Delhi

Today I met A, V's business partner. She is a historian and together V and A run a non-profit through which they curate a library and organise conferences on women's affairs. She gave me some interesting information about Rajasthan, the state I'll be working in. Rajasthan means "land of the kings (raja)" and they have a very interesting warrior-culture past that left a legacy of female disempowerment. I didn't quite understand the motivation behind this culture. A told me there is a story of a king who hesitated to go to war because he didn't want to leave his lovely wife behind, so the queen presented him when her head on a silver platter. The point was she was more than willing to sacrifice herself so that he could fulfill his duty, a notion that flies in the face of most Western ideals. That definitely piqued my interest in my host organisation, MSS, which is a women's empowerment organisation.

We also spoke about liberal arts colleges in India, politics and history, comparing India with Singapore and the US. Whenever we speak about social phenomena, my thoughts always turn back to Singapore. When (if?) I return, will there be space for me?

I also met V's driver, Sunil, and the cook, Sri, and his wife. They are very friendly but we cannot communicate! I thought Sri's wife was pregnant when it was just a big belly and she laughed amusedly. It took me a while to accept that their jobs are to serve me, just as a waiter does in a restaurant. Even though I've grown up with a maid my entire life in Singapore, this concept has never been one I was comfortable with. This is a cultural way of providing a safety net and social network. House helps spend most of their time with the well-off family, and the well-off family can provide the house helps with financial assistance if there's an emergency. Of course this differs over households and cultures and there are ways people abuse this situation (at least in Singapore; I don't know about India), but in the absence of other alternatives, to give a man or woman some money for driving you around or cooking and cleaning your house can be empowering. At least they're earning a decent living.

I read the newspapers today. Many aspects of India are familiar to me because they relate to either the US or Singapore: the parliamentary system, the current debate on including caste in the census, the competitive school system (today marked the beginning of applications to university), certain acronyms (DUI: Driving Under the Influence and GST:Goods and Services Tax). There was an article on the upcoming climate change talks in Bonn next week. As I read it in the shade on the balcony, struggling to breathe in the hot dusty air, I was reminded of Esther Wong's blog entry on environmental justice: the poor are often the ones who suffer from the rich world's inconsiderate use of resources. Today's haze and the dust storm is atypical but I know the pollution is not, and many decisions--by India, by foreign companies, by foreign countries--probably contributed to the unclean air.

I fly off to Jodhpur tomorrow afternoon. This week there was an Air India strike and normal operations resumed today--whew! I'm thankful I'm here, safe, and everything has gone smoothly so far. I hope to return to Delhi after my internship with Jodhpur ends, meet V, and see more of the city.