2 Years on

I can't believe it's nearly 2 years already since Emma and I visited Anna Nagar!

I thought in the spirit of honest reflection I should write one final entry, addressing the question of whether this trip really has changed me in any way.

I have to say that if it has, then I think the changes are only really quite small ones.

We've been giving regularly to Asha since we left Delhi and intend to continue doing so. We also get regular updates from them which I sometimes find time to read.

Recently I've been doing some work in London for my Leeds-based employer and living in the big city on expenses! My company has quite a generous expenses policy which means I can eat out at some nice places sometimes if I don't go too mad and don't do it too frequently. Some colleagues of mine have taken to eating at one really nice restaurant a week and I've been only too happy to join them! Occasionally though, I still think about the people I met in Delhi, living on a few rupees a day, and what a massive contrast that is with the life I'm currently living. I don't normally mention it at the table, as people don't usually like to think about things like that while they're enjoying luxury - but it does make me feel a little sad sometimes and also a little grateful!

I do feel very conscious that luxury is fleeting. I don't feel bad for enjoying it occasionally when I have the chance, but I don't think I'd be massively worse off without it. Life is made of more substantial things. The amount of pleasure you get from something is not directly proportional to how much it costs - not usually anyway and often less so I think, the more expensive it is.

I still believe that love is the supreme and most worthwhile treasure, and I've seen that in action in Anna Nagar and in other places. Real love is not only hard to give though, it's also hard to believe in. I hope I'm making some progress, but it's still all too easy to fall back on familiar comforts instead.

X Marks the Spot...

I went to Delhi to find treasure. So did I find it? And more importantly, if I did, what am I going to do with it?

I can certainly say that I feel like a richer man as a result of the things I've experienced. It's hard to say though how much, if at all, it's really changed me. I guess only time, and other people's observations will tell.

I'm still not planning to sell all (or even a large percentage) of my possessions, or give away large chunks of my income. We will up our giving a little though - specifically we plan to start giving regularly and directly to Asha (we already support Tearfund), although we haven't decided how much yet!

I certainly encountered a lot of wealth - as I expected to - in the lives and character of the Asha staff - particularly Dr Kiran Martin - and in the lives of, and the welcome we received from, those in the community at Anna Nagar. One of the great things about Anna Nagar (and materially, on the surface there are a lot of not so great things!), is that it is a community - much more so I think than any place I've ever visited in the UK. This is partly unavoidable in Anna Nagar because everyone lives so close to each other in such a confined space that they have no alternative but to be a part of each other's lives, but it's also been by choice - it's an intentional community. People have chosen to work together, look out for each other and support one another. This has made it into a stable and healthy community - not without significant problems of course! - and is surely responsible for the sense of peace we felt on the first day we arrived.

Dr Martin (the founder of Asha) is someone who lives life from a Kingdom of Heaven perspective (see previous post). Her passion for the poor and for justice is an inspiration and a joy to behold. We saw her on the Monday afternoon of the second week, just after she'd been in a meeting with various government officials and bankers to try to make educational loans available for slum dwellers. She'd managed to convince them, on the strength of the improvements that slum dwellers have succeeded in making in their lives and circumstances, that these loans should be available for them, as they are for other Delhi residents. In addition she'd managed to agree a 10% rate of interest (13% for everyone else), to be reduced to 9% if they're consistent with their repayments. She was over the moon! The day before I'd prayed specifically in a team prayer meeting about banks and God making resources available to Asha, without knowing anything about this meeting. I told Dr Martin about this and she immediately accredited her success to this!

Dr Martin lives for the poor - and for Jesus. Their success is her success, their joy is her joy and their pain is her pain as well. You might think that someone like that would feel more pain than joy and less hope than despair but the opposite appears to be the case - she is always bubbly and full of energy and is a delight to be around!

This is real treasure - joy in the middle of pain, hope in the middle of despair, light shining out of darkness! I was reminded while we were in Delhi of the intense pressure India is under at the moment, from poverty, over-population and shortage of resources to name just a few things. The church in India is also under great pressure - available figures suggest that India is one of the worst places in the world at the moment for persecution against Christians, mostly coming from Hindu extremists [there are probably much worse places though, from where such figures are less freely available!]. I was reminded as well, that diamonds are formed under great pressure. I had a picture of a great diamond, emerging from the heart of India and reflecting rays of light and truth across the sub-continent.

