A day in the life

Seeing as my posts are now apparently becoming ‘too cynical’ again, I’ve decided to post something that I’ve seen done by others- a montage of photos from a typical day in my life. Of course I have chosen the most romantic of my current work to do this- well, I guess if you call building a road on a rural Indian property romantic.

Nevertheless, here it is. Most of these photos don’t need comments, but as you know I can’t often resist making them.

Couple of strays on the walk to work

Another stray out for a walk after an early-morning ‘tonic’

Flattening the land before sowing. This involves the family standing on a heavy length of wood.

The infamous (in these parts) ‘Indian fence’: dead branches of spiny trees to keep out livestock.

The road leading into our new property before work begun.

The road being worked on. Work mainly involves rock picking and raking the rocks to make the road as level as possible. It sounds bad (‘rock picking’ = chain gang) but it’s not that bad really.

Watering the sand to enable tractors to drive on it.

A delivery of gravel for making cement.

These will be an everyday occurrence once we have the new office building complete.

Indianish Snippets

Once again, after a long hiatus, I sit down and try and write another blog about my experiences in India. This will be one that details a collection of things that have happened in connection with work, but don’t really have anything to do with work, and are quintessentially Indian. I guess it makes these events all the more incredible for me given they have such ‘serious’ ramifications, i.e. you have to interpret these as not just isolated weird experiences.

Git orf mah land

GreenOil has finally completed the purchase of some suitable land for the Power Plant near our current base in Samode, Rajasthan. This process in itself was a drawn-out one, which I may have alluded to in previous blogs. As it was, we needed to purchase two land holdings. One being the main land where the plant will be built and composting operations will take place, the other being a slice of land where an access road will be built connecting the land to a public road.

Complications started after the road land deed was signed, and we sat down with the owner of the main land. The main land was actually two plots- one of which was a tiny ‘sliver’ of about 0.11 Ha., alongside the main land. Suddenly the seller presented us with his view of the deal: “Since I am giving you the ‘sliver’ for free (i.e. the total land he was selling to us didn’t quite meet his expected selling price of 4.5 lakh per bigha) all that I ask is that I be allowed to build a house on the same size area of land on your property.”(!) Remember, GreenOil are building a Power Plant, on land acquired with funds from LGT, a major funding partner. So of course we said no way, it’s not possible, our board would never allow it. The seller, knowing now that we had already bought the road access land, was obviously in the stronger position. “OK then, if your board doesn’t approve it, then my board doesn’t approve the land sale.” At the end of the day, and at the end of all this time spent looking for suitable land, negotiating prices and brokering this land deal- what can you do? Our CEO didn’t see a way out, so now we have an agreement to let the previous owner occupy 0.11 Ha. in a location at our discretion on our Power Plant site for a period of 99 years, only he and his family can live there, he cannot sell the house, etc. etc. The current planning has his plot located in close proximity to the 600 kW generator…

A visit from the local Mafia

Monday we were back in the office in Delhi, where we receive a good number of visitors every day poking their heads in to ask directions, inquire why the German Bakery is closed, or ask for Baksheesh (a ‘gift’). Today’s visitors were some of the latter, but a rather special breed. These were representatives of the local hermaphrodite Mafia.

Hermaphrodites are something more than just a curiosity in India, they are genuinely feared. They make themselves perfectly obvious, because most people’s interaction with them takes one of two forms:

•          Giving them a ‘donation’ to avoid any back luck the man-ladies might bring to them, or
•          Being recipients of said bad luck (new-born babies are especially susceptible to this type of bad luck)

Normally, you encounter the hermas (if you’ll permit me such an abbreviation) in crowded places- buses, trains, etc. They follow a similar begging style to most in India. They’ll come right up to you and perhaps touch you on the shoulder, and generally let you know that they’re serious about the bad-luck givin’ if they don’t do some receivin’. So far I have avoided any bad-luck with the hermas even though I haven’t ever given them any money.

