(posted by janine)
Here are some small interesting or remarkable things of daily life …
- In all the busses (or in the classrooms, or in the temples) the women/girls sit on one side and the men on the other side.
- A few weeks ago, we got introduced to the Indian movie-scene: we earned 12 euros by ‘playing background foreign tourists’ for a full day in a hotel which was the scene for a new Tamil movie, featuring the local version of Brad Pitt .
- About 70% of the time we buy something here, or have it fixed (trousers, a key, shoes etc), it doesn’t work!
- In the office of a Big Director (e.g. some of the Directors of School Education that I visited to get permission for visiting schools) there are piles and piles of paper on the desk, but no computer. While the IT sector is booming in India, the department of education works with typewriters and written paper…
- Although it is officially forbidden, the caste system is still prevalent over the whole of India in the year 2007. At some schools, the girls from the lowest caste/outcaste (still) have to clean the schools and wash the toilets, and are not supposed to sit with the others to eat… (not at the schools that I visited though – this is what we have seen in a documentary)
- A role of toilet paper costs more than a lunch meal for the both of us (=rice, vegetables, sauces and bread) and the same as a three-hour bus ride.
- As I’m writing this, it’s thundering and raining and…the power cuts once in a while, leaving us in total silence and darkness (we keep forgetting to buy those candles)
- There are many small habits that are hard to know as a non-Indian. When I am visiting an older/’important’ person for my research, I may not sit with one leg over the other, in order to show respect. This is quite difficult when you are used to that and when you have to sit waiting in front of the directors desk for more than an hour!
- Arranged marriage is still common practice here, also in ‘the city’. Young people look strangely upon the idea of a ‘love’ marriage – it is not seen as a good thing! Many parents nowadays find the suitable partner for their son/daughter through the internet. One of the most important characteristics to search for is… caste.
- At one of the schools I visited, there were 1700 students and 27 teachers. Some teachers had up to 110 children in their class! Can you imagine teaching about AIDS, puberty and other sensitive subjects in an overcrowded classroom?
- Getting into town by bus takes half an hour. But once you are ‘in’ there, it may take between one or two hours to get to another spot ‘in town’. When we’re lucky, there is a seat available…(each on our own side of the bus of course)
- Indians are very good at ‘hiding’ things. We thought that alcoholism would not be one of the major problems in society here, since we didn’t ever see anyone holding or drinking a bottle. But it turns out that there are small ‘wine shops’ with bars behind it. And yes, many men go there once the night has fallen! I don’t know about the women though.
- Apparently we have a guard in our little village, who blows on his whistle every three seconds for half an hour each night around 23 o’clock, just to let people know that…he is there!
- The amount of people speaking (good) English has become less and less since India’s Independence 60 years ago. I’m glad I have a translator, and I sometimes even need her to explain their English…
- We are creating employment in our village: one women does our washing and another one cooks for us whenever we ask for it! (yes yes it’s decadent, especially since we DO have a kitchen now; but hey: how could we ever beat those mouthwatering curries and veggies of the Indians?) In other words: there are no legitimate household-related reasons that can distract Mikkel from writing his thesis!
- …but as you may imagine, he still manages to find enough other distractions: his favourite occupation is planning trips and dreaming about ‘curry powder’ in the mountains of the Himalaya and specifically: how to arrange to go skiing there…
September 28, 2007
September 24, 2007
Shit happens!
Posted by Mikkel
We told you about the almost deserted beach 5 minutes walk from our house. When moving in I had a somewhat idyllic image in my mind about us going for morning and evening swims on a quiet tropical beach. I must admit that this image has been shattered. We now use the beach for running in the morning...only! The locals also use the beach (especially in the morning)…but neither for running nor swimming! (You might have guessed it already, no?)
In the poor communities the sanitary arrangements are not as we are used to from home. Most houses neither have running water nor toilet facilities, so it’s only perfectly logical that the people go to the one and only place nearby where their shit (I said the word!) is actually flushed away…just like we also prefer with ours.
Cannot help thinking about the poor guys who were caught with their pants down on christmas morning 2004 when the tsunami stroke.
We told you about the almost deserted beach 5 minutes walk from our house. When moving in I had a somewhat idyllic image in my mind about us going for morning and evening swims on a quiet tropical beach. I must admit that this image has been shattered. We now use the beach for running in the morning...only! The locals also use the beach (especially in the morning)…but neither for running nor swimming! (You might have guessed it already, no?)
In the poor communities the sanitary arrangements are not as we are used to from home. Most houses neither have running water nor toilet facilities, so it’s only perfectly logical that the people go to the one and only place nearby where their shit (I said the word!) is actually flushed away…just like we also prefer with ours.
Cannot help thinking about the poor guys who were caught with their pants down on christmas morning 2004 when the tsunami stroke.
