[Tessa] Week 1

 My name is Tessa Adzemovic and I am a junior studying Biochemistry and French. I arrived in Delhi late Tuesday night. I will be working for the Hope Project, an NGO in the Nizamuddin area of Delhi. It is divided into three parts: a health clinic, a school, and a microfinance program. Everyone has been extremely caring thus far and I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to be here!

A professor at the school of music at the University of Michigan sent me an e-mail with this advice regarding India about two weeks before my departure:

“You should be prepared to be utterly shocked.  I don't care what you've seen on this side of the world, if you grew up in E. Detroit or Harlem or Watts or Compton.  This shit is DEEP.  The abuse, neglect, poverty, corruption-that-causes-it.  It's just heart-wrenching.  Bless you for doing what you're doing.”

So far I have found this to be accurate. What I have seen in the last few days has been unbelievable. From a man covered with tennis-sized boils on the street to child slave labor, I am already shocked.

That being said, I am enjoying acclimating very much. I have already taken to wearing kurtis and eating with my hands. Everyone has been so generous with their time, energy, and laughter when it comes to supporting me.

Namasde from 110 degrees,

Tessa  

Rabia, Pre-Departure

After two and a half months of waiting, whining, calling Travisa Outsourcing, and wondering if every Indian person I saw in the supermarket had something against people of Pakistani Origin- my visa finally arrived in the mail! The funny part: the FedEx parcel sat on our counter for almost 7 hours before my mom opened it and started cheering in my face with excitement. I had avoided opening it because I figured, why do I need the disappointment of opening up a parcel (which cost over $30 to ship overnight) that will only bear my unstamped passport. But hey, I'll take it- maybe this happened for a reason.

So from that moment until now, my life has been a constant stress of "is this too heavy to pack in my suitcase?" and "maybe tickets will be cheaper on Wednesday, it IS the middle of the week.." But either way, I can still finally see the reality of my trip falling into place. All the paperwork, pricelining, and packing aside-- I'm ready, anxious, nervous, scared, and excited to finally meet my roommates in Delhi, the interns at my NGO- Maitri India, and Sonal Singh- the CEO of Maitri who has worked with me endlessly to plan this trip.

I read somewhere that "Jai Ho" means "may victory be yours-" and after two months of waiting for my visa, I finally feel like it is.

[Brad] Week 1

I am still in the first week of my time in India, and I must say, it is crazy here!  I have been fortunate to have a great contact, Bipin, at Armman, my NGO, who has helped me get used to life here.  My journey started when Bipin picked me up at the airport, which took way longer than it needed too because my suitcase took a long time to leave the airplane.  Thankfully, a room (with AC!) was waiting for me.  After a night of not sleeping, I was picked up at 10 am for breakfast and my first trip to the office.  Because I started on a Friday, I only had the chance to meet my co-workers and run some errands (like converting my US money and buying a ticket for a bus tour of the city on Saturday.  Unfortunately, the exchange rate is less for lower denomination bills, a lesson learned for next time!

Saturday was spent on an all day tour of Mumbai via bus.  We stopped at many attractions (some of them more tourist-y than I prefer).  I was amazed at the incredible size of this city.  I am far from the downtown area, so I cannot fully grasp just how big it is.  Also, the disparity here is simply incredible.  I saw a Rolls-Royce dealership and an incredible shopping mall despite being in a city with squatters.

As today is Sunday and Armman is closed, I am catching up with emails and hope to visit the nearby Catholic church in a few hours.  Looking forward to work tomorrow!

[Carrie] Week 4: Settling In

After 4 weeks in India, it feels like I finally have the hang of things- I've settled into an apartment, have a morning work-out routine, and have been able to have regular meetings about interesting topics related to BOP. It has been fascinating!

I don't know if I would say that things are progressing as I expected. The ways that people tackle BOP design and marketing is extremely unique to each market segment and fascinating in so many more aspects than I had really thought about before. There is so much that goes into every aspect that it seems at times that I would need a lifetime to understand everything. I wouldn't say that my project plans have changed since I've got here but my knowledge has definitely grown tremendously. One aspect that I've been thinking about recently and though I had a firm grasp on but really didn't was means of funding and money complications. . Some of the most interesting things I've been discussing recently is ability to pay, how to sell a product or service. It seems like in BOP so much focuses on money and that funding is such a huge driver in so many areas.  As a total there is a lot of money, because of the huge number of people, but tapping it is very difficult.

