Week four began with an early morning train ride to the rural town of Bardoli with our new sister and EDI employee, Mahima Behen.  We would be conducting field research of a proposed blacksmithy cluster with stakeholder interviews and field visits.  Our train arrived in Surat around 10AM where we stopped for some chai before hopping on the bus line that would take us to our destination.   Our ride took us an hour outside the city through sugar cane fields and rice paddies to our accommodation at Suruchi.

We were being put up by Mr. Ramkumar, the creator of the Suruchi.  Suruchi is involved with the production of agriculture tools, vermicompost, organic seedlings, and solar cookers to employ and support local blacksmiths, farmers, and women.  Currently, the organization is waiting for funding from a government scheme that will aid in the creation of a blacksmithy cluster.  Suruchi has many different interventions planned to create a strong network of geographically dispersed artisans and to save a traditional trade being destroyed by the rapid industrialization of India.

We were given a two bedroom, two bathroom cabin, equipped with a small dining room and porch.  The bathroom was modest and electricity and running water were never certainties but our home for the next week was quiet and relaxing.  Our meals were prepared by Masi and were simple and delicious as the ingredients had been harvested from our cabin’s backyard.  It was great to get out of the city to replace the nonstop honking with the sound of birds and wind rushing through the fields.  Life slowed down for us and we were able to experience a unique and beautiful side of India we had yet to see.

Monday we walked through the blacksmith production facility at Suruchi and sat down to talk with the artisans who worked there.  We saw the process from raw materials to finished goods which were sold out of the front of the production facility.  With Mahima Behen as our translator, we got an insight into the blacksmith’s feelings and attitudes towards their trade, its future, and their relationship with Suruchi.  It was a great day and we were excited for our field visits the next two days.

Our evenings were spent relaxing with yoga and meditation and discussing our cultural differences with Mahima Behen over cards.  We shared many laughs and the three of us grew to become good friends.

Our second day was spent visiting rural blacksmiths who work from the front of their homes with very limited technology and resources.  We drove for hours through endless fields of green and crops with small markets and gathering places scattered throughout.  The roads were rough and the journey demonstrated the transportation challenges people who live in these areas face.  We saw several different sized operations on Tuesday and were greeted with food and chai no matter what type of home we stopped at.  Seeing the artisan’s workspaces and speaking to them gave us insight into the realities of the proposed cluster and rural life in India.

The third and final day of field visits we visited the farmers who used the tools produced by the blacksmiths and purchased vermicompost from Suruchi. The hospitality continued; water came first, followed by chai, and maybe some lunch depending on the time of day. We discussed the current shift towards organic farming and what they see in their future.  We were walked through their fields and shown their compost operations and came to understand the harmony that exists between farmers, blacksmiths, and Suruchi.

Thursday we had a debrief meeting with Mr. Ramkumar and began to compile the data we had collected into a report.  That evening we made friends with several of the children whose parents were living and working at Suruchi.  We ran around barefoot and made games out of whatever rocks or sticks we could find and overcame our language barrier with smiles and laughs.

Our final day we continued to work on our report and relish our last few moments in rural India as our train back to Ahmedabad was leaving early the next morning.  Our trip to Suruchi was what we hoped to get out of this internship experience.  We were given a chance to immerse ourselves into a community, speak with its people, make friends, see how they work and live and how business functions in such an environment.  We read about the challenges of rural blacksmith businesses and farmers before our field journey but we only came to understand them from diving in and interacting with the artisans.  We came to understand the NGO Suruchi and the challenges it shares with NGOs around the world as well as the unique challenges India throws at them.  We saw a different side of India we were not exposed to thus far and we enjoyed every moment of it and learned so much.

It is sad to think our time here is two thirds over as we move into week 5.  We will be spending the remainder of our work period compiling our final report and reflecting on our experience in Bardoli as well as relishing every last moment in Ahmedabad.

