Live in India once but leave before it makes you hard

Today I experienced an episode which made me think a lot about myself in Ukraine and myself in India. Am I changing? And if yes, is it a change for better?

So in the morning I went to the market nearby to buy food for next week. On my way there beggar approached me. He was asking for money. I started to ignore him as I usually do here. But he continued to follow me talking something in Hindi and showing with gestures that he wants to eat. The only feeling that I had was irritation getting stronger every second. Finally I understood that ignoring him will not help and I started to shout at him Jao which means Go in Hindi. And he left after some time.

I forgot about this episode immediately – such kind of situations happen every day here. The same evening I met my Indian friend and we started to talk about India and how I like the country. He asked me whether I ever use cycling rickshaw as a transport. Of course I do was my answer. And then he asked me whether I feel sorry when I have to use them. This question made me think. I remembered my feelings when I first took cycling rickshaw. I felt like I am harassing him, like he is my slave. That was really bad feeling. That first time I paid him 3 times more then I should. But after some time I stopped caring. Now cycling rickshaw seems as just one more mean of transport, like bus or tram. When I told this to my friend he told me that I am becoming Indian very fast.

And that’s true. Millions of people are beggars. Very often 4-5 people take one (!!!) rickshaw to go somewhere although it’s allowed for maximum 2 people to seat at one rickshaw. Just imagine 40 degrees heat and this Puller who has to carry 5 people! And nobody seems to care! Once I heard a story from one girl about beggar she saw at the railway station in Delhi. He was lying on the floor, flies were around him and he couldn’t move. One could clearly see that he was dying. And just next to him people were waiting for their trains. They were eating, playing cards, joking just next to him! People are so used to these things that they simply stopped paying attention. And I feel that day by day I also stop paying attention. From one side it’s natural, it’s just the way you protect yourself. From other side, I was for 5 years in organization which has a mission of ‘piece and fulfillment of humankind’s potential’, I came here to work on the company which does micro financing for Rickshaw pullers, I can’t even count how many sessions about state of the world I’ve held. And now I am shouting “Jao” to beggars, bargaining with Rickshaw pullers about paying 10 rupees more or less… I am not trying to say that everyone should give all those people money, because it might make the situation even worse. At the same time there should be basic respect and support from side of people who can provide this support.

I told already – I love Indians, but I really don’t want to become Indian in that way. I guess if Indians would be a bit more ‘European’ with their unprivileged this country would become a bit better.

Crazy India

Not dangerous, not incredible, not scary, not beautiful – I would like to call my first post about this country exactly like that. After a bit more than 1 month of staying here I can describe India only with the word crazy! I thought that after some time this feeling will disappear. But each new day gives more reasons to think that I am in crazy country, people are crazy here and I am crazy because I came here and frankly speaking I love this feeling! ;)

Few things that I think of India after 1 month:

1. India is completely different from what I’ve read and heard about it. Before coming to India I was preparing a lot. I’ve read dozens of websites, blogs, articles about India, way of life there and how is that to be a foreigner in this country. Honestly speaking after doing that I started to have doubts whether I made a right decision about choosing that country and if I’ll be able to survive for 6 months here. ‘Lonely Planet’ has 30 pages that are describing only all dangerous situations that can happen to white women in India!!!! Seriously it’s not that bad! I am walking streets alone, I am drinking water, I don’t clean plates with soap before eating in the restaurants, I eat in the streets, I talk with local people and nothing bad happened to me! Of course I am not saying that it’s very safe. As well as you cannot say that about US, Ukraine or any other country.

2. India is very different, but it doesn’t mean that it is worse than any other country. In the first days of my stay here I was pissed off with so many things. Trash on the streets, uncontrolled traffic, streets full with pissing people – list can be very long. I thought all those things are happening because of poverty and uneducated people. Partly it’s true, but that’s o nly one side of the coin. Recently I had a conversation with my manager at work – very intelligent, smart and nice person. He told me that some time ago he received very attractive job offer in USA. And he rejected it because he couldn’t imagine his life in the country where he would be able to piss only in public toilets and throw away garbage only to trash bins… He told me that in India he feels free and he can’t live in the county where he will have to follow so many rules as in US! After that conversation I thought that very often “western people” think that their way of life is right for everybody, everything that is different seems worse to us. ‘Right’ for us can be completely ‘wrong’ to Indians and if I am in this country I have to accept their way of life as probably they know better than me what is ‘right’ for them.

