Amnon - - seeing the beauty
We were driving to the airport, and Amnon made a comment which really demonstrates “travel maturity,” particularly when traveling in places where you see a lot of poverty, filth, and infrastructure gaps. He said that we have already seen, and commented, and mused about things that we see that are flawed. He is starting to notice and focus more on things of beauty, on Indian touches that you don’t see, even in the US. He pointed out flower plantings, and interesting architecture. He pointed out the airport parking lot, with overhangs of greenery in a place that could have simply been a functional box. I want to learn from him, and make sure that I, too, develop an eye to see the special and beautiful aspects without being distracted by the less-than-perfect.
Another trip to the “west” - - Sydney, Australia
I am writing now from the airport in Malaysia, waiting for a connecting flight to New Delhi, following a fantastic week of meetings, dinners, and bit of sightseeing in Sydney, Australia for the Liberated Learning consortium annual meeting. (For those that do not know about this passion of mine…see liberatedlearning.com. It’s a project spawned out of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, initially to provide access to university lectures for deaf and hard of hearing students, using speech recognition technologies. It now includes about 20 universities worldwide, and “access” has broadened to include students with a range of disabilities - - e.g., students with learning disabilities that have problems notetaking are particularly enthusiastic supporters of this initiative.) The meetings this week on the topic were stimulating and exciting…a lot of like-minded people affiliated with universities, pushing these technologies for the public good. While you “live” the process, it often feels like the steps are too small and the movement is too slow. But since I have been involved in inception (10 years or so), I can also take the long view of where we were then and where we are now, and the progress has been impressive.
Another week in a developed country, where again there are marked differences with India, and even the US.
Jordan asked me on the phone how I liked spending time in the “west.” I told him that I don’t think Australia qualifies as “west.” He replied that any country where stray animals weren’t pooping on the streets qualifies as “west.” A new geographical definition…
There were the usual contrasts that I have already noted following my trip to California and New York. Paved streets, no (or little) visible homelessness, no animals on the street, no people peeing on the street. All of the toilets are “western style” – no “squat pots” as we often see in India (and even here, at the airport in Malaysia.) No stifling crowds, and the residents were relaxed and friendly. Every taxi used a meter, without special requests or haranguing on my part.
Something that Australia seems to have over the US (and also India) is their tipping policy. They don’t do it. Australians have said to me, “In Australia, we PAY our people.” Wait staff, taxi drivers, etc. are all sufficiently salaried where the tips are not a critical component of their pay. How lovely, and what a relief. I hate doing the math at the end of a meal or a trip, and making decisions based on how much cash I have in my pocket, the level of service, the needs of the worker (who might have told me that she is a part time student, for example.) (And in India, I hate the fact that LOTS and LOTS of people are awaiting some tip….the lady that gives you a paper towel in the women’s bathroom, a tout that volunteers to find you the place you are looking for, etc. etc…) My gut reaction was American-influenced….”what incentives do the waiters have to serve you well, when there is not tip?” But of course, MOST of us do our jobs as well as we can, without the expectation of “dog treats” after each round of service. Has anyone done a study of whether waiters work more efficiently under an “immediate reinforcement” model? In the end, someone pays for these things…in the US case, we are responsible for “covering” a significant portion of a waiter’s or taxi driver’s expense through the tipping system. In the Australia case, that is built into the individual’s salary, and then ultimately built into the price of the food or the cost of the ride. I vote the Australian model.
Another week in a developed country, where again there are marked differences with India, and even the US.
Jordan asked me on the phone how I liked spending time in the “west.” I told him that I don’t think Australia qualifies as “west.” He replied that any country where stray animals weren’t pooping on the streets qualifies as “west.” A new geographical definition…
There were the usual contrasts that I have already noted following my trip to California and New York. Paved streets, no (or little) visible homelessness, no animals on the street, no people peeing on the street. All of the toilets are “western style” – no “squat pots” as we often see in India (and even here, at the airport in Malaysia.) No stifling crowds, and the residents were relaxed and friendly. Every taxi used a meter, without special requests or haranguing on my part.
Something that Australia seems to have over the US (and also India) is their tipping policy. They don’t do it. Australians have said to me, “In Australia, we PAY our people.” Wait staff, taxi drivers, etc. are all sufficiently salaried where the tips are not a critical component of their pay. How lovely, and what a relief. I hate doing the math at the end of a meal or a trip, and making decisions based on how much cash I have in my pocket, the level of service, the needs of the worker (who might have told me that she is a part time student, for example.) (And in India, I hate the fact that LOTS and LOTS of people are awaiting some tip….the lady that gives you a paper towel in the women’s bathroom, a tout that volunteers to find you the place you are looking for, etc. etc…) My gut reaction was American-influenced….”what incentives do the waiters have to serve you well, when there is not tip?” But of course, MOST of us do our jobs as well as we can, without the expectation of “dog treats” after each round of service. Has anyone done a study of whether waiters work more efficiently under an “immediate reinforcement” model? In the end, someone pays for these things…in the US case, we are responsible for “covering” a significant portion of a waiter’s or taxi driver’s expense through the tipping system. In the Australia case, that is built into the individual’s salary, and then ultimately built into the price of the food or the cost of the ride. I vote the Australian model.
