Body Bottle: Latest in Hydration for Runners

Have you heard about the latest innovation for runners? NO?!!?!? Well, it's called the Body Bottle and it was designed for both casual and hardcore runners alike. The unique curved design of the bottle, easily detachable from the velcro strip on your arm, allows for hands-free, and hassle-free running.

In its product review, the LA Times calls the Body Bottle, "Al alternative to hip-belt hydration. No irritating jostling at your hips. Convenient size and good stability [even] for trail running." (2/25/08). Read more about the product at www.bodybottle.com

And yes, the gentleman to the right is my very own boyfriend, the designer and model of the Body Bottle... although I am a bit upset that I am no longer the female face of the Body Bottle. tear....

No Swordfighting Please

It’s a bit early to come to conclusions about the country, but I think that I have come to some conclusions about this city, Delhi. There are two non-negotiables, two things that I do not think that I will ever become accustomed to no matter how many moons I call this city my home. The first: public urination. I think I came to this realization the other day when I caught a glimpse of a man part that is better saved for um, private moments, to say the least… the very least. This left me a bit frazzled; I was on the phone with John at the time and did a double take. “Um, honey, I just saw a man part but I didn’t do it on purpose I promise.” Most of the urination happens against walls, and apparently homeowners/wall builders have come up with clever little tricks to discourage people from relieving themselves on private property. It may take the form of painting phrases in Hindi such as “a donkey pees here” or putting small hollows in the wall with such and such god or goddess.

The second thing that I thought I could tolerate is the staring. Every man, young and old, stares. Trust me, I’m not trying to flatter myself here or am suffering from hyper-paranoia. The men just stare, and not in a threatening manner as I have not felt unsafe here so far. It is also quite different than the way American men stare at women in more of a lustful, pathetically salivating sort of way. It is also different than the stares that my anglo friends received in places like China and Korea because everyone stares at the anglos, kids and halmonis, ajoshis and ajumas. I suppose it is a curious (specifically male to female) gaze with little expectation other than satisfying the curiosity of the watcher. Perhaps it is the objectivity and therefore objectification of the gaze, the assumption of the right to be the watcher with no reproof, no disincentive to do so that is beginning to irk me, the watched.

I must at this point clarify that another non-negotiable is PMS and Delhi. Oil and water basically. So I come not with my usual cheerful rose-colored glasses, but rather with my smoggy tape-bandaged frames. That may have been too much information and thus classifies me as “inappropriate content” to be linked to the AIF fellow blog, but such is life. So back to the staring. In this frustrated state for the past few days, I have tried a few tactics of my own to discourage wanton gazes: staring back in a very angry disgruntled sort of way, rolling my eyes dramatically, shaking my head, flicking people off (now now, I’m not that culturally insensitive and usually do it in a very passive, arm pointing down sort of way), and yes, I have tried the path of patience and coldly walk by. This final method has left me extremely unsatisfied for the past three weeks as it does not dissuade or in any way reprimand these men! Grrrr. Must…find...happy... medium……

Turn the trashcans over please

Saturday afternoon another blast went off in a crowded market in Mehrauli in southern Delhi. Apparently the bomb was dropped off the back of a motorcycle by accident; a teenage boy went to pick it up and return it to the cyclist and was immediately killed. Another man died at the hospital later in the evening and twenty-two were injured.

I have been trying to gauge the reaction of Delhi locals, but it seems to be an understood part of life here. Some people are staying inside, away from crowded markets and possible targeted location, while others continue to go about their day-to-day lives, not allowing these random acts of violence dictate their movement and lives. Security has been tightened in many public places, with additional security guards monitoring incoming scooters and cars at markets parking lots for example. I hope this doesn't become too common an occurrence, but there's definitely no logic in this haphazard disregard for the lives of others.

Quotable Quotes

• "That's an elephant" - Matt, a fellow fellow exclaims on our tuk tuk ride back from the Lotus Temple and Hare Krishna Temple in East of Kailash. There actually was a Jumbo on the side of the highway. Chillaxin. Note to self: Hare Krishna cooking just not up to par...

• "Did you go with your lover?" - my new friend Claudy, a Keralan travel agent asking me about my past journey through the Indian hill station of Ooty. Um... I guess "are you married?" is looking like a softball question now eh?

• "Do you like getting smashed?" - my new officemate. Day three. wow.

• "The monkey is gone now." - my new officemates after our new friend outside the window completed his visit.
  

DM2008: Sustainable Agriculture for Development

The 2008 Global Development Marketplace will take place tomorrow, September 24th through Friday, September 26th at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington DC. To my friends in DC, please please please go - it's always a great time and was always the highlight of my experience at the Bank. I was able to experience DM2006 (theme on water, sanitation and energy) and DM2007 (theme on health, nutrition and population). Meeting these social entrepreneurs is so inspiring and the range of ideas for this year's competition does not disappoint.

