A reminder of things better not to think about

A gentle reminder was offered us today that not everything about India evolves around economic development, a truly multi-cultural democracy and happy, smiling children. The following email reached all of us today:

"As you all must be aware, the verdict in the Ayodhya case is due tomorrow at 3:30PM. In the light of that, it is advised to everyone that please do NOT go out of campus after today evening till you are sure that the situation is normal after the verdict has been pronounced.

Exchange students: we would advise you to take special care and make any travel plans (inside Ahmedabad or even outside over the weekend) after consulting a local person who would be able to tell you more about the situation."

The Ayodhya case is about a plot of land, where once a mosque and before that a Hindu temple stood. The Babri mosque was burnt by a Hindu mob in 1992 and in the violence that followed some 2000 people died. The verdict spoken of will determine whether the previous Hindu temple was demolished for the mosque to be built, or whether it was simply modified. Apparently, this will decide what might consequently be rebuilt, thus the anxiety.

Ahmedabad has sizable Hindu and Muslim populations and has seen riots before. In 2002, roughly 1000 people were killed as the result of communal violence in the state of Gujarat and many Ahmedabad buildings were then set on fire. The riots were the result of some 58 Hindus, mostly women and children,murdered by a mob attacking the train they were travelling in. All in all, the possibility of renewed violence should not be discounted. I, for one, will remain on campus doing some much-needed reading.

The picture shows the Babri mosque and has been downloaded from Wikipedia.

Dorm naming ceremony

One of the really good things about IIMA is the fact that all students reside in dorms in groups of some 25 people. Not only don't you have to bother about finding your own accommodation, they also have people come clean your room, do your laundry (albeit for a small fee) and frequently spray the corridors against mosquitos. I'm not sure about the cost-benefit analysis when it comes to that last thing, as the hallways after this always resemble a scene straight from the Battle of Lützen in 1632 with myself as a later version of Gustavus Adolphus Magnus [sic!] attempting to make it back from enemy lines (the communal bathroom) without too much superfluous inhaling. The smell is distinct, that's for sure.

Another good thing about living in a dorm (in this particular case, no 15) is the dorm culture, which is extremely friendly and helpful in all sorts of ways. There are parties and dinners, cinema visits and traditions. One tradition is the dorm naming ceremony. All residents here go under a particular name, which obviously wouldn't be the one they were given as children and, as obviously, not one of their own choice. I received mine yesterday in a most intricate ceremony, which I have no intention of describing in any detail as that could ruin the experience for any future student here. Let's just say there was water and screaming in Hindi (that would be me... several times).

The dorm name is supposed to be based on a story about yourself; I chose the one in which friends of mine (by accident I'd assume...) abandoned me at a St. Petersburg underground station, causing me to almost (a matter of centimetres) miss the night express to Moscow. Based on this incident, my new dorm name, a combination of English and Hindi, is... dam-da-da-dam: RusTy. Not only based on one of the defining moments of my life, it also corresponds with the colour of my hair.

Fruit freak show

Siamese banana twins - not for sale in the European Union

The Indian cellphone ordeal

There are a few things I'm unable to grasp when it comes to India. Admittedly, many things here are different from the way they are at home, but that doesn't change the fact that most things can be understood on at least some level. At this particular moment I find the cellphone issue a little bit extra incomprehensible.

Getting a prepaid sim card is more complicated than at home, however still quite manageable, as long as you have a passport size photo of yourself and haven't forgotten your dorm address in Ahmedabad, your permanent address in your home country and your father's name. Yes, for some reason beyond my imagination you have to fill in your dad's name, information about whom has now been filed in what I imagine is the very large archive of Airtel.

After all this work one could at least hope to have as little as possible to do with one's network provider, as any contacts would most likely result in further paperwork. Yesterday I had to top up my sim card, so I went to the Airtel kiosk on campus expecting it to be a rather straightforward process. I gave my phone to the people on duty, who then made a phone call and texted some messages, using sometimes mine, sometimes their own phone. They then told me that the company had for some reason deactivated my card, making all calls and texting impossible. Imagine my surprise as I received this information as I had been texting people that same day. They then told me to wait ten minutes. Now, it's been activated again, they said.

