When Two Tylenol Won't Cut It

My introduction to Hubli has come with a bag of mixed emotions. In my short time here I've struggled to wrap my head around the sheer complexity of a culture so foreign to my own. In a place full of oxymorons, as one DF staffer referred to it, Hubli has certainly left me grappling to make sense of the dissonance around me. At one moment, it is an experience of unmatched excitement and intrigue, but at the next, it's stressful, anxiety-inducing and down-right befuddling.

I've had people out of the kindness of their heart offer me a ride across town in their car, while I can't seem to get a vacant auto to drive me 2km when offering to pay a 50% premium over the local rate.

People have taken me into their homes for a freshly cooked meal, emblematizing the mantra that "guests are god," and cooking with love and a sense of family, regardless of cultural differences, while restaurants engage in the bait-and-switch of menu pricing bleeding any goodwill or repeat patronage.

In business school, they stress how important India is becoming in the global economy. And when you meet with the business folks and NGO leaders you see why. These are brilliant, accomplished folks, some of the brightest I've met, with an unyielding passion and an unstoppable sense of mission and purpose. But you contrast that with the army of seven men who came into my bedroom to check if the water was working. SEVEN guys to turn on a faucet! Where's the business savvy in that?

My challenges with Hubli are part of the physical and mental adjustments of living in a new place. It's an exercise in patience, listening and understanding. While I have long way to go before I can get my finger on the pulse of my temporary new home, there are things that are unmistakably matters of fact:

• the food is amazingly good (and cheap)
• the mangos are heavenly (er, nirvanaly?)
• double yellow lines? where we're going, we don't need double yellow lines.
• nonprofit organizations from around the world could take a lesson from the ngos here
• government bureaucracy by comparison makes capitol hill look like a well oiled machine
• if there was an international staring competition, hubli would win hands down
• the rural village people are beyond gracious
• bellbottoms and jeans with 17 pockets are in fashion
• they don't dance in Hubli, they extreme-dance in Hubli
• on time? (favorite quote - "He'll be with you at 12."::"But sir, its already 12:20."::"Ma'am, this is India.")
  

My time here has been amazing, but not without its challenges. Sometimes I just want to pull my hair out. Sometimes I just want to pump my fist in anger. But sometimes, you just need to laugh and remember we're not in Kansas anymore.

-Jesse

Some Random Thoughts...

Now, I mean no disrespect when I write this.. but India can drive a person crazy. It is certainly a country of extremes; from the most minute detail to overwhelming stereotypes. For example, tastes and flavors... the sweets are pure sugar; the savory items, pure salt. The spice is legendary. The sounds...car horns, engines rumbling, trains, cows, birds, aunties yelling, all work together to form a cacophony of intense proportions. The disparity between the rich and poor can be seen in the hollow eyes of disabled beggars disregarded by the paunchy businesspeople of the burgeoning middle class. The gender roles are overtly apparent; women are portrayed as lustful, powerful objects in movies but cannot even sit among the men who drink in bars. At the very least, these establishments could broadcast sports (i.e. the World Cup games) in the “family sections,” where we lady-folk have to sit. But I digress... my point here is that actually getting work done in such an overwhelming environment is difficult. But, if you don’t take the time to consciously relax, breath, and laugh at the ridiculousness of your situation, you will certainly fall victim to stress and panic attacks. Maybe this is why India is the birthplace of meditation...

The sensory extremes and social contradictions are what make work here hilarious (or, if you haven’t meditated, extremely annoying). For example, we remarked at how this economy is one of the fastest growing in the world but still workers take 2 hour lunches, offices are inconsistently open, meetings are never on time, broken sidewalks show us glimpses of partially-open sewers, and the issue of open defecation has yet to be solved. I’m beginning to think that many problems we view as systemic are, in fact, policy issues. Perhaps not at the policy-making level, but more so at the implementation level. An office manager at the Block Education Office nervously laughed, smiled, and shrugged when we asked him where all the money allocated for the government schools goes; a subtle nod to some inconsistencies in the system.

Our first goal is to accurately document the biggest challenges faced by NGOs and local governments in this region. This is proving to be an interesting feat for our team. Although the need for development is greatly publicized, many people are reluctant to admit that there are serious issues and inconsistencies in the area. My take-away from all this is that it’s going to take some serious tenacity and digging on our part to unearth some of the root causes of the income gap, poor public education, inadequate access to healthcare, and lack of income-generating opportunities. True, we cannot expect to change the way social policy is shaped here... but we can work together to address issues that policy alone cannot resolve.

