Making Research More Accessible

How many people today would put their hand up for sitting down to read a 100,000 word dissertation?

One of the objectives for beyond architecture for humanity is to make academic research about architecture for humanity more accessible to the architecturally illiterate. Don’t take me wrong. I wasn’t suggesting that anyone who doesn’t possess a degree in architecture to have a subpar design intelligence than those who do; it’s more that as designers, we have somehow forgotten how to communicate effectively with real people in the process of becoming certified designers. To take the metaphor a bit further, if we can’t grow past the safe domains of esoteric academic verbosity, which are more often filled with self-indulgent, ego-boosting, albeit delusional reassurances of peers who, deep-down, know as well as you do, that you are just full of crap and spend your tea time constructing these artificial walls of made-up words – half of which never made it to merriam-webster dictionary – in the hope that no-one else outside of your discipline would ever find out about it.

One saving grace for our discipline, however, is that we are gifted in expressing ourselves through a means which naturally lends itself to a fairly universal interpretation – visual communication. For me, it’s infographics.

I’ve already made a pledge to do this via ifwerantheworld. What would you do if you ran the world?

Redefining Architecture for Humanity: A Bite-sized Introduction

In the post-disaster context, if emergency relief operators belong to the ‘giving a man a fish’ school of thought, and planners and policy makers follow a ‘teaching a man to fish’ approach, then architecture is the bridge between the two. Foucault argues that “technology must be social before it is technical” (Foucault, 2003), and, indeed, the experience of aid agencies has proven that best solutions often lie within the existing community. Rather than quietly waiting for commissions from clients or government authorities, architects, Bell argues, can “play an active role in responding to the social challenges we face in the world” (Bell 2008, 15). Architects naturally lend themselves to being community facilitators within post-disaster contexts, or as “skilled understanders enabling people to work out their problems” (Ward 1996, 17). Architects have a social responsibility to reach out and proactively seek solutions in communities. With resources becoming increasingly scarce, there is a pressing need to build back better at every opportunity, with one critical element in mind: the humanity.

When more than half of the world’s population live in cities, designing for the disenfranchised is an ethical double-edged sword: its proponents call it Architecture for Humanity, while skeptics call it New Imperialism. The history of humanitarian aid is littered with socially inappropriate housing solutions and cookie-cutter approaches to post-disaster reconstruction. Despite efforts to the contrary, opportunities to “build back better” get lost amongst perceived difficulties of providing housing beyond the bare minimum. By presupposing design as the first signal of human intention (McDonough, 1993), this research paper asks: what is the ethical position of the architect in humanitarian endeavours?

The research draws on the architectural discourse from across the humanities – sociology, anthropology, planning, politics, and development studies –to argue that socially responsible design is an essential element of humanitarian aid. A transdisciplinary approach—which combines interdisciplinarity with a participatory approach—promises a sustainable alternative to the conventional model characterised by authoritarian, top-down measures. Specifically, in exploring the ethical role of the architect in humanitarian endeavours, the research: 1) expands the architectural pedagogy by identifying architectural and design opportunities in the humanitarian aid sector, 2) reconciles the challenges of humanitarian design practice through interdisciplinary research, 3) analyses some of the assumptions held by aid agencies about the perceived complexities and resources involved in housing beyond shelter.

This paper seeks to raise questions about the ethics of designing in a complex society marred by disasters. In doing so, this paper begins to unravel some of the apparently mysterious delays and frustrations recurrent in post-disaster reconstruction, and identifies gaps in both skills and knowledge that the architectural profession could seek to bridge. The architectural profession needs a social paradigm shift in the way architects practice design, so that instead of being reactive, architects can become intelligently proactive.

References:

Bell, B., & Wakeford, K. eds. Expanding Architecture : design as activism, (New York: Metropolis Books, 2008).

Burgess, P. G, The Role of the Architect in Society, (Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie-Mellon University, 1983).

Foucault, Michel, Society Must be Defended: Lectures at the College de France, 1975-76, (London: Penguin, 2003).

McDonough, W, Design, Ecology, Ethics and the Making of Things: Centennial Sermon on the 100th Anniversary of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, (New York City, 1993).

Ward, Colin, Talking to Architects: Ten Lectures, (London: Freedom Press, 1996).

