20091119 - Looking back...

Before I left, many of you asked me what I as an Financial Services Sector consultant in IT could do for a housing project in the slums of Ahmedabad. What would be my added value? To be honest, at that moment I was not sure myself either. I just knew that:

• it was part of a large programme for which participants were selected very carefully,

• others had encountered a similar challenging situation before with good results.

Basically I just relied on my ability to learn and adapt very quickly.

Now I know that I have a lot of qualities and skills with added value in a project like this which at first sight seems so different from my daily job. We often don´t realise how much we know/can do and how valuable our knowledge/skillset is, until we have to use that knowledge/skillset in a different setting. The different setting makes you more aware of what knowledge/skills you apply.

The main point here is that the knowledge about slums and incremental housing in slums is plenty available with the people on site. That is not what the client needed nor what he expected from us. The added value we (as IBM team) could bring was:

• to approach the situation from (a) different, fresh angle(s)

• a good sales pitch to get profit organisations (material suppliers) interested to enter this market
• research (perform survey data analysis and conduct interviews) to support the statements in the sales pitch and to validate the usability of the Hybrid Value Chain model.

Our interactions were reciprocal: while we learned from Indian people, they learned from us.

Other things I learned/noticed in India...

• ... how to interpret the continuous head-nodding of Indian people (finally!). As they say, it can mean many things: yes, no, I don´t know, I know, I feel good, I feel bad, I agree, I disagree, I like this, I don´t like this or anything in between the dimensions mentioned before. Or it can even just mean nothing. The trick is to carefully monitor the eyes and facial expression and while doing so not to be distracted by the head-nodding. That seems to give a good indication of the meaning of the nodding.
• ... Indian people are just as curious about us as we are about them (e.g. while we were taking pictures of them with our cameras, they were taking pictures of us with their mobile phones)
• ... poverty does not need to lead to crime. In India many people are poor but it is a very safe country with low crime rate.
• ... although the atmosphere seems very quiet in India, it can suddenly explode without any notice (luckily I did not experience such an explosion). That is why there are so many security checks (for instance before entering a mall).
• ... cow dung is not unclean
• ... Indian people are very friendly and helpfull, no matter how poor
• ... the enormous amounts of people in India, continuously connected through mobile phones
• ... the crowded streets full of objects that are uncommon in the western world (camels, elephants, handcarts, rickshaws, cows, etc.)
• ... the resourcefullness and dedication of certain people and organisations to make life better for the poor
• ... also NGOs make poor people pay a small fee for services in order to ensure people take the services seriously (e.g. actually attend classes)
• ... arranged marriages (within caste) are still the standard in India. Love marriages are an exception and often requires a strong fight of the couple involved.
• ... there is a lot of domestic violence in India, both in slums as well as in the rest of India
• ... the ´landtitle´-issue is a big issue in India that really should be addressed in order to improve the situation for slum people. However, this can only be solved by the government and politicians have nothing to gain by solving this issue...
• ... in India religion is deeply integrated in daily life and although Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu are the main gods ther are many gods (108 I think?) and all of them can come in various forms so it all sounds pretty complicated
• ... the continuous honking of vehicles in the streets (´Horn OK Please´)
• ... drink the ´buttermilk with kardemom-seeds´. This is definitely an acquired taste, of which I decided on day one (after my first sip) that I should learn to appreciate. It took me quite some days and glasses before I finally managed to appreciate it ;-)

20091117 - Enormous media coverage

The Media Event in Ahmedabad and the IBM Event in Bangalore have resulted in quite a lot of exposure in the media.

Highlights from the Press Coverage...

Deploying a company’s workforce to solve social challenges when the world economy reels under its worst recession may seem disastrous charity model. But IBM thinks that is the best way of getting under real issues that needs solution.

When it was registered as a trade union to help women from the lower economic strata in the early 1970s, no one accounted for the rush of popularity among women to join the Ahmedabad-based Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) decade after decade. With a task of managing member details of over a million women from across Gujarat, the association has now got help in the form of IBM, the international IT major.

"Working for society through the IBM Corporate Service Corps (CSC) program has given a new meaning to my life," says Martin Hadinata, an IBMer from Zurich, Switzerland.

