News from India - 3 days left for funding
As you know, the funding for my documentary project was successful and I?m so grateful for your help! But just in case you still want to support me I would be happy. Postcards, emails with more information and DVDs are waiting for you ;-)
Day 12 in India and it feels already like a month. I?m here with 2 European and 2 Indian friends and I had already the chance to learn a lot about the Indian culture and its overwhelming hospitality. Staying with the families of my friends is the best way to get in touch with all the habits and to experience all the small and big interesting differences. Many of the local habits I just need to learn by doing. Eating with fingers and the right hand only for example is easier than I thought in the beginning (The left hand is taboo because it is only used on the toilet? ;-)
Other things are more difficult. How to behave during dinner, in a train, on the streets. I.e. clearing your throat with a long chhhhhuuuurrrrgghh + spitting is ok, throwing your trash out of the window as well, blowing your nose instead is disgusting.
However, cities like Pune and Delhi are amazing places and I could spend hours just watching the street life. You can find all kinds of extremes here. Basically everything is available and from horrible poverty to bling bling stores everything exists next to each other.
In Dehli I had the chance to talk to two PhD students working in bioinformatics and to a whole immunology workgroup of the AIIMS Hospital (picture). All those people were so helpful and interesting in the same time. Anyway, the important point is, here are almost no foreign students. But since science is an international business people feel this lack of science/cultural exchange here and are as much interested in German or European research life as I am in theirs. I guess those circumstances will help my project a lot and it will be more dialogs than interviews.
We are now relaxing a bit at the beach of Goa on the west coast. Next week I will back in Pune to meet some more people of the university there.
If you want leave some ideas as comments for interesting questions you want me to ask in the interviews!
Christian