Regional attire…passing judgment
Over the course of our travels, we are seeing a lot of the regional costumes. As I type this, I am sitting at the airport in Malaysia waiting for my next flight. I observe the attire of people around me. There is the immediate reaction to some clothing….”that is strange-looking…” Well, of course it’s strange looking; I have never or rarely seen this or that before. In Malaysia, a lot of the men I have seen are wearing long white robes, a skull cap, and a white scarf binding their hair. The women have their hair completely covered under a tightly worn hood with a cape. I am waiting for the plane back to Delhi, and many of the men here are sikhs - - with black beards and their hair completely covered by turbans.
The situations that I find strange and “unacceptable” are when there are huge discrepancies between the men and women, with men dressed in mainstream garb and women dressed from some earlier century. On line at the ticket counter was a young man in jeans and a tee shirt, with a white skullcap and a short beard. His wife beside him was wearing a thick burka that covered her body loosely from head to toe, with slits for her eyes. I thought that this man could easily work at some multinational company; this woman could do nothing at all outside of her own community. Her attire so clearly marked her as not part of the mainstream. Add to that other components of that attire…such as the likelihood of baking when the temperature is over 100 degrees (which it will soon be, in Delhi) and just the physical restrictions to mobility.
So I have made “gender differences” my judgment measure for whether these different attires are “acceptable.” If the men of that culture/religion wear clothing that enables them to breathe, mix with others, and move easily, then I “disapprove” of their women’s attire that allows none of these. If the entire culture opts to wear clothes that set them apart and make them hot and uncomfortable (such as, for example, Chassidic Jews), then I am more willing to accept this as their own cultural clothing decision, since it is not ALSO a method to restrict and isolate the women. Not that any of these cultures would give a hoot about my assessments of their styles, clothing or otherwise…
Can I truly look at these attire-differences with a cool and anthropologically detached view? Let’s look at some western traditions, like women wearing absurdly high heels. I have never worn spiky high heels, but that has been more a function of my own lack of “competency” than choice….When I do see women that can pull it off, wearing spiky heels for a whole day or night without tripping or looking uncomfortable, I don’t “judge” them; I envy them; women in heels look classy and elegant to me. Now THERE is a real culture-biased statement on my part….since spiky heels are probably just as “gender restrictive” as many of these other garbs that I criticize…
The situations that I find strange and “unacceptable” are when there are huge discrepancies between the men and women, with men dressed in mainstream garb and women dressed from some earlier century. On line at the ticket counter was a young man in jeans and a tee shirt, with a white skullcap and a short beard. His wife beside him was wearing a thick burka that covered her body loosely from head to toe, with slits for her eyes. I thought that this man could easily work at some multinational company; this woman could do nothing at all outside of her own community. Her attire so clearly marked her as not part of the mainstream. Add to that other components of that attire…such as the likelihood of baking when the temperature is over 100 degrees (which it will soon be, in Delhi) and just the physical restrictions to mobility.
So I have made “gender differences” my judgment measure for whether these different attires are “acceptable.” If the men of that culture/religion wear clothing that enables them to breathe, mix with others, and move easily, then I “disapprove” of their women’s attire that allows none of these. If the entire culture opts to wear clothes that set them apart and make them hot and uncomfortable (such as, for example, Chassidic Jews), then I am more willing to accept this as their own cultural clothing decision, since it is not ALSO a method to restrict and isolate the women. Not that any of these cultures would give a hoot about my assessments of their styles, clothing or otherwise…
Can I truly look at these attire-differences with a cool and anthropologically detached view? Let’s look at some western traditions, like women wearing absurdly high heels. I have never worn spiky high heels, but that has been more a function of my own lack of “competency” than choice….When I do see women that can pull it off, wearing spiky heels for a whole day or night without tripping or looking uncomfortable, I don’t “judge” them; I envy them; women in heels look classy and elegant to me. Now THERE is a real culture-biased statement on my part….since spiky heels are probably just as “gender restrictive” as many of these other garbs that I criticize…
Internet Access
Internet access has been an ongoing challenge and struggle. Our family has 6 people, all with laptops and internet needs and wants, and so we wanted to get the fastest and most unlimited speed available. As it turns out, most of the internet providers don’t have unlimited speed plans here, but they do have plans that cap at very high usage plans. We opted for the best we could get from Airtel. We were told that we would remain high bandwidth until and unless we exceeded 50 gig; at that point, we would be reduced to very slow speed. We have been told that 50 gig is a very high number, and that as long as we weren’t running an internet café on our account, we would never exceed this. (The “cap” is imposed apparently to prevent those sorts of abuses, like individuals re-selling bandwidth or running an internet café on a personal account.) The boys understood that there would be no video downloads or other mega-activities that chew up bandwidth.
Nonetheless, by the first or second week of each month, our speed was reduced to dial-up speeds and really, really slow. Amnon would repeatedly call customer service saying that there is NO WAY we have exceeded our quota, but the basic dialogue was:
They: Yes, you did.
We: No, we didn’t…
(What we believe has happened is that hackers have broken into our account, and perhaps *they* are now using our bandwidth for internet cafes or who-knows-what; despite the fact that we are “password protected.” We have notified the cyber-crime authorities here.)
Finally Jordan took matters into his own hands, and opted to instead transfer our service to a government-managed internet provider, which DID offer unlimited high speed access. We were cautioned by friends that their customer service, however, would be more like a government-run entity than a private entity; the incentives weren’t there for high levels of customer service. Jordan started the enrollment activity when Amnon and I were still in the US. It became a classic, Wizard-of-Oz, “bring me the broom of the wicked witch of the west.” They wanted all of the standard and reasonable pieces of identification, plus original copies of our lease, plus documents substantiating my employment at IBM in India. The breaking point was when they needed the original signature of our landlady; a scan, fax, or photocopy wouldn’t suffice. (Our landlady lives in Europe.)