So as I said, this time our office received a personal visit from the hermas. There were two of them, demanding their baksheesh. I don’t ever hand over baksheesh to religious types, and I figure these guys are in the same league. My boss though, is both more religious and has less patience to wait for these types to leave, so he handed over quite the sum of Rs 100. On this occasion though, that wasn’t enough. There then began an animated discussion about the ‘amount’ of baksheesh that would be required. Words like ‘diwali’ (the biggest Indian festival of the year- just finished) were bandied about and some discussion ensued, until my boss then asked me for Rs 500 (as he didn’t have any more cash on him). That was handed over. But still the ‘negotiations’ didn’t stop. Turns out the current going rate for avoiding the curse was Rs 2,400.

Let me tell you a little more about what a curse from the hermas involves. As I was telling you earlier, a normal encounter with a herma in a public place where you don’t pay the non-curse fee results in a simple curse, which involves the exhibition of cursing genitalia. I would also suspect that if you’re sitting down in the train when said cursing takes place it could be a little uncomfortable. Cursing on an organised scale though, is a little more sinister. The herma mafia normally live together, using their daily gains to eek out a comfortable life for all (all hermas, that is). Therefore, they also have quite a curse-armoury at their disposal. So non-payment generally results in the threat of a visit of all the local hermas, who will return and give you and your office some kind of super-curse (accompanied, one suspects by a super-exhibition of cursing genitalia). To expand on an earlier point, one of their best money-making enterprises involves the hermas searching out new born babies and threatening the genitalia revelation. Normally the frightened family hands over whatever is necessary.

Our negotiations went on- the hermas played some kind of a good-herma/ bad-herma routine, with one threatening to bring the bad-luck curse down on our operation, and the other appealing to the good nature of our CEO to hand over some more cash- after all, it did have something to do with his religion, this whole curse thing. Every now and again they addressed me, with the word ‘money’, but I had had enough of this whole routine by now (donations out of a religious respect ok, but you can’t really demand a certain minimum price for not cursing people and still hold any sort of standing with me). I think they ended up getting about Rs 700 before moving onto the next poor sod.

What happens when Delhi tries to stamp out corruption

Yesterday in the office saw what I thought was just some normal ‘news of the day’ from my CEO in the morning. Apparently a high court judge had had enough of the reports of corruption amongst government officials and police officers and had decided to do something about it: today had been declared “condemn illegal buildings day”. In Delhi people build when they have enough money to. They often don’t own the land, and rarely do they get permits to be able to construct a structure (and most don’t get proper builders to do it either). ‘Please report illegal building’ plead the signs around housing areas. So the police yesterday had been charged with a massive operation to ‘shut down’ any illegal building that they could find. Now normally, of course, the police (and local government officials) are also supposed to shut down illegal buildings. And I’m sure that enough illegal building operations get reported. However, usually the shutting down procedure involves a trip to the illegal building site, where some negotiations take place, and some money changes hands. It works, everyone is happy (apart from the law-abiding neighbours). On this day, however, the police had to look like they were doing a proper job.

So the day passed relatively normally until about 2pm, when our landlord appeared at the office entrance, and promptly pulled the security shutter down, leaving me with no front exit and a darkened room. My CEO (who had been at lunch), came in through the back way telling me that it was complete chaos outside, and that all the other offices in our block had their shutters down and were locked up. Our landlord was frantically negotiating with the scores of police that had turned up not to knock a hole in the wall or put up a condemned sticker. A condemned sticker (or a hole in your wall), even if you had all the correct papers, meant a forced trip to the local government office, and possibly weeks of wait before that condemned sticker was repealed. You desperately wanted to avoid that. After 1 hour of talks the shutter was pulled up again to reveal just how many officers + beat cops (about 200) were standing around outside. They were going through the local neighbourhood and bashing holes in the walls of unoccupied buildings, and I guess they could have reasonably expected some resistance. Mostly I suppose it was the way they chose to conduct this operation that floored me while I was sitting inside my office for that hour trying to work as quietly as possible and wondering what would happen if some cop decided to open the shutter. But then I guess they thought this is the only way anything will get done.

My boss says that the business of bribes and illegal building should return to normal tomorrow.

