Population Control

The top is not meant to be stood on.  India’s structural engineers must design with a factor of safety of infinity.

India is crowded.  1.2 billion, increasing at a rate of 0.6 children born every second if you want to put a number to it.  Everywhere you go, you can’t help but see a ton of other people.  I see hoards of people at temples, on the road, on top of buildings, and even in my sleep.

About every 5 minutes, this many people are born in India.  Not all of them are as mad as the guy looking at the camera.

Yet, somehow, I’ve always been a little perplexed by the colossal population.  It just doesn’t make sense to me.  My first impression when I was riding in a car in India was that with the ridiculous driving habits, how are people not getting run over all the time?  And for those not getting run over, how are people who are riding on top of trains, hanging outside autorickshaws to squeeze 15 people along for the ride, or somehow fitting 7 on a motorcycle, not falling off and getting run over by the car driving on the wrong side of the road?  Ok, so this is starting to sound a little sadistic, but I would think some sort of Darwinism would take effect at some point.

Not bad, just 5 people.  Now imagine fitting 7.  Think Tetris style.

But apparently not.  These people might just actually know what they’re doing (and more remarkably what the other people are doing), and it’s quite amazing.  While I still clench my teeth every time I’m in a vehicle and pray anytime I have to cross the street, when it’s all said and done, it’s often one of the highlights of my day.

Step in.  And get ready for the ride of your life.

Crossing the Language Barrier

Before coming to India, I expected to run across several issues with my limited Hindi speaking abilities.  I figured this would be my biggest impediment to “becoming Indian,” and I definitely have had my share of trouble communicating.  At the beginning when I tried to speak in Hindi, several people politely said, “Can you please speak in English?”  Ouch!  That was quite the blow to my ego!  Part of me even wanted to quit speaking in Hindi altogether since it sometimes hurt trying to constantly think of the right words to use! 

At first, I had a better chance communicating with these.

Daunted, I persisted nonetheless to continue speaking Hindi.  I found that even though the engineers and scientists I work with understand English, there were many ideas that we were trying to convey to each other that did not get across.  What was even worse was when we thought we understood each other, we were sometimes talking about different things.  So I spent a lot of time being confused about what they are saying, and was often completely frustrated that what I was trying to say wasn’t getting across.

Enduring still, I was noticing that in villages, I started being able to converse directly with the village people.  I often needed the help of a co-worker to translate the local dialect and the many words I didn’t know, but I could tell I was getting better at this thing!

This villager was actually telling me what he thought about George W. Bush!

Then take yesterday.  Yesterday was Republic Day, the day that India celebrates its constitution being official (about 3 years after Independence Day, when the British handed over control of India in 1947).  I spent the day with a co-worker from IDE who knows the least English.  In fact, his English is just about limited to “America,” and as of a few weeks ago, “NASA”.  We had a great time going to the Republic Day parade where we witnessed some mild police brutality (ironically on a day of independence!).  Then he and some kids taught me how to fly a kite and play cricket.  And all of this happened without any language barrier whatsoever!  That’s when it hit me.  I know Hindi!!

Umm...so how do you play this game again?

So the persistence has finally paid off.  And while I can now check off the box that says I can fly a kite and play cricket, I am most excited that I can check off the box which says I know conversational Hindi, which means I am totally 3 steps closer to becoming Indian.  And just in time too, since I leave in a few weeks.  Considering I now drink chai several times a day, and my friends back home tell me I already drive like a maniac, I think that only leaves ‘eat spicy food...and like it.’ on the checklist!

A Sequel in the Making

Imagine: A NASA engineer goes to India for a few months, helps people in a village with his extraordinary engineering skills, ends up falling in love, coming back to America empty handed because the girl doesn’t want to leave the village’s needy people, finishes his project at NASA, resigns, and returns to India to continue helping villages with the help of his true love.  I know what you’re thinking, “Wow, this sounds a lot like Ravi”.  And you’d be right, except, of course, I would be able to convince the girl to come back to America with me.

