Indian traffic

Let me talk about Indian traffic. The first time I've experienced this kind of (on the first view completly chaotic and mad) traffic in Colombo, Sri Lanka many years ago and thought it's time to die now. But fortunatly it was not and being here in South India now renting a scooter (for 1€/day) I was surprised to see how much I enjoy being part of this flow of vehicles.
It is a bit like those games you play in school, an obstacle course (Hindernislauf) and sometimes it reminds me to skiing as one has to constantly look out and find the best way from A to B. As I mentioned before, I've never felt unsafe so far and it is always interesting and fun. But I am also aware that I am far from being used to driving this way and that it is highly important not getting too comfortable and confident as there is always the chance of something big falling down the vehicle infront of you, a cow crossing, a man standing in the middle of the road, people driving on the wrong side or a huge bus driving dangerously close to you while overtaking.

In Auroville though, the hippy-village where Laura stays, its fun to jump over the hills of the dirt roads, to drive through lakes of water (and loose shoes while doing so) and give rides to women, children and dogs.

I will definitly miss all of that.

Pondicherry: Hippies, ants, raw meat and the French.

In India, one has to be ready for everything.
Yesterday, my bread was eaten by one million of tiny ants. For a second, I thought about the option, to let them disappear and eat what they've left over; but then... I threw it away. After this, I scared a crow (not intentionally) who as a result let go of some raw meat which fell directly on me. And today, I went to see Laura in her new home in Auroville and got lost on the way home (it IS a labyrinth like little village). I asked a few people to the way to Pondi and they all pointed in the same direction. I realised after a while that that was not the way I wanted to go but thought that this would be the short cut. Well, it was not. They sent me to the motorway, where I was driving ages and for miles to end up in Pondi centre which was not exactly where I was living either. It was my fault, I should have mentioned the beach-road. Anyways, this was the first time I could experience the real Indian traffic, as the centre of town is much bussier. And, I have to say, I like it! The weird thing is that I never felt unsafe and actually do enjoy using the horn so much. After what felt like an hour later, just before the turn to my road, I got distracted by a goat in a Motor-Riksha (tuk tuk) and - missed it.

On the road again!

After spending more than a month in industrial Gurgaon, gathering a lot of information for our project by interviewing, making surveys and researching, Laura and me were happy to make a move to the 'pink city' Jaipur a few days ago. Here, in the old town, one can see the 'full package' of real Indian life - traditional craft makers, traders and service providers are everywhere and a walk through the small streets is more exciting than the best documentory.








We went to the traditional area of the gemstone polishers where men (and some little boys) were sitting in their small stalls on the floor, often green of stonedust, concentrating on the cutting of the stones. People were friendly and smiled at us, and, when asked, agreed straight away on being photographed. In another little stall, sari-makers were working on stitching and glueing crystals on the fabrics which often takes more than a day to finish. In between, goats and chicken dominated the little street which looked like one of the poorer areas of the town.















In this quater, we came to talk to Amir, a son of a gem trader who really want to become an art teacher, who brought us to his uncle's shops (without pressuring us to buy) and then gave us a crazy ride on his motorbike back to the centre.

Yesterday, we visited a great project for streetkids called 'Ladli' http://www.ladli.org/, where girls are given a peaceful and protective shelter and were thaught to make jewellery. It was a heartwarming experience to see the happy faces of the girls after reading about some of their horrible childhoods.






Another day, a friend of Laura brought us to a gorgeous palace 40min out of Jaipur which has been used as the setting of a 'bollywood series' and we could watch the actors running around, fighting or just waiting. Later in the evening yestereday, we went up to the 'tiger' fort on the hill where we had a fantastic view of the surrounding lights of the city and the redish moon in pleasant silence.


And tomorow, we fly south to PONDICHERRY!! Sea, more sun and french food..:)

Village stay in Rajasthan, or: The beauty of the simple life

For those of you who don't know (exactly) what I am actually doing here in India: Laura and me are writing our master thesis about the (responsible!) tourism potential in an rural area of 9 villages. So now, we had the chance to stay in one of them for 4 nights to interview the locals and check out the area. (As facilities for guests are not there yet -most of the houses dont even have a toilet - we couldnt stay much longer)



What shall I say, I LOVED it...! The sincere friendlyness of these people was just overwhelming and the simplicity of their lifes made one realise once more that the consumerism of our 'first world' is simply perverse.
'Our' family made us feel like part of them and tried to do everything possible to make us feel comfortable. Even the heat could not dampen our exitement for this experience and we had the luck of cooling rainshowers on two of the evenings.