IT Giant IBM is working in partnership with Ashoka, an NGO, on a project to provide low-cost housing to the urban poor in Gujarat. The company will also provide its expertise in the Rs 10-crore project to develop theme-based eco rural reason in Junagadh, which will benefit the Sidis (a tribe of African origin settled in Gujarat) and other locals.

As part of its Corporate Service Corps (CSC) programme, IBM has joined hands with Tribal Development Department of Gujarat for a development project aimed at upliftment of tribals in Sasan area of Gir forest.

Various of the articles are also published on the internet. As I already provided a few links of articles after the Ahmedabad Media event, I will here only provide a few links published after the Bangalore event. As the list is endless, I aselect picked 5 links for this blog.

Deccan Herald – SERVING SOCIETY IS KEY STRATEGY: IBM
Date – November 14, 2009

ITNewsonline.com – IBM COMPLETES 1ST TWO PHASES OF ITS CORPORATE SERVICE CORPS IN INDIA
Date- November 15, 2009

ITVarnews.com – IBM PARTNERS WITH NGOS FOR CSC PROGRAM
Date- November 13, 2009

CIOL.com – IBM PARTNERS NGOS FOR A SOCIETAL CAUSE
Date- November 13, 2009

ITVoir.com – IBM PARTNERS WITH NGOS AND NOT-FOR-PROFIT GOVT ORGANIZATIONS FOR ITS CORPORATE SERVICE CORPS PROGRAM
Date- November 14, 2009

20091115 - I arrived home... and so did my baggage

On Saturday we (Stefan, Dominik and Anita-from-the-Mumbai-group) went sightseeing in Bangalore as long as possible. Although I didn´t feel very well, I was not about to miss out on my last day in India... We hired a car and driver and went to the Bangalore Palace (more a castle), Cubbon Parc, the ministery with opposite the street the High Court, the Bull Temple and the Botanical Garden.

After a quick shower, Stefan and I took the taxi to the airport. At the check-in desk, the ground stewardess kept repeating to me that I had to collect my baggage at London and then check it in myself to send it on to Amsterdam. I told her that is not the way it normally works in Europe, but she was very convinced. All in all my check in went very quickly. Stefan however took a lot longer. He had to pay airport tax (at a different counter), although CDC had said that this was already included in the ticket. As they would not check him in if he did not pay the tax first, he paid the tax and off we went to the departures area.

There was a ´domestic flights´ and an ´international flights´ area and as we both first had to go to Mumbai (different airlines though) we went to the domestic flights. I had to go in the ladies line and Stefan to the men´s line. Again I was ready quite quickly and I went to wait for Stefan. Then I saw him really confused getting his stuff back in his backpack and following a man to another place...

So there I was, all by myself in the boring Bangalore terminal after a month of being surrounded by 8 colleagues almost 24 hours a day... But I found out that I could use the WiFi for free and I could charge my laptop. So I started writing these blogs while charging my laptop. A good way to kill the 3 hours I had to wait before the flight would take off.

In Mumbai I met Stefan when I arrived at the International Terminal. So the trip had gone right with him after all. I had assumed so, but could not be sure off course. Stefan had also met Dominiks girlfriend at the Mumbai airport as she was on her way to Bangalore. What a coincidence! Anyway, it was good to have company at the Mumbai terminal as that terminal didn´t provide laptop charge functionality, nor did it seem to have free WiFi. Stefans flight left earlier than mine though, so I did have to kill some time by myself.

Once all passengers had boarded our plane, the plane could not leave for another 2 hours as it was too busy at Mumbai Airport ?!? Unbelievable! But for me it didn´t matter as I would have to kill another 4(!) hours of waiting at London Heathrow anyway, so I was in no hurry.

Once arrived at London Heathrow, I went through customs towards the baggage-belt as instructed in Bangalore and... my baggage was not there. Really annoyed I went to the Baggage Services to ask where my baggage could be, then noticing that my voice had disappeared overnight. The simple answer was: ´But ma´m, your baggage is shipped through to Amsterdam. You will have to collect it once you arrive there´. So first I had been waiting in line for customs, then I had been waiting 1,5 hours for my baggage not to be placed on the belt, for nothing! But again, as I was in no hurry (the delay of my flight to London was only 30 minutes as they had made up a lost of the lost time) because I had a lot of time to kill, it was quite allright. Only I really felt ill (headache, sore throat, coughing, voice dissappeared)...

