Moments

Sometimes I find it hard to believe I am in India. When exam stress is high and I am spending nights studying boring scripts, I could well be anywhere else in the world. That is why I like taking pictures. They show what I have long gotten used to. Single moments and impressions, may they be beautiful, interesting, shocking or just utterly strange. They catch what is going on around me, not letting loose even when daily routine comes out on top. I can well leave it to these pictures to tell the story. This time the story of historic Hampi and its people.

Timbaktu

Timbaktu is a 3-hour drive from Bangalore. Early Sunday morning we are sitting in a cab together with Prof. Sastry. Today we want to visit the small village in Andhra Pradesh that lives from the cultivation of groundnuts. It is a big day for the farmers, because they will inaugurate their first production building. Facing difficulties to make enough money for survival they have organized in form of a co-operative and together invested in the new building. Here they want to sort the groundnuts according to quality and later on  also further process them.

It is a success story. The non-governmental organization (NGO), which our professor has founded, has provided the farmers with a loan for the building. The farmers themselves had accumulated enough savings in order to buy the necessary land. If everything goes according to plan, the investment will pay off within two to three years and thereafter the farmers will enjoy greater income. With greater income will come higher security, less vulnerability to droughts or illness and better living conditions. If this project will turn out to be a success, the concept might be a role model for the fight against poverty in all of India.

The farmers have gathered to celebrate this important day that promises to improve life in Timbaktu and the surrounding villages. The village head enters accompanied by a priest. They have brought flowers and candles with which the machines are blessed. The priest walks around and mumbles verses in Sanskrit, the Latin of India. We then sit down in a circle and the project is discussed. Unfortunately the farmers talk in Telugu, so I can´t understand what is being talked of. But apparently there is much to discuss, the meeting lasts for almost two hours. As I get to know later, the details of the project were discussed. Which farmers are involved, how to deal with the limited availability of electricity, under what conditions to rent the facility to other farmers and how many sacks of groundnuts to process daily. With a round of tea and cookies the meeting is declared as closed. The farmers are in agreement and seem to be excited about the months and years to come.
It is experiences like this that I have come to India for.

Munnar Tea

Munnar is a small city at the heights of 2.400 meters in the Sahyadri Mountain range of Kerala. When our bus drives up the serpentines we are stunned by the color of this place. Green hills as far as we can see, tea plantations everywhere. Year around the tea is harvested by women which scramble up the hills and collect the leaves in bags. Their harvest is then weighed on the raodside and driven to the nearby tea factory where the leaves are oxidated and dried. Looking at the picture to the left, who would have thought that harvesting tea is such a strenuous process?  The city itself is bustling with life. Even though it is a small place also here rikshaws are omnipresent and give Munnar the hectic touch that is typical for Indian urban areas. Next time I boil water for a tea I will certainly think of this place.

Peaceful Kerala

Gliding through the endless channels of backwaters in Kerala, Southern India, one cannot but wonder how much closer it could get to paradise. Over the full length of 900km umpteen rivers wriggle through dense palm tree jungles. The  quiet scenery conveys an incredible atmosphere of peacefulness and yet at the same time the watersides are filled with life.   Locals take baths, wash their clothes, go fishing or collect coconuts. They have built their houses right next to the water, inbetween the palm trees, have opened up little shops or ayurvedic centers for the tourists passing by on their boats. All this is ten hours away from Bangalore, and yet a completely different world.

Discover the most fascinating waterworld on earth.
Visit: http://greatbackwaters.com/ and https://www.keralatourism.org/

Behind the Scenes

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.

Mysore

Behind the decision to go on exchange there is hardly a pure academic motivation. More likely it is all about travelling. About diving into a new culture, seeking the adventure, trying to understand the diversity of our planet or even the one of our inner selves. Especially if the destination is as far away and foreign as India certainly is. But campus life at IIMB took me by surprise. Sitting in the first lectures I realized that it would be a pity to completely neglect studying, which seemed tempting given the fact that none of the courses will count for my final grade. It is about more than grades. Studying in India implies taking a completely new perspective. A new perspective on business, economics and not least on life. There is a difference between studying the theory of microfinance and actually going out to visit the respective institutions. Also performing Yoga exercises in class is unlike anything I have done before. Nevertheless, whenever studying threatens to become daily routine, we make sure to leave campus and explore the exciting world around. This weekend the destination was Mysore, after Bangalore the second largest city in the state of Karnataka. The pictures show the richly ornated towers of different Hindu temples and the tiger statue infront Mysore´s palace. Especially fascinating are the rituals inside the temples. Hundrets of visitors at a time push through the small rooms in order to catch blessings from one of the many priests standing in shady corners. They bring flowers or pay coins to the Gods. And there are many of them. Hinduism knows more than 300 million different Gods, each with a distinct story. But more about Hinduism at a later point.

Campus Life

It is the kind of place archaeologists would get very excited about. Bare stone walls, columns, narrow passages and wide spaces. If Bangalore should ever happen to get deserted, IIMB would remain as a monstrous palace of cement and stone, a place for future tourists to walk through and wonder how past generations used to live and work. But today the campus is very much alive. Within the stone walls some of the most renowned professors of India give lectures to 725 students. For everyone aspiring a career in business getting into this school is both the ultimate goal and a nearly impossible undertaking. Each year the school receives up to 280.000 applications so that 380 students compete for one seat. The lucky ones have two years of intense studying ahead of them and not a single one will leave the campus without a job-offer. It is a straighforward calculation: Take a loan for the tuition fees, study hard and become part of the country´s elite. The first words of our welcome speech are telling: "We are not a ceremonial institution, we like the functional approach. Therefore we are only here to provide you with the necessary information." But that is just one part of the truth. The other part are the students. Those crazy Indians which I have only just begun to understand. They seem to never sleep, have group meetings in the middle of the night or party and play loud music whenever they like. They know very well how to make the best out of their time during the short semesters.

And than there is the exchange crowd! 75 in total, mostly French or German, but also Belgian, Italian or American. Even the Scandinavian states have sent some lost delegates.

We live on campus in hostel blocks among the local students. By now most of us have gotten accostumed to the small stone rooms, which at first sight rather evoked the association with (luxurious) prison cells. Living on campus among the other students means forgetting about old sleeping habits. Events take place whenever there is time, prefferably at night. Free food is served at least four times a day and little shops are open around the clock. If you feel like having a cheese sandwich or a cone of ice cream at 3am you might need to wake up the shop keeper but you are sure to get what you asked for. How people here manage to give up every distinction between day and night and still attend all lectures, I have not yet figured out. All I know is that I need some sleep now. It is going to be a great semester!

At a First Touch

The streets of Bangalore. A semi-     organized chaos of traffic, people     and animals. Shops are everywhere,     glass-towers of multinationals stand     next to slums. Simply impressive.

The IIMB campus is south of town. A Riksha ride     takes up to 45 minutes for 8km through the crazy     traffic. Accidents supposedly happen, though I have     not seen any myself.

The atmosphere is hectic, people are hurried by the traffic which is everywhere. But amidst all this you meet the friendliest people who never forget a happy smile.