The loneliness of a long-distance worker

This isn’t going to be a lament to how difficult it can be arriving in a new country as someone who is expected to fit right into a new environment and how in the time spent outside that environment- geared as it is mostly around work- it can be difficult to adjust to living a ‘normal’ lifestyle (at least I am conscious that it shouldn’t turn into that ;-). Its purpose is more to try and articulate something that I was struggling with today and that I tried to articulate to my fellow colleagues (who are practically my only social contact at present).

I guess I could sum it up best by saying that beginning a new long-term job in an alien country for a small company makes it hard to quickly find and get into a, ahem, life-rhythm (I told you I was trying to articulate it today, obviously coining terms to define abstract concepts is not my strong point). One of the hardest things is that you practically start from square one when you arrive. You know very little about how simple things operate in the country- how people buy their vegetables, what the deal with phone contracts are, how the public transport system operates. Sometimes these things are close enough to what you know to make the transition simple, but most often they aren’t. There are of course ways of making the transition a little easier, as in most countries there exists some “western” equivalent: think shopping malls, and taxis for two of the above examples- I can’t think of one for the mobiles. What I’m trying to say is that these things can be solved, but they aren’t really long-term solutions. They are also a long way removed from what the locals would do, which is another reason for trying to avoid these easy solutions and “do what the locals would do”.

That’s certainly what I attempt to do as soon as I arrive in a new country- I find it helps me fall into the afore-mentioned rhythm much quicker, and achieve one of the goals of working in a “developing” country (although don’t try and tell Indians that their country is still a developing one- they’ll point you towards the number of millionaires/billionaires and the fact that two of the richest 10 men in the world are Indians, and heads of giant corporations). That goal, at least for me, is to find the positive differences from the life you are used to, and embrace them. That’s a little difficult when your daily rhythm includes as many things about home as possible. One, it’s is hard to maintain when the rest of the society lives differently, and secondly, it’s a little artificial.

Perhaps describing my personal situation would help the understanding a little easier. I tried in vain to find a bedroom in a house or apartment that was already inhabited by a few others- like a share-house. The reason being that I thought it would take care of things like I mentioned above- how do to some of the everyday things that make life a little simpler, without having to ring someone up or bother the landlord. Those requests are part of any natural learning process in a new city- but made more difficult when you don’t have someone available there to answer them. Secondly, purely for the added company at the end of a work day, sitting down to eat together once in a while- look, I don’t have to explain to you the advantages/disadvantages of share-housing, but perhaps you can understand how they are a little more valuable when moving to a new city in a new country. At the very least you have an instant circle of acquaintances, and most of the time it doesn’t take long before you can call at least some of them friends. The situation that you all find yourselves in makes that transition much easier.

For whatever reason that didn’t work out, and I know now that that *function* that a share-house would have provided is basically what I am missing at the moment. Moving into a new flat means you start from scratch. I at least have some furniture, but nothing else. No food, no cleaning stuff, not enough power points, some utensils, etc. It’s not a living area at the moment, it’s a hotel room. Even when you head off to the supermarket, you are trying to buy things as if starting a life from scratch- you of course have not sugar, flour, oil, salt; but also no spices, tea, coffee, washing up liquid, washing up sponges, mop, broom, tea towel… etc. And you get perhaps one or two chances to do this shopping because of course you’re also working. It doesn’t sound too much- and it really isn’t, but… let me try another tack.

