Something Happy

I love Diwali!

I’ve had such an amazing time this past week celebrating the holiday.

The streets were more chaotic than usual, women sported beautiful new salwar kameezes and saris, various sand colors were smeared all over the roads, little lamps adorned houses, and fireworks went off at random during the day and throughout the night.

It was fun, it was festive, and it was really really happy.

Aside from dragging myself out of bed before sunrise (sleep has taken on a newfound importance in my life), I enjoyed all of the celebrations…

Breakfasting on homemade Gujarati snacks and sweets
Visiting friends and eating their super unhealthy snacks and sweets
Receiving (lengthy) prayers on the street from people I do not know
Setting off fireworks and firecrackers late at night
Being invited into people’s homes to do all of the above with their families
Figuring out how to wear my new sari (and avoiding people taking photos of me)
Blessing Mann Deshi Bank

Wednesday marked the New Year for the bank. Oddly, it was my privilege to bless the bank among an audience and fellow “blessers”. Blessing the bank involved spreading various colored powders, flowers, and sugar on the vault, safe, and the bank’s founding photograph, and then cracking a coconut on the ground. This was followed by eating the coconut and enjoying sweets with my coworkers.

Unfortunately my first Diwali has ended, but tomorrow I’m off to Kerala with Chetna and her family for a few days of trekking, consuming delicious food, and lazing about the backwaters!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Something(s) Not Happy

Voting
Massachusetts allows you to register for an absentee ballot and vote via absentee ballot through 3 November. I registered for an absentee ballot back in September and my ballot has yet to arrive. This is possibly the most important election of my lifetime (I know, I’m young…), and unless I receive my ballot by tomorrow (I’ll be away through the elections) I won’t be able to vote. It’s not like my chosen candidate would actually win, but still… NOT COOL!

Vermin
A few weeks after I arrived in Mhaswad I noticed that something was crawling on me during the night. I assumed that it was one of the numerous lizards that crawl around all over the house. Lizards are cute. I’m totally fine with lizards. They woke me up, but I easily drifted back to sleep.

A few weeks ago, however, I actually SAW what was crawling on me, and it was NOT a lizard. It was a rat. For a month I had rats crawling on me (several times each night) during my sleep. I don’t mind seeing rats, but having rats run over my body while I’m sleeping is not only unpleasant, but also dangerous!

The solution was for me to switch rooms while my room was being sprayed. The room that I switched to also had a rat running around so then I switched to a third room without incident... until last night.

I was almost asleep in the third room when I felt something moving, opened my eyes, and saw a rat right next to my head staring directly at me. I had a mini flip-out session and then moved to the second room where I saw a plate of old food that one of the boys left on the desk (I was furious). About half an hour later I woke up to a rat running all over me. So I switched to a different bed in the third room (since my first room was still getting the most rats) and slept with the lights on, waking up every fifteen minutes at the slightest sound or the smallest hint of movement.

Tonight I will sleep outside.

HAPPY DIWALI!!!

Yesterday was the first day of Diwali, the Festival of Lights. It's the biggest festival in India, and is celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs. Everyone is wearing new clothes, setting off fireworks, creating rangoli (sandpainting on the ground) and consuming overwhelming amounts of delicious homemade (and super unhealthy) snacks and sweets... India at its best (and most chaotic)!

Wishing you all a very happy Diwali :)

Mann Deshi

Since I’m in India to work, I thought I should tell you a bit about the organization I’m working for and a bit about the projects I will be working on.

The Mann Deshi Mahila Group
The Mann Deshi Mahila Group includes three organizations. They are Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank Ltd., Mann Vikas Samajik Sanstha, and Mann Deshi Mahila Bachat Gat Federation.

Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank Ltd. (Mann Deshi Bank)
Mann Deshi Bank is a microfinance bank that provides various savings and loan services as well as pension and insurance schemes to poor rural women in certain areas of Maharashtra. All of the bank’s business is conducted through field agents since women have neither the time nor the money to travel to a bank to save money or repay loans. These field agents travel to client doorsteps usually daily, but also weekly or monthly (depending on the savings or loan service), to collect/disperse funds. Daily collection is preferred for most women since they get paid at the end of the work day and cannot trust their families with their money. Mann Deshi currently has five branches in Maharashtra, and four additional loan offices through Mann Vikas.

Mann Vikas Samajik Sanstha (MVSS)
MVSS is a non-profit organization delivering non-financial services to poor rural women in Maharashtra. Initially MVSS focused on a variety of areas, ranging from health to property rights to education. In the past few years, however, it has decided to limit its scope to programs that will directly promote financial self-sufficiency and support women in utilizing the bank’s services. Some current programs include providing umbrellas as interest-free loans to protect the health of street vendors, providing bicycles to girls as interest-free loans so that they can go to school, and Mann Deshi Udyogini.

