patience

on friday night, we got back from our first site visit and some of us decided to meet downstairs to go check out the much talked about "madurai meenakshi cotton market." many people had mentioned how tailors located close by to the temple could replicate anything you gave them. (When I heard this, I imagined a quiet dirt path on the way to the temple that housed a wall of cotton, blowing in the wind. there would be several tailors, dressed in white shirts and pants (like men of my grandfather's time) ready to take measurements and sew beautiful outfits on their sewing machines that shined in the sun.) Sadly, this fantasy only held true in my head.

In any case, about ten of us decided to start walking from the Hotel Supreme to the Meenakshi Temple (where the cotton market was located). The streets of Madurai are packed with people, cars and animals. (I know, technically I described all of India.) However, the drivers are even more erratic and the streets are significantly more narrow. I imagine that the Madurai city planners did not intend for the masses of people that come on a daily basis to the temple. As we came to the first major intersection, most of the group was able to cross, but three of us got left behind because of a crazy motorcycle driver who nearly took of a few of my toes.

On our way, a gentleman randomly started chatting with us and then insisted that we go and see the golden view of the temple. He kept talking about how the tickets were free and that he didn't want any money, his dad worked for the temple and he was just promoting it because the view was just so beautiful. this scheme was presented to us all three days of our visit. we realized after a minute or so, that this man was entirely too excited about the temple view and was probably trying to make a few extra rupees.

anyway, we eventually made our way towards the meenakshi temple and then onto a road that paralleled it, lined with several street vendors. I asked a gentleman in the street if he knew where the cotton market was. He decided that he would lead me to a store that was not the cotton market, but instead, it was his boutique. He, like the other man, had noticed our group of tourists and decided to coerce us into buying things at his shop. I said that we were looking for the big cotton market and eventually the three of us found our way, to a big sprawling semi-outdoor bazaar. It was a lot more chaotic than I had envisioned and definitely less peaceful. (see first paragraph) I traversed the long aisles, that were lined with several tailors, small clothing shops and other knick knacks. The tailors, were mostly dressed in undershirts and dhothis (cloth that men in india wear fastened around the waist), sewing on their old steel machines. From every small booth people called "madam! sir! very nice cloth madam ...." It went on like that throughout the market. I had initially been excited about getting something made, but it was so chaotic and there were so many people trying to sell us stuff, so i eventually just lost interest.

it was definitely an interesting culture shock - i was having a much harder time dealing with all of the vendors and random people in the streets trying to become friend with us. my friends, on the other hand, who have traveled more than me were were used to being pestered by shopkeepers and the like and took things in stride. (Advice to anyone who comes to Madurai or any real touristy place in India, the situation is completely within your control, just as long as you realize that the people there are doing their job, you just have to keep up the bargain by doing yours....)

I am still learning that lesson..

site visits in madurai

Our first site visit was with an organization called Mahasemam Trust which is a microfinance organization headquartered in Madurai. When we arrived at their main office, Mahasemam's fundraising lead gave us an overview of their activities and initiatives. We learned that they recently converted from a self-help group model to a Grameen-group model, which has increased their repayment rates. Mahasemam also provides health insurance, access to hospitals as well as new initiatives in housing, infrastructure and sanitation. Once the general presentation was over, we were split into groups and driven to one of the central Madurai offices. We got a presentation on their new housing program and also got to see the organization's record keeping materials. We were shown large journals, receipt books and even the small passbooks that women used to track their loan repayments. Afterwards, a gentleman gave us a presentation on their housing initiative. They have built around 200 houses, that members of Mahasemam are then able to purchase. It seems like a really great opportunity for their members, especially those who have not yet had an opportunity to own their own home.

after the housing presentation we ate lunch and then we climbed back into our mini-buses and headed off to separate sites. our bus ended up at a local field office where several loan officers were working. the office was located in a semi-urban neighborhood and we were told that this office was around 10 kilometers from all of the groups. as we walked off the bus into the office, we saw a group of women, who we assumed were loan recipients. i was hoping that we would get to speak with these women at some point during the afternoon. we were shown to a room upstairs and as we walked into the second floor space several of the loan officers sprung into action to find seats for our large group of fifteen people. after a few minutes of sitting and waiting expectantly for what was going to happen next, mike, one of the interns, decided that it might be a good idea to try and chat with the women we had seen earlier. so, we asked the branch manager if it would be acceptable to chat with the women who we had seen and he obliged.

