Buses in Kolkata

Thinking about buses, I have this old 90s song, Buses and Trains (anybody?) stuck in my head.

Anyway, on to the scavenger hunt. Full disclosure: I don't take buses here in Kolkata; my transportation is mainly my car. But following is a video--taken from my car--showing Kolkata's iconic yellow Ambassador taxi, followed by the "mini-bus" or the private buses that serve/terrorize (depending on who you ask) the city.



The last time I took a bus here in India was a "luxury" bus to my Mom's hometown of Asansol, which is about 4-5 hours by bus or train. It was the first time we took the bus there. The bus itself was nice enough and air-conditioned (a plus in the summer heat!). But I have never been so afraid for that extended period of time, during which my in-bus snack-box went flying down the aisle at one point (pothole, stray animal in the way, out of control lorry (truck) who knows what the reason for the sudden break was!). Anyway, on the way back, I mutinied and refused to take the bus in favor of the train. I love trains. But that's another post.

Scavenger Call #5: BUSES

Well, after such resounding success on that last post, I'm so excited to announce the next! In particular, all your enthusiasm gives me high hopes to make this a more regular feature again, so with that long-term plan in mind, I am going to suggest a fairly specific task. That way we just might have enough stuff to get us through the next several months of fieldwork (6 months and 3 days for me -- scary!).

Going back to that original list, I think it's time for something from the transport category. And, given anthropologists' proclivity toward road accidents (cf. half of Susan's stories from Bolivia), I could think of no better topic for this post than...

***BUS PHOTOS!!***

So yes, calling all bus stories and photos: colorfully painted passenger buses, translations of things commonly written on buses, competing over how many people squeeze onto your buses, and, for serious bonus points, video of actually riding on said buses! (I know Susan has a head start on this one too, but let her serve as an inspiration to us all.)

You have one week. Let's do this.

Un dia en la vida de una Susana

Annie Dillard once said, “How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.” I shame myself with this phrase when I spend too much of my time here in Bolivia reading gossip blogs and pathetically trying to download episodes of 30 Rock on Korean YouTube (damn you, Hulu international blockers!) instead of going to El Alto’s sprawling markets, knocking on the doors of aid agencies, or hiking in the Andes.

But life in El Alto is unpredictable -- if perpetually cold -- and therefore average days are hard to define. So perhaps a Glee-inspired mash-up?

Currently, most days in my life involve me trying desperately to come to grips with the fact that I am attempting to dance in a university troupe – aiming for Carnival, but more likely for a later entrada (dance parade) when I’ve had time to actually learn the choreography. Tinku rehearsal is Tues/Thursday nights from 8-10:30, and usually for about 3-4 hours on Saturday. So I spend a great many mornings waking up and thinking: Why can’t I sit up without the help of nearby furniture? Why do my feet feel broken? Why am I getting up at 6am when I got home from dance practice at midnight? Why is my coffee all the way across the rain-soaked, hail-splattered patio? But more on this perhaps-unwise aspiration later.

I live in a little two-room apartment that is part of a larger structure owned by my compadres de rutucha (or the Aymara rite of the first haircut), and use a little kitchen across the courtyard. On an average day I put on my faux Uggs to guard against the cold, and start boiling water for coffee. Because water boils at a lower temperature at this altitude, I have to leave it on for a while to kill any bichos trying to infect me with giardia for a 5^th time. Damn you giardia bichos! You are not welcome in my gut!

Here you can see a little glimpse of my home -- that's my room just before the camera pans out onto the street... I kinda love our quiet little neighborhood. (More videos available at KullakaSusana)

By 7:30 I need to be out the door if I am going to make it to the mediation center where I am currently working by 8:30am, though as Sohini and Stacey can attest, I am usually late. My home isn’t so far from my place of work -- as the Condor flies -- but rush hour in the Ceja (the main commercial district of El Alto, where all major arteries of El Alto connect) means it’s at least an hour-long bus ride to the higher, chillier neighborhood of Alto Lima.

Most mornings people in my neighborhood fight for seats on the inexplicably-infrequent mini-buses. But that’s why god gave us elbows. On my way to work, I awe at the Andes Mountains that surround the city, and dodge traffic as I change buses several times along the way. It’s then a 15-minute hike through the unpaved streets now gunked-up by the rainy season. On Wednesdays I get to trek through the weekly open-air market, past huge bags of potatoes and thick slabs of meat hanging from temporary butcher stands, piles of lettuce and tomatoes, and heaps of used clothing spread out on plastic sheets to keep them dry from the nearby open sewers. I love the bustle.

