Namaste

My walk to work

2007-07-03T07:48:00.000-07:00

I step out of my flat, my little peaceful haven, to the maximum city of Mumbai. My daily walk to work takes around 15 minutes, weather depending. I leave my two little bags of rubbish, one organic and one plastic, for the rubbish-wallah to collect. She’s a very pretty girl in her 20s, dressed in bright coloured saris. When I first arrived she quite forcibly insisted that she “will” clean my flat twice a week for 400rs (£5) a month. I declined the offer, as I actually didn’t want a cleaner, however my work colleagues were flabbergasted. “Don’t accept her offer”. Unbelievably it’s double the going rate! Still, she smiles at me in the morning despite my refusal of her services.

After waving to the Nepalese guard at the front gate of the apartment building, whose daily reply is “Good morning sister” I venture out onto the muddy streets of Mumbai. The monsoon has now officially started and lately it has been pouring down for days. My wellies, which were a fabulous recommendation from a current VSO volunteer, are a godsend. My flat regularly becomes an island surrounding by fast flowing rivers. I never seen rain like it, the streets become instantly are water clogged, the drains overflowing and the smell is rising fast!

Before turning off my street to the main road, I always pass a large, smelly pile of rubbish where an elderly lady alongside the street dogs, are always having a good sort through. She’s a fascinating women, which wild air, and a very loose and revealing sari. A sari, which is a large cloth beautiful wrapped around the women’s body, is usually accompanied by a small tight crop-top keeping what is hidden underneath out of view. However this garment seems to be missing on the rubbish lady, and more than once, while she rearranges her the tangled garment, I along with the other passers-by have had a good view of what is underneath …

Turning onto the main thorough fare of Vile Parle East, I have to be extra careful dodging the puddles, street vendors and cyclists. You see all sorts of things strapped to the back of a bicycle. Today I saw the ice-wallah. He had three gigantic slabs of ice, probably 2 foot wide, piled on top of each other and strapped with filthy sting to the back. If it was a dry day, you’ll be able to trace him back to the ice factory due to the constant dripping of water. I would like to say that it is used just to keep packaged drinks and wrapped icecreams cool, however I know too well that it is stored on the floor below a counter, and corners chiselled off and served up in slushy juice drinks.

My area has a number of very prominent temples, one of which is a Jain temple, they are particularly conscience of not killing any other living creatures, so much so that they don’t eat onions or garlic, for fear that insects are killed when the vegetables are pulled out of the ground. They will eat carrots though, which baffles me slightly. Outside the temple you get the Sacred Cows. I pass two on my walk, tied up outside the temple. These must be the happiest cows in the world. They are beautiful brown beasts, incredible well kept and patiently waiting to be fed, watered and patted by passer-bys. I still haven’t plucked up the courage to tap their hinds, not something I ever felt comfortable doing. But at some point I’ll pay my 5rs I feed them some grass.

Pass the temple, further up the street to my office, I am met with another pack of dogs that linger again near a rubbish pile. The dogs are becoming as familiar to me as the local vendors, they never roam to far away from their territory. Today a car had to screech to a halt, while one of the dogs, in a sitting position, dragged itself 10meters up the road with its front paws. A tell-tale sign of worms, I guess there’s only so much rubbish you can eat before the inevitable.

By the time I get to work, I am in need of my second shower of the day. My back is drenched from carrying my laptop, and the outline of my bra is visible to all. My hair is nearly as wild as the rubbish lady, and the back of my legs splattered with mud. However despite all the unusual sights on my way to work, I think I am probably one of the most unique. Being one of the few white people in the area, with my trousers tucked into my green wellies (everyone is quite content walking though the water in sandals) and my dupata (a long scarf that accompanies Indian dress) usually trailing behind in the mud, I probably make the passer-bys walk to work as interesting as mine.

Bombay sundowners ...

2007-06-19T12:08:00.001-07:00

Best sunset spot in town .....

Juhu Beach on a Sunday evening ....

Three months and still smiling

2007-06-19T11:34:00.000-07:00

Last week was my three month anniversary here in India and it feels more like six! Its difficult to summarise the last three months of my life but here are some memories that stand out from the rest:

Highlights:

Riding on the back of my boss' bike, up and down the expressways, to business meetings
Taking Seb to the Taj, its just stunning even in 42 degree heat
Praying in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, and receiving a special blessing and a bright orange turban cloth
Eating Indian food with my hands
Watching the sunset from the Matheran hill station just outside Mumbai
Swimming in the outdoor pools of the posh 5* hotels when friends visit on corporate business
Travelling 24 hours by train and bus to remote villages and being one of the few foreigners ever to visit.
Sleeping under the stars in remote rural villages
Singing Radio Head at 3am at the leaving party for a Philipino diplomat to the entire Delhi philipino population
Jogging on Juhu beach in the morning, dodging the cricket balls
The rickshaw drivers in Mumbai, they go by the meter, and give you your one rupee change