A small group of us walked downstairs as the branch manager bellowed to the women that were still around and asked where the rest of the women had gone. In a few minutes, the women, which were a group of 10 or so women, gathered at the steps of the branch office. the branch manager, in tamil explained that we were interested in asking the women some questions and asked if they would participate; the women agreed. I'm not sure how it all started, but i somehow found myself in the middle of a conversation with this group of women using my limited tamil. My fellow interns had several questions, as did i, so with the help of the branch manager, we were somehow able to have a conversation with these women. It was the first time I had ever acted as any kind of interpreter. it was also the first time i was forced to reach for words that I had only heard in passing by my parents or grandmother, but never included them in my own vocabulary. moreover, I was trying very hard to engage with the women but also was trying to ensure that all of the non-Tamil speakers were able to participate in the conversation as well. It was a really challenging but exhilarating situation.


The women, we eventually found out, were actually their to get their yearly loan disbursement, so we caught them on the right day. We asked them a lot of questions "is your life better after joining a group? what do you use the money for? have you utilized the health clinics? how many of you have children? how many of them are in school? what type of work do you do? do your husbands work?" and so on...

in general, it seems like having loans make life a little easier for the women. they said that they do utilize the health clinics and that they use the money for their home businesses and consumption smoothing. All of them had two children (at least), of which school-aged children were attending. Finally, the women did a range of work including sewing to making and selling pappadam (a crunchy south indian snack).

The best part about this exchange was that it was a very informal, conversational interaction. They were joking around and telling little stories and laughing a lot, which put everyone at ease. At one point, I had said something like "thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to talk with us." The one woman, who was the leader of the group and also quite a personality responded by saying something along the lines of "listen, i don't mind taking a break, we all don't mind stopping work, but we do mind if something cuts into our lunchtime." She proceeded to put her hand on her stomach and the entire group laughed. It clearly loses something in the language/social context translation, but nonetheless it was hilarious and a good ice breaking moment. (The woman I am referring to is the woman in the blue sari standing in the front left.)

A side note, this was the first of several exchanges where I went back and forth between the group of women and group of interns and a more authoritative figure, in this case, the branch manager, who often was translating my tamil into tamil that the women would understand. so it was sort of like cmf interns -> veena, veena -> branch manager, branch manager -> ladies, when my vocabulary just didn't include the tamil words necessary.

The women eventually left to get their loans and more importantly to get lunch :) Our group boarded a bus that dropped us off in another semi-urban neighborhood, where we were going to observe one of the monthly group meetings. We disembarked from the bus onto a street that was lined on both sides by houses and small shops. The neighborhood seemed The women were sitting facing the opposite direction. From the bus we could see that they were sitting in rows of five with their group members. All of the women had their Mahasemam sari on. The branch manager somehow decided that I would be the official interpreter for the day, and after the song was played and the meeting had come to a close, he asked me to begin the interview.

I began asking a similar set of questions, but this time the dynamic between the interns and the women was a lot more formal. They were sitting in rows, almost like it was school and listening to my questions and statements, but not really engaging in a conversation with me. The women said many of the similar things... "life was better, they appreciate Mahasemam..." and so on. However, it was a lot more difficult to have a conversation because of the environment. I will add pictures to demonstrate. I didn't feel right taking pictures at this place because I didn't have an opportunity to get to know the woman.

I should also mention at this point that the children and other people who were not involved in the group meeting had come out of their homes to observe what was transpiring in the street below. the little kids were walking by fascinated at all the different people sitting in their neighborhood. After the meeting, women came to talk to us, one woman asked me to tea, another asked if I could help her son find a job. I was sort of taken aback at the amount of responsibility or faith they had in me after talking with me for ten minutes.