Last week, the boys requested assistance from a policeman that Amnon had befriended when my wallet was stolen months back. The policeman kindly accompanied them to the internet provider’s office, and the rest of the process was incredibly smooth. The policeman also refused to accept any gift for his time and efforts. We now have lightning fast internet access at home. We are grateful and happy….but still perplexed at the thought that we needed to have a policeman friend assist us to make this work. We are, after all, just talking about subscribing to an internet service; we weren’t trying to get out of jail or something. (And add this story to our accumulating stories about how kind and helpful the police have been to us, vigorously rejecting any gifts from us….running counter to all the other stories people tell us about policemen here. Either others are exaggerating an ongoing mythology about police practices here, or we are somehow having a very different and more positive experience than everyone else.)
Nonetheless, by the first or second week of each month, our speed was reduced to dial-up speeds and really, really slow. Amnon would repeatedly call customer service saying that there is NO WAY we have exceeded our quota, but the basic dialogue was:
They: Yes, you did.
We: No, we didn’t…
(What we believe has happened is that hackers have broken into our account, and perhaps *they* are now using our bandwidth for internet cafes or who-knows-what; despite the fact that we are “password protected.” We have notified the cyber-crime authorities here.)
Finally Jordan took matters into his own hands, and opted to instead transfer our service to a government-managed internet provider, which DID offer unlimited high speed access. We were cautioned by friends that their customer service, however, would be more like a government-run entity than a private entity; the incentives weren’t there for high levels of customer service. Jordan started the enrollment activity when Amnon and I were still in the US. It became a classic, Wizard-of-Oz, “bring me the broom of the wicked witch of the west.” They wanted all of the standard and reasonable pieces of identification, plus original copies of our lease, plus documents substantiating my employment at IBM in India. The breaking point was when they needed the original signature of our landlady; a scan, fax, or photocopy wouldn’t suffice. (Our landlady lives in Europe.)
Last week, the boys requested assistance from a policeman that Amnon had befriended when my wallet was stolen months back. The policeman kindly accompanied them to the internet provider’s office, and the rest of the process was incredibly smooth. The policeman also refused to accept any gift for his time and efforts. We now have lightning fast internet access at home. We are grateful and happy….but still perplexed at the thought that we needed to have a policeman friend assist us to make this work. We are, after all, just talking about subscribing to an internet service; we weren’t trying to get out of jail or something. (And add this story to our accumulating stories about how kind and helpful the police have been to us, vigorously rejecting any gifts from us….running counter to all the other stories people tell us about policemen here. Either others are exaggerating an ongoing mythology about police practices here, or we are somehow having a very different and more positive experience than everyone else.)
Learning Hindi, and the art of translation
Much of our family has been studying Hindi for the last few months. I have been the most “diligent” - - I took a Berlitz course for the fall semester, and now I am taking an intermediate “adult education” class at the American Embassy School. This is first language I have studied with any intensity since I was 20 years old, when I learned Hebrew. In my teenage years and early twenties (university), I had studied French (middle and high school), Ancient Greek and Latin (college), and Hebrew (some high school, and mostly junior year abroad in Israel). I only achieved real fluency in Hebrew. (Maybe no one is even expected to achieve fluency in Ancient Greek and Latin…not many people to converse with.)
So that makes Hindi the first language that I am learning as a full adult, and also the first language I am learning AFTER all of my experience and formal training in teaching ESL. It is the first time that I am both learning the language, and conscious of the meta-processes. I know that the popular approach when I did a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics was a “cognitive approach” to language learning….”behavioral” approaches where you memorized phrases were out of vogue. But I actually feel that I am most confident when I memorize key phrases, and then substitute “key words” in the appropriate slots. I have memorized and I can fluently say “may hindi sikh ra hi hu” (I am studying hindi); as a result, I can *also* say fluently any other verb in the present continuous….”I am walking” “I am running” etc. etc. I apparently like the fill-in-the-slot method more than constructing whole sentences from scratch, where I need to worry about the vocabulary AND the syntax simultaneously and inevitably get tongue-tied and shy. I wonder whether language learning is really like diets. The reason there are a gazillion how-to books out there, and people swear by different things, is because different diets are more tolerable for different people. In my case, for example, I can easily skip meals, but hate skipping chocolate…and a diet that is low on “real food” but enables some sweets is definitely more sustainable for me. For Amnon, though, I think the reverse would be true. Maybe language learning is like that too, and we all need to find our “customized approach.”
Another point of interest for me is watching my kids speaking Hinglish. Our maid Chandana speaks English, but she speaks with Hindi syntax. Sentences come out like “subject-indirect object-object-verb” - - such as, “Kimbo paper poo poo making.” As my kids try to be understood when they speak to Chandana, I notice that they often use Chandana’s syntax. I wonder whether it becomes easier to learn a new language like Hindi, when you first begin speaking your OWN language (English) with some Hindi structures. Interesting topic for future experimentation…
While on the topic of Hindi and English, I have become ever more sensitive to the fact that translation from one language to another requires more than just translation. I remember studying in contrastive analysis classes in graduate school, and during MBA-days, about the fact that you cannot conduct an advertising campaign by just translating from one language to another; in come cases, the meaning doesn’t transfer well; there is a lot of culture in advertising. One stellar example that I noticed on the back of a truck, advertising bottled water; if I recall correctly, it was something like: “boond boond vishwas hai” (“I trust every single drop.”) The translation is straightforward, but the meaning is very India-centric; I don’t think a similar campaign for bottled water would “work” in the US. In US, the value proposition would be more like “this water is derived from the springs of X or the mountains of Y, and tastes fresher and better.” In India, “trust” is a key issue; you can TRUST that our water is pure is a critical message. Another India-specific factoid is that water that is NOT pure doesn’t just “taste worse,” it is unhealthy….hence, the ability to “trust every single drop” is a far more compelling and meaningful value proposition.
