First week in India

Dear Friends, Family, Colleagues and the like,

I have been too busy soaking up the culture and sun in India to get this blog started, but I finally found the motivation to start sharing my experiences with anyone that is interested. So much has happened since I arrived Tuesday evening (May 26). I guess I should begin with the camping trip I took the weekend before I left. My brother Glenn, sister Mary, friends (Bevin, Ryan, Dan, Chuck, Andrew, and Darius), and I went camping May 22-24 to celebrate Mary’s birthday. It was a great way to end my time in America (very relaxing and enjoyable, especially the hoe down with a live band Saturday evening). I returned home Sunday to finish packing and preparing to leave the country. I usually am not the type of person to get sick, but for some reason I spend the entire evening not packing, but instead, throwing up mysteriously sick as a dog that ate a huge chocolate ice cream cone. I began feeling much better Monday morning as I rushed around my house finally packing and getting everything in order. Then, to my dismay, I discovered a poison ivy rash that eventually spread over my entire lower back, and a little on my arm, butt, and leg. Glenn, who is actually a superhero in disguise, went to the store and found some Cortizone for me to bring to India. Even with the cream, some ibuprofen, Benadryl pills, and a Benadryl stick, the itching has just begun to subside now, a week later. Thank God! So I left America that Monday with an interesting schedule of events for the next three weeks.

Now to begin my story of a business trip to incredible India. We arrived in Mumbai late Tuesday evening. India’s time zone is 10.5 hours ahead of my accustomed Central TZ. Jet lag took two days for our group to overcome, even though it affected me the least (my typical sleeping schedule is unusual anyway). Before coming to India, I expected massive crowds (Mumbai is the third largest city in the world), poverty dispersed intermittently throughout the city, horrid begging that would make my heart cringe, unbearable heat and humidity, cheap prices in rupees, and delicious spicy food. From what I have seen so far, many of these assumptions were confirmed, while others quickly disappeared after experiencing the reality of Indian culture. I can currently only compare these assumptions with what I have seen and experienced in Mumbai and a North Goa. Upon my return I will also be able to describe New Delhi and the part of Agra surrounding the Taj Mahal (my last week will be in Delhi including a train ride to see the Taj).

As for massive crowds, Mumbai is a growing city that packs many people in. The infrastructure is expanding while the Indian middle class is on the rise. Like any growing city, urban sprawl destroys nature and green life. Goa on the other hand is much greener with trees and plants everywhere. This is also due to the fact that Goans tend to live off the land, while Mumbai has expanding infrastructure and technology. On our first day of actual market research we visited the Crawford market, a huge market place for vendors of all sorts. It was here that I learned the chaos of Mumbai. Getting to the market was a challenge in itself because it required crossing a busy street, which is similar to playing frogger. The market was quite chaotic and a little too much to handle. We could only bare walking through crowded paths of food and product vendors for about a half hour. A nice, short Indian insisted on guiding us through the market, even though we insisted that we would rather peruse on our own. My favorite part was where there were many vegetable and fruit stands. Their produce looked very appetizing, but I was told before I left to avoid any raw fruits or vegetables. This is because India does not have safe drinking water, and the produce is typically rinsed with this water (I have been able to enjoy eating local coconuts, bananas, and unripe oranges because they have skins that protect the fruit). For the sake of my health, I had to hold back from the various mangos, okra, and even my favorite, carrots. I was also highly impressed with a marvelous spice presentation. Our guide took us to an Indian spice dealer who had everything from spicy curry to masala spices. He dished out about nine of his most common spices for us to smell, each of which smelled highly appetizing. I hope to go back there and bring home some authentic Indian curry.

Poverty in the overpopulated Mumbai is a typical sight along almost any street. I was aware of the severe poverty here right away on the taxi ride from the airport to our Mumbai hotel, West End. There are so many homeless people here that the sidewalks are typically used as a sleeping or living location for families and other homeless. Pedestrians typically share the street with the crazy drivers, while the sidewalks are used for sleeping or vendors. Homeless are intermittently dispersed through the city, but there are slums that are homes to groups of poor Indians. These slums are blocks of rundown, crowded areas of shacks located somewhere within the city. There really is no escape from the eyesore of poor people.