Here the cooking is done with gas, and that means getting a gas bottle. My gas bottle I left half-open (half-open means open at the bottle attachment, off at the stove, and it leaks) when I was away for the last week, and all the gas ran out. So I needed to get it changed. So, what do I do? Landlord problem? I guessed yes, so I asked him (he lives below me). He, probably wanting to avoid doing any more work than possible, told me to ask my boss, who now conveniently for him, lives only a few houses away. Or he said you could just go down the market and get it filled. But the market is a couple of km’s away, and I don’t really want to carry a gas bottle that far. Besides, the market’s a big place, and I have no idea where the fill station is. And isn’t there someone to do these kind of jobs? I’ve seen motorbikes loaded with about 6 gas bottles at the same time, putting from house-blocks to get filled. Can’t I just get one of those numbers and call them up? Here’s the crux of what I’m trying to say. Everyone knows that this *can* be simply done- so as a simple job they don’t pay too much attention to my concern that I *need* it done. But they also don’t tell me how I can do it simply myself- they either want to do it for me (but don’t have the time right now), or they tell me to ask someone else (which I guess I have to do every time I need a simple job done). And even if they do have the time today, what happens the next time I need the same thing done- ask them to do it again? Just tell me how to do it once, give me a phone number, direct me to the shop, and I can take care of it this time, and the next twenty times.

So a simple job gets a little more complicated, just because I don’t have this knowledge on how to get things done. It’s not a big deal, and this isn’t a complaint, it’s simply trying to give you an idea of how this feels to me at the moment. It’s not allowing me to get into a rhythm of living, and that makes me uncomfortable. That was it is- some discomfort, nothing more.

Delhi Vocabulary

Today has been a tough day- I’ve either eaten something dodgy or completely hit a wall energy-wise, and if it’s the latter that doesn’t bode well for 358 more days (approximately) of the same sort of stuff. I trekked into Old Delhi today despite feeling a little under the weather in the morning, and a ride on the Delhi Metro didn’t help my condition.

The centre of Delhi is one huge market- teeming with people going everywhere and doing everything, and this was on a Sunday, when most of it isn’t even open. It’s a real treat for the senses- if your senses like everything being completely shoved at them, up them, into them and onto them. Partly from this experience, I have decided to start a Delhi vocabulary, just to help you at home understand a few terms here.

The Delhi Symphony Orchestra can be appreciated from almost all over Delhi, but the vicinity of the Red Fort would have to be one of the best sites. The instruments are very similar, but they manage to cover most octaves to give an impressive performance. Once they start playing in time it’s hard to stop their building crescendo. (I hope to add a sample here later)

A Delhi shampoo is free, it doesn’t need water, or for you to be taking a shower for that matter. It’s a perfectly natural process that is experienced simply while walking the streets. After only a day your hair will feel stiff and knotted, like it has been fixed there by a kind of “dust gel”.

The Delhi Indian “head wobble” is a sign from your Indian counterpart that sends a clear signal or yes, maybe or no, depending on what they happen to mean at the time. Most of the time this movement seems to mean that they don’t actually understand what you’ve asked them.

The other list that I feel compelled to start today is one of Indian strangers who have decided that I am the kind of guy who might be interesting to talk to.

Excluding the conversations I have had with rickshaw drivers trying to convince me that I need one of them despite me constantly repeating that it wasn’t going to happen for them today, there were two notables. (They were so notable that I can’t remember their names- this is also being written to try and improve my hit-rate in that department).

Short beardy was in front of the Red Fort, and wanted to know what I thought of Ricky Ponting.

Firstly I was accosted by Muslim father’s kids, who wanted a photo and then were disappointed that my camera couldn’t then print it out for them. They were “collectors of foreign money”, but apparently not of 1c euro coins, unless I gave them two, which I didn’t want to. So then they gave it (i.e. the one I would give them) back to me. Their father engaged me in a conversation for about half an hour, which was nice while sitting in Delhi’s biggest mosque. It was a Sunday, which means that everyone basically comes with their families and spends the day there, the kids running around, the women mainly talking, the men also. It certainly wasn’t as segregated as I have heard that Mosques normally are, and the dress from the women was certainly not too conservative, hardly any full burkas, many more saris than anything else. The women tourists were all given these gigantic floral dresses which made them stand-out like nothing else, and they probably were also the ones (like me) who got charged the Rs 200 “camera tax”, which of course was done without checking whether anyone had a camera- if you look like a whitey you get it. I guess if you knew what was going on and didn’t have one then you might be able to argue and not pay it. I won’t be next time I go back, to climb the tower that overlooks the city.