There are other instances here where Indian English has evolved different usages than American English, and American English should adopt many of these. At first I thought that the Indian person speaking to me was making an error and was not that facile in English…As I saw these expressions being used more often, I realized they were part of the dialect. In Indian English, “I will revert” means “I will get back to you.” Another common expression in business: “I will do the needful.” Lovely, and concise. A common expression on the telephone: The person picking up may say “Tell me?” I first heard this repeatedly from the superintendent that cares for our apartment. I concluded that it meant “So, Sara…tell me what has gone wrong THIS time? Plumbing? Electricity? etc…” But now I realize that it simply means “what’s up,” and is a translation from the phone greeting in Hindi “bolo.” There are signs on the roads that say “Left turn not free.” During the Commonwealth games, with foreigners in town, I saw “translated” placards that said “No left turn on red” And finally….no one here says “bless you” when you sneeze. In fact, sneezing has a bunch of superstitious undertones…(I found this on the internet: “it is a sign of evil to sneeze just once and then stop.”) It is probably more appropriate if the sneezer apologizes, since one sneeze is bad luck and you are not supposed to leave the room (I think) unless some time elapses, or the sneezer sneezes again.
So that makes Hindi the first language that I am learning as a full adult, and also the first language I am learning AFTER all of my experience and formal training in teaching ESL. It is the first time that I am both learning the language, and conscious of the meta-processes. I know that the popular approach when I did a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics was a “cognitive approach” to language learning….”behavioral” approaches where you memorized phrases were out of vogue. But I actually feel that I am most confident when I memorize key phrases, and then substitute “key words” in the appropriate slots. I have memorized and I can fluently say “may hindi sikh ra hi hu” (I am studying hindi); as a result, I can *also* say fluently any other verb in the present continuous….”I am walking” “I am running” etc. etc. I apparently like the fill-in-the-slot method more than constructing whole sentences from scratch, where I need to worry about the vocabulary AND the syntax simultaneously and inevitably get tongue-tied and shy. I wonder whether language learning is really like diets. The reason there are a gazillion how-to books out there, and people swear by different things, is because different diets are more tolerable for different people. In my case, for example, I can easily skip meals, but hate skipping chocolate…and a diet that is low on “real food” but enables some sweets is definitely more sustainable for me. For Amnon, though, I think the reverse would be true. Maybe language learning is like that too, and we all need to find our “customized approach.”
Another point of interest for me is watching my kids speaking Hinglish. Our maid Chandana speaks English, but she speaks with Hindi syntax. Sentences come out like “subject-indirect object-object-verb” - - such as, “Kimbo paper poo poo making.” As my kids try to be understood when they speak to Chandana, I notice that they often use Chandana’s syntax. I wonder whether it becomes easier to learn a new language like Hindi, when you first begin speaking your OWN language (English) with some Hindi structures. Interesting topic for future experimentation…
While on the topic of Hindi and English, I have become ever more sensitive to the fact that translation from one language to another requires more than just translation. I remember studying in contrastive analysis classes in graduate school, and during MBA-days, about the fact that you cannot conduct an advertising campaign by just translating from one language to another; in come cases, the meaning doesn’t transfer well; there is a lot of culture in advertising. One stellar example that I noticed on the back of a truck, advertising bottled water; if I recall correctly, it was something like: “boond boond vishwas hai” (“I trust every single drop.”) The translation is straightforward, but the meaning is very India-centric; I don’t think a similar campaign for bottled water would “work” in the US. In US, the value proposition would be more like “this water is derived from the springs of X or the mountains of Y, and tastes fresher and better.” In India, “trust” is a key issue; you can TRUST that our water is pure is a critical message. Another India-specific factoid is that water that is NOT pure doesn’t just “taste worse,” it is unhealthy….hence, the ability to “trust every single drop” is a far more compelling and meaningful value proposition.
There are other instances here where Indian English has evolved different usages than American English, and American English should adopt many of these. At first I thought that the Indian person speaking to me was making an error and was not that facile in English…As I saw these expressions being used more often, I realized they were part of the dialect. In Indian English, “I will revert” means “I will get back to you.” Another common expression in business: “I will do the needful.” Lovely, and concise. A common expression on the telephone: The person picking up may say “Tell me?” I first heard this repeatedly from the superintendent that cares for our apartment. I concluded that it meant “So, Sara…tell me what has gone wrong THIS time? Plumbing? Electricity? etc…” But now I realize that it simply means “what’s up,” and is a translation from the phone greeting in Hindi “bolo.” There are signs on the roads that say “Left turn not free.” During the Commonwealth games, with foreigners in town, I saw “translated” placards that said “No left turn on red” And finally….no one here says “bless you” when you sneeze. In fact, sneezing has a bunch of superstitious undertones…(I found this on the internet: “it is a sign of evil to sneeze just once and then stop.”) It is probably more appropriate if the sneezer apologizes, since one sneeze is bad luck and you are not supposed to leave the room (I think) unless some time elapses, or the sneezer sneezes again.