[Samode, 10.11.2011]

I owe my Dad an email- and I can probably pass it off as a Blog post. He wanted to know a little bit about what I've been doing recently with GreenOil. That would encompass basically the time from when I left the composting paradise of Samode to the sweltering office blocks of Delhi. (wow, now over 2 months ago!)

Now again I don't what this to become a Monthly Performance Report for LGT (and god dammit, I also have to do one of those for August, perhaps this is good enough :-?, so I'll try and make it as light as possible.

Firstly, let me say that these two months haven't lessened my interest in the work that GreenOil's been doing. It's been different, completely different, and dealing with strategy (the direction that the company wants to go in the long term) and tactical (operational challenges that affect the daily or weekly tasks) isn't as immediate as making compost, especially in such a small company. You can often wonder if the analysis and problem solving you go through will actually be read and acted on. And often things beyond your control means that that analysis becomes completely meaningless.

But thinking about these things, thinking about the possibilities, means that you keep a lot of the ideas, a lot of the inspiration behind the company alive- which again is important in a start-up when the challenges or pure amount of daily tasks can weigh you down. You sometimes need those reminders of what you are (going to, always going to...) achieve.

The first challenge that came up back in early July was one that could only be described as pretty serious. Several farmers that bought our Karishma fertilizer had reported instances of "black rot", a fungal disease that attacks the roots and main stem of young peanut seedlings, killing them or reducing their growth so dramatically that they produce no seeds. Our Karishma is augmented with a fungal ingredient (Trichoderma sp.) that is one of the most effective at fighting other plant pathogens, and has been particularly successful in trials against black rot in peanut crops. However, it turned out that part of the sales pitch when selling our fertilizer was to guarantee that if a farmer used the fertilizer, then their crop would be completely black-rot disease free. So when these reports started coming in, those farmers were not only pissed off, but of course were also in the situation where they might lose 10-20% of their potential income. For a new product trying to get a foothold in a local market, it had all the hallmarks of a PR disaster.

Trichoderma: Why don't you work?!

So it needed a response, and a quick one. One that would:

• address the needs of the farmers- in this situation, not only do we have a responsibility to the farmers as customers, but of course the potential loss of their product is much greater than the investment in ours. They are also our biggest source of publicity, so keeping them happy, with a quick and proper response, is crucial.
• address issues with our existing products- we had already shipped thousands of bags of products which were now of questionable quality. Something had to be done to ensure that those products could be brought up to a suitable quality, that this problem wouldn't be encountered by any more farmers.
• address issues with future products- even though we shouldn't guarantee that there are no occurances of disease in crops where our product is applied, there certainly should have been reduced instances of disease, something that we were not seeing. Therefore, a strategy had to be put in place where we were monitoring the quality of the product that we were selling.

That was the problem that we tackled at the beginning of July. I was mainly involved in the issues with Production- of products to treat the existing problem, to fill the quality gap between shipped product and what our standards demanded, and improvements to future production.

Karishma: Just another misunderstood good guy

The other main challenge in July was looking to move forward in the design challenges of the proposed Power Plant. Thinking about the Power Plant design means grappling with multiple problems, including civil, mechanical, technical and logistical.
It's one thing to have a working prototype and quite another to scale up that prototype 20 times. There are a whole nother set of problems that you could potentially face, and any design has to try and cater for those. Plus, you're looking at how that design rolls out, simple things such as what needs to get constructed at the site first. The project management challenges are what I am involved with in that department.
The other exciting part about these discussions and design is that we are completely unlimited (except by cash) by how we construct the plant. That means that we can construct an office block on the property that has a view, that's ergonomic, or that's water and energy-saving (it makes sense for a compost and energy producer!). And that means fairly innovative thinking- after all who said a power plant needs to look ugly? Who said that you can't make concrete tanks aesthetically pleasing? Those are the kind of challenges that- well, possibly an architect might solve in the end- but that we are at least thinking in broad strokes about. And what we want from all these little parts needs to be documented and put in a timeline. That's part of my job at the moment.