Ethics Approval!

Best news so far!!! I guess it means this is for real…

Re: Application for Ethics Approval (Our Ref. XXXX /XXXX)

The Committee met on 20-October-2010 and considered the application for ethics approval for your project titled ”Architecture for Humanity: Towards a Transdisciplinary Design of the Built Environment within Post-disaster Relief and Development”.

Ethics approval was given for a period of three years.

And then…

It’s time for me to hit the hibernation button on this blog to digest everything that’s happened on my journey so far, but more importantly to start working on the research I’m supposed to be doing. But Einstein couldn’t have put it any better when he said: if we knew what we were doing, we wouldn’t call it research!

A country of a thousand faces…

It’s day 21 in India, and with just 3 more days of sojourn left in Ahmedabad before embarking on another long 36-hour journey back to Auckland, I thought I’d be productive and take a moment to recap the conference, which was an absolute blast! Besides, when I return I will be on hiatus from doing any other writing than for my research report which is due on September 1^st, let alone any time to reflect on the adventures of this place.

So far I’ve had 3 very distinctive experiences of India in as many number of weeks: first, a voyeuristic western packaged tour through Delhi-Agra-Jaipur ‘golden’ triangle, at the end of which I was monumented-out for the rest of the journey; followed by an epic adrenaline-pumping adventure of two rather naïve 26 year-old architectrices through northern India; and finally the I-Rec conference, which brought about this trip in the first place. I don’t think I could have planned this trip any better than I have, in the sense that I couldn’t ask for a better experience, more perfect companions and all the serendipitous events that ensued due to the latter. After the first couple of weeks, the novelty of being in a new environment had worn off to some extent and I went into the conference feeling mellow and ready to absorb everything without being distracted by the lures of tourist traps along the way. I couldn’t have been more wrong in that this past week was just as intense and dramatic as the previous two, and so incredibly stimulating that I’m on a different kind of a high right now.

The conference was attended by about 70 or so people, around 25 of whom were from outside India. Regan described I-Rec as being somewhat of a middle ground between the Shelter Centre, which is predominately practitioners domain, and the CIB, which is entirely academic in nature. It was a pretty neat, diverse group of practitioners, academics, students and researchers who I got to know pretty quickly since there weren’t too many of us and most of the I-Rec members gave a presentation so I was able to put their research topics to the faces. I’m still terrible with names so I didn’t quite get to more than a handful of names even on our last day!

This year’s I-Rec was different from previous ones and included 2 days of field trips in addition to 4 days of conferencing, which was a good balance, because the field trips were what made concepts stick and fired people up about the research they did. I’m not going to go into details of the papers that were presented since they’re soon going to be uploaded on the official website – yes, I-Rec is completely open source and good in that way – and no offense to anyone at the conference but I might fall asleep while trying to recount them. You can view my paper and PPT slides here <insert link>.

Participatory reconstruction and innovative technologies for post-disaster reconstruction was the main theme of the conference, and our host offered two field trips – one looking at heritage and conservation aspect of important monuments around Ahmedabad city, and one looking at three relocation sites around Kutch some 9 years after the 2001 Gujarat earthquake which destroyed 97% of their main city, Bhuj. I of course, being a novice researcher, opted for the second one, and Regan went to the first one so that we could compare notes later and strategically cover both sites between us.

Bhuj was some 80km away from Ahmedabad but it was a 6 hour drive due to the humpdy dumpdy road condition which I’m still trying to get used to. Our group met up at 4:30 in the morning to arrive at our first destination before the ground began to sizzle, and this is when I properly met Nandan – architect/professor from Chennai who gave a keynote speech the previous morning about his project of rebuilding 10,000 houses in Tamil Nadu after the boxing day tsunami – of course, he is now one of my favourite humanitarian heroes. I felt pretty bad about walking out on his presentation the day before! He sat next to me on the bus and we had the most random, esoteric discussion dealing with everything from evolution to reincarnation, climate change, politics, Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Copernicus, Da Vinci, the golden proportion, some very convincing conspiracy theory about the cult that started the modern movement, life, death, and everything in between. I was quite impressed by Nandan’s gift of storytelling and I think he was surprised at my ability to decode many of his riddles he called ‘preposterous facts’. More surprisingly though, it turns out that he has strong connections to all the big shots in India as well as abroad – in fact, his buddy is Charles Correa, B. V. Doshi is his quasi-foster dad and his pen pal was Kenneth Frampton. Yet I was so surprised that he was so humble about his achievements and had already done work that’s at least three times what a very good architect would struggle to achieve in a lifetime. What was more surprising was that in 25 years of practice he had published nothing in his name but his first book was coming out in October.

