Time for some fancy dress fun...

So what’s a girl to do when it’s 47°c outside in the day and 32°c at night – organise a fancy dress party! Inspired by our recent trip to Varanasi there was only one possible theme – backpackers...

As with most things in life, it’s all in the preparation. As most people from home know me I take fancy dress very seriously. So the weekend before the party it was off to Paharganj, the backpacker’s district in Delhi, for some serious shopping. Pharganj is the kind of place that all backpackers end up as soon as they arrive in India as it’s got everything you need to give you the full taste of the Indian ‘experience’. Dirty streets, cheap shops selling tie dye outfits, hippy beads and the Om symbol printed on absolutely everything. Within minutes I had found a suitably inspirational orange tie dye dress to go with my pink baggy trousers and accessories worthy of any Gap year student.

We’d given our guests some party guidelines and there were extra points for baggy traveller’s pants, dreadlocks, bongos and excessive boasting about where they’d been and the impact they’d made volunteering at that ashram for a day. In true volunteer style everyone made huge efforts. To begin with, everyone had taken on a new name to match their backpacker persona. I had gone for Skylar to reinforce my trustafarian roots and we were lucky enough to have the presence of Moses, Amethyst, Rainbow and Quinn to name a few of our esteemed guests.

The venue was our roof terrace which occasionally gets a bit of breeze. The night was seriously hot and we provided suitable lounge seating in the form of a day bed pimped up with lots of ethnic cushions. We served beer, gin and tonics and watermelon to keep everyone cool. The star attraction of the night was another volunteer, who excelled in embracing his inner backpacker. Having turned up in ‘civilian’ clothing much to my distress, he informed me that he had bought with him his fire poi with him. For those who were not present on the Ibiza/Goan/Thai full moon backpacker party scene c.1994 fire poi are quite literally balls of petrol soaked fire on a chain that are swung around to form, well, pretty patterns. It takes quite a lot of guts to do it, bring your own petrol to the party and perform in the enclosed space that is our roof terrace.

The poi was lit and the spinning began. Everyone stepped back as the heat and petrol fumes hit them. Then suddenly our poi performer set himself on fire. Luckily we managed to stop the flames creeping up the back of his shirt before any serious damage was done and he carried on his performance to rapturous applause. It’s great to see some of the VSO skills of flexibility and adaptability in both work and play..!

Highlights: having some crazy fun in the crazy heat - it’s too hot to even think at the moment but it was great that everyone made such an effort for our party, treat time – discovering the perfect pedicure for only Rs180 (£2.40), stealth AC – having an excuse to hit the shopping mall and hiding out at the cinema to absorb some frosty magic, adapting – rose water lassis and ice cream have become part of my daily diet, when in Rome...!

What's in a name..?

Well, quite a lot when it comes to the title of my blog which encapsulates one of Delhi’s most frustrating features...

So why ‘Honk if you like curry’? Well the name came from an observation I made in the first few days of living here. You cannot begin to describe the sound/irritation factor of the constant honking that every vehicle in Delhi makes. Everybody drives using their horn, as if they are all honking in agreement for the love of their national dish. It’s been proven that 70% of noise pollution in Delhi comes from honking horns and there is even an official No Honking Day on 1st January. How considerate to choose the one day of the year everyone is going to have a hangover...

Maybe due to the heat, my irritation and tolerance levels are slowly sinking. My experience of being on the road usually involves walking down it or being stuck in a rickshaw exposed to the elements. My biggest frustration comes as a pedestrian. If a car approaches you (normally about 10 metres away) they will start honking as if to say “watch out, I’m bigger than you”. This could be seen as a polite gesture. But it normally involves several further honks which are not necessary. But then again, based on my experience of Delhi drivers I’m glad you get a warning sound. I don’t want to make a sweeping statement but no one seems to be able to drive properly in Delhi. No one can park, overtaking and undertaking with a few centimetres to spare, as well as driving the wrong way on a dual carriage way (I’ve seen it all) is quite common. Being on the road is like being in a Mario Kart game. The common vehicles you spot range from tractors, buses, large SUVs, tiny Tata hatchbacks, auto rickshaws, cycle rickshaws, motorbikes with up to 4 passengers, bicycles with up to 2 passengers, carts, cows and the occasional elephant. All driving is of course accompanied by a symphony of honks, which acts as a warning and voids any maverick driving manoeuvres.

I jokingly mentioned to my colleagues at lunch the other day about this frustration of mine and that it seemed as if no one had actually passed their test. I was then told I was right. As most people pay a bribe to get their test rather than sit it. Everyone then compared notes on how much they had paid for their licences. The least being Rs200 (£2.66) the most being Rs5,000 (£66.66) – what a bargain. One colleague had even failed his test by failing to give a bribe. That explains a lot I thought.

But like all things in India, the system works. I’m yet to see an accident, the skill and reaction of drivers to swerve with minimal damage is impressive. And the honking? Well at least you get a warning and it’s something I’m always going to associate with India. It’s going to be a long hot summer and only going to get noisier...