DM2008 is funded in partnership with the Gates Foundation, GTZ, IFC, and the Global Environment Facility and focuses on three themes: (1) linking small scale farmers to input-output markets, (2) improving land access and tenure for the poor and (3) promoting environmental services of agriculture in addressing climate change and biodiversity conservation. You can find a list of all the finalists and their proposal summaries here: projects ranging from turning the weed prosopis into livestock fertilizer to providing landless Nepalese leases of dry riverbeds to using modern genomics to improve cocoa in Trinidad and Tobago to working with Palestinian youth establish micro-credit businesses for small scale farms in the West Bank and Gaza.

This year the DM also secured partnerships with service providers such as Acumen Fund, NeSST, Fintrac, Engineers without Borders, Lex Mundi, MBAs without Borders, and Pact. Also, on the final day of the competition, the Agriculture and Rural Development team at the Bank will host a policy dialogue on "Cultivating Innovation: A Response to the Food Price Crisis", featuring two of the social entrepreneurs whose projects I managed during my time at the DM!!! I have no doubt that my former teammates will execute the competition flawlessly and I'm incredibly sad that I cannot be in DC to witness and participate in this event. So again, if you are in DC - go go go!!!

The Translator by Leila Aboulela

“And she was someone else because of what he had said to her today. From early on it was the way he spoke to her, to the inside of her, not around her, over her head, around her shoulders. That was how others spoke to her, their words bouncing against her skin and ears, cascading, and she perfectly still, untouched, always alone. If he would speak to her all the time, everyday. If all of life could be like that. The light in her head was too bright to see what was in the room. She couldn’t see the suitcases anymore, the bed she leant against as she sat on the floor, the bottle of perfume he had given her. She couldn’t see.”

"... the fog cleared and I awoke, on the second day of my arrival, in my familiar bed in the room whose walls had witnessed the trivial incidents of my life in childhood and the onset of adolescence... I heard the cooing of the turtledove, and I looked through the window at the palm tree standing in the courtyard of our house... I looked at its strong straight trunk, at its roots that strike down to the ground, at the green branches hanging down loosely over its top, and I experienced a feeling of assurance. I felt not like stormswept feather but like that palm tree, a being with a background, with roots... " ~ Tayeb Salih

Discovering Delhi

Sitting in this hotel room, it's difficult to really get a sense of, wow, I'm going to be living in Delhi for the next ten months. The living out of a suitcase feeling makes it seem all that more temporary and transient in a way. Perhaps this is a good thing so that the weight of this decision and change doesn't spring itself on me too quickly.

But yesterday I was able to go and discover the city, and began to feel for the first time that this is going to be my home. Maybe I will be able to be a Delhi-ite. With all the boxing out that it entails.

Again, some short summaries so as not to bore everyone with the day to day minutiae:

~ Wednesday and Thursday: Organize my emails and wonder about my project for the next ten months. Realize that my personal emotional, mental and email filing systems need to be reevaluated.

~ Friday: Hallelujah! Work! For the next few weeks I will be writing and researching for the 2o09 Tri Continental Film Festival website. Had a lovely dinner with Joyita that night at Hookah, a swanky bar/restaurant in Vasant Vihar. Approached by a random, loquacious Zimbabwean with a friendly demeanor and nicotine addition who could not have been more than twenty-two. His story? His father works for Mugabe, and he worked for the Zimbabwean Lawyers Freedom something or other... the two just do not jive, and he finds himself in Asia for the foreseeable future, inviting ladies like us to the American embassy to party with the marines. Oh the places you'll go...

~ Saturday: Met with Joyita's neighbor's intern at the Bank for brunch to learn about how to survive in Delhi for the next ten months. The answer apparently involves ultimate frisbee, retail therapy, basic knowledge of Hindi to haggle with rickshaw drivers, extreme flexibility, the love/hate relationship with Delhi which will be a daily struggle and one I should embrace, accepting encroachment of my personal space through stares or gropes from Delhi men as a part of life to be ignored/dismissed, and good friends. Afterwards, I met up with Hamsa's (another fellow) friend and we explored Old Delhi, going to the Red Fort and Jama Masjid.

Which brings me to my fourth goal for these ten months:
#4: Basic basic knowledge of Indian history
I know I know, this is a doozy, so we will take this one with a grain of salt. It was so much richer and interesting going through the Red Fort and listening to Silpa's history lesson, which made me feel really lucky to be going with her and also really ashamed - not sure if I could do the same for many of the historical landmarks in the States.

Silpa told me of Aurangzeb, who was apparently a real terror and from whom she thinks stems much of the Islamic fundamentalism found in India today. She described how he was sent to Iran for schooling and when he came back had all of his brothers in line for the throne killed off. He became Mughal emperor after overthrowing and imprisoning his father, Shah Jahan, in the Agra Fort, where he spent his last days gazing at the Taj Mahal, which had had constructed for his late wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Aurangzeb was apparently quite the spendthrift, only using money for his personal needs that he had earned himself, making and selling little trinkets for example. He was also an enemy to the arts, which he deeply disdained; all of the artists in Delhi joined together and enacted a funeral procession through the city. Upon seeing the procession, Aurangzeb inquired who had died. "Art has died" replied the forlorn, and apparently unemployed, artists. "Bury her deep in the ground, so I don't ever have to see or hear from her" was his reply. Ouch... quite the charmer...