So I went to the check in desk to get a ticket, stood in line again for security check and then another line for customs. The ´collect-your-baggage-in-London´-activity had taken around 3 hours all in all, so the good thing was that I had little time left to kill until my flight to Amsterdam left. Once I had arrived in Amsterdam, I went to my favorite airport location by now... the baggage belt... I waited and waited and the by then to me so familiar sight repeated: people getting their baggage of the belt and leaving... When I started to think that again my baggage would not arrive, it finally appeared on the belt as one before the last item...

Paul was there to pick me up and after a short nap I finally had... a nice and juicy entrecote accompanied by a glass of red wine :-)

20091113 - Fantastic IBM Event in Bangalore - Rangoli Teamvideo a hit!

Our final ´task´ of this CSC assignment was the IBM Event in Bangalore. After sleeping in a very luxurious hotel, but having to share rooms due to a misunderstanding with the hotel (´be flexible´), we got an extensive tour through the IBM Bangalore office. We shook hands with the manager of IBM India and had an exclusive lunch with a view over the neighbouring buildings (Microsoft, KPMG and Yahoo). The golf course that we could see is mentioned in a book called ´The world is flat´ that everyone, except me, seemed to know.

End of the afternoon we headed to the actual event. Invitees were from IBM and NGOs. The venue was great and the reception was unexpected catching: a group of men playing drums, singing and dancing.

Once we were inside the location, we got to see people working on handicrafts. Prianca put beautiful manna on our hands, while telling us about her Indian marriage (love marriage; not arranged) that is planned for next month.

After a while the presentations started. The purpose of CSC was explained and we held our team presentations. First the Mumbai (India 3) team, then us (India 4 alias Rangoli Team) and finally an Indian IBM-er who just returned from a CSC assignment in Halong Bay (Vietnam) which, according to me, is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

The presentation of our team (Rangoli Team) existed of:

• Susanne – explaining why we name ourselves the Rangoli Team
• Soon – introducing the video
• The Rangoli Teamvideo
  

The video was a hit!

See here the Rangoli teamvideo

After the presentation, there was a beautiful dance performance by some of the best (professional) dancers in India. The performance consisted of various styles of traditional dancing. It was amazing!

Following a delicious buffet, we headed back to the hotel where we said goodbye to the many people of the Mumbai and Rangoli Teams that left for the airport. It was a strange goodbye as it was so quickly after the event and therefore so sudden. I was one of the people leaving later, so the other ´stayers´ and me grabbed a beer (legal and in public as we were not in Gujarat anymore)...

20091111 - Successful final client presentation

The 11th of November is in the Netherlands referred to as the ´dag der dwazen/zotten´ (day of fools). For us, it was the day of our final presentation. Remarkable coincidence ;-)

Anyway, for us it was an important day. This was the day we had been working for this month. And although my blogs did not always show that we were working hard, we really did. Work is just not a good blog-subject. So we were pretty nervous; hoping it would all go well. We have been putting the slide deck together until the last minute. Then it was time...

The presentation went very good. We took turns in presenting: Annamari (Introduction), me (survey results), Rich (sales pitch), Elizabeth (micro-finance aspects) and Rich (closing). Our public existed of Vishnu (Ashoka, our client) and 3 people from SAATH (including Niradj who has been a great help to us throughout our project). During the presentation I noticed that the expressions on the faces were very positive, but after the presentation it became clear how positive. They were genuinly happy with the results and they will continue with our deliverables. They applauded twice and Vishnu stated several times that it was really good and exceeded his expectations by far! It felt really great that our work was so well appreciated!






Now, I have with mixed feelings. Although I´m sad that the experience has ended, I´m really happy that we have contributed to the good work of Ashoka and indirectly also of SAATH and SEWA. I am fortunate to have seen the persistance and enthousiasm of these people working to make a difference and I am really glad that I have had the chance see their good work and contribute a little.


And of course we celebrated the successful result we delivered and the end of our assignments :-)

20091109 - IBM Media Event

Today we had our first IBM Media Event for the Ahmedabad press. To be honest I had expected it to be a lot more exiting, but all in all it was an interesting experience.

After the necessary introductions and photoshoots, the presentations started. First the NGOs got time to speak about their organization and their projects. Vishnu (our client) explained the goals of Ashoka, the new housing project of Ashoka and told the press what excellent work the IBM Team (that is us...) did for Ashoka´s ´Incremental housing for the urban poor´-project. As Vishnu is a very gifted and speaker and charismatic person, this speach went very well.

