A day in the life

Everyone says that it takes a while to get into the groove of a VSO assignment. Long-term volunteers on two-year placements talk in terms of months or even spending the first year just getting to the point where they really feel like they are making an impact. Short-term volunteers, like myself, work with organisations that are in a probably in a greater state of readiness. But even so, it takes a while to get the ball rolling. My ball has started rolling. In fact, it’s not so much rolling as bouncing down a hill, gathering up people as it goes and I’m desperately running behind it trying to keep up.

I’ve started to notice things that we have set in motion starting to become part of the fabric of the organisation; we’re not just talking the talk any more, we’re talking about walking the talk, and soon we will all walk the talk. But nothing is born into this world without a little pain. When you move from an organisation where feedback at the best was the occasional ‘well done’ to the full on, no-holds-barred 360-degree feedback for all the senior team that we did this week, it was a case of light the blue touch paper and stand well back. Someone dropped a feedback A-bomb and I was left to pick up the pieces.

...so what exactly do you do over there?

I’ve been working mainly with the senior team and their direct reports to run four work streams simultaneously. I’m just starting to realise this may have been a little ambitious. But, hey, what’s life without a few challenges? And Murari, the Boss, is not someone who is easily satisfied. In a very nice way, I think he’d have me painting the outside of the building, teaching English to rickshaw drivers and counselling delinquent cows if he thought I was in any way qualified to do it. Luckily I’m not, because things just got very busy.

So, just to prove I’m actually doing some work and not lounging around contemplating the price of samosas all day, here’s what’s going on:

We’re creating a new process for recruiting people into the organisation based on motivational fit and putting policies in place to proactively attract more diversity into the organisation; we’re designing an assessment centre to select ‘apprentices’, and a year-long training programme that works of the back of it; we’ve defined a set of organisational capabilities as a key input to the new appraisal system that is in development, whilst also training people in feedback skills; we’re running a programme to bring developing coaching into everyday management practice, and to top it all off there is a cultural change programme to drive empowerment and accountability. All of which of course we have to develop and implement in the next three months and in such a way that there is the capability in the organisation to run them effectively when I’m gone. Good game, good game.

So, a day my life goes something like this: I’m woken up about 5:30 in the morning by the sun coming in my un-curtained bedroom window. Roll over and hide under the covers. Get up around 8:00, say hi to James the frog as I start to shave, then the power goes out. I’ll spend a leisurely hour bimbling about and somewhere in the middle of that I’ll eat a spicy samosa and drink sweet iced coffee for breakfast. In the short walk to the office I can’t help mooing at the various cows on the roadside to see if they’ll say hello, and I’ll still be the cause of at least two staring-related road traffic accidents.

I’m at the office some time after 9:00 and almost always greeted with a ‘Good morning Sir’, by Ramdev, the long-suffering Office Assistant. I think he’s a dude and has the patience of a saint because his day spent trying to satisfy the demands of people (particularly Binita), screaming for his services at the top of their voice.

Binita is queen of all things administrative. Fondly known as ‘Hitler’, a moniker she herself is happy to propagate, she rules the roost and the high pitched wail of ‘RAAAAAAMDEV’ can be heard echoing through the office at any time of day or night. I actually think Binita is really a pussycat at heart; she has a lovely smile and is very good-natured when you get to know her. You just wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of her budget sheets. But we get on well and she runs the diversity work steam.

The yogic ying to Binita’s high-pitched yang is simply the coolest man in Deoghar – Shanka-ji. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say even one more word than is absolutely necessary, but the he is the Indian equivalent of Henry Fonder in Easy Rider. Enough said.

I’ll then walk up the corridor a little way to say good morning to Niladri, known to all as Niladri-da. A hugely experienced, great teddy bear of a man, famous for his cable-knit jumpers, big grin and forgetful nature. He runs the recruiting for organisational fit work stream and is soon to be an expert at assessing motivational profiles, if we can just get ourselves organised.

I’ll then boot up the main computer in the office to see if the broadband is in a good mood that day. Soon after getting a connection, the power usually goes out. Start over.

Renu, the Executive Secretary will shoo me away from the dominion that is her front desk at this point as I clearly have no idea how to treat temperamental Indian computers. About ten minutes later she’ll inform me that the broadband is still not working for any number of un-specifiable reasons usually including the phrase ‘this is India, you know?’

Renu is our walking encyclopaedia of logistics. She can tell you the scheduled time of any train passing through Jasidih (our nearest main line station), and more importantly what time it will really be there. She can magic lunch from thin air in about 15 minutes (you can tell when she is doing this because of the tell-tale RAAAAAAMDEV shouted across the office just after you ask), and she is gatekeeper to the door to Murari’s office.