We eventually left these women and got back on the bus and drove another fifteen minutes to another neighborhood. we found out later that the women had already conducted their meeting and had been waiting for us to show up. we walked down a road that had significantly dilapidated homes, piles of bricks and trash in the road. When we got off the bus, several of the children in the village began running towards us. They followed us as we walked with the branch manager to the site of the next group meeting. They were talking to all of the interns, practicing their English and asking all kinds of questions. Some of them were shy, some of them were bold, some of them were giggling every time we would respond to questions. We turned the corner and made our way down one more small path to a little clearing by a seemingly polluted pond, where another group of women sat waiting for us. These women did not have matching saris, and were a lot more boisterous; they were joking and laughing a lot more.

After the branch manage explained why we were there, he turned the "stage" over to me. At this point, we had been on our feet for hours, and everyone was tired. However, no one wanted to leave without making an effort to talk with these women. I asked a similar set of questions that I asked the first group of women. They responded in some similar ways. However, unlike the first group of women, these women were not running joint businesses. Most of them were involved in their own businesses. They seemed to be much bolder than the previous group and I think had more issues with microfinance because towards the end, the group leader seemed to be in a heated discussion about how she wish Mahasemam would provide more educational loans so the kids in the village had an opportunity to go to college. While they do provide educational loans, each loan cannot exceed 3000 rupees per school year and they can utilize this for up to two children. However, there are currently no opportunities for these women to use these loans for larger more long -term consumption like college.

as we left this group meeting, the women and children all came to shake my hand. at that moment, i felt so touched by everyone around me. i smiled at everyone, asked "eppidi irrikail" (how are you) to all of the people as I passed their homes and walked towards the bus. I was overwhelmed again, by the kids' enthusiasm, the warmth of the community and the patience of the group members, who had waited more than an hour for us to arrive.

as we got back on the bus, i sunk into the back row, covered in sweat and dust. i was happy, i was just where i wanted to be...

to madurai we go

as my last post left off, we were just getting ready to walk to the train station... a group of about twenty interns and RAs (research assistants) made our way to the chennai train station, which was just around the corner. we entered the through construction and droves of people and finally reached platform 4, where our train was waiting. i have to say that i was pretty nervous about 3rd class A/C, as it did not sound all that enticing. The only trains I have taken at home are local commuter trains and there was no such thing as third class. i later found out that 3rd class a/c could not have been nearly as bad as 8th class, which is how many there were on this particular train!

we got onto the train and it wasn't that bad at all. since we had such a large group, we fumbled around until everyone found a seat. the ticketing system in 3rd class isn't the greatest... you have a reserved spot, but you can't get an entire cabin area to yourself, so you will have 4 seats, and the other 3 or 4 might belong to complete strangers. it was funnier because we were a big group of foreigners... loud foreigners...

i ended up leaving the area where my backpack was parked and moved over to where more friends were and chatted with them for quite a while. at some point during the ride, we got shushed by the conductor and looked around to realize that most people around us had laid out their sheets and pillows and were ready for bed. indian trains do provide sheets, pillows and blankets for all of the a/c sleeper classes from what i understand.

for more information on the indian train system see this site: http://travelindependent.info/india_trains.htm (thanks jude!)

since none of us was interested in sleeping, we moved out into the cramped hallway where the bathrooms and sinks were located to chat. we carried on like this for almost a half hour. finally, the train staff got frustrated and asked us to move. we moved further into the train "hallway" until we found the repository for sheets and pillows. We sat by an open door chatting and watching the late night Tamil Nadu country side pass by. Eventually, the train staff tired of our presence in this area as well, and we all dispersed to go to bed. I made up the bottom row of the bunk with a sheet, threw on a sweatshirt and socks and laid down on with my hand bag just beyond my below. I was rather uncomfortable as the pillow I requested turned out to be a folded sheet in a small pillowcase. I'm not sure what it was, the steady hum of the train, the constant jostling of the train car, but I fell asleep. I woke up a few times to bravely defend my bag, but no one seemed interested in stealing my copy of freakonomics and set of energel pens.

I woke up around 6:30 the next morning to lots of activity. Some people were brushing their teeth, others were grabbing a coffee, while others were packing up items that they had used for their journey. I was afraid to use the train bathroom so many hours after I had boarded, but it was surprisingly clean. (My suggestion is to stick to the Indian toilet, much more sanitary and lower instance of germs.) Either way, travelers should make sure to take anti-bacterial hand gel or spray, because soap is not always available in public toilets.