Our trip to Mumbai
We had the lovely opportunity to visit Mumbai in March, for the wedding of my colleague Tara from IBM Research in New York. (She was born in the US, but her parents are from India, as is her charming new spouse.) We all flew down for the festivities, and to see Mumbai.
It was a lovely experience. The wedding was intricate and interesting and had multiple events. The city of Mumbai was impressive; from our brief visit it seemed much more developed than Delhi. In 4 days there, I didn’t see any men peeing in the street - - one very positive sign. The roads were in far better shape, and we drove across bridges and highways that were definitely western caliber. The shopping areas didn’t look nearly as run down as Delhi. Delhi has the super-elegant-super-expensive-all-marble malls, and then it has the markets. Even our market in Vasant Vihar - -considered a high-end neighborhood – has a tired, rundown-looking market with awnings and signage falling down.
The local shopping areas in Mumbai were much more impressive. I also didn’t see a single slum, which is peculiar – I was told that Mumbai is home to the biggest slum in Asia. We were driving for hours (albeit not *looking* for the slum) but we came across nothing like it. In New Delhi, you can’t avoid them. There are slums in multiple directions within a mile of our apartment. Here are some views along the road, during my very short commute to work in New Delhi...
Amnon commented that Mumbai looked like a cohesive city, while New Delhi seems more like disconnected villages with jugis (slums) as the ligaments.
Another point that I noticed in Mumbai was that they seemed to have fewer “under-employed” individuals than Delhi. To return to my earlier comments about the hair salon in Delhi…There is someone permanently assigned to standing by the door and opening it whenever a customer goes in. (There is an adjacent children’s clothing store; there is someone assigned there, to, as a door-opener.) At the salon, there is someone that shampoos my hair, another person that holds the hair dryer, and another person brushing it out. Sometimes I see women getting manicures and pedicures while also having their hair done, and there is cast of thousands surrounding them. When I had my hair washed in Mumbai, it was more like the standard US experience….I opened the door myself (which is just fine!) and one person held the blow dryer AND the hairbrush. I take this as a sign that there are more employment opportunities in Mumbai, and so some of these “busy-work” jobs don’t exist.
Note in the pictures of the “laundry” facilities in Mumbai. (Dhobi Ghat) People have their clothing picked up by these laundrymen and washed at these sites, where clothes are beaten against rocks. Our guide said the laundrymen are remarkable at keeping track of whose-clothes-get-returned-to-whom. With real estate prices in Mumbai booming, the laundry wallahs are supposedly getting phenomenal purchase offers for these little properties.
We saw lots of monkeys at the various historical sites in Mumbai, and we captured lots of them in the photo link below.
It was a lovely experience. The wedding was intricate and interesting and had multiple events. The city of Mumbai was impressive; from our brief visit it seemed much more developed than Delhi. In 4 days there, I didn’t see any men peeing in the street - - one very positive sign. The roads were in far better shape, and we drove across bridges and highways that were definitely western caliber. The shopping areas didn’t look nearly as run down as Delhi. Delhi has the super-elegant-super-expensive-all-marble malls, and then it has the markets. Even our market in Vasant Vihar - -considered a high-end neighborhood – has a tired, rundown-looking market with awnings and signage falling down.
The local shopping areas in Mumbai were much more impressive. I also didn’t see a single slum, which is peculiar – I was told that Mumbai is home to the biggest slum in Asia. We were driving for hours (albeit not *looking* for the slum) but we came across nothing like it. In New Delhi, you can’t avoid them. There are slums in multiple directions within a mile of our apartment. Here are some views along the road, during my very short commute to work in New Delhi...
Amnon commented that Mumbai looked like a cohesive city, while New Delhi seems more like disconnected villages with jugis (slums) as the ligaments.
Another point that I noticed in Mumbai was that they seemed to have fewer “under-employed” individuals than Delhi. To return to my earlier comments about the hair salon in Delhi…There is someone permanently assigned to standing by the door and opening it whenever a customer goes in. (There is an adjacent children’s clothing store; there is someone assigned there, to, as a door-opener.) At the salon, there is someone that shampoos my hair, another person that holds the hair dryer, and another person brushing it out. Sometimes I see women getting manicures and pedicures while also having their hair done, and there is cast of thousands surrounding them. When I had my hair washed in Mumbai, it was more like the standard US experience….I opened the door myself (which is just fine!) and one person held the blow dryer AND the hairbrush. I take this as a sign that there are more employment opportunities in Mumbai, and so some of these “busy-work” jobs don’t exist.
Note in the pictures of the “laundry” facilities in Mumbai. (Dhobi Ghat) People have their clothing picked up by these laundrymen and washed at these sites, where clothes are beaten against rocks. Our guide said the laundrymen are remarkable at keeping track of whose-clothes-get-returned-to-whom. With real estate prices in Mumbai booming, the laundry wallahs are supposedly getting phenomenal purchase offers for these little properties.
We saw lots of monkeys at the various historical sites in Mumbai, and we captured lots of them in the photo link below.