One interesting case study is with energy. It turns out that in rural villages that the main source of electricity is kerosene lamps- this is a huge expense and when the total money spent is added up, it is more than regular electricity would cost, more than solar, and just as a total, a significant investment for the village person. The huge advantage that is has is that the user can pay whenever they can- or not when they don't have the money. The regular payments of electricity are something they can't afford to do (even though they are cheaper- although extending the grid to the smaller villages is a cost that at least at this point electric companies won't do because the profit is not there). That same issue of regular payments is why a lot of companies have trouble operating in rural villages. One organization decided to tackle that problem by basing their business model for solar energy to mimic that of kerosene's. They a few payment options they are working with
1. pay as you go (utility bills) where the company owns the hardware (solar panels etc)
2. pay slowly off the cost of the initial set-up with irregular small payments until you eventually own the solar powered unit (and pay a regular maintenance fee throughout).
3. A combination of the two that works like a utility system but will allow the villager to eventually own the unit.

Embrace is also so driven by cost. They also want to sell to a village mother but don't seem to have a system completely worked out yet for their incubator that is heated with boiling water.They have been planning on a single-use product that they are selling for individual babies, but have had to recently think about buy-backs of different components, possibilities of renting (which actually turns out not to be wanted by the doctors), for a cost how long the device has to be operational for. It's been fascinating and the medical aspect adds a very interesting twist. I won't say more now- it's too much to write but ask me if you are interested or wait for my research paper!

Another interesting topic is micro-loans, and here is a perspective I had never considered before: With micro-loans I've always felt a little unsure about the ethics of the huge interest prices; however if you think about a lot of it, as a friend put it, the profit margin for the coconut seller on the side of the road is probably huge; however it is the scale that he is lacking in order to make enough money to be able to make investments. If you can increase his capacity to sell more coconuts, it is often easy for him to pay back even those high interest rates do to the steep increase in his income.

Anyways- a few examples of many. 

The classes I've taken - especially cross disciplinary classes in organizational studies and the business school, as well as the support and resources U of M have afforded me have given me a fantastic foundation and ability to talk intelligently on all these topics, but the longer I am here the more I realize I have to learn. I know that by the end of the summer I'll have built a strong structure of knowledge over that foundation. I can't wait to see what the next week will bring!

[Marisa] Pre-Departure

Hey there! My name is Marisa Perera and I traveling to Chennai, India in a little under two weeks. My trip to India is only possible due to anonymous funds provided to me by the Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) at the University of Michigan.

So, who am I? Well, here is a little information about me. I will be entering my senior year at the University of Michigan and completing my double concentration in Spanish and Psychology, and obtaining my B.A. by May 2013. Though I am of Sri Lankan descent, I have been fully raised as an American. However, my past three years as a student at the University of Michigan has opened my eyes to the diversity that fills not only my campus, but our world. After taking classes like cultural anthropology and Asian religions, I found myself subconsciously gravitating towards South Asian culture, yearning to learn more about the culture. In addition to learning about South Asian cultures, my other passion is clinical psychology. I will be attending a Master's program in psychology at the University of Michigan and plan to obtain my Ph.D in clinical psychology shortly thereafter. I am particularly interested in researching clinical issues in Asian populations. Thanks to UM's CSAS, I have been given the opportunity to tie my passions together and research mental health in India.

I will be volunteering at the Banyan in Chennai, India. The Banyan is a non-governmental organization that offers various types of mental health services to people with mental illness in Chennai. Their services include care for those individuals with mental illness as well as their families. Additionally, the Banyan has numerous programs to promote awareness and understanding of mental health within India.
Specifically, I will be working with the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM), an initiative of the Banyan that began in 2007. This academy has the purpose of researching, educating, and advocating mental health issues. I will be working closely with a team of BALM professionals to create and implement indicators of mental health status in Chennai. The BALM has asked me to begin creating ideas of potential indicators before arriving in Chennai. So far, I plan to visit the psychology/psychiatrist departments of nearby hospitals to gauge patients' knowledge of mental health, as well as to consider the opinions of mental health doctors and professionals involved in the mental health system in Chennai. Additionally, I plan to conduct an analysis of the Banyan's current programs offered to mentally ill individuals and their families, to assess for success rates. All in all, I plan to examine mental health in Chennai, for both individuals receiving care as well as individuals involved in the system.

