Goodbye, India!

In less than 24 hours, a cab will bring me to the airport and after some more hours - packed like sardines in a tin - I will already be back in Switzerland on January 31; I still cannot believe that the past months passed so fast. I happened to experience so many exciting things, learnt new people and made friends, visited different places and, to make it short, just enjoyed my time in India. I hope you found pleasure in following my blog.

Goodbye, India!

The Karnatakan flag is waving me goodbye too...

I don't want to bore you too much at this point but still like to cast a glance back. I don't have the ambition to present you a well-structured summary but would like to shed light on some of my most distinctive impressions and findings of the last months:

Contrasts and discrepancies: the root cause of culture shock per se! The range from the poorest to the rich people is inconceivable and seeing all the miserable circumstances people are living in can be depressing. Even more shocking is the helplessness you are faced with. It takes quite some time to get along with it and to start accepting this kind of injustice. Sometimes I will still find myself having bad conscience when i.e. spending as much money for a meal as some families will spend for a week's living.

In Bangalore you find places such as the super-posh UB (United Breweries) City Mall as well as...

... miserable tent-colonies, huge slums, people defecating on the roads as sanitary facilities are missing, burning garbage piles, etc.

A lot of contrasts can be found in people and their behaviour, too: there are many extremely friendly but as well many rude people. Some are officious, some are very shy, a lot of people try to cheat foreigners whereas others are very helpful, some are arrogant and don't respect fellow human beings while others show too much respect, some will immodestly stare at foreigners and others are very approachable etc. In general it is difficult to evaluate people and sometimes you unfortunately have to be mistrusting. Nonetheless I got to know a lot of nice people. Especially the people of lower castes can be very sympathetic! A lot of this "low-class labourers" at Bühler are still flabbergasted and very happy when I greet them or do some small talk - things that local high-class people would never do. I will always remember people like the Chai Wallah (tea boy) or our employee in the lab who are extremely friendly, help wherever they can and kept smiling.

Anyway, working in this country is very special and can unlikely be compared to what we are used to in Europe. There are several factors which complicate working such as a strong hierarchy, lots of idling actions, empty promises by co-workers but also many practical sources of interference like power or tap water break downs, long shipping times and delayed supplies. I also feel that the intensity of labour and the outcome per employee is not as high as it could be, which my Indian friends would certainly deny, though!

As you may have sensed in the posts about traffic, the Indian understanding of safety is a totally different one. I often had the feeling that any possible safety measurement will be ignored on purpose. Apart from road traffic this applies also to the safety at the work place or even in air transportation. Have you ever seen a flight attendant desperately trying to reach her seat while the plane has already started the take-off run?! Or can you imagine that parents refuse to secure their children with the seat belt?

Anyway, this stay has changed many of my views. And a lot of things, which are perceived as problematic in Europe, I don't see as narrow anymore: pollution, emission guidelines, waste management, food safety, delays in official transportation (the total delay of all my domestic flights exceeded the flight time by far!), complicated officialdom and so on. Hence, I am also anxious how I will experience the (over-)regulated and controlled life back in Switzerland; the chances are high that I will undergo a culture shock the other way round!

There are so many other things which I could point out here; but actually I promised not to bore you... So, let me put one last statement:

Before departing to Bangalore last September I heard and read on various occasions that India is one of these countries which you will either love or hate. More than four months, lots of working hours in the Bühler analytical lab, 33 blog-posts, several trips through the country, countless rice meals and chai-teas later I cannot tell you if I rather love or hate it. In my eyes it is not possible to simplify this answer. Sure, there were some frustrating days at work where I would have been ready to take the next flight home. But on the other hand side, there were so many beautiful moments which I am happy not to have missed. Sure, India is not a country which I like every aspect of it and its culture is just too different from what I am used to. But I am sure that I will have nostalgic feelings soon because I spent a fantastic time abroad. Thinking of the delicious Indian dishes for example makes me feel melancholic already now!

At this point I would like to pronounce a big thank you to my family and my girlfriend who cared for my things at home while I was away. Without them my stay would not have been so trouble-free! And thanks a lot to all my readers; I am proud to having registered more than 1700 page views. So far, I have no precise plans for the blog's future but I can imagine publishing pictures and reports of upcoming holidays or the like. So, please stay tuned!

Let's conclude the blogging from India with the local tourism slogan that has accompanied me over the last months and which accurately formulates my feelings and experiences:

The meaning of "incredible" is as multisided as India itself; it reaches from "wunderbar" to "unglaublich"...