The Traffic Metaphor?

Everybody knows the terrible situation of traffic in India, if they do not call it fantastic.

Even Indians themselves admit the traffic chaos.

When I was first in traffic on the bus, I was surprised that everybody ignored the lines, as well as the vehicles nearby - they did whatever they wanted to perform on the road. The white lines became a mere decoration, making the road look modern. Everyone on the road competed with each other to get ahead. I saw motorists driving extremely close to our bus, and I felt that I could reach them without effort.
You see, it is chaotic because there are no rules on the road.

I cannot imagine how I could survive in traffic like this if I would drive the vehicle. Dr. Alvey said that Indians seem to have some sort of eye contact or other metaphoric ways to interact in traffic. Then they are able to stay safe in a traffic, which seems to be ridiculous to outsiders. That sounds mystical. But this statement seems to have reflected the complicated interpersonal relationships in collective India, which creates cultural barriers. I believe that rules are very important to keep everything in order, while Indians view it totally different – no “static” rules can work well in a dynamic world. That results in Indians’ ignorance to rules when they are indoctrinated to make judgments based on the current situation and interaction with the surroundings. This is quite complicated (to the outsiders), but is also as simple (for those who grew up in the culture) as the air they breathe everyday. According to the Traffic Metaphor, Indians believe that there is always a way. In other words, no rule is a rule because everybody believes so.

Then the traffic metaphor mentioned in the book makes sense to me. The chaotic traffic exists and works surprisingly well in the context – it is a reflection of the culture.

Want to survive in India? Begin in traffic.



P.S.
The photo above is from Don, and was taken in the bus.

Video was taken in Delhi old town when we were riding a three wheeler.

India and China

When I first arrived at Delhi, I was surprised by what I saw, especially the street scene on the way to our hotel. It was the start of the collapse of my impression, or rather my expectation of India. Every time when I heard about India, it was mentioned on par with China as the biggest two emerging markets in the world. That gave me an impression that the development in India was not too far behind China, at least to a fair extent. And when it comes to Delhi, I expected to see a city that was well developed - however, I could not deny my disappointment.

I was fully aware that there was always somewhere that would be below my expectation, but that should have not been nearly everything I saw such as the poor buildings, as well as the poor construction of sidewalks. I could hardly imagine the community for India Air Force in the capital city of a country being so poor – my dorm in a small town of China was much better 10 years ago.

The more I observed what was going on, the more questions that came out. The population of India is almost the same as that of China, but I do not know why I did not see as many tall buildings (with 6+ stories) as those in China, especially in a big metro as Delhi. Let alone the quality of the construction, I cannot understand why the number of the buildings seems to be a lot smaller, even not reach half of that in China, while there are a great number of people everywhere. Where do the people live? According to what we have read about India extended families, the best guess could be that there are way more extended families that live in a same household in India, and the per capital living area is much smaller.

If this is the case, the situation in Delhi would be quite distinct from that in Beijing, the political capital of China. And the two photos of city scenes above seem to further support my impression about Delhi from Beijing. In my opinion, rather than a capital city in a promising economy, most of the times, Delhi looks like a big town.

When my brain did the comparison automatically, I could not help thinking about some major themes in the book, We Are Like That Only. It attributes the promising future of India partially to its democratic political structure when compared to China, which is led by a communist party. It argues that due to the democracy, though now India is falling behind China in economic development such as GDP, there is no doubt that India will catch up and keep growing slowly but firmly in next a few decades. Though it is not directly pointed out in the book that China might slow down and may have problems in maintaining long-term growth rate and social stability, it made me feel that way.

I agree that a democratic system has many advantages over a socialist one to some extent. Though what I have seen is just a tip of the iceberg, I still would like to work on a bit about this argument based on what I know. Grown up in a socialist society, sometimes I may complain about the unfair things happened in the society due to the one-party-dominate political situation. But with the comparison of the current situation in China and India, I think the somewhat arbitrary (I do not know whether it is the right word) system is more effective and efficient at an early phase of development. Since there is no need to reach a consensus for every issue, either big or small, in a socialist system, what needs to be done can be approved quickly and executed immediately. Different from the "mature" western democracy, the Indian traditions, including the custom of corruption, as well as the preference for doing things slowly, have created barriers for creating and maintaining an effective democratic system. Those negative aspects in Indian society do drag the pace of economic development. That might partially explain the poor infrastructure in Delhi, the capital city of the country. (In my opinion, because of the functional importance of a capital city to a state, that city will be allocated with more government funds and other resources to make sure it can fulfill the political and economic function.)