Another observation I’ve made on this trip is just how political the disaster relief community is. I knew that politics exist everywhere but I had naively thought that the humanitarian sector would have less egotistical individuals than your average professional networks, but at the conference I got a strong sense of political tension and influential forces underlying many of the discussions and chai breaks. Many debates were held around the definition of what is meant by participatory design, and what qualifies for truly owner-driven reconstruction when there are so many complex issues involved such as donor’s desires, NGO’s agendas, economies of finance, culture and people, and of course, politics.

The reconstruction sites we visited were limited to those locations that received extensive NGO support, and the members of community that came out to talk to us were mostly Brahmans, which meant that we got a rose-tinted view of the reconstruction projects. Half of the time we didn’t know whether they were just happy to talk to foreigners or whether they were genuinely happy about how they were treated after the earthquake. It was also difficult to gauge a sense of heritage and tradition in a city that is touted to be known for its heritage, not only because 97% of the original city collapsed during the earthquake, but because the city got a completely new urban design makeover and road layout. Despite these concerns, I was impressed with the professionalism and fairness given for the greater good of all citizens after the earthquake. A lot of people at the conference were of course interested in seeing how the lessons from this particular disaster could be applied in Haiti.

Since then, I have been to: Sangath, Doshi’s office where he still practices but is now run by his son-in-law; acquired several invaluable publications about incremental housing for my research; met a French expat from Auroville who’s been here too long and spoke English like an Indian (it’s beyond hilarious); had dinner with all of them at Doshi’s son-in-law’s private residence; got lost a few times due to auto rickshaw drivers trying to get more miles (thus money out of it); got a ride on a back of a complete stranger’s motorbike; went to visit Gandhi Ashram; bought a few more kultas; went to see a Hindi movie; donated my blood to many of the local mosquitoes; went to McDonald’s; and just this morning I was asked politely by one of the girls at reception to pay the bill because I owe them too much… I guess all that this means is that I’ve been living at my hotel for too long!

As for now I’m planning on going back to Sangath tomorrow to try and meet Doshi himself and ask him to sign my book… and that’s about the only thing left on my itinerary before packing up to go home, sweet home.

Gujarat Photo Diary

Simply click on the image to be redirected to the web album.

Ahmedabad… Finally!

I finally made to Ahmedabad: one of the safest cities in India… for real!

I’m at the end of day 2 on the I-Rec conference, and I suppose my entry should be looking much more substantial than this, but I’m feeling less obligated to capture this tonight because I’m still percolating my thoughts from two days of sheer information overload, and you shouldn’t give me such a hard time anyway because I technically just wrote a chapter of War and Peace!

So far I’ve seen: The CEPT University, Manek Chowk (the 2^nd biggest market in India), Louis I. Kahn’s IIM. The day after tomorrow we’re going on a two day road trip to visit places that will be immensely helpful for my research. There’ll be some stories to tell after that, I’m sure!

And what else…

Ended up purchasing a new sim card…

And the boys at the Vodafone store have been continually sending me suggestive SMS ever since. I wonder if that’s part of the local protocol to enhance customer satisfaction? Well, if it’s company policy, who can complain…

Apparently I have a big parcel of chocolates sitting on my desk at home from my best friend.

Got some Tarot reading by a little old man, who told me I’m going to finish my PhD in 3 year’s time, that I’ll be working for an INGO, and a couple of other minor ‘personal’ stuff that ordinary Joes’ and Janes’ invariably ask a Tarot reader, which of course I’ll keep to myself…

The receptionist at the hotel who speaks good English finally unlocked the secret as to why people find me so fascinating to look at: they’ve never seen such small eyes before! lol

North India in 4 days

10.07.10 Getting amongst the Delhidees

Auckland has Jafas and Buenos Aires has Porteños. Well, Delhi has Delhidees.

