I am not a Bombayite, Mumbaiker, or whatever. In fact, being half-Punjabi seems like the very antithesis of Bombay. But then, I guess this city of migrants attracts the hearts of a wide variety of people. So while I will leave this place in a couple of months, I do love it, or the idea of it: cosmopolitan, civilised, heterogeneous, culturally deep. And pragmatic -- business is business, let's get on with things.
This is why I'm getting more and more upset at the NMS and that bastard Raj Thackeray. So his goons terrorise North Indians, scare them away and create an immense labour shortage in industrial enterprises in Maharashtra. But then is that filled by Marathi speakers? Oh no, because Maharashtrians don't want the work that was taken up by workers from UP and Bihar. People are scared, machines are quiet, everyone's losing money and for what? So that this upstart can try and consolidate a vote-bank left over from the days of Shiv Sena?
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Delhi autumn, Bombay spring / catching up
More soon? Ha! By my reckoning, it's been almost two months since my last post, in Madras. So at least half of this one is going to be about catchup, and then perhaps a little on the state of play here.
Dec. 5th - 18th: Delhi
I returned from Madras to find a much colder city. Flying in from sticky semi-tropical warmth to the crispness that I normally associate with winter in this part of the world was welcome -- the feel of Christmas in the air, the need to bundle up and sleep under various quilts and blankets, the frigid unpleasantlness of morning showers. It all reminded me of the seasons changing in the ways I was used to from childhood, in Islamabad, all those years ago. Along with the seasons changing, I was getting a bit burnt out -- not had much of a break since I started in September. But I felt happy to be back, and spent time with friends and conducted a handful of interviews in those two weeks -- all was relatively good.
Dec. 18th-Jan. 7th: Islamabad
Back 'home' for Christmas -- glad to see my folks and get away from work, but it is always difficult for me to go to that city. I have a whole lot of childhood hurt that is normally wrapped up in the closet in my old room... much easier to deal with thousands of miles away than a few feet. And there are few indications of how I've gown from that place, very few friends. Most of my friends will have heard me gripe on and on about it over the years, so I'm not going to belabour the point.
Of course, being in Islamabad over the winter meant tragedy on a grand scale: the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. I've blogged on this elsewhere, so if you're interested (still, 6 weeks later), I'll send you the link.
Jan 8th - Jan. 24th: Delhi, Chandigarh / Ludhiana, Guwahati
I got back from Islamabad stressed out because of the intense politics of the last few days and the state of virtual house arrest when the country was on strike, and other Islamabad business. I arrived that week and after coming to the conclusion that I wouldn't get anything done in Delhi, I headed to Punjab for a three day trip: quite successful, getting six interviews and getting to see the country driving to Ludhiana (really reminded me of trips out of Lahore), and look around Le Corbousier's masterpieces in Chandigarh. I got back and then a few days later headed toward a conference in Guwahati in Assam, which was one of the most surreal experiences in fieldwork. Again, I don't have the energy to go over it, so I'm going to be lazy and link to my friend Paul's blog post.
So after Assam, I went around wrapping up my Delhi life and saying goodbye to friends, which didn't turn out as smoothly as I had originally hoped: I got sick a couple of days before I was scheduled to leave the city, which led to all sorts of nasty and embarassing incidents while saying goodbye to people.
Delhi is a city that I've learned to appreciate, even like. I've made good friends and I've learned how to live and have fun and do work there. I know that Delhi is one of those cities to which I will return over and over again, and I feel good about that. It has its annoyances and its difficulties, and isn't the most sophisticated of towns. But my vision of Delhi is of coffee and drinks in the gathering gloom, walks in the evenings in Lodhi gardens, or the morning light at Hauz Khas tank. That will stay with me.
Jan. 24th - present
BOMBAY!!! I flew here and then stayed for a week with my friend Bart in a friend's beautiful old filmy apartment facing the Arabian Sea in Bandra. It's an apartment I stayed in for a month two years ago, doing predissertation fieldwork, and it's such a beautiful place, such a beautiful start to a stay in Bombay. And that apartment above the Bandra Bandstand was the site of many adventures, including going to a real-life Bollywood studio, and recovering from sickness and depression -- caused in the main by giardia.
