Tokyo-Yokohama Information Source

For those who like Indian arts, crafts and clothes, there is a lovely exhibition (Textiles: The Soul of India) going on till December 20th at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum (Mingeikan) http://www.mingeikan.or.jp This is a private collection from a Japanese lady. The beautiful clothes are displayed beautifully in a wonderful old Japanese building. It is well worth a visit. 

• Violin performance by Dr. L. Subramanalam, Novermber 18, Tsuda Hall, Tokyo.
• Performances by Indian Ocean Music Group Band Group, November 30, Edogawa Bunka Center, Tokyo.

For those interested in things Indian and especially saris, the Yokohama Silk Museum is treating the Japanese to an Indian Sari exhibition till June 17th. Although the Museum website is outdated and uninformative, the place is worth a visit for all those interested in silk in general. They are located at No.1 Yamashita-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama, Tel. 045-641-0841 Enjoy.

For those of you who like Indian textiles or are fans of anything ethnic, try to mark June 12 to 14 in your calender. This is when the India Trade Promotion Organisation will hold its 18th annual Home Furnishing Fair at the Ikebukuro Sunshine City World Import Mart 4F, Hall A. For more details call 03-3436 5060

Last week I was once again forbidden from entering a Hindu temple on the grounds that I was not a Hindu but a foreigner. I went with an Indian friend of mine to the famous Meenakshi Temple in Madhurai, South India, and we were both told we couldn’t do any “dersan” (pray to Parvati, the main deity) as we didn’t look Indian or Hindu. I don’t know how more Indian the two of us could look with our trouser suits! This is the second time I have experienced this in India and find it very insulting. The police guys who “threw” us out were the rudest people I have met in a uniform. How does one prove their religion? Just because I don’t speak the local language doesn’t mean I am not a Hindu. They asked for our IDs but they don’t specify that we are Hindus. What if I had made a vow for something or the other and couldn’t fulfill them?

Some word of advice: if you have a weak heart, don't bother sitting in the front seat of a car/bus in India. Otherwise you may not be around for long to enjoy the chaos. "People drive like crazy in India" is probably an understatement. But there appears to be a system or way of driving which to us visitors is not apparent. In the 10 days of travelling around India I have just seen one accident. Maybe it is the faith in God they have. Our driver always said a quick prayer when we drove past temples. And he had a small Ganesh on the dash-board of the car which he decorated with fresh flowers and prayed to every morning before we started. Well I prayed to the Ganesha when I thought that was it - the end of me. Worst are rickshaw drivers who try to squeeze past 2 buses at full speed. Everyone wants to be first in India - at least as far as driving is concerned. Under the traffic lights is a digital counter which tells you how many seconds you will have to wait till the lights change. When this counter reaches 5 seconds, the cars, and all else, start moving, even though there is also a digital sign underneath which says "RELAX".

Here is a short guide to Indish (English spoken by Indians), what the Indians say (left) and what they mean by it (right):

My myself: I
My good self: I
My girl daughter: my daughter
Your good country?: Which country are you from?
Your native?: Which is your native country?
Your good place?: Where are you from?
Which place?: Which place do you come from?
Which name?: What is your name?

Strangers in India usually start a conversation with some of the above questions and then lead on to questions about your income, marital status, the price of your watch, etc. People don't have a problem with being nosy here.