I stood by the open doors and looked out at the Tamil Nadu country side, as we approached Madurai with 30 minutes to go. The scene was spectacular: palm trees, mountains in the distance, rice paddy fields all glistening under a golden warm sun. We finally pulled into Madurai train station at around 7:30 am.

The entire group walked to Hotel Supreme, located on a somewhat busy street in what I guess could be considered downtown Madurai. I met up with other interns and had a breakfast of poori masala, toast and jam, black tea and a fresh mango juice. (I got my 100 rupees worth on this on-call buffet!)

Once breakfast was over, we boarded two mini-buses and headed to our first visit at Mahasemam Trust.

training week 1

"total immersion" training started at the early hour of 10 am on monday june 4th. i walked into bhagirathi hall on the ifmr campus just a few minutes short of 10 am. the room was bustling with interns and research associates. i walked towards the right side of the room and met five or six interns. The morning wore on with a series of presentations (that were supposedly going to be short!) and then it was finally time for lunch. Twenty-five or more interns and groups of RAs lined up to catch autos to a nearby haunt, Sangeetha Vegetarian Restaurant. (For you travelers out there, this restaurant is located on Nungumbakkam High Road and is definitely a good spot for cheap but good food.)

We returned back to meet our first speaker, who was a professor from Chennai University. He gave us an overview of India's political/economic history.

The week went on like this, speakers and information sessions on the various institutes. There were also several skills workshops that covered things like how to conduct an interview and how to put together surveys. Overall, the sessions were interesting. However, some should definitely be curtailed to maintain the interns' attention in future training sessions.

One of the highlights of the week was a first trip to Spencer Mall. Being the first few days in town, all the interns were eager to find shops so that they could fill their closets with appropriate cultural garb and purchase cell phones. It was also the most entertaining option for a Wednesday evening. Of course, as soon as class was over, everyone went in ten different directions; some caught autos, others took a car and others (me) got left behind at the hostel unbeknownst to all groups. Not to be thwarted at a chance to reenter the mall, I quickly jumped in an auto and headed to meet up with the other interns. I had a feeling that most people would be in the food court area as it was nearing dinner time - and I was right. I caught up with Christian and Sibill and we eventually found our way to Sree's Sweet Shop. (I think I mentioned this in a previous post.) We ended up buying tons of different little sweets. By this time Ricardo and Suba had also joined us. After we feasted on some gorgeous looking sweets, we joined the others at the Spencer Mall international food court. It was interesting to see everything from Pizza Hut to a local version of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Of course, like in any place, the large group of non-Indians attracted a great deal of attention. Sibill and I ate at the place next door, I don't remember the name, but the chat was pretty good. I also had some toast with jam. For those of you who are first time visitors - jam in India is syrupy sweet and does not really taste like fruits. (not advised for jam-lovers...) we eventually hopped into autos and found our way home to rest before another rigorous day of training.

thursday was short ... we were getting ready to go to madurai..by overnight train. after classes we packed our bags and shamanthy and i hopped in an auto and met our fellow interns at the Hotel Pandian, where everyone else is staying... we all gathered our belongings, bought last minute things like water, biscuits and bananas from the local street vendors and headed to the egmore train station....

time for my first overnight train in india (since 1993!).... more on madurai later.

stares, stores and more

friday, i spent the morning trying to get my laptop fixed and then spent the rest of the day with family friends. i just spent the afternoon with them talking and catching up. i got back late and then spent the evening until i went to sleep back in the computer lab.

saturday was my first real day as a chennai explorer. i woke up and joined family friends on a visit to "globus" a fairly nice department store somewhere in central chennai. i ended up purchasing a few salvar kameeze separates that im hoping combined with my random kurthi tops will be enough indian clothes to get me through the summer. afterwards i went home, had lunch and then walked to the local spencer's grocery store in search of ice cream with shreeja, who is 8 years old. we couldn't find ice cream, but i was happy that i was able to find garnier fructis conditioner and other products that i had feared would not be available in chennai.

Later, I regressed back to my hostel, where my temporary roommates were planning on going on a shopping trip. So, of course, I skipped the reading and work I had to do and jumped in an auto with them. We stepped outside of the IFMR gates and walked down the street until we were able to flag down an auto. After bargaining for a few minutes, we got the price of 50 rupees, which was still over priced but better than other prices.

