How to Drive without Brakes

Here in India, people don’t really believe in braking. The streets of Bangalore are like the racing video games I would play on Sega Genesis as a kid – my goal was to get through the course as fast as possible. I never quite got good enough to master the skill of braking…I preferred to wipe out. I was convinced it was faster. After all…why would anyone voluntarily slow down? If you hit a tree, scratch the bumper or take out a street lamp in the process…oh well. (Side note: Obviously I was never very good at those games.) In India, braking is more of a philosophy than a key element – it’s an optional strategy…just like the video games. It’s something you do if you want. If it’s not for you, no worries. You see…India doesn’t need brakes. They have something else – they have the horn.

I know what you’re thinking – I have a horn, too! I am sure, however, that you are not using it properly…at least according to Indian standards. Follow these simple principles and you, too, can drive without brakes!

1. Beep when you accelerate. Don’t just tap it, either. This is a minimum of a three-second beep. This lets others know you’re speeding up.
2. Beep when you’re slowing down. Again, just lay on the horn instead of pushing on the brakes. People will eventually move out of the way when you get close enough. Best strategy for this is to continually press on the horn until you can speed back up again – and don’t forget to beep to signal acceleration.
3. Beep your horn any time you approach a cross street. This allows potential traffic ready to pull out onto your road to hear you coming, so they can stay out of your way.
4. Beep when you want to turn left or right. This allows you to take intersections at full speed – no brakes needed here!
5. Beep when you’re on a crowded road to let others know you’re n a hurry – they might not realize how precious your time is and how little you enjoy sitting in traffic. To make sure they really get the idea, keep beeping until you can move again.
6. Beep when you’re driving down a big empty road – you wouldn’t want any dogs, people, other vehicles to think the entire road is empty. Give them fair warning you’re around!
7. Beep when there are pedestrians walking down the street. Sometimes people aren’t paying attention. You don’t want them to accidentally dart in front of you. Better let them know you’re passing by.

See how easy it is to drive brake-free?

Old Dog, New Tricks

When I was home for the holidays, I taught my friend’s four-year-old son the art of knock-knock jokes. It started here:

1: Knock-knock
2: Who’s there
1: Interrupting cow
2: Interrupting co–moo!! (said by person 1…interrupting #2! HA.)

This quickly devolved…with my encouragement…and among many, many others favorites included:

• interrupting starfish (open palm with five fingers interrupts you by suctioning itself to your face)
• interrupting jellyfish (interrupts by stinging you)
• interrupting pinching bug (guess what this one does…)

and then my personal favorite, invented by the four-year-old…the interrupting hug. So cute. Everyone always loves when cool Aunt Cindy comes to visit and teaches fun new tricks! 🙂

In India, I am constantly learning cool new tricks everyday. Some are novel, some are odd and almost all are completely out of left field. It would be so interesting to know how some of these originated. Below are some of the innovative tricks I’ve learned recently which actually make sense.

In Bangalore, there are a ton of street dogs – more than any other city in India. I noticed that about 90% of the time they are missing the tips of their ears. I thought it was really strange and cruel – why on earth would someone do that? I recently learned the answer – the ear tips are cut of dogs which have been spayed or neutered. Because there are so many street dogs, there are a number of programs working on “population control.” When the vet is driving down the street, he can tell which dogs need to be clipped with little more than a glance. Sure, you could argue is a little cruel (and you wouldn’t be wrong), but it is also pretty smart.

Indian food uses A LOT of onions – which I am a huge fan of. It never fails, however, that when I’m cooking I can’t get past onion number 1 without sobbing. Recently I was attempting to cook dinner with a friend, eyes full of tears, and she handed me her motorcycle helmet. I looked at her like she was crazy, like any normal person would do, until I tried it out. I’ll tell you what…it looked a little ridiculous but it worked wonders. Brilliant.

Did you know you can do more than make toast in a toaster? If you take a pop-up toaster and lay it on it’s side, you can put your desired sandwich fillings on top of each piece of bread and slide it in the toaster. When the time is up and it pops out…you have a home-made panini ready to be assembled 🙂

I guess you could call these Life Hacks – A La India

What Have You Invented Today?

I’ve spent the better part of this week researching products which could make your life better if you lived in an Indian slum. In the past, I’ve checked out different technological advances which are revolutionizing life in the developing world, like the cardboard bike and the machine which generates energy from human waste. The human mind is amazing. Maybe there are MORE inventions are coming out or I am just digging deeper; I’m not sure – but I was pretty impressed this week at the volume and variety of gadgets there are. Some are plain and practical, some are flashy, but all are amazing. Here are my favorites which I’d never heard of before, in no particular order.