Apart from that is the revamp of the website- it's been out of date for a while now- showcasing GreenOil's jatropha plantations rather than our current focus on power plants and compost- and more and more people are looking at it. So it needs to at least reflect in its content what we are currently doing, and it could also benefit from the main message of that content being revamped and targeted at our intended audience. So that's my third project. Again, something that needs to be carefully structured, but also has an allowance for creativity. A nice balance, which I find in most of my work at the moment.

--tom.

Varanasi


A trip to Varanasi is a little like a trip to a mini-India- it's all (or a lot) of India in one place. There's the crowds of people. There's the absolute fanatical devotion to Hinduism, the gods, idols, holy men and practices. There's the heat. There's the rain. There's the rubbish everywhere in the streets. There's the cows and their shit everywhere. There's the adorable willingness to help with everything balanced with the incredible frustration that acceptance of that help will inevitably mean an exchange of money.


It's a wonderous beast, but it's a difficult beast to love. Even more so when you're obviously an outsider (I don't use the distinction between foreign tourist and Indian tourist here- everyone's a target here). It's a part of India I still haven't got used to yet- the part that involves an attempt to build a relationship via conversation that never feels quite right.


The standard practice involves two phrases, that generally give away the speaker's fluency in the English language: "What is your name?" and "What is your country?" These two questions, when answered, then meet most of the time with a silence. I would say awkward, but for the Indian guy (and it's always a guy), who's standing there and grinning at you, it doesn't seem to be awkward. At least not awkward enough for them to move away or attempt to say anything else. That silence will then either be followed by them asking to take a photo of you, then asking for a couple of rupees or them asking if you're on facebook. *Note: they don't normally ask you for all three.


Varanasi had a slightly different take on this, in that even the holy guys in the temples would try this on you. They of course always finished their interaction, which would involve handing over prashad, or wrapping a holy piece of string around some part of your body, with the asking for money. Not blatant, mind, unless you call pointing to the small offerings that were already lying near his feet blatant. (Ilka was actually 'asked to leave' the temple after refusing to give a donation when a holy swami dangled a black string necklace around her.)


So Varanasi, and it's constant harassment, was a little tiring. And it was harassment followed by extremely hurtful and sorrowful looks if you gave any indication that it might be pissing you off or that their tactics weren't going to result in a bigger tip or a potential sale. It was the kind of, I'm only trying to earn a living, even if my methods mean trying to make you feel as uncomfortable or as guilty as possible... have a little compassion!


The most interesting thing that Varanasi has to offer is of course the devotees, whether they be bathing themselves completely in the Ganges, offering prayers and various other bits and pieces, or queuing for hours at the temples, bumper-to-bumper only to get approximately 2 seconds if they're lucky to throw their gifts at their favoured idols (some of which you couldn't even see because of the volume of stuff being thrown in there). The Golden Temple was one-such place where the idol (a black "knob in a bowl") was completely drowned in the milk that was deemed one of the holiest offerings. The idol was policed by one helpful swami who angrily threw out surplus offerings and another who grabbed anyone clinging to the railings that dared to hang there for more than their 2 seconds. And this was normal practice for the thousands of people who queued for hours every day, during August which is designated as 'Shiva month'.


Enough of Varanasi, it wasn't a very pleasant experience unfortunately. But here's some pics anyway.

Our extremely photogenic (and apparently 100-years old, blind and deaf) boat-renter and steer-er

Holy women

Holy man

Holy guacamole

We paid for this view

Where dogs sleep on cows

We're almost ready to leave!

Manali to Leh, Ladakh


So one of the 'adventure' trips that is recommended in India is to travel the Manali to Leh highway. This path takes you through mountains that form part of the Himalaya range, with one strange addition- that practically no rain finds its way into these mountains. They are in a large rain-shadow valley, where monsoon rains are dropped  on either side of the large mountains that form the barrier on both sides of these valleys. So it's still high, still cold, still spectacular mountains- but little snow, no rain, and hence practically no growth.
We decided that the easiest and most relaxing way for us to do it would be taking the bus- it meant overnighting at Keylong, and we wouldn't have to worry about any driving ourselves.