Let them eat cake – communicating the American lifestyle to our maid; buying her presents
Our maid Chandana tells me repeatedly that she would like to come home with us when we return to America; that she has her passport and she is ready to leave. She will cook, clean, and generally oversee our household. The offer is tempting! She points out that she always got offers from her employers in the past, who worked for embassies and were traveling the world. At the time she got these offers, her children were young; they are now 14, 16, and 22, and Chandana thinks that now she could go to the west, if she got an offer.
Of course, from our western perspective, there are so many elements that I have trouble communicating to her. First, sponsoring someone to bring into the US would be an immigration nightmare…. Second, our kids are big and soon to be out of the house and in college. Full time help just to address the needs of Amnon and me? We don’t know families that have full time “maids” for two grownups. Many people have (as we did) full time help in the form of all-rounder babysitters (as we did with our beloved Cynthia for 22 years), but that is justifiable when you have 4 kids and 2 working parents. Chandana said she DID get offers in the past from people whose kids were grown. I try to explain to her that *those* people must have been fancier and richer than our family…”middle class” folks in the US generally don’t have that level of household help. We are not that “rich and fancy,” I explain to her. She looks at me blankly, and I realize the absurdity of what I am saying. Families in Westchester earn 50 to 100 times her salary. I am trying to communicate something that sounds like “no, Chandana, we are only BILLIONAIRES….the people that have fulltime help without kids in the house are the MULTI-billionaires….”
On my travels abroad, I like to bring back presents for Chandana and her family. This also raises the cultural and financial divide. Note that Chandana and her family (husband and 3 kids) live in our servant quarters, 3 small rooms on our rooftop. Adequate, I am told, by servant quarters standards. I think about the typical “souvenir,” cluttering space in our own homes, taking space on the mantel. What about “chotches” in these tiny spaces? A “keepsake” from the US that is a dust collector is silly. I also do the mental math; what percentage of their salary would it cost to purchase this keepsake? During my trip to the US, I purchased wristwatches for the whole family. These were inexpensive watches, but for Chandana, it would have been 30% of her monthly salary. Can you imagine buying simple watches for your family that suck up 30% of your earnings? The wristwatches hit the mark - they were functional, necessary, and a highly valuable gift. What should I get them from Australia? Aboriginal keepsakes? Art work? There are food-things, but exotic spices and condiments from Australia wouldn’t fit into their food repertoire. (Chandana cooks a range of ethnic dishes for us, but at home, they predominantly eat Indian food.) Clothes? Much cheaper in India; plus, Chandana only wears Indian garb. I end up falling back on the old staple….chocolates from a foreign land.
My own purchases in Australia for stuff that I need also look peculiar to my western friends. I got Glad brand plastic wrap that tears easily. I got pantyhose - - an item that I wasn’t able to find in multiple searches in India. I got socks…(When I was looking for socks in India, I found socks that were like gloves, with a place to put your big toe…This allows women to wear sandals with toe separators, even in the colder winter months. Can you envision putting on socks as though they were gloves?) I also got lots and lots of mosquito repellent with deet….that is what is recommended by the US Center for Disease Control, and it is not available in India to the best of my knowledge. (Is it in fact any more effective? Who knows….) And lint removers with disposable sticky paper. The “needs” list gets very specific, and very odd, after you have lived out of the US for awhile.
Of course, from our western perspective, there are so many elements that I have trouble communicating to her. First, sponsoring someone to bring into the US would be an immigration nightmare…. Second, our kids are big and soon to be out of the house and in college. Full time help just to address the needs of Amnon and me? We don’t know families that have full time “maids” for two grownups. Many people have (as we did) full time help in the form of all-rounder babysitters (as we did with our beloved Cynthia for 22 years), but that is justifiable when you have 4 kids and 2 working parents. Chandana said she DID get offers in the past from people whose kids were grown. I try to explain to her that *those* people must have been fancier and richer than our family…”middle class” folks in the US generally don’t have that level of household help. We are not that “rich and fancy,” I explain to her. She looks at me blankly, and I realize the absurdity of what I am saying. Families in Westchester earn 50 to 100 times her salary. I am trying to communicate something that sounds like “no, Chandana, we are only BILLIONAIRES….the people that have fulltime help without kids in the house are the MULTI-billionaires….”
On my travels abroad, I like to bring back presents for Chandana and her family. This also raises the cultural and financial divide. Note that Chandana and her family (husband and 3 kids) live in our servant quarters, 3 small rooms on our rooftop. Adequate, I am told, by servant quarters standards. I think about the typical “souvenir,” cluttering space in our own homes, taking space on the mantel. What about “chotches” in these tiny spaces? A “keepsake” from the US that is a dust collector is silly. I also do the mental math; what percentage of their salary would it cost to purchase this keepsake? During my trip to the US, I purchased wristwatches for the whole family. These were inexpensive watches, but for Chandana, it would have been 30% of her monthly salary. Can you imagine buying simple watches for your family that suck up 30% of your earnings? The wristwatches hit the mark - they were functional, necessary, and a highly valuable gift. What should I get them from Australia? Aboriginal keepsakes? Art work? There are food-things, but exotic spices and condiments from Australia wouldn’t fit into their food repertoire. (Chandana cooks a range of ethnic dishes for us, but at home, they predominantly eat Indian food.) Clothes? Much cheaper in India; plus, Chandana only wears Indian garb. I end up falling back on the old staple….chocolates from a foreign land.