Anyway, back to Muslim father, a really reasonable guy, like to talk a lot about Allah and how I wasn’t going to heaven for not praying for mankind’s sins five times a day, but otherwise was trying his best to preach brotherhood for all men and not just Muslims. One of those talks that are interesting to have but can’t really go anywhere unless one of us changes our religious beliefs in that 10 minute opportunity.

Pride comes before the fall [07.04.2011]

As is perhaps too oft my wont, I got a little over-cocky. Not that anything went wrong today, in fact far from it- I got to meet the team at the GreenOil fertilizer business out in Samut, about 50km from Jaipur in Rajasthan today. I got a really solid introduction to all that they are doing, and even participated in some attempts at problem solving for the fertilizer production business. So why should I feel shitty?

I get the feeling I just went about it the wrong way. I wasn’t as inclusive as I should have been- and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing- and that’s why it’s a bad thing. I gave myself a stamp with them before really knowing what it is that they expect from me or how they can contribute to the success of GreenOil- and that’s what I’m ultimately there to try and get done. Sometimes it’s hard to walk away when you see that there’s a problem to be solved and little progress on the planning process for its implementation- but that’s precisely when you have to think about the future. If I solve it now, who will solve it when I’m not here? And that’s what I’m ultimately there to do… It’s even tougher when you look at the situation GreenOil are in at the moment. They need to generate revenue- and that means excitement from a buzz, solid sales and production plans. It’s crucial to their (our) success RIGHT NOW- and things need to be solved. It’s natural that you want to help to solve them. But not if that damages your ability to help them solve their long term problems, and that’s perhaps what I did today. I might have overstepped the mark and alienated myself. A little silly, but hard not to be caught up in the excitement of trying to solve things…

Certainly something to work on- and probably ask how much “damage” I have possibly done :-/

Enough about my problems though- let’s talk a little about what I saw today. GreenOil’s fertilizer production takes place in a field, which they oversee from a converted office/house. Raw materials come in from local suppliers (of banana leaves and elephant dung), and are arranged into composting rows. These rows are then “seeded” which earthworms which are “produced/ reproduced” on the premises and then the wondrous process of composting begins. After 60-90 days (a little variable at the moment) the compost is ready to be bagged and sold to surrounding distributors that service the farming community.

Sales are obviously key to GreenOil being able to generate revenue, which is of the highest importance at the moment. GreenOil are looking to become cash positive by the end of this year, and that requires the ramping up of sales within the next two months. Generating buzz for a new product is obviously one of the hardest sells, especially if it’s got to be a product that is good enough to warrant repeat sales. It’s not an impulse product, it’s got to convince people to try it and then it’s got to work. THAT’s GreenOil’s biggest challenge at the moment.

[10:37pm]

So I have just had a quick chat about my concerns with Anupam, my so far unbelievably great boss and CEO, and he thinks that my fears are unfounded today, and that experiencing a little resistance to my, ahem, personable attempts to get myself involved in everything as normal. Not to worry about it, but I will definitely keep it in mind.