It ended up being a long trip. About 9 hours long on the first day as we climbed through the first two passes. A good way to start appreciating the height and the vastness of the hills and valleys.


The second day, though, was too much- even for a photo-head like myself. We got up at four and ended up in the bus for 17 hours, through dusty valleys, with a 5 minute piss-stop about every 2 hours. People had diarroeha, motion sickness and altitude sickness. It was just too much I think, although some of my fellow passengers were still taking photos of the multi-coloured sand valleys on the approach to Leh.


If I were to give advice to anyone, I would say hire your own jeep (to enable you to travel a little faster than we did), and break it into three days. There are some interesting valley stop where you can sleep in a rather comfortable-looking tent, and it would mean 3 7-8 hour driving days.


These fotos are just to give you a taste. I hope you'll try and look at the big versions of the landscapes in full-screen at: https://picasaweb.google.com/115790948457817636853/IndiaIlkaManaliLeh?authkey=Gv1sRgCOvShN7-n43o4AE

Mountain blossom, Manali

Cow herders, Manali

Traditional cap, Manali

The view down, Manali-Leh road near  Mahri(?)

Roadside glacier

Tom... jumping?, near 32.3831N; 77.2507E

The most remote toilet in the world (for customers only)

Keoladeo Ghana National Park, Bharatpur

This blog post is simply so that I don't forget some of the things we saw during our trip to this National Park near Agra.

We entered the park fairly early in the morning at around 7am when it was still fairly cool and the birds were pretty active. The entrance fees have been recently doubled(!!), which for foreign tourists means Rs 400.- each, pretty steep considering the facilities inside the park (practically none), but probably justifiable for a day out for birders. You can hire indian bikes at the entrance for Rs 25.- a day and do the normal haggling to get some binoculars (the guy at the entrance told us they didn't have any, but then some helpful chap eventually went and got them from the same office). I paid Rs 100.- for the day.

In the park itself, we were practically alone the entire day and spent a relaxing and rewarding day spotting both waterbirds and other endemic species. Some of the larger storks and cranes were just arriving by all accounts, and we only saw pairs or singles of these birds, either flying overhead or fishing in the pools.

Note that some of the tracks off the main bitumen road aren't really suitable for bikes, and you're probably best to leave them somewhere and walk along those tracks for a little bit. We saw large numbers of spotted deer a little off the beaten path.

In Bharatpur we stayed at the Falcon Guest House (Rs 400.- for a double with bath), which I would recommend. The owners seemed a little put out by any request we had but to their credit they fulfilled every one.

None of these photos are mine, BTW; I don't have a decent enough zoom lens to take these. We did see these species though.

Black-necked stork and cormorants

Mating Sarus Cranes

Ring-necked Parakeet 

Rufous Tree-Pie

Indian Roller (yes they really are that spectacular colour)

Spotted Owlet

Grey Heron

White-breasted Water Hen

The bizarre-looking Nilgai (Blue bull)

Sambar Deer

Giant Turtle (these guys are big!)

The one we saw had a huge mound of mud on their back with plants growing out of it. It looked like it hadn't been the whole way under the water for a year or so...

Delhi, Agra, Taj Mahal

Some memories of Ilka's all-to-short trip to India (part #1)

More photos (landscapes, etc.) at: https://picasaweb.google.com/115790948457817636853/IndiaIlka?authkey=Gv1sRgCJXaqsfTueKw1QE

First day

 Office-mode Tom

 Delhi traffic and drainage system

Lodhi Gardens, Delhi

Giant Hanuman statue, Chattapur

 Red Fort marble & gemstone detail

 Agra rooftop

 Taj Mahal gate, Agra

 Obligatory jumping photos

 Obligatory holding the Taj point photos

 Serious Tom, but the best shot of the detail of the Taj

 Taj Mahal base, looking towards the Mosque

 Agra Fort, Shah Jahan's "prison"

Two tired peoples, and the holiday's only just begun!