I also enjoyed exploring with Silpa because she has this intense love and passion for the city of her childhood, one to which she has returned recently and is in the process of exploring as an adult. Hopefully more explorations to be had in the future.

Mosquitoes, Dengue and Me

Let’s talk about fears. The foremost fear in my mind when I came to India was mosquitoes and their calm pools of clear (ok, murky) infested waters waiting to bombard me with disease. I may be an exaggerator, but this is not one of those times.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

This is me. Not pretty is it? The time is summer 2004, the place is near Aurangabad (A) and deadly Varanasi (B). And Hemant wonders why I don’t want to go and visit him and dip into the refreshing sacred waters of the Ganges.

So basically, the last time I was in India I was attacked my mosquitoes. Now, since coming to India, I have been convinced by friends that I do not need to stay on malaria medication for the duration of my time here. I was taking Lariam following my prolonged consultation with the nurse practitioner at the travel medicine office (a consultation which, by the way, cost me $30). Let me take you through my reasoning for choosing Lariam (or mefloquine): it was the cheapest, once a week, and the side effects seemed to be the least unpleasant (re: vivid dreams, sleeplessness, gastrointestinal upset, dizziness, anxiety, depression, confusion and possible psychiatric side effects). I figured that I would for once like to remember my dreams and would probably have the shits and be anxious, depressed, and confused at some point(s) in this Indian adventure anyway, so why not? The alternative side effects for other more expensive, more frequently imbibed antimalarials include upset stomach, heartburn, vaginal yeast infections (yikes!!), esophageal ulcers, vomiting, mouth ulcers (haro herpes in my mouth), loose stools, blurred vision, itching of skin, and sensitivity to sun. But I am now Lariam free following a consultation with Joyita (whose neighbor informed me that 2% of all people who take Lariam end up in mental hospitals and gawd only knows what happens to the rest of them!) and many vivid dream-filled nights from which I would wake physically and mentally exhausted. Anyways, malaria season is over – it’s dengue season now!

Which brings me to my next topic: I have dengue. No, I have not been diagnosed. But it IS dengue season, and I WAS bitten by a mosquito yesterday and it DOES still itch. Now, the easy to access handout on dengue that I have brought with me from the traveler’s medical service in Washington, D.C. informs me that within three days post-bite I will start to form a measles-like rash which will help me distinguish dengue from other tropical illnesses. And in five to eight days I will experience sudden fever, headache, and intense body pain. Bring it on! Apparently you cannot survive dengue twice, which is not included in this handy dandy little informational sheet I have here, because your platelet count decreases so dramatically in the first infection the body cannot handle another depletion from a second fever. I think that this last sentence requires further research however.

Oh, and has anyone read the article that neurotic women are more likely to blog? I didn’t think it had any medical merit either… :/

First day at Breakthrough

Before I get ahead of myself, let me explain the NGO that I will be working with. Breakthrough (www.breakthrough.tv), who defines themselves as a human rights organization that uses education and popular culture to promote values of dignity, equality and justice, was founded in 1999 and began with a music video and then album called Man Ke Manjeere, which became hugely popular in India and won all sorts of awards. And then the development/human rights community began asking what was next from them because the video provided a unique platform to discuss domestic violence and women’s rights in a way that no other organization had done. Truly groundbreaking. Since then, Breakthrough now engages its audiences in three ways: (1) television, music, and film to create comprehensive 360 degree awareness campaigns, (2) new media, social networking, gaming, blogging and (3) grassroots training and public forums. The main areas that Breakthrough works in are women’s rights, gender and sexuality, HIV/AIDs and caste. So, what kind of work am I doing you may ask?

Well, that is a good question, and one I think that many of my fellow fellows are probably (hopefully, so I’m not the only one) asking of their placements as well. It has been described as a quasi-organic process of finding a project that is realistic in both timeframe and scope and one which truly will allow the fellow to add value to the NGO. Possible projects for me include working on their tri-continental film festival which features short films and documentaries from the global South, and which travels through Asia, Africa and the Americas. Breakthrough hosts the Asian leg of the tour and brings the these films to cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Bangalore. I may also get to attend one or two of the trainings that take place in the field, mainly to observe since I don’t speak the language. Or I may be working on their long term strategic planning for the organization, an idea that I was tossing around with the director of communications before I came. Whatever the work, it seems like an extremely organized, collaborative, fun place to be.

My first day was relatively uneventful and was mainly spent searching the web for potential partners for the blog for their new campaign, Bell Bajao (Ring the Bell, www.bellbajao.org), against domestic violence and working in collaboration with the Indian government which recently passed a bill called “Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence”.

