Wednesday, July 13, 2011
terrorist attacks
I'm safe, but thinking of those caught in today's terrorist attacks as well as their loved ones. Truly reprehensible. Send your thoughts and prayers to those impacted.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
banalities
really little of note has happened this week. most of my time has been spent in the office, attending meetings in order to familiarize us with different aspects of my company. it has been gratifying to learn more about my company, and to begin to get an idea of what my role might be. however, i've made big strides in terms of continuing the process of getting settled, which is significant for me, but not necessarily the most interesting source of anecdotes.
my roommates and i hired a housekeeper. he will come three times a week. i'd better not get used to it as i doubt i'll have one when i return to the united states. nonetheless, it is nice to not have to do dishes or clean the bathroom. one of the perks of living in india, i imagine.
today i went to a store called big bazaar. its kind of a department store, but with relatively low quality items. however, it's fairly inexpensive, and i needed to pick up a few more hangers, some food storage jars for lentils, other beans, rice, etc, and located not too far from my office. 4:00 pm on a thursday, and it was packed! in fact, it took about 45 minutes to check-out. sometimes things are less efficient here than in the united states, but i've learned from my time in senegal and drc that you can't worry about it and have to just let it go.
since i haven't begun any work projects yet, i have no responsibility after i leave the office. it's a really nice change of pace from school, where work never really ended and there were always tasks to do. i have taken advantage of having more free time to read (just finished tina fey's book, bossypants, which was not as good as I expected but still great) and get my money's worth out of my expensive gym membership. all in all, things have been really good so far, although i'm very much looking forward to and nervous about really beginning my job on monday
my roommates and i hired a housekeeper. he will come three times a week. i'd better not get used to it as i doubt i'll have one when i return to the united states. nonetheless, it is nice to not have to do dishes or clean the bathroom. one of the perks of living in india, i imagine.
today i went to a store called big bazaar. its kind of a department store, but with relatively low quality items. however, it's fairly inexpensive, and i needed to pick up a few more hangers, some food storage jars for lentils, other beans, rice, etc, and located not too far from my office. 4:00 pm on a thursday, and it was packed! in fact, it took about 45 minutes to check-out. sometimes things are less efficient here than in the united states, but i've learned from my time in senegal and drc that you can't worry about it and have to just let it go.
since i haven't begun any work projects yet, i have no responsibility after i leave the office. it's a really nice change of pace from school, where work never really ended and there were always tasks to do. i have taken advantage of having more free time to read (just finished tina fey's book, bossypants, which was not as good as I expected but still great) and get my money's worth out of my expensive gym membership. all in all, things have been really good so far, although i'm very much looking forward to and nervous about really beginning my job on monday
Sunday, July 3, 2011
almost two weeks in
it's been a hectic few days. in the past week i've travelled to pune (a technology industry hub of a city about 2.5 hours outside bombay), chennai (a metropolis and hub for tamil nadu, the southernmost region of india and quite culturally distinct, and relaxed for a blissful 36 hours at a resort in pondicherry, about 4 hours south of chennai on the bay of bengal). i wish i could say it was great to see a large swath of india, but to be honest the main purpose of the trip was to visit various mahindra offices and attend meetings with managers. nonetheless, it was a great trip in terms of offering perspectives both on india and particularly on my company.
one observation, that may seem more minutiae that recount-worthy; on the flight from chennai to mumbai, each seat had an individual screen which was great. i'm a big fan of maps, so i basically just watched "flight map" the whole way. the bottom of the map had a disclaimer: "physical map only: no political boundaries." as i figure, this is because of ongoing borders disputes between india and pakistan that would make drawing national boundaries extremely contentious. a small thing that caught my attention.
since returning to mumbai, i've continued the process of settling in. today i joined a gym (actually a Gold's Gym franchise) that's down the street from my house. i'm really happy to have that outlet, and hope to make a solid routine. we also just got internet in our apartment; so far it's quite fast and wonderful, so knock on wood. for some things, especially technology like cell plans and internet, india for sure has a competitive edge. for unlimited internet at the fastest speed it cost less than 30 dollars a month, which comes out to ten bucks a person. likewise, my cell plan was about 17 dollars for data and calls and texting.