My local sim card in Delhi suddenly decided to stop working which I later discovered was due to my dodgy street side vendor didn’t submit my documents to the Vodafone headquarters. So after a week of operating an unauthorized sim card the head office decided to bar the service and I was left hanging with an automated message saying “this service is not available on your phone”. I’m glad that Jas and I made prior arrangements to meet up in Delhi! We checked into the fourth Sikh guru (there are 10)’s temple just a short stroll from Connaught Place. She kept me in a bit of suspense building up to this visit and told me that our first night will involve me getting up at 2 in the morning, and I didn’t doubt her for a second when I saw her pulling out a notepad with a huge list of places she must have agonized over to select the best places for us to visit together over the next four days.

And what a tour guide Jas made – not only is she an architect but she has been a Delhidee herself because she lived her during her college years AND she loves history. I don’t think anyone could have found a better guide to see India, and what made it so awesome is that I was seeing India from the local’s perspective! So Jas explained that Delhi has had 7 historic cities and 4 contemporary cities in its recorded history, and its sheer vastness and eclecticism has been a result of as many periods in its long history. Most visitors to Delhi would only see the city in two parts – the New Delhi and the Old Delhi, but Delhi has a history that’s so much richer than what a foreigner can muster with an untrained set of eyes. Connaught Place, commonly abbreviated by the locals as ‘CP’, is the most recent of its many hubs, and it’s been around since the time of British colonization. I felt like a voyeur from different perspectives, and oh, spending only half a day with Jas made me realize just how much I have been overpaying for my auto rickshaw rides and also just how lucky I am to have Jas haggle and fight on my behalf. It was only on the last day of our trip together that Jas confessed to feeling extremely ripped off as a local and seeing how different the experience of the city was as a foreigner.

Jas also took me on my first, non A/C public bus at peak hour – and I’m talking about peak hour of the sun, not traffic – and I got a taste of what conditions locals have to endure on daily basis. Again, I was drinking like a whale and sweating like a pig. The sizzling tin can bus ride between noon and 1 o’clock was the closest thing to being pinned to an open pit of fire in my imagination, and my pores had long given up on trying to regulate themselves and Jas even suggested that I get myself some toner for them. Once we reached the shopping mall, I wanted so badly to run to the air-conditioned inside, but my feet felt so heavy that it’s a miracle I completed what felt like the 50 metre marathon in slow-mo. Luckily the huge mall we went to had so many wings and endless number of shops that we managed to spend 4 hours roaming it and I didn’t have to make up an excuse for leaving the air-conditioned shops before sunset.

For dinner, Jas and I went to one of her favourite eateries for South Indian food. I made a bit of a scene by breaking a glass bottle and looking really awkward in an upscale restaurant, but it probably made Jas feel more awkward having me make a big deal out of it!

11.07.10 Spiritual Delhi

Jas must be one helluvah superwoman.

She kept her word and woke me up at 1:30am to get ready for the 2:00am ceremony at the Sikh temple. It’s when the Sikh holy book begins its day and the entire temple gets hand washed by its members inside and out for this ceremony. It was a wonderful experience, though I felt really bad about carrying around my flamboyant yellow satchel declaring eternal love for the Hindi deity Shiva, in a Sikh temple. I found out that later during one of Jasmine’s illustrious history lessons that Sikh religion originated to protect Hinduism in 1600 A.D, so it made me feel better to know that the strange stares were due to my pasty foreignness more so than for my religious ignorance.

So after the ceremony we went back to sleep and woke up again at 9 to visit the infamous Lotus temple of Bahai, then Iskon temple of Lord Krishna shortly thereafter. On the map the two temples were on the same block, but our tuk-tuk ride proved otherwise, and not just because the driver diverted us in the middle of our journey to see his affiliate’s store called (fake) Delhi Haat to try and con us into buying something from them. I still felt bad about being the only customers in a store that had about 15 employees and with working A/C. In retrospect I could have bought something to help them pay the bills!

At Iskon temple, built by B. V. Doshi, I got to taste a great Hari Krishna buffet for the first time. Doshi’s arts & crafts inspired columns and playful use of walls, floor transitions and stained glass windows all made the dining experience more scrumptious and fun. You have to hand it to Doshi to give fine vegetarian dining a new meaning.

