Follow Your Gut Instinct

I was reading through my Frommer's Guide to India one day and as I flipped through the "General Tips" section of the book, there was a part about safety that read through. The one line that stuck out to me was "in any situation, follow your gut instinct, because you are probably right." Storing that into my memory, I was set on reminding myself to always be aware of my surroundings so as not to put myself in any sort of compromising situations while I'm here.

Fast forward to last Friday evening, my last day before heading off to Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement. I finished official work at 6pm and started reading Meren's final chapter on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I wanted to finish the entire thesis for him because I wasn't sure if I would have internet/computers here (which is the complete opposite) so I resolved to stay a little later on Friday night to help him out. Some people usually stay in the office till around 7-7:30, so I had company until then. Around 8pm, while I was alone, playing some music aloud from my laptop to pump me up while editing the paper, the security guard from upstairs scared me when he came down and went to the bathroom. I just didn't hear him come in. We greeted each other and he proceeded to tell me that he would be on shift for the next 12 hours and I didn't need to leave anytime soon, which was a relief because it takes a couple hours to read through each chapter.

The weird thing that happened is that later on, around 9pm (after I had spent 30 minutes talking to my brother on Skype), he came down again, presumably to use the bathroom. Except this time, he lingered around and carried a conversation. I was trying to be nice, but 25 minutes had passed and it was definitely getting late. He was Nepalese so sort of resembled each other in terms of physical appearance and so I think he was very overjoyed to have met me, so overjoyed that he started saying things like "I want to take you back to West Bengal with me" and, "you're my favorite in this office." Looking back, I think he was just trying to be nice and embrace me as a "brother," but at the time, I was definitely a little scared out of my boots. I finally ended the conversation, telling him we would talk later, and he went back to his post upstairs.

At that point, I was a little uncomfortable but determined to finish the chapter and email it off to Meren before I left for the weekend. It was approaching 10pm and it was definitely the latest I had ever stayed in the office. I was trying to think of ways I might be able to do it at home, but nothing seemed better than to stay and finish up asap. I read the last 7 pages as quickly as possible and began to pack up. All of a sudden, the power went out. Pitch black. By then I was definitely freaked out, and tried my best to lock my laptop into the cabinet (I wasn't bringing it to the south) and pick up all of my things that were scattered on my desk (boarding pass for flight, headphones, journal). I called Meren and stayed on the line with him as the security guard was waiting to leave with me in the dark and proceeded to walk home as quickly as possible.

When I got home, I layed down on my bed and looked at the ceiling for 15 minutes, thanking God for a safe journey home. For some reason, I was sufficiently scared from the situation even though looking back, it was just a matter of staying at the office later than I should have, an overly friendly security guard, and a random power outage at a not-so-convenient time. If anything, from here on out, it was a good reminder to take seriously any feelings of reservation I might have for a particular situation. I don't know if there really was anything to be worried about that night, but all I know is that my gut instinct was definitely jumping up and down, telling me to leave the office asap!

I'll probably take it more seriously next time.

"Fly the Good Times"

I've arrived safely into Vivekanada Memorial Hospital in Saragur, India. It took about 12 hours in total transit to make it, but overall it was a pretty smooth journey. Upon landing in Bangalore, I met my taxi driver and he nonchalantly told me we were about to make a six hour drive to our destination. After a flat tire, a stop to get masala dosas, 1.5 million (I'm serious) passed Airtel, Tata Mobile, and Vodafone cell phone ads, and way too many near collisions for comfort with tourist buses that were hogging the road, we pulled into the hospital sound and safe. I'm going to have to find a way to dig out the seatbelts that are buried under the seats for my ride back a week from now.

But let me tell you about Kingfisher Airlines. Back in March, when I was planning this trip, I hadn't the slightest idea of what airline to take for a domestic flight to Bangalore from Delhi. Unfortunately, Continental and Northwest don't operate within India so I knew I would have to take an Indian airline. I randomly googled "airline rankings" and stumbled upon skytrax at airlinequality.com. For fun, I clicked on the 5 star airlines and came across an airline called Kingfisher. It was a domestic airline that served destinations across India. With a name like "Kingfisher" and a website called airlinequality.com, I was a little skeptical. The only two airlines that I ever knew, Continental and Northwest, weren't even ranked that high. I decided to give it a shot, even though I hadn't the slightest idea of what a five star airline could offer in terms of a flying experience.