Next on the agenda was our IBM Team presentation. Our presentation was split into two parts:

• professional experiences (about our projects and the remarkable things we noticed while performing our daily jobs)
• personal experiences (about the remarkable things we did and noticed outside our daily jobs, e.g. enormous amount of people continuously connected, our team trips, etc.)

Finally, the press was allowed to ask us some questions (spontaneous, uncensured). What disappointed me most was that the press only asked questions about the TDD project (eco-tourism in rural areas). I think that the Ashoka project is at least as important and social relevant. But I guess the issues in the rural areas are currently the hottest political issues in Ahmedabad...

All in all, the result was good. 4 newspapers have written about the IBM CSC activities in Ahmedabad. The links are below.

• Business Standard (also shortly mentions the Ashoka project)

IBM ties-up with state for tribal development

• India Express:

Social responsibility: IBM to support tribal theme park in Sasan Gir

The second page of this India Express article addresses the project I am working on (incremental housing in slums)

• Times of India

IBM to help create 'Little Africa' in Gujarat

• Ahmedabad Mirror

Tribal dept ties up with IBM to boost rural eco-tourism

20091108 - Rangoli Team Trip to Sun Temple Modhera

Today we visited:

• Sun Temple Modhera
• Rani-ki-Vav (The Queens Stepwell at Patan; UNESCO World Heritage Site)
• Patan Patola: Ancient Art of Double Ikat

Again a photo story to provide an impression of the day.

20091107 - Heritage Walk

Today we did the heritage walk. This is one of Ahmedabad´s major attractions and started by one of the founders of Ashoka. The attached video provides an impression of the walk.

20091106 - We are ´Slummywood-stars´ :-)

Today was a very busy day. In the morning we visited a slum with SEWA, in order to get some more answers on questions we had with respect to house improvements in slums. We had a meeting with the Community Based Organisation (CBO) of the slum. The women were all very open; happy to provide answers and explain their situation (what last improvement they did for their houses, how they financed these improvements, etc.). All of our questions answered. It really was a very good and useful meeting!

After the meeting we had some time to walk through the slum. The ladies of the CBO accompanied us and invited us inside their homes to look around. This was an amazing as well as touching experience:

• They pointed out what was pucca (good quality, e.g. for walls or roof or house) and kucca (bad quality, e.g. for walls or roof or house), so we finally recognised the difference.
• Also they showed us a house of which the flooring was not heigthened yet; this meant that the lower part of the house was far below street level!
• And several of our questions addressed financing, one of the ladies even showed the document containing all information on the loan for her house improvement: the principal amount, the payment schedule, the payments already done, etc!

Of course, we were just as interesting for the inhabitants of the slum as they were for us, so we attracted a lot of attention again :-)

After a few other meetings/interviews, we went with SAATH to another slum. We had been in this slum before, but never realised that accross the street of the URC (location of our previous meetings) another organisation was housed: the Samvad Community Video Unit. This unit was established because the regular television stations did not address the concerns and needs of people in slums and a magazine was not a good medium as many people in the slums are illiterate. The seven people working in the unit all come from different slums and all have a different background. Videos that are made are made by and for slum inhabitants, address these concerns and needs and result in a ´call for action´ (telling slum inhabitants what actions/behavior are/is required on their side).

Every two months a new video is displayed in a designated locations in around 100 Ahmedabad slums. At each location, around 200 people come to watch the video, after which they have the opportunity to discuss about the subject addressed in the video. One of the videos (on playgrounds for children) has even won awards outside of India (in western countries)!

First we watched the award-winning video. Next was... BEING FILMED OURSELVES WHILE WALKING THROUGH THE SLUM!!! The result will be part of a video they are producing on housing improvements. That video too will be shown in all of the slums. In other words: WE ARE ´SLUMMYWOOD-STARS´!

Clips from video magazines can be found online at: http://tinyurl.com/ch19-SamvadVideos

20091105 - Bollywood dancing in the mall

The day started out as a Bollywood day, as we (the Rangoli Team) taped part of our team video clip before work.

