Sunday, June 26, 2011

My Days in Delhi: Part 2

I continue today the discussion I started in my last post. In this I will talk a bit about my encounters with the poorer classes in Delhi and hope that you can draw some contrasts to my last post which focused on the middle and upper classes. I will also group students in this discussion simply because by our Western standards, the jobless are often lumped in with the impoverished in official statistics. However I will also try and explain the difference between these groups in India, and then hopefully give some thoughts on why achieving a sustainable society has extra challenges because of the existence of these groups.

My first encounter with students about my own age in India came within my first few days in Delhi. I happened to be walking through Connaught Place and was called over by a couple of young guys named Ganesh and Subhash. They were both recent computer science graduates (a popular major in India) enjoying a day off from their job searching in the sunshine. I could understand why when they said that they had been job searching for several months on end and had not really found anything. Worse, each had only had a couple of interviews. They explained that there are far more computer science graduates each year than there are jobs, even with the IT sector in India booming. So each call for a position netted dozens to hundreds of applicants. I witnessed this firsthand when the hotel in which I stayed hosted 7 days of interviews for a shipping company—over 570 applicants interviewed over those days.

So though these students seemed cheerful today, they had the difficulty of being without any income and reliant on family and relations to support them until they could find a job. Neither could guess when a position might arise, and when it did it would almost certainly not be the one they wanted. It turned out that during my time in India both of them found jobs, but then had to work very long hours doing things they enjoyed but which were not ideal for either. However I suppose they should count themselves lucky to have jobs.

Throughout my time I met several other students, especially on my various weekends out or at conferences. It was often true that students were more curious than adults and more willing to approach me and find out who I was. Perhaps because they had learned English in school they were more confident in speaking to me, or perhaps they felt kinship because of the age similarity. For whatever reason, in both Chandigarh and Amritsar I was approached by students, two in computer science and one in business, and then later at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit met an engineering student.

In all of my interactions with these students (including the two that I met on my first days in Delhi) one big theme emerged—to them I was not just a friend but a potential avenue either to school in the US or a free meal. It bothered me a bit that I felt like the “friendship” was being taken advantage of just a bit in the sense that it did not seem as though there was just a genuine desire to hang out and talk. There were always suggestions to go and get food (followed often by profession of lack of funds) or questions about how they could get jobs in America or go to university in America. Now I don’t mind helping friends, but when after talking with someone for about 10 minutes you ask if he can help you go to America, that’s a bit forward to me. The worst was being asked to serve as a sponsor for someone to go to University in the US. At least on that one I had legal ground to firmly say no (though I never said yes anyway to these requests). As for the food requests, it was a bit disheartening to see that even the younger generation had adopted the association of foreigners (even poor student foreigners) with money. I somehow felt that had I too been Indian, money suddenly would be found and the cost of the meal shared. Perhaps, however, there is also something cultural I am missing in this, and perhaps next time I meet any of them my meal will be offered instead of theirs being asked.

After all of these conversations, the impression I got is that many students dream of being able to go to the US, few actually have the means to get into school there or pay for it. It seems as well that no one is really there to give them career advice or school advice. This was especially clear in two separate requests for me to tell students where in the US they should apply. I was given grades, test scores, and interests and basically asked to be a guidance counselor. I explained that it was not my job to do such research for them, but since they clearly had internet access (they both were on Facebook), I explained how to do such searches themselves. That, however, did not seem appealing, and I don’t believe either followed up.

These encounters give me an interesting view of education and schools in India. I had previously been told by a researcher at The Energy and Resources Institute in Delhi that education in India did not emphasize individual thought but rather being able to copy and paste relevant information. In some ways, this approach carries over to how I was asked about school applications and ways of going to the US. Rather than generate the information themselves, they were looking for someone to spoon-feed it to them. I don’t want to generalize too quickly here and make this occurrence seem epidemic in India (though the TERI researcher’s comment led me in the direction of that conclusion) but if I did encounter a representative sample, then this could pose a challenge for India’s growth in the future. While the education system is improving rapidly (something you have to give credit for considering the baseline from which the nation began 65 years ago), without a spirit of independent research and knowledge creation it will be difficult for India to rise to the top of world nations. In a few conversations with other travelers and scholars, I am led to believe that this style of education is fairly common in the developing world and perhaps is the reason why many of these nations have trouble growing economically (except those like China and India where sheer numbers can provide incredible growth).