We sped past one very foul smelling river and traffic-packed intersections to our final destination: spencer mall.

We jumped out of the auto and into a multilevel shopping mall. I will say that I was impressed, because I didn't realize that Chennai had such a large mall. I know this is an ignorant assessment because the last time I spent more than 2 days in this city was almost 15 years ago. In any case, I walked by tons of retail stores including a bunch of American retailers like Guess, Florsheim and Giordano. The only reason i point them out was that the window displays in these stores were somewhat risque' as compared to the clothing styles of most people in Chennai, from what I have observed.

We stopped at regal shoes where I purchased a pair of over priced chapals (Hindi word for sandals). What struck me was the number of people available to help me find a shoe, select a shoe and try on a pair. Once i had purchased my chapals, we walked up to the food court. On our way we walked by an Australian bakery that was being manned by young men probably around the age of twenty. They gave us each a free cookie, hot from the oven; chocolate chip with sort of a coconut twist. Then we stopped by Sree's Sweet / Snack Shop. This is the kind of place you see in Edison, NJ, serving chat items and a range of home made sweets, the difference being that the food quality was really good. The counter service was also friendly and quick, which I really liked. (The woman manning the sweets counter allowed us to try two different kinds of sweets for free.) This is a good place for an unhealthy and tasty snack if you are in the neighborhood.

As we made our way to the door, I realized I had made a mistake and did not like my slippers. So, I went back to Regal Shoes to return the shoes. When I approached the manager he told me in no uncertain terms that I could not return items. His words were "I'm sorry madam, we do not return items only exchange." I was polite and let him know that I would be back when I had more time. (For you shoppers out there, just be warned that while stores can do refunds, they tell everyone that only exchanges are available.)
When I stepped back out into the central mall area, my roommates were gone. I looked around, walked through the door and asked one of the many store security guards milling around, but no one had seen them. I thought I would try to call them, when I realized that I didn't have my book of phone numbers. So, I roamed about trying to find them. As I traversed through the mall, I began to notice the overwhelming stares coming from families, groups of young teenage boys and less commonly from girls. Some of the groups of boys would not only stare but follow me around for a bit. I noticed that I was not the only person receiving such attention. Every Western tourist was being stared at in sheer fascination. I had not realized to the extent to which this cultural trait would be in existence. However, I will say that it did bother me because as a New Yorker, I am used to everyone minding their own business. What bothered me more was the sly under the breath comments that were uttered at everyone "different."

Later, after finding my roommates, we tried to catch a taxi outside of Spencer Mall at the main entrance at Mount Road. If you are ever in this area, it is heavily saturated with tourists which also means it is heavily overpriced. Every auto-karan (auto-guy) will charge exorbitant prices, so it is best to walk away from spencer's and catch an auto down the street. its frustrating and at times insulting the way you have to argue for a good price, especially when you get a mean guy who laughs and drives away. of course, its not really that bad if you compare the amount we would pay an nyc taxi cab driver. however, i think now i simply get a thrill out of arguing and yelling numbers out in tamil.

at this point, i am sort of weary of being a woman in chennai. i do not feel as free or confident as i would in new york. i will explore this in future posts.

beep beep

i awoke to a bumpy landing just after 8pm, as the plane touched down in chennai airport. i gathered my things and joined the line of passengers disembarking from the plane. i walked into the baggage claim area and waited anxiously for my bag. my mom had told me way too many stories about people rummaging through luggage. luckily, my luggage did not meet such a fate on this journey. i got my bags and then prepared to walk through the masses of drivers who would be holding signs for expectant passengers. i walked just outside of the doors and found a young boy holding a sign with my name on it. relief washed over me and i walked over and waited for him to go and collect his ambassador. (old school indian car.)