Lowlights:

The rickshaw drivers in Delhi, they never want to take you, and they never go by the meter
Having to clean of the poo (and its not from a dog) imbedded into the tread of my trainers, after a morning jog on Juhu beach
A dodgy tummy from eating Japanese food at a very expensive restaurant in a 5* hotel, I could have had 1,000 “vada pavs” for the same price. Vada pavs is my favourite street food, a very yummy potato patty in a burger bun with spicy relish
Impoverished street children asking for food, and me getting use to ignoring them
The 14 year old electrician who worked for three hours on stuff in my flat and gets only £15 a month
A mouse running over my foot on a dirty Mumbai train
Been woken by women mourning someones death in the shacks outside my bedroom window
Arriving in one India’s biggest and liveliest cities in the world and feeling very alone
Having no clean clothes and no desire to do handwashing in a bucket ...

And here’s some memorable stories ….

Getting gas – some things are so easy here and some things are not, and there is not rhyme or reason way. It’s usually the things you really want which are not easy. Getting a gas cylinder was one of them. It was my first experience of pure unadulterated corruption. Before I could buy a certificate, which enabled me to buy gas cylinder, I had to buy a pressure cooker and 5kgs of rice (both of which I didn’t want and gave away to the women who collects my rubbish). I also had to donate a monetary gift to the chief in charge. Then after waiting for two hours post the pre-arranged visit for my gas to arrive, I went back to the centre to enquire. Their response was “give us 300 rupees and he will come in 5 minutes”. Of course I donated a further 300rs to their cause, and my gas cylinder was delivered in 5 minutes. Won’t I don’t understand from the whole fiasco was why didn’t they tell me 2 hours earlier?

Realising my hatred for cockcroaches - Visiting a volunteer my organisation had placed in a remote rural village 12 hours bus journey out of Mumbai. Due to limited space I slept outside on a terrace made smooth by spreading a mixture of water and cow dung, which is then baked in the sun. Thankfully I took onboard my colleagues advice to wrap my “dupata”, which is a long Indian scarf, around my ears and over my head, like a huge bandage. A wise move as I woke up in the middle of the night with a 2 inch cockcroach crawling in my hair, the scarf was to prevent it from getting into my ears!

Porshe, anyone? - On arrival in India I spent my first 6 weeks in Delhi. My last night in Delhi was as memorable as my first. It was spent drink champagne along with 100 of the richest men in India, at the launch of Porshe. Until this event a Porshe could not be legally imported into India. How does a VSO volunteer get an invited to such an exclusive event … well I was invited by my well-heeled Sikh Bollywood dancing partner. On arrival in Delhi, taking seriously the goal of becoming an extra in a Bollywood movie, I jumped at the chance of attending Bollywood Dance Classes at Golf Links Community Centre. The class consisted of 6 primary school girls, two middle-aged Indian mums, and Kirat, the community’s centre president. Golf Links I soon realised, is one of the most affluent suburbs in South Delhi, and so is my Sikh, turban wearing dancing partner.

Good Morning Mumbai

2007-05-05T02:09:00.000-07:00

Mumbai or Bombay (both names seem to be fine) is a gigantic city. It reminds me a little of New York, built on a peninsular jutting out into the Arabian Sea. The train lines run in parallel from North to South, and areas are either East or West Side. Pretty much the comparison stops here! This is the Gateway of India, Mumbai's icon.

I am living in an area called Ville Parle, which is Greater Mumbai in the suburbs. It takes about 45 minutes by local train to reach the South of the peninsula, where the Gateway of India is. The area I am living in is nice residential area with a vibrant market and tree lined streets, so I think it will become home shortly. Vile Parle is a Gujurati area and therefore vegetarian, which is great as I had the intention to turn veggie out here. The food here is fabulous, I’ve discovered a southern Indian speciality called Pav Bhaji, "pav" been a burger bun type bread with lashings of butter and "bhaji" is a purred sauce, my favourite being tomato and cheese. It’s not far off a tomato-pasta sauce but better, its very yummy. You use the bread to mop up the sauce, I am sure I will come back double the size from India!

I have also now moved into my tiny flat, which is great after two months living out of my rucksack. Its pretty small, a studio with a separate kitchen, but it’s only 10 minutes walk from work, which is fabulous. It is on the first floor and has lots of windows, so feeling a bit on display at the minute without any curtains. I have an interesting view onto the local communal well, so every morning see whole families taking showers, brushing teeth, washing clothes. Seems very social. Thankfully I don’t have to join them as I have running water into my flat.