When it comes to long-term viability, I do not think socialist government necessarily would face more problems than a democratic one, because of the ever-changing nature of the world. For example, socialist system in China has incorporated some democratic attributes, as well as the market economy. And in the information age, the government is able to and needs to adjust its structure as well as the way of doing things so that it can maintain its governing status.

Anyway, I do not foresee any big slump in next several decades for China. Considering China’s development over India and the current negative aspects in Indian governing system, it still would be a long time for India to catch up – in case that the democratic system exceeds in the long run.
Let's keep an eye on them.



P.S.
Both photos above are from internet. The first one is Beijing, and the second is city scene of part of Delhi.
Video was taken in Delhi old town when we were riding a three wheeler.

From the interesting image of McDonalds in India

Learnt from the trip to W+K, many Indians perceived McDonalds as a fast food chain from China. That was a really interesting and surprising discovery because fast food symbolizes western modern culture. If my memory is correct, what led to the weird impression is one product McDonalds offered in India - noodles.

That problem might have risen from the process of customization to that market. McDonalds has done a good job in customizing in international markets, including the Indian market. For example, it customized the menu with big changes of incorporating Veg solutions and replacing the whole beef lines with chicken products. This greatly caters to the specific Indian market needs that 1) beef is not widely accepted due to the sacred position of cattle, and 2) the large proportion of vegetarians. However, noodles, which might not have been in the core menu, led to the ill-perception.

Though someone may argue that the perceived origin is not important, this does alert us to the fact that even the most trivial and seemingly irrelevant things in marketing practice would lead to some strange and unfavorable results. When considering that fast food represents the western spirit, I am wondering how the noodles situation led Indians to come up with that impression. Does the nature of fragmented India lead the natives to being more detail-oriented? I do not think if it happens in other Asian countries, the same customization will result in the same impression.

Now noodles have been removed from McDonald’s menu, and the reason and mechanism behind it is a mystery. But that does remind me of the fact that I have to always keep in mind: you can never fully understand your customers, and every subtle thing makes a big change.

Sari

A nation that is proud of its heritage.

A country in which everybody is a recognized individual.

I know I have kept on talking about customization, but that was what I learnt from the book, We Are Like That Only. The book is about understanding the consumer India, focusing on conveying the idea that there is never enough attention paid to the distinctions of every fragment of the market. This emphasis has reflected one major characteristic that is shared by the entire Indian culture, in which a great number of distinct groups coexist peacefully. That is, the pursuit of recognition. The strong desire for recognition might be due to the collective nature of this culture where people stay together more often and its people place greater value on others' opinions, when compared to an individualist society. This pursuit is manifested in Indians’ everyday life.

Take Sari as an example. When I was trying to find a duplicate for a piece of sari fabric, every seller told me it is extremely hard, if not impossible. The "artists" (from the word, you can tell their high respect for handcraftmanship) create only one set of sari fabric at one time. Even though they may produce another one with the same pattern, they can never get an exact copy of the previous one due to the nature of handcraftmanship. Human beings can never do exact copying, let alone the complicated process of making the fine sari. The complicated decoration and dye during the process, rules out the possibility of machine production of sari. This led to the uniqueness of sari.

Behind the sari-must-have mindset is differentiation that is needed for being recognized in crowd. A Sari is some sort of means to differentiate one from another. The more, the better sari you have, indicates a higher status because you have more only-for-you to show your distinctiveness. As reflected in We Are Like That Only, Indians need something made only for them. This can also be used to describe individuals in Indian society. There are many ways to achieve the goal of getting recognized in India. I think the highly valued handcraftmanship is a good manifestation of the pursuit in India culture. Those means help an individual (in the sari case, a female) to be more easily, and frequently recognized by their surroundings. That also indicates the necessary of the consideration of special context. For example, if not in India, wearing a sari might not be a positive recognition, because it does not have the symbolic meaning of that in India. That is why I did not get one even though I was dying to own one, if not more - there are hardly any appropriate occasions for me to wear one when I got out of India.