India, I'm ready for you!

[Eric R] Week 5

Apologies for the late post! I was traveling from Bangalore to Delhi (Yesvantpur Junction to Hazrat Nizamuddin) this past weekend (Friday-Sunday), and have been recuperating from the journey ever since… This post will be all about my journey, because that is all I can focus on at this moment.

To say the journey was easy is an understatement. India has a very well-developed train reservation scheme, where a series of waitlisted and “reserved against cancellation” (RAC) tickets are granted before you receive a confirmed ticket. As the departure date draws nearer, you usually move farther and farther up the queue. I purchased my train ticket a month before departure and received a WL-28 ticket, which I was told was a near guarantee of a confirmed seat, in the 2^nd AC class (which is quite comfortable!).

I arrived at the train station at 8p for my 10p train, and was WL-6, but the seating chart still hadn’t been prepared. This was good news. In addition to the “General Quota” of tickets (which I had purchased), the railways have many other quotas, including “Ladies,” “Tatkal” ( “at once/immediate”), “Defense,” “Handicapped,” “Parliament House,” and still others. The result is that usually when charts are prepared, all of the empty seats from those quotas are filled by people on the General Quota waitlist. So being WL-6 with the charts not prepared was a good sign. I waited just over an hour, and saw a ticket teller (TT) posting seating charts on the sides of train cars. I rushed to the ticket counter to check if I had gotten lucky. She scribbled on my ticket and passed it back to me with a forlorn look on her face and a curt “no ticket.” WL-5. I had only moved up one place, and because I was still on the waitlist, I couldn’t board the train.

With not many other options, I joined the line at the unreserved ticket counter, and purchased an unreserved second class ticket for just over a tenth of the price of 2^nd AC. Below are the comments from www.seat61.com, the reputed global train-travel information website.

The efficient reservation system means that you can safely forget any pictures you've seen of overcrowded Indian trains with people on the roof or hanging on the side.  These these photos show suburban [local] trains, or basic unreserved 2nd Class on long distance ones [my new ticket choice].  On fast long-distance trains in AC1, AC2, AC3, or AC Chair Class, all passengers have an assigned seat or sleeping berth so there's no overcrowding … On the other hand, Sleeper Class [of which I was jealous] gets much grubbier than the AC classes and unreserved passengers can sometimes enter the coaches making it crowded [ha].  2nd class unreserved can be [read: is] incredibly crowded.  Toilets in sleeper class or basic non-AC 2nd Class seats can leave a lot to be desired...

I could not put it any better. I sat on the floor near the two Indian-style bathrooms, on top of my backpack with my knees tucked against my chest, for the majority of the 36-hour journey. Not only did I need to lean out of the way every time somebody came to use the toilets, but whenever the door opened I got a nice waft of the smell. Around me where other kids about my age, and we each took turns stretching out on top of each other to “sleep” in 1-hour shifts. I think I maybe dozed off once. The car was designed to seat about 80 people; there were easily 200. Towards the end of the trip (after Gwalior), a fair number of people disembarked and I managed to snag a bit of bench space for the last 5 hours of the trip. Again, I didn’t catch any sleep, but it was a blessing to stretch out my legs when I wanted.

Those around me spoke about as much English as I do Hindi, so there were many interesting “conversations” had. There was a long debate between them regarding who I resembled more: Harry Potter, or Spiderman.  I wasn’t wearing red, and I didn’t know how to ask which Spiderman I reminded them of. I’m not sure where that idea came from, but the camps were evenly divided. Everyone was fascinated by the US $1 I had with me, and everyone wanted a picture with me on their phones.

I am certainly checking this box off my bucket list, and can say that I’ve ridden in the lowest-of-lows when it comes to measures of comfort. I am lethargic, achy, congested, and just coming down with my first serious bout of stomach-bowl sickness. Yet, I am blessed to have witnessed my GSI’s wedding last week (graduate student instructor), satisfied that I made it to Narayana Hrudayalaya for my project, and excited to be in a new city.

I look forward to posting next about the developments that will come with this new week!

-ericr

[Brad] Week 0

Hello everyone! I am Brad and I will be traveling to Mumbai on Wednesday to complete a research project with Armman India. Some struggles obtaining a visa have kept me in the states later than I expected, but now my ticket's bought and my bags are (almost) packed. I am excited to share all of my experiences to come soon, but for now I wanted to write to say hello. See you soon, in India!