I just realized it has been a month since I last posted something -- bad Summer!
I have a couple of videos of recent trips to post. The first, here, is last weekend's trip to Pondicherry and Auroville. Pondicherry (or Pondy) used to be a French colony, so it has a French flair to it as well as a population of French speaking Indians.
They certainly have the French cafe down right. I can only think of a couple of places in Chennai where you can get away from the hustle of the city and enjoy a nice meal or cup of tea. In Pondy it seemed like the entire weekend we were traveling between one quiet eatery to another (with some shopping in between...by some I mean a lot... (Shelley, I am hot on the trail of some fabulous salwar - they have several modern styles that I think would go over really well in Bellingham!). This weekend was not only the Indian independence day from the British, but it was also Pondy's independence from France (the 15th and 16th respectively). While we were in Wuroville during most of the ceremonies, we did see some preparations for the event in a marching group making its way through the quiet streets.
Auroville, for those of you who aren't aware, is an experimental community based on the vision of a woman they call "The Mother". It is a very creative place where experiments in sustainable living, arts, and architecture all collide. We were fortunate enough to be there for the birthday ceremony for The Mother where we silently observed the sunrise over bonfires at the Matrimandir, the place for meditation and a monument to The Mother. To learn more see: http://www.auroville.org/.
Hope you enjoy the video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uZ_hZHx4U8
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
India.... dancing
I had the wonderful fortune of joining my roomate in celebrating French independence day on the 14th. The big act for the evening was a French woman who has mastered the art of classical dance. Enjoy this short clip....a short glimpse of that evening.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
There is hope!
So my first week is coming to a close and I am reflecting on what I would most like to share. What won in my mind was the little glimmer of hope I saw in Indian bureaucracy. This sounds strange as I write it, because this was a 4 hour ordeal, but it was an organized ordeal.
As a foreigner working here I must register with the regional immigration office before I can do such things as rent an apartment. So I head out at 9 am (when the office opens) looking for what I have been told is the Foreign Regional Registration Office. This may be its new name, but all of the signs and postings call it the Bureau of Immigration, Chennai, so this made it a little difficult to locate. That aside, once I found the place I was seated in a line of chairs and played musical chairs; as one person left we all slid down. I just felt happy to have a chair - next door at another government office people were lined up sweating in the heat and the sun!
After about an hour I made it out of the waiting room only to be placed in another waiting room. I was told I was going to see the assistant director, but no one told me where or when, but just told me to sit. At first there seemed to be a system, but I couldn't figure out what that was exactly. People gradually moved forward in the rows of chairs towards a woman manning a desk labeled "help desk". However, when I moved forward a gentleman told me to stay where I was. After about an hour and a half I finally figured out that myself and some other forlorn looking foreigners were waiting to be shifted down the hall. I thought to myself "excellent!"...as I was the next person to go.
So I get ushered out of the room only to be placed in another room where people were playing musical chairs around a small coffee table. The chairs were comfortable, so myself and some others took the opportunity to nap while we waited. After an hour I was finally told to go in to the Assistant Director's office...I had made it! Well...almost. I had to go back to the help desk and then to the processing center, but those were measly20 minute waits.
But here is the glimmer of hope... As I waited for my number to be called in the processing center I was talking to a British "chap" who was in India for a second 18 month contract (he said he was the only person in his Redding office that was crazy enough to go back to India :-). He said that when he was here a year ago there was none of this "musical chairs", but instead it was a free for all, shove your way up to the front, madness.
So yes, the process took half a day, but at least I didn't have to take out my deadly sharp elbows. Now that is improvement! It gives me hope that if there can be this kind of bureaucratic improvement that maybe, just maybe, there are other radical changes taking place throughout the Indian government. And THAT is good news. Now if only they could have more then one person process paperwork we might really be getting somewhere!
As a foreigner working here I must register with the regional immigration office before I can do such things as rent an apartment. So I head out at 9 am (when the office opens) looking for what I have been told is the Foreign Regional Registration Office. This may be its new name, but all of the signs and postings call it the Bureau of Immigration, Chennai, so this made it a little difficult to locate. That aside, once I found the place I was seated in a line of chairs and played musical chairs; as one person left we all slid down. I just felt happy to have a chair - next door at another government office people were lined up sweating in the heat and the sun!
After about an hour I made it out of the waiting room only to be placed in another waiting room. I was told I was going to see the assistant director, but no one told me where or when, but just told me to sit. At first there seemed to be a system, but I couldn't figure out what that was exactly. People gradually moved forward in the rows of chairs towards a woman manning a desk labeled "help desk". However, when I moved forward a gentleman told me to stay where I was. After about an hour and a half I finally figured out that myself and some other forlorn looking foreigners were waiting to be shifted down the hall. I thought to myself "excellent!"...as I was the next person to go.
