How Bazaar!

No, not a throwback to the ‘90s OMC song, but rather a weekly occurrence here in Andur.  Every Thursday, is in fact bazaar (market) day.  On this day, vegetable, grain, clothing, and all other vendors come to Andur to hawk their wares amidst the residents of Andur and neighboring villagers.  You’d think in my 5 months here I would be a regular visitor at bazaar day.  But, this past week was my first time!  (Staff members go weekly because this is where we stock up on our stock of vegetables in the mess here at the campus).

So, I rode the bus down to the village with some other coworkers and became prepared for the onslaught.  Stepping down in Andur, I was greeted by rows and rows of vegetable and fruit sellers – anything from cauliflower to eggplant to tomatoes and bananas.  With lines and crowds of people milling through stocking up as well.  Seeing as Andur is a fairly small village (population around 10,000), and I’m the only American in a 50 km radius, I was bound to attract some attention and run into people I knew.  It was a really gratifying feeling to be able to walk the paths and greet friends and acquaintances I have made over the past few months.  It made me feel as if I have created a semblance of a community here.

Some coworkers "candidly" purchasing tomatoes from a
tomato vendor (the leftmost guy).  

But in fact, bazaar day is a true lesson in pure economics.  Hello Supply, meet Demand.  Here you have vendors selling identical products right next to each other, competing for rupees one buyer at a time.  It’s a bit of a game, as you step up to a vendor asking the price of spinach.  “6 rupees for 2 bunches” they say.  You give a quizzical look and prepare to banter back.  “Ok ok, 5 rupees.”  Your face softens ever so slightly as you prepare to walk away, knowing you won’t pay a rupee above 4.  “Fine fine, 4 rupees” the vendor surrenders.  You hand over your 4 rupees (approximately  $0.10 USD).  You have forced the vendor to lower their price to meet your highest willingness to pay: the ultimate lesson in economics.  Hopefully this doesn’t label me too much as an academic junkie, but it was fascinating to stand in the center of the market and watch this and similar transactions taking place all around me.  Maybe some of what they were telling me at Berkeley might have been right…that is if I had been awake during class to hear it…

A view of the Bazaar.  One woman protecting
herself from the sun. It was a scorcher this day.

Aside from Bazaar day, I took a great weekend trip to the caves of Ajanta and Ellora.   I met up with two other fellows, Sami and Seth, to do a little sightseeing of historic Hindu, Buddist, and Jain caves dating back to the 2^nd Century BC.  It was a great two days, exploring some beautiful architecture.  These caves were built by literally cutting into bare rock from top to bottom.  I’ll let my pictures do most of the talking here, only because it’s hard to express the wonder of these sites in words.

Kailasa Temple, the largest and grandest Hindu temple at Ellora,
built in the 5th Century AD.  This used to be complete mountain.
Then the builders started carving in from the top.
It is still a functioning temple.

Sami and Seth posing in front of some of the Buddist
temples at Ellora.

A group of Buddist monks and Japanese tourists were
also touring the Ajanta caves when we were there.
As we were in one Buddist cave, the monks began to
lead a prayer. It was surreal as the reverberations of 
their words bounced off the wall, making the 
whole ceremony
seem ethereal.  

Ajanta is a series of 30 Buddist caves.  Each one holds a large
sculpture of....you guess it, Buddha.  Here is Buddha in "peace"
pose surrounded by his followers.

Also, I finally made it out to my first wedding.  A coworker got hitched and had a double wedding with his brother.  Wedding ceremonies in India can last for days, and (un)fortunately I was only able to attend the last part: the official ceremony and reception.  Weddings are a village affair…thus guests number by the hundreds to wish congratulations and get their hand on a good meal.  The ceremony began in the center of the village at about 12:30 with a crowd of about…500.  Although I couldn’t understand/hear most of the ceremony, I could still watch the cultural and ceremonial parts.  

A part of the ceremony requires the bride and
groom to walk around a flame and place 7 stones
on the little table.  I'm unsure as to the
significance.  Here's my coworker and his bride.

However, I got myself into a bit of a jam.  During the ceremony, rice is handed out with the intention that it be thrown at the bride and groom during particular parts of the ceremony.  So, as the ceremony begins everyone begins to throw their rice.  Thinking I’m just another one of the crowd, I take my handful and chuck it towards the stage.  How wrong I was.  Not only two minutes later, it’s round 2 of rice throwing... And here I am, riceless.  So, I begin to frantically pick up grains of rice around me and throw the measly 20 or so pieces I can find.  Turns out, there are about 6 or 7 times when rice needs to be thrown.  You can imagine my stress level as I would frantically gather rice, throw it, and look for more rice again.  I was much better prepared for the second wedding (more rice was given out and I rationed it). 