Here is a little test-video I made to practice editing... all the footage is from our flip-cams (graciously loaned out by the Stevens Institute). Apologies for the shaky video!

~ Saru

“T.I.I : This is India” - Discovering India

Mimicking the phrase “T.I.A: This is Africa” from the 2006 movie Blood Diamond, “T.I.I: This is India” was coined by former Global Impacters in order to describe the unfamiliar and sometimes bizarre things they saw or experienced while in India. Upon arriving to Chennai on May 27 (at 3am in the morning), I had my first “T.I.I” moment- before even stepping out of the airport!

I had just gotten off the plane, retrieved my luggage, and was heading for the exit door. As I stepped out, I was greeted by a sea of brown faces, all staring directly at me. I stood for a few really long seconds and took a left. Walking down the narrow pathway, I couldn’t help but notice EVERY single person looking at me, which made me even more uneasy. I continued walking and before I knew it, the hot and humid air of the night sky had already filled my lungs; I was in the street, alone, and in the dark. I didn’t know where to go, so I went back into the airport. I paced back and forth a few times and kept asking myself “What should I do? What should I do?” I really had no idea. I was supposed to meet two of my friends later that day, but didn’t have a cell phone to call them on or the address of the hotel we were planning to stay at. All I knew was that I didn’t want to roam too far from the airport, get lost, and miss my friends flights. Luckily, an English speaking Indian man saw me and offered to call me a taxi that could take me to Mount Heera, a nearby hotel (As I later learned, this would be a bad idea because the hotel that the taxi would take me to would have really high rates and would give the English speaking Indian man part of the profit- one that I’d be paying for). I was a bit hesitant, but felt like I had no other options at the moment, so I agreed. The taxi ride was less than 10 minutes, but seemed much longer than that. It was uncomfortably quiet inside. I didn’t say a word and the driver didn’t say a word- I just kept my eyes on the road.

India seemed a bit scary and chaotic from the safety of the car. I noticed three things as the driver navigated the unlit and bumpy streets of Chennai: 1) The amount of trash and debris that littered the city was very unwelcoming 2) Every corner seemed to have some type of animal on it, whether a dog, chicken, or cow 3) Even at 3am in the morning, men were walking the streets. I didn’t know where I was or what I had gotten myself into. I could only remember one thing- “This is India, this is India” as the taxi drove off into the night…

- Zlatan

Sketch of Mount Heera hotel room

First Week of Our Project

As expected, the progress of our project is slower than we would have liked but we are slowly making headway. We spent most of our week collecting electronic equipment and speaking with people from the Deshpande Foundation on the expected deliverable of this project. We have also developed a mock-up of our websites and came to a consensus of how we want proposals to be submitted and edited. One of the biggest challenges in developing our web platform was the structure of web site. We struggled with how open we should be in allowing for contribution, edits, and proposal. Initially, we wanted to model our website after Quirky with the idea that people can influence proposals. We were attracted to the Quirky model because it recognizes the contribution from other people though the structure (we know) would be challenging to implement. On the other end of the spectrum is the Wikipedia model which allows for a lot more freedom. Instead of adding comments and influencing the the proposals separately, the wiki model would allow for direct edits to the proposal. We also added tabs for history and discussion similar to Wikipedia.

The challenge of a very open platform is the management of the information. For the sake of sustainability, we wanted to limit the needs for oversight by the administrator. Ideally, we hope to have a critical mass of people and there would be individuals who would self-regulate the proposals' wikis. The crowdsourcing concept behind our web platform is very much centered on the goodwill of others. The intrinsic desire for people to help humanity in some way; that is a big assumption to make. I don't think there was any doubt that our project centered around the relationship between people as we are trying to bridge the gap between people with expertises and specialized knowledge and people who could leverage the knowledge. However, after this week, we are discovering a web of relationships we can utilize in our project. We are excited to have the opportunity to speak to NGOs, villagers, political leaders, community leaders, and even the media in gathering information for our project. It would an investigative journey that would lead to multiple 3-5 minutes videos that give context to the challenges faced by the Hubli-Dharwad region.

Settling in Hubli

Hubli is surprisingly developed in comparison to some of the places I traveled in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The main road is paved. There are occasional strips of sidewalks. There are actual bus stands with headcovers. Settling in Hubli was not difficult at all after two weeks of intense traveling. It was nice to put able to put down our heavy packs and unpack our clothes in the closets.