My own purchases in Australia for stuff that I need also look peculiar to my western friends. I got Glad brand plastic wrap that tears easily. I got pantyhose - - an item that I wasn’t able to find in multiple searches in India. I got socks…(When I was looking for socks in India, I found socks that were like gloves, with a place to put your big toe…This allows women to wear sandals with toe separators, even in the colder winter months. Can you envision putting on socks as though they were gloves?) I also got lots and lots of mosquito repellent with deet….that is what is recommended by the US Center for Disease Control, and it is not available in India to the best of my knowledge. (Is it in fact any more effective? Who knows….) And lint removers with disposable sticky paper. The “needs” list gets very specific, and very odd, after you have lived out of the US for awhile.
Corruption
Corruption is a major problem in India, and a major theme in newspaper headlines. It is pervasive, and blatant. Topics around corruption certainly abound in the states as well, but they are less overt, less all-encompassing, and they also don’t drain the nation’s resources to the point of impoverishing everyone else. Or maybe there are enough resources in the US such that even if there IS that much corruption, it doesn’t impoverish most of the population, and is therefore more tolerated/tolerable? The numbers associated with corruption are head-spinning…I include a snippet from an online article:
One of my colleagues pointed out a scam that was uncovered about Indian government payments to workers, where 45,000 paychecks were going to people that didn’t exist or were now deceased. I pointed out that we have stories like that all the time in the US as well, with people that are deceased still receiving checks. My Indian friend pointed out that in the Indian-case, though, this was exposed over a year ago, and the non-existent-people were STILL getting paid. He contrasted the US situation (which looks more like incompetence) to the Indian situation, which he believes is more of a scam.
The funny thing is that there are also so many bureaucratic processes in place to ostensibly curb corrupt practices. The complicated processes here that you go through to get a visa, bank account, sim card, etc. Somehow, the bureaucratic processes become their own standalone entities, unrelated to ultimately curbing corruption or other bad behaviors. Perhaps it’s akin to all of the security measures the “common person” experiences at airports, only to discover some really bad agents got on the plane despite it all. Below is a snippet from Dave Barry’s 2010 Year in Review substantiating this phenomenon:
On the terror front, New York City police, alerted by Times Square street vendors, discover a smoking SUV packed with explosives — a violation of many city ordinances, including the ban on smoking. Fortunately, the car bomb is disarmed, and a suspect is later captured at Kennedy Airport by sharp-eyed TSA officers trained to spot suspicious behavior.
Ha ha! Just kidding, of course. The suspect is captured by U.S. Customs agents at the last minute after boarding a Dubai-bound plane filled with passengers who, like the suspect, had all been carefully screened by the TSA to make sure they were not carrying more than three ounces of shampoo.
One of my colleagues pointed out a scam that was uncovered about Indian government payments to workers, where 45,000 paychecks were going to people that didn’t exist or were now deceased. I pointed out that we have stories like that all the time in the US as well, with people that are deceased still receiving checks. My Indian friend pointed out that in the Indian-case, though, this was exposed over a year ago, and the non-existent-people were STILL getting paid. He contrasted the US situation (which looks more like incompetence) to the Indian situation, which he believes is more of a scam.
The funny thing is that there are also so many bureaucratic processes in place to ostensibly curb corrupt practices. The complicated processes here that you go through to get a visa, bank account, sim card, etc. Somehow, the bureaucratic processes become their own standalone entities, unrelated to ultimately curbing corruption or other bad behaviors. Perhaps it’s akin to all of the security measures the “common person” experiences at airports, only to discover some really bad agents got on the plane despite it all. Below is a snippet from Dave Barry’s 2010 Year in Review substantiating this phenomenon:
On the terror front, New York City police, alerted by Times Square street vendors, discover a smoking SUV packed with explosives — a violation of many city ordinances, including the ban on smoking. Fortunately, the car bomb is disarmed, and a suspect is later captured at Kennedy Airport by sharp-eyed TSA officers trained to spot suspicious behavior.
Ha ha! Just kidding, of course. The suspect is captured by U.S. Customs agents at the last minute after boarding a Dubai-bound plane filled with passengers who, like the suspect, had all been carefully screened by the TSA to make sure they were not carrying more than three ounces of shampoo.
Materialism in the West, and the East
One of Adam’s teachers has been in India for several years, and he has commented to the kids that his friends and family in the US just don’t “get it” when he talks about living in a developing country. They listen to his stories for a bit…and then change the topic to the latest features on their newly acquired smartphones.
I had this in mind while I was in the US, and exercising on a treadmill that had a built in television. I watched one of the ads for a Sleep Number Bed. They outlined the awful stresses we experience, sharing a bed with someone who likes a firm mattress, when you prefer a softer mattress. FINALLY a solution - - the Sleep Bed remote that allows independent control of mattress firmness and position so that you and your bed mate can find the perfect individualized solution in a shared mattress. It did seem to highlight the epitomes of western excess…
I thought of the guys near the taxi stand in Vasant Vihar; sleeping on the sidewalk with their shoes as pillow.
But IS it less materialistic, or is the west just at a much higher level of “material status”…and as such, when westerners are materialistic, it looks over-the-top? Maybe we are genetically programmed to aspire to the “next thing,” and maybe being aspirational is good for society overall. And when you have reached an objectively comfortable level of material wealth, your “aspirational genes” nonetheless continue to aspire to the next big thing. Indians and other developing world populations are also in constant pursuit of the next material thing. But when that material thing is (for example) your first air conditioner for the 110 degree heat or your first motorbike to get to work, it doesn’t look like western crass materialism. The underlying gene might be nonetheless identical.