"The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it."
- John's gospel chapter 1, verse 5

Poverty and the Rat Race

The two most striking things we noticed about poverty in Delhi were:

1. The extremes of poverty
2. The extreme contrast between rich and poor

Delhi seemed to me every bit as materialistic, if not more so, than the UK - with huge advertising billboards everywhere, massive wealthy looking banks and rich and expensive shops, but it was obvious that only a certain percentage of the population - almost certainly a minority - could afford most of these luxuries. The impression was of a 2 tier economy - where those in the lower tier relied on street sellers and the cheaper bazaars, while tourists and the Indian elite could afford to shop in the nicer, more expensive places. The price differences were quite astonishing. 10 rupees (about 12 pence) could buy you an hour in a rickshaw (if you weren't a tourist!), 7 rupees could buy you a course of antibiotics to treat Delhi belly and 2 or 3 hundred rupees - maybe about £3.50 - could buy you a good quality set of clothes in a bazaar. In the expensive shops and emporiums though, prices shot up quite quickly so they started to look much more like the prices we'd expect to pay here in the UK. Nariman Point in Delhi is the fifth most expensive office location in the world (top of the list is the West End in London), beating New York, Washington and San Francisco!

For large numbers of people however, life seemed to be a struggle just to survive - in fact out of Delhi's 14 million population, about 4 million live in slums! The people came across as very industrious and very determined, which was reflected in the constant and chaotic hustle and bustle of Delhi city life. Everyone has a job to do and a living to make (at least everyone who's managed to find a job...) and they're all hard at it, doing whatever it takes. The impression is of a great writhing seething mass of humanity, with everyone trying to get to the top and/or stay away from the bottom. On the way back from Mussoorie we stopped for lunch at a service station during a busy period. There wasn't much in the way of a queue - just lots of people pushing and shoving to try and get to the bar and get served. I made it to the front but I still had someone behind me shoving his arm round in front of me waving his money and shouting, "uncle, uncle", to try and get the attention of the person serving! Meanwhile a bit further along I saw a woman and a child standing patiently at the front waiting to be served - consistently being ignored in favour of the louder voices behind them! As in much of life, but more noticeably so in India, the strong (and circumstantially advantaged) survive, the weak and unlucky end up dropping off the bottom...

All of this brought home to me more sharply the contrast between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus talked about. In the Kingdom of Heaven, "the first will be last and the last will be first". It's according to the principles of this kingdom, that those of us who profess to follow him are called to live. In the Kingdom of Heaven there is room for everyone, and no-one needs to worry about dropping off the bottom. It's a kingdom where people put each other's needs first, instead of competing for wealth and power - where everyone has a place and they all make room for one another. It's according to the principles of this kingdom that Asha is operating. Asha is there to say, "we need to make room for these people - to give them a chance, to see what they can become - instead of excluding them or forgetting about them". It's so good to see these kingdom principles being worked out in the lives of the people of Anna Nagar - to see what a difference it's made to their lives and community, not just to their physical circumstances. Hopefully in time, more of these people will get to know the King of this kingdom, of whose reign they have begun to be beneficiaries!

Holi

Holi is the Hindu festival of colour, which this year co-incided with the Easter weekend. We didn't learn much about Holi while we were in India, but for those who are interested, there's a wikipedia article about it here.

For the most part, the festivities seem to consist of everyone throwing coloured paint powder at each other, which seems like a lot of fun! - For a few days beforehand, little piles and also little bags of coloured powder can be seen on sale at market stalls. We were advised however - for our own safety - to leave Delhi over the Holi weekend, as the festivities can sometimes get out of hand, meaning the streets may not always be a very safe place for tourists!

We also saw evidence of Holi festivities in Mussoorie, and had water balloons containing coloured paint thrown at our bus a couple of times. When I asked to photograph a family of paint-covered Indians at our hotel they obliged happily, but then insisted on painting my face in order to include me in the festivities! Some of the rest of the team also got Holi-fied, but for the most part people were gracious enough not to throw it all over our clothes!

On our first day back in Anna Nagar I think some of the children were anxious that we may have missed out! More importantly though, it was another excuse to put red paint all over our faces!