A scene from Swades.  Yes, NASA is always this dramatic.

This story is the basic plot of this Indian movie called Swades.  Believe it or not, it was even inspired by a real person named Ravi.  I am actually convinced they went forward in time, read my blog, and then went back in time and made this movie (so maybe it was one of you that wrote it).  In this movie, the NASA engineer single-handedly saves the village by his design for a hydro-electric power plant.

Ravi Kuchimanchi - The similarity is uncanny

Before I started at IDE, I was told that I would be working with a small team of two additional people, and I got the impression (and actually sort of hoped) that this would be my project and I could run with it in whatever direction I wanted.  Wish granted.  On the first day, I found out that the two additional people were actually senior people in the company who would make sure that as I ran into problems or had any questions, that those problems/questions would get resolved quickly. 

As I’ve been working on this project alone, I’ve run into several problems, and for the most part, have had to find solutions for them myself.  I’ve had to dust off the cobwebs in my head and remember what I learned in my college engineering classes.  When I was debriefing my colleagues on my work, we agreed that we needed to determine the smallest profitable distillation unit.  I then asked if someone in their business department can do the economic analysis to determine how much oil needs to be produced to be profitable. They laughed at me and said there is no business department, and that I needed to figure it out!

Taking a break from working in a village.  It was a Bollywood moment.

While it’s been fun to be a one man team and design this distillation unit, I have gained a larger appreciation for working on a team of people like I do at JPL (and there I have the added benefit of working with people who are all smarter than me!).  I also better understand that any good design is never any single person’s idea, but a collection of several people’s co-inspired thoughts.  Luckily, a friend of mine at JPL, Joey Brown, is enthusiastic about helping me while I am in India, and I have been bouncing ideas off of him while I’m here, as I often do back home.  Something even as small as a few comments on a design has helped immensely.  And lately, I’ve been getting a lot of help from various nearby research centers that have expertise in steam distillation.

The type of geniuses I have helping me out

So it seems like I’m not going to be the hero that saves a village all by myself, and I’m completely ok with that.  I am very grateful for all the help I’m getting, from people at various centers in India as well as help back home.  It actually gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that there is no shortage of people ready to help out other people, and that I lucky enough to be surrounded by them everywhere I go.  And if we end up saving a village or two together, maybe they'll end up making a sequel  ;)

Crazy Kite Filled Day

India has a lot of festivals.  Today was Makar Sankranti.  Apparently, it has some sort of astrological significance.  Whatever.  What I care about is that people all over India fly kites to celebrate!!  Knowing that today was some sort of “kite day”, I asked everyone at work what they usually do today, and everyone responded the same way... they don’t do anything.  Unacceptable!  I told everyone at work that I was going to get kites at lunch, and that we would go fly them on the roof of our building (even though the boss had just yelled at everyone for slacking off!).

I wonder if someone should tell these kids that flying kites near electric wires is not a good idea...NAH!

At lunchtime, me and a co-worker went and got 11 kites (10 cents each, not bad!).  Then came the moment of truth, and it turns out I don't know how to fly a kite. I eventually just flew someone else’s kite that was already in the air.  A few seconds after I took over, the kite was taking a nose dive into the trees. The “kite expert”, Avanash, had to continually save the kite.  After realizing that I had no idea what I was doing (you would think after taking numerous Aerodynamics classes, working at NASA, and paragliding, I would know how to fly a kite!), he taught me how to fly the thing, and I was able to keep it in the air for about a minute.  Now I want to go home and fly my nerdy space shuttle kite all the time!

It looks like I’m teaching Avanash how to fly a kite.  Don’t be fooled.

