Life has to be nourished.

Eat, shit, sleep. Its what we do, some even go say, "that's life in a nutshell". Although our lives are cyclically repetitive, things don't need to get mundane. Violet and i have, rather naturally, been exploring the awesome and diverse delicacies of India. Our food-quest approach is a healthy mix of exploring restaurants, state bhavan hopping (details on that soon), crashing weddings, braving street-food, and enjoying good old 'ghar ka khana' (home cooking).  As expected, our friend group is populated by wonderful people from different parts of the world and from the many regions of India  (did you know there are over 4,315 different communities here?!), so we have been tapping into their regional specialties as well. 

below are just a few of many snapshots to make you salivate. 

(Disclaimer: these photos may not be suitable for people bored at work, women pms-ing, or those with empty stomachs)

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Home cooked Bengali fish fry, sweet daal, and rice 

by our 'Bong' (Bengali) friend, Shankhayan: 

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Here in Delhi, good meals end in laughs and with mangoes for dessert.

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Eating 'meethai' (sweets) from a Panjabi wedding in Chandigarh.

 

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Crazy 'chef' at a Panjabi Dhaba, a road-side food hut that we stopped

at on the way from Delhi to Dharamshala.

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Enjoying kulfi, ice-cream-esque dessert, 

that was made frozen by plunging in a Himalayan glacial river. 

Bhagsu, Himachal Pradesh.

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Raghu oogling an amazing breakfast after a long 12 hour bus ride.

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Mangoes, delicious in places with sinks and floss; dangerous in places where you don't want to be a horrible sticky mess, aka: buses / desk at your office / nice sofa in the living room.

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South Indian Filter Coffee, 

directions: make cool by pouring taller metal cup contents 

into more bowl like vessel, repeat 3-4 times, enjoy.

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Violet making egg salad on Sunday morning, 

"there's no mayo...i guess i can make some.

.... that doesn't look like mayo."

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I was missing the sweet and tangy taste of East Coast summers, so I made a plum tart.

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A delicious and eathern Bengali dessert from 

'Little Bengal / East Pakistan Re-settlement Area / Chittaranjan Park'

Development: causing problems or fixing them?

Woman working in a medicinal plant nursery in Chhattisgarh, India.

On my visit to Chhattisgarh, people had warned me to be careful of the on-going tension between Maoists rebels and the Government. The 'Red Corridor' that stretches down eastern India is a high-risk area, especially for foreigners. Development in the forests and tribal lands of India has led to unjust displacement and destruction of India's natural environmental. Consequentially, tribal peoples have become polarized and extremist groups have formed. Just 4 days ago, 24 were killed in an attack on the state Congress party.

Within this context, projects such as those run by the UNDP in India, seek to address this tension by providing opportunities to marginalized groups, including women and unemployed youth.

However, we need to ask the question - are these schemes likely to ameliorate the problem as claimed, if other, destructive development problems (i.e. mining) continue unabated?


Check out this good documentary on Maoist 'revolution' in India: http://redantdream.com/

Boiling and Buzzing: summer life in Delhi

things are starting to really heat up here in delhi. working as a documentation and communication 'focal point' for the UNDP has taken me to some incredibly culturally and ecologically beautiful areas of remote India (see photos from Chhattisgarh below & this 'In the Spotlight' poster and project factsheet i made..wee!). I am throwing my heart into work my hardest for the next 1 and a half months until my contract sums up in July, and that means digging really hard for the stories, processes, and lessons of the Energy & Environment Unit's Medicinal Plant Project. Unfortunately, UNDP policy has (yet again) trumped the fun and now has a rule that restricts me from travelling - despite the fact that i am supposed to document good practices, etc, i cant go anywhere!

so, i'm bringing everyone from our project states, to me.
gotta work with what ya got.

but really, besides work bubbling up, the city is getting HOT. for environmental, philosophical, and logistical reasons, we are still not using the AC at night. despite the fan, our mattress is turning into a waterbed (sorry, but really, so much sweat!).