1. Artificial Leaf – No particular order except for this one. This blew me away. It’s a small, silicon strip about the size of your thumb, dubbed the “artificial leaf,” and when you place this in water it generates electricity. In a few years, two bottles of water will be able to provide a home with 100W of electricity, 24 hours a day. Sound crazy? It kind of is. The silicon is coated in specific metals that when placed in a glass of water in sunlight, the artificial leaf separates the hydrogen
   and oxygen molecules within the water. Professor Daniel Nocera, a professor of energy at Harvard University has been working on the artificial leaf for years. The most recent version is able to be used with dirty water – the artificial leaf prevents bacteria from sticking to the surface. You could literally stick it in a puddle and generate fuel. Hydrogen is a very powerful fuel, but unfortunately his invention has outpaced the rest of the products in the world – everyday products are not set up to run on hydrogen gas. Nocera is advocating for technology which uses hydrogen instead of other fuels. I’m sure this is not the last time you will be hearing about this.
2. Soccket – I know I mentioned this briefly in my last post…but it is too good not to put in the list. Kick this soccer ball (dubbed “Soccket Ball”) around for 30 minutes and generate 3 hours of power. They also make a jump rope. I love that this combines renewable energy with exercise. Each one costs $99 – so not too applicable if you are living in poverty but it’s pretty cool all the same. 
3. Eliodomestico – Not only does this purify water but it converts salt
   water into freshwater as well – and it is not much more than a clay pot and plastic tank. It works by using the sunlight to heat the  dirty water, creating condensation which is collected in a bowl at the bottom. The bowl is even fashioned to be easily carried on your head, which is how most women living in villages carry heavy items.
4. Power Felt – This “fabric” collects body heat, or the heat emitted from any object and turns it into energy. In other words, add a little
   of this onto your iPhone case and charge your phone by sitting next to it. Mind blown.
5. Chulha Stove – This one isn’t too flashy, but it is exactly what I was looking for. People living in slums typically cook over open fires that they light with kerosene and burn inside their hut (called chulhas). Kerosene is terrible for the environment, but even worse for the lungs. There are several stoves that run on cleaner energy, but they’re all single-burner or quite pricey. When we tried these out in communities a few months back, no one wanted to invest so much money for a single-burner stove. Enter: the Chulha Stove! It uses wood, has two burners and has a little chimney to remove any smoke which is created. What’s even cooler? This product was designed by the international company Philips. They don’t sell them, but they put all of the specs online with step-by-step directions on how to build them. There are several retailers throughout India which sell the molds, or you can make your own. I love that they’re sharing ideas. I will likely be rolling up my sleeves, pouring some concrete and making one of my own to try out in the near future.

I hope you were as blown away by some of these as I was. Know of a cool inventions making the world a little better? Let me know!

That’s Not Even Spicy!

I love food. In fact, when I travel, it is one of the gauges I use to decide where to go. After living in Nicaragua (there’s a reason you don’t see any Nicaraguan restaurants anywhere) and then Kenya (same deal) I decided that I needed to use different criteria when choosing a destination. Indian food = amazing, and I’m not joking when I say it was a big part of my decision.

I am finally starting to learn how to cook, and last week I made my first attempt at a curry. My very honest taste testers declared that it was “A great first attempt, but missing coconut and a little too strong.” I’ll call that a success. My best dish so far: coconut chutney. I’ve got that one down.

There is a big difference in local foods depending on where you live in India. There are primary differences between the South and the North, but they vary from city to city as well. I’m no expert, but I know a few of the staple, southern dishes and I can tell you that southern foods are spicier and rice-based where as northern foods are creamier and wheat-based. They are all, however, fantastic. I would also like to proudly announce that my spice tolerance can stand on its own two feet here. I was quite worried about eating some mystery curry and not being able to handle the spice – you know, when your face gets all red and you start to cry. I can even take more spice than a few Indians, which everyone is always highly amused by. Win!