For our project, we had a very interesting interview with the Managing Director of SEWA Bank on incremental housing in Ahmedabad slums and microfinance possibilities (to avoid misunderstandings: the picture is taken while we were waiting for the minterview to start).

When I arrived back in the hotel, I noticed I ran out of coke so I went to the supermarket in the mall next to our hotel. There seemed to be some big event. There was a podium and a lot of commotion, so I decided to go one floor up for a good overview and wait to see what would happen. A few body guards came in to keep the crowd away from the podium (completely unnecessary as I have never seen such a quiet crowd before...). After a little while it turned out that a few guys performed a Bollywood type of dance show. As I could not find anyone that spoke English, I still don´t know what this was all about, but I suspect it was a commercial activity for ´Close Up´ (a toothpaste brand)...

20091104 - Women working on a construction site

Today on our way to the SAATH office, we noticed a commercial construction site with women as labourers. As we had heard about this situation at Mahila Housing SEWA Trust and we also had an interview with women labourers earlier this week we were intrigued. These are women that have not gone to the SEWA Karmika school but they are the daily wagers (so they earn about 50-60 rupees -equal to 0,75-0,85 euro- a day)... It is really a strange experience to see women working on a construction site like this...



In the evening we went with Arjun (CSC) for dinner. He took us to a very good restaurant near the highway, where we had a delicious dinner: garlick chicken, chiken tandoori and some other variations on chicken and mutton. And local prices :-) It was great!



P.S. What I consider really strange in Ahmedabad (this maybe the case in all of India, but that I don´t know) is that vegetarian food is about the same price as meat (chicken, mutton) if you can find it...

20091003 - After a long day of hard work... Barbeque Nation!

A long day of hard work...



On our way home, just outside the SAATH office, we saw two women who were happy to pose for the picture. On the roads women are often covered completely like this (including sunglasses), especially when riding a motorbike. This is not a religious expression; it is simply to avoid any tanning and as a prevention for the dust.



Once back in the hotel, we had our regular team meeting. This time we discussed the content of our presentations for the two events that are sheduled for next week. There will be:

• one event next week on Monday in Ahmedabad with press and clients
• one event next week on Friday at IBM Bangelore.

As it turns out, we have quite a creative team :-)

And then as a reward for all the hard work we had dinner at Barbeque Nation. We had heard that the previous Ahmedabad team went to Barbeque Nation every other day, so we were really curious what it was like. And it was really special! For starter, there were various types of barbequed chicken, mutton and gambas. The barbeque was inside our table, so it was similar to fondue. We really enjoyed it! Advise: stick to the starters, as the main course is the every day Indian food, while the starters are unlimited and exist of the delicious barbecued chicken, mutton and gambas!

Although not very Indian, I have to admit that this was the best (but also the most expensive) food I have had since I arrived in India...

20091102 – The Ashoka incremental housing project

This blog entry is intended to give a short answer to the many questions I received on how the project is progressing and what exactly we are doing. Needless to say, we do not only go on sightseeing tours and enjoy ourselves. During weekdays we work hard in order to get our deliverables produced in the limited timeframe available (one month).

The incremental housing project is still on track. We are well aligned with our client. Our team of three IBM-ers (Annamari, Rich and me) is extended with Elizabeth, an intern at Ashoka coming from US. Daily the four of us are working at the SAATH office where a lady brings us water and chai (tea with milk and a lot of sugar). SAATH and SEWA are important partners for Ashoka. They are very helpful and effective in making the necessary arrangements for us to be able to fulfil our task. They

• show us around in slums,
• arrange meetings with slum people,
• translate during these meetings and
• provide any additional information we need.

Furthermore, SAATH and SEWA have conducted a survey in ten Ahmedabad slums providing information relevant to our project.

We have applied the IBM standard ´Issue Based Consulting´-techniques in order to define clear and specific questions leading to our goal. In order to answer these questions we are gathering information through:
- analysis on the survey data (using SPSS)
- meetings with different groups of slum dwellers (community based organisations, constructors, daily wagers)
- meetings with material suppliers
- meetings with microfinance institutions.
By now, we know quite a lot about slums, incremental housing, barriers involved, etc. and we keep learning in a fast pace.

All in all this keeps us quite busy; next week is the week that we have to deliver…

20091102 – Why do children play with cow dung (=cow shit)?