Joe Fernandez & Sachin Babbar, GEO EDI interns

My team (Justin, Bo and I) are producing real life stories about social entrepreneurs, which will hopefully become part of the first year curriculum at EDI to help inspire the students here. It’s now the back end of week 3, and we’re halfway through the internship. After two weeks of reading, learning and discussing with our supervisor, yesterday my team were finally awarded the opportunity to start doing some practical work towards our project with a two day visit to our first social entrepreneur  having been arranged. Unfortunately, this was an opportunity I had to leave to Justin and Bo, as I am currently dealing with the harsher realities of living in a new continent…

Today marks my fourth bed-bound day, after falling horribly ill last Tuesday. Beyond just a regular stomach upset, this left me wrapped up in bed, in a hoodie and blanket with the A/C cranked up to 32 degrees because I had suddenly started feeling very cold (an unusual feeling in India) and soon after I started shivering uncontrollably. Fortunately this passed after a few hours, and I’ve been slowly recovering since, but just not quite back to full health yet. I would love to be able to issue some words of caution or advice for future interns, but unfortunately I hadn’t eaten or drank anything different from any of the other interns here, and no one else fell sick on the same day. I’m clueless as to what caused it. Luck of the draw, I guess, and one of the inherent risks.

But, I don’t want to end this blog post on a pessimistic note, and I would also like to talk about our weekend trip away last week. We’d decided to get out of Gujarat for the weekend and go visit the very scenic city of Udaipur (in Rajasthan), and it certainly was a welcome break. We visited the City Palace, which is a very interesting and not very typical traditional Indian looking centre piece of the city. The next day we took a cable car up to the top of a big hill (or small mountain, I’m not sure which it was) which had spectacular views of the city. We (thankfully!) also had beer for the first time since we left, because alcohol is illegal in the state of Gujarat, although as we’ve heard, it does not actually stop people. However, oddly, despite being legal in Udaipur, you won’t find beer on any menu and the charge is disguised on the bill as an abbreviation or increased tax…. fishy!

In Udaipur we also discovered other foreigners, which in Ahmedabad to call rare would be generous, and it left us staring at them as much we get stared at in Ahmedabad. In Ahmedabad, we’re quite the novelty, people want to talk to us, take photos with and/or of us, poke us or just very politely continuously stare intensely at us. Occasionally the people who approach you will be after some money, through begging or persistent selling; however, I would dare say is not as bad here as it is in the tourist hot spots. Here, in fact, locals have helped us out on a couple of occasions when rickshaws have attempted to overprice us, as I’m told there is currently a movement to fight these kinds of behaviour as a part of the population want to improve India’s international image. It is for the sake of those people that you end up haggling over pennies.

Overall, on weekdays when we’re stuck at our slightly secluded campus, with the repetitive food, seclusion, painfully slow internet, the lack of a way to get a little taste of home as literally everything has been changed for the Indian pallet (not even Snickers or Coke tastes the same, and all the crisps are flavours you’ve never heard of, and even the ‘most authentic’ foreign food restaurant in the area mixes things up. I ordered Bolognese, what I got was indisputably Arrabbiata) and other minor things start to hack away, day by day, at your admiration and patience. But on the weekends however, when you venture out to the city or elsewhere, and you get to eat amazing food at vibrant street food stands, haggle with auto drivers, mingle with the curious locals, see incredible buildings with architecture you’d never find at home, and see sights like cars driving the wrong way, four people on a bike, a complete disregard of queues, sights that the locals simply dismiss as “this is India” when you question them about it. That is when you really grow an affection for this place, which I have. I can comfortably say I love this country and can’t wait to explore it further.

Spirituality has to be one of the biggest and most influential aspects of life here in Gujarat…that is, besides diarrhea, crazy driving, and early morning peacock squawks. It’s been almost two weeks since we have arrived in Ahmedabad, but my perspectives have already shifted so much. While I have enjoyed every moment in India so far, it is by no means a vacation. We live life according to the ‘3 Cs’: Confusion, Curry, and Camaraderie.

Confusion. A week in to the internship, I still could not give a complete answer to what I was supposed to be working on. My partner, Tony, and I are constantly met by contradicting statements from two supervisors who I can’t confidently say know our names. Even with a ‘two step forward, one step back’ approach, I think we are finally making progress. We are working with the Industrial Forging & Casting Cluster of Baroda, about a two hour drive from EDI’s campus. After interviewing managers of four units within the cluster, Tony and I seek to tackle the issues of Accessing Finance, and Employment within the cluster for our research topic. Despite our recent progress, however, I have come to realize that most things here are completely left to chance. Take this example: Had Tony and I not played soccer every night, we would not have met Abhishek, who would not have told us he lived in Baroda, so he wouldn’t have joined us for our trip, which would’ve left us without an interpreter, rendering us utterly incapable of getting back to EDI’s campus. Thank goodness for soccer! Over the next two weeks, Tony and I will be venturing back to Baroda to conduct more intensive research. This time, without Abhishek. We are up for the challenge!