From elephant ride

Fun on an elephant today.

I had been excited since I opened my eyes in black because I had been looking forward to the elephant ride day for so long.

From childhood, I have read many stories about elephant, and watched cartoons and programs featured with elephants. However, the visual familiarity as well as the strong terrible smell did not weaken my enthusiasm when I stood in the elephant station looking up at those elephants.

They were beautiful, strong, and peaceful. I did not know why I came up with the feeling of peace when I was in a state of excitement, in an environment that you could never call it pleasant. But I felt that way. Everyone was talking, and I could hear the sounds from the road - it was noisy in the station, but nobody was bothered by that. They looked like they were enjoying their leisure time when they were actually doing their work to live a life. Indians are never in a hurry – this may have something to do with their optimistic belief that there is always a way. Sounds like elephant, they usually move slowly and are tame, but you can never ignore their power – they were horrifying weapons in war.

This led me to think about the female in India. As a daughter, she is discriminated from her birth, and thus obedience is a highly valued virtue for a good female. But when she becomes a mother, she gains an overwhelming power that is almost unlimited. And the interesting transition of roles is mainly reflected in the interactive dynamics between female and male. She is the burdensome liability of the original family, then incurs abuse from her husband and his family when entering another life stage. Only until she has a boy baby, her situation totally changed - her position skyrockets, her power explodes. As revealed in "Mere paas ma hai," the mother represents the source of everything to the Indian imagination. Meanwhile, the mother is still the wife and daughter. It seems so hard to resist the temptation of abusing the sudden gift when the female have been so depressed before. Again, Indian wisdom demonstrates its power: the legitimacy of the almighty lies in responsibility over the family, especially the kids.

Does this sound familiar? Remember the discussion in Traffic Metaphor? Indians do not care about “set” rules because they have a non-verbal philosophy to determine and to feel the way of doing things right. In this case, though it is said she, as a mother, “faced no censure and no limits,” every Indian, including the mums, knows that her power is only endowed over her kids, and the bottom line is “acting in the interests of her children.” Maybe in that way they can balance in those contradictive situations.

However the thoughts above are generated based upon the reading rather than the first-hand observation – it seems that the power of mother’s role is limited within family settings. My statement is based on my experience in India. Outside of the five star hotels or other westernized place such as W+K Delhi office, is Male India. Waiters served us in restaurants; buses were full of males; tailors I visited were males; vendors I saw in the markets were males; our tour guides are male… I saw females only in some family-related activities, such as ironing service, selling and buying produce in community market. Well, this might just be another manifestation of the Indian way.

Another interesting discovery was that all the elephants serving in the summer palace are FEMALE, while they are all controlled by MALE. Does this sound like a metaphor that manifests the situation between the two genders in India? You got it.

P.S.
The first photo is from Don, depicting the residence community where women involve in the family related affairs.
The third photo was taken in elephant station.

About the gods

From my childhood, I have been quite interested in the myths and folk stories. Thus, one thing that interests me a lot is the system of gods in Hinduism.

Compared to Christianity, within which people believe there is only one almighty God, the Hindu god system is similar to that of Greece: every god represents one or several related characteristics or issues. However, different from the Greek system, within Hindu system there are many subsystems, such as Shaivism and Vaishnavism, in which the responsibilities and the name varies a little bit. This makes the gods system even more complicated. Another distinction from the Greek system is that in India, the god system is more likely to be the religion of somebody rather than a mere myth or story. Most of Indians worship their god(s), but they are able to choose whatever god they believe. There are no rights or wrongs to worship a god that is different from another's. And it is so common to see a muslin temple within a Hindu community.