In various villages, I have seen children ´play´ with cow dung. For non-native speakers: ´dung´ means ´shit´. Needless to say, this surprised me. Today, it was explained to me.












First of all, a cow is a holy creature in Hinduism and therefore no part of the cow is considered unclean (including cow dung). Furthermore, it has been scientifically proven that cow dung can be used as an antiseptic. In other words: contrary to our (western) perception, here playing with cow dung is not considered filthy at all.

Cow dung is a very important product in these rural communities as it serves various purposes in village houses:
1.) After cow dung dried in the sun, it can be used as firewood (to cook);
2.) Cow dung is a component used to create biogas;
3.) Cow dung can be used for flooring.

Next time when I see a child play with cow dung I will try to look at it from this new perspective…


P.S.
While we are at it: I also learned today that people spray cow urine on the walls of their new house before settling in there for good luck (sort of consecration)…

20091101 - Rangoli Team Trip to Udaipur - Day 2

Following the suggestion of our hotel manager, we went to visit two temples about 30 minutes outside Udaipur.

The first temple was Eklingji. This is a temple complex, built in 971 AD and contains 108 temples. Actually, the location we visited existed basically of temple ruins so we are not absolutely sure that this was indeed Eklingji but it was impressive. The amazing carvings in the ruins were still very clear-cut and damaged statues were spread all over the place. One of the temple ruins provided an astonishing view over the area.
As there seemed to be no staircase, we climbed our way through the ruins. We felt adventurous like Indiana Jones… When we enthusiastically headed to climb our way back, a friendly, old, characteristic man who had been observing us for quite some time by then showed us the standard path. There was a staircase after all…

The second temple was the Nagda Temple. This is a Shiva temple, although no Shiva statue can be found anywhere in the complex. The Nagda Temple is a major attraction for Hindu tourists.

Before we headed back for Ahmedabad, we had some time left to walk around through the narrow, bendy streets of Udaipur. There was a lot to see (e.g. craftsmen making copper pots, tailors, jewellers, second hand sets of dentures) and to buy (e.g. pashmina scarfs, marble sculptures, leather notebooks).

Again a video to provide an impression of the day.

20091031 - Rangoli Team Trip to Udaipur - Day 1

This Rangoli Team weekend trip to Udaipur was arranged by Susanne and Eva long before we actually set foot in India so we have been looking forward to it for quite some time. Finally the date has come…

Udaipur is a major tourist attraction and also referred to as ´Venice of the East´. The James Bond movie ´Octopussy´ has been filmed in Udaipur (Lake Palace in Lake Pichola), which is the reason why there are still so many cinemas in the city featuring this movie. The old city is built on tiny hillocks and raised areas and it´s narrow streets are full of twists and turns. On Friday evening around 22:00 o’clock (after a 4 to 5 hour drive) we arrived at our well decorated hotel where we enjoyed our cold beers at the rooftop terrace with a view over Lake Pichola. Lake Palace was lit and the atmosphere was perfect.

Saturday morning we went sightseeing with a guide. We visited the most important sights.

Jagdish Temple
In order to enter this temple (built in 1651), we had to climb up quite some stairs. When we arrived at the top of the stairs, we could see the astonishing stone carvings in the outside of the temple. Inside the temple, devotees were singing. The songs, accompanied by drums, had a slightly trance/ecstatic rhythm. One lady was passionately dancing in front of the black statue of Vishnu (one of the Hindu Gods).

City Palace
City Palace is the home of the Maharaja, currently converted into a museum. At the entrance there were four ´elephant-parking-spots´. When the palace was still in use, four elephants used to stand here in order to welcome any visitors. The palace was full of marble and it was huge. On the top floor there was even a (religious purpose) fountain with some seats around it for the people (like in a park) as well as one for himself. There were windows decorated with colourful Antwerp glass, walls decorated with Delfts blue tiles and ivory doors.

Lake Pichola
We went for a boat ride on Lake Pichola, a large artificial lake with two islands in it.

Lake Palace
During our boat trip, we passed Lake Palace. This Palace became famous when it was featured in the movie ´Octopussy´ (James Bond). It is currently functions as a top end Taj hotel. Until recently, it was possible to visit the hotel for a drink only now it is only accessible for hotel guests. However, there was another palace in the lake that we visited (after all, a Maharadja needs more than one home) which is currently hosts a restaurant.