Since then, I've moved into yet another PG on Shirley Rajan Road, also in Bandra on the foot of Pali Hill and parallel to the Carter Road Seaface. I've started work -- conducting interviews in pharma and textiles, started slowly making friends and getting settled in this amazing and deeply flawed city.
I have a lot more to say about Bombay -- a city that touches my soul a great deal more than Delhi -- and about where I am in terms of wrapping up fieldwork, but that needs to wait until another day. But I hope to pay more attention to this blog, as it does help me make sense of this thing. I hope you're going to tune in!
Dec. 5th - 18th: Delhi
I returned from Madras to find a much colder city. Flying in from sticky semi-tropical warmth to the crispness that I normally associate with winter in this part of the world was welcome -- the feel of Christmas in the air, the need to bundle up and sleep under various quilts and blankets, the frigid unpleasantlness of morning showers. It all reminded me of the seasons changing in the ways I was used to from childhood, in Islamabad, all those years ago. Along with the seasons changing, I was getting a bit burnt out -- not had much of a break since I started in September. But I felt happy to be back, and spent time with friends and conducted a handful of interviews in those two weeks -- all was relatively good.
Dec. 18th-Jan. 7th: Islamabad
Back 'home' for Christmas -- glad to see my folks and get away from work, but it is always difficult for me to go to that city. I have a whole lot of childhood hurt that is normally wrapped up in the closet in my old room... much easier to deal with thousands of miles away than a few feet. And there are few indications of how I've gown from that place, very few friends. Most of my friends will have heard me gripe on and on about it over the years, so I'm not going to belabour the point.
Of course, being in Islamabad over the winter meant tragedy on a grand scale: the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. I've blogged on this elsewhere, so if you're interested (still, 6 weeks later), I'll send you the link.
Jan 8th - Jan. 24th: Delhi, Chandigarh / Ludhiana, Guwahati
I got back from Islamabad stressed out because of the intense politics of the last few days and the state of virtual house arrest when the country was on strike, and other Islamabad business. I arrived that week and after coming to the conclusion that I wouldn't get anything done in Delhi, I headed to Punjab for a three day trip: quite successful, getting six interviews and getting to see the country driving to Ludhiana (really reminded me of trips out of Lahore), and look around Le Corbousier's masterpieces in Chandigarh. I got back and then a few days later headed toward a conference in Guwahati in Assam, which was one of the most surreal experiences in fieldwork. Again, I don't have the energy to go over it, so I'm going to be lazy and link to my friend Paul's blog post.
So after Assam, I went around wrapping up my Delhi life and saying goodbye to friends, which didn't turn out as smoothly as I had originally hoped: I got sick a couple of days before I was scheduled to leave the city, which led to all sorts of nasty and embarassing incidents while saying goodbye to people.
Delhi is a city that I've learned to appreciate, even like. I've made good friends and I've learned how to live and have fun and do work there. I know that Delhi is one of those cities to which I will return over and over again, and I feel good about that. It has its annoyances and its difficulties, and isn't the most sophisticated of towns. But my vision of Delhi is of coffee and drinks in the gathering gloom, walks in the evenings in Lodhi gardens, or the morning light at Hauz Khas tank. That will stay with me.
Jan. 24th - present
BOMBAY!!! I flew here and then stayed for a week with my friend Bart in a friend's beautiful old filmy apartment facing the Arabian Sea in Bandra. It's an apartment I stayed in for a month two years ago, doing predissertation fieldwork, and it's such a beautiful place, such a beautiful start to a stay in Bombay. And that apartment above the Bandra Bandstand was the site of many adventures, including going to a real-life Bollywood studio, and recovering from sickness and depression -- caused in the main by giardia.
Since then, I've moved into yet another PG on Shirley Rajan Road, also in Bandra on the foot of Pali Hill and parallel to the Carter Road Seaface. I've started work -- conducting interviews in pharma and textiles, started slowly making friends and getting settled in this amazing and deeply flawed city.
I have a lot more to say about Bombay -- a city that touches my soul a great deal more than Delhi -- and about where I am in terms of wrapping up fieldwork, but that needs to wait until another day. But I hope to pay more attention to this blog, as it does help me make sense of this thing. I hope you're going to tune in!
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