I was totally blown away today for my two and a half hour flight. From boarding the plane, you sit down in a special neck recliner, personal video monitor (with a channel that is a camera that lets you see the pilot's viewpoint), and soothing music in the background. In flight, the flight attendants served miniature bottles of Kingfisher premium water, the personal video monitors played quality in flight programming including a Bollywood movie, cricket matches, and the TV show "Friends," and as our "snack" (I was expecting peanuts so I ate McDonalds before boarding), we got a full course meal with chocolate cake and a mini-dosa. All for a two and a half hour flight that I would normally sleep away, waiting the time out until we reached our destination. I almost felt like I would have wasted my ticket if I had slept!

It was awesome. It's too bad Kingfisher doesn't fly internationally, because it would probably be the most comfortable flying experience I would ever have in economy. Then again, they'd probably be broke. And from now on, I will definitely trust airlinequality.com and its 5-star airline ratings.

On a more serious note, I will try to update on things here at the hospital throughout the week!

Off to the South!

Tomorrow morning, I will be taking a trip to visit the southern part of India. I'll be working for a week at an organization called the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement in a rural town called Saragur, outside the Mysore/Bangalore cities. It originally started in 1984 with a handful of doctors longing to serve the poor with their medical background, and has since expanded its vision to include initiatives such as: community development, water and sanitation, and education. I'm particularly excited to visit this organization because I think it will give me a view of public health from the lens of implementation. Here at PHFI, it is primarily an academic institution - we do research, teach people about public health, and look into the issues that need to be addressed. This organization is addressing those very issues in a rural area where the people are in need. It should be exciting indeed.

I'll be waking up four hours before my 10 o'clock and putting my money that there will be a taxi waiting around my street to take me to the domestic airport here in Delhi (there's one for international and one for domestic). Hopefully, if all goes well, I won't lose my bag (I have to check it in because of my contact solution - they don't sell much of it here) and I'll be walking the streets of Bangalore by 1pm. From there, I'll be hoping on a 3,330 rupee taxi through Mysore and eventually hit Saragur by 6:30pm (hopefully). Hopefully all will go smoothly! I'm excited to eat dosas once I get there - they are one of the staple south Indian foods!


They look really hard to make to me - but apparently they are common to eat for every meal.

Israel vs. Palestine

This week, I've been spending a lot of time helping my friend Meren edit his disseration. He's a PHD student at Jawaharlal Nehru University here in Delhi and is submitting his thesis in the next couple of weeks. Because English is his third language (he speaks Naga and Hindi), I randomly threw it out there that I could help him read and edit his thesis as he's preparing to hand it in. Little did I know that a PHD thesis would be chapters upon chapters of material on the Israeli-Palestine peace process. I figured it was the least I could do given that he took out a lot of valuable time to help me find my new place as well as take me to church on Sundays. As an extra bonus, I've been learning the ins and outs of Israeli-Palestinian peace process, something I grew up hearing about on the news (Sharon, Netanyahu, Barak were never differentiated between). I'm seeing how this issue is something that both sides are absolutely passionate about, which could explain why neither side is willing to compromise beyond a certain halfway point. I've never been too politically active in any way, but this might be a topic that I might have some opinions on for the future!

Final Housing Update

I finally moved into my new apartment at Gautam Nagar. There are a lot of things that are different about the new place from the old: no housekeeper, one room vs. entire apartment, everyday man’s neighborhood vs. fenced off security guard neighborhood, dirty bathrooms and dusty tables vs. servant cleans everything everyday, but I’m adjusting. I figured one of the best ways to adjust to the new environment was to take as much ownership of the place as I could. In a sense, make it my own.

One of the things I did (initially cause I didn’t think they would provide) was go to the local mall and buy a set of bedsheets and a pillow. It instantly made the place a lot more cozy and I felt a lot more at ease sleeping on bed sheets that I provided and not ones from who knows where. On Saturday, one of my Naga friends hooked me up with one of his friends and I got full sized fridge in my place as well as a 20 liter Bisleri water jug dispenser. I did a little rearranging of the furniture and bought some cleaning supplies (sponge, bathroom slider, rag, toilet paper) and the place feels a lot more like home now.