the heat makes those daily life jobs that degree (or 10 degrees), more difficult. i.e....
1. waking up in the morning?
2. or one step further.. how about, waking up early in the morning to wash all your clothes by hand in the poorly ventilated bathroom?
3. cooking of all the activities can now be marketed as a cleansing activity in terms of how much liquid loss and replenishing water drinking takes place. and everytime i eat something that has been cooked, i graciously acknowledge the toughness of the chef to stand over any flame - (and honestly try to accept that there is most likely a fair amount of sweat in whatever i'm eating,  main kya karuuuu?!)

but on the other hand, there's something great about it.
perhaps i just like being a roast potatoe.

in anycase, even if i love the heat, i've been craving mountain coolness. This afternoon, i'm going to catch a bus up to Dharamshala and dunk myself in the Himalayan hills.

no i dont have a ticket yet, yes i think it will be fine.

 raw chickpea, fluorescent and field fresh

 my colleague Nandini holding 'raw chickpea bush'

(they come in these little shells and you pop them open!)

a fifty-couple wedding was being sponsored by the ministry of Home and Rural Affairs to help reduce the immense costs that swamps poor families for ceremony arrangements.

Part of the celebrations obviously involve wining and dining. An incredibly sustainable set of cutlery will cater this party, plates and bowls made from stitched leaves.

'Mawa' as it is called in local Chhattisgarhi Hindi, is a small fruit that is a large component of non-timber forest produce (NTFP) income in Chhattisgarh. This fruit has a very rapid ripening time, and falls from trees for collection early in the day. By 1pm, it will ferment. 

In Batawa village, i had the privilege of drinking some 'mawa wine' that was made directly in the upper branches of the tree in a dried gourd vase - yummmmm.

( i dont know what to say, some of the houses in the villages of India are just stunning)

 sweetest lil pea! the kids, just like the grown-ups in these villages tend initially to be very shy. they go to school (as evidenced by boy in uniform behind), but often have never seen a foreign person. another important note about the uniform is that these are some of the poorest villages in all of India, where it is common for the school uniform to be the only clothing a child possesses.

 house, Jabarra Village, Chhattisgarh

 a very famous local healer, his moustache is also awesome.

ever see a cat drink from a tap?

ever see a cow drink from a spicket?

men of batawa village, chhattisgarh,

organised to discuss the collection of information for a 'People's Biodiversity Register' that safeguards traditional knowledge by acting as a record of local biodiversity, its uses, and cultural significance.

an extension of : chai-garam-chaiiiiii

we can confirm, the chai-walla has ulterior motives.

the tea in the office usually comes with a packet or two of sugar on the side. after my periodic refusal of chini (sugar) in my chai, a complete cultural taboo here in India even if you are diabetic,
.. annha-ji has  repeatedly, and secretly dosed my tea with sugar.

now, anyone who doesn't like sugar in their tea, knows what the hell tea with sugar tastes like! not to mention, if you are craving that morning cuppa and you get a sugar blast with your first sip, there is little remorse felt for the prankster.

while this situation is both trivial and supremely annoying, especially because then i need to re-order tea (which we pay for!), there is a touch of hilarity to it.

just try to imagine what a guilty pug looks like - stone cold expression with a twinkle of craftily suppressed trickery in its eyes.

goooooood morning UNDP India!

Too Personal a Post

.... nestled into a conversation about tapping into CSR for SEWA (violet), and developing a goal-oriented calender for good practice documentation (me) was this tangential gem:

 violet: PS Christened the work toilet, feeling pretty proud of myself, thought I'd share

 me:  comparable sharing: dont you just hate when you suddenly realise that YOU are the source of that frequent waft of BO smell?

 violet:  yes

 me:  not to mention you know that no matter if you wash your pits the stench is entrenched in your kurta's fabric and there is just no sensible way of site-specific,  micro-scale laundry at work.

 violet:  but don't you just love (this is another part of my everyday thing), when you are convinced it's you and then the smelly person gets off the metro and you realize it isn't?

but yeah

definitely an issue

chai-garam-chaiiiiii

So far, my internship with UNDP is going quite well. But other days, the work is slow moving as it climbs up, down, and around a bureaucratic jungle gym of supervisors, government stakeholders, and other partners. 