Mann Deshi Udyogini is a business school for poor rural women with the goal of turning daily wage laborers into successful businesswomen. Classes range from tailoring to technological and financial literacy to veterinary camps. Mann Deshi covers the cost of the financial literacy course since it is compulsory for all loan clients; the other courses are offered for minimal fees since the school is funded by several corporate banks. Since many women cannot travel to the business schools (there are three currently) due to financial, time, and cultural constraints, Mann Deshi has started operating a mobile business school on wheels which travels to remote locations.

Mann Deshi Mahila Bachat Gat Federation
This NGO is Mann Deshi’s Self-help group (SHG) federation. Initially women met to discuss the various issues they and their families faced, but with the implementation of the bank the focus has shifted to financial concerns and supporting female entrepreneurs. Under Mann Deshi there are about 2,500 SHGs.

My Projects (technically I work for MVSS)
NBFC
The Mann Deshi Group is looking to rapidly expand its operations. This is fairly simple for the two non-profits, yet due to RBI (Reserve Bank of India) regulations impossible for the bank. Mann Deshi Bank can only open two new branches each year. To bypass this regulation, Mann Deshi is opening a non-banking finance company (NBFC) which will allow the services of the bank to rapidly expand in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Gujarat, and then throughout India. I am working closely with other staff members to make this happen. We’ve been working with international investors, lawyers, and a non-profit based in Mumbai to get all the legal details taken care of. My role will be to write a business plan, design a MIS system, develop a roll-out plan, and then implement and monitor everything. Mann Deshi is hoping to have the first four NBFCs launched by March/April (great for me since I’ll get to see them open). This is something I thought I would NEVER EVER in a million years be doing.

Mobile Business School
Mann Deshi currently has a mobile business school up and running in northern Karnataka (a neighboring state). Mann Deshi would like to open its first mobile business school in Maharashtra. We have recently procured the funds for a bus. Now we need to buy the bus, renovate it, purchase equipment, pick locations and courses, select teachers, and advertise it. I will also be working on this over the next few months as Mann Deshi plans to have the school launched in April.

I’ll admit that a lot of the time I’d like to be doing work that relates to my background as my passions can truly be found there (gender, sexuality, health, human rights, migration). I also find myself torn over what the organization does. But my work and my wonderful colleagues are keeping me busy, thinking, and focused, and I very much look forward to going to work every day :)

So there’s a brief summary of what Mann Deshi is and what I will be doing. It took me a little while to understand the basics so feel free to ask questions!

Much Love <3

'tis a sad, sad day in mhaswad

Mhaswad has no power for 14 hours each day. Both the house and my office are hooked up to generators, but these generators are not entirely reliable. Each day the power and the backup generators repeatedly shut off, and since a working battery for my laptop is currently in the mail, my computer also randomly shuts off.

Today, Mhaswad’s power fluctuations have finally (and tragically) caught up with me.

My laptop wasn’t working this morning.
The computer guy took one look at it, determined what was wrong, and fixed it :)

But... my hard drive- GONE!

This is a farewell to the college work, photos, and music that I had not yet backed up... it will be sorely missed :(

Gun Shopping in Bombay

My first experience in Mumbai was last summer when I landed late at night in the chaotic international airport. I was a lone white young female traveler coming from South Africa and trying to connect to my Delhi flight. I collected my baggage, made it through customs, and ventured outside. Not only was I greeted by sweaty heat, but also by hundreds of people who went dead silent when they saw me. The silence lasted about 5 or 10 seconds before men started bombarding me with their offers of help (for a ridiculous fee of course). I finally decided to pay someone to help me find the airport’s tiny secret elevator and get through the very involved flight check-in process. It was an overwhelming experience, yet a bizarrely appropriate introduction to India…

I would characterize my recent trip to Mumbai the same way: bizarrely appropriate.

Most of it was normal run of the mill off-kilter India: meetings, the worst traffic and horn situation I’ve ever experienced (15 hours total to travel several km. to our meetings within Mumbai + 12 hours to get to/from Mumbai), playing people-frogger to get across the street alive, haggling, staring, and blatantly obvious disparities- street food (or no food) & five star restaurants, beggars and corporate banks, new high rises and slums, etc.

My adventure on Monday afternoon, however, was probably my most memorable experience. Our day started off fairly normally (aside from the 2 hour drive to our first meeting). We had some tasty street chai and were treated to breakfast at a 5-star hotel by American businessmen. This was followed by salwar kameeze shopping.

When I asked Chetna how we would be spending our afternoon she replied (very frankly), “We need to buy a gun.”

Under normal circumstances the prospect of shopping for a gun would terrify me. I hate guns. I hate looking at them. I hate the sound they make. I especially hate that police officers carry them, and in India, police officers don’t just carry handguns; they carry rifles (which may not be as fast or easy to use, but they are big and therefore look much more intimidating).

… But I’m in India and in order to stay mentally healthy here I have to have a very lax, go with the flow kind of attitude. So my only response to the suggestion of gun shopping was to laugh.

And laugh I did.

