Yesterday was my first day at work...
The internship is in Indiranagar, a good hours drive from the apartment in nightmarish traffic. Joanna and my uncle accompanied me and the experience was quite off-putting for both of them! I don't mind the journey though, because there is always so much going on outside and the scenes are never the same from day to day, so it is like watching this never-ending play. Schoolchildren heading off for the day, animals on the road, people interacting, buying, selling, arguing and laughing. I absolutely love the amount of life and energy there is.
Traffic, for anyone who is unaccustomed to India, is an experience in and of itself. No one really obeys dividing lines and traffic signals are pretty unimportant. So cabs, trucks, bicycles, motorbikes, people and animals all sort of jostle for space honking for any and no reason and squeezing past each other in any way conceivable. Drivers text on the road or chat or talk on the phone and remarkably I have never seen a single car crash while in India. Driving is a feat of courage and skill. And yet people may still stand serenely barefoot in the middle of the street, watching the ground...
Bangalore is really a beautiful city when it's not crowded...
Several walls are painted with murals depicting Indian life and culture, and the tree-lined streets would be charming if you could ignore the pollution and rush of automobiles. We passed St. John's Hospital, where I was born, and NIMHANS, which is the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, a bustling hospital and research facility that is very famous in Bangalore.
After about an hour of traffic we reached a beautiful house converted into an office building, all orange brown with metal lattice work. in the front lobby, Jo and I glanced through some Indian newspapers -the front page headline for the Times of India was a quote from Warren Buffet: "I'm a retard for coming to India so late". A rather unusual headline for those used to the PC Western media.
I won't include names out of respect for people's privacy when talking about my colleagues.
My 'boss', the woman who hired me, was not in the office yet so another girl working for the Grants Team came to show me upstairs. The office is a large room with tile floors and desks along either wall.
There are about ten people on the Grants Team, 6 men and 4 women and all with such interesting stories. The day began with a 2 hour debriefing on everything the organization does and what the issues are in the area of rural water, sanitation and development. It is all totally fascinating, but I might save it for another blog post just so those who aren't intrigued don't have to wade through it all!
But some comments on the work day anyways...
The office building, in Indian style, it doesn't have air conditioning but compensates with open spaces, open windows and cool tile floors. A man comes around about three times a day bringing little free cups of chai or coffee to sip while you work (SO DELICIOUS)
The environment is very casual and friendly. Women, as seems to be the case in most of Bangalore, wear salwar kurtas or churidars to work, or Western clothing. The grants team all seems very close and they joke with one another constantly. Work is punctuated with small breaks when people tell stories or talk but everyone is serious, productive and totally passionate about what they do. I am the youngest in the office, the only one still in school, but everyone feels so young that it doesn't make a difference. They are all friendly, and an HR person in the office took me around to introduce me personally to literally everyone in the entire organization, including the CEO.
Lunchtime, everyone gathered around a table with food they had brought mostly in tiffins from home. There are also places around the office to order Indian food from. A man in the office comes around about three times in the day bringing chai or coffee or lemon water to whoever wants it. People kick off their shoes under their desks and everyone makes every effort to make me feel part of the team. I didn't even find out until today who the director of the team was - he acts just like everyone else!
After a full day at work, I took the cab back home. Jo and I talked about our days- hers was all over the place! She visited a market and several opportunities, and you can read all about it on her blog!
We all then went to the Bull Temple in Basavangudi, taking two autos. When we reached, we first went to the nearby orphanage where Joanna could potentially volunteer. The cute funny little man with spectacles in the office told her not knowing Kannada would pose a language problem while communicating with the children, so we took his leave and went on to mandhir (temple). The last time I went to the Bull Temple, it was groundnut festival in Bangalore. Bangalore is famous for its groundnuts and there were vendors with huge baskets full, and lots of flowers (phool) to string in the hair. This time it was evening and much quieter. There is an enclosure with a sleeping bull inside, and next to it a set of steps leading up to the main temple.
There are people loitering about, some sitting quietly, a priest down at the bottom breaking coconuts and blessing some people. Vendors are packing up their trinkets- little carved figurines, peacock feather fans, small boxes and makeshift wooden toys.
Before entering a temple or a house, it is customary to take off your shoes, usually sandals (called chappals). Here there is a man in a chair who tells us we may leave our chappals beside him. So we do, and go inside. The claim to fame for this temple is the larger than life black bull statue to which people pray.
We circle it once, stopping to pay homage to the deities placed behind the bull, and then leave. The man next to our chappals demands four rupees, a clever little gig if you ask me...
We then visit the Ganesha temple at the bottom of the steps. Because the Bull Temple is such a tourist attraction, on either side of the bhagwan statue are two metal bars and people stand in a row behind them and clasp hands before Ganesha. It is not my favourite way to pray...but anyways the priest comes down the row with a flame and a tray for donations. Then holy water is offered to all- you slurp some (always accept with right hand on top) and then run the rest through your hair. Outside the temple is a couple offering broken coconuts to visitors- if you offer something like 100 broken coconuts, a wish may come true. So, if seeking luck on an exam or blessings for a new marriage...
We then bought flowers from a vendor to string in our hair- one of my favourite things to do in India! Jasmine (mogra) is my favourite flower and scent, and the garlands exude such a lovely perfume. We found an auto for Joanna and Nani, and Kumar Mama (my uncle) and I waited for another. The man we found played a common riksha-wallah trick, taking a circuitous route back to the apartment to run up the meter so he could charge us more. When we reached the apartment, Joanna and Nani were waiting aside with Rashida, another childhood friend of mine who lives in our building. It was lovely to see her! She is studying medicine so works incessantly, and in fact had to study so couldn't hang out for long.
We ate dinner and I was so exhausted I slept immediately...