Now before I get too down on education and innovation in India, I would like to counter that there are some smart, innovative individuals in the nation that I met. Two happened to be students in Chandigarh. Though in their first year of studies in computer science (what else), they had already begun writing plot lines and code for video games. Close friends, they hoped that after their education was finished, they might be able to work together on their own start-up company making such games. More recently, I received a message from one of them that he has started a web design and graphic design business. You can check out some of his work here. I know they are still young, but just to find this entrepreneurial, innovative spirit was refreshing. In my experience, it is rare to find such thoughts and ideas being carried out among 19 year olds in America even with the education system we have (definitely more thoughts to be explored on that one, but not appropriate here). All I can hope is that these two students won’t be discouraged by their education or by jobs they may have to take en route to their dream company to pay the bills. With the competition and long hours that I have been told are common in computer-based employment in India, I would not be surprised if many young, bright individuals burn out and never get to implement their dreams. Hopefully I am wrong on that.

Yet to many, even the long hours and low pay of call centers are a dream that is still unattainable. For much of India’s population, living in poverty is still a reality and for many, even a simple job is still a dream. Every day as I rode the Metro to and from meetings or activities and then walked the streets to get to and fro I encountered the urban poor of India. Even within this “class,” though, there are many different levels. The people here range from those who own shops or businesses catering to the local populations in the poorer areas to those who must beg for a living. I will try and explain from my observations a bit more about what I mean on this.

My first impressions of Delhi came in one of these poorer neighborhoods (you can read more about those first few days in one of my previous blog posts).Here, though many people owned shops or sold goods, the living was clearly not good as the buyers often had the same income level as the sellers. Tourists were targeted for the extra income they could be expected to bring (mostly through quoting higher prices than an Indian would get and then counting on the tourists not bargaining as well). Here as well many tried to make a living selling travel packages to their villages elsewhere in the country, usually in Kashmir. They said they must do this work so that their family had a source of income. For some, I doubt this assertion is entirely true but for others, I believe it may be. One such many took me into his home the first night for dinner. After navigating the narrow alleyways between buildings, stepping over mud puddles and sleeping dogs, and passing many huddled around small stoves with little food, we arrived at his building. Though it was run-down and dirty, it at least had plumbing and electricity. His “apartment” (if it can be called that) was simply a room—four walls and a floor—with a wooden door leading in. He and his cousin slept on mats on the floor with pillows and no more. The only other possessions were a deck of cards and a pile of clothes. A few magazine pictures adorned the walls. The kitchen and bathroom were shared among the whole floor. Not exactly glamorous living conditions, and yet I imagine he was better off than others in the city.

Aside from those who own shops or service centers, many of the lower classes are employed in poor service jobs, including servants for the wealthy and the most visible—rickshaw drivers. I have no idea how much per day these drivers make, but it is clear from the clothes they wear that it is not lucrative. Moreover, with so many drivers in India and bargaining being the norm, it can often be hard to get a fare. It is no wonder then that people like me get charged much more than is normal because we are not expected to know the correct fare. Yet what amazed me about some of these drivers is that they often would turn down a fare even if the price was fair because they did not want to. I suppose that this visible declining of fares is part of what gives rise to the stereotype of some Indians as being lazy. Though it is fully within their right to decline such fares, it does seem as though even small trips would be worthwhile to these drivers when outwardly it would appear as if the money is needed. When I finally did agree on a price with my drivers, I noticed that many are uneducated. It seems that it is an entrance position for those who move into the city or a job for those who could not afford school earlier in life. While this is a good thing, for many it seems as though they become stuck in that position with little chance of moving upward. India’s social structure makes this difficult, and the bonds that form among rickshaw drivers seem to only strengthens this lack of upward mobility.

As you ride in your rickshaw through the streets of India you see the very bottom of Indian society. They are even more noticeable as you walk the streets. They are the hardest part, in my opnion, about living in India or visiting. You quickly develop a tough skin, though, because if not you would soon be among them. They are those who must beg for a living. Unfortunately these displaced people make up such a large part of the population, many living in slums or other informal housing, that you feel sometimes as if it is every other step that you are begged of. For these people, life must be very tough as it is unlikely that they get much money per day given that for many in India money is tight. The good news is that organizations are working daily to help these people find better jobs and employment, especially for the children in this position. The challenge is that there are so many (and the number is growing as more migrate to the cities) that to help them all is very tough.

