Blogger, Typepad and Geocities blogs have been blocked by many Indian ISPs after the Government of India ordered them to censor some websites. The move has caused a huge outcry amongst bloggers in India, many of whom have raised questions about the integrity of democracy and free speech in the country. Choose from the extensive list of press coverage to read further…
Seven months is a very inadequate period to take in a city as sprawling, complex and varied as Bangalore. Time and again I find myself describing my experiences in this city whilst being completely at a loss when it comes to explaining them.
I first visited Bangalore in March 2005. I found it huge, full of book shops, restaurants and pubs. But it also seemed a little easier to navigate than Hyderabad where I was staying: English was more prevelant, autodrivers seemed to agree to sensible prices with little argument and people were more willing (and able) to give directions in the street.
Having lived here for a while I’ve now had the chance to meet the inhabitants of Bangalore a little more intimately. Bangalore’s population is made up of a vast number of non-native Bangalorians. Many have been beckoned from the furthest corners of India by the promise of a good education, a chance to learn English, prosperity in the IT industry or the (relatively) cool climate. I was surprised to realise that it is not only foreigners who have to go through the acclimatisation process when they come to live in Bangalore. Almost to the same extent, Indians themselves must go through a lot of adjustment then they arrive. Like foreigners, they are often shocked by the change in food, climate and culture and they must come to terms with the local language, Kannada.
Many young people are leaving their ‘native place’ for the first time when they come to Bangalore. It is a mecca for those looking for their first job and taste of independence, especially among software engineers. ‘PGs’ (paying guest houses) offer budget accommodation in a city where living costs are skyrocketing. Students, job seekers and the newly employed share cramped accommodation as landlords constantly re-shuffle the furniture and partition off rooms in an effort to squash in extra beds. Perhaps one of the biggest changes to come to terms with as a westerner is the lack of privacy. Walls are thin, roommates are numerous and toilets and showers are rather scarce. However, this seems to lead to a great sense of camaraderie amongst members of the guest houses. PGs are almost always single sex and all inhabitants are united in their shared effort for success in the employment lottery. There is a tradition that newly employed inhabitants will throw a party for their house mates. These seem to involve mainly large boxes of sweets and the odd bottle of beer or whiskey that may have been smuggled past the landlord.
This large population of young, skilled, unemployed people may contribute largely to the rather relaxed attitude employers seem to have towards hiring. Jobs often go unadvertised, relying on word of mouth and SMS to spread the news. Large IT companies hold recruitment days on which huge numbers of job seekers queue to sit a test. No prior appointment is required and classmates or groups of friends may go along together and compete for entry to the next round of interview. When asked to recruit programmers at my own organisation, my stiff and formal British attitude to the recruitment process led me to issue 8 personally addressed emails. I carefully selected applicants whom I thought had well-written resumes and good academic performance. On the day of the interview, I was surprised to find 8 people already waiting for me when I arrived at work. By the time of the appointment there were 40 people queuing in the already cramped office. By lunch time my boss and I had “interviewed” (or atleast collected resumes from) 270 people.
Despite this apparent desperation for employment, it is never assured that a new employee will turn up on the agreed start date, or continue long in a job they are dissatisfied with. Many employers seem quite unprepared for new recruits to start work. Recruits may spend days uninitiated and unattended before their senior has time to train them or assign them tasks.
Yet Bangalore seems to be becoming more and more popular as a place for young foreigners to take up residence for months or years whilst they do internships or kick-start careers in Bangalore industries. I am a member of a Bangalore based email list whose members are made up mainly of foreign twenty-somethings living and working in the city. It is a bulletin board for parties, trips, motorbike sales and travel advice. Most people on the list are brought together (initially at least) only by a shared culture shock and tendency to drink a lot of beer. Many people will often admit that the people they end up hanging out with in Bangalore are very far removed from the type of people they would be friendly with at home. This is not only because people are naturally pushed together by their foreignness but also, I think, because of the huge diversity of people who are attracted to Bangalore. There are so many motivations people have to come to the city: An impressive looking resume, the pursuit of a work interest or to experience working in one of the thousands of NGOs on a laid back working holiday.