The internship is in Indiranagar, a good hours drive from the apartment in nightmarish traffic. Joanna and my uncle accompanied me and the experience was quite off-putting for both of them! I don't mind the journey though, because there is always so much going on outside and the scenes are never the same from day to day, so it is like watching this never-ending play. Schoolchildren heading off for the day, animals on the road, people interacting, buying, selling, arguing and laughing. I absolutely love the amount of life and energy there is.
Traffic, for anyone who is unaccustomed to India, is an experience in and of itself. No one really obeys dividing lines and traffic signals are pretty unimportant. So cabs, trucks, bicycles, motorbikes, people and animals all sort of jostle for space honking for any and no reason and squeezing past each other in any way conceivable. Drivers text on the road or chat or talk on the phone and remarkably I have never seen a single car crash while in India. Driving is a feat of courage and skill. And yet people may still stand serenely barefoot in the middle of the street, watching the ground...
Bangalore is really a beautiful city when it's not crowded...
Several walls are painted with murals depicting Indian life and culture, and the tree-lined streets would be charming if you could ignore the pollution and rush of automobiles. We passed St. John's Hospital, where I was born, and NIMHANS, which is the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, a bustling hospital and research facility that is very famous in Bangalore.
After about an hour of traffic we reached a beautiful house converted into an office building, all orange brown with metal lattice work. in the front lobby, Jo and I glanced through some Indian newspapers -the front page headline for the Times of India was a quote from Warren Buffet: "I'm a retard for coming to India so late". A rather unusual headline for those used to the PC Western media.
I won't include names out of respect for people's privacy when talking about my colleagues.
My 'boss', the woman who hired me, was not in the office yet so another girl working for the Grants Team came to show me upstairs. The office is a large room with tile floors and desks along either wall.
There are about ten people on the Grants Team, 6 men and 4 women and all with such interesting stories. The day began with a 2 hour debriefing on everything the organization does and what the issues are in the area of rural water, sanitation and development. It is all totally fascinating, but I might save it for another blog post just so those who aren't intrigued don't have to wade through it all!
But some comments on the work day anyways...
The office building, in Indian style, it doesn't have air conditioning but compensates with open spaces, open windows and cool tile floors. A man comes around about three times a day bringing little free cups of chai or coffee to sip while you work (SO DELICIOUS)
The environment is very casual and friendly. Women, as seems to be the case in most of Bangalore, wear salwar kurtas or churidars to work, or Western clothing. The grants team all seems very close and they joke with one another constantly. Work is punctuated with small breaks when people tell stories or talk but everyone is serious, productive and totally passionate about what they do. I am the youngest in the office, the only one still in school, but everyone feels so young that it doesn't make a difference. They are all friendly, and an HR person in the office took me around to introduce me personally to literally everyone in the entire organization, including the CEO.
Lunchtime, everyone gathered around a table with food they had brought mostly in tiffins from home. There are also places around the office to order Indian food from. A man in the office comes around about three times in the day bringing chai or coffee or lemon water to whoever wants it. People kick off their shoes under their desks and everyone makes every effort to make me feel part of the team. I didn't even find out until today who the director of the team was - he acts just like everyone else!
After a full day at work, I took the cab back home. Jo and I talked about our days- hers was all over the place! She visited a market and several opportunities, and you can read all about it on her blog!
We all then went to the Bull Temple in Basavangudi, taking two autos. When we reached, we first went to the nearby orphanage where Joanna could potentially volunteer. The cute funny little man with spectacles in the office told her not knowing Kannada would pose a language problem while communicating with the children, so we took his leave and went on to mandhir (temple). The last time I went to the Bull Temple, it was groundnut festival in Bangalore. Bangalore is famous for its groundnuts and there were vendors with huge baskets full, and lots of flowers (phool) to string in the hair. This time it was evening and much quieter. There is an enclosure with a sleeping bull inside, and next to it a set of steps leading up to the main temple.
There are people loitering about, some sitting quietly, a priest down at the bottom breaking coconuts and blessing some people. Vendors are packing up their trinkets- little carved figurines, peacock feather fans, small boxes and makeshift wooden toys.
Before entering a temple or a house, it is customary to take off your shoes, usually sandals (called chappals). Here there is a man in a chair who tells us we may leave our chappals beside him. So we do, and go inside. The claim to fame for this temple is the larger than life black bull statue to which people pray.
We circle it once, stopping to pay homage to the deities placed behind the bull, and then leave. The man next to our chappals demands four rupees, a clever little gig if you ask me...
We then visit the Ganesha temple at the bottom of the steps. Because the Bull Temple is such a tourist attraction, on either side of the bhagwan statue are two metal bars and people stand in a row behind them and clasp hands before Ganesha. It is not my favourite way to pray...but anyways the priest comes down the row with a flame and a tray for donations. Then holy water is offered to all- you slurp some (always accept with right hand on top) and then run the rest through your hair. Outside the temple is a couple offering broken coconuts to visitors- if you offer something like 100 broken coconuts, a wish may come true. So, if seeking luck on an exam or blessings for a new marriage...
We then bought flowers from a vendor to string in our hair- one of my favourite things to do in India! Jasmine (mogra) is my favourite flower and scent, and the garlands exude such a lovely perfume. We found an auto for Joanna and Nani, and Kumar Mama (my uncle) and I waited for another. The man we found played a common riksha-wallah trick, taking a circuitous route back to the apartment to run up the meter so he could charge us more. When we reached the apartment, Joanna and Nani were waiting aside with Rashida, another childhood friend of mine who lives in our building. It was lovely to see her! She is studying medicine so works incessantly, and in fact had to study so couldn't hang out for long.
We ate dinner and I was so exhausted I slept immediately...
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