First Couple Weeks in India or Message from the Front: safety, heat, Indian political, cultural, humanitarian

All,
Namaste from India (namaste, I’ve been told means “I bow to you” or something close to that; this comes from the Hindu conception that God is within all people, so each person bows to the God inside the other person when they say hello; interesting concept, I think). After some initial stomach problems (which I attribute to changes in food) and a long layover in the city in which boredom and bureaucratic frustrations were the main feature, leading me to even contemplate leaving, I am safely in the village area, enjoying the serenity and the slow lifestyle. I am also remembering just why I was so inspired to come and work here in the first place. Watching animals is a favorite pastime, as is pashu-dost banaanaa – making animal friends (and spending time with some human ones as well). As I write now I am struggling on a quite deficient keyboard in the village area (you never realize that you only space with your right thumb until the right part of the space bar does not work – see which thumb you space with and we’ll take a survey; I am retraining my brain: “left thumb, left thumb, doh, dang right thumb; let’s try again, left thumb, left thumb…”). I don’t claim that any of what follows has captured any great/transcendent truth, or that my experiences of India represent India itself (and especially not all of India). They are merely my impressions, thoughts, and ideas about my time thus far in rural Rajasthan. Many of the things that are new are new merely because I have never lived in a rural location before, so much may be less than impressive to some of you (though hopefully not most). Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy them while taking them with a grain of salt (except the part about the NGO: be impassioned by this!). Also, if you only read one thing in this email, please read 15), 16) and 18) below, as they are about the NGO in which I am working, which is by far the most important part. Their work is in water management and the empowerment of women, two of the most important issues facing the world, especially the developing world, today. Have I pre-warned you and parenthesied you to death by now? Alright then, chalo (let’s go). The following message will be sort of stream of consciousness, so buckle up:

1) Has anything ever sounded so good on a hot day as a sweet watermelon? I think not. Hence, I have already enjoyed much watermelon here. What I didn’t like so much? Not so sweet watermelon vinegar. Moral: don’t eat watermelon that has been in the heat all day. Just don’t do it.
2) Speaking of heat, it’s been about 113 degrees here. Pretty warm, and it can supposedly get up to about 120. What’s really strange,and I’m sure this happens in the US too and I just didn’t notice is that the wind becomes HOT. It’s really strange to be expecting a cooling breeze and instead get a hot blast of air in the face.
3) A lizard on the wall in the NGO office just ate a moth. Reminds me of feeding at the Center (how’s that going Tery, Robin, Sarah? I hope well).
4) Indian bureaucracy, what an experience! You never where to go, you never know whether you’re filling out the right form, everything has to be done in all caps in duplicate, and other such fun things. You also have to report into the police station (if you are not a tourist) within EXACTLY 24 hours of your arrival, or else trouble ensues. India keeps very good tabs on its visitors, it seems. Makes sense, given their security situation and the fact that they don’t need any more people inhabiting their land. However, it has made the NGO boss very insistent that everything be done properly, lest the authorities start giving us headaches. So, I spent a considerable amount of times doing the proper registration and will not be allowed to buy anything for the NGO, i.e. they will buy it, then I will wire transfer the money from my bank account to the NGO’s bank account so that everything is official. Annoying since almost everything incurs a fee, but I guess that’s the price to do things “the right way.” Better than getting deported I suppose.
5) What a simple idea: switches next to every power outlet. I think 100x more people would turn off their appliances, thus saving energy lost as ghost power, if all they had to do was hit a switch. Simple solutions for big problems. Also, almost all light bulbs are CFLs or fluorescents, because in India saving money on energy is not a choice, but a must for survival. Interesting.
6) I love the animals in the village in India. I watch and interact with cows, buffalos, goats, sheep, pigs, donkeys, camels etc. I think I have a somewhat unusual affection for animals, such that I want to be friends with all of them and am frustrated when the desire is not reciprocated (we’re still friends in my mind, though). Especially interesting is when processions of animals come through the village’s one-lane road (I mean one-lane for both directions-fun!). This happens when nomads – yes,in additions to armies of computers techs, India also has people who are nomads – come through with their animals. The other day some people came through with hundreds of goats, donkey, sheep, and cows. So, imagine the scene: a rural area with agricultural fields all around, with a single-lane road jam packed with myriad livestock running around and looking for food while their owners tried to keep them in order. The donkeys looked very cute with their little packs they were carrying. It is truly breathtaking for someone like me, who has only lived in towns relatively away from rural areas. Just very interesting. Add sheperd to the list of possible retirement options.