Today was one of those days. 

Luckily, even the stiffest of days can be busted by the king-fu-panda hilarity of the chai-walla, ‘Annha’. Our banter is ridiculous, and includes an assemblage of common hawker sounds, animal noises, and absolute nonsense.

Annha-ji is my height, 5 foot, but three times my size in diameter, although this weight is disproportionately concentrated around his stomach like a walking, upright bell curve. One of his most distinct features are his absolutely mad-dog eyes that have a pug-like way of pointing in two directions. Don’t be fooled though, his perception is acute, and it could be because of his natural bifocals that he gives the impression that he can see right through you. Annha has been working as a chai-walla in UNDP long enough for the oldest of staff members to fondly call him ‘beta’ (son), and he can carry more chais at one time than I can count.

At first, our relationship was tense. For a start, I don’t usually take sugar in my tea. This was pretty devastating for Annha, who immediately classified me as an alien after rejected his cup of: 50% sugar, 25% milk, 25% tea. Secondly, I am consistently inconsistent. I don’t  ever have any regular cup of tea, but one day might want a nimbu-walli chai (one with lemon, nimbu, instead of milk, doodh), or coffee, or even, and this really gets him wound up.. a sweet cup of tea.

Another thing is that Anna has always made jokes, but in the beginning of my internship here at UNDP, I had no idea what this mad-dog was talking about. Not only was my hindi pretty horrible, but he doesn’t speak in proper sentences. Now we have a healthy conversation that often goes something like:

Annha: ‘pesa de do!’ (give me money!)

Me: ‘nay paisa-walla, mujhe pesa de-do’ (no, rich-guy, you give ME money!)

Annha: ‘garam-garam chai piyo! Pesa de-do’ (drink hot hot chai! Give me money!)

Me: (rant about how I’m not earning any money, the chai in the office is expensive, and people on the street drink it cheaper) ending with a classic Indian-train breakfast-walla chant ‘breaaaaaaaad-butter cutlaaaaat’

And that brings us onto the last point of friction. I don’t think Anna was prepared to hear an American regularly cripping and gripping about the meager cost of a cup of tea. After explaining the T's & C's of my internship (Note: no remuneration will be given, no daily travel expenditure covered, no cost of lunch provided, and there should be no expectation of employment after this internship... please sign the dotted line..), I couldn't tell whether Annha thought the concept of an internship is horrifying or hilarious. In any case, while he still doesn't give me any chai for free, he certainly adds a real-life touch to a long day of 'typing-vyping' work, as my granny calls it.

love,

Anika Bahra

Communication and Documentation Focal Point

GoI-UNDP-GEF Medicinal Plant Project

Energy and Environment Unit

United Nations Development Programme

55, Lodhi Estate

New Delhi – 110 003, India

91 – 11 – 46532261

91 – 11 – 24627612 Fax

www.in.undp.org

well, life is as crazy and wonderful as the faces in the pictures above:

[little daughter of the chai wallla that was our morning dose of sugar, Udaipur]

[buggy-eyed-ganpati, Udaipur]

[tranquil as rosewater, Jaipur]

my world has been flipped on its head as my best friend from childhood has come to delhi (pow!!!)

moved out of my family's house, with more than a little resistance. 

fell into holi full force, still scratching residual pink pigment from my scalp.

literally zooming around india: 

overnight double-decker sleeper busses (watching the indian night sky sweep by: Udaipur --> Delhi); motorcycles (racing madly while laughing trying to catch the aforementioned bus);

cycle-wallas (getting caught in a mad down pour and having the cycle-walla thrust his cell phone into my hand for protection while laughing as loud as the lightning).

then there's working here, gaining insight and experience unmatched. a post on my recent field-visit to villages in Chhattisgarh to come soon...

mmm, speaking of work, thats the alarm in my head going off warning me about the one that will be ringing loudly in too few hours. bonne nuit for now!