It took me a little while to even begin to get a grip on the cooking – normally if I eat a good Italian meal, or even Mexican food, I can taste the ingredients and then attempt to recreate. Indian spices are so foreign that I have no idea where the taste is coming from. So far,

1. I can identify coconut – I love coconut. Opening the coconut, however, is a skill I have yet to master. I always get the water all over the floor.
2. Even though everything is yellow and people seem to use a lot of turmeric powder, I use WAY too much turmeric powder. That’s kind of gross.
3. I also use way too much chili powder. And probably way too many spices in general. They’re just so colorful and so tasty!
4. I can’t yet taste the flavor of curry leaves, but they somehow make everything taste so much better. Do we have these in the US?
5. Dried coriander/coriander powder is really different than fresh coriander (cilantro) – learned that lesson the hard way.

People also have a really cute way of describing good food – they say “It’s yum!” Not yummy, just yum. And not just little kids, it is the equivalent of saying something is delicious or really good. That’s yum! I love it.

Chennai – Days 4 & 5

I spent both Thursday and Friday at the same distribution hub doing some assembly line-style work, making packages of uncooked food and then loading the thousands of sacks onto trucks. Nothing like six hours of some good old repetitive, monotonous tasks  to get the blood flowing – but hey, those packets of turmeric weren’t going to separate themselves.

I’m  so glad I came to Chennai, though, it was pretty cool to be part of such a large force of people, all trying to improve the lives’ of others. It was grassroots organizing at its finest, for sure – and there’s nothing I love more than a little organizing and activism. Everyone – from 6 year-olds to 80 year-olds was working together, side by side, to make a difference. And it was so refreshing to see everyone put aside politics and simply join forces for a common goal.  I love that stuff. In addition, I’ve been featured on 3 local news stations – everyone wants an interview with the white girl. I’m basically a celebrity.

Finally, thanks to those of you that donated on my fundraising page. There’s still a few days left if you still want to contribute – I’ve used the money that was donated to date ($265) to buy flip flops and mosquito repellent. These were two needs that were glaring and weren’t well-covered by other recovery teams (at least according to my observations). All of the standing water means that mosquitoes are absolutely everywhere…which means a rise in malaria and dengue. Also, during my time at the clinic I saw how many people were barefoot and coming in to get wounds treated on the bottoms of their feet. I purchased the products and left with a locally run NGO to distribute – there’s nothing that annoys me more than a foreigner coming in and throwing money and supplies around without knowledge of the area, language, slum culture, etc. It’s so much better to come from one local to another. In total, you guys helped me provide 250 pairs of flip flops and 1,000 mosquito coils. So awesome!! 🙂

I’ll spend my last day in Chennai visiting with friends and checking out the city, and then I will head back to Bangalore tonight – back to the real world. I’ve got some apartment searching to do, some job interviews to ace, some Kannada lessons to learn and some Christmas shopping which I can no longer put off. Oh…and since I’ve eaten my weight in dosa, chicken curry and ghee this week, I suppose some running is in order as well.

Check out some pics from my final days at the relief center below.

This main road is still under about 6 inches of water. This was taken on Friday.

This is one of the side roads in Kotturpuram, near the clinic. I snapped it from the window of my Uber on the way to the relief center. This was taken on Friday.

Packing boxes of oil, rice, spices, etc.

Once the materials above are sorted from the boxes and bagged up, they come sit, waiting to be delivered. I spent the entire day Friday moving the bags in a human chain into this room after they were packed.

Volunteers taking a break on the lawn and having some snacks (aka high school study hall).

Chennai – Day 3

Despite my promotion to “Doctor” yesterday (yes, I was prescribing and handing out medicine – apparently I’m qualified in India) I decided to go to a different gig today in Nungambakkam. Residents have transformed a wedding hall into a kitchen, packing and distribution center that is the largest source of both cooked and uncooked foods serving those affected by the floods. Hundreds of volunteers are cooking, prepping and delivering 30,000 cooked meals each day, in addition to 30,000 sacks of uncooked staples (rice, dal, spices, oil, etc.) which are packaged and delivered to needy communities. It’s a pretty impressive (and surprisingly well-organized) operation.

The majority of the volunteers are high school students. Schools in Chennai have been closed for the past month due to the rain. The nicer schools will open up in the next few weeks, but schools in slum areas have been turned into temporary housing, so it is unlikely that the students in these districts will return to class until the next academic year (which means April in India). Students eagerly came out to lend a hand and socialize with friends – it was pretty cool to see. The organizers did a good job keeping the kids engaged in monotonous, assembly-line tasks with their spontaneous drumming and dance performances, chants, and motivating announcements.

