“No matter where you go, there you are!’ – Buckaroo Banzi
Contrary to what the title of this post says, this post is not about putting on new boots, at least not entirely, but I needed a title for my post and that’s the only thing that was going through my mind at the time. Anyway, it’s the last few weeks of January in the brand New Year and I am amazed by how swiftly time goes by. I can still remember when I was debating whether or not I should go to India let alone stay there for a year and its already been more than 6 months and I have come to the realization that although 1 year may seem like a really long time, in essence it is not nearly long enough to explore and understand the entirety of this country’s diverse culture and people. But yet it can be enough time to learn a lot about yourself and gain appreciation about what makes you who you are when everything else has changed.
Being apart from the usual and familiar is at first unsettling but the amazing thing about the human condition is that we are exceedingly adaptive and before I know it I have been adopting mannerisms, customs, languages and immersing myself in the land and people I find myself in. I had this delightful conversation with a bus conductor that was made up entirely with head shakes and random hand gestures for almost 5 minutes with absolutely no words between us and I got my message passed across which had something to do with why my friend was passed out in the seat next to me and not enjoying the beautiful sights outside as we take a tour of the city. (That story is another post all together) I’m sure to those who were new to the country and looking at us go at it, it probably looked like we were having simultaneous head and hand spasms.
I had a great time during the December holidays and I wasn’t quite prepared for the transition back to work mode with waking up early, deadlines, deliverables and trying to figure out the jumble of words flying around me in the office that to the locals actually passes for conversation. Half the time in the office I have no idea what is going on and in the beginning of my internship I constantly found myself trying to figure out what was being said using my limited hindi and Marathi vocabulary especially when out of a string of endless mumbled words you suddenly hear your name being used followed by laughter. Not something to instill confidence in what is possibly being said about you. In their defense, they do try to talk in a language I can understand but when you are in the middle of a point sometimes it’s easier to express yourself in a language you are more comfortable in and why lie, it’s not English even most times for me. But that doesn’t mean that’s its still not annoying as hell not knowing what the joke is about. However, on the plus side, it comes very useful when you can use the lack of information to get out of things you don’t want to do like come to work extra early because the announcement was in hindi, leave work early because you didn’t hear the directive which was in hindi that required you to do the last presentation because, guess what, it was in hindi (or was it Marathi), you see where I’m going with this.. Hey there, check out that silver lining.
The first few months I was completely lost in the sounds around me that were foreign and appeared like a cacophony of meaningless words and sounds and I must admit I missed a lot of what was going on. Even understanding some people when they spoke in English was difficult in some cases because the accent was completely different from what I was sued to. I have a friend who was working in a training firm in the city that required her to make sales calls to different Indian companies. She was not Indian, rather from Hungary and she told me that once after being on the phone with a client for almost 10 minutes she couldn’t make out what the person was saying and ultimately had to ask him if he could please speak in English as she could not understand hindi; of which the person on the other side answered in heavily accented English almost in a whine, ‘But madam, I am speaking English!’.
And if language barrier wasn’t such a major challenge, working in a foreign country is further compounded by the the fact that in the beginning like any other job, starting something new can be a scary experience where your efforts in the first few weeks are usually spent trying to figure out how things are done in the new company and getting to know your colleagues, work responsibilities and add the fact that you are in a completely new environment where you have no previous references is really a daunting task filled with a lot of trial and error. In my first week working in India I found myself lost during a field excursion, being mistaken for a man while sitting in a bus (makes you wonder what I looked at the time), got propositioned by a weird guy (not the person who thought I was a man), followed by a large procession of kids in a slum and fending off questions by random people asking to touch my hair. Actually, there was a colleague in my office who I quickly noticed used to stare at me a lot when she thought I wasn’t looking and when I turned towards her would quickly look away. I was starting to get bit concerned especially after almost a week of doing this I saw her come towards me at a fast pace and I had to fight the impulse to defend myself with the stapler at my desk. This was followed by an awkward moment when she stood in front of me without saying anything and then quickly blurted out that she wanted to touch my hair. Well, seeing as this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting and much less dangerous to my health than what I was imagining, I agreed. After a few moments of touching my hair, smack in the middle of the office I might add, she exclaimed “Ahh. Your hair, It is so soft. It’s like nylon na.” Umm. Okay. I can’t say that my hair has ever been described as nylon-like before but I would take the compliment in the spirit it was meant for. Well, At least I hope it was a compliment. And there was a rush of other people who toke that opportunity to start touching my head like I was some sort of new toy that everyone wanted to see how it works. It was quite frankly a very surreal experience not to mention very random. There I am, the lone African girl in the middle of the room surrounded by a large group of Indian ladies (and some men) almost in a line waiting for their turn to touch my hair and asking me questions about why it was so curly, how long it takes me to do my hair in the morning, is everyone’s hair back in my country as curly and soft as mine. I didn’t mind the questions but trying to answer them toke a bit of time. I am suddenly seen as an expert in all things ‘African’.
Remember I talked about getting lost in my first week, well I wasn’t lost exactly, I knew exactly where I was (somewhere in a bus in the city) I just wasn’t completely sure how to get to where I wanted to go that’s all. My work mate who I was supposed to be meeting almost called the police and actually called my boss in tears to tell him that she lost the intern. By the time I got to the office, everyone in the company had heard about the situation and I have never seen such foot traffic near my work station as everyone wanted to see who the “African girl’ was that they were hearing all these stories about.
I’ve heard my friends share their experiences about working in India and the stories range from the ones who have to stand up at attention every time the boss enters the room, to others playing cricket games during their break time for money. In the beginning, the latter lost nearly every game because he had never played it before but by the end of the internship he had nearly won all the money he had lost. He said that with a little more time he could have broken even or even made a profit. (I worry about that guy and it’s just as well his internship ended because this is how addictions start).
But I’m an adventurer at heart and there is nothing I love more than a new challenge in a new place and I had a good laugh about all my work experiences. Yes I had a few shocks during the first few weeks and a common refrain in my head was ‘what am I doing here?’ but a lot of learning toke place as well. If there is one thing that I have learnt from this experience is that knowing you are going to a foreign country and actually living in that country are two very different things. The reality almost never matches what you imagined while sitting in your bed at home in front of the computer doing research into your new home. It’s okay to think you are prepared but just know that on the ground you will have to do a lot of adjusting. A little piece of advice to anyone that’s starting something new in a different country is to keep an open mind, stay calm, laugh because that’s better
Adventures of Gigi 