The ceremony.  A sheet is held between the bride and groom
so they can't see each other. This was one of the 

rice-throwing points of the ceremony.

But the ceremony was quick.  And afterwards, food.  As soon as the ceremony was over, the men ran towards the dining hall to get a floor seat.  People were guarding the door, only letting in a handful of people.  Fortunately I was let in (it helps to be the foreigner sometimes).  The room was packed with over 100 men, and plates and food were quickly distributed to the hungry guests.  I sat to eat…and was told “louker louker” (fast fast in Marathi).  We were only round one.  It was a bit hectic as people hollered for more chappati or bajji (vegetable) to the servers from across the room.  

People sitting in the dining hall waiting to be fed.
At this point, plates were being handed out.  

The food was fantastic…a Karnatakan meal I was told (Karnataka is the Indian state directly south of me and has a huge cultural influence in the District I live in).  As we left the food hall, another crowd of people took our seats.  There were about 6 or 7 rounds of dining.  First the men, then the women. 

The crowd outside waiting to be fed.  This is probably round 3 or 4.

After the ceremony and food, most people began to trickle back to their homes.  There’s no big reception with music as is typical at “Western” weddings.  But overall, I was extremely happy for my coworker and glad to be a guest at an Indian wedding.

The happy bride and groom!  Congrats!

Little did I know that this wasn’t going to be my first wedding this week.  I actually was brought along to a second wedding.  While in Solapur for work with my boss, I was told that on our way home we were going to “stop by” the wedding reception of a former coworker.  So, we went to ritzy “reception lawn” and paid our respects to the bride and groom (For the reception, it’s traditional for the bride and groom to stand at the head of the reception, while all guests come and congratulate them and their parents.  They then stand for a formal picture.  Given the hundreds of guests and “stop by”s that come, the bride and groom end up standing there for hours with smiles plastered on their faces).  We grabbed some food and made our way out.  A quick 45-minute…wedding crash.

And that’s a wrap.  Today officially marks 6 months here in India.  5 more to go.  It’s been a good ride so far, and I can only hope the second half is just as exciting. 

Posing with 2 village health workers in the office.
This was after I had handed out See's lollipops to the staff.
You can see the happiness on their faces...smiles all around.

Andrew

Culture.....SHOCK!

So, I think my complacency of living in India had reached a new high a few points these last weeks when culture came up to me and slapped me in the face a few times.  From work experiences to new friendships and new travels, this past month has reassured me that India is a bit different from the comforts of Los Angeles…but also eerily similar to life back at home.

Let me start from the beginning.  January 15 was a big day: the monthly meeting for the project I was working on.  This would cap the first month of data collection by the village health workers, as well as begin office consolidation of that same data.  These women come to the office once a month as a part of this project to bring savings from their respective village microfinance groups, discuss issues/problems with the project, and hear updates from the office.  So, as the health workers began to come into the office (most only get to the office once a month at this meeting because of the demands of their work and the distance our office is from their villages) I was excited to see the success of the data collection and begin to input it into the office computers. 

(Aside: This project uses village microfinance groups to help empower women in the village through: “adoption” of pregnant women by members for proper antenatal care, interventions in domestic violence cases, increasing women’s participation in local governance bodies, and improving the government rationing system.  My project was intended to collect data on all these issues to help the office have a better handle on the impact/effect of the project within the villages.)

The village health workers in the conference room discussing
with staff (the male members).

So, I eagerly awaited Village Registers all neatly and correctly filled out, bursting with information for me and the rest of the office to type into the computers.  How sorely I was disappointed.  Yes, Village Registers were brought to the meeting.  But not only were the registers incomplete or incorrect, but they were lacking crucial data on certain parts of the project.  Additionally, I was VERY ill-prepared to handle an influx of 40 village data sets and had had HUGE miscommunication at the initial meeting on exactly how the data should be collected.  One village took about one hour to input, given that it was the first day of data collection, erorrs in inputing, etc.  So you can imagine how long 40 villages takes (40 villages x 1 hour per village = 40 hours).  The work I thought would be neatly packaged into a one day activity was quickly turned into a hectic melee of data sets, registers, workers, and office staff packed into a cramped little office.  I soon realized that my expectations of…orderly business… was merely my naiveté at the work environment I’m currently working in.  By the end of the day, I had only inputs 5.5 data sets.  It was quite a blow to my ego.