The environment once I step outside is a lot different too. Instead of seeing lines of security guards sipping water and sitting in front of an air conditioner all day, there are people riding three wheeled bicycles selling vegetables and kids playing cricket in a small field in front of my apartment building. Apparently, the area that I’m living in now is not nearly as safe as before (but I’m not sure what could be safer than before) – so I’ll have to take more precautions in terms of when I come home and how I come home in the future.

Aside from the wedding this past weekend, I also got a chance to have dinner at Caroline’s house, who’s aunt is a diplomat at the US Embassy. The friends that we met from Penn were there, and it was a good time of catching up and sharing stories from the wedding. We also got a chance to meet some of Caroline’s aunt’s friends, many of whom work for the Embassy or are somewhat related because of Marines work. It was cool hearing their stories of how they all ended up in India. It was also encouraging to exchange perspective on things, like living overseas. Many of the people had been all over the world and were hoping to see different parts in the near future. Some were even raising families. I can identify a lot more with my friends out there who are looking to do international relations/politics type work. These people really love what they do – and they get to have fun while working as well.

Picture of the old bedroom

Another angle

Bathroom (it's not as grimy as it looks)

New room - all to myself. The water jug and fridge helps to make the room feel a lot homier.

Rotate 90 degrees right - the "bedroom" side of the room.

The bathroom - I had to clean up about a dozen cigarette butts and scrub the sink before using it, but now it looks a lot better. Too bad there is no hot water though - cold showers are rough!

Indian Wedding

This weekend, I got a chance to take part in an Indian wedding at the invitation of another intern at PHFI. Her name is Aditi and she is going to be a sophomore at Barnard College this upcoming year. She invited my friend Caroline and I because she knew that since we were Westerners we probably hadn’t had the chance to experience a real Indian wedding before. We were excited to check it out, and the night definitely exceeded any expectations that had going on.

I took about 300 pictures, which pretty much sums how long and elaborate the night was and thorough the idea of marriage is in Indian culture. Here are pictures to sum it up.

(6:00pm) We had trouble finding Aditi’s house because the road she lives on, Mother Teresa Crescent, is apparently the same road that the President of India lives on (more on that later). Our taxi driver had to stop and ask a couple of people, but we eventually found the house because there was a dressed up band playing really loud music in the driveway of the house.

Walking into the house, I saw this Volkswagen car. I guess that it would eventually be used to transport the groom to the hotel. Someone told me later that they used to have the groom ride to the hotel on a horse, but given India’s horrendous traffic and that fact that it’s monsoon season, it’s probably better that they ride in the car.

(7:00pm) The first of many, many ceremonies. That’s the groom sitting in the middle, with his mother wearing the hat. There were probably close to 40 family members at the house, ranging from immediate family to second cousins – and that was just the close family. The man in the long white beard is a Hindu priest and he’s performing a ceremony with mango leaves and holy water to purify the groom from his sins.

Before we left, there was a round of family pictures with all the aunts, uncles, grandparents, children, etc that were gathered at the house. While we were waiting, I got a chance to chat with the groom himself, the grooms father, and his best man. I learned that the groom and his bride are in the media industry, and that the majority of their family is either in the media or politics.

The groom and his cousin, Aditi, who invited Caroline and I to the wedding. Since the groom’s family is not from Delhi, the pre-wedding festivities were held at Aditi’s house. I found out there was Aditi’s father and uncle are both member’s of Parliament (!), which explains why their house could be on the same street as the President of India. When I had asked Aditi what her parents did when I first met her, she had replied that her father was an “advocate.” Ha ha ha.

Picture of the groom with Aditi’s dad, the member of Parliament, and her mother.

(8:00pm) When we’d called Aditi earlier in the day about where we should meet her, she gave us the option of meeting her at her house (which is what we did) or meeting her at the Hyatt in Delhi. Good thing we met her at her house, because we really got immersed into the whole atmosphere of the wedding. As we were all dropped off at the Hyatt, we were greeted again by the same band and were ushered into the hotel dancing! All the banter and excitement between the people was a symbolic gesture symbolizing the celebration of two people getting married.