I took the afternoon off, probably because I was still feeling a little bused out from yesterday, so I let Jas go shopping on her own and I rested in the A/Ced room for a couple of hours. In the afternoon I went to Delhi’s equivalent of NZIA, the Delhi Habitat Centre, which is a hub of buzzing architecture firms, media students and environmental architecture professionals. And in the middle of all this, we found ourselves inside an all American diner, called the “All American Diner”. No kidding! It’s supposedly where some of the Bollywood stars come to hang out, and funnily enough Jas spotted a famous comedian TV personality while we were there.

12.07.10 Part 1: “Spain Wins World Cup” Says Delhi Times HQ

I should have pulled my camera out and taken a photo of this building! But you can just take my word for it. We woke up at 2:30am to catch the bus to Chandigarh, and the departing bus terminal was some 15 min taxi ride from our temple. Being two girls out in the most unpredictable part of India – so in other words, you have to take necessary precautions if you don’t want to get in trouble – we arranged a cab to pick us up from the temple. We paid… (Well, what I probably would have paid in a broad day light to cover half of the distance in a cycle rickshaw, all things considered!) but it was worth our safety. This is the quietest time I’ve ever come across in Delhi – and if Delhi slept at all, this was the time in which the city slept – and the taxi driver had stayed up watching the FIFA finals before coming to pick us up.

Once we got to the bus terminal, there were actually a lot of people mulling about, either waiting to get on a bus or to just sleep, because some people do just that in big cities where they have no homes to call their own: sans domicile fixe. It was definitely out of my comfort zone and I never felt so naked with full clothes on before, and could even sympathise with the emperor who had no clothes! Of course, I tried my best to hide it and so did Jasmine – the poor girl who had the bigger burden of taking around a foreigner! We ended up getting a non A/C public bus once again, but we were supposed to reach our destination before the sun was too high off the ground. Besides, the A/C bus was another 2 hours before departure and all I wanted was to get out of there before we got circled in a thick ring of unkempt, partially-clothed men who would have all sorts of unimaginable uses for us two girls.

The dirt on the bus was just out of this world, but when you have no choice… well, as our tour leader said: beggars don’t choose. My eyelids kept closing on me and I rested my head on my backpack and curled up across 3 seats on one of the adjoining rows. The next time I opened my eyes, the bus was completely full, entirely of men, save me and Jas, and I had to sit back up to make room for two people who were standing on the aisle.

12.07.10 Part 2: Chandigarh on Monday

After what seemed like an endless journey, we arrived in Chandigarh. Yes, on Monday, of all days. Monday is like everyone else’s Sunday in Chandigarh, and all the public buildings, museums, entertainment facilities close down on this day. But to echo Jas’ famous words, “You can do anything you want in India, but you also can’t anticipate anything in India. You can never plan too far in advance.” Chandigarh is one of the most developed cities in India, and certainly was the cleanest of cities I’ve visited so far. Jas was simply ecstatic to be there and I was pretty excited about meeting her best friend, Kanika (sp?). When we got off the bus, I had an instant friend, a skinny black dog that had the same eyes as my little Paul’s, which proceeded to follow us wherever we went. The poor stray eventually got kicked mercilessly by some kids that were sitting next to us, and with a painful yelp it limped away into the distance.

So just because it was Monday, it didn’t mean we weren’t going to see what we came to Chandigarh to see. We wanted to visit the administrative complex in Sector One, built by Le Corbusier, and arguably what every architectourist come to see. We managed to negotiate our way through the office of tourism, the department of urban planning and a couple more offices that got us to take photos, take my passport, and just when I was anticipating a blood test and a thumb print, they let us in to the administrative quarters of Chandigarh. It was gorgeous, and I think both Jas and Kanika enjoyed it much more than I did.

I only began to grasp the concept of how upper middleclass Indians live, when we got picked up by Kanika’s car, which also came with her personal driver who took us everywhere. We caught the late afternoon bus up to Jalandhar, Jasmine’s hometown, to spend the rest of the evening with her family and depart early for the golden temple in Amritsar. She had the sweetest and most affectionate family I have met since my bestfriend Daniel’s, and they made me feel right at home and adopted me in for the night. I couldn’t believe she had 186 relatives just on her father’s side of family, but I began to appreciate it when Jas began to point out several other mansions on the same street that belonged to her uncles and aunties. What a trip!