7) So, anyone who worked with me at the Math and Science Center knows that I went through a phase where I was concerned about electrical safety. There will be no such concerns here, because many things are potential hazards. For example, just yesterday I had to fiddle with the power setup for a one of our computers, which involved shoving the bare wires from the end of a power cable of which the plug had been cut off into the 220V power socket (which is double the voltage in the US – yikes!). Additionally, I have experienced the computer cases being completely charged up. I am convinced that this is what killed a music player that I had given one of the village kids for helping me enter some data. Needlesstosay, I am a little wary of plugging my camera, etc. into these computers. But it’s all fun and perhaps my mom will have skipped this part after reading “because many things are a potential hazard”. Just kidding mom.
8) 2 simple steps to making a goat your friend: 1) Feed the goat some leaves from a tree and 2) Slowly approach the goat and pet it behind the horns. Bas (hindi for “it is sufficient”), now you have a goat friend.
9) Speaking of goats, the goats here have horizontal pupils. Is that a general feature? It’s kind of disconcerting at first glance, but they’re still nice animals
10) So, I had a dream that I randomly went to my oldest brother Denny’s house, ate some pizza, and then went to sleep. In the dream he asked me why I came to his house to sleep randomly, and I didn’t know why. Then I woke up to a million bug bites on my legs and realized how this dream might have bubbled up subliminally.
11) By the way, slightly sweetened lime water on a hot day is just marvelous.
12) The Hindi language is very fun. Two parts are very noticeable and fun: 1) Word repetition and 2) Compound verbs. For word repetition, when Hindi-speakers really want to emphasize something they often repeat the word rapidly in succession: jaldi, jaldi aie (come QUICKLY, where jaldi means quickly). Word repetition also has a structural use at times: ke sath is a postposition meaning “with”, so that “main ap ke sath jaunga” means I will go with you (main =I, ap =you). Repeating it though, sath sath means “together” so that “ham sath sath jaenge” means we will go together (ham = we). So, often with word repetition shades of meaning are added, or different parts of speech are formed. Interesting part of hindi. For compound verbs, shades of meaning are definitely added. So, what happens in Hindi is that two verbs are put together to form a new verb of subtly different meaning. For example, the verb for ‘to eat’ is ‘khana’ and the verb for ‘to go’ is jana. So, to say eat really quickly or scarf you would use “khajana”, where the addition of jana at the end indicates that something has occurred suddenly, i.e. the food went quickly because you scarfed it. Alternatively, if a mother really wanted her small daughter to eat her food then she might use “khadena” where “dena” is the verb for “to give”. So, this implies that in eating you are giving. In the case of the small child, she is giving to her mother the gift of eating her food. I rather like this way of forming subtle new verbs. Hence, I shared.
13) Indian culture is very interesting, at least that which I have experienced. I will mention a couple things at the moment. The first thing is that, as a guest, everyone assumes you want to rest, so they incessantly tell you to “baitho” or sit down. It is a nice thought, but I have to admit, after weeks of it, to having the thought “I don’t want to baitho, dang it” on several occasions, as well as a pre-feeling of not wanting to sit (I don’t like sitting for a while unless I am doing something). I usually acquiesce to “baitho”ing for a little while, but if it goes too long I get up and start trying to make animal friends or otherwise try to understand the rural lifestyle. Another interesting feature is the thrice-daily consumption of chai. It is nice that no matter what you are doing you stop and find the time to take a break and have a beverage together (it can be a working break, though). This slower pace appeals to me in many ways, as I often think that we are in too much of a hurry in the US. In a hurry for what? For life to pass by? I’m not sure. The ironic thing is that I only can drink about a third of the cup of chai (which is already ½ to 1/3 the size of an American cup) because I am so sensitive to caffeine; but, I still like the custom. I hope in the future to comment on marriage, squatting, and personal interaction in India, among other things, but for the moment I don’t have the time.