We went in and out of several arms shops. It’s pretty rare for a woman to shop for a gun, and completely unheard of for a white woman to shop for a gun so we attracted quite a crowd of curious bystanders. Finally one of Chetna’s friends (a police officer I believe) joined us to assist in the search. Over chai, everyone debated which gun to purchase and haggled over how much it should cost, but not before testing the gun by shooting blanks right outside the shop (scary!).

When everyone was satisfied we finalized the purchase and Mann Deshi’s security guard (the arm-bearer) picked up the gun, and a permit to transport the gun, the following day.

And so we journeyed home with our new gun and its cleaning kit on top of the clothes that Chetna madam and Rekha madam bought for Mann Deshi employees, on top of our luggage, and in plain view of every single car, every single toll worker, and every single police officer on the road.

An unexpected experience- yes. But the previous weekend I unknowingly spent an afternoon in Mhaswad sitting with a sharpshooter for a gang in Bombay, so I can’t say I was entirely unprepared…

I can say, however, that I have given up on even the simplest expectations.

my perfect walk home

my walk home last night was truly amazing.

while i was at work an incredible storm rolled over mhaswad… booming thunder, crazy lightning, heavy winds and rain. i waited for it to settle down and then set out on my walk home.

nothing makes me feel more peaceful than walking in the rain.

it was somewhere between a drizzle and steady rain- hard enough for people to rush home wearing raincoats or using umbrellas, yet light enough for me to walk without scrunching my head and shoulders like a turtle. because everyone was ducking for cover i didn’t have to awkwardly refuse anyone’s generous offer to drive me home.

the temperature was just comfortable enough and the wind was just powerful enough to slightly cool me off. i could lift my head towards the sky and let the rain wash away the dirt and dust that inevitably sticks to you during the sweaty sunny heat of the day.

and just as i turned onto the dirt road and began walking through the fields, a very subtle rainbow appeared. the rain reduced to a drizzle and in the distance beyond the rainbow i could see fierce purplish blue horizontal bolts of lightning electrified by shimmering gold clouds. it was the most beautiful sky i’ve ever seen.

the pointing and laughing made it obvious to me that the locals thought i was crazy, but i was beyond the threshold of caring.

the only thing i felt was pure… simple… bliss

settling down, gearing up

I’ve been in India a little over a month and in Mhaswad just over 3 weeks. I’m starting to settle down a bit and am finding my own rhythm and routine.

Things are certainly a bit slower and more relaxed here, a nice break from my high stress personality and lifestyle, yet also difficult to adjust to. Walking to the town from the farm, however, does provide me with a much needed mini-jolt of Indian chaos.

I’m finding that I enjoy long sunset walks to the middle of nowhere (the middle of nowhere isn’t very far) and staring up at the gajillions of stars that fill the super dark (fairly) pollution-free midnight sky.

I’m also turning into quite the sleeper! I’ve never slept this much in my entire life, but I think it’s a lovely remedy after years of sleep deprivation. To facilitate the sleeping process, I’m catching up on eight years of leisure reading that I missed out on due to high school and college. Those of you who have been to India will appreciate my current read, the tome Shantaram by Gregory Roberts. It certainly isn’t a great literary work, but it’s quite captivating and his portrayal of Prabakar will hilariously resonate with many of you.

Aside from sleeping and reading I’ve been spending a lot of time getting to know my family. They’ve been very open and welcoming without at all invading my personal space. The twin 13 year old boys are very sweet, offering advice on Bollywood music and films, translating the stories that their dad tells me, and sharing bits and pieces of their daily lives. But living with a family has its downsides too… the other night I witnessed my first family feud (awkward!).

And of course there’s the whole reason that I’m here: WORK. Some days are quite busy and others are tediously slow. We’re developing the projects I’ll be working on throughout the year- more on that to come later. So far I’ve written an application for an international competition, submitted a business proposal to a potential Swiss investor, and been coordinating the visits of four Deutsche Bank volunteers with a lot of additional smaller tasks mixed in. I’ve kind of been thrown into the mix and I think it’s helped me get to know the organization. Still, it seems as if there are an infinite number of questions I would like to ask, and an endless abyss of information for me to understand…

:( No pics... I'm still hoping for an internet card!
On Road India

4. I saw a dog get hit by a car yesterday. This is not at all an unusual occurrence in India, and although I’ve seen it happen numerous times to different animals, I find it equally traumatizing each time. I also grow incredibly angry that drivers only slow down enough for a person or an animal or a car to get out of their way. There are a lot of assumptions and expectations in driving here; cars rarely slow down with the intention of stopping.

5. I fell off a motorcycle. Because I was wearing a skirt I was riding on the back of it the “ladylike” way, with both legs on the same side (I wouldn’t mind riding with one leg on either side in a skirt, but I discovered how taboo it was at the Marathi film shooting when they wanted me to ride a bicycle. When they realized I was wearing an ankle length skirt, which would have fully covered me, it was adamantly out of the question). Anyways, the driver slammed on the brakes, rounded a sharp corner, and off I went! I wasn’t hurt… just surprised and amused.