   |   |
They are invisible. In the background, quietly working, probably more dutifully than any of us has ever worked. The IIMB campus would not be the same without its countless staff tirelessly ensuring that everything goes according to plan.
Up on the second floor in a small corner a man hits the pedal of his mechanical script-binder. Meanwhile his colleague patiently turns roti (typical Indian bread) over an open flame to serve us students for lunch. Up to twenty women at a time move centimeter for centimeter across the cricket field. Their job is to gather the newly cut grass and they only take breaks when students come to do sports. Also without the ubiquitous security guards campus life would not be possible. They guard the main gate, roam through empty corridors and protect the construction sites. Here, small teams of workers slowly but steadily create new rooms and hostel blocks.
And there are many more of them. Delivering the daily newspaper ( 2 Eurocent), selling sandwiches, cleaning, making photocopies, cutting hair (80 Eurocent) or doing your laundry. Labour in India is cheap, maybe a little too cheap. As omnipresent as these people are as little does one take notice. Most of them work quietly, because they are either not supposed to make contact with students or they don´t speak English. Only on the rare occassion of a direct encounter a whole new world opens up. Happily they pose for a picture and are eager to get to know more about you and the world you are coming from. It is not a secret that there are divisions in the Indian society, but it is shocking how easy it is to get used to them, to accept them without a second thought.
The little fellow on the picture to the right is not a member of staff, by the way. He rather seems to be complaining about the food he gets for lunch in the canteen.  |   |