I have heard some very bad stories about India’s urban poor. They range from stories of babies being drugged to look sicklier than they are to try and gain more money to beggars in rich neighborhoods being beaten for approaching white tourists. The worst stories involve organized groups of children sent out to beg and then return the money to the ringleader (reminiscent of Fagan’s gang in Dickens’ classic Oliver Twist). Never having seen either of these myself I cannot assess their truth, so take both with a grain of salt. However I can believe that certain beggars would try and find an “angle” so to speak given the numbers that exist and therefore the competition. What bothered me most, however, was the persistence. Several times while sitting in a park I was approached by beggars, often children, who would not relent until I finally had to get up and move. Even after being told no, many of the beggars I encountered would only redouble their efforts. Tugging at clothes was common, following me in my path for a bit often occurred, and on rare occasions, my path was temporarily obstructed by those wanting money. As I said, this was the toughest part of living in India simply because the condition in which these people appear makes you want to give something, but the reality is that there are too many to give to some and not others. Money is better spent giving to organizations that help remove these people from poverty than directly to the people themselves.

So why is this all relevant to the discussion about sustainable cities in India? I’ll start with perhaps the biggest and most obvious challenge this very spread out population causes and that is the spending needed on development and infrastructure to accommodate and equalize the population. Currently India is in dire need of huge infrastructural investment to bring sanitation, plumbing, electricity, and mass transit to much of the nation so that those in the lower classes can simply improve their lifestyles to an acceptable level and maintain safer living conditions. This means that money otherwise could be spent on environment and efficiency improvements must rightly instead go to merely raising the average standard of living. I am not criticizing these priorities in any way but simply stating that until this happens it will be hard for India to focus on sustainable development.

Even once the infrastructure is in place to raise the standard of living, the income disparity in India and the rapid development of a middle class will create another challenge as they strive to reach the levels of comfort that the upper classes and middle classes in Europe and America enjoy. Though at this point we are assuming that basic needs are adequately cared for, what will happen is that extra income will likely be spent on items such as air conditioners (which are still not common in India homes), televisions, and computers, all of which will add to the already stressed Indian electrical grid. So instead of merely needing to provide low-emissions energy of the existing demand, India will suddenly have to supply low-emissions electricity for double or triple the current demand. This is already being tackled in India through consumer-oriented measures of reducing electricity consumption in electronics. Rating schemes and mandatory energy limits are being imposed on some new products to help citizens make informed choices on low-energy devices. However the sheer potential for electronic growth in India is incredible and means that no matter how hard the government tries, demand will grow. Along with electricity growth will be growth in demand for water both for human consumption and as a result of the new sewer systems and plumbing. India is already water-stressed and this increased demand just to reach a basic standard of living will necessitate innovative solutions to water supply and demand.

One other challenge that is tied to these other two is that there is not a standard housing or commercial solution for India’s sustainable development. That statement is pretty much true everywhere, but in India the challenge is exacerbated by the extreme differences in wealth and housing types. In this country where a 27 storey tower for one family overlooks the largest slum in the nation you clearly have vastly different challenges facing different sectors of the population. For architects, the challenge is how to create good, efficient low-cost housing that will help improve the quality of life for the urban poor without creating discomfort or economic disadvantage. Because of high costs for efficient and sustainable materials, it would be very possible for India’s urban poor to continue to be housed in inefficient buildings. This means that they must choose either between poor comfort or spending large amounts of their income on heating and cooling. It is for this reason that many architects are looking to traditional housing for insights. The climatic diversity in India complicates this challenge further and provides another impetus for considering traditional housing styles.

These are by no means the only challenges for development or sustainability in India caused by such the large disparity of classes in the country, but if I were to list them all, it would take pages. So for now I’ll leave it there but as always, I’m happy to discuss more if anyone is interested. I guess overall though I hope to leave the impression that India is a very diverse nation for many reasons, not the least of which is the class structure. It almost has two polar opposite societies increasingly linked by the burgeoning middle class. It will be interesting to watch how this changes and develops in the coming years. Personally I think it will transform the nation and provide power for India’s development. However it is a long road yet until that is the case.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

My Days in Delhi: Part 1

It is an understatement to say that India is a complex nation. It overwhelms your senses, challenges your understanding of social norms, and throws you something new at each turn. Two and a half months is not enough to unravel its mysteries and comprehend its dichotomies, but it is at least enough to experience them and make a few educated conjectures about their origins, meanings, and importance. In this post I attempt to do just that using my experiences in Delhi as a basis. I hope that after reading this, you’ll have a glimpse of what life in Delhi is like for several different classes of people and how it challenges the Western mind to be immersed in it. For those reading who have been in India, I’d really appreciate hearing how your experiences were similar or different and some thoughts and reflections as well. This post will focus just on one part of my experience, namely my interactions with some of Delhi’s upper and middle classes. In later posts, I will look at the other segments of Delhi’s life I saw and try to piece together some thoughts about this diverse and interesting nation.