Nehru Garden
At a very good lunch (fried chicken breast stuffed with cashew nuts and cotton cheese; an old Indian dish), we went to Nehru Garden. According to Wikipedia, this garden was inaugurated on the birth anniversary of the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. Anyway, the garden had many fountains. One of them was really nice with four elephants spraying water from their trunk (Dutch: ´slurf´) towards the statue in the middle.

The attached video provides an impression of our sightseeing trip.



After this rather exhausting sightseeing trip, I went for a well deserved Ayurvedic Massage. Nice and relaxing :-). Too bad such a massage is not available in Ahmedabad for a reasonable price…

20091026 - Field research: Slum visit

Here´s an impression of the slum visit we had today. We went with SAATH to an Urban Resource Center.

20091027 - How to get an alcohol permit in Ahmedabad?

Ahmedabad is the place where Gandhi lived in his Ashram and is located in the state Gujarat. Out of respect for Gandhi, most inhabitants of Gujarat are vegetarian. In other words: in Gujarat it is difficult to find non-vegetarian food. This is quite a challenge for me, as I am definitely a carnivore. In the beginning of the trip, I really enjoyed the Indian food. However, by now I really, really, really need some meat!

But that is not all. Following Gandhi´s teachings, Gujarat government decided that alcohol is prohibited. This means that Gujarat is the only state in India where alcohol is prohibited. So a relaxing beer at the end of a long and hot day is out of the question.

However, there is an exeption: If you have a non-Indian passport / green card / PR status, you can get an alcohol permit valid for one month by going to a liquor shop at a large hotel.

So today we went to get an alcohol permit (please note that I haven´t had a single drop in 1½ week). Especially since an alcohol permit leads to another stamp in your passport. We went to a large hotel and had to go through a small door outside. No photography was allowed inside. We had to fill out a form, hand over a photocopy of our passports (the page with the photograph, the one with the details and the one with the Indian visa stamp) and provide evidence that we will be staying for a minimum of 10 days.
The permit costs 100 rupees. With the permit one can purchase a maximum of:

• 20 small beer bottles (330 ml) or
• 12 large beer bottles (500 ml) or
• 2 bottles of hard liquor

for 10 days. It is not possible to buy e.g. 4 bottles of beer, as all purchases have to be done by the full unit (1 unit = 10 small beer, 6 large beer or 1 bottle of liquor). After 10 days one can purchase the same maximum amount of alcoholic beverages on the same permit. Then the permit expires.

After purchasing the permit and the alcoholic beverages we went back to the hotel. However... it is not allowed to drink alcohol in public. As drinking alone is no fun, my room turned into the ´team bar´...

20091025 - Drive In Cinema starring... Kylie Minogue!?!

Per and Susanne left for the rural areas (field trip to the Nature Reserve of their ecotourism assignment) where they will stay until Thursday or Friday. Rich got sick. So only six of us remained to visit the client of Eva and Dominik: IndiCorps, an organisation inspired by Gandhi.

When we arrived at IndiCorps, we were right in time to join the IndiCorps fellows and volunteers (mainly US and UK residents from Indian descent) for lunch... on the tile floor. I had a very nice conversation with a guy who in the past had worked for Shell in The Netherlands and is now actively involved (already for 2½ years) in the IndiCorps Frisbee Project.

After lunch we could participate in a group session on ´How to write a column´, outside... on the grass. Very useful for us (IBM-ers) too, as we can use some of these tips for our blogging. In order to prevent participants from dozing off, an ´energizer´ was applied: aerobics-type steps combined with shouting. At the end of the session, very practical ´survival´ tips were provided. For example: if your energy level is low, you can eat/drink ´Ragi´ (incl. instructions on how to prepare this). Our visit to IndiCorps was a very interesting experience. For more information on IndiCorps, see: http://www.indicorps.org/.

When we left IndiCorps, only four of us continued sightseeing as Eva and Dominik decided to return to the hotel to work. The four of us visited the Jain Temple. Jain is a very strict form of Hinduism, where followers are not allowed to eat anything that grows underground (e.g. potatoes, garlick). The temple was very beautiful, but no pictures were allowed inside so I cannot show it.