Curry. The occasional western meal has broken up an otherwise 40 consecutive curry dishes. While it sometimes can be a bit repetitive and induce questionable stomach interactions, the food has been delicious. As a vegetarian back home, the state of Gujarat is, for the most part, 100% vegetarian—heaven for me! While hard to distinguish between dinner and breakfast at times, the variety, and spice is wildly different to any western cuisine. Having a nut allergy has required me to be a bit more focused while eating meals, but with one painful exception, I have been safe and successful. EDI provides us with three meals a day, but that has not stopped us from venturing outside of the campus to find local authentic eats at the various sites in the city. With four weeks of curry left, I definitely won’t go hungry, but a slice of pizza wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Camaraderie. This is a great group of nine extremely diverse gentlemen. We are comprised of students from USA, UK, Malaysia, Gibraltar, Bulgaria, and Sweden. We had absolutely no issues immediately immersing ourselves in friendship with open minds and positive attitudes. Though we stay within the confines of EDI for the work week, on the weekends we’ve traveled as a group to the Arkshardem and Adalaj Temples, the home of Mahatma Gandhi, a Mall, the Law Garden Market & Park. Tomorrow, we plan to leave Gujarat for the first time, and travel to the state of Rajistan to visit Udaipur. I greatly look forward to this trip, as it will be a nice group sendoff before we spend our respective times in different areas researching different clusters for the next two weeks. Other than our group of nine international students, there are hundreds of local Indian students studying for the post graduate degrees at EDI. Slowly we are familiarizing ourselves to the point where we can not only actually remember the names of the local students, but consider them friends as well.

No one expected this internship to be peaches and cream, but our positivity and adaptability has led us to enjoy every aspect of this adventure so far. If the next four weeks are half as interesting as the first two, then we’re bound to have an amazing time.

Our first group excursion was to one of the biggest malls in Ahmedabad called Alpha Mall. Joe, one of our colleagues from Boston University, had a shopping spree so we left him to his own devices. Myself, George (another Boston student) and Tony to continue to roam the western influenced shopping centre and found some cool Indian shops. Making a few purchases and all equipped with the classic kurat top – a long sleeve shirt, that comes in three sizes, knee level, above the knee, and waist level – we went to check out the food hall and to meet the others. Gujurat is a Hindu state so the diet is strictly vegetarian, and no meat was on sale. There was an array of different veggie dishes on our table. By far the most impressive was Rocky’s masala dosa, a massive pancake stuff with potato masala and served with a few sauces. Chris caused some hysteria as when we were about to drive off he was missing. We search for a good 15 minutes in the supermarket only to see him coming down the escalator chewing gum like nothing was wrong.

On day one, there was an introductory talk to the EDI interns by Dr. Umesh Menon, and we met our supervisors afterwards. Joe and I were set some reading, to understand what services EDI had to offer and the particular cluster we would be working in. Most of the reading was done by the afternoon and whilst waiting for the last document to be emailed to us we decided to chill.

After another presentation and a few more discussions, the picture we were painting of EDI and the work needed from us became more vivid.  There seemed to be a degree of autonomy. This continued throughout the week; it was down to us to promote and probe the supervisors to channel us in a direction. It wasn’t until Wednesday that a more detailed plan of what was expected of us for the next three weeks was conveyed to us, and that’s when the real work began.

Apart from work, the evenings have been eventful. At 18:30 we meet some of the locals on campus for a game of soccer. It gives us the chance to bond with the lads and also show off our skills and dominate the pitch. Afterwards there is a civil banquet, which consists of dal, a sabjee, rice and a chapatti (flat bread). Since we are a diverse bunch the conversation is bases around the difference in our cultures.

Our first week has been filled with great learning experiences in both culture and business. For next week, we are looking forward to visiting the blacksmith cluster we are currently studying to perform field research and implement our action plan.