last night i went clubbing for the first time. it's quite difficult to gain entry into most places, so we had a few false starts especially as the male-female ratio was not great. however, by 11:30 or so we ended up in a great club inside this ridiculous hotel that looked like where the "galactic senate" is in the new star wars movies (NERD right? some things never change). it was really fun to just dance, although I wore heels and was in lots of pain.
this week will be a lot of meetings with various business heads. next monday, i'll begin my actual job. i'm not sure of my specific project, but i'm in the farm equipment division and more specifically with diesel generators. i think it has potential to be really cool because of connections to sustainable development and generally raising international standards of living, south to south trading networks (eg between india and african nations), and just all around being a great opportunity to learn.
it's for sure a major transition moving here, but so far it's been really engaging and manageable. i look forward to little by little getting a routine and figuring things out, and think this weekend was a great start to this lengthy process.
apologies for the lack of thematic unity in this post. soon will be the promised pictures of bandra west, where i live.
one observation, that may seem more minutiae that recount-worthy; on the flight from chennai to mumbai, each seat had an individual screen which was great. i'm a big fan of maps, so i basically just watched "flight map" the whole way. the bottom of the map had a disclaimer: "physical map only: no political boundaries." as i figure, this is because of ongoing borders disputes between india and pakistan that would make drawing national boundaries extremely contentious. a small thing that caught my attention.
since returning to mumbai, i've continued the process of settling in. today i joined a gym (actually a Gold's Gym franchise) that's down the street from my house. i'm really happy to have that outlet, and hope to make a solid routine. we also just got internet in our apartment; so far it's quite fast and wonderful, so knock on wood. for some things, especially technology like cell plans and internet, india for sure has a competitive edge. for unlimited internet at the fastest speed it cost less than 30 dollars a month, which comes out to ten bucks a person. likewise, my cell plan was about 17 dollars for data and calls and texting.
last night i went clubbing for the first time. it's quite difficult to gain entry into most places, so we had a few false starts especially as the male-female ratio was not great. however, by 11:30 or so we ended up in a great club inside this ridiculous hotel that looked like where the "galactic senate" is in the new star wars movies (NERD right? some things never change). it was really fun to just dance, although I wore heels and was in lots of pain.
this week will be a lot of meetings with various business heads. next monday, i'll begin my actual job. i'm not sure of my specific project, but i'm in the farm equipment division and more specifically with diesel generators. i think it has potential to be really cool because of connections to sustainable development and generally raising international standards of living, south to south trading networks (eg between india and african nations), and just all around being a great opportunity to learn.
it's for sure a major transition moving here, but so far it's been really engaging and manageable. i look forward to little by little getting a routine and figuring things out, and think this weekend was a great start to this lengthy process.
apologies for the lack of thematic unity in this post. soon will be the promised pictures of bandra west, where i live.
Friday, July 1, 2011
apartment photos
internet connection is quite slow, so more later
where i'll be living for at least a year. . .i think it's nice. some photos of the neighborhood to follow.
Monday, June 27, 2011
First Impressions
Although I was a bit ambivalent about keeping a blog while in India, thinking it might not be professional or something else inflated with a misplaced sense of self importance, I’ve been getting a lot of queries and requests from some sort of chronicle of my time here. So, at least initially, I’m going to give sporadic blogging a go. I intend to focus mainly on my impressions and observations, rather than detailed accounts of what I do. It’s also worth noting that I’m simply continuing on my Senegal blog, at least until I can get some new photos up in the coming weeks and make a proper layout, etc.
I arrived late last Wednesday. Since then, I haven’t really taken a break to catch my breath; I’ve been on the go with the other Global Recruits (that is the name of the program/opportunity I have in India), exploring Mumbai’s restaurants and bars bit by bit, doing bureaucratic nonsense (more on that later), and shopping for our apartments. There’s too much to capture in the time I have, so I’ll go over some big things in a somewhat arbitrary order.