Last note of the night comes from our walk after dinner. We leave a quite magnificent-looking hotel where we are staying for the night. Prashant, Anupam and I head right out a completely unlit road, passed by only a few vehicles. We’re in the countryside now, few houses, less lights, only the dim stars through a hazy sky. It’s slightly chilly, but still very pleasant. We turn left up a non-descript road, Anupam remarking on a hill we can make out the outline of, that he climbed once with his two children. They made it to “the lion’s nose” which is an outcrop that could kind of be called that if you have his sense of imagination ;-) Past this mountain we spot another smaller hill onto a sand-dune, marked by a tree on the horizon. “You see that?” he asks me, “That’s where I’m going to build my digester.” We climb, without torchlight over soft sand to reach a crest, from where we can see another slightly higher hill. There is the “lion” mountain to our right, and we can see back into the valley of Samod. There are only a few lights, and fewer sounds. The crickets are the only ones besides us out tonight. “Just beyond that next crest, that’s where our land will start. It’s 6 acres, and follows slow folds; up and down… up and down.” There is a village lit-up beyond, and it’s unbelievably surreal. Then we all lie down in the sand which has completely lost its heat from the day, and stare up at the sky. The surrealism is almost overwhelming. I’ve been in India… erm, not even 4 days. I’ve finally met with Anupam whose enthusiasm, knowledge and ideas have surpassed my expectations. I’ve been involved in discussions from the history to the future of the company, everything from organisational development possibilities to marketing Bio-Fertilizer to hard-to-pin-down farmers and retailers. Today I was trying to solve the possibilities of how the fertilizer packaging system can be ramped up from about 100 bags a day every month or so to 500 bags daily.

There’s a new challenge everyday, some of them I’m expecting, but most of them are seat of the pants stuff. I know it can’t stay this way, but I am absolutely loving it at the moment. I could give myself every task I’ve been exposed to so far and be deliriously happy for the next 6 months at least. The week’s almost over, dammit!

It's too good [06.04.2011]

I know this love affair can’t continue. Things are so obviously in the romantic stages at the moment and I can’t be seeing reality. All the signs are there. Wonder at everyday things like birds and flowers and cows. Ridiculous feeling of importance when doing routine things. A sense that you’ve been friends for ever when it’s been three days. An inability to see anything wrong with the other (apart from the chaotic driving). An absolute enchantment with the different flavours that she brings. Beautiful flowing garments that you can’t take your eyes off. Yes, I’m talking about a women and her name is Maharajah India.

It can’t be love, it’s only been three days. It must be some sort of strange enchantment that can only end in tears. It will end in burn-out, or some sense of perspective, surely. Maybe. But boy, I’m enjoying the ride so far.

This morning, our meeting on the organizational structure of GreenOil had to be slightly postponed, and was ‘transferred’ to another location. This mysterious location involved us creeping along the freeway at 10 kph while we looked for the “secret spot”. An emerging bum held some promise, but that wasn’t where we were meant to go. We simple reversed up the freeway and did a U-turn, finally pulling over in the emergency stopping lane behind some others who had just taken their dogs for a walk and were trying to shove the unwilling mutts back into their car. We locked ours and headed into a completely deserted park that I’m sure I would have felt weird going into on my own. Actually, “park” is a little too simple. It was more like a nature reserve, in that you walked a fair way and could see nothing but trees, even though the freeway was right next to it. While Dananjay explained the temple of some Indian deity or other to me (there are about 1000 for every day of the year, so I am told), our CEO appeared with a flip chart and a rug. We made our way to the main area of the park and as the only people there, had our pick of the available patches of grass to begin our “meeting”. Organizational Management has never been so picturesque.

That afternoon we convened at a local coffee shop with one of GreenOil’s advisers, Rajeev, and tried to trash out GreenOil’s marketing strategy for their fertilizer around Jaipur. Great process, interesting ideas and I learned a heap about things I may never understand, but I’ll be there soon enough (tomorrow, in fact!! yes, things are moving pretty quickly- you guessed that yet?). So let me break it down for you. We had to find the most reliable place where farmers in a village congregate. Our only reliable suggestion was the temple. It’s on a top of a hill and most of the farmers need to follow one of two routes to get there. Temples, however, need money to buy things to enable people to worship the deity. So we would look to sponsor the temple’s celebration primarily the Pradash (offerings) and flowers. Then we needed to work out how the message of our product could be integrated into this method. What better than hymns interspersed with ads for our fertilizer? What better indeed! Somehow we have to “close the buying loop” though- that was a trickier one. When they came down from their deity worship, how would we get them to follow-up with our product? Does it sound crass? This is India, boyo! And don’t you try and come between us- we’re in love.