The three-day orientation was very rigorous and extremely helpful in becoming acclimated to the area. The site visits were definitely the highlights of the three days. I was extremely impressed the organizations and their missions. As Saru already mentioned in her blog, the organizations were creative in their solutions to social issues in this region. Also, we met with the founder of Deshpande Foundation. He was a kind man with a lot of knowledge of incubating knowledge and creating an environment to foster creative leadership and a heart of social entrepreneurship. To be able to meet the man to make it possible for us to pursue our projects in Hubli was a honor and we realized that we have an important responsibility to make sure our project is sustainable and impactful.

One of the most important aspects of this trip to India is to connect with the local community. I looked forward to staying in Hubli because I want to develop trust and rapport with the individuals with the closest knowledge to the pain points of this region. Also, the rapport allows me to feel closer to this country instead of simply being an outsider looking into a fishbowl. I felt like I am an active participant in this community. Sometimes when I wear my Indian clothes and eat Indian food, I just want to simply appreciate that I am in India and I have the opportunity to test out our crowdsourcing concept.

On the flip side, settling in Hubli has not been completely smooth sailing. Last night, I felt discriminated against for my gender for the first time. Although I have experienced gender differences in other countries, I have never been so blatantly disrespected. We went to the a local restaurant, Piccolo, as a group last night. All the male GIP-ers were sitting in one table and the girls were split into two other tables. We were sitting in the ladies & family section which was acceptable. We were told that it happens in India to keep women away from men who are drinking and smoking. I can accept that. But when the guys were served food and we were for over an hour, that is unacceptable. In the end, we left the restaurant without eating the food that never came and went to another restaurant. I understand that we need to adapt to the culture to gain trust and build rapport. However, there are certain instances when one should stand her ground and this was one of those occasion. I don't intend on pushing my feminist tendencies on other people. I have no objections to the traditional role of a woman; many women embraced that care giver role. However, I don't believe that I should "get used to" being treated as lesser-than men in this country.

India - Little Crises and Little Victories

I have been in India for over two weeks now. I arrived in Chennai International Airport, which was a disappointment, on May 24th then I flew to the Andaman Islands to complete my Advanced PADI Open Water certification. There was a great deal of anticipation and anxiety; I was in India by myself for three days. I was navigating through the Chennai airport and immediately had my personal space invaded while waiting in line to check in for my flight to Port Blair. It was India. After I completed my dive course, I returned to Chennai Airport to meet up with Zlatan and Candice, fellow Global Impact-ers. We were going to traveling South India to see the major sights before starting the program in Hubli. The picture above is one of us in the crowded unreserved section of the train from Pondicherry to Trichy. It was one of the rawest experience. People were piled up everywhere from the people lying and sitting on the ground to people up in the luggage racks.

Despite our crazy train ride, there was a silver lining. We were met with kindness on the train. A family helped put my giant backpacker backpack underneath their seats. Traveling through Tamil Nadu, I was treated with far more

kindness than any other countries I have ever been to. When we wandered around Madurai's bus stand looking for our bus to Kumily, a stranger came to helped us. He went out of his way to show us the correct bus and before we could thank him, he disappeared into the crowd of people and exhaust. We relied on the kindness of strangers everyday especially with the language barrier. Every small act of kindness whether it is a kind smile from a stranger on a bus or a wave from children draws me closer to India and the people here.

From Tamil Nadu, we entered Kerala, nicknamed God's Own Country for its beauty. In Kerala, we were brought closer to the locals when we did a village tour of the backwater. The humble home of Anthony reminded me of my grandmother's home in Hong Kong. It was a tattered little place before it was renovated. The progress of our children is built upon the hard work of our parents and grandparents. Anthony told us about his two daughters who were studying to be nurses and his son who is in university. In Kochi, I was speaking to a fisherman. He told me about his work and his family. The Chinese fishing nets were usually worked by six men. 30% of the profit goes to the owner of the fishing net and the remaining profit was shared among the six men. The average profit per day (of low season and high season) was 500 rupees; it is 25 rupees per person a day. It ended up being about $17 USD a month. It amazed me that a family can live on so little. I have been eating meals at the range of 40 rupees which is less than $1 USD. One meal for me was the daily income for a family. But I was torn when one of the workers asked for donation. I do not believe in donation in most circumstances because it is not a sustainable solution for the problem. I am interested in sustainable solution, not temporary solution to a perpetual challenge.