Religion in India, from this, I pulled out another metaphor for the Indian Way. We can easily tell from the phenomenon the complexity and openness of the fragmented India. It provides me with some hints and justifications for understanding the major theme in We Are Like that Only - as revealed in the book title - the importance of understanding customization. In the book, customization is repeatedly mentioned. Not only does it emphasize the importance of keeping that in mind when entering Indian market, the Indian wisdom is teaching us about true customization. There are so many differences, if not trivial, between individuals. Considering the collective nature of the Indian society, rather than extremely detailed customization, to show your care and respect to the values of others (markets) is the key to apply the true customization. Because of the complexity, openness is needed for people to survive. And being truly open means that people living in a same community have to show greatest respect to each other without any violation. That is what the harmonious Indian culture as a live textbook tells us about customization, which is integrated in the culture.

Now, you see that "We Are like that only" not only describes the entire India society, but also reflects the spirit within.

P.S.
Photo is from Don, taken at an airport
Video was taken at a family temple.

Partially ethnographic

After 3 weeks working on ethnographic exploration, I realized I did all my “research (observation)” without getting rid of the influence of “ethnocentrism.” It has nothing to do with whether or not my origin country is powerful or relatively supreme. When I refer to ethnocentrism, in this case, I mean that I applied the MY perspective only. That is not necessarily wrong and is contributive to some degree, as ethnography does take the subjective aspects into account.

However, after reviewing my blogs and notes, I found out that what I chose to observe, and how I interpret phenomena were greatly influenced by where I have been, including my experience at home and in my current resident city Dallas. For example, when I talked about street food, Chinese street food came out first. Based on my street food experience in China, I set up the expectation for the street food in India. Firstly, similar to China, India is an Asian country, and is said that food is kind of a focus of daily life. So I expect some mouth watering food of various types. Considering the level of development in China, America and India, I was fully aware of the risk of eating on street in India. Then finally I completed the general expectation about Indian street food: yummy, but dangerous.

Another example is humanity issues. Different from my cohort, I hardly noticed or realized any humanity issues in India. I am not familiar with this topic, nor will I work on that issue actively. Thus I am culturally blind to this topic, and I would not discover any problems that my colleagues may have realized.

While I appreciated the opportunity of working with a smart group and exchanging ideas, I still knew nothing about what the native Indians’ thoughts were. Given that we failed to finish our exploration in India after the bombing happened in Mumbai, we were not able to truly “immerse” in the culture/market, which is the principal requirement in doing ethnographic research. Compact schedule of tourist visit in the first half was designed to prepare us for the ethnographic immersion which was supposed to be finished in the last half of our journey.

We only did partial observation based on our own perspectives. But a more sophisticated observation for a sound ethnographic research should incorporate the perspectives from the natives because an outsider holds a totally different view. It is emphasized everywhere that India is a fragmented culture within which a great many of groups coexist harmoniously. Indians themselves are holding different perspectives from each other. Considering my own experience, culturally blindness is another big barrier for us, a group of foreign students who have never been in India and maybe knew little about India before the trip, to understand Indians without touching the everyday India. Even though within the group we can exchange our thoughts, there was still something missing in my understanding about India.

Anyway, the trip still makes sense as I learnt from a somewhat negative approach. It is also interesting to generate ideas from an outsiders’ perspective because I was trying to find out the similarity rather than the differences. Wisdom in the book has manifested itself in this incomplete ethnographic process and proved its importance to reach a sound research outcome in a cultural setting.

Widen+Kennedy

Today we visited Widen + Kennedy, one of the best agencies in India. As it is a branch of an international chain, W+K in Delhi is quite a westernized/Americanized agency in its structure and its way of working. For example, it has incorporated a leisure creative space within the office, as well as a backyard with Graffiti on the wall. Meanwhile, it claims to be a non-typical agency by helping involve what agency is about. Well, I do not quite get the meaning of it, but I think it is way for them to position themselves. According to its successful experience in markets outside the U.S., W+K knows how to succeed in a new market by doing some customization proactively to the particular society, and the particular case without sacrificing its core principles.

As we know that the successful campaign W+K has done for India tourism, from every aspect it has incorporated the WHY of W+K: stick to spirit not style, and the spirit is creating experiences. We learnt a lot from the book Branding India and the first lesson from Atul about this fantastic campaign. W+K has done a really good job in creating experience, and enticing audience into the role(s) portrayed in those ads - like what I said in another blog post, it successfully created a psychological scene for the audience to feel or to think about the idea the ads tried to convey. In other words, it created a virtual experience based on role playing, with a perspective and way of demonstration that is quite relevant to specific individuals.