I hopped in the car and sat looking out the window at Chennai. My driver was a young boy who could not have been more than 19 or 20. It always makes me feel bad when someone who is a kid is working at 9pm at night doing something as laborious as driving around the city at odd hours. (though that can be said for many parts of the world.) in any case we sped down one very long road, that was packed with traffic. i was actually surprised at the traffic since it was 9pm and the last time i had come to chennai it had been relatively less trafficky. however, there were cars, motorbikes, lorries and of course autos - everywhere i looked. i also had forgotten how insane the traffic could be. people cutting one another off, driving so close to the next car that you could literally reach into someone's window and grab their purse if you were so inclined. however, no one india seems to view edgy behavior/ cutting people off as rude, it is just sort of part of the rhythm of the road. if you are a first time visitor, just trust that your driver does know what he's doing, even if it seems like he does not.

at times i thought i was going to be driven off to some far corner of tamil nadu, but as promised, my driver, after 40 minutes of intense driving, got me to the ifmr campus in nungumbakam. when i arrived, a security guard and another gentleman who ran the cantene were there to greet me. "Veena?" I was surprised, and happy to know that they had in fact heard of my arrival. The security guard helped me lug my bag up to the third floor. (He had a harder time picking it up than I did.) Also, he only bothered to help me after the cantene manager prompted him. After three long flights of stairs, we finally got upstairs, only to find that my roommates were not available. I ended up depositing my things in a neighbor's room and going to the computer lab. My roommates eventually made it home and I finally walked into a simple air conditioned room with three beds and a television that was blaring hindi. begin: life in india.

This is a picture of my hostel. I took this on Friday morning.

en route

i left my apartment at 5:45am on wednesday, checked into my flight and was flying across the atlantic ocean shortly after 8:00am. after a short layover in london, in the most gorgeous airport lounge i have seen (the virgin atlantic lounge) i hopped on a plane to delhi.

somewhere between watching 'stomp the yard' and eating spicy cashews, i fell asleep and awoke to find that we were just about to land. the journey was so long, that i had almost forgotten we were about to land in india, and that this was no short vacation. (of course it wasn't - i was arriving in the dead of summer!) I was hit with reality by way of a gust of hot air as I stepped onto the jetway and walked into the terminal. The heat was overwhelming; I was in India.

I moved quickly through customs and managed to finagle my way into the A/C lounge where I found the only other American in the airport. He was a businessman from Texas. He had a thick drawl and was visibly uncomfortable due to heat and whatever else. Dressed in a polo shirt, jeans and dress socks with penny loafers, he didn't exactly look prepared for the terrain. we rode the shuttle to the domestic terminals together and that was the last i saw of him. i think he was en route to bangalore.

in any case, i was minding my business on the airport bus (after the texan got off, i was the only one left) when the security guard who had been riding up front came to the passenger part of the bus and sat across the aisle from me. He immediately began to ask me questions, which got increasingly personal. "Where are you from?" "What are you doing in India?" "Are you married?" These questions, that were spoken in broken English were then followed by some highly inappropriate comments. "You are so beautiful and intelligent." " I am so glad to have met such a beautiful girl." Luckily, my stop came before the conversation could take any more awkward turns. Needless to say, this man, who was probably older than my father, did not have any sense of propriety.

I finally got to the ticket counter at Jet Airways to do an early check-in only to be laughed at by the counter staff because I had arrived 4 hours early. Of course, they did not know I had just stepped off a plane from New York. However, the little stub of a ticket I did have did allow me entrance into the Delhi terminal. Translation: A/C. I lugged my 50+ pound bag, my laptop bag and my northface backpack around the airport until I finally came upon a spot directly opposite to the revolving fan. I leaned my samsonite up against the pillar and plopped on top of it and took out a newsweek. Occasionally when my glance went above the top of the magazine, i would catch the unsubtle stares in my direction. at one point, an entire family, gestured at me and spoke softly in hindi. this type of exchange went on for 3 hours, as i quietly sat atop my suitcase and tried to read a book.

i eventually got to enter the boarding area and managed to find a real seat next to this woman who happened to be a professor at rider university. we chatted and she commented on the mass chaos in the airport. Then only did I realize that every flight being announce was backed up and there was no boarding procedure just droves of people fighting for a spot in line. my flight was of course delayed. by this point, i was exhausted, sweating because the large outside doors were allowing hot air... I couldn't understand why everything was so slow, so disorganized, especially compared to my last visit. (I suspect that summer time traffic had a lot to do with it.) Eventually however, my flight was announced, and I pushed past several people and boarded the bus that took us to Jet Airways. I was finally on my way to Chennai.