3. Indians are happy! This is the thing I admire most here. If you walk the street in Delhi or any other Indian city you’ll see poverty and miserable life conditions. I don’t consider Ukraine as developed country but never in my life have I seen so much poverty as here although in Ukraine we have lots of it. At the sa me you look around and you see people smiling to each other, talking and laughing. I know so many Ukrainians who feel upset because they don’t have most modern phone or TV or they live in small apartment. And I think about hun dreds of Indians which I see everyday sleeping on the street who seem like enjoy their life much more! That’s definitely one of the things that we should learn from these incredible people.

4. Сonservatism. Honestly speaking there are lots of things which I admire about India and people here, but there’s one thing I hate – castes. Caste system describes the social stratification and social restrictions in India. And it’s not even coming from India. Castes appeared when Aryans invaded India. Aryans entered India from the Northwest and established a caste system, in which they placed themselves primarily in higher castes. Aborigines were placed to lower castes. Basically, the whiter your skin is the higher caste you have. And after thousands of years they still obey and believe in this completely unfair system. In big cities it’s not as strong as in rural areas. But even in Delhi there are people that belong to so called ‘untouchable caste’. ‘Untouchables’ are the people that are not allowed to do any other work except of throwing away garbage. It’s considered bad in Indian society to touch those people as they are ‘dirty’. And this is 21% of Indian population as per 2001 Census!!! And the worse thing is that majority of people feel comfortable about that, and so far it doesn’t look like that it’s going to change soon.

5. AIESEC in India. After 5 years of being AIESEC member I feel really attached to this organization in any country. At the same time there are AIESEC countries which I really love and admire. This is of course AIESEC Ukraine and without any doubts AIESEC India. During my MC term I was lucky to work close with AIESECers from India, I’ve run dozens of sessions to Ukrainian AIESECers des cribing great work style and commitment that Indians have. I did enjoy communication and work with Indians and I value a lot friendship that I’ve made with people in AIESEC India. Because of that I now feel very confused with things that I am facing everyday here. When I just arrived to trainees house in Delhi I’ve met near 10 interns who were living there. Approximately after 1 day of my stay there I was told all bad stories that happened to trainees because of AIESECers, about all the people that were not met in the airport, all undelivered promises and I was advised from the first day not to count on AIESEC here. Now after 1 month in India I even cannot remember how many complaints from different people I’ve heard. And the worst thing is it looks like it will last forever. Because when new interns are coming from the 1^st day they get bad impression of AIESEC here even they didn’t have any bad experience with AIESEC by themselves. I also got a feeling that this kind of relationships between AIESEC and trainees became normal for lots of AIESECers here and they stopped trying to improve that. In the beginning I was all the time arguing with interns saying that they exaggerate everything and they should try to change situation by themselves, being more proactive and tolerant. But now I feel that people here were so many times disappointed with AIESEC that they just don’t believe that something might change and that’s why they prefer not to interact with AIESECers at all. I was thinking a lot about this situation and it really bothers me. By no mean i want to say that AIESEC in India is bad and that they should stop doing hundreds exchanges and focus only on interns servicing. But I want to tell to every AIESECer – don’t forget that u are bringing human beings here, and they are not furniture that you can just meet in the airport, bring to the house and forget about it. They are the people who make AIESEC incredible organization which all of us love so much. After all I do believe that AIESEC in India is the best entity in the network and I am happy that I am part of it right now. I just think that because of intensity of their work and pressure that these young people feel everyday they sometimes loose the focus and forget why they joined this organization. I know that it’s easy to say but much more difficult to change that. At the same time I feel that Indians can do whatever but only if they want. Well, I wish them good luck!..

That’s it for now! Will try to be shorter next time ;)