Another great case is Indigo Airline. Different from a typical advertising case, this case, the agency involves itself in creating the entire experience from uniform design, inward communication to on-flight services. And advertising seemed to become the last thing they did for Indigo. Or we can say, they totally changed the way of traditional advertising by incorporating advertising into every aspect of the business. W+K is so wise to jump out from a somewhat dead spiral of “an agency is doing advertising.” It was a great case that told me imagination and creativity should not be limited by what they do, but be encouraged by why they exist.

This trip again made me think about another perspective to view the Indian belief that “there is always a way.” That is true, as interpreted to “there is always a way that works everywhere” – never forget your WHY.

Well, some ideas are quite familiar to us, but it was a really a good lesson that it has enhanced some ideas we learnt from the previous year with beautiful cases. And I should admit, this kind of agency would be somewhere I would like to join.

P.S.
The first 2 photos were taken at W+K Delhi office
The last 2 were taken at Indigo aircraft

From Indian long-distance truck

What does a long-distance truck look like? Before today, I would tell you that it should look big, solid and reliable. However, after a great number of Indian trucks passed by, my idea about it totally changed.

My interests to those trucks started after the visit to W+K in Delhi. In that presentation, the woman showed us a TV commercial for a simple-design best-seller of Nokia. The TV commercial was created based on the attitude of Indian truck drivers to their truck. I was interested when she mentioned the long-distance drivers' love affair with their truck – it sounded like a relationship with an object in a religious country.

Luckily enough, on the way to Agra, there were a lot of long-distance trucks passed by, and stopped by. I noticed that it is true that the drivers do care about their trucks as the trucks are painted pretty and sometimes with religious decorations. However, the truck itself looked like a real-size toy to me. The truck looked so fragile that it seemed to be wrapped with one thin iron sheet. In my opinion, rather than rely on worship the god and decorate the truck, the first thing for a long-distance truck driver to consider is safety. However, after checking carefully every truck passed by, my impression was upset. What further enhanced my big-toy impression about those trucks was the alarm of them. In noticed that only those long-distance trucks have that kind of alarm, "wuli wuli," sounded a bit like a toy whistle we used while watching a live sports game.

As Indians place high value on reliability and sustainability (such as the love for stainless steel utensil), I was wondering how they view this issue? Then in The Power of The Imperfect Solution, I found some explanations. The "chalta hai" attitude - lack of desire for quality - results in the acceptance of almost-good-enough solutions. That is rooted in the world view of Indians that they perceive the world quite differently from their western counterpart. They believe imperfection is ever-lasting, because the world is ever-changing in a continuous manner. So maybe the Indian truck drivers also think that the truck is not built perfectly, but that is what is "almost good enough" to use for their job presently. And they appreciate this tool… Oh, we cannot call it a tool because they view the truck as their wife, whose responsibilities are similar to wives at home – they gain the respect and care due to their fulfillment of their work.. In other words, the usefulness.

Another possible reason for the design of the truck might have something to do with Indians’ attitude towards traffic. When pedestrians, motorcycles, three wheelers, scooters, as well as other vehicles are "competing" on the road, Indians have a mystical way to keep the traffic flowing without many accidents. As pedestrians and motorcycles might be more fragile than a long-distance truck, and their safety and position in traffic are taken for granted, why not the big truck?

Anyway, smart Indians have their solutions (to comfort).

Taj Mahal

Got up early this morning to visit Taj Mahal at dawn.

Beautiful place worth a visit. Because we were there very early, there was not much traffic. We were able to enjoy the Taj in dawn with some kind of peace. As more and more visitors were arriving, I realized that it was so genius of our guide to arrange this visit in early morning. The beauty of Taj Mahal lies in peace. And only in a peaceful environment, I can feel the beauty of it.