But the fun today didn’t stop there.  Last week, I got a phone call while I was on a very loud autorickshaw.  I couldn’t hear very well, but I thought it was my friend Nimisha’s Mausiji (her Mom’s sister) who lived in Lucknow inviting me over for dinner (Nimisha grew up in Lucknow and now works at JPL).  We decided I would come over today for dinner.  She called again today to confirm, and she said she would send her son Nikhil to pick me up.  I told Nimisha (who is now back in California) that I was going to her Mausiji’s house, and that Nikhil was picking me up.  She was excited, but said she had no idea who Nikhil was.  Interesting. 

When Nikhil came to pick me up, I asked him what his relation to Nimisha was.  He said that she was his Dad’s sister’s kid.  Ok, so maybe that’s why Nimisha didn’t recognize the name, because I had the relation wrong.  But after a little more conversation, we realized we were talking about different Nimishas.  No problem, I also know that my cousin Tanvi has two aunts in Lucknow.  It had to be one of them since I don’t know anyone else in Lucknow.  As a test, I casually threw out some names of cousins that they should know if they were in fact related to Tanvi.  They hadn’t a clue as to who I was talking about.  Interesting.

At this point, I might have thought I was at a complete stranger’s house, but somehow, they knew everything about me.  They knew I worked at NASA and that I was in India for 3 months.  They kept asking about my parents and sister.  They even busted out a photo album of when they visited my family and me in Texas a while back!  Still nothing.  My job now was to find out who they were without giving them any idea that I had no clue who they were!  Finally, on the way to the dinner table, as I was looking feverishly at all the pictures in the house, I noticed my Mom’s sister-in-law in many of the pictures.  “OH YEAH!  I forgot that my Mom’s sister-in-law had a sister in Lucknow.  Mission accomplished!”  I was so relieved that I could now make decent conversation about how so and so is doing instead of the awkward silence. 

Thus ended my first Kite Day.  I don’t know if any others will be as exciting, but Nimisha and I decided that we’re going to try to get Pasadena to join in on Kite Day next year!

A Weekend in Allahabad

This past weekend, I visited Allahabad (translates to City of God), a city considered very holy because 3 sacred rivers (Ganges, Yamuna, and Sarasvati) all cross at a single point, called Sangam.  Well, they did, when the Sarasvati River flowed about 6,000 years ago.  Since there is no physical evidence of the Sarasvati River, many people thought references to it in ancient Hindu texts was purely symbolic, but a NASA satellite recently proved that the river did indeed exist!  Woohoo NASA!!

My cousin Chinu on her rockin scooter!

I had an absolutely fantastic weekend in Allahabad thanks to my wonderful Mausiji (Mom’s sister), and her daughter, Chinu.  Chinu took me on a full day ride on her scooter as we stopped at different sites around the city.  Of course, at one of those sites, I got yelled at for taking a picture, but that now seems par for the course. One of the stops was the festival surrounding a smaller annual version of the Kumbha Mela, a religious gathering which happens every 12 years. This is such a big deal that in 2001, there were about 60 million people who attended, making it the biggest gathering in the world, EVER!  Many people go through great hardships to be here, including travelling great distances (and not in comfortable cars or planes) and enduring the cold weather in their makeshift tent. Apparently the thing to do is to take a dip at the Sangam as a way of cleansing one’s sins (so many of you would have to jump in a few times!).

Tents at the Kumbha Mela festival

After being inspired by all these people who didn’t have a warm house to go to after going into the water, Chinu and I decided that we would wake up early the next day when the crowd would be less (and we would have the proper clothes) and go into the water.  It helped that the water was shallow enough to go to this point and be only knee deep in water.  The next day, it took a little convincing to remind ourselves why we thought this was a good idea, but we braved the 40° weather and what felt like ice water and went in.  Since I didn’t put my head underwater, I’ll call myself mostly rid of my sins.