Let’s see…. the office is located in South Delhi near the Safdarjung Hospital which is about a fifteen minute rickshaw ride from the hotel. Because of the increasingly expensive cost of real estate in Delhi (prices rose 40% in the past year) many offices are located in apartment buildings, as is the Breakthrough office. There are about 12 people in the office, 10 of whom are women. Hello Carolyn, welcome back to the DM team. But trust me, this statement incorporates all the good and all the bad. These seem to be passionate, enthusiastic, and fun women who have a great deal of experience in this field, whether it be grassroots training, developing educational materials, monitoring and evaluation or outreach. I had also almost forgotten what it was like to live in a place and work in an office where you do not understand about 99.9% of the language spoken around you. But in Korea, I was surrounded by men who basically ignored me. Ready for day two!

On this so-called game called "cricket"

This evening, in lieu of "Teach Yourself Hindi", I decided enough was enough and went outside to get some exercise, so off I went to do laps around the park next to the hotel. It's a rather nondescript park, there is a large center area, whose purpose I am yet unable to ascertain. I have walked in this park once before, at the early hour at 7 am with some of the other fellows to avoid permanent atrophy of our limbs from sitting for hours after hours of orientation. The park was relatively deserted that morning, but tonight it was certainly alive. Alive with men. With men and boys playing cricket. And me.

I have never been able to understand the purpose or the rules to this game, but I'm guessing it's something akin to baseball.. with poles. My interpretation of cricket during my x number of laps this eve: the "pitcher" does an arabesque twirl of his arm (think running overhand throwing softball pitcher) towards the "batter" who is apparently "defending" three wickets plunged into the ground. The "outfielders" area positioned in every which way, which makes the game a little more chaotic and confusing, especially when there are at least four other games going on in the vicinity. I know that the pitcher is trying to knock over the wickets, but who are those strange men standing with him at the mound? Are they just there to chat? What is their purpose? And why does he run to the wickets (home base?) after the batter has hit the ball? Is it a game of tag mixed with this similar-to-baseball-but-not-so-much-at-all-game? Whether the batter runs when the ball is fair or foul I have no idea. But again, this me not being "other-centered" and trying to form cricket from my understanding of baseball. Which is obviously not getting me anywhere. And therefore, this is the first on my list of "Caro's things to do/accomplish in India":
#1: Learn the rules, rhyme and reason of this mysterious sport called cricket.

While we are at it....
#2: Become comfortable with loneliness, being alone, and the solitude of my own thoughts.
#3: Cultivate workable knowledge of Hindi to get me through day to day.
#4: Stop thinking about how delicious a hamburger would taste....right...about...now...

The list will go on in later posts I am sure and will hopefully not face the same fate as my 293978349 new year's resolutions.

toothpaste for dinner

for all you Ohioan/Pennsylvanian/countryian folk who love a good cornhole as much as I....

Social Entrepreneurs at Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI)

This is why the Development Marketplace is so awesome - because it finds social entrepreneurs like Zippy who are wonderfully fabulous, passionate, dedicated individuals working for social change around the world. She's also a finalist in this year's DM2008: Sustainable Development for Agriculture next week (a definite testament to her strong spirit of wanting to put up with us for two years in a row). Oh dear, I think I miss WB. Here's a link to info about Zippy and her project in Kenya. Here's another social entrepreneur at GSBI that I didn't get the chance to work with, but I did manage the PumpAid project during my time at the DM. Enjoy!

Snapshots of India thus far...

Quote outside of the conference room for orientation:
No need of looking behind
Look forward
We want infinite energy
infinite zeal, infinite courage
and infinite patience;
then only will great things be achieved
~ Swami Vivekananda


Visit to Salaam Balak Trust


Rajasthan Site Visit with Women's Self Help Microfinance Group


Humayan's Tomb


Site visit to Rajasthan


Site Visit to Rajasthan


Lodhi Gardens in Delhi

Caro(lyn) in the City

"Delhi, it seemed at first, was full of riches and horrors: it was a labyrinth, a city of palaces, an open gutter, filtered light through filigree lattice, a landscape of domes, an anarchy, a press of people, a choke of fumes, a whiff of spices." ~ William Dalrymple, City of Djinns

Some vignettes of my time here in Delhi:
Our hotel is in the Chanakyapuri area of south Delhi near the embassy enclave and the lovely and serene Nehru Park where the expats play their ultimate frisbee, the local families do their laps around the park, and the youth couples stroll hand in hand. Every morning I am woken by the pigeons (and occasional green parrot!) that come and perch on my ledge. And every morning the activity below my window begins. They are building an extension to the hotel and have apparently built some housing units in the back for the families involved in digging the new facility. The babies frolic in the dirt or are placed on plastic mats to sit in the sun. The young boys and girls play games in the ever-deepening foundation pit. The men sledge hammer through the rough stone. And then the women have a relay system with basket of broken rock that move from one woman's head... to the next... to the next... until they are tipped out in a place outside my line of view. Basket of rocks after basket of rocks.