I had this in mind while I was in the US, and exercising on a treadmill that had a built in television. I watched one of the ads for a Sleep Number Bed. They outlined the awful stresses we experience, sharing a bed with someone who likes a firm mattress, when you prefer a softer mattress. FINALLY a solution - - the Sleep Bed remote that allows independent control of mattress firmness and position so that you and your bed mate can find the perfect individualized solution in a shared mattress. It did seem to highlight the epitomes of western excess…
I thought of the guys near the taxi stand in Vasant Vihar; sleeping on the sidewalk with their shoes as pillow.
But IS it less materialistic, or is the west just at a much higher level of “material status”…and as such, when westerners are materialistic, it looks over-the-top? Maybe we are genetically programmed to aspire to the “next thing,” and maybe being aspirational is good for society overall. And when you have reached an objectively comfortable level of material wealth, your “aspirational genes” nonetheless continue to aspire to the next big thing. Indians and other developing world populations are also in constant pursuit of the next material thing. But when that material thing is (for example) your first air conditioner for the 110 degree heat or your first motorbike to get to work, it doesn’t look like western crass materialism. The underlying gene might be nonetheless identical.
The air quality in Delhi
Pollution in India is out of control. We got notices from Adam’s school during the winter about the dangerous levels of pollution, and the need to cancel outdoor gym. The school assured us that they were monitoring the pollution levels carefully, and they shared the link to the site that gave daily levels with color markings to indicate danger levels. I went to the site; the levels of that time are included below.
For comparison, I then went to see the levels listed for cities in the US that are perceived as heavily polluted, like NY and LA. These levels are posted below, too.
As you can see, India wins (or loses), hands down. I know that the population in Delhi exceeds that of other cities and probably exceeds its own ability to cope. But from my lay person’s perspective, it’s not entirely clear why. The population is large, but not all the residents have cars and drive, as we do (say) in LA. Plus, in the US we drive big gas guzzling cars that are much less prevalent here. Public transportation here touts CNG (compressed natural gas), that should also be less polluting.
Friends have pointed out, though, that there are coal-burning factories nearby. And that the many trucks in the area flout all the emissions standards, and get away with it through bribery. There are also considerable numbers of people on the streets - -vegetable vendors, guards, drivers. I noticed during the winter that they kept warm outdoors by burning random stuff; I guess this becomes another source of pollution.
For comparison, I then went to see the levels listed for cities in the US that are perceived as heavily polluted, like NY and LA. These levels are posted below, too.
As you can see, India wins (or loses), hands down. I know that the population in Delhi exceeds that of other cities and probably exceeds its own ability to cope. But from my lay person’s perspective, it’s not entirely clear why. The population is large, but not all the residents have cars and drive, as we do (say) in LA. Plus, in the US we drive big gas guzzling cars that are much less prevalent here. Public transportation here touts CNG (compressed natural gas), that should also be less polluting.
Friends have pointed out, though, that there are coal-burning factories nearby. And that the many trucks in the area flout all the emissions standards, and get away with it through bribery. There are also considerable numbers of people on the streets - -vegetable vendors, guards, drivers. I noticed during the winter that they kept warm outdoors by burning random stuff; I guess this becomes another source of pollution.
How spoiled we can be…
I had a lunchtime conversation with colleagues about the differences between “Tier1,” “Tier 2,” and “Tier 3” cities in India. Tier 1 cities include Delhi, Mumbai, etc. Tier 3 are the more remote and least developed. One colleague said that where he grew up in Uttar Pradesh, there would be power outages for 8 hours a day, and people pumped water from wells. To this day, they said, there are power outages in these regions that go on for hours. People generally knew in advance when there would not be power, and so they planned their activities accordingly, and their homes had lanterns that were independent of the power sources.
We in Vasant Vihar are well-removed from this. We don’t experience hours of power outages. Our lovely apartment also has an automatic gas-driven generator, that kicks in within 5 seconds of a power outage and all of our appliances return to functioning.
Even in 5 seconds, you will lose internet connectivity, and our Vonage phone which is VoIP and depends on internet access will also disconnect. This can be frustrating if you are on an international conference call (as a result, I prefer to take important calls from the office, even if they are at 9:00 pm in India which corresponds to 11:30 am in NY.) The kids have been in the middle of video games during a power blip, and lost their scores….But we really, really need to keep some perspective. We are living a very privileged life here. I remember way back to our planning stages for this Indian adventure, and I didn’t know what to expect or prepare for….Concrete floors? Drawing water from wells? No home-based internet access? It has been far more comfortable than we could have imagined, and we should definitely take the glitches in our stride…which we do (for the most part!)
We in Vasant Vihar are well-removed from this. We don’t experience hours of power outages. Our lovely apartment also has an automatic gas-driven generator, that kicks in within 5 seconds of a power outage and all of our appliances return to functioning.
Even in 5 seconds, you will lose internet connectivity, and our Vonage phone which is VoIP and depends on internet access will also disconnect. This can be frustrating if you are on an international conference call (as a result, I prefer to take important calls from the office, even if they are at 9:00 pm in India which corresponds to 11:30 am in NY.) The kids have been in the middle of video games during a power blip, and lost their scores….But we really, really need to keep some perspective. We are living a very privileged life here. I remember way back to our planning stages for this Indian adventure, and I didn’t know what to expect or prepare for….Concrete floors? Drawing water from wells? No home-based internet access? It has been far more comfortable than we could have imagined, and we should definitely take the glitches in our stride…which we do (for the most part!)
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