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Birthdays, Bindis and Field Trips: Week Three at SEWA

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My name is Kristin and I just finished my first year at Boston University studying Business Administration and Economics. My fellow interns and I are thoroughly enjoying our internship experience and we cannot believe that it is already halfway through. Being Indian American, I have been amazed by learning more about my heritage. Our third week in Ahmedabad, India interning with SEWA has challenged our cultural norms and has exposed us to celebrations of life and culture.

At the start of the week, we celebrated Liv’s 20th birthday. For fun, we ventured to a bangle store to buy bindis (decorative stickers that women wear on their forehead) to wear for the special occasion. The multitude of colors and shapes surprised us and reminded me of my childhood. As per our Indian interns’ suggestion, we had an Indian BBQ feast for dinner consisting of vegetarian and non-veg kabobs and a multitude of desserts. As Gujarat is a non-alcoholic state, we wished Liv into her next year of life with mocktails including Pina Coladas and Cinderellas. I don’t think Liv would have imagined celebrating her 20th birthday with new friends in India, but it was a memorable time.

Our project of expanding the rural garment unit at SEWA has become clearer and we have decided on a distribution strategy. We were very fortunate to meet with Rama Bijapurkar, one of India’s leading consultants on market strategy and consumer behavior. She helped us understand what rural women are looking for when they purchase clothes. In order to compare the modern garments that we will be implementing to the traditional hand embroidered garments, Liv and I ventured to SEWA’s Hansiba store. These intricate and vibrant blouses and skirts were truly exotic—each piece took two years to produce! I have never seen Indian clothes of the past generations, and it was empowering to realize the importance of preserving the traditional hand embroidery in modern garments.

Along with Sakshi (our Indian intern), we travelled to the town of Radhanpur and village of Santalpur (about four hours away) to conduct market research. The women were so welcoming and hospitable as they allowed us inside their homes and served us all kinds of Gujarati snacks and kulfi (Indian ice cream). One woman said they had never had foreigners inside their homes before and were so happy that we came. In Santalpur, we were surrounded by half the village as we were roaming between clothing shops! As we learned of the differences between fabrics, many children came up to us and smiled when we waved at them. The experience was surreal as people were genuinely intrigued and also very helpful. We got a taste of the Indian rural culture and way of life—simple, colorful, and fastly growing. We had a lovely day.

This week we celebrated life with Liv’s 20th birthday and we also celebrated the culture of India through our work at SEWA and especially through our site visit. We hope the next three weeks of our Indian adventure will be as eye-opening and delightful as our first three!

-Kristin

Didn’t Modi Know We Were Coming?? Exploring Delhi During Week Two at Bharti Foundation

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After an exciting first week settling in at the office, we were all raring to get out and explore. Friday night we found ourselves back at the familiar Cyberhub. Drinks in Cyberhub are only slightly cheaper than Britain, however be warned as Sam wasn’t too happy to find that his basic beer was more expensive than the girls’ fancy cocktails.

On Saturday we took the very easy to use metro into Delhi-every hour is rush hour on the metro so be prepared to get extra close to the locals. When we got out of the station we were bombarded with rickshaw drivers and taxi drivers insisting on us taking their cab. We got talking to one overly friendly driver who convinced us to walk with him down several shady side streets to his “cab” before we eventually came to our senses and remembered the golden rule our parents had drilled into us from a young age… An Ola cab (very similar to Uber) later and we finally got to do some sightseeing-our first destination was India Gate. We experienced lots of staring and are featuring in many an Indian family photo. The buzz of Indian fame quickly wore off just as the heavens opened and once again we were umbrella-less and drenched to the bone-refreshing though! We’d been advised to go and see the President’s House so ordered an Ola and were on our way. We rocked up to the high security gates and rolled down the window to ask them to open them for us but we were saddened to learn you need permission from the Prime Minister to get in??????? Didn’t Modi know we were coming?????

A couple of hours undergoing the chaos in Delhi absolutely drained us so we called it a day and went back to the hotel and got Dunkin Donuts delivered instead. Baby steps to sight seeing in Delhi…

Back to work on the Monday saw us do a mini practice research project which involved us making questionnaires and then giving another presentation. We also got to enjoy all the June birthdays in the office with a little party downstairs with lots of cake and nibbles which allowed us to mix with the rest of the Bharti employees. Later in the week we went back to Ambience Mall to go try out an Indian cinema-they have spicy popcorn!! As we all got comfy in our fancy recliner chairs an announcement was made, “ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the national anthem!” All taken aback by this we were slow to make it our feet but did so awkwardly and confused whilst everyone around us belted out the Indian song…it was a funny experience.

We’ve been given our official project details so the hard work has begun and 2 weeks of field work to look forward to get us out and exploring more rural India- so no more donut deliveries for us…

-Annie

Cultural Immersion in Pune: Week Two at RBI

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By the second week, the majority of the group have learned the ropes and acclimatized to both the people of India and their immersive culture. This week felt significantly shorter than our first, mainly because it was filled with an assortment of different activities and lectures. On Saturday we ventured out to the Phoenix Mall, which is an upscale mall with many Western outlets and restaurants located near the airport toward the northeast of Pune. We treated ourselves to a competitive game of bowling as well as to the delicious Western food that our stomachs have yearned for after almost 2 weeks of Indian cuisine.

On Sunday, the group split in two with Jiseop and Luz going to our mentor Ramani’s house for avacaya rice and tea. The rest of the boys went to visit Pataleshwar, which is a 7th century cave temple located near the Reserve Bank of India campus. After exploring the cave temple, we ventured to the Shaniwar Wada Palace, which is a historical Marathan fort located in the center of Pune. To top off our day of cultural immersion, David had a traditional red dot painted on his forehead by a local, partially without his consent.

The weekdays were a stark contrast to the office life in the first week as we had many different members of faculty come in to provide lectures discussing topics such as financial inclusion, agricultural banking, and the overall culture of Pune as well as the many different states of India. These lectures were very informative and helped us gain a fantastic historical and cultural insight into India and the Central Bank that we otherwise might not have learnt.

In addition to our lectures, on Thursday we had an unexpected field trip to Solu, which is a small village about an hour’s car ride from the RBI headquarters. We visited the Business Correspondent who provides banking and financial services to the local village of a population approximately 2,000. It was a one-man job conducted by a man whom we called “BC” that provided a service similar to an ATM, with the nearest bank being over 5km away. Over 500 people in this village hold an account with the Business Correspondent, providing financial capabilities to those in rural India. There are over 133,000 similar set-ups in villages across India with over 200 million accounts created in the 5 years since its inception. Afterward, we got a chance to visit the local temple in Alandi where we adhered to local customs and removed our shoes and took many photos with the locals as well as bowed to Ganesh, the Indian deity. We then ventured down to the river for more group photos before returning to the campus.

-Jiseop