On our last day of orientation, we celebrated with a last supper of delicious southern Indian cuisine (uttapams and dosas.. yum!) at Sagar in Defence Colony and then a drink at MBs around the corner. After a refreshing Kingfisher beer and rounds for everyone, we jump in an auto rickshaw and head back to the yout hostel. Along the street the dark nooks and crannies become cubby holes, places of rest, concrete beds. Young men claim the curbed median in the middle of the road as their bed. We stop under a bridge to see a whole family - young mother, infant, young son, and dog - curled up together, arms and legs sprawled along each other and the concrete ground.

Last night five bombs exploded in some of the major thoroughfares throughout the city and three found unexploded, including Connaught Place in the center of Delhi where I had shopped and wandered earlier in the day. Approximately 30 people were killed and almost a hundred injured. The India Mujaheddin has claimed responsibility for the blasts, as part of a series of terrorism that began in Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Bangalore earlier this year. I was on my way back to Delhi from visiting Anupam's parents outside the city. The driver told me that there had been one blast in CP and when I asked him what happened and who did it he said Pakistani extremists who have very "sharp minds" and were responsible for the other blasts earlier this year. A very odd sense of fear affected me last night, and not a fear of being killed by a random (well, calculated) act of violence in India. It coincided with this wave of loneliness of having all the fellows leave for their placements this morning, of being so far outside of the known for me and not fully establishing a support system here in India yet. It is similar to the feeling I had on September 11, 2001 when I awoke from my siesta in Madrid to turn on the television and see the second plane flying into the World Trade Towers. This strange sense of distance and momentary removal from reality. In any case, hopefully this is not the inauspicious signal to the start of the "India adventure" that it appears to be.

Delhi Delhi po pelly

Today was our first free day in Delhi, a refreshing respite from the hectic orientation schedule for the past week. Joyita picked me up at the international youth hostel around 11:30 am and then we went to her house for brunch. It was fabulous talking with the whole Mukherjee/Palacios clan and they were incredibly welcoming throughout the day. Joyita and I then took off for Humayun’s Tomb which was very close to their house. The tomb was restored in the past few decades as a World Heritage Site, and the pictures of the restoration indicate that the site was in quite the state of disrepair and badly in need of funds for refurbishment. According to the LP, it is a “brilliant example of Mughal architecture… built in the mid-16th century by Haji Begum, the senior wife of the second Mughal emperor Humayun.” Many aspects of the design influenced the Taj Mahal, which is reflected in the dome and formal gardens surrounding the tomb. The red and white sandstone of the main tomb is magnificent – there was a lovely calm and serenity to the place as we strolled around the grounds and caught up.

One thing that really irked me when we arrived though – so in India many of the monuments, memorials, historic sites in India usually have two entry prices for non-Indians and Indian nationals. Fine, it sucks that I have to pay about $20 more to see the Taj Mahal than an Indian national, but it is your country and so be it. This, however, is not what bothered me but rather the Australian in the line in front of Joyita and I buying his ticket. He was asking the woman selling tickets to explain why the foreigner price was higher than the Indian national price. He wanted to know where his extra entrance fee was going and wanted to ensure that it was not for India’s future nuclear proliferation or into the hands of the “corrupt government”. I kindly told him to leave the woman alone; she probably did not know the answer to his obnoxious questions. I think what bothered me the most about this encounter was the airs in his voice, the way he was speaking down to this poor woman who is just trying to do her job at probably a pittance of a salary. Do you really think that she knows where the hell your money is going? Do you think that you are going to carry out social change by being obnoxious? He tried to carry on a conversation with me, that it was necessary to ask these questions, that it is a racist policy and we have the responsibility and the right to inquire. But, as John and many of my friends very well know, I am quick to write people off and quicker to ignore them, which is what happened. The holier than thou attitude, the judgmental and uninformed mindset, and the unnecessarily demeaning treatment of others are inexcusable in my book and should not be tolerated in any form. There was my soapbox. I’m off it now .

Day Six of Orientation

The day started with a session on the education system in India, presented by a man named Shailendra from the NGO Pratham. He set out the framework of the discussion: (1) the Indian constitutional framework, how the education is imparted, (2) the evolution of education in India, and (3) the context of non profit/government organizations and how they are trying to enter the discourse. Much of his emphasis was on the focus to get the children into the schools and make parents aware of the importance of education. The government has presented the target of compulsory education and ensure that all elementary school children are in school by 2010.