Bargaining

Bargaining was fun although I don't think many of us were much good at it. I think Jono may have been the exception, having lived in Cape Town in South Africa, although perhaps he was just lucky! On one occasion he managed to get the price of something from 3000 rupees (about £36) down to 1600 just by saying repeatedly (genuinely as it happened) that he didn't want it! Unfortunately for the shop keeper he still didn't buy it! One of our team, on being giving the price of something responded with, "That's cheap!", at which a couple of us who heard it just groaned and exchanged glances!

You could bargain for most things, the exception being some of the government emporiums and more expensive shops where prices were marked on things. If you knew what you were doing, even a fixed price wasn't necessarily a fixed price, but it took someone more familiar than us with the culture to know when this was or wasn't the case! My best results were:

1. A rural Indian scene, hand-painted on black cloth - bargained from 2000 down to 1500 rupees.
2. A couple of souvenir elephants, hand-carved - down from 800 to 600 for the pair.
3. A leather wallet - down from 450 to 270.

As you can see, I was getting slightly better towards the end! If I'd had a bit more idea what I was doing though, I think about half the original asking price would've been a reasonable expectation, and this is assuming the prices hadn't been inflated even more for the benefit of us tourists! In one of the homes we visited in Ana Nagar, I managed to knock a mobile phone onto the floor and break it. I offered to replace it and my offer was initially refused but later taken up when I left it open. The phone in question was on sale new for 3000 rupees but Felix (our Indian guide) bargained it down for me to 1550!

It's also normal to bargain for tuc tucs, but this is hard work and they charge a lot more for western tourists! A big part of the art of bargaining is knowing when to walk away - or at least when to threaten to! Another part though, is knowing when someone is only faking it! There are plenty of tuc tucs around so if you say no to one you should usually be able to find another. I think though that most of the drivers have got the idea that they do better by turning down westerners who refuse to pay high prices, so that we tourists get the idea that we have to pay more if we need to get anywhere. It's also normal apparently, for tuc tuc drivers to charge more after dark, although without knowing what normal prices really are it's pretty hard to know what is and isn't reasonable. All this aside though, I think the most we ever paid for a tuc tuc ride was 40 rupees for 3 people, which amounts to about 50 pence, so it's all pretty relative!

Getting Around in Delhi

The main ways of getting around as a tourist in Delhi are:

1. Your feet
2. Auto-rickshaws (or "tuc tucs")
3. The metro

There are also public buses, which we never ventured on and which looked pretty scary. They were usually crammed with Indians who understood how the system worked, were not air-conditioned (I don't think) and nearly always looked pretty banged up.

We didn't get to use the metro either. We didn't have much time for exploring and I don't think it went anywhere we wanted to go. It's a very recent addition to Delhi and we're told is clean, quiet and efficient - in stark contrast to Delhi on the surface!

Getting to a shopping centre a few streets away on foot should be a fairly simple exercise but unfortunately this wasn't the case! We found we were constantly hassled by beggars and people wanting to be "friends", although this diminished when we went out in smaller groups. These "friends" invariably wanted to make suggestions about where we should go and which shops or shopping areas we should visit. We suspected that some of these people at least were on commission - being paid some sort of financial reward by shop owners for successfully luring in wealthy tourists!

On the last day but one we left the YMCA with the goal of visiting a particular shopping area and were way-laid almost immediately and told we couldn't go that way because there was a large demonstration taking place up ahead. We were also advised to visit an alternative shopping emporium. A demonstration did seem plausible as there was a "free Tibet" protest taking place at a stall nearby, but we were still sceptical. We ignored the advice, carried on, and were quickly met by someone else telling us not to go that way because there was a demonstration up ahead. At this point we decided to change route - Tearfund policy is to steer well clear of demonstrations for safety reasons in case anything turns nasty - and were quickly rejoined by the first man who cheerfully guided us again towards his selected emporium. As we discussed the possibility of going shopping tomorrow instead, we were informed this would be impossible as the demonstration would be there tomorrow as well.

The emporium we were taken to was very posh and ridiculously expensive and we left quickly without buying anything. Our next idea was to hire a tuc tuc to take us to the place we'd wanted to visit originally. The tuc tuc driver informed us that we couldn't get to where we wanted to go because of the demonstration (which we still hadn't seen any sign of) but he could take us to another shopping area instead. We relented and went with his suggestion. The second emporium was cheaper than the first one but still didn't have the things most of us were looking for and was a lot more expensive than the typical Indian bazaar prices which we'd been hoping to pay. A few of us found suitable gifts and souvenirs and, disappointed, we returned to the YMCA.