Now, this would have been good news of course had they been true. You see, the same evening as I attempted to text Lovisa I was suddenly unable to text or phone anybody. (Mind you, everything had worked brilliantly up until the point when I first tried to make use of Airtel's services, which they of course charge for.) Somewhat restless I returned to the kiosk after today's lunch and did my best to explain that I was now perfectly able to receive any incoming messages that came my way, however unable to return the favour. The woman then yet again made some phone calls and texted some messages. After ten minutes she said: "Now, it's working again." I'd better cherish the moment.

An Ahmedabad cappuccino

This week has so far been pretty, dare I say very, calm. Most days I only have one class; the exception being today, when I had none. This is because I've made a few changes to my schedule - dropped a few courses and added others. Some of my courses haven't even started yet, which contributes to the rather sleepy situation here. This Saturday will, however, see the beginning of Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate Restructuring, which is known to be a killer even among Indian students. It's also known to be one of the best courses on offer, so even if it's bound to bring with it a substantial workload, I'm still looking forward to it.

Today we did a few excursions, first to the wonderful café Chocolate House, which really is exactly what it sounds like. It was good indeed, however as with everything western in Ahmedabad they try desperately to get it right, yet somehow fail every time. It's too spicy (almost everything), too salty (pesto penne), too watery (brownies, hot chocolate, mocktails), too sweet (coffee) or too really anything. Therefore, imagine my surprise when we discovered a Lavazza café at the Iscon Mall, which served an almost decent cappuccino - a taste of home in the same sense as the occasional sip of Indian whisky mixed with Pepsi. I was also able to get my hands on the last copy of Joe Sacco's comic book Footnotes in Gaza, and that at a pleasant 15% discount.

Speaking of food and drink - I've been desperately losing weight ever since I arrived, to the very much so expressed concern of Lovisa, my girlfriend. It seems I've now been able to halt the development, assisted by some protein supplements. I shall, though, be careful not to make any alterations to the carefully composed mix of sugary biscuits and fatty crisps I regularly consume at night, so not to jeopardize my recovery.

The intricate decorations of a 16th century Ahmedabad mosque on picture.

Ganesh Visarjan

Today marked the end of Ganesh Chaturthi, the Hindu festival of the god Ganesh (the famous one with an elephant head). It's called Ganesh Visarjan and was celebrated on campus, first with a priest singing various hymns in front of a Ganesh statue outside the mess; this was then followed by a procession around campus, accompanied by drums and dancing. For reasons of tempo we then took a number of rickshaws to the Sabarmati River to immerse the statue and say farewell to it. We were, though, not the only ones. A number of similar processions were spotted on the way and the river bank was covered in people. Many were children (exceptionally happy ones) and apparently the funniest thing in the world is to have your picture taken by a Westerner. We were happy to comply.

Of course, the Swedish election doesn't go unnoticed here. Charlotte and I will have a fun all-nighter clicking the refresh button on various Swedish news sites, while eating biscuits.

Campus monkey in picture

After a week-long email and telephone conversation with the Stockholm School of Economics, they in the end decided to lower the amount of credits we have to take here at IIMA. Instead of 6.25 credits, which happens to be more (!) than the Indian students are required to take, they will now be satisfied with 5, as was the case for SSE students coming here in previous years.

Yesterday also saw no less than two parties and a sighting of Jupiter and its moons. First, there was a surprise party for on of the Italians students on his birthday. On the way I stopped by the IIMA Astronomy Society that had put up their telescope as the sky was unusually clear and the possibility to watch Jupiter unusually good yesterday evening. After the birthday celebration there was a dorm party in my house, where I had the opportunity to try some Goa port, which was surprisingly tasty. Happy days, indeed.

I'm happy to say that I'm by now 100% well again after my disastrous strike of stomach sickness earlier. Many thanks to Lauralynn for the "eat a lot of yoghurt" advice, but as it turns out - yoghurt is one of the things I've been consuming endlessly ever since I came. Funnily enough, the mess yoghurt is one of the things that many exchange students haven't tried out of fear of dairy products, even though it's probably one of the healthier things on the menu. Speaking of food, some of you might be interested to know exactly how I don't succumb to famine on an everyday basis. The answer is that we have a student mess here at campus, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Many exchange students have already decided to opt out of it and eat other stuff, but I kind of like it. It's a little bit of the same stuff everyday, but so far I haven't become bored with it (bar the breakfast, which is a rather bizarre mix of cornflakes, white bread with some kind of jelly-style jam and what I believe is a spicy form of scrambled eggs, though I'm not quite sure, e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y; it's, to put it mildly, extremely monotonous). (Pictures of lunch and breakfast.)