It can be all to easy for foreign visitors to immerse themselves in the modern, affluent, westernised character of the city, Perhaps it’s even true that this is a large part of its attraction, for me and for other foreigners who visit the city. Along with the shopping malls, lounge bars and polished restaurants, goes a culture that is more liberal and less traditional than any that I’ve been in contact with in India. Girls wearing miniskirts stroll hand in hand into Domino’s with their boyfriends, billboards advertise the latest in a seemingly never ending string of Bryan Adams concerts and huge red high street stores stock nothing but Levi’s. Sometimes there seems to be no real Bangalore. Whilst the growing night life is embraced by the young, it is subject to draconian restrictions that prevent dancing and shut down everything at 11:30pm every night. Bryan Adams has a dozen cops lining the stage to make sure he doesn’t come back for too many encores – perhaps a rare example of great policing. And the girl in the miniskirt? She’ll have to be back home by 9pm and will never mention the boyfriend to her father.
It may be the high visibility of western culture that make traditionalists all the more determined not to loose their identity. The cows chewing rubbish in the street and the occasional pair of camels being led down the main road can look incongruous – especially when overtaken by a Porsche Cayenne, but what really jolted me out of any feeling of normality or even mundanity which may have been growing inside me was the awakening of the mob.
Even having spent some time in dark and strange smelling drinking holes, I’ve seen very little physical aggression in India. The threat of violence always turns out to be rather hollow. I had a disagreement with a drunk autodriver on a Sunday afternoon and ended up getting involved in a altercation at the side of the street which also involved my two friends and every other auto driver who was passing. The drunk driver was probably one of the most angry and revolting people I have ever met, and I was convinced his wiry arms were going to knock one of us out. However, after a few minutes, and no sign that he was at all inclined to deal any blows, we were on our way.
It was strange, then to watch television pictures of the same city as a mob smashed up news reporter’s cars, dragged policemen from their riot vans and broke windows of shops and offices. The occasion: The death of Rajkumar – a prominent Kannada film actor. I didn’t really listen when my boss announced the actor’s death to me. I recognised that something was strange when all the girls were sent home from the office. It wasn’t because they were upset that Bangalore had lost it’s biggest celebrity, but because everyone could foresee the violence that was about to erupt on the streets. With a few people left in the office, it wasn’t long before the police came to the door and strongly advised us to go to our homes. Bangalore, the IT hub of Asia, was almost entirely shut down for a day an a half.
A room mate I had whilst staying in Bangalore youth hostel remarked to me: “Bangalore is not part of India, it is part of the world”. It seemed very true at the time, but Bangalore continues to frustrate, bore, shock and excite me in a way which I suspect is quite different from many other “parts of the world”.
A journalist from Baghdad was recently longlisted for a BBC award for non-fiction writing. The journalist, known as Riverbend is not a professional war reporter, but an anonymous blogger who makes her reports directly from her home in the heart of war torn Iraq.
Non traditional media of this type is becoming a more and more important tool for journalism. There even seems to be speculation as to whether it will eventually change traditional newspapers and news channels unrecognisably. ‘Citizen Journalism’ is the term given to internet-based reporting by ordinary people via their weblogs. Blogs empower people to spread their ideas and recount their experiences across an audience of unlimited size. People have also begun to collaborate on online newspapers, each contributing news reports based on their own experience or research rather than that of a small group of professional journalists. One of the most well known of these online collaborative newspapers is OhmyNews, from South Korea. The newspaper gathered such a large number of contributors and readers in the first few years of its existence that it has been identified as significantly contributing to the election of the last South Korean president.
A Washington Post articlereports on mobile camera phones as the means by which the first pictures of the London underground bombings were released last July. Ordinary people caught up in the disaster were able to publish photos online from the midst of the chaos at the click of a few buttons.
Traditional media groups such as the BBC were quick to see the potential of this and issued a request for the public to send in photographs to be published on their website. The UK mobile phone company 3 is planning to take this even further. A report on Wirelessmoment.com describes ongoing talks between 3, Skynews and ITN to provide pictures taken by the public on mobile phones. This would give news companies a far wider choice of photographs than could be sourced by their own reporters. Members of the public who submit photos will be paid on a ‘per view’ basis.
Even traditional newspapers seem keen to embrace the available technologies. Online newspapers are now an accepted and expected supplement to many printed newspapers. News sites now seem very ready to embrace non-traditional forms of reporting and high levels of interaction with their readership. It is becoming common for readers to discuss news items amongst each other by leaving comments on the site. In a style borrowed from citizen journalism, journalists may also blog on their own section of the news site, allowing themselves freedoms of informality and brevity that are not possible in a full newspaper article.