India is supposed to be having very promising GDP growth but to an outsider like me it is not so obvious. I have been visiting India for the past 20 years or so and I don’t see much of a change as far as development or infrastructure is concerned. Maybe things have changed which are not too obvious to me. As I wrote in one of my last blogs, the dirt, poverty, the roads, etc. hasn’t improved much. Different people have different descriptions for what development is and what one should expect from it. MSSRF, Chennai, which I am currently visiting, feels development should focus on the “economics of human dignity” or people’s happiness.
In the field of application of ICTs for development, many people have argued that one should not think about introducing computers to poor communities when they don’t have clean water to drink or sanitation or schools or employment. I have always disagreed with this notion and feel infrastructure investments are the responsibility of governments and ICTs should be introduced – by whoever has interest in it – in the development process to make a difference.
I visited a Village Knowledge Centre today which is run by MSSRF and saw how their notion of development as improvement in human dignity and their happiness come true. The Centre provides many services to the village community, one being literacy programs to illiterates. They call it functional literacy where for instance people, using touch screens, can learn the alphabet using pictures of things or people which they can relate to. For instance “a” if for “Ama”, which means mother in Tamil. The pictures of their houses or cows, or whatever they can relate to are often taken by the “students” using digital cameras. In doing so all training material is personalized. I met a 60 year old man and a 28 year old woman, both illiterate, who had recently learnt how to read after 6 months training. These people are from the very low caste and survive on 25 rupees a day. They were the poorest of the poor but there was joy in their faces of having learnt how to read. They don’t know as yet what they will do with their newly acquired skills but I am sure it will make a difference to their life. If this is not development, what is?

I have to begin by apologizing about not keeping up with my daily blog. I am currently in India and it has been a few very busy but fulfilling days, with temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees and humidity of 60-70%. I arrived in Chennai on Friday, via Singapore. Changi Airport looked clean, organized and beautiful and I wondered why I ever left Singapore a few years ago. The flight from Singapore to Chennai was of course full of Indians – many looked like laborers going home after some time in Singapore – which was a big shock for some of the Japanese students who hadn’t seen so many Indians before. The Indians all stood up, in the dark, as soon as the back wheels of the plane touched the tarmac which didn’t make a positive impression on the students.
Our accommodation for the first 3 nights was a 1-star Indian guest house with very noisy fans and AC which didn’t help much with the jet-leg. We had a small frog inside the toilet bowl on which we did our jobs and flushed it a few times but it was a brave soul and always came back; one of our even braver girls then fished it out for us.
Last night we took a train to Dandigul which is 400 kms. south-west of Chennai. The night train was of course a great experience for all of us (apart from 3 girls who were very sick – food poisoning) with the 3-tier bunk beds and Indians being loud all the way. But we are finally in a hotel which to us feels like a 5-star accommodation and everyone feels happy.
It is 5-6 years since I was last in India but I don’t see much of a difference as far as development progress is concerned. The boom I saw in Shanghai a few weeks ago is not to be seen much in Chennai and its surroundings. The streets are still dirty and crowded, the traffic (and driving) is still bad, the infrastructure still poor and poverty still evident. The white elephants (deserted unfinished projects) have however grown in number.
We are visiting India as guests of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. They do some great work in the area of development and we have had great opportunities in the past 4 days to see some of the work they do from support for slums kids, Tsumani relief, bio-villages, eco-technologies, computer-based knowledge centers for rural farmers, etc. It is great to see India from a different side – going to places where one wouldn’t venture and going to remote places to meet with villagers who have benefited from such development support. Looking forwards to a few exciting days in South India!

Once again I had to go to a counsulate today to obtain visas for my next trip abroad. This time it was for India. If you may recall I went to get visas for China 2 weeks ago. The reason for mentioning all this is the contrast between the two places. The Chinese Embassy is housed in a decent looking building surrounded by police ready to shoot. You go in, there are people around to help and direct you to the right place. There are many staff serving and you leave the building within minutes, if you have all the documents ready. If you have to wait, there are comfortable seats around on which you can rest yourself. You pay half the fees you have to pay at the Indian embassy. You collect your passport in 3 days. Compare this with the Indian Counsulate. It is located in a beautiful place but the building doesn't match the area. The place looks like how most government buildings look in India - grim, dirty, unkept and dark. There wasn't anyone one could ask for help. You had to wait your turn for the counter service. Only 3 people were serving the over 100 people who were there. It took nearly 2 hours before I was called. I paid 8,500 yen for a single entry visa and the processing takes 1 week! The seating area was ordinary, uncomfortable and not sufficient for all.
It is a well known fact that China invests in infrastructure (I saw this in Shanghai last week) whilst India doesn't, and that if India doesn't start doing something about this it may be left behind by its competitor. India is still a "poor" country but it cannot take that much more effort to "look decent".