In my time in Delhi, the largest continuous chunk of which came after my adventure to Agra, I found myself caught in some ways between different strata of society. Throughout my stay I had been offered free accommodation at the capital’s newest eco-friendly hotel, Green Leaf, in exchange for a bit of English teaching and marketing work—a fair trade in my mind—and in taking this offer had also opened the door to a friendship with the owner and developer. (As an aside, I want to point out that this is a very “Indian” way of doing business—bartering or trading to strike a deal rather than just selling based on a posted price like in the Western world). Throughout my friendship with the owner, I came to learn that he was part of the higher circles of Delhi’s social strata. Having grown up in Delhi the grandson of a transportation magnate, he was educated at some of Delhi’s top secondary schools and universities. Unlike many Indians in the 1970s and 80s, he was able to finish his MBA in the US at the prestigious Harvard Business School.

All of this background is to introduce that when I spent time with the owner, it was not as an average member of Delhi life. On multiple occasions I returned to my hotel via the Metro and my own two feet (my preferred forms of transit for economic, social, and environmental reasons) from meeting an architect to find a car and driver waiting to convey me the two and a half miles to his house—a distance I could easily walk in about the same time as the car took fighting Delhi’s horrendous rush hour traffic (it makes LA look tame—at least we don’t have drivers going the wrong way, making lanes out of nothing, and bumping and grinding one another as part of the normal routine). While bouncing ideas around for new sustainable projects, he and I occasionally dined out, sometimes taking sushi, noodles, freshly prepared chicken curries, or kathi rolls and sometimes also indulging in a glass of wine or a cocktail.

Yet it wasn’t as much being driven around town like a celebrity or dining out that gave me a glimpse at the upper echelons of Delhi society. Instead it was the occasional glimpses into his social calendar or home life that provided insight. It seemed that often when I dropped by the office to chat with him he was out attending some function or other at his old college, or on invitation from a member of his Student’s Association. There was definitely an “Old Boys Club” attitude among those who had been lucky enough to study in his class at university, and these days, the now successful businessmen from that group filled his calendar with constant invitations to cricket tournaments, guest lectures, and golf tournaments (one of which he proudly won).

While I did not have the opportunity to attend any of these events with the owner, I did get a chance to mingle with others in his circle on several occasions at his house. On these visits, I was always received by my host and one of his house “boys” (all of whom were much older than me) and offered coffee, a snack, or a drink at least. On separate occasions, I attended parties at his house, one of which was thrown by his wife and lavishly decorated and catered—there was even top quality jazz saxophone playing by yours truly (that’s how you know it’s a classy party). Though it was obvious from the preparation and decoration that money had been put into these parties, I’m sure the expense would likely pale in comparison to the cost of some parties of the wealthy in the States. There was nothing extremely extraordinary or lavish, but compared to the world just down the road, it was certainly a vast difference. Then again, to be fair, though he is well-off, he is not among the ranks of the super wealthy which is a small and extremely elite group in India that likely can outdo even America’s wealthy in opulence.

Yet the most interesting aspect of these parties was not the decoration but the people. Of course his family members attended, but at the same time there were many friends whose occupations ranged from a couple working at the US Embassy to owners of small and medium-sized companies to high-powered financial and business minds at some of Delhi’s top companies. Conversations ranged from fishing to the new models of Jaguar, and of course politics and recollections from years gone by. On one particular occasion, I recall having drinks with the owner and a friend at his house (a well-known model and actor in India) and was regaled with a story of how this guest had used his influential stature to procure a visa for a friend when the embassy was dragging its feet. From the time he called to the time he had the documents in hand was only a few hours, whereas without his intervention it could have been days before the visa was processed. From his story, I got a glimpse of the importance of connections and influence in Indian society and thought back on all the times he offered for me to stay longer in Delhi promising that the visa would be no issue. This extralegal intervention was intriguing as it shows exactly why many are frustrated with Indian society. Certainly a well-placed call can move papers along in any nation, but the scale of it in India—contacting a powerful acquaintance to pressure on your behalf and getting results in hours despite the law—is tending toward the corruption that many complain plagues the country.

On these nights as well it was interesting to watch the parade of cars and drivers pick up and drop off their guests not because the cars were exotic or incredibly expensive but just because it left me wondering where the drivers would go while their employers were enjoying merriment and revelry. Once inside, the guests and I dined on catered hors-d’oeuvres and drank imported liquor, neither of which were part of my life in Delhi otherwise.

