I’m wrapping up my work here in the WOTR office in Pune –which I haven’t described adequately enough in my blog. The WOTR Pune office is the main headquarters. WOTR actually has lots of small field offices all over India including Sangamner and Hyderabad. There are about 30 people in the Pune office and we’re located on a very busy street (Satara Rd) with lots of honking and unfortunately little variety of restaurants and shopping. This is a developing area of Pune located on the outskirts. The nice thing about the office is the beautiful patio, which the Executive Director, Marcella D’Souza, maintains. We all eat lunch and have tea out here amongst the potted plants and blackbirds.
It’s a very quiet work environment. There are only a few offices so the rest of us sit in a communal area. No eating or drinking inside (except water), very minimal conversation outside of the 2 conference rooms, and web
browsing is very controlled. Most of the staff speak some English but mostly they speak in Hindi or Marathi (local language of Maharashtra). It’s actually a pretty depressing work environment because it feels very lonely here!
There are a few staff members I’ve connected with and traveled with that I will miss and plan to stay in touch with. It’s been great exchanging cultural experiences with them and hearing about their work and the challenges they face in working with villages. WOTR’s website really doesn’t do it justice with all the innovative work they’re doing. The organization has truly pioneered the concept of watershed development in India. The government frequently turns to them for advice on how best to work with watersheds in arid and semi-arid regions of India. I’ve already described their work on watershed development – now WOTR is focusing on helping villages to manage near-term climate change risks (namely, drought and temperature and precipitation fluctuations). They are developing some very innovative land treatments and technologies (like solar parabolic cookers and hot water challahs), and some great software to track their efforts and weather patterns. People at WOTR work here because they care about these issues. Some people have been educated abroad and could make a much better salary but they choose to work with rural villages for a fraction of the salary.
Overall, the experience has been incredibly good for me. It’s provided invaluable insight into the institution of the Indian village, the challenges of doing small-scale development, and Indian work and village culture. Here are some of the cultural lessons I’ve learned:
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1. To work with villages here you have to understand the cultural and religious sensitivities – and these vary by village, state, and region. WOTR is very good at framing its messages in ways that respect the villagers lifestyle and religion, which can be tricky when you’re talking about things like female empowerment. WOTR will actually frame its messages using stories from the Hindu relgion to connect with the villagers. They also use meditation as a way to help villagers visualize the future they want.
2. It's vey important to build good work relationships. Don’t expect fast responses to your emails. It might take
meeting someone in person a few times before they even register your emails on their agenda. Once you’re in though – it gets much better.
3. Eat with your coworkers! You’ll get much better food that way. It’s pretty typical here to get tiffin service (homemade Indian food delivery). For 25 Rs I get 4 chapati and a vegetable dish which is always delicious. My coworkers often bring food from home so at lunch, everyone passes around their food and you get to taste everything! If you eat alone you’re stuck with your one vegetable dish. Also- only eat with your right hand! (the other hand might have poo on it or even if it doesn’t, it’s disrespectful to eat with your left hand).
4. Don’t be a showoff. This is especially true if you’re coming from a developed country. I tried to correct a coworkers paper which had horrible grammar and structure. After I showed the bleeding draft back to her I basically didn’t hear from her again. It’s important to keep in mind too that Indians are learning British English.
·
5. Adjust to a new work week – most people work 6 day workweeks and sometimes even longer days. I was
lucky in that I only committed to a 5 day workweek. But here, people take more frequent breaks. Tea in the morning, mid-afternoon, and late afternoon, plus a 30 min lunch break.
6. If you go on vacation, you're basically expected to bring back gifts for your coworkers and friends. Food is a pretty typical gift.
Today I wrapped up one of my big tasks: completing a cost-benefit analysis of a watershed development project in the Kumbharwadi watershed that includes climate change adaptation treatments. It had a good reception and I’ll be evaluating more villages in the future! It’s made me realize that while I like doing this kind of work, I really want to work more directly with people on policy. That’s where the action is and for India, where the greatest challenge lies.
It’s a very quiet work environment. There are only a few offices so the rest of us sit in a communal area. No eating or drinking inside (except water), very minimal conversation outside of the 2 conference rooms, and web
browsing is very controlled. Most of the staff speak some English but mostly they speak in Hindi or Marathi (local language of Maharashtra). It’s actually a pretty depressing work environment because it feels very lonely here!
There are a few staff members I’ve connected with and traveled with that I will miss and plan to stay in touch with. It’s been great exchanging cultural experiences with them and hearing about their work and the challenges they face in working with villages. WOTR’s website really doesn’t do it justice with all the innovative work they’re doing. The organization has truly pioneered the concept of watershed development in India. The government frequently turns to them for advice on how best to work with watersheds in arid and semi-arid regions of India. I’ve already described their work on watershed development – now WOTR is focusing on helping villages to manage near-term climate change risks (namely, drought and temperature and precipitation fluctuations). They are developing some very innovative land treatments and technologies (like solar parabolic cookers and hot water challahs), and some great software to track their efforts and weather patterns. People at WOTR work here because they care about these issues. Some people have been educated abroad and could make a much better salary but they choose to work with rural villages for a fraction of the salary.
Overall, the experience has been incredibly good for me. It’s provided invaluable insight into the institution of the Indian village, the challenges of doing small-scale development, and Indian work and village culture. Here are some of the cultural lessons I’ve learned:
·
1. To work with villages here you have to understand the cultural and religious sensitivities – and these vary by village, state, and region. WOTR is very good at framing its messages in ways that respect the villagers lifestyle and religion, which can be tricky when you’re talking about things like female empowerment. WOTR will actually frame its messages using stories from the Hindu relgion to connect with the villagers. They also use meditation as a way to help villagers visualize the future they want.
2. It's vey important to build good work relationships. Don’t expect fast responses to your emails. It might take
meeting someone in person a few times before they even register your emails on their agenda. Once you’re in though – it gets much better.
3. Eat with your coworkers! You’ll get much better food that way. It’s pretty typical here to get tiffin service (homemade Indian food delivery). For 25 Rs I get 4 chapati and a vegetable dish which is always delicious. My coworkers often bring food from home so at lunch, everyone passes around their food and you get to taste everything! If you eat alone you’re stuck with your one vegetable dish. Also- only eat with your right hand! (the other hand might have poo on it or even if it doesn’t, it’s disrespectful to eat with your left hand).
4. Don’t be a showoff. This is especially true if you’re coming from a developed country. I tried to correct a coworkers paper which had horrible grammar and structure. After I showed the bleeding draft back to her I basically didn’t hear from her again. It’s important to keep in mind too that Indians are learning British English.
·
5. Adjust to a new work week – most people work 6 day workweeks and sometimes even longer days. I was
lucky in that I only committed to a 5 day workweek. But here, people take more frequent breaks. Tea in the morning, mid-afternoon, and late afternoon, plus a 30 min lunch break.
6. If you go on vacation, you're basically expected to bring back gifts for your coworkers and friends. Food is a pretty typical gift.
Today I wrapped up one of my big tasks: completing a cost-benefit analysis of a watershed development project in the Kumbharwadi watershed that includes climate change adaptation treatments. It had a good reception and I’ll be evaluating more villages in the future! It’s made me realize that while I like doing this kind of work, I really want to work more directly with people on policy. That’s where the action is and for India, where the greatest challenge lies.
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