m tired but quite happy over here. I guess I’m the perfect example of the honeymoon stage of a cultural experience. J

Welcome to India – first impressions

So here I am, in incredible India! After a very comfortable but noisy flight (I’ll never have a baby! J) with Emirates, I arrived in Mumbai. My very first impressions: it's hot and humid; you just can’t help the sweating. What I then saw first was the slums right besides the runways. To be honest, he first impression wasn't really the best one.

White girl in the big city

The arranged airport pickup by AIESEC worked more or less. The guy was there, but didn’t recognize me (he had asked for a picture in beforehand) and of course a sign with my name would have been quite circumstantial. So I had to call him. The following 3 hours taxi ride was a little bit of a torture: we were constantly standing in traffic at around 35° and in a car from the 50ies (or so) à no A/C, no wind, just heat! But it was very interesting as well, because I got to observe the city and the people. auto-rickshaws (basically a motorcycle with a car-top on it) are everywhere; it seems to be the principal means of transportation. And even though Mumbai has many foreigners, I was stared at, in a way I had hardly imagined. People don’t turn away, once your looks meet. Two guys in a van even took a picture of me with their cellphone. Very funny experience… and it seems I’ll have to get used to it. J One thing that really impressed me is that even though you can immediately see that there’s a lot of poverty, I couldn’t really tell who were the poor people: Everybody is dressed very clean and nicely; men the western way wearing trousers and shirt, women the Indian way with a salwar-kameez (pants and long blouse) or a sari. Only a minority of women wears tops or t-shirts.

When we finally arrived in Thane (north of Mumbai, just outside the city border), I was pleasantly surprised. For the first 2 days of my stay here I live in a guest apartment. This means I have a private cook and a butler. They’re only here to serve me and 1-2 other guests. What should I say… I felt very welcome. J Dinner was amazing: I sat down and got 4 different vegetable and chicken dishes, bread, rice, salad and fruit. When I asked the guys to show me how to eat the Indian way (with your fingers), they didn’t seem to understand. Only when the butler (I don’t know how they’re really called…) from the opposite apartment came in and understood what I wanted, they giggled but didn’t want to show me. After a while the 2^nd butler showed me how to use the three fingers (thumb, middle and ring finger) of your right hand… the others still laughing behind.

Holy cow!

On Saturday, I decided to defy the monsoon and walk around a little in the neighbourhood. I had observed the day before, that everyone is wearing thongs (and their clothes are clean). So this was my plan as well. To adapt to the heat but also the customs, I wore white ¾ pants and my plastic thongs. It didn’t work out at all, my pants were all dirty after 5mins. While walking around a man suddenly came up to me. “Ma’am, all the mod comes to your trousers. You should wear heel.“ … and off he was again. I bought thongs with heels in the afternoon. J

A bit later, walking around a corner, I suddenly saw a cow on the street. Ok, they are holy… but it is still quite unusual that nobody seems to matter. Whereas they honk the horn for everything and at all times, they drive around the cow as if there was nothing standing there. When I took a picture of this scene, a father came to me with his daughter. He pointed at my camera and said something I could not really guess. Did he want a picture of his daughter, did they want to take a picture for me, with me…. what? Indian gestures are so different from European ones; you can’t guess at all what they want to say if you don’t speak the language! After a while I found out that they wanted to see the picture I took from the cow. Thelittle girl was all happy and they walked away laughing. It’s a very nice culture, people here laugh a lot. I haven’t quite figured out though if they laugh about me or with me. J

Do you speak English ?

When I realized that there isn’t so much more around to see, I followed the advice of the girl from Tata I’m in contact with and go to the big shopping mall. I wasn’t up for shopping at all, but I thought if that’s her advice for an afternoon programme, it must be very interesting or different to what I know. It was not, except the metal detector at the entrance. But to get there was quite an adventure. I didn’t want to take a rickshaw straight away but rather walk a bit in this direction in order to get to see a bit more. Whenever I asked someone for directions they didn’t really know what I was talking about. Then I realized that asking rickshaw drivers or people at a food stand is a bad strategy because they firstly, don’t speak English at all and secondly don’t know shopping places (or at least the ones I asked). After walking back and forth for a while I gave up and decided to take a rickshaw. Sounds easy, but it isn’t at the first time. The first driver just said no, the second didn’t know where it was and the third one didn’t speak a word of English but agreed to bring me there. He didn’t really know where it was either. I didn’t mind anymore, not even that unfortunately, his “meter was broke”J. He always talked to me even though I could never give an answer he understood and then he just laughed and gave me a high-five. This was quite funny at the beginning.

When I suggested asking someone on the street where the place is, instead of asking another rickshaw driver or some of the many people walking, he drove 100m to a store in a side street. After asking he wanted to convince me that I buy something (if I understood him right). Quite bothered he continued after my 20 “NOs” and later stopped at the border of the city (the mall is inside Mumbai not in Thane and the rickshaws are only allowed to drive in their own city/district). He didn’t want to let me go and grabbed my arm and then he suddenly spoke English. At least one word: “Kiss, kiss”! I was gone quite quickly. After the city border I had to take a second rickshaw to get to this mall. Same game again: one said no, the other wanted to charge me way too much. Then a young man came up to me and explained me how to use the bus. J He was gentleman (paid my ticket: 6Rs, not even 5cents), smart (scientist, organic chemistry) and open person (married to a women of a higher caste which was interesting to talk about). The mall was nothing spectacular except that I learned that Indians use a water hose instead of toilet paper. I’m sure I’ll never get used to this. What luck that I’m a woman… always carrying a bag full of useful things like tissues for example. I got out of the mall only 1 hour later… but the travel was definitely worth the time.

So these were my first two days in Mumbai… most of the people here are very friendly and helpful, the city is huge and crowded and I’m looking forward to living more great moments. I hope you found it interesting.

Don’t forget to comment. ;-)

Good Bye

A hectical preparation time with plenty of administrative things, vaccinations, Farewell BEACH'N'BBQ, packing, shopping, finishing my bachelor thesis (5 hours before leaving!) has finally found an end. So this is it, after some good bye tears at the airport I finally took off to incredible India! I'm gone...for a whole year!

Before I

start with my impressions on India, I would like to say thank you to all of you who made my departure so enjoyable by coming to the party, helping me out, giving me beautiful gifts and always being there for me. Even though this made it much harder to leave, it's so good to know to have such amazing family and friends! Thank you!

Bye Bye ! The first post on India will follow very soon.