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)

20091021 - First visit to slum

Today we went with Vishnu (Ashoka) on a short tour of Ahmedabad. We went to visit the train station as the train is an important aspect of India and Indian life.
For the first time in India we were transported in a car in stead of a auto rickshaw. Traffic is chaotic over here and you encounter the strangest objects on the street, such as:
- cows
- (painted) camel and wagon
- (painted) elephant
- horse and wagon
- auto rickshaw
- hand cart
I will place a short video on Yahoo soon, but I have to download software for that first and find out how that works.

After lunch we went to a slum, for the first time. It was truly a great experience! People were very friendly and welcoming. They all wanted to be in the picture; especially the children. Everywhere we went, a group of children followed us. We first went to the SAATH Urban Resource Center. Ashoka (the NGO I work for) works closely together with SAATH. For more information, see http://www.saathurc.org/English/.

SAATH has an office that functions as an information hub in the slum. Slum dwellers (=people living in a slum) pay for services and/or can become a member.


In Ahmedabad there are 10 slums grouped by e.g. religion, job type, income level. The slum we visited today was a muslim slum.

I always thought that most people living in a slum were unemployed and pennyless. That is a widespread misconception. People living in slums have normal day jobs (e.g. auto rickshaw driver, work at the train station, etc.) and some money to spend. However, as they do not own the land they live on, they do not qualify for a mortage so they cannot buy a house. Also it is difficult for them to get loans. Therefore, parties as SAATH and SEWA provide micro-financing services for these groups of people.

SAATH set up (and subsidises) a day care facility in the slum. When we were invited for tea in this day care facility, children were curiously looking through the windows at us.


Walking around in the slum was really interesting. The colours are overwhelming. And basically every picture you take is a very special picture. I have added a few pictures to this blog. More pictures can be viewed on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.nl/Mapje.van.Ginkel/IBMCSCRangoliTeamAhmedabad?authkey=Gv1sRgCLPci5aIwvCvygE&feat=directlink#

20091020 - Today we met with our clients

Today was Kick off day. We finally met our clients in person. With our Rangoli Team (IBM CSC Team India 4) we cover 4 projects:

Local partner: Tribal Development Department of Government of Gujarat
Project: Development of Rural Eco-Tourism Project
Rangoli Team Members: Per (Denmark) and Susanne (US)

Local Partner: Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)
Project: Development of basic architectural design and implementation action plan for using ICT in two key operational areas: (1) member database management, and (2) an intranet with members.
Rangoli Team Members: Stefan (Germany) and Soon (Malaysia/Japan)

Local Partner: Indicorps
Project: Develop an impact evaluation plan and implementation procedures.
Rangoli Team Members: Eva (Hungary) and Dominik (Germany)

Local Partner: Ashoka
Project: Develop a strategic plan for incremental housing in the urban slums of Ahmedabad.
Rangoli Team Members: Annamari (Finland), Rich (US), Mapje (Netherlands)



It was really good to actually discuss the project with the client face to face in the break out sessions. After the meeting, I re-read all documentation. Reading the documentation from a different perspective brought up new questions and lead to a better understanding of the assignment.

20091019 - Kick off and… my baggage arrived!

Today I will try to keep it short as I just noticed that it is already past midnight. After a nice Indian breakfast in the hotel (it is also possible to take western breakfast), the kick off started. I finally got to meet the five team members that arrived during the night. Gavin and Arjun provided us practical information and the hotel manager presented himself. Then we had a teambuilding exercise in which everyone should draw their lifeline leading to this moment. It was quite interesting to see how everyone had a completely different approach to do this.

The most important lesson of today was how to know the price of a rickshaw ride. The rickshaw is the most common form of transportation in Ahmedabad. It is quite simple really. Every rickshaw has a meter (don´t forget to check whether it is set to zero before you start your ride…). Using a rate table you can see what price corresponds with the number on the meter. By rickshaw we went to a restaurant where we had a very nice traditional Indian vegetarian meal.

In the afternoon we went to the old city. As it is currently Diwala (similar to Christmas and New Year for us) most shops were closed. However, there were some streets stalls open. It is really interesting to see the people with their colourful clothes and their transportation methods (camel, elephant, horse, mule, etc. preferably painted). However, that feeling is mutual as they find us very interesting too.

As the airline did not have any further information on my baggage, I went to the Himalaya Mall (next to the hotel) to buy some clothes to wear tomorrow. Although most of the shops were closed, I found a shop where I could buy a colourful (red and orange) traditional outfit (baggy pants with long blouse and scarf) in my size (although everything is baggy, it still needs to fit around the shoulders and chest which turned out to be a challenge).

Ordering dinner was an event in itself as we didn´t know any of the dishes on the menu and the waiter didn´t speak English. But again we turned out to get a very good Indian meal. We decided to go to a fair that we spotted on our way to dinner. That was great to see; all of the women were dressed up (I think) wearing beautiful colourful saris and other traditional clothes. Attractions were the same as in Europe (´Break Dance´, ´Teacups´, etc.) only the condition of the attractions was a bit different so none of us went on a ride.