Any form of public contribution to news reporting has some dangers associated with it, whether it is anonymous commenting on a news paper article written by a professional or amateur reporting like that of the Riverbend blog. Clay Shirky, in the book We Media expresses the main difference between traditional and citizen journalism concisely: Traditional media filters the subject matter available and then publishes a final product. Citizen journalism is published before it can be filtered. The reader is presented with a multitude of different views, opinions and assertions which may often conflict with each other entirely. It is left to the reader to filter out bad, inaccurate or useless journalism and attribute value to accurate, insightful and useful journalism. However, the technology itself should handle some of this filtering for the reader. OhmyNews orders articles by the number of readers they have had in the past. In this way articles that are valued highly are given a greater degree of visibility on the site. Using this method a visitor will have fast access to an accurate and respected news article.
Some of the contributory or citizen journalism sites I’ve mentioned, I’ve described in a little more detail here.
Perhaps one of the more famous examples of the strength of influence that citizen journalism can have. Established in 2000 by Oh Yeon Ho it was influential in the election of the South Korean president Roh Moo Hyun.
A western educated Iraqi computer programmer who began blogging her experiences of the Iraq conflict in 2003. Her award winning blog has been made available in print format.
A blog set up by an former homeless man in his fifties prior to the 2005 general election in the UK. Jamie’s original intention was to raise the profile of homelessness during the run up to the election. Since then he has continued to blog about his own experiences and those of homeless people he interacts with.
Yesterday and today I’ve been at the annual Baramati conference on ICT for development. Here are a few notes from yesterday.
The theme of this year’s Baramati conference is “The Potential of e-Agriculture”. The first day of the conference was introduced by Mr. Sharad Kulkarni of VIIT. Mr Rana Patil of the Government of Maharastra gave the inaugural address. He called for a synergy of IT tools for agriculture, insisting that we have to find an effective way to make “20% of efforts yield 80% of the result”. He echoed an assertion made by M S Swaminathan that we should strive to make universities the hubs which connect and supply knowledge to a network of rural information access points. Mr Patil suggested that as part of the Annual Baramati Initiative on ICT and development a business model should be developed to properly link farmers profits to the actual value of their product.
Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the Deputy Chairman of the Government of India Planning Commission delivered a very perceptive speech on the challenges faced in modernising the agriculture industry. He warned that implementation of new technology on its own would not rectify a currently less than perfect business model. What is needed, he said, is simultaneous use of existing technologies, process restructuring and acceptance of new methods. One important role of information technologies should be to provide the farmer with knowledge and understanding of the market required to make informed production decisions.
Dr. Krithi Ramamrutham showcased IIT’s aAQUA knowledge sharing portal. The portal provides a public forum for connecting farmers with agriculture experts. Farmers can submit questions on issues such as best practice and disease diagnosis which they may type in English or Marathi by using a “soft” on screen keyboard. Questions and answers are also archived and made available by keyword search for future reference. Access to the network is usually via a rural internet kiosk whose operator acts as a moderator, referring users to possible existing answers to their questions. The URL of the portal is www.aaquapersistant.co.in
Another highlight of the day was Helmet Drewes’ description of innovative agricultural financing in South Africa. Farm profitability is decreasing in the country and the government’s efforts to increase bio-fuel production and ensure 30% of land belongs to black people in the next decade are beginning to look ambitious.
Helmet’s organisation, Agrista, facilitates asset independent lendingbased on farmer’s forward contracts and yield insurance. Knowledgetransfer techniques are designed to allow farmers to accelerate their response to changes in demand. One already operational initiative is aweather based yield insurance. Insurance companies can check past weather reports to verify the likely extent of the damage to a claimant’s crop. This not only saves a costly loss assessment being carried out by the insurance company, but also allows them to considerably speed up claim processing.
A conversation I had with a colleague recently gave rise to some thoughts about a collaborative database of rural employment and infrastructure. Perhaps a nationwide collaborative wiki could be used to gather data on the Food for Work Program and employment assurance in rural areas.
The Food for Work Programme is part of a government initiative to assure employment to workers in rural areas of India. It is especially intended for areas that are subjected to natural calamities and long term drought. The scheme guarantees the head of rural households a minimum number of paid days work per month. Payment is made partly in money and partly in food grain which may be imported into the area at the cost of the government.