September 17, 2007
Settling in
Posted by Mikkel
Hello again everyone. It’s been three weeks since we arrived in Chennai. 3 weeks in which we have tried to accustom ourselves to the amounts of people (not at all there), the noise (getting there), the air (will never get there), the heat (getting better), the food (still getting some great surprises YUMMIE), the Indians (one moment there and the next further away than ever), the bus system (still not quite there), the traffic (still trying to just stay alive) the Indian bureaucracy (will hopefully never get there) …
…but as you imagine: Still going strong! What really helps is that we have now found a perfect little home in a small Indian artist community south of the city (see address and phone numbers to your right). It’s like a very quiet village tugged away between one of the main roads and an almost deserted beach. We live on the first floor and our downstairs neighbour is not surprisingly…an artist. There is a small rat problem, but besides that it’s truly perfect. (Janine’s slogan of the week: Better a house with a rat, than a mouse in your bed… ...if you can’t make sense of it…just enjoy her rhyming skills!)
Janine is getting underway with her research after some tiring lessons in Indian bureaucracy. She will surely tell you more about this. When (just to give you an idea!) you are a guest in a hotel here you first have to show your passport so they can register you with full name, address, passport number, occupation, length of stay, etc. on a special registration form. After that there is the hotel’s own registration book which must be filled in…again with your name, home address, occupation, etc. etc. and lastly you get a receipt for the amount of money you pay…again with your name, address, the date, etc. Luckily the receipt can be shared between the two of us!
I’m also gradually getting started. Anandhi, an Indian researcher at the MIDS (Madras Institute for Development Studies), has given me permission to come and go at the institute as it suits me, use their computer facilities (there are only 4 of them, but most of the time I’m alone there) and the library. The library is mostly for reading your own books since they don’t really have that many titles that are not directly related to India. If you do find an interesting title in the database, you ask one of the assistant librarians to get it for you, which then takes a couple of hours! I’ve been trying to find a place to play football…but so far without luck. I asked two guys my age if they knew a place: they smiled at me saying “that here we only play cricket!”
Next time I promise not to bore you with too many of these practicalities. Instead we shall supply you with stories (and images) of movie stars, auto action, marriage customs, poverty and injustices...
Take care for now.
Hello again everyone. It’s been three weeks since we arrived in Chennai. 3 weeks in which we have tried to accustom ourselves to the amounts of people (not at all there), the noise (getting there), the air (will never get there), the heat (getting better), the food (still getting some great surprises YUMMIE), the Indians (one moment there and the next further away than ever), the bus system (still not quite there), the traffic (still trying to just stay alive) the Indian bureaucracy (will hopefully never get there) …
…but as you imagine: Still going strong! What really helps is that we have now found a perfect little home in a small Indian artist community south of the city (see address and phone numbers to your right). It’s like a very quiet village tugged away between one of the main roads and an almost deserted beach. We live on the first floor and our downstairs neighbour is not surprisingly…an artist. There is a small rat problem, but besides that it’s truly perfect. (Janine’s slogan of the week: Better a house with a rat, than a mouse in your bed… ...if you can’t make sense of it…just enjoy her rhyming skills!)
Janine is getting underway with her research after some tiring lessons in Indian bureaucracy. She will surely tell you more about this. When (just to give you an idea!) you are a guest in a hotel here you first have to show your passport so they can register you with full name, address, passport number, occupation, length of stay, etc. on a special registration form. After that there is the hotel’s own registration book which must be filled in…again with your name, home address, occupation, etc. etc. and lastly you get a receipt for the amount of money you pay…again with your name, address, the date, etc. Luckily the receipt can be shared between the two of us!
I’m also gradually getting started. Anandhi, an Indian researcher at the MIDS (Madras Institute for Development Studies), has given me permission to come and go at the institute as it suits me, use their computer facilities (there are only 4 of them, but most of the time I’m alone there) and the library. The library is mostly for reading your own books since they don’t really have that many titles that are not directly related to India. If you do find an interesting title in the database, you ask one of the assistant librarians to get it for you, which then takes a couple of hours! I’ve been trying to find a place to play football…but so far without luck. I asked two guys my age if they knew a place: they smiled at me saying “that here we only play cricket!”
Next time I promise not to bore you with too many of these practicalities. Instead we shall supply you with stories (and images) of movie stars, auto action, marriage customs, poverty and injustices...
Take care for now.
September 2, 2007
The Chennai Challenge!
posted by: Mikkel & Janine
Well! Here we are with a new spicy story. Hopefully we can make our messages from the Indian continent just as enjoyable and spicy as the tandoori, tikka masala and korma curries that we get served here. It’s been exactly one week now since we arrived in Chennai (Madras), in the south eastern state Tamil Nadu. Before we left, we had been ‘warned’ that this 7 plus million city is not particularly one of the nicest places to visit on the planet. We are afraid that we actually see the point: besides a few nice temples there is not much else either to see, smell or hear than lots of traffic and people everywhere (working, walking, selling, driving, begging, sleeping). All this produces a hell of a lot of noise and smoke which enters your body and your skin as if it were to stay there forever.