14) Some amazing parallels, to my mind, in the current Indian election and the past American election. First of all, May 16th = American Nov. 4th this past year, i.e. they got their election results after 5 phases of voting (people don’t vote 5 times, they just break the voting up into 5 chunks of time due to the logistical problems inherent in a democracy of 1.15 billion people, 60-70% of which are in rural areas). So, everyone has been very excited and talking about the political situation during my time here. A first caveat: India has a parliamentary system with many, many small parties, so any comparison to the American system is difficult, at best. Nonetheless, there are two main alliances that correspond roughly to the Democrats and Republicans in the US. For simplicity, Congress party = democrats, BJP = Republicans, i.e. the Congress party tends to be more concerned with state involvement in social welfare, etc. while the BJP, in addition to other features, harbors the Hindutwa – Hindu religious right. What is interesting is that there is a young Congress politician named Rahul Gandhi (of the Gandhi-Nehru political dynasty; note that Gandhi in this setting does not refer to Mahatma Gandhi and his family) who has really appealed to and energized the youth. I think he is akin to Obama in this youth appeal, although he is not the prime minister candidate of his party (too young, yet; give him 5 years). His push for the youth vote was crucial to the victory of the Congress party in this election. Additionally, in the analysis I heard that the Congress party victory was a vote for inclusive politics. This is a surprisingly similar analysis as was given after Obama’s victory in November: more inclusive, more inclusive, more inclusive. I think the religious right in its extreme forms is incredibly dangerous for world as a whole, so it is interesting to see its rejection both in the US and India. I have hope that this will happen globally, in Christian, Muslim, Hindu, mixed,etc., though a setback in this progress has recently occurred in Israel. Dhire, Dhire –slowly, slowly. On a similar note, the obstructionist Left/Communist party, which was part of the previous Congress alliance, has been booted out of West Bengal by the voters after about 50 years in power (I think 50 years; a long time, anyhow) and is in much reduced form, and hence, won’t be needed in the current alliance. It has basically been kicked out, I think, for its irrational hatred of the US and some degree of market freedom. This is yet another example of irrational extremism being dumped for rational problem-solving. I am for this in all aspects of life. Also, FYI, the news coverage here is very similar: very dramatized, with all sorts of pundits spinning it every which way. Politics is politics, I guess.
15) About the work at the NGO, as always I am inspired. The thing I like best about this NGO – Sukshma Vikas Sansthan, meaning “small development institute” or SVS – is the incessant focus on women’s rights and empowering women economically and by making them belief in apni shakti – their own power. I attended a women’s microcredit meeting yesterday and I saw what I saw before when I came: the NGO workers facilitating a meeting in which the women talk about their group and its affairs, take care of any loans that need to be completed, and generally talk about organizing for the betterment of their lives. The women get together and have lively, often argumentative, and wholly laugh-filled meetings. What is subtle – or perhaps not – is that this slowly transforms the women’s minds so that they believe they can solve their own problems, and that they are not just dependent on the men. It is hard to understate the extent that it is socialized into girls in the rural and/or more traditional areas of India that they are dependent on the men and are in fact inferior, incapable of thinking and solving their own problems (note that this was the case in the US and Europe as well only 50 years ago or perhaps less; some areas probably still hold this belief). So, by bringing the women together into these microcredit groups they are not only giving them a source through which they can make vital economic improvements, e.g. buying a buffalo so they can both consume and sell the milk (i.e.health and wealth), paying for their children’s school so that they might get a good job in the future, buying medicine so that productive days aren’t lost, etc. but they are literally changing the fabric of society slowly – slowly taking it away from its more patriarchal and lagging state. With the women thus empowered they can handle their money so that the husband won’t drink or smoke it away, and can in general more firmly assert themselves. Now, I will not claim that patriarchy has been vanquished through these efforts, as the it is still strong with most women wearing head covers and in general being more passive, but it has definitely been dealt a quiet blow. Indeed, I have been told when SVS first tried to start this work they didn’t want the men in the villages did not want the NGO workers to come near their women. It took a couple of years of the NGO bargaining with the men before they were allowed to come in. Since coming in the groups have been a huge success, and now villages invite SVS in to start new groups (there are multiple groups in some villages). The progress is palpable and inspiring. I hope to contribute with starting my work on computers with children (see below), with a primary focus on water issues, and in the future raising money for the NGO’s general operations so that they can perhaps hire new workers – I am dreaming of scholarships for water engineers and computer experts – and expand the benefits of their work to even more people. I want to start a society, or foundation, or something. If you have any ideas, re: this idea, let me know.