The types of job that these “daily wage” workers carry out are usually designed to improve the infrastructure of the local area. Examples include watershed management, attempts at drought proofing and rural road improvement. The work is often overseen by local contractors hired by the district government. According to labourbureau.nic.in in 2001 daily wage rates across the Indian states ranged between Rs20 and Rs190. I’ve been told that employee’s wages will sometimes be supplemented with alcohol so that they develop a habit and stay loyal to the contractors.
A problem that rural development programmes such as the FFWP face is one of misappropriation of funds amongst senior people overseeing the building projects. It is not unknown for the building materials required or number of workers employed to be falsified so that funds can be channelled elsewhere being detected on official documents.
Whilst I was working with “Computers On Wheels” (COW) in the Mahboobnagar district of Andhra Pradesh in 2004-05, I worked on a collaborative project between the NGO and the state government. Employees of the NGO are equipped with laptops and mobile Internet connections so that they are able to tour FFWP jobs and record field-level data. This data is then relayed to the department of the Secretary for Rural Development in Hyderabad. COW data collectors were given permission to access the official records for each job. The data was compared with data based on the testimony of daily wage workers and observations made by the data collectors themselves.
This initiative is one of many more attempts of its kind to gather data on rural infrastructure improvements. In fact, whilst I was working in Hyderabad, COW was aware of the local Centre for Good Governance which was working on almost the same project over a similar area. We were able to discuss our respective approaches with them, but there seemed to be a lack of collaboration despite our aims being so similar. I worked on in house development of a web-based data collection system. I started from scratch despite the availability of so many ready-made tools. Now, with a little more knowledge, I know that the system I set up could have been done far better and far faster had I been aware of just a few basic open source tools and applications.
An attempt to collect a uniformly defined set of data across a wide area is, to my knowledge, non existent. Even if it was possible to create a central repository of data collected by projects like COW, it is likely that each set would be gathered using different methods, according to different criteria and different aims. The data collection method adopted by Computers On Wheels relied heavily on spotting anomalies in accumulated data to highlight cases of misappropriation of funds. With small quantities of data gathered over a limited area, this is difficult.
One system that could address the needs and shortcomings I’ve described here is a nationwide centralised repository of data collected by organisations such as COW, or government departments such as the Centre for Good Governance. From a purely technological perspective, such a system would eliminate the need for organisations to spend precious time and resources producing solutions from scratch. A nationwide framework for data collection could be set up so that data collected by different organisations would be standardised. It would not be necessary for individual organisations to research and identify the relevant data they should be collecting. Common standards would mean there is no bias in the data towards a particular agenda.
Anomalies of expenditure or inefficiencies in resource consumption would be far easier to spot by looking at a large scale overview of countrywide data. A large volume of data is likely to be more accurate when viewed as a whole rather than in small chunks gathered from isolated geographical areas. Data could be viewed by government, local organisations or individuals wishing to monitor infrastructure improvements or gauge the efficiency of contractors.
The technology required to set up such a system is already in existence and widely used. Wikis are widely used on company intranets to create centralised data repositories accessible to all employees. Another application may be to help multiple organisations to collaborate on organising an event or project. Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia that can be read and edited by anyone with Internet access. Anyone can contribute to an article whether or not their writing is accurate or biased. A wiki application is fast and easy to set up and customise on a server. There is no need for any software to be installed on a users computer so long as it has a connection to a central server. The system is not technology intensive – bare-bones computer systems or even mobile cell phones can access the wiki site. An individual gathering data to put on the wiki would require no more than a pen and notebook to record data. In areas where internet access is slow or non-existent, a contributor would only need to upload data periodically from a cyber-cafe or village internet kiosk.
Systems are in place to create localised versions of the wiki. Wiki application software is already available in many languages. This would make it easier for contributors with only local language skills to have an input. In cases where the contributor’s first language is not English, they are likely to find that they can record testimonial or extended written data more accurately in their native language.
