Anticipation

India is a country in permanent change. Some change comes a little more slowly then other. Yesterday Mr. Anna Hazare broke his fast, after 12 days of protest against India's government, which refused to pass a new anti corruption bill (read more about that here ). Some things change really fast. You find yourself complaining about the condition of the streets or the slow progressing of the metro construction, and the next day the street is fixed or one part of the metro finished, and you haven't even seen a construction sign or a worker.

Ayurveeeeeeeeda! (german)

Heute schreibe ich mal auf Deutsch, irgendwie ist mir gerade nicht nach Englisch zu Mute, und ich glaube dieser Bericht dürfte für die meisten Inder sowieso unspannend sein.

Ich war heute, wie der Titel schon sagt, zusammen mit meiner PG "Auntie" Usha bei einer traditionellen Ayurveda-"Ärztin". Kein modernes Spa wie man sie auch hier häufig findet, und die unheimlich viel Geld für ihren Service verlangen. Dieser Ort ist anders, in einem kleinen Haus in der Nähe meines PGs ist die "Klinik" untergebracht. Es sieht ein kleines bisschen schäbig aus, alles ist ein bisschen alt. Ebenso die Leiterin, sie kommt aus Kerala (ein Staat im Süden, der für Ayurvedamedizin bekannt ist) und leitet die Klinik seit 1979! Nachdem nach den Wünschen und Problemchen gefragt wurde, wurde ich in einen Raum gebracht, der recht spartanisch eingerichtet war mit einem Stuhl, einem großen schwarzen Tisch und einem kleinen Gasbrenner.

One pic a day - Sat Aug 20

Ankhita and me (...in a sari) with some of the artisans

One pic a day - Fri Aug 19

The "Narsapur Lace Craft Park"

One pic a day - Thur Aug 18

The lace workshop

One pic a day - Wed Aug 17

Narsapur's rice fields during monsoon rain

Pic of the day

Sumita

One pic a day

Hello hello,
for some people complained (again - I am sorry!) about me posting so rarely, I decided to try the "One picture a day"-thing on my blog. I have seen it in several travel blogs, for example Daniel's (see the link on the right task bar), and I quite like the idea. Its fast, it gives an impression of my everyday life, so let's do it :)

 

 tailor in a box

Für die Daheimgebliebenen - indische Wirtschaft in Zeiten der Krise

Ich lebe noch, jaja! Ich bin gerade am Ende der Welt...oder zumindest fühlt es sich so an. Konkret heißt das Ende der Welt Narsapur, in Andhra Pradesh, an Indiens Ostküste. Ich verbringe hier knapp 3 Wochen um mit den Dorffrauen, die sehr routiniert Häkelspitze produzieren, eine Kollektion zu entwickeln. Leider ist die Zeit sehr kurz...

Aber eigentlich ging es mir gerae um etwas anderes, ich habe diesen Kommentar auf einem Blog gesehen und dachte, er ist vielleicht auf für ein paar von euch interessant! Er handelt davon wieso die Indische Wirtschaft die kommenden Wirtschaftskrisen vermutlich relativ unbeschadet überstehen wird.

Klickst Du hier!

My time in India - A questionnaire. #2

Lets go on with my resume.  In my last posting I was talking about all the questions that came up living in India which were, mostly, fun to deal with. This posting is not going to talk about fun. These questions make me feel worried about India and the world and the way I act in it. I do not have answers to most of the following questions.

If I buy water in bottles, do I not only support big companies like Coca Cola or Pepsico, who buy all sweet water reserves in southern India, but also produce a huge amount of plastic waste in a country, where recycling is nothing compared to what it is in Europe?

Do I carry my waste with me to deposit it at home, although it is quite possible that it ends up in the same hole in the ground like it would if I just threw it somewhere? Why do we care about respirable dust in Germany when my napkin is black after sneezing into it in Kathmandu?

Back in Indiaaaa

Und für die armen Deutschen, die das Video wegen der Musik nicht angucken dürfen: Versuchts mal damit, das dürfte funktionieren <---- KLICK

My time in India - a questionnaire. #1

So. I came back to Germany. And, actually, I am about to return to India (Bangalore, to be exact), at the end of next week for an internship! I am working on this resume since my return. It is freaking hard! I did a presentation for my colleagues in university and I was told it was good, but afterwards I felt that I could not express and share what I have experienced during my stay in India. So. This is a new try.



I still tell everyone how much I love and miss India.

And still people keep on telling me how crazy my decision to go to India was. That they would never dare to do this. That it is too different, too scary, too dangerous. So I started thinking about the reasons.
We are always afraid of so many things, we are scared of giving up all our safety, of stepping out of a system, where all the big trouble happens in the news on tv, where everything is clean, everybody is looking healthy (and if not, we lock them away from sight), where we always know what will happen next, where the water is clean and we can pretend to save the environment by buying organic food, washing our clothes with washnuts and driving a car with a respirable dust filter.

Yes, I was scared before I went to India, too. But that was the reason why I wanted to go! To step out of this soft perfect bubble. To get away from "Don't do this, it is not healthy!" and "Don't do that, it is dangerous!" and "Let's not think too much about the world outside of what we know". Away from the safety of knowing everything.

Because to me, that is what India was all about.

Impressions from NID.

Please enjoy a short video I did about my time at NID. I am planning to do a video about our one month of travelling, too.

Looking forward.