----[Picture which shows our general appreciation of the city after a couple of days]----BUT there are also some positive sides to the city. First of all people seem very friendly. Wherever we go – the bus, the beach, the restaurants – people like to chat. And here we are not talking about the rickshaw drivers, the beggars and the other sellers who generally take no for an answer. Secondly Chennai has a very long and wide beach and although you can’t really swim or lie in the sun there, it’s still nice to cool off in the sea breeze. Luckily we are here in the “cool” period where the temperature is bearable (but still 30°+) and occasional rain-outbursts wash away the smells of the city. And last but not least: the food is spectacular: Dhosas, tikka masalas, tandooris, rotis, naans, parathas, dals, kormas, koftas, idlis, lassis, etc. … its almost all great!
Now here are some of the challenges that we have been dealing with so far:
1. Finding a place to stay
Never before have we started to discover a city with only one criteria: ‘Where would we want to live?’ This question could be translated into: Where are the oasis in this overwhelming hectic chaos of people and noise? Eventually we had to conclude that there is non! And to make matters worse, housing (rental) prices have been rocketing over the last year here in Chennai (due to the IT and software-boom) up to a level that equals Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Besides that, nobody wants to rent out a place for only three months and even less so when it concerns untrustworthy foreigners… After a week of searching and calling, we slightly adapted the criteria and have decided to stay in a cozy guesthouse in the centre which is both much cheaper than any apartment and also includes furniture!
2. Avoiding a ‘Delhi-belly’
Yes yes: We are very proud to announce that we have survived our first week without a Delhi-belly (also known as an illness that causes uncomfortable toilet-visits).
3. Understanding the Indians
Already on our second day here, Janine had two meetings for her research with people from the Teacher’s Union. The first meeting with one of them started off interestingly: After the most difficult phone conversation ever, we decided to go by at his office to speak to him face-to-face. When we arrived there, we found out that he was just on his way to our hotel… Indians talking English are not necessarily talking the same English as we do! (Luckily the second guy did speak very good English, but he was also ‘National General Secretary’ of the Teacher’s Union with 2,4 million members).
Another thing that we haven’t gotten used to yet, is that shaking ‘no’ with your head doesn’t mean ‘no’ here. In fact, it usually means yes! Imagine a conversation with a rickshaw (three-wheel-taxi) driver:
We: ‘Can u take us to…?’
Him: (shakes no)
We: ‘No?’
Him: yes yes
We: ‘So you can take us to …’
Him (shakes no)
etc.etc.
To round up we just want to say one thing: Despite the ‘disadvantages’ of the city, we definitely feel that Chennai ‘has something’ although we don’t really know what it is (yet). It could have something to do with the honest and friendly smiles of the people. So hopefully the coming months will bring a lot more positive news than chicken tandoori to this India story!
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What are we doing here…
Janine:
I am in Chennai to do my final research for my studies in International Development. This means I have to do fieldwork for 2-3 months after which I will have to write my MA-thesis as well as a report for the organization that funds my stay here (Education International). The topic of my research is ‘AIDS education in the classroom’. Although AIDS is not at all such a big problem here in India as it is in for example South Africa, the epidemic could spread really fast among the 1 billion population if nobody gets informed about it. While the government has made a big plan for schools to teach on HIV/AIDS, it is very unclear what actually happens in the schools and what teachers themselves think about it. The topic is still a taboo! The next couple of months, I will therefore be visiting different schools and interviewing teachers, head-masters and other people that are important for decisions about AIDS education.
Mikkel:
I will isolate myself in this quiet place to finally start trying to begin working towards the end of the last part of finishing the final part of my studies!
We plan to come back to Europe the 29th of January 2008. See you then!
I am in Chennai to do my final research for my studies in International Development. This means I have to do fieldwork for 2-3 months after which I will have to write my MA-thesis as well as a report for the organization that funds my stay here (Education International). The topic of my research is ‘AIDS education in the classroom’. Although AIDS is not at all such a big problem here in India as it is in for example South Africa, the epidemic could spread really fast among the 1 billion population if nobody gets informed about it. While the government has made a big plan for schools to teach on HIV/AIDS, it is very unclear what actually happens in the schools and what teachers themselves think about it. The topic is still a taboo! The next couple of months, I will therefore be visiting different schools and interviewing teachers, head-masters and other people that are important for decisions about AIDS education.
Mikkel:
I will isolate myself in this quiet place to finally start trying to begin working towards the end of the last part of finishing the final part of my studies!
We plan to come back to Europe the 29th of January 2008. See you then!
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