Barf Pastries

The team is starting to move into the new office. Right now we are in the psychosomatic phase of our move: molding our psyches to coexist seamlessly with the psyche of the office; gradually increasing our awareness of the space and internalizing the concept of Place; joining our minds with the body of the building and allowing the mind of the building to unite with our bodies in a gloriously efficient synergy...

This is not entirely true. If you know me then you know that I don't believe in things like psychology, feelings or emotions, and that I would have to use a thesaurus to come across a word like psychosomatic. In reality we are in the must-wait-for-construction-to-finish phase of the move. This is a rather long phase… how long does it take to get to your destination if you cover half the distance left every day? It is not the fault of the research institution that owns the property, but instead of the construction company from Delhi that was brought in for renovations. If you have been keeping up with news in India, then you know that construction companies from Delhi should be used with caution, as well as with lots of patience and oversight.

I don’t really mind, because it is kind of nice having my current office being so close to my living quarters – I just go straight then take a left at the sofa. But I will enjoy being closer to the academic community in Patna. The institution where we will be based hosts seminars on development issues and we will be sharing our floor with a major research center from London (that also happens to be the primary donor on some of our projects, so maybe we can ask them for a grant for a daily supply of rice pudding or something). I attended two seminars here over the last two days.

On Friday our friend launched a website that provides an academic forum for discussion on development issues in Bihar (http://beta.friendsofbihar.org/). We attended the launch party at the research institute, along with a number of dignitaries in Patna including the Deputy CM. This was as cool as seeing the Big L at the Rotating Restaurant a few weeks back, but more intimidating since we were participating in the same function instead of just sitting several tables over in a loud restaurant. The chatter fell still when he entered, and we all respectfully rose to our feet as he made his way to the seat of honor at the front of the room, flanked by his bodyguards. I intended to remain absolutely silent and blend in with the crowd as much as possible, but the Deputy CM couldn’t help but wonder at the two white faces in the room, and probably stared at us for half of the event. I accepted this but swore to at least no open my mouth lest I make a fool of myself. Of course my friend who was launching the website had other ideas, and decided to call VA and me to the front of the room to explain who we were and why we supported his endeavor.

My friend’s name is GT, short for a much longer Indian name, so I thought that I would start out with a little humor: “I met my friend a few months before when he came to our apartment and introduced himself as GT; I suppose this is the name he gives Americans who embarrass themselves when they try to speak Hindi.” VA laughed loudly next to me, but this was the only sound in the room. I stumbled through a few more lines about commitment to Bihari development then returned to my seat. A few people clapped, sadly fewer than had clapped for others who went to the front of the room. I said to myself, hey, at least I thought I was funny.

On Saturday I returned to the same conference room to attend a seminar entitled The Future of Indian Cities. I considered it a vote of confidence that the institute’s administration had invited me to the seminar earlier in the day when I had stopped by, despite my poor record for witty comments made during important functions. Since the rest of the team was too busy to attend, I realized that I was the face of JPAL and that it was my responsibility to give the best possible impression of my organization by keeping my mouth shut. So when we went around the table, each required to give our vision for a modern Patna, I simply said that since I had lived there for only a month I was un-qualified to give any opinion, but that I believed the city was on the right track. Then I sat silently for three hours while the conversation weaved its way through a hodgepodge of barely-connected topics, at the end of which we were no closer to our objective of laying out a concrete plan for Patna than when we had started. But I was very glad that I had attended since they served up the same tasty snacks as the night before, presented in cute little boxes and comprised of one samosa, one veg cutlet, and two sweets for each participant (not from Barf Pastries though – they are a little ways down Boring Road and I have yet to try their selection). More importantly I also got to meet, among other attendees, the principal discussant, a post-doc at Harvard whose son graduated from Swarthmore a year before I arrived. This was the first time I had come across someone in Bihar, even India, who had heard of my college. Meeting people who have heard of Swarthmore is like finding a pizza place in Bihar: it happens very rarely, but when it does you get all warm inside and think of home, and you know that you’ve establish a bond that will last a long time.