Tag Archives: india

Impressions of Delhi

Officially I am based in Delhi. Until now though, I haven't spent a huge amount of time there. Even if I don't yet have a flat in the city, and so far haven't met more than a few people there, I'm getting into the process of making it feel like home. During the last week, I manage to spend a couple of days and evenings exploring some parts of the city.

My first impression is that Delhi is (and seems to have been for a while) in transformation. Many of the most visible things (but maybe not the more subtle) are due to the commonwealth games, which began last Sunday. 

When I arrived in Delhi, it was pretty much a mess. The central square (Connaught Place – the white buildings in the pictures) was basically a huge construction site, dust and, muddy. Now you're met by a completely different sight. Even though there are many last minute fixes here and there still to be done, a large part of the main work seems to have been completed and the center is now a radically different experience with newly paved roads & freshly painted buildings.

It is indeed a huge city, but New Delhi in the south, feels quite manageable. There are separate districts & colonies and using the metro lines for orientation you can quite easily grasp the layout and structure. The fact that there has been a big city here a long time back means that there are loads of sights to see and many, many places to get lost walking in. 

Over the next few months I hope to take the time in between my field visits & other travels to explore much more of this place that, officially at least, is now my home!  

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On the road again

After about a week spent in Delhi, I'm heading out to the our field site in Bokaro again. Somehow it almost feels more home than Delhi (probably because I spent about three times as much time there than in Delhi so far).

I've written about it before, but it can easily be said again – the Rajdhani express is a great train! Not only are there nice air conditioned seats, but there's also a meal service, free newspapers in the morning and electricity plugs!

Traveling in such conditions makes the 14 hour commute to work quite acceptable. 

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Daily fika – Indian style

Even in India one can find a daily work fika*.

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An unbending twig or as flexible as a master yogi?

Basket

As I was taking the train back to Delhi about a week ago, the train briefly passed a whole line of people working to make wooden baskets. They were quickly, and methodically bending the branches into the a shape that would eventually form a strong, long-lasting basket.

I came to realize that this was a pretty good metaphore for the way it is to come to India. India is in itself an utterly strong basket, with a woven fabric of society that seems much stronger than many others. As a newcomer, let's say a new twig, that is to be woven into this basket, you'll have to be very flexible. In the beginning you'll feel stiff (often very stiff if you're a twig that has grown in Europe) and unbending, but in the hands of the weaver you'll eventually soften up (if you allow it) and start being woven into the whole. 

If you cannot, or chose not to, be completely flexible, well you just might break and be discarded – something that seems to happen to quite a few foreigners who spend any amount of time here. 

Either it’s just a cultural difference to accept or somebody really should set up CV writing trainings India

Five to six pages long, using 5 different fonts, no chronological
order, no cover letters (sometimes even no text in the application
e-mail), no customization for the role they are applying for… And
that’s just the tip of the ice berg.

After reading 60+ CVs I am really, really beginning to understand the
value and simplicity of a American-style 1 page CV.

When making liti (pastries?) cow dung briquettes are way better as they give the right taste

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Here we are fighting coal briquette usage and CO2-taste one liti at a time.

Though I am unsure about the environmental impact of cow dung so maybe
I should hold off applying for CDM carbon credits just yet…

On power cuts

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Having a computer operated by battery is not just a convenience here – it is a necessity. With power cuts about every 3-4 hours or so, I have got used to keep my laptop plugged in constantly, so that it has enough juice to last me through the next power cut. And in the nights, it won’t be nightmares waking you up, but rather the fans turning off leaving you sweating intensely.

At first I got quite excited by the power cuts (in the way that you’d get in say, Sweden ;)), but I realized most people here just simply didn’t noticed and just got on with their business as if nothing happened, so I started to hide my amusement. I guess in a while, I won’t need to hide it any more as I’ll be as accustomed as the natives to them. 

A pretty ordinary Indian city

Bokaro is a pretty ordinary place, with the main exception being it’s large, nay huge(!), steel plant around which the city was built. Most of the city seems to be constructed in the 60s and 70s in parallel with the steel plant. It’s located in the province of Jharkhand, a province recently forcibly separated from northern Bihar. It proved to be a boon for Jharkhand which in the process also got rid of a corrupt chief minister and is now enjoying a much needed period of safety, order and improved business climate. In the region there is still a low-level Naxalite (maoist) insurgency, however I’m told that beyond the odd kidnapping and skirmishes in the eastern forests, things are generally safe. 

In the city people seem to be living in either 60s or 70s four-storey apartment blocks, in smaller villas/2 floor apartment houses, or in various degrees of more informal accommodations (ranging from shack by the road to mud-bricked buildings). There’s a cinema (which I’ve as of yet not had the chance to check out), a fun fair (open 13:30-20:30 in case you fancy a visit), several “exercise grounds” and a forlorn, but still quite beautiful city park – apparently (according to one of my local colleagues) the place for couples to meet as it lies just in between the boy’s and girl’s colleges – a fact I could quite easily verify given the amount of youngish couples in the lakeside restaurant (another forlorn place – with red curtains kept closed at all times). 

Unless you’re a big fan of 60s architecture or steel plants, it’s probably not the place to visit, but for the complete “travelogue” listing – there’s a daily train from Delhi (Rajdhani express) taking approximately 14 hours and a train from Kolkata (Shatabdi express) taking (5 hours). I believe there’s at least one local hotel and  more than a couple “hostels” (girls or boys). 

PS. A small side-note for the Swedes reading this, some of the pictures is quite reminiscent of that old Skatteverket advertisement “This is how it’ll be in Sweden if you don’t pay tax”… Well, most people don’t pay tax here so maybe Skatteverket is right…

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Indian’s sure now how to make train travel comfortable

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The menu on the Rajdhani and Shatabdi express certainly won’t leave you getting off the train hungry. All included in the fare, which on the 5 hour trip from Bokaro to Kolkata was around 500 Rs. 

Indian timezone

In India we go by Indian Standard Time, which means GMT+5.5. 

"GMT+5.5?!" You might be thinking. Yes, India, unlike most other places on earth, operates on a timezone that is not an even number of hours away from GMT. And this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to quirkiness of India and time.

Clock

For the past week or so one of the most noticeable things have been the difference in the perception, and flow of time. First of all, most people that I'm working with here basically works all the time. They start early in the morning and end late at night. Saturdays? Absolutely. Sundays? Yes, often. However, the work is of a very different sort than I'm used to, it's a of a very different intensity. Maybe it's due to the heat and the monsoon, maybe it's just a cultural difference or maybe it's just the project we're working on,, but life and work here feels somehow slow at times. There are frequent breaks, waiting times, naps, discussions, long lunches punctuating the day so that the effective working time probably isn't more than your average 8 hour work day (if even that some days!).

Now, don't get me wrong, I think this might even be a better way of working than the nap-free, jam-packed work weeks that I'm used to. However, it certainly does take some getting used to.