Of course, there are some significant limitations to the system that I propose here. One characteristic of a wiki is that there is no way to verify the accuracy of data gathered. Wiki’s operate on the assumption that there are more people who strive to make the data accurate than people who want to vandalise the data. The less restrictions placed on contributors to the wiki, the more vulnerable data is to abuse and vandalism. On the other hand, the more contributors that a wiki has, the greater the likely hood of inaccuracies being spotted and removed quickly. The system would need to acquire a “critical mass” of users and contributors before it became a credible source of information. However, even if the data is deadly accurate, it will be useless as a tool for policing infrastructure improvements if there is no-one to diligently track down and follow up anomalies in the data. Even then, what action could be taken if a case of genuinely corrupt behaviour was identified?
Perhaps there is some validity in a more idealistic claim: The very presence of this method of collaborative data gathering and open publishing would publically demonstrate the possibility for increasing transparency in government and civil society.
For a couple of months I have been working on a proposal for a project called NGO-in-a-box. Originally founded by Tactical Technology Collective, the initiative will address the information technology needs of NGOs and civil society groups by distributing bespoke, localised software designed specifically for their use. NGO-in-a-box tools are distributed in downloadable form and on CD. The content is chosen by experienced practitioners for a range of activities carried out by NGOs. Applications are provided with tools and documentation to allow users to make the most effective use of them.
NGO-in-a-box is designed to overcome the barriers that non-profit organisations face in using open source software. The initiative will eliminate the need for prolonged selection and testing processes by presenting users with a tailored set of cross-compatible applications. Mahiti will provide free, straight forward support and encourage organisations to participate fully in the open source and NGO-in-a-box communities in order to receive advice and submit improvements or suggestions.
The distribution of NGO-in-a-box will be backed up by a series of workshops held by Mahiti in India and Sri Lanka over the next two years. Representatives from organisations working on a cross section of issues such as child rights, democracy and education will be invited to take part in a workshop in their part of the country.
One aim of the project is to build up a detailed understanding of the information technology needs of NGOs working on similar topics. Several editions of NGO-in-a-box will be released. These will range from Open Access tools for educational and research institutions to security tools for groups working on human rights or gender related issues.
NGO-in-a-box is the brainchild of the Tactical Technology Collective. Mahiti is one of several project hubs world-wide that will provide NGO-in-a-box services across a large geographical area. As part of its day-to-day work Mahiti tailors open source software applications for civil society. We also provide technical and non-technical training and workshops for clients, for the public and for the wider non-profit community.
I attended a talk today given by Dr Alma Swan of Key Perspectives, Truro, UK on Open Access. The talk was held at The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
Open Access is a movement to increase the exposure that scientific research publications get amongst the scientific community by making them freely accessible via internet based repositories. Open Access supporters see traditional printed scientific journals as restrictive. Alma quoted a Information Services Manager at Nottingham University, UK as saying that scientific research is currently constricted by lack of access to knowledge. Open Access repositories enable the scientific community and the public in general to access articles and research papers free of cost and without restrictions on the distribution or usage of the material. The Information Services Manager claims that research in the scientific community is not as efficient or as effective as it would be if Open Access was adopted.
It is surprising that lack of access to scientific information is regarded as such as obstacle in a well-funded and respected university in a developed western country. The reasons cited for this are: 1) The high cost associated with maintaining an up to date library of journals in educational and research institutions such as Nottingham University. 2) The huge and growing number of scientific journals that are available. This not only increases the cost of maintaining the library of journals. It also means that searching for a specific paper or topic across all the possible journals it could be in is difficult and time consuming. 3) Copyright claims of printed journals can be restrictive and may stifle the ease with which papers can be distributed amongst the wider community.
A survey quoted by Dr Swan estimates that on average across all natural science subjects, research papers receive 50% greater exposure in terms of readers if they are published in an Open Access repository than if they are published in a traditional journal. This is a conservative estimate. The average increase in exposure for Open Access Physics papers alone is 250%! The reason for the variance in effectiveness of Open Access across subject areas was not given, but papers from every natural science subject showed a significant positive increase in exposure under OA. It is estimated that 15% of research papers in India are published in Open Access repositories. This means that 85% of research could benefit from a 50% increase in exposure!
Before embracing Open Access whole-heartedly it is important to study the needs and expectations that researchers have when publishing their papers using traditional channels. When asked about their motivation for publishing a research paper most scientists cited the chance to communicate with the scientific community as their main reason for publication. The least cited reason was to earn money from the publication of their article. Open Access will not meet the needs of anyone who expects to be remunerated for their paper. It was even suggested that in some cases repositories charge fees for publishing documents.