While it’s dangerous to compare one thing to another—particularly countries—in a sense it’s inevitable. Most people in my position, Americans moving here, tend to compare Mumbai to the US for obvious reasons, especially if they haven’t lived other places. For me, however, it is more compelling and almost more natural to compare Mumbai to Dakar and Kinshasa. In this sense, I’m quite fortunate, because while Mumbai might not hold up well against New York or Boston or Chicago—or even St. Louis—it certainly does against the two African metropolises that I simultaneously loved and hated living in and that continually challenged me. Although I know incredible poverty exists here, it is not visible in the same way it was in other places I’ve been. I get the sense that the poor are marginalized in a very concrete, physical way, as even after driving the length of the city I’ve seen few beggars or street people, even compared to downtown STL. Of course, I know that this is largely illusionary, and it would be irresponsible to forget the reality of wealth disparity.
Although I had expected to see continual reminders of poverty alongside signs of India’s rising economic tide, it is mainly the wealth of Mumbai that is striking and seemingly omnipotent. There are so many malls, posh stores, fancy cars, high rises, and other signs of ever-increasing riches. It’s a jarring contrast, particularly to Kinshasa.
A few other observations in brief: it’s hot and humid, but not nearly as bad as I expected, it hasn’t rained on me yet despite being monsoon season, although I’m sure that will happen sooner or later, my neighborhood and apartment are awesome and filled with vendors, stores, and great restaurants (my two favorite so far are a Punjabi restaurant where I get feast-like meals of an entrée, dal (lentils), and rice or bread for about 4 dollars and a Tahai restaurant with great Tom Yum Soup and curries), my office looks like it will be really cool and I will be working in the tractor division (is it because I’m from Missouri) and if I take a sweet toll bridge called the Sea Link it’s about a 20 minute communte, and it is indeed very crowded here.
Although it’s early, I can think of three primary things that might be quite challenging about living here: the traffic, the pollution, and the bureaucracy. As I’m running out of time I’m going to talk briefly about some Kafkaesque experiences I’ve had with bureaucracy so far. For some photos illustrating low air quality and time stuck in traffic (about 4 hours yesterday!) see facebook.
Last Friday we went to the office for the first time, primarily to fill out certain forms. One was to establish our bank accounts; we’re all anxious to get paid, so this is a top priority for all concerned. Filling out the forms, I got a foretaste of how extremely bureaucratic India is. In one section, I had to check boxes (eg male or female, single or married). I drew an X in the appropriate boxes, when the bank representative scurried over, alarmed. No, no, no, she said with exasperation. You need to make a tick mark (check mark). I had to write a check mark next to my box marked with an X, and then “countersign” or write my name next to the “correction” so all would know it was legit. A few minutes later, my signature posed an issue. I have an atrocious signature, really more like a scribble, but I’d never given it any thought. Preserving the opportunity to become a doctor, I suppose. At any rate, the bank representative came over and again said, no, no, no!, this time more emphatically. “Your signatures are different. This is like an R, this is like an I don’t know, M or something. Practice.” I then spent an awkward 5 minutes practicing and perfecting my signature, until she either found it satisfactory or gave up and told me to stop. Aside from slightly embarrassing me, I think the experience might be indicative of how a certain level of detail will matter here that was totally off my radar in the US.
Today was truly submersion in Indian bureaucracy. We had to register as foreigners at the police station in South Mumbai. It was a parade of waiting, filling out a form, then filling out an identical form, than waiting, than giving over the form, then waiting . . .although all said and done we were out in about 3.5 hours which isn’t too bad.
Tomorrow we leave early for Pune, then go on to Chennai and Pondicherry later this week. Looking forward to seeing some more of India.
