Question and Answer session: Life in India

These questions came from an email. I thought I would share my responses to give everyone a better idea of how things are going.

I had a meeting last Friday with the director of AVRDC's South Asia office and the head breeder. They worked with me for almost two hours to define what I wanted from this internship and how they could make this experience the most beneficial for my personal and educational development. From this talk we decided on three main areas I would focus on:

1) Conduct a literature review and attempt to publish it

2) Learn from hands on field work

3) Participate in a business trip

Below are more details about these categories:

1) Literature review:

Focus areas for the review:

1) Why are some crops attacked by Bruchids (an insect) and others not? Why are many legume species the host forBruchids?

2) What is the economic effect of Bruchids on legumes (specifically mungbean)

                 a. Effect on seed nutritional value, adoption of Mungbean by farmers

                 b. Severity of economics impact on different crops and effect on popularity of the crop w/ farmers/people

3) Global distribution of different species of Bruchids and and biotypes (focus will be mainly on South Asia and Africa)

4) Control measures used to treat Bruchids- discussion of different Integrated Pest Management Strategies (Physical, biological, environmental, chemical control methods) 

5) Pro and Cons of breeding to control Bruchids vs. other Bruchid control strategies

2) Field Work

-Learn about design and planting of Mungbean trials for breeding

-Learn about weeding innovations

-Learn about Chili and tomato seed processing

-Participate in "Diabetes Day"

3) Trips

 I will be going on a business trip/mini vacation to AVRDC- The World Vegetable Center Headquarters in Taiwan. I will be going there to celebrate the 40th anniversary of AVRDC. I will be leaving on Oct. 14 and returning to India on Oct. 25th. For the first five days I will be staying around headquarters trying to meet people and learn about all the different activities and projects AVRDC does around the world. This should be very exciting. After that is over, I will spend the next seven days traveling around Taiwan. I will be taking the bullet train to Taipei and visit the city and a big national park there. Then I will catch another train that will take me along the east coast of the island that is exposed to the expansive Pacific ocean and ground swells. I am planning to stay in Taitung and surf for the remaining days that I am in Taiwan. I will also do some mountain hiking if the waves aren't good and I can find a way to get into the mountains.   

Now I am going to answer your questions:

Question: There were a few (plants from the pictures) which I wondered what the answers to your questions were and one of them was about what the vegetables were. What were they? I am guessing that you are perhaps eating some things which are different from what we are used to?

I have no clue what the vegetables are in the photos. I was told what they were but have since forgot their names. I have been eating a lot of food that my taste buds are unfamiliar to. Now that my taste buds are used to it I am enjoying the semi-indian cuisine ( I say that because I am eating food on the ICRISAT campus where food is altered to fit more international tastes).  

Those little goats hanging out in the shed made me pause, also, because in your statement that they were perhaps not living life to the fullest in order that others might survive a bit better it seemed that you were somehow internalizing the complexity of life and how things are not always easy and decisions to try to help sometimes involve difficult choices.

The above statement is very true. Life is full of choices that may be hard or require some pain in order to attain personal or holistic benefit to the people around you. Yes, the goats are suffering in a way but for the benefit of possibly millions of people.

Question: The people in the pictures looked interesting. Can you actually bond and sort of be friends with anyone?

Yes, I have bonded with a lot of people and have a bunch of friends. I have friends at work, at the international school, and neighbors where I live. Just last night I had a wonderful dinner with a bunch of African friends. I then went and had a picture slide show with some of my Indian next-door neighbors for three hours. We looked at pictures from America and had numerous comparative talks about Indian and American politics, culture, education, infrastructure, immigration, resources, and a couple of other things. What they had to say was very eye-opening and I really appreciate having the opportunity to speak with them. There is nothing like talking with people who live and work in the environment you are trying to learn from.

The campus looked comfortable and much nicer than anything I had envisioned before you sent the pictures. It looks safe and comfortable (easy for me to say) and I hope that is how you feel.

The longer I am here the more I appreciate where I live. I am living in absolute luxury compared to the rest of Hyderabad. When looking back when I first arrived, I feel like I was a child. I was scared of the world inside and outside of campus. Everything was so different and I felt insecure on the campus. Now that I have been here a while I understand how lucky I am to live on campus and feel rather ashamed for thinking otherwise now that I have toured Hyderabad. Nonetheless, this is why I am here, so I can see how lucky I am and appreciate the life I live. I will also come home with a better understand of the issues India is facing in regards to infrastructure, corruption, and providing basic resources for its citizens.

Question: How is daily life, now? Still very busy?

Daily life is good. The longer I stay here the more normal everything becomes. At times, I can get very lonely even though I am surrounded by people I can talk with. There is no substitute for being home in familiar territory. My life for the next 10 weeks is going to get very busy. I want to try to publish the literature review I am doing, which will take a lot of time. Currently, I am planning for Taiwan. I need to be very familiar with everything since I will be traveling the country alone. There will be no one there to help me (very few people speak English), I will therefore have to help myself. The one thing I appreciate every day I am here is how incredibly nice and understanding everyone is on campus. I love conversing with anyone and everyone. These conversations are exposing me to new and wonderful ideas. I feel like I am developing an incredible perspective and I hope this perspective can help me change the lives of many people in the coming future.