I spent most of the day working with an 11th grader named Anjana and her group of friends. Anjana is a pretty impressive young lady. She loved to tell me all about Chennai and its beauty and made me promise to come back when the city isn’t under water. “Chennai is the best city in the world,” she told me more than once, “I’m from Bangalore, so I should think Bangalore is best, but I like Chennai more. You won’t find better people anywhere.” Not only did she get up to come volunteer this morning, but she made all of her friends come as well. “This morning they all wanted to sleep…but it’s not fair that some people don’t even have a bed to sleep on right now. My friends are lazy. I went to their houses and woke them up and made them come.” She sees the world pretty clearly for a 16 year old. “In Chennai, we don’t need government. The government just makes things more complicated. People take care of each other here. In some ways, you could say some good came out of the flood because everyone came together and is helping each other. We will be back to normal in just one month because everyone is helping. You’ll see. Come back in January.” She told me we could go to the mall together. Ah…to be 16…

I’ve witnessed what Anjana told me so many times throughout the week. I’ve seen people stop their motorcycle to ask elderly people if they would like a ride. I’ve seen people buying food and medicine when someone requests, no questions asked. I’ve seen thousands of donated supplies coming in from across the country. Mostly, I’ve seen the initiative taken by everyday people on social media to actively seek out needs and to fill them. People scour Facebook and Twitter constantly to see who is asking for clothes, shoes, food, etc. and then deliver the requested items which they’ve either purchased themselves or gotten as a donation. Everyone is doing it. I’ve never seen anything like it – hashtags have literally changed lives. Anjana was spot-on when she said that the people were taking care of themselves…and it is pretty cool to see.

Check out some of my assembly line pics below. Day 4 tomorrow – I’m planning to go back to Nungambakkam with my high school buddies. Stay tuned!

One of the delivery trucks responsible for shipping out 150,000 cooked meals to those affected by flooding.

In this room, half of the volunteers made stacks of newspaper and butter paper (like wax paper) while the other half put rice on top and wrapped it up. All of the food is cooked on site.

People of all ages came out to help.

In another room, volunteers measured and packed up uncooked dal, rice, oil, spices, etc. to send out to people so they could cook at home if they’re able.

The items were placed in these blue bags and tied closed with twine. These women were the “tires” – as was I 🙂 Tie a bag, slide it down the line.

Uncooked supply bags tied and ready to be shipped out. This team doesn’t mess around – like I mentioned above, 30,000 are going out each day!

Chennai – Day 2

I wanted to set the scene a little better as to why and how the floods happened. Chennai is a city right on the sea (this was the view from Gayatri’s terrace this morning) and there are several rivers that run through the city and out to the ocean. The area I have been working, Kotturpuram, sits right on the banks of the Adyar river where there are a number of drainage reservoirs located. There are also three bridges, two of which were under construction.

According to the recommendations when the city was initially established, no one should have been allowed to construct within 80 meters from the edge of the river because it was labeled a “flood plain.” Somehow, however, the city government approved the purchase of land and the construction of houses as close as 30 meters from the water’s edge. Many of these homes belong to the upper-middle class and are quite beautiful and well-built. In addition, there are several slums set up along the riverbanks. Small dwellings constructed of palm leaves, tarps, branches, etc. fill up every available space and house entire communities. A single tent the size of a dining room table will house an average of 4-5 people. Hundreds of these were set up only meters from the water’s edge.

In the past 30 days, Chennai experienced 28 days of rain. Everything was already saturated river levels were pretty high. When the monsoon came last week, there was nowhere for all of the new water to go. Reservoirs were opened and immediately flooded. In addition, the two bridges in Kotturpuram which were under construction were weakened by the force of the water and collapsed…meaning people were trapped. When these two factors occurred, tent communities were washed away in a matter of minutes and the big houses suddenly found their ground floor under a few feet of water. The poor infrastructure of the city in general – inadequate drainage systems and clogged drain covers caused the floods to rapidly expand the entire city quickly found itself under water. Rain continued, waters rose and the rest is history.

Now that the flood waters have subsided questions have been raised – government officials asking why people built their homes so close to the river when this should have been prohibited and homeowners asking why the construction had been approved and signed off on by the government itself in the first place. Investigations will follow in the coming months as to what actually happened, though I doubt anyone will actually be held accountable.

Stay tuned for tomorrow – day 3, where I’ll talk about how India came together as a whole and why Chennai is so awesome. As promised, here are some photos from the past few days.

These two boys pose for the camera – they saw me surveying with my camera in hand and quickly got to action.