Mondays and Wednesdays I spend at the mediation center as a volunteer/researcher, doing intake for people seeking legal aid on a variety of issues, but most often spouse abuse, family conflict, and child support. Honestly, some of this work can be pretty brutal. Anyone think the National Science Foundation will pay for post-field therapy?

In addition to doing intake or sitting in on the intake sessions done by Center staff, I also help arrange mediation sessions and sit in on those conciliation appointments to observe how people think about and try to manage conflict – and how these aid programs try to intervene in those conflicts. I write-up all these experiences in my fieldnotes – the data we anthropologists later analyze as we write our dissertations, articles, and books.

Days I don’t work at the mediation center are often split between three main activities: catching up on fieldnotes, doing laundry, and conducting interviews with other institutions, aid workers, or government agents. Sometimes I attend workshops, conferences or training sessions on conflict resolution or current events.

While it’s time consuming to do my laundry by hand (in metal or plastic tubs out on our patio), I actually find it really cathartic, and it forces me to stay close to home some days as I alternate between scrubbing and writing. Those days I sip endless cups of Toddy hot chocolate mixed with instant coffee (I hear Sohini gasping in horror) and try to stay warm under my alpaca poncho while grasping my hot water bottle. Like my cohortmates, though, I often camp out at nice coffee shops down in the capital, La Paz, where faster speed WiFi lets me more efficiently check Facebo…I mean, download scholarly articles.

In these past weeks I have been devoting many of my evenings to Tinku dance rehearsal down in La Paz. I drop off my bags and change clothes at my friend Sarah’s apartment in the city center, where I can also catch a taxi ride back to El Alto after practice (it’s almost impossible to find a bus home after 11pm). I may not make the final cut for Carnival, but am kinda loving the catharsis of jumping, shouting, kicking, and punching that comes with our choreography, even if it leaves me breathless and I must limp through the next day. Also, I look like an Amazon next to the 4 foot 5” instructor. I know. I have seen video evidence. You, gentle reader, will never see that video. But here you may enjoy some of my Tinku colleagues (a very small group compared to the 100 or so who are part of the full troupe):

This is a clip of Paso "L" or the "L" sequence, one of about 16 different sequences. I have learned six thus far. There is one month until Carnival. Um. You can understand my doubt about making the cut. Paso "L" was the bane of my existence (it's just a lot of confusing repetition), until I started learning the "chicken" on Saturday (the day I passed my exam and became an official member of Fraternidad Tinkus Puros!). The Chicken is now my least understood paso. And like “L” before it, I now find myself having trouble falling asleep at night as visions of chicken steps dance through my head.

And so, our Day in the Life of Susan Mash-up comes to a close. I will hobble my way through some variation on these themes the next day. Maybe this time having lunch with a friend, or taking one of my godkids to the movies. Maybe this time going to a book launch -- or attending a panel on Vivir Bien (“living well,” the stated indigenous philosophical basis for the Morales Administration’s political platform). Maybe I spend it interviewing someone who works in far-off Santa Cruz via Skype, or talking with former colleagues about how events are unfolding in the country. Or maybe just practicing my dance moves in the courtyard while my goddaughter laughs.

A (not so busy) day in the life of...

So rather than regaling you all with the stories of my "busy" days, I'll share ways I keep myself occupied on those "not so busy" days.

1. Hit the snooze button until 8AM.

2. Come out of my room in a zombie-like state, put water on the electric kettle and make coffee in my french press. As much as I love coffee, I really dislike instant coffee, which is generally the favored form of coffee here--with lots of milk and sugar. So, I have to pack lots of ground coffee from home, and relatives from Bangalore have been wonderful in getting me coffee grown in South India.

3. Read my four newspapers: The Hindu, The Economic Times, The Times of India, and The Telegraph, while eating breakfast.


4. If I'm not doing anything else productive, I spend most of my day at my workspace (see below), alternating between fieldnotes, the interwebs, skype and general procrastination.


5. Some days I wander off to the nearby Cafe Coffee Day (conveniently located in a mall, where I can also spend some quality time shopping), for a change in environment. Though working in coffee shops is not nearly as common here, so I do get strange looks when I've been sitting around for too long.

6. In the early evening, I often spend some time reading and drinking tea up on our roof.


7. Evenings are pretty much a repeat of fieldnotes, interwebs and skype, before dinner, followed by important research activities in the form of media analysis (i.e. television).