When not in the company of the owner but at the hotel, I spent time with the hotel staff. The managers and office staff were my main friends as they spoke at least some English—the rest of the staff knew only a few words related to their jobs (even with this limited English, however, we occasionally dined together). The owner had told me that many of these employees had come from poorer backgrounds but now were part of the burgeoning middle class in India. Now the middle class in India is an interesting phenomenon that has only arisen really since Dr. Manmohan Singh restructured the economy to eliminate the “Hindu rate of growth” thereby allowing the economy to expand at its own rate. The result has been a greater number of jobs between the lower manufacturing and local services and the top level of businessmen. Yet the middle class is not the same as it is in the US. It is not easy to earn a good wage in India and harder still to move up the social ladder (holdovers of the caste system, even though it is officially illegal, still act as barriers among other things). However for those who do make up part of the middle class, there is a noticeable change in the clothing, goods, and even preferred modes of transport.

For instance, I take my friend the hotel manager as an example. He had come from a lower class background but now, thanks to his job at the hotel, sported a laptop, an old used car that occasionally did not work, a Blackberry phone, and a few new shirts and jackets. Of all of these he was very proud and saw as signs of his increasing status. One day he proudly announced to me as well that his wife was learning how to use the computer at home. Yet despite his changing status, he had not lost his sense of what was most important. He was at his proudest when talking about his daughter and showing me photos or short videos he had taken with the laptop and always worked hard at the hotel.

The manager was not alone in these qualities. Of all of my newer middle class friends, and especially the college students and young professionals I met, there was an interesting mix of traditional values and newer ideals. At the hotel especially, those who had worked hard and could recall worse days continued to work diligently even though they had attained a higher status than they perhaps had ever hoped for as children already. There was reverence for the family—on several occasions one of the staff would be absent while taking care of a family member’s health. Yet at the same time there was a new consumerism and a clear desire for more and more material goods. Anytime I popped out of my room with something in hand they had not previously seen a look of wonder crossed their faces. The glimmer in the eyes of each told me that they were studying the object and dreaming of perhaps having something like that themselves. My computer, camera, and iPod became objects that to them represented a yet higher status that in their minds I could see they were thinking of attaining. It was strange to think about this becoming a trend here in a land where I could wander the streets and buy any knock-off goods I wanted very cheaply (just be careful—I think it’s impossible to buy a 128 GB flash drive for $2, but they will try to sell you exactly that!).

Though interested in this complex issue of a new middle class in India and what consumerism might mean for sustainability and building issues, with my particular friends I was more interested and surprised by flashes of contempt I saw for the lower classes. On one occasion, I accompanied the manager on a sales call to try and drum up more business for the hotel. As we wandered the streets near the property we were approached by a woman in rags begging for money or food. To me it was nothing new at that point. Having been in India for over a month I was used to being begged of (more on that in my next post). Yet to the manager, it was unthinkable that such a woman should beg of us, but more specifically, of me. He became very angry when she persisted and eventually after a bit of yelling we left. The next day he was still visibly upset about it and continuously apologizing to me for the occurrence. I didn’t really know what to think of this particular occurrence. At once it was kind that he felt so protective of me but at the same time, like many in India, this woman didn’t have much option but to beg. I didn’t see the action as unjustifiable or so heinous in comparison to the reality of India that it deserved such a strong rebuke. Perhaps the manager felt that begging is not necessary or even wrong as a way to earn a living (certainly he has found another, better pathway for himself and his family), but even so, his reaction and visible anger was strong for this. I wonder a bit if there was some hidden relic of the caste system or past social structures that played a part in this anger. I don’t have the knowledge either in Hindi (the language in which the exchange took place) nor in the culture to understand if such a motivation exists, but it was just a speculation.

On that note, I think I will leave off for now and continue this in my next post with some thoughts on the lower classes and some musings on the future of social structures and sustainability in India. Again, any thoughts or other observations are greatly appreciated!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

My First Article

I know it's been over a month since my last post. I apologize to those who have been following the blog closely but it's been a very busy few months with a lot more trips out of London than previously anticipated (which is a good thing that you'll hear more about later!). However, I have been busy writing as well and wanted to share the result of all of that with you today. Back in September at a conference in Shanghai I met an editor for the online magazine China Dialogue and after some conversation thought that perhaps I'd be able to put in an article as a contributing author. After a long process and some delays, I finally put together an article on the current state of brownfield remediation in China. It went live online two days ago and so I thought I'd share with all of you. Please do check it out at http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4329-Confronting-China-s-industrial-ghosts and if you are interested in the state of environmental affairs in China, follow the whole online magazine--it's a great read and quite informative!