Bangalore

I’ve just completed 2 weeks in-country now, and am starting to become acclimated to the chaos of India. I think I’ve also finally adjusted to the time change (they say it takes 1 day per hour of time difference – with a 13.5 hour difference between here and California, 2 weeks seems about right). The urban experience in India is intense, but Bangalore is certainly milder than places like Mumbai. When I landed in Bangalore on Wednesday, January 16^th, I actually felt comforted hearing rickshaw drivers and other assorted taxi fellows speaking Kannada, my family’s mother tongue.

While my knowledge of Kannada is fairly basic (I understand most casual conversation and speak hesitatingly with an intermittently appearing American accent), it nonetheless felt nice to hear a familiar language being spoken. Upon landing in Bangalore Airport, I went to the pre-paid taxi stand and bought a fare to go to my uncle’s house. I was given a fancy computer printout, and proceeded to go outside into the embrace of a jumbled queue. As I joined this hodgepodge assemblage of people, a fellow in a white jacket took my ticket without any introduction, and all I could do was follow him. I couldn’t tell whether or not I was being cheated – he just told me to wait while he brought the taxi. While he did eventually bring the taxi after about 10 minutes, it reminded me that things work in their own way in India. Had I been a foreign traveler first arriving in Bangalore, I would be completely confused about the goings-on. Needless to say, certain things in India need more polish, especially in the so-called information technology “capital” of the country.

India is what it is. I have to keep reminding myself about that. The inordinate amount of pollution at all levels (air, water, garbage, noise, etc.), the chaos of its streets, the unpredictability of its logistics, the type of grinding poverty that’s hard to find any place else – all of that is there. Its live and let live attitude, tolerance for ambiguity and complexity, endless adaptability and flexibility, joie de vivre – all of that is there as well. At some point, you just have to accept it and move on. India is what it is. Kind of like life. If you accept India as she is, she will take care of you. I believe that. Just don’t ask me why.

However, accepting these facts as the natural order of things in India is not the answer either. Can’t we demand and want better for India? This question can seem rather patronizing from someone coming to India as a sympathetic researcher – I understand this. The IT revolution has brought India more fully into the grasp of global capitalism, with a burgeoning middle class armed with increasing wealth and purchasing power. A certain dynamism also exists in the country, which gives a sense that India is on the up and up. Despite the increasing prosperity of segments of the country, however, public sector and governance issues still have a long way to go. Rural development, better public institutions, and mass education (potentially in the form of enhanced and greatly improved libraries) will go a long way, longer than any IT and capitalist revolution, in solving some of India’s most vexing challenges. In no way, however, am I suggesting or advocating the type of sterile, trite and uninspiring visions of “development” that the West hoists upon the so-called “developing” world. Indigenous and creative solutions to India’s challenges exist, and many committed people in India are working in this spirit. Whatever I may be able to do with my research, it will hopefully be in line with this framework of indigenous creativity and renewal.