The second session was actually by Jonathan of AIF, detailing some of the work that he did as a fellow a few years ago. His work continues and they were actually the organization that won the People’s Choice award at the South Asian Development Marketplace earlier this year. His work with MSM (men who have sex with men) was actually one of the most fascinating, informative, and interesting sessions that we have had thus far. He showed us some of the videos/interviews that he compiled during his time with this NGO – work that he continues today. The first interview was with a man named Jose, who describes how he “became” MSM when he was thirteen and had his first sexual encounter with his male cousin. After being discovered, he threatened to move to Bombay to remove his male genitalia and come back to live with his family as a woman. In the end his family accepted and supported him. The second interview was with a man whose partner was about to be married and they discussed the depth of their love for each other but the impossibility of them being together in an open relationship. What was the most fascinating to me was the intense community that these men, kothis (effeminate men), have formed. I don’t think that there is anything in the West that is its equivalent because of the many layers of understanding, terminology and sexual roles and identification that are part of the kothi/panthi relationship. Apparently there is a familial structure for all kothis, and when a young kothi is identified, on the street, at the bus stop, he is approached by a “mother” and brought into their “family” as a daughter and then as a sister to the other men in the group. There seems to be a certain degree of loyalty to the mother, but like any relationship, these bonds can also be broken if necessary. It seems that kothis do not have sexual relations amongst themselves, but instead prefer the panthis, who are the more typically masculine men but do not identify themselves as panthi, but just normal men. I am not sure if that describes the complexity of the relationship structure that Jonathan outlined, but it is quite the community.

The final discussion of the day was dealing with what was titled “women’s safety training” but what was really an inadequate discussion of sexual harassment. The women of Jagori, a women’s rights organization here in Delhi began with an interactive exercise using a spectrum of agreement or disagreement. They would present a statement, completely open to interpretation, and then we would position ourselves along the spectrum, represented by the length of the room. Questions included:
1. On her first day at work, a young woman is asked by a male colleague is she is married.
2. A woman speaking with a vendor notices that he is only staring at her breasts through the entire conversation.
3. A male colleague reads a sexually explicit email at work to his female colleague.
4. A man on a bus “accidentally” bumps into a woman, claiming that the bus was very crowded.
So, the good thing about this exercise is that we were able to learn a bit more about each other and our interpretations of gender and such, but the bad thing was that the moderators were absolutely horrible. We then proceeded to learn about the three penal codes for sexual harassment in India. But the basics of safety for women were not discussed at all, which is extremely disappointing given that the majority of us are women and we will be traveling through India by ourselves in most cases. I appreciate the advice that you should walk with confidence like you know what you are doing, where you are going, that you mean business sort of thing but that does not help me once I have been groped or assaulted or threatened. Yes, I would like to cuss out every person that threatens my physical space, but being in a foreign country and not being familiar with the culture means that screaming at people to leave me alone will not always be the best method of protection. In all, the session was not useful and succeeded in just angering me about the intense lack of focus, unbiased opinion, and information received.

Day Three of Orientation

By the third day of orientation we had launched completely into our speaker lecture format beginning with Meera Goradia of Khamir in Bhuj, which is a rural/cultural livelihoods NGO and my mentor, Alika Khosla of Breakthrough. Meera began the session by setting the stage for the artesanal work that her NGO supports. Handicraft is the second largest employer after agriculture in Kutch; there are 20 million artisans with a diverse skill set that have already been learned as a part of traditional culture. The history of craft in the area provides a resource base which her organization is trying to protect. Khamir (which means pride in oneself) was established after the earthquake in Gujarat, to provide a forward-looking, futuristic vision/approach to craft traditions. The challenge was learning how to sustain handicraft tradition in the new economic environment to provide a platform for preserving the culture through craft.

Meera then explained the concept of craft as an expression of cultural diversity, community identity, history, religion, and aesthetic, providing group participation vis a vis individual expression. The Khamir approach is to address the needs of all the stakeholders to bring back a sense of community but not at the cost of the other groups. Khamir forms a committee, provides new services, product development, marketing skills and mentorship to bring long term sustainability to their trade.

The next speaker was Alika Khosla from Breakthrough, which is an innovative, high impact human rights organization using pop culture, media and education in their outreach. The organization focuses on women’s rights from a human rights perspective to try and prevent abuse before it happens. Through their multimedia and social marketing campaigns, Breakthrough is able to engage large audiences. The three approaches Breakthrough uses are (1) television, music, cinema to create 360 degree campaigns, (2) new media, social networking, and gaming and (3) grassroots raining and public forums. Breakthrough operates in three states and produces materials in three languages. Their foci are on violence against women, HIV/AIDS, youth community leadership and human rights education. They provide training over one and a half months to people in the community, who are then equipped to conduct the trainings themselves.

The current campaign that Breakthrough has launched is called “Bell Bajao” or “ring the bell”, which is a protection from domestic abuse initiative. Breakthrough is also the organizing arm of the tri-continental film festival for the Asia leg of the festival, which ties in with educational institutions around the country and helps to create a dialogue around the films.

The question and answer session was not focused on learning more about the institutions, but rather what their experience hosting and working with Americans through AIF had been in the past. I think that the two mentors emphasized flexibility and going into the new work environment with no expectations about the year to come (which was honestly a little difficult to swallow).