16) About the NGO: it works in the Virat Nagar block (equivalent to a county, I think), where there are 110,000 people in villages ranging from about 500-2000. The literacy rate in the Virat Nagar block, when I last checked, was about 50% for men and 12.5% for women, which compares poorly to the national averages, which aren’t great (I think 76% for men, 54% for women). Notice any discrepancy between the literacy rates for the sexes? Hence the need for differential treatment slanted towards women, with the eventual hope, I think, that with empowered women they will keep their daughters in schools in a slow process of improvement. SVS helps administer microcredit groups in about 40 villages and has done/is doing work in 60 villages in this area (almost all of them). This area is a desert area and water is very scarce, so in addition to women’s empowerment a primary area of current and future work will be in water management. Indeed, for the long-term prospects of life in the area there is simply no choice but to deal with how to sustainable use water. SVS is on top of this and is doing everything it can to organize and inform the people with regards to this issue. They have held several meetings with women in their area of work and with their block level women’s empowerment society – Virat Manch, which they were also instrumental in creating – about “Jal, Jiwan, aur Jiwikoparjan” – “Water, Life, and Livelihood”. They have also started a program to involve the youth in in this program “Jal, Jiwan ewam Yuwa Swapn” – “Water, Life, and the Visions of the Youth”, which will be the primary focus of my work (see below). Both of these programs have associated booklets telling about them, giving the ideas of the village people (especially the youth), and telling about the activities the NGO. I will try to post these as soon as I can, in addition to information about the micro-credit groups and perhaps other aspects of the NGO’s work. They are going to try to get Rahul Gandhi to come talk here, since he is so big into involving the youth in issues of national interest. I have no doubt that SVS is on the right track with this program, and I will hence pour my energies and whatever abilities I have into it in the next couple of months. After my time here I hope to further support this work through various means. Since the government is largely absent (can you say CORRUPTION?) they are the most trusted entity in the area, coming to aid the people when there are fires and other disasters. This information comes from the NGO workers themselves, who I trust deeply. I also see it in the people’s eyes, that they trust the NGO for all it has done for them. The workers work for almost nothing at this very important task of development, working almost all Saturdays and some Sundays, and I just really want to help them however I can.
17) My history with the NGO: worked for them analyzing surveys to find information about caste-wise, gender-wise, etc. educational, economic, and sociodemographic information. I did this originally as part of a study abroad in fall 2007 (if you know anyone who would be interested in the program, they have sites in Senegal, Ecuador, Kenya, and India; it’s called MSID – Minnesota Studies in International Development), and continued to analyze forms over last summer. I have been in contact with them via phone and email since my last departure, keeping up with their current work and planning my current trip.
18) For my work in teaching kids on computers, we are entering the planning phase starting today (Sunday, May 17th). We want to go into a couple villages and get the kids interested in computers by having them play some games related to water on them (I’ll send these later –very fun; search “Let it Flow Flash game”). Then we’ll try to take it to a higher level, perhaps getting internet access, to show how the computer is a tool of information organization, creation, sharing, etc. I will also try to train the NGO workers, so that they are more efficient in using the computers and could perhaps run future classes for kids. It will be a multi-faceted approach, with the main focus on being teaching the kids about computers so that they can be part of the solution to the water shortage crisis, i.e. using the computer to find information online, to make and analyze documents related to water, and down the road, perhaps getting an education in water management and/or computers. We had an inspiring meeting today (Sunday!), in which we discussed the program and how it can be implemented. Though I didn’t understand all that was said (my Hindi is not perfect, especially at high speeds), it was again inspiring to see the chief and the field workers’ passion in crafting a viable strategy for tackling this issue. The workers were a bit skeptical at first, especially about hooking the kids with educational games (the chief’s idea; I found the games; my friend Peter told me how to get them off the net – at 1am; thanks Peter; am I courteous or what?), but they have come around and I know will know apply all of their energies and experience in making the project succeed. They care deeply and have the knowledge, trust of the people, and experience to implement and execute the plan successfully. We are all on the same page now and are ready to start the program on Thursday, May 21st. I am very excited and will keep you updated. We’ll see how this goes. For this project we are operating on a shoestring, so if there is something (computer stuff, etc.) you think you can donate, please email me at derek.vigil@gmail.com . I will also be doing miscellaneous work on the computers, translating and otherwise modifying documents that are used for reporting and/or fundraising purposes. This involves as basic things as transcribing old reports so that the format can be used again. This is critical though, as the NGO workers are not the best on the computer, especially with the English keyboard. So, this is one of the most important things I can do for them. I will send some examples of my work soon.
19) A puzzle for you (from the NGO boss): draw an array of 3 x 3 dots, i.e. 3 columns and rows of dots. Try to connect all of the dots using only 4 lines. You CANNOT lift the pen from the paper. The lines can be any length. If you get this, let me know. Also let me know what the lesson learned is. Don’t waste too much time though, as I’ll provide the answer in my next email.

Well, that’s it for now. Let me know what you think (I may or may not have time to respond).

Apka dost (your friend),

Derek