Today was a great day. And it became even better when I returned and my baggage had arrived in the hotel! That´s a relief!
But that doesn´t stop me from wearing my colourful traditional clothes tomorrow :-)

20091018 - I arrived in Ahmedabad! Hope my baggage will soon follow…

Overall all my journey Amsterdam – Ahmedabad went quite well.

Amsterdam – London Heathrow
The flight from Amsterdam to London Heathrow was in a very small aircraft of BMI (18 rows, 3 people per row) and arrived early. As Jet Airways (airline for my flight to India) had very recently moved from Terminal 3 to Terminal 4, I found myself in Terminal 3 (as instructed at Schiphol) but could not find a Jet Airways desk. It turned out that I should be in Terminal 4 which was a 15 minutes bus ride. When I arrived in Terminal 4, the departure screens showed that the gate was closing… I started running to the gate and arrived just in time to jump into the plane.

London Heathrow – Mumbai
The flight from Mumbai was quite good. The Jet Airways plane had comfortable seats (more space than other airlines), a nice in-flight entertaining program (with touch-screens), good food and friendly personnel. The flight arrived on schedule and I felt that nothing could go wrong anymore.
While waiting for the baggage, I noticed an smarter planet commercial from IBM pass by every 5 or so commercials. Staring at this specific commercial, I started to realise that the world is not that smart yet and my baggage would not arrive…
As it had taken quite some time to wait for the baggage not to show up and then fill out all the necessary forms, I was very late again for my connecting flight to Ahmedabad. A ground stewardess showed me running the way to the bus to the domestic terminal. I could pass the queue and jump into the bus that left immediately. Again, the gate was closing and I arrived just before the doors closed.

Mumbai – Ahmedabad
The flight to Ahmedabad was relatively short. Arjun (CDC) was waiting for me and arranged a taxi for me to the hotel.

Ahmedabad
At the hotel Gavin (CDC) was waiting for me. I met Stefan, Dominik and Eva as they arrived yesterday evening already. After checking in, I went with Gavin to the mall next to the hotel to buy some necessities and a shirt/blouse that I can wear tomorrow (following the good advice of US colleagues, I travel in sweat suit). Luckily I carried the most important things (e.g. laptop, contact lenses and malaria tablets for 5 days, camera, etc) in my cabin-baggage.
In the evening, Stefan, Dominik and I went out for dinner. We found a really nice, small, Indian place close to the hotel. Ordering turned out to be difficult as we didn’t know the dishes on the menu and the waiters didn’t speak any English. But the food was really nice and spicy. I hope that tomorrow morning I will still this positive about the food in that restaurant. Time will tell…

20091011 - Less then one week until I head for Ahmedabad!

This is my first time to write a blog... I figured it would be better to try how it works before I leave for Ahmedabad.

For three months now, we have been preparing for this assignment. We have held weekly team conference calls and finalised the necessary pre-work. We have learned about IBM values, high performing teams, cultural diversity, Indian culture, etc. We have a wiki-site, a team name (Rangoli Team) with accompanying power point template and we planned a team event to Udaipur. I received my visa already about two months ago, same goes for my vaccinations. I even bought a proper suit case. In other words: we are well prepared!

Then... why am I getting so nervous?

• Usually I start travel arrangements (visa, vaccinations, etc.) at the last possible moment. The evening before my departure I start packing my rucksack. Quite a different approach.
• Colleagues, family and friends all provide advise and information (´Do you know there was a flood in India last week?´, ´You will definitely get stomach problems because of the food´, ´Most people come back from India with sore throats due to the pollution´). I prefer to take things as they come as it makes me tense to think beforehand about what could go wrong.
• But the main reason for my growing nervousness is that I will go to India to make a difference. The assignment addresses one of the very basic needs of people (housing). I will work on this assignment in a different country and culture with the Rangoli Team which represents various countries and cultures. That is definitely very different from any assignment I have ever done before…
  

However, the main feeling is: I cannot wait to start!

I´m looking forward to:

• Finally meet the Rangoli Team members in person, work with them and go on site seeing tours together (e.g. Udaipur)
• Meet the clients and start working with and for them
• Visit the slums of Ahmedabad to see the current situation which will improve as a result of the Ashoka project
• Be part of Indian society for a month: walk between people in colourful clothes, eat the nice and spicy food, learn to correctly interpret the frequent head shaking of Indian people, see and understand how Indian people live, etc.
• Go to the IBM Event in Bangalore and hopefully meet some Global Delivery colleagues that I have worked with in the past (conf calls, mail, sametime) but never met in person
• All the new experiences and adventures!
  
  Yahoo! In less than a week I will leave for Ahmedabad!