Archive for the ‘India’ Category
Normal coffee – a matter of interpretation
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, India on mars 14th, 2009
I went for coffee with my Indian friend in Delhi. At the College cafeteria I asked for black coffee, and not surprisingly they did not have black coffee, they used a machine who produce the popular indian coffee mixed with milk and sugar.
My friend asked me;
-Do you never drink normal coffee?
I laughed and explained that to me, the black coffee is normal coffee. Sweden and India, not even coffee is interpreted equally. Reading a vast amount of Philosophical social science I begun to experience that very few things, emotions and notions can have fixed meanings. What is normal and commonsense in one social setting can be the complete opposite in another. I love the complexity of this world, and I love my coffee black.
The Bollywoodcard
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, Global, India, Popular culture on mars 10th, 2009
A marking of belonging when interacting with informants is my interest in Indian popular culture, already in the name of my master thesis I have appealed to the worlds biggest movie industry; Bollywood. ‘Every day about 15 million people throng the 13.000 movie halls in the country’ (Varma:2004:154). Upon my arrival I took on the ‘When in Rome’-approach and I went to see the new film Dostana on the premiere to be on top of the Indian debate.
The Bollywood actors are very affluent in Indian society, a couple of them have joined politics, creates society debate in their blogs, and many of them are fashion icons and idols. The films are in a sense always representations of the society. Bollywood films portrays young people who challenges norms and behaviour.
Dostana for example is challenging the heterosexual norm. Homosexuality is illegal in India. There is a contemporary debate on the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which makes ‘all unnatural sexual actions illegal’- homosexuality falls under this clausal (India Times 11 aug 2008). I call this marker of belonging my Bollywood card. The Bollywood card functions as an icebreaker and a common topic of discussion and as an entry point to societal debate. I saw all the new films while staying in Delhi.
Dhanyavad!
The English uses thank you!, and swedes uses tack! a dussin times a day, at least. My hindi teacher told me that in hindi the word dhanyavad has a deeper meaning and is therefore not used lightly. My hindi teacher said; - ‘You can say if someone saves your life’
Little did I know that day in the classroom at Stockholm University, that one day I would actually have someone who spoke hindi to thank for saving my life. In november 2005 I was heading from Kandivali towards central Mumbai by local train. The train was approaching the platform and many people were running over the tracks, and I did not look I just ran amongs all the others. The train was horning when a man reached out for my hand and pulled me up merely seconds before the train approached. My life was saved by an Indian man on this platform and I said it; dhanyavad.
I wish this good man to be recognized, and once again;
DHANYAVAD!
The airport story
Posted by Johanna in Anthropology, Gender, India on mars 5th, 2009
The airport story- a true story about everyday gender
In Delhi, on the airport, at the mall and at the cinema the visitors are being frizzed. The men have to queue separately and the women separately. The men are being frizzed in public, while the women moves into a secluded booth to be frizzed in private. This privatization of the public sphere is interesting to me since in Sweden unisex is the norm, and I am used to being frizzed by a male guard in front of the whole queue. In India men frizzes men and women frizzes women.
In December 2008 I was at the Indira Gandhi domestic airport when the following occurs: a white man and his girlfriend are queuing up to scan their luggage and to be frizzed. They simply stand in line, the woman walks in front and the man follows her. This white man obviously sees people in a queue, not gender. But he is immediately hushed away from the ladies queue into the mens queue.
It is easy for me as an outsider to se this segregation that is taken for granted, as commonsense, for the Indian residents.
Before I put on my anthropological glasses I would also follow that western mans example, I saw people smoking in public, people dancing in the streets and I saw lots of people outside at night. I did not see the gender of those people so at first I did not realise that it is only men that are expected to smoke in public and to stay out at night the same rules does not apply for the Indian women. An Indian woman has to live up to the ‘expected female behaviour’ and my informants who participate in my anthropological study were very wary of the potential danger that lies in the obedience of conforming to these norms.
In India I begin to see gender. I am brought up not to se gender as a barrier, that people are people but in India I need to abide the rules because it lays a potential danger if I, as a woman behave ‘wrongly’ (not conform to the norm).
Cafe Mocha
Posted by Johanna in India, Popular culture on mars 3rd, 2009
Conducting fieldwork in Delhi, I choose a South Delhi hot spot for my observations, a cafe in Defence Colony market.
The cafe I chose is called café Mocha; The concept of Mocha, an Indian franchise cafe chain with two Delhi branches is that is an all embracing atmosphere. Mocha is a Moroccan style two floor cafe, the music being played would be labelled ‘world music’ and they serve multicultural cuisine. The Mocha atmosphere includes dimmed lights, a mix of bright colour furniture, colourful kitchy interior and a water-pipe section at the top floor.
Sitting at my table drinking an Ethiopian coffee, eating Spanish tapas listening to old American jazz reading a book on Italian, with the windows dimmed – it hits me. I can be anywhere in the world. This is a site with so many transnational messages. I knew I wanted this place to be my place of observation.
All my initial meetings occurred at café Mocha, I considered the café my working place. The first week I observed and occasionally came up to girls introducing myself and had a first chat. this was my first anthropolical fieldwork and I took some days before I felt all settled in at the café and had gotten used to my role of the lone anthropologists.