(830pm) Coming into the hotel, we had to pass through a metal detector. Because nearly everyone was wearing bangles or metal of some sort, they were all setting the metal detector off. For some reason, even though I was dressed in a shirt and tie, I got pulled over and searched. After a while, everyone made it into the ballroom and was chit chatting with one another. Finally, after some time, the bride entered the room. She looked beautiful, and it took a while to understand the complexity of her outfit, with all the clothes, jewelry, makeup, and henna that she was wearing.

(9:00pm) Finally, a shot of the groom and the bride.

After the bride had entered the room, a time of blessings began. One by one, families and couples and friends went on stage and gave the bride and groom their wedding gifts. This process probably took about three hours, as people were constantly coming in and out. All in all, we guessed that there were 500 people give or take present at the wedding. There were some pretty famous guests in attendance too (you could tell when crowds gathered around their table or when security guards started pushing you out of the way). I heard Ajay Devgan (Bollywood star) and the future Prime Minister and leader of the opposition party were all in attendance. The movie star is the man in the back of the table with a white collar folded over a black blazer and the future prime minister is the one to his left, with the sweater vest, long white shirt, and thick black glasses. I snapped a picture of their table, right before all of them left early.

A shot of Caroline (right), Aditi (groom’s cousin, center), and myself

(1:00am) I snapped this shot after the best man flagged me down and ushered me right into the front. As the night passed on, people began heading home for the night, leaving the close family behind to attend the actual wedding ceremony, which began around 12:30am. Being one of the only foreigners in attendance, the best man grabbed me and allowed me to take a picture right up front. Here the Hindu priest is going through some of the traditional rites for an Indian marriage, which included circling a flame seven times to symbolize this life and six more lives in union together as a couple, reciting passages in Sanskrit, and showering of the couple with more dried rice. The ceremony lasted about two hours.

(2:30am) Last significant picture of the night. As the couple was exiting, Caroline and I got to snap one last shot of them before they left. They must have been exhausted. One of the most amazing parts of the night was seeing how calm and serene the bride was throughout the time. She almost never opened her mouth except to greet people, and always languidly glided around the different areas where the ceremonies were being held.

All in all, it was an incredible experience. One of the second cousins that we met joked around with us, saying, it’s a good thing that these weddings are so elaborate, it’ll ensure that you really love your spouse beforehand as well as afterwards because no one would want to go through another one of those marriages again. I definitely agree.

Ramu

(I wrote this entry in my journal one week ago as I was preparing to move out into my friend's hostel at a local university. I'm moving tonight into my new apartment at Gautam Nagar.)

Ramu is our housekeeper. He lives in one of the bedrooms that Mr. Taneja has in the apartment and shares a bathroom with me. On the night of my first arrival, Ramu was waiting outside in the dark on the street for me to arrive. Who knows how long he was out there for. He helped me bring my bags in and settle me in. The next day, I couldn't sleep so I woke up and was out in the living room at six in the morning. When Ramu woke up at 6:30am he immediately brought out coffee and biscuits for me to eat.

Ramu wakes up every morning and his sole job is to take care of the apartment and the people that live in it. He wakes up before everyone else and has water boiling on the stove for coffee and tea. Throughout the day, he's either cooking a meal, cleaning up after cooking a meal, or finding some part of the apartment to clean. He makes homemade chapatis and nan as well as all the other Indian dishes that we eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The fridge that we have in the apartment is nearly empty because everything we would need for a meal is bought that day at the local market or off the street in the neighborhoods nearby. The extent to Ramu's commitment to the house is such that I didn't even need a key to the apartment because Mr. Taneja assured me that Ramu would always be around. Hasn't failed me once. He cleans up after our meals, brings water when we come in from the muggy heat, and yields whenever I enter the bathroom at the same time as him. Although, I would never expect this kind of treatment from anyone in the US, he really embodies what it means to make a guest feel like they are home away from home, and then some.

What is there to take away from all this? I'm not really sure. All I know is that this is one part of the culture that has really impacted me in terms of cementing a warm and sentimental memory of my time here in this apartment. One thing I'm going to miss a lot is Ramu's smile, and how it's so warm that it can do nothing else but brighten your day after long hours at work. I'm going miss all the ways he tries to speak English to me, the ways he teaches me how to make homemade chapati breads, and all the ways that he embodies the good qualities of a servant by taking a burden off my mind when I least expect it.

Cheers to you, Ramu.


Ramu and I