13.07.10 Jalandhar > Amritsar > Delhi > Ahmedabad

It was the most sound sleep I’ve had in two weeks, ok, let’s make that months. And it’s just as well that I got some sleep in because today ended up being a pretty long day of waiting in transit and carrying all the weight of my backpack on my shoulders! We had a hearty Punjabi breakfast at Jas’ place to fuel us for a 2 hour journey up north – btw her mum’s homemade mango shakes was out of this world! – then departed for Amritsar to pay our homage to the golden temple, the most important site of pilgrimage for the Sikhs, en route to the airport to bid Sayonara. Jas’ sister-in-law – who was a newly-wed at a tender age of 22, was technically the eldest of us three in social ranks – accompanied us and en route told me that anything you wish for at the temple would come true. I made a wish and so far it’s going well!

The two flights I caught from Amritsar > Delhi, and from Delhi > Ahmedabad was only supposed to take 2 hours 20 mins in total, but when you factor in the delays on both flights, it ends up taking as long as a train ride directly to Ahmedabad. I left at 4:30 and checked into the hotel past midnight.

So Ahmedabad, my third and final leg of the journey began.

Punjab Photo Diary

Simply click on the image to be redirected to the web album.

Still in India – Day 12

In fact, I’m in Ahmedabad.

As I had expected, once we left Delhi and were on the move, there was little chance of coming across internet connection at places we stayed. I tried to keep up with the writing but it was very difficult given how tired I got at the end of each day – in fact, most of the time I was so relieved to escape into an air conditioned hotel room and gaining access to internet facilities was probably the furthest thing from my mind!

Since I’m now in Ahmedabad, some 10 days after my last blog entry, I won’t go to the trouble of making up for the lack of writing but rather write a synopsis of it in three large chunks – the Golden Triangle tour, 4 days I spent with Jasmine, and a quick run down of what I’ve been up to since I reached Ahmedabad.

GOLDEN TRIANGLE

I took an organised 8 day tour of the most sought after tourist destinations in India: Taj Mahal, Red Fort & the City Palace in Jaipur. The tour is called the golden triangle because we visit three main cities: Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, which creates a triangular route, then probably golden because we visit monuments of extravagant ambition and wealth at the peak of Indian royal family’s prosperity.

Day 1 – or what I thought of India back then.

It was averaging between 35 – 40 degrees outside and we were lucky enough to have a chartered A/C coach for just 10 people who were on the tour: 5 Americans, 1 Canadian, 1 Irish, 1 South African, 1 Mexican, and 1 New Zealander. July – September is an off-peak tourist season because of the heat and of course the Monsoon, so we saw hardly any tourists except when we were at really mainstream tourist spots like the Taj Mahal and the City Palace. Of the tourists I’ve on the streets, 70% were American, 25% Europeans, then probably 5% Asian. We were being taken to really touristy places where the restaurants would raise their shutters just for us then of course lock up after we leave, and we would suddenly have random assistants emerging at the washrooms with a handful of serviettes for drying your hands and the other hand motioning for money. People here are generally very kind and friendly, and if they do approach you, it’s generally for some money.

The first day I arrived, I must admit I felt so conspicuous and uncomfortable in my own skin, rather like a Zoo animal, because men here stare so intensely and their large black eyes are fixated on you like they’ve never seen another human being before. I know what (not) to do when I next visit the Zoo! Having said that, I quickly grew accustomed to being stared at, because I knew they meant no harm and were genuinely curious at seeing a fair Asian who looks obviously so out of place, so I learned to stare back until they looked away. After a while, it becomes a fun game, because at first you feel like everyone’s conspiring to stare at you together (which they are to an extent, in the sense the same thing is going through their heads) but if you think of it as a one on one staring competition where you’re just at a slight disadvantage and you’re having to compete simultaneously, it becomes more entertaining and bearable than otherwise. Upon reflection, I’ve enjoyed these kinds of small moments of contact and exchange with the people on the road – both with those on the tour and with those who are born into India – much more than all the glorious wonders of architecture and the chart toppers of UNESCO world heritage sites combined. This really isn’t an understatement and is probably the reason why I’m so passionate about Architecture for Humanity. Architecture, in the absense of its people, are but ruins that decay and lose meaning without the living continually passing down its memories to others after them.