The day ended with a great experience: the six of us went to the Drive In Cinema. ´Sunset Drive-in, an open Air Cinema with the largest screen in Asia, is located at Ahmedabad. It is first of it's kind which can room about 665 cars at a time. More than 6000 people can enjoy watching movie at a time.´ (see: http://www.sunsetdriveincinema.com/home.html). The cinema is about 500 meters from our hotel (which is why the street is called Drive In Road). At first we intended to rent a car and driver to watch a movie, but we had discovered that it is also possible to watch a movie if you don´t have a car. In short: we walked to the cinema.

At the cinema it was quite a challenge to find where pedestrians were supposed to go as we entered through the car entrance. When we had found it, there was a counter with two lines: one for men and one for women. One person could buy the tickets for the entire group (no separation between men and women), so Annamari and I bought the tickets as the women line was much shorter than the men´s.

After the line to buy the tickets, we were guided to another line: the line to enter. This line was mixed man-women and many people were pushing and jumped the queue. Finally we arrived at the outside stone seats and the movie started... At least that was what we thought. But that was not the case: first there were 30 minutes of commercials.

At 23:00 (two hours after we left the hotel to go to the cinema), the movie finally started. It turned out hat we were watching the movie ´Blue´; a popular Bollywood movie from 2008 (guest) starring... Kylie Minogue!?! Some striking aspects with respect to Bollywood movies (at least this one):

• 5 minutes after the movie started we thought we were back to commercials (resembling e.g. Bounty advertisement). However, as it turned out this was no commercial but part of the movie.
• The ugly guy gets the beautiful girl.
• There is a lot of attention for women´s bums
• ´Bollywood erotic´ scenes take a long time
• Anything in written text is in English, spoken text is in Hindi with sometimes an English line in between (e.g. Hindi text -´But you can call me Nicky´- Hindi text)
• It can take quite some time before the first Bollywood dance is displayed (in Blue it took at least 15 minutes)

All in all, it was a really enjoyable experience, but we still left before the (3 hour) movie ended...

20091024 - Rangoli Team Day Trip

Our first Saturday together, we spent sightseeing with the team. The places we visited are:

• Nal Sarovar (Bird sanctuary)
• Village along the road
• Sarkej Mosque
• Adelaj Stepwell
• Gandhi Ashram

The film attached provides an impression of our intensive day.

The background music of the photo story is from Kylie Minogue in the Bollywood-movie ´Blue´ that we viewed on Sunday October 25th in the largest Drive In Cinema in India. I will write about that experience in the blog of the 25th.

20091023 - Visit to Mahila Housing SEWA Trust

SEWA stands for Self Employed Women´s Association. It is an organisation of poor, self-employed women workers. These are women who earn a living through their own labour or small businesses. For more information, see: http://www.sewa.org/.

Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHST) is a great example of inventive work to improve the living standards for women. It was established when SEWA Bank realised that women wanted to improve their houses. House improvement leads to:

gain a lot of time (as women do not have to spend time to clean the floor, fetch water far away, etc.)

better education for the children

social status

higher income

Currently, MHST has various interesting programmes. The most remarkable MHST programme in my opinion is the Karmika Project. This is a school where women learn to become construction workers. In the western world, women rarely work in construction. The same was the situation in India with one difference: the women worked in construction in the low salary jobs (e.g. carry stones to the site; earnings of 50-60 IDR per day). After the training, women can work as assistant helper (earnings of 80 - 125 IDR per day) or as master mason (earnings: no limit).

We got a chance to see the women on a training site, learning how to build a wall. This was really interesting, especially as they seemed to manage to do so wearing a sari !!!

We visited a slum as field research. This time we met the women living in the slum that were appointed as slum representatives for SEWA. They were happy to answer our questions (for instance on how their lives were improved after getting running water, electricity and several other improvements due to SEWA intervention). The following video gives an impression of such a field research interview.

At the end of the interview, the women told us that life was a lot better now SEWA has provided the means for running water (connection etc.) for the slum. However, the water company recently shut them off...

20091022 - Ahmedabad traffic

As stated in an earlier blog, strange vehicles can be spotted in the Ahmedabad traffic. Traffic is very chaotic. The following video provides an impression.

But this is not all... As there are no traffic lights or official pedestrian crossings, you are supposed to cross the roads when you think suitable. The following video is a perfect example of the traffic when we need to cross the streets to go somewhere for dinner...

But it seems no real accidents ever happen... (we saw a small collision once only until now)