I arrived late last Wednesday. Since then, I haven’t really taken a break to catch my breath; I’ve been on the go with the other Global Recruits (that is the name of the program/opportunity I have in India), exploring Mumbai’s restaurants and bars bit by bit, doing bureaucratic nonsense (more on that later), and shopping for our apartments. There’s too much to capture in the time I have, so I’ll go over some big things in a somewhat arbitrary order.
While it’s dangerous to compare one thing to another—particularly countries—in a sense it’s inevitable. Most people in my position, Americans moving here, tend to compare Mumbai to the US for obvious reasons, especially if they haven’t lived other places. For me, however, it is more compelling and almost more natural to compare Mumbai to Dakar and Kinshasa. In this sense, I’m quite fortunate, because while Mumbai might not hold up well against New York or Boston or Chicago—or even St. Louis—it certainly does against the two African metropolises that I simultaneously loved and hated living in and that continually challenged me. Although I know incredible poverty exists here, it is not visible in the same way it was in other places I’ve been. I get the sense that the poor are marginalized in a very concrete, physical way, as even after driving the length of the city I’ve seen few beggars or street people, even compared to downtown STL. Of course, I know that this is largely illusionary, and it would be irresponsible to forget the reality of wealth disparity.
Although I had expected to see continual reminders of poverty alongside signs of India’s rising economic tide, it is mainly the wealth of Mumbai that is striking and seemingly omnipotent. There are so many malls, posh stores, fancy cars, high rises, and other signs of ever-increasing riches. It’s a jarring contrast, particularly to Kinshasa.
A few other observations in brief: it’s hot and humid, but not nearly as bad as I expected, it hasn’t rained on me yet despite being monsoon season, although I’m sure that will happen sooner or later, my neighborhood and apartment are awesome and filled with vendors, stores, and great restaurants (my two favorite so far are a Punjabi restaurant where I get feast-like meals of an entrée, dal (lentils), and rice or bread for about 4 dollars and a Tahai restaurant with great Tom Yum Soup and curries), my office looks like it will be really cool and I will be working in the tractor division (is it because I’m from Missouri) and if I take a sweet toll bridge called the Sea Link it’s about a 20 minute communte, and it is indeed very crowded here.
Although it’s early, I can think of three primary things that might be quite challenging about living here: the traffic, the pollution, and the bureaucracy. As I’m running out of time I’m going to talk briefly about some Kafkaesque experiences I’ve had with bureaucracy so far. For some photos illustrating low air quality and time stuck in traffic (about 4 hours yesterday!) see facebook.
Last Friday we went to the office for the first time, primarily to fill out certain forms. One was to establish our bank accounts; we’re all anxious to get paid, so this is a top priority for all concerned. Filling out the forms, I got a foretaste of how extremely bureaucratic India is. In one section, I had to check boxes (eg male or female, single or married). I drew an X in the appropriate boxes, when the bank representative scurried over, alarmed. No, no, no, she said with exasperation. You need to make a tick mark (check mark). I had to write a check mark next to my box marked with an X, and then “countersign” or write my name next to the “correction” so all would know it was legit. A few minutes later, my signature posed an issue. I have an atrocious signature, really more like a scribble, but I’d never given it any thought. Preserving the opportunity to become a doctor, I suppose. At any rate, the bank representative came over and again said, no, no, no!, this time more emphatically. “Your signatures are different. This is like an R, this is like an I don’t know, M or something. Practice.” I then spent an awkward 5 minutes practicing and perfecting my signature, until she either found it satisfactory or gave up and told me to stop. Aside from slightly embarrassing me, I think the experience might be indicative of how a certain level of detail will matter here that was totally off my radar in the US.
Today was truly submersion in Indian bureaucracy. We had to register as foreigners at the police station in South Mumbai. It was a parade of waiting, filling out a form, then filling out an identical form, than waiting, than giving over the form, then waiting . . .although all said and done we were out in about 3.5 hours which isn’t too bad.
Tomorrow we leave early for Pune, then go on to Chennai and Pondicherry later this week. Looking forward to seeing some more of India.
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