So I get ushered out of the room only to be placed in another room where people were playing musical chairs around a small coffee table. The chairs were comfortable, so myself and some others took the opportunity to nap while we waited. After an hour I was finally told to go in to the Assistant Director's office...I had made it! Well...almost. I had to go back to the help desk and then to the processing center, but those were measly20 minute waits.
But here is the glimmer of hope... As I waited for my number to be called in the processing center I was talking to a British "chap" who was in India for a second 18 month contract (he said he was the only person in his Redding office that was crazy enough to go back to India :-). He said that when he was here a year ago there was none of this "musical chairs", but instead it was a free for all, shove your way up to the front, madness.
So yes, the process took half a day, but at least I didn't have to take out my deadly sharp elbows. Now that is improvement! It gives me hope that if there can be this kind of bureaucratic improvement that maybe, just maybe, there are other radical changes taking place throughout the Indian government. And THAT is good news. Now if only they could have more then one person process paperwork we might really be getting somewhere!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
First Day in India
Ahhhhh…blurb blrb. This is the sound of my brain trying to fight through jet lag to come up with some semblance of a proper sentence with the greater goal of making an interesting post which is seeming somewhat unattainable right now. Nonetheless I shall power through and hopefully won’t scare away my followers.
It is 3 am when I walk out of the airport into the balmy air. I thank god that it is early and that I still have time to get used to the humidity before the high temperatures at noon. I look at the expectant faces of people holding up signs for various visitors. My driver nods as I point to his sign and goes off to find his car. Two young men “help” me wait for him, but really want to get paid for touching my bags. I get whisked away by my driver through the mostly empty streets. There is the de rigueur honking that is accompanied by a flashing of the high beams.
My hotel room is fabulous. The Crescent Park Hotel in Nugambakkam (not to be confused with the Hotel Crescent Park) is wonderful. I have to find out how much my work is paying for this room. I get high speed internet and hot showers! Not to mention the A/C and TV. Luuuuxxxooorryy!
My big escapade for the day was a trip to Spencer’s Plaza. It is a bustling shopping mall with shop after shop of salwar kamis, kurtas and saris (Shelley – they had some salwars that they sold separately, however they had designs on them that I wasn’t too crazy about and they came with a duppatta – I am going to go to the major market tomorrow and hope I will have better luck there). There are also electronic stores and eateries (I had forgotten about the cookie place there). I just bought about 60 movies on 3 DVDs for about $12 (which I am sure was way over priced).
Okay, I feel I have done my “first day” duty and have managed to put a few words together. Hope all is well where ever this posting may find you!
It is 3 am when I walk out of the airport into the balmy air. I thank god that it is early and that I still have time to get used to the humidity before the high temperatures at noon. I look at the expectant faces of people holding up signs for various visitors. My driver nods as I point to his sign and goes off to find his car. Two young men “help” me wait for him, but really want to get paid for touching my bags. I get whisked away by my driver through the mostly empty streets. There is the de rigueur honking that is accompanied by a flashing of the high beams.
My hotel room is fabulous. The Crescent Park Hotel in Nugambakkam (not to be confused with the Hotel Crescent Park) is wonderful. I have to find out how much my work is paying for this room. I get high speed internet and hot showers! Not to mention the A/C and TV. Luuuuxxxooorryy!
My big escapade for the day was a trip to Spencer’s Plaza. It is a bustling shopping mall with shop after shop of salwar kamis, kurtas and saris (Shelley – they had some salwars that they sold separately, however they had designs on them that I wasn’t too crazy about and they came with a duppatta – I am going to go to the major market tomorrow and hope I will have better luck there). There are also electronic stores and eateries (I had forgotten about the cookie place there). I just bought about 60 movies on 3 DVDs for about $12 (which I am sure was way over priced).
Okay, I feel I have done my “first day” duty and have managed to put a few words together. Hope all is well where ever this posting may find you!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
India in a Week!
First off, I’d like to share a little bit about what takes me to India. I have been hired as a research assistant through Ideas42, a research institution out of Harvard. Ideas42 works with a research organization in India called IFMR, which I interned with during the summer of 2007. I interned with IFMR’s Center for Microfinance, but I will now be working for the Small Enterprise Finance Center (SEFC). The SEFC conducts research related to small and medium enterprise (SME) development. A lot of times this research takes on the form of an impact study of a particular financial product or service. SEFC helps financial institutions design the financial product to be tested and then does a formal impact analysis with a randomized treatment and control population.