So, over the course of the past 2 weeks I’ve had to re-organize my understanding and make sure that next month’s meeting goes…a little better.  I’ve had some conversations with the project leadership to ensure that all village women are better prepared to handle the data collection, and have worked to registers to the office before the next meeting to deal with initial collection.  Overall, a big reality check of my expectations and the reality of where I live.  Lesson learned….

So, of course during the following weekend there was a holiday, a day off from work.  Of course there was a holiday….Makar Sankranti.   Celebrated on the winter solstice, it’s the day with the longest period of darkness during the year.  In Hindu culture, it is celebrated as a harvest festival.  Special meals are made in all the homes, and people exchange sweets with the saying “Til gul gya, gord gord bola”(Accept these sweets, speak sweet words).  I was invited along to my Director’s home to take part in a family celebration for the holiday.  A great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.


And then, I found myself at the National Rural Youth Fest in Tuljapur.  The Tata Institute for Social Sciences School for Rural Development (a satellite of the very prestigious Tata Institute in Mumbai) is located about an hour from where I live and held a 5 day festival starting January 15 to celebrate/discuss/contemplate issues of rural development.  Due to connections between my boss and staff at the Tata Institute, I was able to attend for a few days.  Attendance consisted of a collection of 300 students from all over India and a delegation from Nepal.  I could go into all the details of the things that were discussed/presented, but that would be a bit dry.

The main stage for the event.

What I would like to share is about the people I spent the majority of my time with.  A group of Masters students at the Fest quickly took me into their circle of friends.  I wasn’t only struck by their masterful command of English (one girl admitted that she knew her ABCs better than her A AA E EEs – the Hindi alphabet), but the ease with which I connected to among them.  It was a group of urban, middle class, mid-20 somethings all interested in issues of development.  Not only was I able to talk to them about pop culture / daily life issues  (and spew some of the sarcasm I had been holding back – it doesn’t work so well in my elementary Marathi), but to critically engage with some of the development issues that I had been interacting with here in rural India.  I left after three days really excited about these new friendships, not only as people to try and catch a movie with on the weekend, but to continue conversations about the fate of rural India, America's role in development, etc.

I was also struck by the huge diversity this group offered.  Although all from India, this group of students represented almost every major ethnic subdivision: students from the Northeast (where they look more like their Chinese neighbors), West, and way down South.  Yet they were all India, could converse in Hindi along with knowing both English and the language of their respective state (i.e. Bengali for West Bengal in the East, Malayalam from Kerala in the South, Assamese from Assam in the Northeast). 

New friends!  They're all currently spread around India
for a month long field placement.  But looking forward to
reconnecting in March.

 Then I had to come back to work.  But rest not…because we were gearing up for our big yearly event: Mahila Melawa (Women’s Gathering).  This event on January 23 every year is held to celebrate the work of the village health workers and the microfinance groups in the villages.  Women from all around the project area are brought to our NGO campus for a day long presentation.  Awards are given out to the best performing groups, and rousing speeches are given about the importance of women and rural development.  This year, almost 2000 women attended the event (in 2006 the Melawa had a high of 6000 people) with the Guest of Honor as the State Minister, an important political officer.  Well, I couldn’t understand too much of the presentations given the Marathi, but it was exciting to be in the room full of so much energy.  And seeing as I was the camera/video man, I have great documentary of the whole thing (and also had to pay attention to the whole thing…).

The crowd at the Melawa. 

Head speaker addressing the crowd.  I could lie and tell you
what he said was really interesting.  But unfortunately I didn't
understand it too much.

After this event, all of the staff needed a day of relaxation (read: day off of work). This plus another holiday the following week (Republic Day – the signing of the Indian constitution - on January 26), I was able to take 2 days and visit a fellow “fellow”, Sami, doing some work in Hyderabad, the capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh (directly east of where I live). 

Hyderabad lies about 300 km east of me.  When asking about how long the bus ride from my village to Hyderabad, I was told in the range of 7 to 10 hours.   Therefore, I grabbed a 10:30pm bus Sunday evening thinking to arrive the following morning around 6 or 7am (the time Sami was supposed to arrive).  What I didn’t expect was a speedy 5.5 hour drive, landing me at the main Hyderabad terminal at a bright 4:00am.  You can imagine my anxiety as I was exhausted and alone at a very crowded bus terminal (not sure why there were so many people there that morning) in a state where Marathi is not used.  Alas, in Andhra Pradesh, the main language is Telugu, a complex vernacular completely different from both Marathi and Hindi.  Surprise Surprise…me in a place where I can't speak to anyone.  Great!  Fortunately, English is spoken sporadically and I was able to get a rickshaw to the hotel and take a little nap before Sami arrived (gotta love 24 hour check ins).