The advantages that OA brings to scientists that Dr. Swan described are broad and far reaching. As authors, scientists can vastly increase the circulation of their paper, encouraging feedback and peer view from a broader section of the scientific community. As researchers, scientists can have free and instantaneous access to the material they need, when they need it. As teachers, scientists will have direct access to teaching material and will not have to be concerned with copyright issues associated with duplication of the material.
So what are the reasons for not using OA, and why does only 15% of the Indian scientific community currently use it? Several preconceptions about Open Access are shared by community members. In some cases it is feared that submitting a paper to an online repository will be difficult and time consuming. According to Dr. Swan this is not a real concern at all. With only basic computer skills a user may submit an article in only a few minutes. In addition, a survey carried out amongst the scientific community found that an overwhelming percentage of users found the system “very easy” to use.
The most significant barrier to OA adoption by institutions and researchers seems to be copyright concerns of publishers. It is feared that many traditional scientific journals will not allow material they publish to be submitted simultaneously to an online OA repository. Authors who have already given the copyright of their article to a printed journal are fearful that in publishing the same article in a repository they will be breaking copyright restrictions. In most cases, Dr Swan says, this is not the case. Around three quarters of publishers will allow the author’s own final draft to be submitted to a repository post print.
So who is using OA worldwide and how can its usage be increased? Dr Swan mentioned a handful of institutions that make significant use of OA. The University of Southampton developed an OA tool called Eprints and currently publishes most of it’s research thorugh OA. German universities now all have an OA repository and one Spanish Univeristy was mentioned that has converted to OA. By far the most prestigious user of OA is CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. It currently makes all its papers since the early 1990s accessible via OA. Efforts are currently underway to extend this back as far as 1952.
The Wellcome Trust, a research organisation for human and animal health, aims to encourage the use of OA. It has a published list of recommended ways of addressing copyright concerns. One way that institutions can increase the use of OA is to take the decision out of the hands of individual researchers and make OA publishing compulsory. Dr Swan provided data which showed only a small number of researchers worldwide would actively oppose such a decision by their institute. In Asia, there seemed to be almost no opposition to OA adoption.
Yesterday I moved into some paying guest accommodation where I’m planning to stay long term. It’s very close to work, which means I can walk to and fro rather than argue with auto drivers about the price of a ride. It’s quite a small place but everyone there was incredibly welcoming and friendly. My flat has three rooms with two people sharing each one. All the other people are students or looking for jobs, so they’re quite into watching pirated films on computer until the early hours of the morning. Last night it was one about a women who gave birth to an alien.
Marcus, Michael and I went to see Salam Namaste a few days ago. It’s a Bollywood musical remake of a Hugh Grant film called Nine Months. It’s attraction for us was mainly the fact Preity Zinta is in it rather than any other qualities it may have had. However, I hadn’t realised until I saw it that in India its OK to start singing and dancing in the middle of the street whilst you’re looking for an ice cream parlour in the early hours of the morning. Infact, everyone within earshot will come and join in. I’m off to try it for myself…
My week so far has been almost entirely taken up with the struggle to jump through the bureaucratic hoops required to register a foreign visa in India. I went to the Police Commissioner’s Office for the third time today, only to have my old testament sized bundle of documents refused for various reasons – none of which I really understood. After a few (probably inadequate) adjustments, I will be making my fourth attempt tomorrow. After that I have exceeded the time period that I’m supposed to be in India without having registered. I’m not sure what happens then. I think the best I can expect is more forms…
My second day at Mahiti (yes, a Saturday) has continued to shock my lazy british student body. Today I attended a workshop on Open Media run by Sarai in which we produce broad sheet newspapers in groups. The workshop continues tomorrow which doesn’t really give me any time for a much needed change of accommodation.
The cheapest hostel in Bangalore is surprisingly clean, but I get woken up every half an hour by a passing truck blowing its super-loud horn. Also, it took me an hour and a half to get by bus from the hostel to the office where I work yesterday – not ideal.
I’m feeling quite at home in Bangalore despite feeling a bit apprehensive prior to landing in Mumbai. Although I had an idea of what to expect upon arrival in India this time, I couldn’t help wondering if my reaction would be the same as before. The culture differences are massive, but atleast slightly more familiar this time!
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