Speaking of eating and drinking, yesterday saw a birthday party for one of the other exchange students. It didn't bear any resemblance to the one described previously in this blog, but it did contain one ingredient somewhat missed. That ingredient was alcohol, as one person had been able to get his hands on an alcohol permit. All my friends know I'm not a heavy drinker, but a little sip of it, even if it was Indian whisky and Pepsi (guäh...) provided a reminder of home. Comforting, in an odd way.

Course load and elephant gods

My health situation has somewhat improved, however I'm still surviving on a diet consisting of yoghurt, rice and biscuits. Rehydration is a slow process and judging from several symptoms, I still have some way to go.

Today I initiated what I hope (though don't expect) to be a fruitful email correspondence with the Stockholm School of Economics. The reason is the course load that we're expected to take on, equivalent to 6.25 IIMA credits. This was recently increased from 5 that was the requirement for previous SSE exchange students, which in itself was pretty high compared to the 4 credits that students from other universities must take. It should also be noted that it's not uncommon for native students to take fewer, as I've been told. Fingers crossed...

Coincidentally, yesterday marked the beginning of the 10-day Ganesh Chaturthi celebration, in honour of elephant-headed god Ganesh. He's known as the remover of obstacles, so Ganesh, please, any help with the fellows at SSE would be highly appreciated. The picture shows a statue of Ganesh currently on display outside the student mess, complete with offerings.

First food reaction

It was bound to happen sometime. Yesterday evening I fell sick. Really sick. Something I ate, something I drank. Not to go into any specifics, but I didn't get that many hours of sleep this night. In the morning it was straight to the campus physician, who prescribed a number of different pills to get my body in order again. I'm spending this day (luckily a public holiday with no classes) rehydrating.

The picture shows a 16th century eight-storey well in Ahmedabad that we visited a couple of days ago.

First day of classes

Today was so the first day of classes. Since the wonderful Stockholm School of Economics requires its exchange students to take more credits than is the case for any other exchange students, my schedule is fuller than most people's. Today saw two courses.

First it was Digital Inclusion for Development, which focuses on how information and communication technology can help poor countries develop by bridging the digital divide. The topic sounds fun and the professors very competent. Good pick.

After lunch then came Consumer Based Business Strategies, which pretty much focuses on what the title promises. The professor in this course is well known for cold calling on individual students to see if they've prepared properly and today was no exception. I'm sure this course will require a little bit of work, but the topic is interesting and the professor, though somewhat scary, seems highly competent. And he teaches barefoot.

The photo shows my room lizard, Pluto.

Course registration

This morning we all woke up to an incredible bang of thunder, as the rain kept pouring down on poor Ahmedabad. The sound was truly astonishing and I dare say I have never heard thunder of that magnitude. Pretty neat.

Today marked our first official day at IIMA, as course registrations took place. We had all signed up for courses that we'd like to take previously, however as it turned out some courses were no longer offered and some were all of a sudden no longer available to exchange students. There was a lot of teeth grinding among the people in classroom 3 this morning, obviously. Fortunately for me, all my pre-selected courses were still there and I could descend to the literature office and collect all my books and compendia (shown on picture).

After a quick visit to the campus Bank of India branch to pay the fees for boarding, literature et cetera that come from being a student here, three newly found friends and myself took to the road and disregarded the normal campus canteen lunch for a Barbecue Nation showdown à la all you can eat. Good value for money, precisely as tonight's dinner at another restaurant, which was sponsored by a few school alumni. Tomorrow classes start.

Happy Birthday

Returning from dinner, I was greeted by one of my dorm fellows (they're all Indian, at least so far), who informed me that there was a birthday celebration going to take place. This is a major event here at IIMA, which provides especially the first year students, who study extremely hard, to blow off some steam. Now, as you might remember, alcohol is banned in the entire state of Gujarat, meaning some other kind of let-go instrument is desperately needed. This is violence.