I digress, when this was meant to be an entry about first day of the tour on Golden Triangle! Nothing much really happened during the first day – we met briefly in the conference room at the hotel at half 6 in the evening, where we had a chance to meet everyone else – 9 vivacious women and 1 poor ol’ Mexican boy called Jose who had to endure the next 8 days roaming India, of all countries, with 9 – that’s right – 9 other women! Nothing else happened that day except that around 9 at night, some Indian man walked into my room uninvited when I was about to doze off under my sheets! It was mostly my fault since I was silly enough to leave the door unbolted, but it left me thinking why anyone would do such things? I reported this to the hotel manager next morning who then suddenly lost the capacity to speak or understand English. He was probably laughing behind my back when I left. And I was pretty grossed out by the belching and spitting that men on the street do and was also a little grossed out by all the particles and liquids of all unimaginable categories on the street in the beginning. I’m writing about it now because I’ve made peace with it now and I’ve allowed the soles of my feet to develop calluses for them. You can’t spend the whole time looking at where you want to land your next step, because then you’ll end up missing most of the sights!

There’s over a billion people living in this country, so you could say that it’s at least 250 times more diverse than New Zealand. Oh New Zealand… proclaimed to be one of the purest countries on earth! I do come across quite a number of feature articles and billboards promoting NZ, which reminded me of the first day in Japan, where I turned on the TV and the first thing I saw was a documentary about sights in Auckland.

Day 2 – Transit to Agra

Today was a rather unproductive day – it rained all morning in Delhi and we were scheduled to take a bus tour around New Delhi and Old Delhi, but it rained so much that we didn’t have any time to see anything with any clarity. The most exciting thing we did while we were on the bus is to drive around the Connaught Place roundabout five times and saw the India Gate, which looked a bit like Arc de Triomph in Paris, from about 500m away amidst all the barricades, scaffolds and overturned pavements which was for building a new subway line in time for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi some two months later.

We went to a special restaurant that of course only opened for us and spent the afternoon commuting to Agra, which was just over 150km outside of Delhi. It took us about 5 hours to get there due to the road conditions. It’s a real miracle if anyone drove to the posted speed limit, because if you really tried to drive at 80km/hr on an Indian highway, your car will probably split in half and your tires will be long gone after about 5km.

I never quite understood or felt the density of a place until I came to India. What does a country with 1.1 billion people look like? Well firstly you’ll see refreshment stops and fruit stands at every 50 metre increment along every part of the highway, and what’s more you’ll also find that every single store is at least half full with people hanging about the place, and at least one of those men will be urinating out in the open. You also see an infinite line of lorries/trucks a.k.a “Goods Carriers” that have really colourful calligraphy and patterns painted on them, most of which seems like they were painted just last week. According to our Chief Experience Officer Narendra, there are only two things that Indian men obsess over: their trucks and their wives. To avoid any confusion I meant them in a monogamous sense! The truck owners treat their trucks as they would their wife, and I noticed that some even wear mascara and have built in eyelashes on the headlights!

Day 3 – Taj Mahal & Red Fort

Woke up at 4am to see the sunrise at Taj Mahal, and I didn’t sleep too well in a room which didn’t have a working A/C. As fussy and particular as that sounds, it’s hard to go from cool New Zealand winter to a country with 40 degree heat and 80% humidity without A/C and interesting specimens floating about in the air and water. If I’m going to be a humanitarian aid worker though, I know I should try to get used to this as much as I can. My Korean upbringing prepared me for the North Indian spicy food, but it seems that even my stomach can’t handle too much tap water. I’ve been brushing my teeth in straight tap water from the hotels, and my throat feels a little funny today. My roommate Sasha is already bedridden and constantly reaching into her dufflebag full of medications.