The begging is not as bad as I thought it would be, but that is only because I expected children with burnt out eyes (like in Slumdog Millionaire) and self mutilation for sympathy. I would not be surprised if I turned a corner and that is what I saw, but I haven’t experienced that yet. The worst that I have seen is children holding onto our taxi as we drive away, not letting go until we drove into serve Mumbai traffic, which is basically a life-threatening situation. There is a lot of begging, and even more bargaining. Once most Indians see our white face and hear our American accent, they immediately try to sell us something for somewhere around 300% of what it is actually worth. I have been practicing my bargaining skills, talking down a woman trying to sell me one necklace for Rs 1500 and getting a necklace, and two bracelets for Rs 500 (about US $10). This happened when we were laying out on the beach at the Arabian Sea in Goa, soaking up some sun (with my SPF 50 of course) when a 28 yr. old woman and two little girls about 8 and 9 (all three were friends) began to make small talk with the intention of selling us overpriced jewelry and shawls. The always begin, “Not selling anything, only talk”, as they befriend you, compliment everything about you, and then show you their merchandise. It is really difficult to know who to trust here, since many people just want to scam you for what’s in your wallet. But that makes sense since the majority of people have no other way to make money.

The weather is always hot and humid like I expected. Goa seemed to be more humid than Mumbai, but they are also closer to monsoon season. We actually experienced a preliminary storm of the monsoon as we left Goa. We had experienced a beautiful, constantly sunny, weekend in North Goa. Then today, Monday June 1^st, we left our hotel, Casa de Goa, and told the taxi driver to take us for a little sightseeing before taking us to the airport. He was a very pleasant man like many of the taxi drivers we have met. He first drove us to Old Goa, which has a lot of Portuguese history (not surrendering to India until 1961, if I remember correctly) and a lot of Catholic cathedrals. While we were visiting the church where St. Francis Xavier’s body is an unexpected downpour came. It was my first sight of any wet weather whatsoever in India. And oh did it pour. It was kind of short-lived, but all of the rice paddies that were previously completely dried up, actually ha puddles in them. Today many rice farmers prays were beginning to be answered as the monsoon season lurks somewhere close behind today’s short storm. Some of our hotel servants told us that the monsoon season was expected to begin around May 15, but I expect that global warming has made their seasons a little less predictable. This time global warming worked in my favor since I got to thoroughly enjoy a sunny vacation weekend in Goa.

If I bargain right, I can get pretty good prices in rupees, but the bargaining is necessary for almost every purchase. Most restaurants have set prices, but they seem to be quite reasonable. A typical dinner at an Indian restaurant would cost ~ Rs 200, which converts to ~ US $4.00. I can also walk the street and find a fruit vendor selling coconuts, bananas, etc. and get them for really cheap prices (less than $0.50). They will even widdle away at the coconut until they reveal the fruitful liquid and core and give you a straw. I never liked coconut before, but the experience of getting fresh coconut here has converted me into a regular coconut consumer (for the time being).

My anticipation for delicious, spicy food has been satisfied. I have not had an unpleasant dining experience yet. The only disappointment is that I have to avoid all raw foods. Gosh, I can’t wait to get back to Blue Schoolhouse Farm and surround myself with delicious, fresh, raw vegetables! There are also plenty of options for vegetarians. Actually, the majority of the restaurants don’t even offer a meat option. Chickpeas (channa), lentils (dal), and cheese (paneer) are my most common sources of protein. Yum, yum. Every now and then I crave a salad or simple pizza, but for the most part I could live off of the unique entrees of rice, vegetable gravies, and naan (Indian bread). We have passed a Dominos here and a Pizza Hut there, but I have been holding out since I will only be able to enjoy authentic Indian food for two more weeks.

After a week of settling in, including a weekend vacation to Goa, I am now ready to spend the next two weeks doing some intense soymilk market research. Peter Golbitz, the Director of International Business Development from SunOpta (the soybean company that we are researching for) will be arriving tomorrow night. Our most important meetings will begin Wednesday and last through the rest of our time in Mumbai and the first few days in Delhi. We are all very excited for him to come and accompany us for meetings with the largest companies that they hope to partner with. One week in and we have actually one had one meeting, with the US Commercial Services. Their office is located just down the block from our West End hotel, and we will be using their office later this week for meetings with others as well.

Tomorrow we will get back to work and continue our search for soymilk within the Mumbai food markets. I also have quite a bit of work to do for our market research document. If tomorrow is as productive as I hope it to be, we will have visited new areas of Mumbai including many food markets, and I will create a spreadsheet of soymilk products we have found (with costs, locations, manufacturer, producer, etc). I also hope to expand on my portion of our research document which includes the structure, size, and share of Indian food sales, trends in food marketing, and sociological influences on the Indian food market.

Well, I will post again once I find time away from soymilk research. I hope everyone at home is taking good care and drinking lots of soymilk. :)

Kelly S.

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