As most of you know, I am back home, in Germany. I have to take care of my family, so I decided to leave India quickly. Which was extremely hard for me, especially because I was in such a hurry, I have the feeling that I couldn't say goodbye properly to people and country (to some of my friends I couldn't say goodbye at all!). Sooo I will try to return in summer for an internship. Let's hope that it works out.
I just want to say Thank You! to all the lovely people I met in these 5 months, I had the best time with you guys, I will keep the memories and take them always with me. I'll never forget what we had :)

I won't stop this blog though. I will try to finally write about our travels, and more about my time in Ahmedabad. Actually, being back sharpens my view on the differences between both our cultures, so there will also be one or two entries about what I have noticed during my time in India

So, what the previous entry had to much concerning pictures, the following one will have concerning text. Be prepared!

Hope to see you all again soon :)

A random day in Ahmedabad - in 96 pictures!

I got used to so many things that are actually different to Europe, I stopped wondering about most of them. But maybe you guys back home would find it interesting to see what I come across every day. I decided to photodocument one day. I clicked more or less randomly what I saw to give you an impression of how life in Ahmedabad and at NID is.

So, shall we begin?

First thing in the morning: Shower! Because it is fucking hot! I wake up and I am already sweating... It gets better with Palmolive, Indian walnut shampoo and herbal hair conditioner.

A matter of courtesy

To me showing respect to people comes with being polite. When you live in a different culture then your home country, it is not always easy keeping this standart, because rules of courtesy are different, and a lot comes with language. Unfortunately my Hindi is very poor, but I try my best.
So but how does it work over here? (This article does not claim to tell the universal truth or to be complete. India is a huge country and views may differ. And I can simply be wrong^^ So please do correct me!)

Chocolaty birthday!

I do have the best friends :) They did not only got me a super yummy cake from The Chocolate Room Cafe, they also gifted me a soft toy pony!!! How cute is that! (Although I can not wine about wanting a pony anymore now...) Biiig Thank you to Sarah, Dannie, Robert and Prasurjya again! Youre the best <3

Unfortunately there is this tradition kind of thing in India where you smudge cake into the birthday person's face... but I had my revenge :D We all had to take a shower... good that we have so many^^ Still I found cake in my ear(!!!) one day later!

 All pictures by Robert. Thanks!

I wish a relaxing weekend for all of you :)

Aktualitäten II

Alright, shall we continue?

I get the feeling that I'm going to skip a lot now. The reason for this is that I suddenly lost all interest in taking pictures (don't worry, I got it back^^). Maybe because on one hand after two months in India I am used to most of the things. On the other hand I wanted to enjoy all the new impressions, instead of watching them through my camera. Third thing: We did a lot of boring every day life things.

By the way: my life is now completely in English! English phone, English facebook, English computer, English blog. Even with Robert I speak English most of the time. Jeez!

Dancing people! Video overload!

I get the feeling that Indian people love to celebrate. Of course the big events in life, such as marriages and child birth. But they also have a million festivals (and holidays!), which give them a reason to dress up and dance. So here are some videos I have taken over the last months.

Unfortunally I did not have the opportunity to go to a marriage yet. Thanks to the Indian culture, marriages are celebrated really publicly. 

RrrroarrrrrRRRrR?

In India I come across so many animals every day that I probably would stop noticing them. But they always find a way to attract my attention. A monkey family sitting on the roof of a car, sharing a pack of cookies. Birds doing an indescribable performance under the evening sky. A fluffy dog sleeping next to a small rocking horse. A puppy trying to play with a cow. Goats in coats. Dokeys running and jumping down the street.
Most of the times I don't have my camera with me. Sometimes I do. Here are the results:

Our flat is in the news!

Times of India Ahmedabad thought people should know about weird students building furniture from waste!
Push the button!
I will take some more pics of the flat and show them to you, I just realized that I only have some from the funny furnishing evening!


And yes, after my classmates complained about me writing only in German, and me having problems with remembering German words anyways, I decided that I will write in English - at least sometimes. Not that my written English is that good. But this might be a way to improve it, no?

Well done, Mr. Doma!

Im Moment verbringe ich viel Zeit damit, die Menswear 2011/12 Kollektionen zu bestaunen, die gerade gezeigt werden. Bei der Damir Doma Show muss ich stutzen - daaas kenne ich doch irgendwoher! Offenbar hat der gute Mann genau das gemacht, womit ich nächste Woche anfangen werde: Er hat sich von dem inspirieren lassen, was in Indien (oder vielleicht einem ähnlichen Land) so an Herrenkleidung über die Straße läuft. Ich bin froh, dass mein Stil nicht dem NeoGoth Trend folgt, sonst würde meine Kollektion wohl ganz ähnlich aussehen. Mal sehen wo ich am Ende rauskomme. Herr Doma hat sich jedenfalls ganz gut angestellt!

Bilder von COUTEQUECOUTE, Robert und mir.

Aktualitäten

Hallo liebe Familie, Freunde, und lustige Leser aus Russland (laut meiner Statistiken müssen es einige sein.... hmmm...)!
Ich dachte ich bringe euch mal wieder alle auf einen ähnlichen Wissensstand, denn verschiedene Leute haben durch verschiedene Medien verschieden viele Infos erhalten. Und es sollte ja jeder gleich viel wissen dürfen :)
(Klick macht wie immer alle Bilder groß)

Übrigens ist jetzt auch Sarahs Blog in der Seitenleiste verlinkt. Guckt mal rein!

pidgeonpee

Mal was anderes. Bitte runterscrollen!

Das Copyright liegt bei Robert und mir.