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Commuter Training
7/9/09
This week, the Kolkata team settled more fully into a routine.
We take trains, bike rickshaws, and the underground metro. Some of us wear saris, salwars, leather sandals, and (at night) mumus. We do our laundry by hand and discuss the condition of our digestive systems. We eat with the right hand and wipe with the left.
We also live in a state of dissonance, learning to cope with contrasts in the city and the people.
For example, advertisements for MBA programs and computer language training are ubiquitous and the city seems very modern in some ways. But if you look closer, for example, at a bus, you might see that its side panels are made out of wood and the advertisement for a high-tech financial product is painted by hand.
Industry is everywhere – people who fix flip-flops, mechanics who open a taxi’s hood and make repairs on the spot, and welders who shoot sparks from doorways. But there are still many without dignified work, making larger-scale services like garbage collection seem less efficient.
Interactions at our placements and during travel have been very positive, but there are isolated situations in which it is hard to feel gracious toward others.
When it comes to navigating, we are as likely to be led astray as we are to get accurate directions. Even those who speak the same language don’t use the same names for the same landmarks. Getting good information requires finding the right person: informed, non-threatening and capable of communicating.
Riding the trains is a challenge for many of us. While getting in and out we have been pushed, elbowed, stepped on, hissed at and knocked down. However, we have also been guided and instructed, and had good conversations with other passengers. We recently impressed some Bengali women by responding to “Do you speak Bangla?” with “Ektu ektu” – “A little.”
When the train or metro stops, everybody rushes the doors and pushes until they get where they want to go. Some of us struggle to understand why this happens every time when an orderly line might help everyone board faster. Some of us dread the crush, while others enjoy the adventure.
Most of the girls ride in one of the two ladies’ cars. (Please take a moment to ruminate on this arrangement: on a train with at least ten cars, only two are for women. The others aren’t marked “Men,” but they may as well be. Yuck!) This means avoiding the threat of unwanted touch, and instead braving the masses of sweaty women grappling for a handhold – one of the metal hooks hanging from the ceiling.
The commuter train is part of the daily commute for most of us, and it is becoming a microcosm of the experience here: challenging, contradictory, and an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and the people around us.
Some practicalities for the curious: nearly all of us have had diarrhea, chai breaks are a group favorite, the monsoon is starting and sporadic rains have brought the temperature down; we are all current on our malaria medication.
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