Other than this, I really do not know what exactly I will be working on when I get to India. I don't even know where I will be living! I will start out in Chennai, which used to be called Madras, which lies in the South East in a state called Tamil Nadu.
My background is in microfinance, but I have a keen interested in SME development as well (this is originally what I thought I would specialize in when I started my master’s degree in 2006). What is interesting to me is the perceived gap in financing between microenterprises and large companies that is currently not being adequately addressed by the financial sector. Microenterprises are finding sources of capital thanks to the work of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Large companies have access to the traditional capital markets (though things aren’t looking so good these days). SMEs have a little more trouble as they need more money then MFIs can provide, but many times do not have the assets required by traditional lenders in order to guarantee a loan . With 24 million people employed in the SME sector in 2002 (sorry my stats are out of date) and $17 billion in output that year, India has an interest in seeing the success of this sector. But how can they facilitate growth while managing risk and not creating stifling bureaucracy? This is what my next year will be devoted to learning.
Other than this, I really do not know what exactly I will be working on when I get to India. I don't even know where I will be living! I will start out in Chennai, which used to be called Madras, which lies in the South East in a state called Tamil Nadu.
My background is in microfinance, but I have a keen interested in SME development as well (this is originally what I thought I would specialize in when I started my master’s degree in 2006). What is interesting to me is the perceived gap in financing between microenterprises and large companies that is currently not being adequately addressed by the financial sector. Microenterprises are finding sources of capital thanks to the work of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Large companies have access to the traditional capital markets (though things aren’t looking so good these days). SMEs have a little more trouble as they need more money then MFIs can provide, but many times do not have the assets required by traditional lenders in order to guarantee a loan . With 24 million people employed in the SME sector in 2002 (sorry my stats are out of date) and $17 billion in output that year, India has an interest in seeing the success of this sector. But how can they facilitate growth while managing risk and not creating stifling bureaucracy? This is what my next year will be devoted to learning.
Side Project – love those textiles!
I also have a bit of a side project that I am already excitedly preparing for. I am working with Shelley Muzzy to have a few clothing pieces created in India. Our hope is that we can set up a system to have things made and shipped to her lovely store, Bijoux, in Bellingham (http://www.bijouxtradingcompany.com/). My visions of grandeur have Shelley creating her amazing designs and me flying around the world to find ways to have them made from traditional fabrics and cooperatives (can we say Indonesia, Laos, Thailand as well?). I’d love to throw in some microfinance into the mix as well…if I am going to dream, I am going to dream big!! I am already mapping out the important markets and shops I will be mining for interesting fabrics in Chennai. Here is my map if anyone is interested in checking it out (there are loads of other goodies like restaurants in there).
Hopes and Expectations
My hopes for this trip are that I can bring something valuable to Ideas42/IFMR/SEFC (you’ll find that I may use these interchangeably) and that in turn this year is a year of pleasant growth for me with the excitement of exploring more of the country I was so fascinated with during my 2007 trip. I also anticipate the development of new colleagues and hopefully some life-long friends. Lastly, I hope to gain a new understanding of business in India both as an outsider and an insider (go textiles!).
Wow, that sounds so nice and neat. Okay, here are my actual expectations: That there will be frustrations with work, but I will try to deal with them with patience and understanding. That I will have a lot of alone time where I will be forced to discover new ways to entertain myself (without the aid of hulu :-) That I will get sick of the hustle and bustle of the city, but will escape to quieter and more calm sanctuaries like my apartment, an ashram, and the trail as I trek about with friends and (hopefully) family. That the heat will “get to me”, but that I will stake out all of the best A/C places in town. That I will discover that a year of curry is a lot of curry, but also find that my mad passion for curry knows no bounds. That I will get sick, but hopefully not too sick. That there will be times where I will wish to be anywhere but where I am and that hopefully a screening of Pride and Prejudice will successfully take me there. That the time will fly, but hopefully I will be able to appreciate it as it goes by.
Wow, that sounds so nice and neat. Okay, here are my actual expectations: That there will be frustrations with work, but I will try to deal with them with patience and understanding. That I will have a lot of alone time where I will be forced to discover new ways to entertain myself (without the aid of hulu :-) That I will get sick of the hustle and bustle of the city, but will escape to quieter and more calm sanctuaries like my apartment, an ashram, and the trail as I trek about with friends and (hopefully) family. That the heat will “get to me”, but that I will stake out all of the best A/C places in town. That I will discover that a year of curry is a lot of curry, but also find that my mad passion for curry knows no bounds. That I will get sick, but hopefully not too sick. That there will be times where I will wish to be anywhere but where I am and that hopefully a screening of Pride and Prejudice will successfully take me there. That the time will fly, but hopefully I will be able to appreciate it as it goes by.
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