People taking a dip in the Sangam.  I would have included a picture of me in my boxers, but this is a family friendly blog  :)

After we thawed, we went to see a movie, 3 Idiots, at a new theatre in town.  I’ve been to a movie before in India, a long time ago, and all I remembered was that there was a lot of hootin’ and hollerin’ during many of the scenes (when the heroine first comes out, when the hero first comes out, when the heroine does anything at all, when the hero prevails, when the heroine is on screen, ...).  For some reason, I thought things might be different now, but that was very foolish of me.  Sure enough, things are the way they were, but that made it so much more enjoyable since I always like when the crowd gets involved (not to be confused with the guy in front of me who kept answering his cell phone and talking during the movie...AHH!).  And in true Indian fashion, the theatre lost power right at the climax of the movie, followed by a projection onto the screen to please wait while they run the generator and finish the rest of the movie.  Yeah, this is common. 

Right before I left Allahabad, I decided to get my haircut. I’ve needed one for quite a while now, but have been putting it off thinking “it might be interesting to grow my hair out long”, when in reality I was thinking “there is no way they’re going to get this right”.  I got tired of my semi-long hair and decided it was time.  So Chinu took me to a place, where I had decided that if things got bad enough, I would just ask him to shave the whole thing off.  Luckily, it didn’t come to that and I was impressed by how well he did, especially considering for the most part, I just pointed to my hair and said “make this part really short and this part short” in Hindi.

And that concluded my Allahabad trip.  Next week I go back to Varanasi to see my Mom’s side of the family for the last time during this trip to India.  After that, assuming I stay at the Lucknow branch of IDE, I won’t get another Saturday off until I am finished volunteering (since we only get the 2^nd and 3^rd Saturdays off). Plans after my volunteering stint is over include going back to Gaya to visit my Dad’s side of the family as well as staying in a village for a couple days.  But don't worry, for the three of you reading this, I'll get myself into some sort of trouble worthy of posting a blog!

Going to the chicken market

Most Indians here are vegetarian.  But another trend I’ve noticed the last few times I’ve gone to India is that more and more of the younger generation are starting to eat meat, mostly chicken.  Then there’s me.  Growing up, I was completely vegetarian.  I used to hear people who sometimes ate meat calling themselves vegetarian, and I would get annoyed at that.  You either eat meat or you don’t.  I am now one of those people.  I call myself a vegetarian, but I eat seafood from time to time.  But that’s neither here nor there for now.

Note the shirt, it'll make sense at the end (the shirt, not my enormous strength)

I was strolling around Lucknow one weekend, doing some sightseeing, and attracting a lot of attention...mostly from rickshaw and “auto-rickshaw” (3 wheeled motorized rickshaw) drivers.  They can spot a tourist from a mile away, and I definitely stick out (I was told even my hair alone is enough to give me away).  All of these rickshaw drivers were offering to take me to the chicken market.  “Weird,” I thought, “maybe they think that because I’m not from here, I must eat meat.”  I kept declining over and over to several different people.  Finally, one kept pestering me, and I said (rather forcefully) “NO!  I DON’T EVEN EAT MEAT!!”  Then the guy looked at me and laughed.  That’s when I realized there was some miscommunication going on.  He said that the chicken market was not food, it was clothes.  Not much better in my mind since now I’m picturing clothes made from chicken feathers.  But alas, I was intrigued enough to go check it out.

I get to the chicken market, and I’m looking for feathery clothes.  I wasn’t seeing any.  That only left one option.  Certainly they weren’t using chicken skin (like cow skin for leather) to make clothes?!  Thankfully, they weren’t.  When I walked into a store, the owner explained to me that chikan (note the spelling difference) is actually a type of embroidery that is famous in Lucknow.  I ended up getting suckered into buying a couple shirts, but I really liked them.  I even brought them into work to show off my new “Indian” clothes, when my co-workers told me that one of my shirts wasn’t even chikan, and technically, the other one wasn’t either.  Of course.  In any case, I decided to wear the shirt to Agra, so if you look closely in the picture above (click it to enlarge), you can see some “not technically chikan” embroidery!