Two floors up the birthday boy was suspended from the hands of his friends, who were holding on to his arms and legs, so that he was lying horizontally in the air. All the others then beat him up with the help of their flip-flops. Judging by the sound these made when hitting his bottom, I can tell it was in no way painless. Somewhere in the middle he was also carried out into the bathroom, though because of the rather poor visibility at the moment I can offer no eyewitness account to what actually happened in there. I only saw that he was carried from the shower to the urinals to the toilet booths, all under what sounded as heavy protest.

Four girls had been invited (boys and girls live in separate dorms), whose job it was to cut a very tiny cake. They then shared each piece with the b-day kid and for every piece they would rub and throw cream in his face. In accordance with the tradition, he then gave a sentimental speech in front of everybody. After all this came a bigger cake we could all share (eating, not throwing).

I asked around, but no one was able to tell me where this tradition comes from. It's been there forever, even though "they are more violent in some other dorms". All the same, I was very careful to tell everybody I met that my birthday is in January, when I've already left.

The pictures show parts of the IIMA campus.

Ahmedabad - day 1

After several successful attempts at running late while trying to catch airport coaches and connecting flights in Kista and Dubai (none of which were my own fault) and with three hours top of accumulated sleep, I finally arrived in Ahmedabad early this morning. As the sun was shining and temperatures had reached 30+ degrees Celsius, the Panama hat I so cleverly invested in recently proved to come in handy (and it was on sale!). We were immediately driven to IIMA, where we were then greeted by the merry men of the Student Activities Centre, who provided us with forms to fill in and the keys to our dorm rooms. The rooms, as can be seen on the photographs, are very plain and simple. A keen interior decorator myself, I would perhaps have tried to scale down the prison cell-esque approach to modern student housing, but I seriously can't complain. Definitely not as there's somebody else doing the cleaning for me, for as my closest friends and family know, cleaning remains the one activity in the world in which I prefer to engulf as little as possible.

Stage 2 in my settling-in process was to head for the Student Exchange Office to sort out more paperwork. The big question hanging in the air now was whether I would have to register with the local police authority. This is mandatory if you have a visa valid for more than 180 days; mine is a mere five-month student visa, but you never know where the sudden lapses that so characterize discrete bureaucracies might take you. Since having to register in about every single case requires not one but two trips to the police office, where service is not so swift as one might like, my relief was sincere that only one such visit was needed to decide I really wouldn't have had to go there in the first place. The waiting room provided napping space, so it wasn't a complete waste of time after all.

We took a ricksha back to the campus and I'm not going to claim we almost died in the process, as the chaos on India's roads is hugely exaggerated. Since nobody bothers about the traffic rules, misunderstandings of the kind "oh, were you just about to turn left here? I should have realized, as no sane person would ever try to do that, how foolish of me" seldom seem to occur. Traffic in Ahmedabad is no worse than in Moscow or Shanghai, it just contains more animals (fearless ones, especially the cows.. and donkeys..). In fact, animals are far more common to see here than anywhere else I've been (my first monkey stereotypically was consuming a banana at the time of spotting). All over the campus there are dogs. On some floors cats live. Pigeons are literally nesting in our hallways. And I have a lizard in my room. I've named him Pluto and decided he can stay so long as he behaves.

First post

This is the first post of what is intended to become my diary during my time at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. The picture of me, heading the part where I introduce myself to any casual observer without previous knowledge of myself, is obviously not from the Indian peninsula, but rather from Shanghai. It was taken last autumn by my friend Denise, who happened to be visiting. It's on display simply as, at the time of writing, I'm yet to arrive in the state of Gujarat, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and where alcohol is banned. I expect it to be replaced fairly soon, as I will depart for my destination tomorrow morning.

My last week in Sweden, though at liberty from work, proved to be exceptionally hectic. Not only did I have more than enough packing to do - I also had to engulf in what seemed as an endless array of social activities more or less connected to my imminent departure. All of them a pleasure indeed, however not one even close to the weekend at my family's country house together with my girlfriend Lovisa, who I will dearly miss. If she were the only reader of this blog, I'd still bother writing it.

This will have to be it for today. Depending on the availability of wireless networks at my two stopovers tomorrow the story will continue from what remains an unknown geographic location. See you then.