Being in India has been an incredibly humbling experience. It is so true about India -- it is a love/hate relationship. There have been some extreme lows and extreme highs during those two weeks. The most important thing to bring to India is a good sense of humor. Things will not go according plan. The only thing you can do is the Indian head wobble and say "This is India" and take a deep breath.

If you build it, will they come?

A friend recently asked how we intended to get people to contribute possible solutions on their own time and without compensation. Her question drives at the heart of our project and what we are trying to accomplish.

We can look to examples of crowdsourcing models and see compensation as a viable approach, a technique that was implemented by the winning team in the DARPA challenge to find 10 red balloons, but traditionally, crowdsourcing is done on the cheap, i.e. free. The quintessential example being Wikipedia, with its over 15 million articles in 270 languages, it has created a self-sustaining engine sustained by a groundswell of dedicated contributors, experts and gatekeepers of subjectivity.

But what is driving them? Dan Pink, in his 2009 Ted Talk, makes a compelling argument. Drawing on studies by Dan Ariely of MIT and further corroborating research, Pink demonstrates that higher reward systems actually have negative impacts on performance, especially when tasks require right-brain/creative involvement. When people are not inhibited by the pressure of performance, they are able to focus on their own autonomy, their own mastery of the subject matter and an ability to derive meaning from the work they achieve. Although compensation is thought to be king, creativity is driven by intrinsic motivators.

The project strives to tap into this energy that is innate in many of us, but is often clouded by the pressure to give, rather than the freedom to do. "If you build it, they will come," is a mantra I often think of when discussing this project. That doesn't mean people are going to be coming out of the woodwork, or cornfield, the moment we launch, but if we are able to provide an environment that empowers people to become master's of their own creative domain, getting people to come becomes a more attainable reality.

-Jesse

Getting Settled in Hubli

It's now day 3 of our stay in Hubli, Karnataka and the reality of the coming months has started to set in... in a good way. Acclimating to India this time around has been much easier; practically seamless. I used to feel overwhelmed by the cacophony of sounds, sights, smells and the sheer volume of people. Each time I have returned, I have felt increasingly comfortable... accepting that India truly is a culture of contradictions and beautiful commotion. Just getting to Hubli has proved this and it's been exciting throughout...even the 9 hour delay in the Delhi airport! I guess I can say that I feel a little more Indian these days.

After a few days of rest in Bombay (Mumbai), I met a group of my fellow GIP-ers waiting at the gate for our flight to Hubli. That's when the excitement really kicked in for me... seeing friendly faces and feeling the growing anticipation.

Hubli has been full of surprises and I'm slowly getting a sense of the city. Although it has the feel of a proper Indian city (black and yellow auto-rickshaws, taxis, honking lorries, cows, buffalos, etc all fighting for the right of way..) the surrounding area is surprisingly quiet and verdant. The bus rides to Dharwad and outside of the city have provided a small glimpse of the rural life that is so prevalent in this region. The transition to Hubli would have been impossible without the efforts of the Deshpande Foundation's incredible staff and fellows. They have provided (and continue to do so) everything needed to ensure a comfortable stay. Orientation was very well coordinated... we started our first day with a hearty South Indian breakfast (Idli and Sambar) and headed out to our first NGO site visits. Over the course of the orientation, we have had the opportunity to visit KHPT, an organization that provides medical, housing, and support services for sex workers and children affected by HIV/AIDS; Samarthanam, which provides job/life skills training for the differently abled population; Akshaya Patra, a very well-run organization that provides free, high-quality lunches for public school children; BAIF, an agriculture organization implementing agroforestry; and Agastya, a science education organization providing programs to underprivileged children.

These site visits have been incredible; we've received detailed explanations of the programs, tours, Q&A, and info on technical and management-related concerns. Most of all, the site visits have reinforced my excitement to get started on the project and work with people who do such powerful work.

We've also been having a good amount of fun.. just being in an environment with students from American and Indian universities has provided the framework for some legitimate humor. And, of course, today's scavenger hunt through the cities of Hubli and Dharwad with the social entrepreneurship fellows was highly entertaining. I never thought I'd be running through Indian streets with a bag full of bangles and sweets, desperately trying to find the closest coconut water stand.

So at this point, I think we're ready to get our hands dirty and start our projects with a real sense of comfort, knowing that we have strong resources and great people on our side. Stay tuned for pics and updates on the upcoming antics... we're just getting warmed up.

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