Friday, July 10, 2009

When it rains, sometimes it pours...

The monsoon rains have arrived, the dirty dusty streets are transformed! Into a mudbath! Its slippery and treacherous, especially at night and walking through the pooled water is not recommended, you never know what is in it to start with, but you also run the risk of falling through the open manholes that you could skirt before but now cant see.... i dont even want to think about all those exposed electric wires...

Luckily the part of Bangalore where we live and work has escaped most of the deluge and my slippey slidey escapades in my ever squelchy thongs are not a feature of every waking, moving moment... the temperature has cooled somewhat due to the thick cloud cover and it is the most perfect pleasant weather, a totally comfortable 25, beanie weather for bangalorites!!

The days go along with surprising speed in the routine of daily life at Janaagraha. I came second in the netball tipping comp at the office back in the 'gong and was able to explain the tipping comp concept to the office here at janaagraha. It might be my greatest legacy in India yet!! The inaugral Indian Premier League Cricket tipping competition!!

Other than these more light hearted pursuits I am learning about just how broken government in India is...bribes and buck passing. The other day I paid a visit to the Slum Clearance Board, a dirty building in an outer Bangalore suburb, where as I climbed the stairs my eyes began to water from the stench of ammonia... very cleverly, the doorless toilets were positioned at each floor directly off the stair well and in their neglected and unkept state, the pee seemingly flowed down the stairs to create an overwhelming stink... this government office made the modest janaagraha facilities look like a palace.

There were very few computers in the Department and officers sat at old fashioned desks pouring over huge ledgers that reminded me of the old shipment ledgers CSR used in the 1940s. It was grey and sparse with big old steel green cupboards where presumably the ancient ledgers are carefully stored each night. As the only colourful feature, the small hindu temple on the far wall with the flashing neon lights surrounding it caught my eye as it blinked its dedication to ganesha in alternating reds, greens and yellows, surely bringing perspacity and harmony to the humble office. We had come to ask a simple question and were ushered into a manager's office where we sat to wait our turn to speak with him on chairs positioned across from his desk as if we were sitting down to some kind of concert or performance. The officer was quite happy to talk at length about what the other departments were responsible for, but when i asked him what is was that his department was responsible for (several times) all I got was the silent and smiling head waggle... although we did get an answer to our question, were the statistics listed on the website up to date and complete? Yes and No; No and Yes!

And that is such a big part of the problem, departments with overlapping authorities and responsibilities so that problems and issues can be dodged and flicked and not responded to, you could go round in circles for months until you grow old and grey just trying to find out which department is responsible for fixing the pavement outside your house. An Indian bureaucrat is the buck passing genius, it is done with great style and flair and a good deal of pushiness is required to negotiate the murky depths of governance in this big city...

the same pushiness that is required to buy food, get tickets or be served in any way. Please forgive me if on my return home I push through the queque at the ticket counter for Harry Potter Six, wildly thrust my money over others heads while chatting on my phone, simutaneously positioning my elbow in a throng clearing thrust while barking my order to the cashier... I promise you I will do it with a smile, (even if its a little self-satisfied that I won the battle and got served ahead of you)...

On the other hand there are times when my white skin or foreign status clears the way and I get priority service... like at the sari sale, when I was pushed up onto the platform where only the staff usually stand and pushed and pulled into an array of fancy saris and then ushered and cajoled to the head of the ridicuously long line to pay and leave with the minimum of fuss. (I dont know at these moments whether to be hugely relieved at the hours saved or hideously embarrassed and apologetic to the woman who was (before I arrived) at the front of the queque and has no doubt taken the good part of two hours to get there.)

The celebrity foreigner thing has given me some pause to think over the past week...I am still being stared at and getting my photo taken and at each class I now have 60 girls clamouring for an autograph...seriously today I got a bit worried I wasnt going to get out the classroom without security detail... hehehe. It made me wonder if deep down it might be part of the reason I like India so much, the ability to go anywhere, get into clubs and overpriced shops, being treated like a princess with people rushing to open and close doors for you..and I decided no; its not. Id trade all of that in less than a second for the pleasure of not having to feel awkward every time the maid meets my eyes for a millisecond, raises her hand to her heart in a traditional namaste greeting and then scurries away as if she is not supposed to look at me at all...or to not have to walk past the tea lady who sits in the hall and stares at nothing while waiting until tea time so she can make me a cup of tea, or seeing people sweep the street in bare feet or have children kiss my feet hoping for a few rupees.....

i love india because despite all its difficulties the people have spirit and cheekiness and it is a colourful and infectious place, it makes me be assertive and confident (an especially important trait for road crossing) ... and it is changing, the caste system is heavily entrenched but it seems at times to be slowly washing away; it will take a lot of time to acheive equality here but I hope in that respect that every time it rains a little bit of equality in India it pours...

and as for the bureaucratic jungle, it desperately needs to be washed away in a great big biblical flood....