Highlights: mango season is in full swing – a visit to a ‘Mango Festival’ has broadened my mango knowledge apparently it’s all about the Alphonso, air conditioning the finest invention – I spent most of the weekend holed up at the American Centre enjoying a Hitchcock Festival and the frosty surroundings, getting ready for my sister’s wedding – it’s under 7 weeks until the big day, my bridesmaid dress is currently being made by a local designer and this week I chose the material and colour. Its hard being away from home in the run up to such a big occasion but seeing my dress come together is getting me more and more excited about my visit home for the Big Day.

177 days in...

I can hardly believe that I’m coming up to the 6 month mark of my one year VSO placement. Time has gone by quickly as every day is saturated full of new things, both fascinating and frustrating. Reaching this milestone has made me reflected on my learnings so far...

Rights
6 months ago back in London, if you had asked me what my rights were it would have taken me some time to answer. In the bubble that was my life then, I would probably have said; to vote, to get equal pay as my male colleagues, a pay rise every year to reward my hard work, afford a few holidays a year, clothes and good times with friends. How my opinion has changed.

Everyone has different reasons for doing VSO but at the core of it is the challenge of having a new experience and directly learning about the developing world. Every day you learn something new about so many things, including yourself. Not only have I had a change in career, there’s also been a change in continent, country, culture and customs. I think everyone must feel like a slight fraud in their first few weeks in placement. As much as we have ‘advisor’ in our job titles, how can we advise if we don’t even know the context our advice is to be given? Learning about the country you are in takes time. It’s been incredibly easy to embrace some parts of the culture such as food (God bless the fact curry is our national dish). Adapting to traditional clothes has been easy too. Wearing a salwaar kameez to work is the coolest option and I like the fact my wardrobe no longer is varying shades of black and grey but an explosion of colours. But how on earth can you start to understand a country like India, with 1.2 billion people, 31 states, 1618 languages, 6400 castes and 6 religions, in a short period of time?

Well I think the answer is fairly simple. Just by living here and being open minded. My walk to work is my favourite time of the day as I get to see what’s going on around. This morning I started thinking about my rights. Walking down the road probably is the biggest frustration of my day. Being stared at, called out at and nearly run over is all part of the challenge. Do I have the right to be able to cross the road safely and not be stared at? Yes and no you could argue. If the government was spending the money to repair the road on ensuring the 40% of the population (4.8m) who live below the poverty line weren’t living on less than $1 (65p) a day and could afford 2 meals, then I would say I don’t have the right to demand tarmac and traffic lights…

And with the staring, it’s the first time in my life I’ve been a minority. Being female increases the Stare Factor, should I get annoyed about the fact I can’t wear shorts when I go jogging or a vest top to the market when it’s 45°c outside? Not really, when women have a struggle for survival that starts in the womb, with female infantacide still common. In a patriachal society being treated as a second class citizen in relation to their male family members, receiving food and education last only if there is enough is still common for many. India is a democracy and in no way should be viewed as an oppressive state, being here enables you to learn and experience both the positive and the negatives and see everything in context.

So what do I think my rights are now? I feel very lucky that I have had access to and have an education, that I had enough to eat when I grew up, clean water, free medical care, that I am not discrimanted based on my gender, I can live independently and that I have enough money to be happy.

Relationships
The moment you get on the plane to your placement you experience a strange release / panic. Everything is new around you, including your identity. There’s no point of reference for you, no friends or family to fit into. If I decided I wanted to be called Tallulah for the next 12 months, only eat red food and take up basket weaving no one would have questioned me. You are at ground zero with your relationships and need to start from scratch on top of dealing with a new group of people/country/flat/job/lifestyle.

VSO training prepares you very well for dealing with the relationships around you. It’s so important to create and develop them. We lucked out with our group when we all arrived for our in country training. The eighteen of us all got on well and had minimal sense of humour failures despite living on top of each other and sharing rooms for a month. Our gang in Delhi are a great eclectic bunch and one of the many benefits of doing an urban placement means you already have an extensive social life to plug into.

Being away from home firstly makes you reflect how lucky you are to have such great family and friends. You miss the simplest things from meeting up with a friend for a glass of wine or calling someone up for a post work chat. Your new family really is at work. Relationships here are perhaps the most important and you need to develop them as fast as possible. That can be the most challenging as working life is so different. Everything is a lot more reactive, the pace so much slower, with priority and responsibility viewed in a different way to home. For a TOMTD (Task Orientated Multi Tasking Demon) like me – it’s been a big change! My favourite part of my work day is lunch, where we religiously all sit down and eat together. Apart from getting to try everyone’s delicious home cooked food the topic of conversation varies so much every day. Religion, politics, cricket, books, films, solar energy and Princess Diana are just some of the topics we’ve done in the last few days. It’s a great time to learn more about everyone and life in India.

So what do the next 6 months hold? Denial firstly that I’m half way through, then enjoying every second as I have done so far, eating a lot more curry, seeing more of India and continuing to learn more...

Highlights – there’s too many to list, so this week’s pictures are a selection of my favourites from the last 6 months - enjoy!