And so we explored Hyderabad for a few days.  Hyderabad has a distinct culture unto itself, heavily shaped by the large Muslim population in the city (approximately 40%, as compared to a national average of 16%).  So that translates into a lot more meat (Islam provides for a much more meat –friendly culture than Hinduism).  In fact, Hyderabad is famous for Hyderabadi byriani, a spiced rice dish containing your choice of meat (it can also be made vegetarian...but since when is that interesting).  Think of it like a paella, but Indian style.  So, of course we had to get our hands on some of the best byriani in town.  At one restaurant we were told that the proper technique to determine good byriani is to throw some rice on the floor and see if the grains stick together.  Yes, I was immature enough to do this at a fancy restaurant.  No, there is no documentation of such.

Getting my hands on some Byriani!  You don't have to remind
me that I look extremely attractive here.

Of course the restaurant's name was "Paradise".
The perfection description  of us as we were walking home,
stomachs full of byriani. 

But, we also got some sightseeing in as well.

An iconic focal point of the city is the Charminar, built by the former rulers of the Hyderabad empire in the 1500s.  It serves as the center of the city and offers great views of surrounding area.

Charminar: Photo taken walking toward it from
Laad Bazaar, the marketplace surrounding
the Charminar from the East.

Hyderabad is also known as the City of Pearls.  Can you guess why?  It has made itself famous by the sale of natural pearls from the Indian Ocean. 

Sami trying on a few for size.  Beautiful!  I feel so much more
qualified to evaluate pearls now.  Thanks Sami. 

 You can also find the largest statue of Buddha in India here in Hyderabad.  It was placed on an island in a lake in the city in 1992.  Funny enough, when they tried to put it here the first time, it sank to the bottom of the lake during transport.  But, hope was not lost as they pulled it out and set it up 2 years later – no damage done.

That's him.  

The local  buses in Hyderabad – hate to love ‘em.  They are very frequent, but you have to risk you heart and soul as you rush against crowds of other people to board during the 10 seconds it stops at any bus stand.  But, we braved the storm and made our way out to Golkanda Fort, a few kilometers outside of the city.  It was built in the 1300s and was the capital of various empires since that time.  Overall, it seemed like a family friendly weekend trip for groups to come, explore and bring picnics!  Unfortunately we didn’t get the picnic memo beforehand, but it was a fun adventure and offered a views of the city of Hyderabad.

Golkanda Fort!  

Views of the city after trekking to the top.

And thus, a quick trip came to an end.  I didn’t take a bus back (fearing that I wouldn’t find one if I went to the Hyderabad bus station – the whole language thing) and made my way back to Andur by train.

Fortunately, I came back right in time for graduation!  The nursing students here at my NGO have finally finished their 18 month course and examinations, and thus we had a send off event for them.  The 20 girls were studying to work in village health centers and will now be moving on to bigger and better places.  The event was great: crying girls, speeches by the staff, all the good stuff of a graduation.  And, point for Andrew: I gave a 3 minute speech…in Marathi…during the event.  Felt pretty good to be able to express myself…and have people understand me.  This also made me realize how terrible my grammar is and that I still can’t speak in more than 1 tense (present).

Posing with all the graduates.  My instructions for this photo
were "Smile".  As you can see, my instructions hold a lot of weight with them.  

But the students had been a large staple of my life here in Andur, so it’s weird to have them gone.  I needn’t worry too much because the second batch of students arrived 2 days later.  Meaning 20 new faces, friends, and conversations.  Although I have to admit it will take me the first 2 months to remember their names. 

The new batch.  Can't wait!

 And so I must go.  I have some conversations to start up, people to meet.  Oh, and a few badmittion games to catch up on.  


We recently found a few rackets and shuttlecocks on the campus, so a few of us guys hit the cock around after work.   I didn’t realize it could be so much of a workout.  So far it’s been only a male activity, but I’ve been trying to bring some female coworkers into the melee.  They don’t seem so excited....  The plan is to try to set up a proper court and all with net to make it official. 

Some guys playing around after work.

Hope all is well stateside!

Andrew