The "Oddity of the Week", this week goes to my trip to the cinema. I saw Namesake (English Bollywood film, well worth watching) and as it has been out for a while, I was the only one in the cinema. They play the national anthem before each film. Whilst sitting merrily in my seat, suddenly heard the cinema attendant say quite sternly, “ Please stand up”, so here I was, looking pretty awkward, standing up on my own in a 1,000 seater cinema humming along to the Indian national anthem. Thankfully 4 other people turn up shortly after the film started!

2007-05-05T01:42:00.000-07:00

Seb was out last week, and we did some travelling, went to the Taj Mahal for my second visit, still as impressive as the first. We also headed up north to the Punjab, where we visited the famous Sikh Golden Temple. It was incredible, a very spiritual experience.

My Job

2007-05-05T01:41:00.000-07:00

Some of you have asked regarding my job, as contrary to the blog entries so far I’m not here just here for travel! The organisation I am working for is called iVolunteer. It is a small Indian NGO (non governmental organisation) of 17 people. Principally based in Delhi with around 10 staff, 4 of us here in Mumbai, and a couple of people based in Chennai and Bangalore. The organisation has two programmes, firstly it recruits people to do volunteering projects, working in both rural India as well as in the slums in the cities, and secondly it also recruits Indian professionals to do VSO in Africa and Asia. My principal objectives are to grow the organisations brand awareness in India to promote volunteering, both nationally and internationally. A large part of my role is also to work with corporations based here in Mumbai to build partnerships. Corporate Social Responsibility is growing, and with the increase of home grown companies, the desire to do something about the mass poverty here is also thankfully on the increase. Despite the double digit economic growth and India now having the largest number Billionaires (US$) in Asia (more than Japan), there’s other statistics that seem to escape the world press. For example, India also houses over 25% of the world poor. Basically 1 out of every 4 people who live on less than 1US$ a day, who do not have access to running water or electricity, who live from a hand to mouth existence are in fact Indian. The other unfortunate fact is that the wealthy emerging middle class in India, who live mainly in urban areas are not really that aware of the extent of poverty in their own county. I already feel very detached from it, living in Mumbai, in my nice little flat with running water. It’s easy to become quite distant from the extent of the problems. This is some of the problems we are encountering with the organisation, when trying to get people to volunteer. So on that note, to endeavour to become more aware of reality and understand what my organisation does, I am going to volunteer. I will probably spend one day a week working with an NGO which supports street kids here in the slums of Mumbai. Another depressing fact, Mumbai has the biggest slum in Asia and it is growing at an unfathomable rate.

Parking for tourists ....

2007-04-13T01:21:00.000-07:00

Thankfully I'm never planning to drive whilst out in India, so I shouldn't encounter any parking problems ...

Snaps on the weekend trip to Agra and Juiper

2007-04-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

This is in Jaipur, a palace built for women, who at the time couldn't be seen out side so they stayed in this building where they could watch the world go by .

Back to work ...

2007-04-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

I have reached my one month anniversary, and it feels more like four! I'm currently in Delhi and the plan is to move to Mumbai at the end of April. It has all worked out really well. In Delhi I'm staying in a flat 10 minutes walk away from work, which is quite unbelievable. The walk however is pretty treacherous, with no pavements you are constantly dodging bikes, cycle-rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, packs of dogs, cows, piles of poo and burning rubbish ... also the heat is increasing day by day, to the extent that 10 minutes walk will not be possible. It’s 36 today, so still manageable.

So, in summary for my first month in India

Seen the Taj Mahal, which every one must do especially before it turns yellow from the increasing urban pollution

Met a member of the Royal Family ... I think Princess Ann will be removing a patronage of VSO on return to the UK after questioning the recruitment process of volunteers. My colleague spoke to her in Hindi, of which her response was "careful" and I didn't do much better by admitting my dislike of the London transport system promoting me to escape to India!

Have used up at least 3 of my 9 lives on the roads in India ... huge juggernauts driving at full speed on the wrong side of the motorway is common practice. From now I will be taking the train everywhere

Becoming increasingly aware of the huge difference between corporate/foreign office expat and VSO volunteer life in India, they work 5 days and have washing machines, I spend half a day of my1.5 day weekend bucket washing! An English paper pushing bureaucrat at the British High Commission could not comprehend how we could survive on a monthly salary of 8,000Rs (100pounds) and proceeded to ask why we were not doing "proper jobs" ... if it wasn't for the free gin supplied at the bar within the High Commission compound I think I would have got rather upset!

Finally, last Friday in the centre of Delhi saw a groom, in his full wedding attire, on a white horse galloping down the fast lane of a dual carriage way .... either he was late or making a run for it ..

Will keep the updates coming ....

Namaste Liz