Wanderlust

This passage is not e-mailed to anyone. It's going to become a bit more personal. It partly refers to former statements which may need extension or correction. Some things may be apprehended as harsh generalizations - I am aware of the fact that my observations may be both subjective and one-sided. This is a first try to include literary style in what I write in English language - for humorous or sarcastic reason. Please let me know in case I did not strike the right note (richtigen Ton treffen). As usual, I won't mince matters (Blatt vor den Mund nehmen): anyone who feels offended - Hum to aisé hee hain (that's the way I am)!

I finally have taken the following courses: Global Competition and Strategy with Sougata Ray (which has taken lots of time and was a real challenge), Knowledge Management (D. Kumar, V. Jha), Management of Technology (we suffered of boredom), Strategic Service Management (which turned out to be Operational rather than Strategic), Globalization and Developing Countries with Jayanta Roy (alumnus if IMF and World Bank and very proud of that). St. Gallen University required only four courses; I hope they honour my ambition with taking the average of the top 4 out of 5 courses as the mark transferred... Let's see.

Expats in Calcutta belong to one of the subsequent groups:
- business people and diplomats (including their wives)
- volunteers (at charities) and interns (at GTZ, IHK; mainly last-year law students) (I could only observe Germans of this Group)
- longtime-travellers, artists, people who want to explore/find themselves

The first group tries by all means to exclude itself from the truly shabby environment by creating institutions like Tollygunge Club or British Council. I guess I'd do the same if I had to stay there 3 years (which also means 3 monsoons). A bit ambivalent was the Nov 2nd in the British Club (women only) when Mrs. Hippie sang "We are the world" with us, all of us being white (apart from one sino-American and one Indian lady who tried her best to bleaching her skin). The British Council, where we happened to meet, was a true fortress which helped us being barricaded from real-Kolkata-life.

You want and find Americans and you simply look for the obese among the palefaces roaming around downtown.

Showers as we understand it is called bath by Indians. The more I heard this word the more I sought for one since you and anything around you is and becomes some degrees dirtier than in Europe. Miele washing machines (how have I missed one!!) were unaffordable to IIM, and laundry man managed to destroy parts of my clothes with that beat-instead-of-paying-for-detergent method, so I ended up with doing the laundry myself - by hand. December became quite cold (below 10°C) - cold showers aren't that big fun then anymore.

Another thing I missed very much was chocolate - I'd have been happy with a tiny wee of Aldi chocolate. Since it mustn't melt in Indian climate, the recipe is changed. Cadbury's and Nestlé are the main retailers of that type - you hardly recognize this was chocolate. Alas - Lindt has me back now, I swear my loyalty and deepest thankfulness upon thee :-)

Durga Puja is only a federal vacation which reflects the main variety within Hinduism. Any region focuses on other gods and other celebrations. This is mainly caused by different exposure to the nature, e.g. monsoon floods, landslides in hilly regions, infertile agricultural land. The depth of belief varies as-well. Whereas the south is conservative, other regions e.g. around Dehli hardly constraint or rule anything. I believe, the way religion is practiced is different from Christianity. Whereas "we" are supposed to pray - an action of mind, Hindus rather show their belief by objects - chains of flowers, holy ash in the necklace, posters of a god, a small amount of rice spared for the gods before you eat.

The advantage of Hindi multideism is that you have very much holidays. To showing its tolerance, India also has vacations for the Muslim and Christian holidays which makes the total amount of free days extraordinarily high. Thanks to the oversupply of labor, it simply can afford that one could say cynically.

"Pantels" are properly spelled "Pandals". The temporary character of these figures reflects well the Hindi belief that anything happens in cycles. Clay comes from the Ganges, sculptures are made from it, these put back into the Ganges later on. One life or the pursuit for a destiny becomes less important since Hindi believe in a nex life. - This is how I try to explain that hang-around and let-time-pass mentality. But my inner feeling tells me it is more than that because argumentations with Indian students who became very good friends have shown that ambition to become topper and pursuit for the career generally doesn't make life happier.