Another thing that really upset me earlier today was the little boy who introduced himself as Bobby and pestered me for what seemed like eternity while we were all sitting in an open cart train waiting for Narendra to fetch our Taj Mahal tickets at the office. At first I smiled and just shook my head, but he kept dangling his Taj Mahal paraphernalia off his little brown fist in front of my eyes. He was the clever one of the two, who knew I had a tender heart, and kept tugging at my arm to get me to buy his key rings from him. I gave in after about a dozen times, because he began personifying the sales pitch and I just couldn’t keep saying no. I didn’t have any change so I gave him a hundred rupees, which is a lot for these boys, which I think surprised the little one and I think he must have run off to tell all of his friends about me, because seconds later I had another boy, similar to his age who had a different Taj Mahal accessory to show off. At that point it got a bit too much and I began to sob. I just couldn’t help myself and I felt so bad for them. The poverty is so bad in that it’s so prevalent around here and people live it out as though it’s just a part of their skin. There seems to be no sense of urgency let alone desire to put things into order, to keep clean, to get out of their situation or to find happiness beyond survival. I don’t think most even try to get out of it, though the practice of cast discrimination in India has been formally abolished by the Indian Constitution in 1950, it is still recognised by the majority of the population.

Day 4 – Transit to Bharatpur: the playboy mansion, enroute Sikri & the “Rooftop Party”

Saw an infamous playboy mansion aka Fatehpur Sikri where the Mughal king Akbar was entertained by some 1500 concubines – yes, that’s not a typo – and the palatial bed that could fit upto 15 women at a time. I don’t believe it myself and I think it’s just a story they made up to entertain the tourists – I mean, Taj Mahal could be a five star hotel built for tourists, right? – Ok, I’ll post the picture of the playboy bed soon. No, I didn’t think anything else was blog-worthy aside from your standard intricate and ornate hand carvings on pillars, lintels, over sized skirtings, playful insets on walls that used to hold candle lights, fine details representative of Mughal and Rajput era architecture… You just had to be there, but then again, in 40 degree heat, even the most stunning palace sends you running for the shade and unplugs your brain from hearing anything from the guides and you wonder what made you want to pay to go on an 8 day retreat at an outdoor sauna across India. There’s only so much beauty you can appreciate when all your senses shut down and all you see are reflections of light registering in your head telling you that it’s supposed to be beautiful, but all you really want is to sit inside an air conditioned hotel room with a large bottle of mineral water.

As for the rooftop party? Well it was actually just a group of us drinking a couple of bottles of Rum (except me, of course – I’m allergic) into the early hours of the morning. Narendra, an uncommonly innocent and sweet Indian man who was our tour guide, put on a serious face at one point and said, “My mom would not believe me if I said I was partying on the rooftop with three other women and a Mexican!”

Day 5 – more of Rajasthan then to Jaipur – The Pink City

Stepwells in Rajasthan – more specifically Chand Baori ni Abhaneri, Rajasthan – is probably the most understated tourist attraction in Rajasthan. Think Italy’s Colosseum and Greece’s Acropolis, but inverted. It’s like experiencing a giant tapestry in 3D, with an added thrill of navigating through a maze of 1 foot square steps with no handrails!

Day 6 – Jaipur – The Pink City & Chokhi Dhani

Saw three palaces – the city palace, the water palace, and the royal palace. Got to go on a fun elephant ride up a hill, and luckily they are kind enough to send elephants back home during the peak hours – they only work from 8am to 10am each day, and what pretty little(?) things they are. In the afternoon we had free time to shop at their infamous bazaar, for some textiles. In the evening we went to Chokhi Dhani, which is like a cultural theme park emulating ancient Rajasthani village, complete with elephants, camels, dancers, palm readers, even a very dodgy manual observatory wheel made out of recycled steel cage that sounded long overdue for oil. The best part was the sit down buffet on a stone platform where we were individually served an endless supply of Rajasthani delicacies. My eyes were way too big for my stomach, and I knew it after 20 minutes. So much for trying to slim down in India!

Day 7 – Back to Delhi, and Jasmine!

Came back to Delhi to complete the triangle, and once checking into the hotel, I met up with Jasmine, who took 12 hours to get here from her home town in Jalandhar. I was so relieved that the tour was over, in the sense that I was itching to get away from playing the tourist. On reflection this was a perfect way to begin my stay in Inida, as the comfort level of the trip itself helped to ease me into the Indian ways. I was also ecstatic to see Jasmine, because it was the first time I had seen her since Japan, and also because I knew that she wouldn’t be taking me to places that only open their shutters for tourists. Little did I know at the time what unforgettable adventure awaited me in the morning, then for the next four days!

More to come tomorrow…