When Dr. Alvey asked me about the feeling of this visit, I could not remember or I should say I did not have any very special feelings about visit. Taking pictures and rushing out were all I could say. However, I really appreciated the visit, it worth it. I could tell the beauty of the Taj, and I learnt how I would like to enjoy it. As I answered to Alvey's question, I would like take time sitting there cozily by the river side, enjoying the breeze and feeling the beauty of peace. Another way to "feel" Taj Mahal, I think it might be down the river on a small boat to see the sunrise or sunset. However, as it is a real hot spot for tourism, the dream may hardly come true.

To me, that was it. I was not so impressed by the gorgeous construction built with marble only. I was born in China, which is another ancient country proud of its history and abundance. I was immersed in that culture, grew up in a society that keeps emphasizing its tradition and its heritage from a long history. And thanks to mass media and internet, it is so easy to get whatever information I want. Spoiled by the information age, "see/watch" is not sufficient in forming memory. What matters most to "experience", would be the process of feeling and thinking. The former is emotional while the latter is cognitive. This reminds me of the psychological circle or process in advertising. Exposure does not ensure perception, while perception is not a guarantee for processing. Thus, the "view" of Taj left a weak impression might be mainly due to its inability of inducing me to process with my brain or evoking my feelings in heart.

The same issue about "experience" is repeated more than frequently in marketing or advertising practice. The entire book Branding India is talking about how to convey or evoke the feeling of the target audience by offering "individual" testimonies in the ads, and enhance such feelings by perfecting on-field experience. This campaign is successful because it has applied a perspective of "individual" - the audience can identify themselves with the characters depicted in the specific advertisement. That is how the ads work to create a psychological scene or stage for a foreign prospect tourist. With the ads, the audience form expectations, while with visit, the experience either enhances or weakens the feeling.

So back to my situation, I think the problem was that there was no drive for me to further process what I saw there, and no time for me to feel what I really would like to feel. In other words, there were not many relevant situations or stimuli for me.

Well, that is the problem facing the tourist industry in a world where people are immersed in information and rushing towards tomorrow. Hope the Branding India could give more ideas for those marketers.

Wagh Bakri

Today we visited Wagh Bakri tea company. That was an interesting tour, and I learned many things about tea in India society.

From the presentation about WB itself, I could tell that the mission (The tea should be consumed by both the poor and the wealth, should bring the harmony to the society) of WB has incorporated the meaning of tea in Indian's mind (Tea in India is social). Thus, WB has become the only tea company that markets the tea at all price-range. Even the poorest can enjoy the quality packaged tea.

Also, WB's products are loved by consumers because they pay great attention to regional differences - unlike China where every region has different kinds of tea, the regional differences in India are kind of trivial - they focus on blend. In other words, WB plays with water and milk, and works out a formula for each particular region. And then the flavor/blend would be accepted and loved by the people in that region.

The "trivial" but "great" differences have reflected the idea of "fragmented" India that is frequently mentioned or referred in those books we have read. In every book, the author directly or indirectly emphasized the importance of "customization" for marketers, and justified it with tons of examples on the complex regional issues.

I feel sometimes it plays up the regional issues in India. That does not mean it is wrong or not important, as it is obvious that no matter where the market is, the marketers need to take the regional characteristics into consideration. But the theme in those books, as well as some other articles has given me an impression of a child that continues claiming he is so special that he should be given way more attention and care. Well, that is understandable as India is now a really powerful emerging economy that does need special care. However, as marketers, it is always wise to balance the limited resources and the CURRENT consumer need. So in my opinion, one of the useful indications of fragmented India is that based on the knowledge, marketers are able to find the best target market for the product, or find a more widely accepted concept regardless of geographic differences - like a match for couples. They also have to figure out an actionable practice to avoid the pitfall of customization for everyone in a developing market where the infrastructure for consumption is still on its way and needs time and effort to get there.

P.S.
One photo was taken at WB, the lab in which the blend formula is tested.

serving with stainless steel

Serving with stainless steel

We ate several times in Indian restaurants. And every hotel offers a great portion of Indian food in their buffet.

Except for those westernized or more upscale restaurants and hotels, I noticed that in a traditional India restaurant which targeted mainly ordinary Indians, almost everything was served in stainless steel utensil.