Some less fair saree-wearing women wear their money in their Blouse, which causes them to grab their breast anytime something has to be paid.

The Birthday bumps are a IIMC tradition only.

Marihuana is not as freely available as I believed, business students enable it and IIMC authority connives it - that is what mislead my impression. On Holi, the feast of colors, several parts of India go entirely Bhang-tripping. I didn't manage to understand what that is, only that it is collectively chewed and induces a 30-hours or more trip.

Indian spirits are of lower quality - though my knowledge is very narrow on that, my stomach told me abundandly clear... You cannot even trust labels like Smirnoff which are botteled in India and hundred times worse. You vomit more than you enjoy your delirium. - Good way to making people abstinent.

My luggage back home contained 15kg of books (Krugman/Obstfeld, Hamel/Prahalad, Chomsky, Th. Friedman, Coelho, A. Rand, Tolkien, Tzu, R. Bach, K. Gibran), 1 formal and 2 half-western Salwar Kameez, 1 Saree incl. blouse and petticoat, 1 Kurta, lots of presents from friends, lots of souvenirs to family and friends, silken scarfs, Lacoste shirts, 2 Blackwood trousers cotton, 1 stitched Blazer with stifle collar, a Tibetean sheepwool pullover, a Nepalese hat (for men, asymmetric), a silver necklace in Tibetean Lotus style, self-burnt CD's with all Friends-sessions and 7 CD's with music, spices to make Masala. Masala, similar to Curry if not the same, is a mixture of spice, namely Cumin, Pepper, Mango Powder, Turmeric, Dhania etc (whatever that is). You buy it either ready-made or, most common, buy the ingredients and mix it yourself. God knows how it happened that this made exactly 30kg, the weight allowed.

The main reason for this working mentality as I described for the IIM but which can be found anywhere in West Bengal is the strong labor union system resulting from communist (but still democratic!) federal governance. That makes Calcutta the poorest Indian city, unable to atract investors. I found some other professions being exemplary for India's oversupply of labor: faxman, juiceman, waterman (both in one hostel's mess), clip vendor (clips are small, hence he is mobile and can follow you), beggar (I believe there is a competition among them who looks poorest) - and please believe me I tried my best to convincing me that this thinking is ignorance, taxi escort, wagon and rikshaw puller (I preferred buses because you weren't ripped off then and being transported by an engine feels more ethical to me than by human being).

The insight about sexuality has to be revised. Still it is true that some people just marry anyone because it is time to marry, no love, no affection just liking, as they can find out in the process of 'Patao'. The family's agreement to the engagement and the fitting of astrology are of highest importance. But at least the IIMC students have a more liberal choice. Apart from a few taboos, they can choose whoever they want. The small problem, as I see it is that women are less exposed to the public (which easily can be reflected by the low female rate at IIMC or in the discotheques). Love happens, though not publicly, premarital sex happens even more than the former.

Indians seem to live much more in a community, what occurs to take an extreme form with the on-campus accomodation. Lending and sharing is practiced much wider and more often than I have seen before. That is why anyone only buys a couple of cigarettes instead of a pack - he would hardly smoke some rather than giving them to friends. It ends with the disrespect of privacy. Other exchange students complained to having only little sleep or concentration because anyone just drops in your room as he feels like. It did not happen with me - maybe because I'm the girl. Apart from this, things are much more taken for granted. Consequently, please or thank you are only used to persons they have to show respect. To buy 2 cigarettes, you say 'Dada: do fag', dada meaning elder brother.

One friend's speculation is that Calcutta has been given the name "City of joy" from Suma Gachi, a red-light district in town. I am not entirely sure about that.

I am going to write other passages on the Footsteps tour and British heritage as-well as Kali, Kali Puja und Divali later on.