People start to make their way out into the streets as the waters receded in Kotturpuram

I am told that a few days ago water was over 5 feet high on this road. Waters receded enough overnight that by Monday morning it was passable.

 Just a few streets down, the neighbor had already been pumped out and trucks of volunteers were distributing goods.

Pumped out park. The water was higher than the fence two days ago. People took advantage of the much-needed sunshine and hung their clothes out to dry on the weathered fence.

These are the pumps being used to clear out the water.

This is the clinic I have been working at in Kotturpuram.

Chennai – Day 1

I took an overnight sleeper bus from Bangalore to Chennai on Sunday night and arrived bright and early on Monday morning. I was welcomed by Gayatri and her yellow lab Juno who graciously agreed to host me for the first few days. After settling in and having some breakfast, we went out to the neighborhood of Kotturpuram, which was one of the areas hit the hardest. Most of the water had receded last night at low tide, so the neighborhood was enjoying a few minutes of sunshine and trying to air out. Boats were (mostly) sitting on visible pavement and rag pickers were beginning to clear some of the bigger pieces of debris.

I knew social media was playing a huge role in the relief and rescue efforts, but I was able to immediately see first-hand just how much it helps. Facebook immediately knew that I was in Chennai and asked me to confirm my status to “safe” so everyone would know – pretty cool. Gayatri has been driving out with friends the past few days to deliver supplies to those in need. I am intrigued by the logistics of the entire effort, which it turns out, are almost 100% social media as well. Both she and her friend quickly scanned their Twitter and Facebook feeds to see who had posted using specific hashtags to request supplies. Someone had asked for blankets. We perused other forms of social media, found someone that had blankets, but the platform was so efficient that by the time we found a solution, someone else had already delivered the blankets and we were back to searching for new requests.

As we were walking around, we stumbled upon a makeshift clinic in need of volunteers. Bingo. I hung out there for most of the day doing basic triage and crowd control while Gayatri had some meetings. Two doctors got together to set up this street side clinic – they plan to run it 24/7 for the next week at least. They are set up to deal with all of your basic cold, flu, gastro issues, minor wounds, dehydration, etc. I was even interviewed by the local news station while I was there…though I forgot to ask which one. They interviewed the doctor and some of the local volunteers as well, but each time they asked me to sit next to the person being interviewed – got to have the white girl in the shot. I will head back to the clinic tomorrow as well.

I’ll talk about this more later in the week, but I want to mention now how awesome the people of Chennai are. I heard story after story of people helping one another. It is pretty awesome to see such compassion among such tragedy.

Stay tuned for Day 2 where I’ll explain why and how the flood actually happened, some photos of the areas hit the hardest and of course my daily adventures. Also, please consider to the relief efforts here.

 

Is It Because I’m White?

I love immersing myself in other cultures. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I love learning about foreign customs, traditions, foods, lifestyles, holidays, clothing, superstitions, etc. I also believe that everyone should spend some time in another country to experience what it is like to be on the outside – to be minority.

Have you ever been a minority? A woman in a room of all men? A black person in a room of all whites? A Christian in a room of all Muslims? An English speaker in a room of Chinese speakers? It’s a odd feeling. As a white person, being a racial minority in India has its own set of challenges, but in general they are pretty mild. I always wonder if the price someone tells me is accurate, or if it is doubled because I am white. Do I argue or do I accept? When my dance instructor suggests I join another class which has a performance at the end even though I am obviously the worst in the class I wonder if he is being nice or if  he wants a token white girl. Sometimes it makes me a little paranoid and I need to check myself from assuming everyone is out to scam me. About 50% of the time I am right – the auto rickshaw has a fast meter, or I know that bananas cost 20/kg and this guy is telling me 30. But the other 50% of the time I am paranoid for no reason. Always, though, I ask myself in the back of my mind “Is this because I am white?”

I know I am being a little dramatic. These are pretty mild problems compared to what others face – generally being white people assume positive things about me (note, not all true): I am rich, I am educated, I am skilled, and obviously being from the USA I know Obama personally. While the feminist and the activist in me gets annoyed about being put in a box, it is a totally different issue than being assumed to be poor, to be  a criminal or to be uneducated and unintelligent. So while I know I have it pretty good, it is still a very interesting perspective to have.  To realize that others question their every decision and the decisions of others. I wish more people who are used to being the majority would get to experience being the minority. Our world might be just a little kinder.