I could understand that street food serving in stainless steel stuff because the metal ones are lighter and tougher than ceramics, and easier to clean when compared to plastic plates. However, I was wondering why they use them in a fair restaurant where there are no such worries about carrying fragile tableware. However, it seems that only those very traditional Indian restaurants serve that way - the first Indian restaurant we went in Delhi served everything from Thali to ice cream with stainless steel sets.

Is there any symbolic meaning behind the usage of stainless steel stuff serving traditional/authentic Indian food? It seems that using stainless steel plates is a tradition, and represents the essence of “Indian” food. Even an upscale traditional family Indian restaurant served with the metal tableware.

Referring to Stainless Steel Memories in Mother Pious Lady, there are two major characteristics that enabled steel stuff hold a significant role in everyday life of middle class Indians: one is functionality, as it is long-lasting and affordable; another is modernity, because it has no past in India. It was something that middle class could pursue comfortably, and for the classes below, it represented something aspirational. In this sense, it could represent a status.

Moreover, as food is a major issue in everyday India, every utensil carried some sort of memory so that stood for some specialty. Revealed in the article, steel was perceived as "pure" and "indestructible," incorporating the two virtues that are highly valued in kitchen. After introduced as "ever-silver," stainless steel interwove itself with the everyday life of Indian middle class as its substance "connoting rooted adhesion" within a family.

Family and food, stainless steel utensil was engraved with the two most important aspects of India. Even though as time goes by the importance and position of it has faded a bit, the memory it has created stays, rooted in the heart of Indians. That might be the answer for my question that why the food "for Indians" is mainly served with the "ever-silver."

Street food in India

Street food in India

I am always craving for food.

I had expected to enjoy the street food in India, while I am fully aware of the risk of hygienic issues. I prepared for the risky adventure with a good variety of medicine for gastrointestinal disorders. However, reality broke my dream. That did not mean I got terrible disease, but I had never come up with the impulse to try - the street scene poured cold water on me. When I realized the street food was not something I had imagined, my enthusiasm disappeared at all.

I do not want to say anything more about the hygiene problems. What made me so disappointed was that I did not see anything appealing. I had been so excited about the street food in India that I ignored the food safety problem, with the hope to experience the mouth watering food described in Mother Pious Lady. "Greasy, spicy," "street food exists for the tongue," "captures the essence of a place in terms of what it responds to," I was overwhelmed by such alluring description. Try to imagine experiencing the culture with yummy food, how can you expect a happier and more exciting way to do a seemingly serious and boring research? Unfortunately, the street food in India never gave me such impression, not even a little bit smell of delicious.

Different from what I had experienced in China, the street food is more likely to offer a cheapest and most convenient way for the working class, which might mainly be the destitute class at the lowest layer of pyramid of India society, to fill their stomach. Naan made on street was the only food that might meet my expectation. Since Naan itself is so dry and nothing special, it did not exert enough appeal for me to overcome the perceived risk. Another barrier for me to try was that my stomach was always full of the decent food from the hotels or the restaurants.

Borrowing the description in the last paragraph in The Power of Street Food, at last I still did not get a chance to get the touch of street food, and thus detached myself from the current city in a very real sense.

Anyway, after recalling the frustrating street food searching experience in India, I feel I am more homesick - for the various and mouth watering street food in China.



P.S.
Last 2 photos are from Don, which were taken in India
The others are Chinese street food scenes from website.

India bureau day

India bureau day
5th July, 2011

Wow, I am the VISA Queen!

Today was supposed to be a shopping day. However, for me, it was an Indian bureau experiencing day which became the start of my adventure to VISA Queen.

Because my Indian VISA will expire on July 27th, in order to be able to board on the fight on 30th, I need a three-day extension of my current VISA.