The next day, we were given some advice by one of the Asha workers about a particular shopping area near Delhi station which was worth visiting. In the afternoon (after the inaugaration ceremony) we left the YMCA to get a couple of tuc tucs to this area and were immediately told by the drivers that we couldn't go there because it was shut! The driver, again, wanted to take us to a shopping area of his recommendation and also wanted to charge us about double what we'd paid the previous day, so we gave up and decided to try again to walk to the area we'd intended to visit the day before. We eventually got there, there was no sign of any demonstrations anywhere, and we were able to get on with our shopping...

Indian Bureaucracy

India is a land of contradictions.

In many respects, most noticeably in regard to traffic, Indians are extremely laid back about rules and regulations, and yet they seem to have a love of red tape and procedures which would put most British bureaucrats to shame!

The first time I used the internet in the YMCA, I wandered straight in, the person in charge noted the time on the clock, noted it again when I had finished, I paid my money and that was that. The second visit was the same. On the third visit I was asked to fill in a row in a little book giving my name and room number, time started and my passport number! I protested that I didn't have my passport with me and hadn't needed it the last 2 times and was let off. Another user was made to return to her room for hers though! On the way out I was asked again for my passport. On my next visit I was prepared, went through the same procedure and this time was given a receipt as well for my efforts!

At mealtimes we had to go to the reception desk and specify our room number, in return for which we were given a little ticket with the room number hand-written on it. We then entered the dining room, which was a few metres away, and presented the ticket to the doorman before being allowed to eat. Why this needed to be a 2 stage process is anyone's guess! The YMCA also had a security officer on the entrance gate and another one on the exit gate, who wrote in little booklets every time a person or a vehicle went in or out. It seems doubtful they could've accurately identified every single person going through the gates, so what the purpose of all this was is a little unclear.

My most frustrating experience of Indian bureaucracy occurred when visiting one of the government shopping emporiums. This was basically a large crafts and souvenirs shop on 4 levels selling everything from knick knacks to large expensive artwork, textiles and furniture. To make a purchase it was necessary to take your item to a desk on the floor on which you found it, in return for which you were given a ticket printed out by a computer. You then had to take this ticket to the cash desk on the ground floor but you weren't allowed to take the item - this had to stay on the floor where you'd found it! At the cash desk you were given a receipt which you then had to take to another desk and wait for your item to be sent down to you! Unfortunately, my item got lost in the system somewhere. After waiting fruitlessly for half an hour, I left the shop to continue shopping elsewhere and came back and retrieved my purchase later!

It's difficult to fully understand why all this bureaucracy exists. A couple of theories we came up with were:

1. Perhaps it harks back to the days of colonialism. We Brits are famous for our bureaucracy so perhaps Indians felt that if we were doing it and being successful then they ought to do so as well, but never fully understood the motivations and reasons behind it so ended up doing it (even more than we do) just for the sake of it!
   
   
2. Maybe it's an employment thing. Delhi - in fact everywhere went in India - is crawling with people - 1.2 billion of them altogether! All of these people need jobs. In the UK we're very influenced by the bottom line, but in India labour is cheap and perhaps they are more friends and family motivated than we are. Perhaps finding jobs for people so they don't starve is actually more important than finding the most efficient ways to do things. All this bureaucracy (much of which seems needless), at least gives people a job and the illusion (unfortunately) that they are being paid to do something useful.

At Delhi airport on the way home, Emma worked out that we had to stand in 8 queues - although to be fair, some of these were very short to the point that they hardly really count as queues at all!

We queued for 15 minutes to get into the airport, 45 minutes to get our baggage security checked and another 45 minutes to check in our baggage (why this couldn't have been amalgamated with the security check...). The airport itself was chaos with queues criss-crossing the floor in all directions so that it was pretty difficult to work out which queue you were actually supposed to be in! People constantly had to make way for those who needed to get across the queues to get to where they were supposed to be going. After checking in our baggage we had to queue for another hour to get through passport control. There was then another short queue to get ourselves and our hand luggage security checked before we made it to the departure lounge. We then queued again to get our boarding cards checked, and twice more (briefly) to get a final security check on ourselves and our hand luggage before entering the plane. I was allowed to take a litre of water with me onto the plane though - at Heathrow there was a 100ml limit on all liquids. The guard cannily asked me to drink out of the bottle - which I probably could have faked if I'd been prepared for it but I quite liked this practical approach!