Our daily schedule included many visits to the surrounding villages (by motorbike with Subash and Raju, our competent local guides), to interview the locals about what they say about a potential tourism development. In each one we were treated with tea, water or coke, usually accompanied with extreamly sweet goodies or munchies. Soon, we were surrounded by about the whole residents who first looked at us with shy curiosity but quickly realised that we had come in peace (we DID smile a damn lot during those days). Once unbended, they smiled, laughed and asked us to take pictures to then look at them fascinated. Yes, many of them have not seen a white person despite in television so their curiosity about our look and manners (and sweat production) was understandable!



After our daily visits we went 'home' to eat, chill, play with the kids or visit neighbours. We also got dressed up in beautiful saris and had the chance to finally learn how to play cricket. - So, as Indian as it can get.
Due to the heat in the summer season, people sleep outside on very comfortable woven beds and we did the same (in the middle!), which was an exeptional experience.






























As we arrived back in Gurgaon last night, we were quite exhausted due to the heat and the fact that we had constantly been the centre of attraction for the last days. But I already know that I will definitly go back and visit our new made friends whenever I ve the chance to come back to India.

Rain dance, adrinaline kicks and kaise bole

The last week was full of organising, reading, sweating and planning.
But we also attended a rain-dance where we had the luxury of dancing in huge running showers. Yes, this is not a good thing to do in a time here in northern India where water is rare and the heat often nearly unbearable. The government had even banned such parties for this reason. Guilty as hell, maybe we shouldn't have gone. BUT, apperantly they had a special permission bc of water recycling actions AND it was just a too big temptation to deny this oppurtunity to finally cool down and be surrounded by w-a-t-e-r.



The trips through the town (on tuk tuk well riksha) is always an adventure itself, the ones of you who have been traveling through Asia know what I mean! But we love the little market in our sector where ALL things can be bought and people can be watched at their daily working habits such as sewing cloths on the pedestrian, dyeing fabrics, painting mihindis or prepering delicious treats. So many things to see, so much to explore and wonder...

























We also attended an exibition of End Poverty www.endpovertyindia.org , where we informed people about the NGO, sold pouches produced by the girls/women in the villages and recieved donations for books, goats, chickens or shoes. Its always great to see when people care and are interested in projects to help.



Tomorow we will leave the civilication for 5 days and make our way to the villages we write about in our final report. We will stay in a family and live with them, to explore their daily rythm, discover the surrounding and find out what they think about the eventual development of tourism in their area. For this purpose, we did some intensive hindi - learning this week (playing memory is a fabulous idea! Thanks to Laura) because only one man can talk a little english there and thats it. Of course, our questionairs will be translated and we do have assistance who know exactly what our project is about. But we might have to learn a few more words to be able to make at least a basic conversation with them! So, no toilets, often no electricity, no fan, no room door but very very friendly people, a highly interesting livestyle, a beautiful surrounding to discover and ADVENTURE PURE! :)

Kids and survey-action

5th May

Last week we worked quite a bit on our laptops but were also taught how to make Chapati, got a Mehndi (henna painting on hands), had a massage and a haircut (just me) and were experiencing the local market (great!) and a mall (boring). We also went out to the 'field' again to see a couple of more villages, a girl's education group and a traditional indian 'community farmhouse'. That was great fun and I am afraid my heart is lost once more to those georgeous little kids...!













Yesterday we went to Delhi (1h per metro) to chase some international tourists for our first survey action. It is complete coincidence that 90% of our interviewees are in their 30's, male and increadibly good looking. I m of course just kidding, Simon, don' worry. (its 80%) Anyways, it was a lot of fun and we are quite happy with the 16 pieces we've done, given the fact that there are only a few tourists around at this crazy hot time of the year. Somehow, I can understand why..

Getting the project started

30th May

So Laura came and we spent a day hanging out together and then took the metro to Gurgaon, a big town 1h south of Delhi. There, Vinod, the founder of End Poverty, the NGO for which we are making our reports, got us from the station and brought us to our new home for the next 4 weeks. We are staying in a nice and airy appartment together with Rachna's sister (Rachna is the 2nd boss of EP) and three other young Indian women.
After lunch, we had a welcome meeting where we shared our visions to realise that we are quite on the same way concerning our plans. Both, Rachna and Vinod are very competent, enthusiatic and heartly people and we really look forward to work with them!





























Yesterday, we went straight to the 'field' and visited a small and remote village with which EP potentially will work together in future (and we could try to smoke a shisha!), a temple, a market and one of the villages they support and we will write our reports about. In that village, we spent a couple of hours drinking rose water, tea and getting to know one of the families. The woman of the family is also the teacher of the girls of this village and she insisted that we stay at their house when we stay in a village in about 3 weeks time. We thankfully agreed as we felt very comfortable around these friendly smiling family members. Also we already fell in love with the children there who did not hide their curiosity about these funny looking visitors who seem to be a very sweaty kind of species.