Don, the young guide and me departed at nine this morning, and left for the Ministry of Home Affairs as instructed by the officer in the FRRO which I visited yesterday. Got the number, waited for nearly 45 minutes, then we were able to get into the VFO. My number was 55, and the office should have started working at 9:30. But when we got to the office in the second floor, there was no one behind the front desk. Everybody was waiting without looking for the officer. Maybe Indians believe there is no need to rush when there is always a way to resolve problems? So they were just waiting. Don did the asking, and then an old Indian woman came in. Everybody rushed to the desk and tried to get closer to the woman. No queue at all. Another live scene reminded me of the terrible Indian traffic. However, this time I was seated high and isolated with the traffic in a bus – there was no distance between me and other people. They were pushing me. Hey, if you value your time, why nobody asked for an officer? Well, sometimes it was hard to understand Indian for me. Again, I felt the paradoxical nature of Indian culture.

After I finished the form, I returned it to the lady, and it was sent to the officer to check. It was so terrible to wait for hours in a room without A/C, with all windows closed, and crowded with people sweating all the time. And nothing to do except talking - it was great that Don was there, sharing his interesting stories with me in that sauna-like office. Well, I should not devalue the sauna with this as the office was filled with a terrible smell.

It seemed for Chinese citizen the situation is somewhat complicated. I had prepared for that but I didn't realize that the situation was even worse for me until I was interviewed. On my VISA, it writes "non extendable, non changeable" which seemed going to ruin my day and the trip. Fortunately, I was so lucky to have a nice officer who made a special case for me and I was able to get the order. And even better, he made it possible for me to make the processing possible within one day rather than an average of 2 to 3 days.

Then I went back to the FFRO and got the stamp there for the extension. Besides the waiting, another interesting thing was the bribe. Last semester in Dr. La Ferle's class we were talking about the tradition in India that certain kind of bribe is acceptable and is a norm. Now I got the great chance to get the first-hand experience! Today there were two officers asked the guide for some money, so that I could get through or get my stamp without much waiting. But unfortunately for the officer in the FRRO, when he tried to find the guide, the guide was out. So he was not able to get the "compensatory" he was supposed to have. Poor man.

Well, then I came up with the weird idea that bribe is also the reflection of Indians’ belief that there is always a way – bribe is just another path for Indians to get things done and they acquiesce the legitimacy of it. Is that a unique aspect embedded in Indian democracy as it was not mandatory but you have the right to choose to pay extra? I do not know. But it is admitted as the Indian way.

About four in the afternoon, I got my first VISA problem solved. Luckily, I did it without paying extra fees. Enjoyed the bureau India, witnessed the bribe-asking norm, and finally got the best result. What a day!

Without our young cute guide, it was impossible. How important to have somebody knowledgeable about that culture! That further proved a principle mentioned in the ethnography book that the perspective from a native is quite necessary as outsiders are usually culture-blind to most issues.

At last, special thanks to lovely Don! Thank you so much for making me such a lucky girl!

The matrimonial

When I read the books, arranged marriage and the matrimonial interested me a lot. Last Sunday when I had the chance to take a look at the newspaper- Hinustantimes - I was able to see how the Indian matrimonial looks like.

Using the format of the classified, there were six pages of matrimonial. Though "for grooms" and "for brides" split the pages equally, the former had a little bit more content than the latter (some space was taken by ads such as wedding service ad).

There were something interesting findings when scrutinizing those briefs. Compared to the description in Mothers Pious Lady, there are some differences and similarities. For example, slim and fair are among the top keywords. It is consistent with the trend described in the book - appearance seems more important than the caste background which was overwhelmingly significant decades ago. We can tell the aesthetic criteria for female beauty in India and that reminds me of the success of fair and lovely, as well as yoga. And the absence of personality traits is still true, unless the word “smart” counts. The emphasis of education background and occupation is also mentioned in that chapter. What is a bit different from the book, is that caste origins are not necessarily mentioned. Does that mean the economic independence for woman is becoming increasingly important? Having a decent job is not only for self-actualization, but also important for a better marriage?

Combining those thoughts, I realized that matrimonial becomes a manifestation of the evolvement of India – from conservative rural culture to a more open modern society – India is expanding the value of women from family to society. Is that another similarity across all human beings? Of course. Though American society treats female more fairly now, it has taken years to get today’s situation. And you know, American women have fought for years and are still trying to fight for a more fair treatment. Indian female is just on the way.

P.S.
Last two photos were taken after a wedding ended.

Others were photos taken before another wedding started, in a five star hotel