Anything but work [05.04.2011]

So my fellow Delhi virgin offsider at GreenOil (Dananjay) must be wondering what he has got himself into. He has been officially appointed my chauffeur and Delhi tour guide to solve whatever little problems I might have. I feel a bit ridiculous, but I guess this is the only way we will get the things done at the moment. And it’s really great to be given the time to do them.

On my first afternoon in Delhi, we went, ahem, clothes shopping. I mentioned that I had refrained from bringing too many business clothes from Europe with me because I wanted to see what people here in India wore and recommended. Of course they wear completely Western clothes that anyone in Europe wears and that I could have bought with me from Germany (of course that is also assuming I have a large range of Western business-style clothes ;-) We spent a fair bit of time trying to find something that I actually thought fit me well and that I was happy enough with the price- I thought India was supposed to be cheap!- well it probably is but not at the deserted designer label shops in the mall, populated as they are by 10 different serving staff for the 5 customers that are in there.

Delhi arrival

I have arrived in Delhi and am now sitting in a pretty comfortable little room which is part of a concrete complex at the USI (United Service Industries; which is some sort of association setup for Service Personell, I think mainly the army and, ahem, visiting diplomats like myself). There was a guy doing the mindless job of sweeping dirt from one side of the path to the other, and a guard in a blue uniform “patrols” the beat outside my window.

I have seen as little of Delhi as is possible, having been met by Anupam, my new boss at GreenOil at the airport are driven to this complex. Even in that short drive, we have been stopped by 5 officials, 3 in the airport carpark checking that we had a valid ticket to get out. Not much else to report, the smell of diesel(?) hits you as soon as you walk out of the airport, lots of people walking along the highway and indeed across it (apparently you need to honk your horn to stop them from walking in front of you and killing themselves), and the normal near-misses when merging traffic that somehow people who drive like this all the time manage to become accustomed to.

As an aside, I’ve already seen a little bit of the money talking here, but to be honest it solved a problem that I was grateful for and would have been happy to pay for. We got here early in the morning of course, which meant that I wasn’t able to check-in yet. But Anupam then negotiated an early check-in all the same, by asking about the “protocol” for such things. The protocol is you apparently pay for another half a day. Not too shabby though- it got me a shower and an hour lie-down time.

Delhi has turned on the weather for me as well- today should be a mild 29 degrees.

Just went down and had some breakfast at the compound (as I’m now referring to it) restaurant: complete with bagpipes on the wall and drawings of famous Indian commanders in their colonial general’s outfits. Really felt like being in something out of colonial times, especially with the five wait staff employed to serve the two customers there (the capacity is perhaps for 100 people?). Everyone speaks Hindi amongst themselves, and I was even asked by a guy in combat fatigues if I knew where ‘Part D’ of the complex was when I walked back from the restaurant to my room. I get the feeling asking for directions to offices is going to become a regular occurrence. Oh, by the way, the restaurant wasn’t called a restaurant- It is signposted with the words “Retreat”.

I have now eaten at the Retreat twice, broken up by a visit to the local currently-under-construction mall where I had a passable Thali meal. I felt a bit shameful actually eating it in front of Dhananjay (recently-hired sales guy for GreenOil) seeing as he and most Muslims are currently in fasting mode, with the start of the Hindu New Year today. So they only get one meal a day apart from some fruit in the mornings.

I just wanted to mention the Retreat for its actually pretty good Vege Jalfraezi(?) and Indian-ness, staffed as it was tonight by at least 8 waiters for the 8 tables that were occupied there. When they weren’t occupied they stood together with their hands behind their backs looking like well-behaved school kids, watched as they were by the school/master, who was allowed to wear a tie instead of a bow-tie.