Our next speaker was Ashok Row Kavi from UNAIDS, presenting on LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights in the Indian context. I had never heard of Ashok but understand from other fellows that he is a leader in the LGBT rights movement around the world, not only in India. Working off of a powerpoint intended for health care workers, Ashok provided an historical, religious, spiritual context for sexual identity in India. What I found most interesting from this session was the understanding of the fluidity of sexuality and its definitions in India. Homosexual was a clinical term established in 1869 as a person who fantasizes, eroticizes and has sex with another person of their own sex. But there are a range of sexual identities in this country, not just “gay” or “straight”, “homosexual” or “heterosexual” that we have in the States. Panthis are men who do anything to the weaker men and women, Bisexual, Gay is a self identified homosexual, Kothi is a Telegu word for street which is an effeminate male, and Hijra is a cross dressing male. HIV/AIDS is most prevalent with hijras (72%), then panthis (31%) and then kothis (16%). Another fascinating point was the incredibly large “bridge” population of men identified in the above categories who are married to women to whom they are transferring the disease (we had varying accounts of the scope of this bridge population, Ashok indicated that it was 72% and Jonathan indicated it was 97%).

Our third speaker of the day was Digvijay Singh, the Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh who provided an overall picture of the current (and past) Indian political context. I will not recount the history of Indian politics here. Mr. Singh also served as a representative of the Congress party and described the emergence of regional parties throughout the country. He also told us of the reservation of positions for Dalits (combination of all so-called lower caste groups in India) in the Indian Constitution (1990) and then professional institutions. There is some debate about whether other socially and educationally marginalized groups should have reservation as well. Mr. Singh named inflation, reservation, nuclear proliferation and globalization some of the issues facing India currently.

And finally, our last speaker of the day was Dipanker Gupta from JNU who spoke on caste and ethnicity. Mr. Gupta began his speech regarding caste order by challenging an assumption/argument that many believe that people at the bottom castes think that they deserve to be where they are in the social hierarchy. His research and anecdotal evidence indicates that this is not the case and when people are asked their “origin tales” they offer up many versions of the story of their caste. Many tell long familial tales of having their higher caste status stolen or swindled from them. The attitudes regarding caste are changing dramatically in India because before the so-called lower castes were suppressed because it was a closed society with no hopes for vertical integration or advancement and there were no external economic opportunities outside of the community that you lived in. He indicated that is why the slums have become beacons of hope for the rural poor as they immigrate to the urban slums in search of additional economic opportunity. Mr. Gupta also discussed the potential of caste identity as a source of political energy; the so-called lower castes were mobilizing at the time the economy was opening up and the rural domestic product was diversifying. Apparently, those outside of the Indian context believe that the fighting against this idea of caste is exotic but that only perpetuates the cycle as the caste conflict does not reflect the current class system in the country. Now, because of the political positioning and power of the so-called lower castes, no caste can win an election on its own. For example, Bihar has one caste which is only 10 to 15% of the entire population and therefore could never contest an election as a majority of the votes. During the question and answer session he discussed the cosmopolitan, diverse nature of the cities and how the country is truly changing with regard to caste, religion and class. The lines between castes have become a bit grayer and less divisive, and now socio-economic class has replaced those divisions. He quotes Salman Rushdie as saying that “the true metropolitan experience is when you do not know who your neighbor will be” and Mr. Gupta would rephrase that the above is true “when you do not know who your son-in-law will be”.

Day Two of Orientation (September 2, 2008)

For the first time today, we ventured into the city. Our main mode of transport was the metro system which is absolutely immaculate, efficient, and seems to run in contradiction to the life that exists above the subway tracks. The metro has three lines which run through the major parts of the city and work continues on its expansion until 2010. It will be interesting to see how I am able to navigate the system alone but it seems to be a very intuitive system with “smart” tokens that are recycled with each use. Security guards are sometimes divided for both female and male riders and bags checked at these points.

Our destination was Salaam Baalak Trust, an NGO that was started by Meera Nair in 1988 to come to the aid of street children in the railway stations in Delhi. The NGO operates four nine shelters around the Delhi area which provide health care services, education, housing (for up to 60 street children at each shelter), and safety. Our tour guide was Shekar, a young man in his early twenties that ran away from his home in Bihar when he was only 12. At that very young age he felt like he was a burden on his family because he was involved in some delinquent behavior and his parents were ashamed of his activities. So he hopped a train to Delhi and lived on the street for about a year before finding Salaam Baalak Trust. We visited one of the health care provision centers and a shelter where a classroom of sixty boys (ages 14 to 18) was assembled sitting on the floor with a kind female teacher at the front of the room. She described the interactive type of classroom that she runs, moving from subject to subject and finding creative ways of incorporating visuals into her method of teaching.

Shekar described to us why children are attracted to the train stations, which provide ‘easy’ access to food, community and an interesting sense of freedom that he tried to describe to us. He took us to different platforms and described the “gang leaders” that exist at each and monitor the activities of the street children that he oversees. The children have an antagonistic relationship with the railway police, who sometimes beat the children under the assumption that they are good for nothing pick pockets. The trust apparently has a good relationship with the Delhi police in their rehabilitation efforts, but not the railway police. Many of the young children in the trust are boys because the girls that run away from home are trafficked once they arrive in these big cities, taken away as prostitutes and sold.

The life and understanding of this newfound “freedom” was also interesting to me as Shekar described the life of a street child without homework, religious services to attend, but one which also involved petty thievery, drug abuse, sexual predation, inadequate shelter and health care, and an enormous degree of uncertainty. It is extremely frightening to think that children are driven to this end by their parents or their previous environments – how do they become so incredibly miserable and marginalized/abused at home that living on the street becomes an opportunity, an escape, a freedom?

The day ended with a talk from Nachiket Mor, the Director of the ICICI Bank Foundation for Inclusive Growth. He spoke of the relationship between the private sector and the NGO sector and the role of the foundation and the market in effecting social change and development. He is an incredibly intelligent, successful, well spoken man who is regarded as one of the premier thinkers in this country. He described some of his goals for the foundation and the partnerships that he had formed with IFMR Trust and Child Care and Nutrition and Educational Centers around the country to find large solutions to large problems. Working to improve the lives of 1,000 villagers at a time is an inefficient, time-consuming and in the end, missing the point sort of way to approach the development challenges of our time in his model.

Nachiket’s goals included a large bank penetration in every part of the country (no more than 1 to 2 km apart from each other) with outstanding service delivery, a network enterprises fund to find skilled human resources to make businesses work for the poor through the creation of an enabling environment for job acquisition, training, accommodation, tools etc, connecting all parts and lowering the costs in the supply chain, and providing continuous financial services around the country. He encouraged us to tap into our new NGO placements and find some of these linkages between the private and public sectors, some innovative methods of making markets and competition work for the poor. I do hope that he is able to attend our midpoint or endpoint retreats to provide some feedback once we really hit the ground running and learn about the issues these NGOs are tackling firsthand.

Day One of Orientation (September 1, 2008)

The day started quite early for me at 2:30 am after some restless sleep and a few futile attempts to control the air temperature in my room. The hotel is quite and nice and apparently many of the NGOs in the area have their conferences here. Thank goodness for air con is the only thing I have to say. After a lovely onion omelet for breakfast the day began with some introductions and obligatory getting to know you games. It is quite difficult to sound coherent and with it working on only four hours of sleep so I am not sure if I can get back that first impression.

Alas… we then discussed our impressions of India thus far (although I do not think the moderator was clearly aware that the extent of India we had been exposed to was the airport, a bus and the hotel). We discussed our fears, our pre-conceived notions, and our expectations of the next few days of orientation. The group is quite impressive with an excellent blend of diverse young professionals – racially, geographically, sectorally etc. With foci in finance, health, education, general international development, sexuality, marketing, human rights, amongst others, this is a rich network from which to draw and learn.

So, my first impressions? We remain relatively sheltered in the confines of this hotel but were able to venture out to Connaught Place last night for a drink at a bar with a DC menu (and DC prices), enjoying a refreshing beverage before heading back for our yummy veggie dinner at the hotel. It did truly epitomize the strange dichotomy that I think India represented for me the last time I was here. A group of young Americans drinking $10 mojitos and Carlsberg beer lounge in leather sofas before stepping outside. A look of discomfort appears on their faces as a young child and his mother/sister? hover around our large college-freshmen-amoeba-like group asking for money. Riding in the taxi from our hotel in central Delhi to Connaught Place are well-groomed green spaces, government buildings, beautiful homes of ministers of state and groups of young people strolling along the streets. But in a country so rich with female entrepreneurs one notices the absence of women from the streets – where are they and what are they doing?

The orientation is also going quite well as we get to know each other and establish relationships with what will most likely be for most of us, a sort of safety net to fall back on. It is comforting knowing that there is a set group of people that will share the same experience, frustrations, successes and transitions as you. The CEO of AIF spoke with us in the early afternoon about the role of AIF in the grand scheme of development, their history, trajectory and future goals as an organization. He indicated that AIF was founded and evolved in a very organic way (i.e. disorganized? Ad hoc?). Before moving forward, and it appears before the $10 million budget is expanded, the organization must evaluate their role in the development field, how all pillars (or what he called vertical silos) of the program’s operations are faring by measuring the impact of these programs – the grant giving arm, the Service Corps, and the Digital Equalizer arm. It will be interesting to see what the organization and the Board decide on how to proceed – how they are going to measure and monitor these arms in the future and how they relate to each other.

The day ended with a Bollywood dance lesson to what other music than Om Shanti Om! It is actually quite fun and although I resisted the idea at the beginning it’s nice to see most people stepping outside of their comfort zones and taking a chance on looking ridiculous and having a good time.