Murari Mohan Choudhury is the founder and Executive Director of NEEDS. He has a passion that burns so bright that it lights up the people around him and he always has a smile even in the darkest of times. But what lies beneath is a quite spectacular inner drive and vision. I have no doubt he could have been successful in pretty much any profession, but development is his passion and he has sacrificed much to make NEEDS a success. I have nothing but respect for him and from day one we seemed to be on the same wavelength. Without his unerring support I would be nowhere (instead of just being in the middle of nowhere).

Most people are in the office by 10:00, either chatting with each other and arranging the day, or packing up a jeep to get out to the field. I’ll then settle down to a bit of design work – creating worksheets to help people run the analysis for their work streams or actually working up the HR interventions. This is punctuated by a constant battle with the swarm of mosquitoes that live in my office and the power going out.

My little office, or ‘cabin’ my colleagues call it connects to the health team’s office, run by Urmi. For those that this makes any sense to, she is a quintessential ENTJ: full of energy, direct, intellectually agile, and very focused on doing a good job. Not being know to be particularly shy and retiring myself, we have some pretty rambunctious knock-about debates. You don’t mess with Urmi, but just below the surface there is a real soft side to her. She is fiercely protective of her team and sensitive about how she relates to the community. She runs the development coaching work stream and I spend a lot of time talking with her about her development as one of the most capable people in the NGO.

I’ll have a ‘first half’ meeting with one of the workstream leaders; this means anything from 10:00 to about 13:00, in which time the power has usually gone out at least once. I’m usually starving by 13:30, so pop home and have daal and something, usually including mango pickle – I have a one-jar-per-week mango pickle habit. Everyone else lunches about 14:00 – 14:30. In the afternoon I might pop over to Tarahaart, our computer-training centre, that is run by our total dude of an Information, Communication and Technology Manager, Tanmoy. He is probably the least techy, Techy you could ever hope to meet; super friendly, great with people and very lucky for me he’s running the feedback and appraisal work stream – he’s a natural.

The ‘second half’ starts somewhere around 15:00 with a power cut and I’ll probably meet with another person, or just crack on with whatever is pressing at the time. The last work stream leader is Anamika, one of the newer recruits to NEEDS, and she looks after the talent development (apprenticeship) work stream. She is a soft-spoken, caring person who has a great affinity with the communities we work with and a wealth of field experience.

Like the rest of the NEEDS programme managers, programme officers and field executives, Anamika has a great work ethic. Each and everyone’s commitment is immense. We are often in the office until seven or eighth at night, and there is no question about what comes first when there is a job to be done. Weekends, holidays and families all bow down to the pursuit of our vision.

My evenings are pretty quiet. I might wonder down the road and pick up some samosas, or collect my laundry then head home. Dinner…any combination of veg, daal, rice and mango pickle with water to drink – I drink a lot of water. I might knock up come roti if I’m feeling energetic. Then it’s an evening in with my guitar often by candlelight as the power is out, maybe work on the latest batch of photos and take in a few chapters of a book. Bed my midnight, and then we do it all over again.

Weekends, when I get them are pretty much a variation of the above, together with a bit of cooking (praise be to Jay’s Mum, I eat ‘her’ daal everyday and still love it), cleaning and shopping. My one big treat in the weekend is that Tanmoy and I will often meet around his house, order take-away (usually the only time I eat meat in the week) and watch one of his massive collection of Hindi movies. The beauty of a Hindi movie is that they you don’t really need to be able to understand most of the dialogue and regardless of how ‘gritty’ the story line is, they always manage to crowbar-in a few upbeat song and dance numbers. The baddies inevitably die and the good guy always rescues the (semi-helpless) girl.

My wanderings around town still provide great entertainment. I can just about describe who I am and what I do now in Hindi, so I am starting to be invited into people’s houses, and I sit and chat (kind of) at stalls whilst being force-fed chai and kids jostle to have their picture taken. The veg sellers are a particular favourite and always have a smile and say hello as I walk by. If it’s sunny I’m usually wearing my sunglasses and my favourite comments so far are:

‘Excuse me Sir, I am thinking your goggles are very smart’, and

‘Sir, Sir, you look just like Bruce Wallis!’ (Sic)

The photos of the town are from just a few hours walk this Sunday afternoon.

And just to keep life interesting, I have also found another little project to keep me busy. We work Monday to Saturday most weeks, so Sunday is the only day that I consistently have off. But after a field visit with Ashok, the child protection programme officer, I really wanted to see if there was something I could do to help the children’s group he organises. So, as of January my Sundays will be spent teaching ‘life skills’. I am fully aware of the irony of a non-Hindi speaking guy who only recently learned how to tie his own shoelaces trying to teach life skills to a group of non-English speaking little Indians. Charades anyone?

But, they’re bright, very respectful kids who probably have worries that shouldn’t be on such young shoulders. They range from maybe seven to fourteen years old, and most work in hotels through necessity to earn money and contribute to the family income. That means no school and precious little time to do simple things like play and enjoy the freedom of an unburdened mind. The State doesn’t really like to recognise that there is child labour, but it’s a reality that as an NGO we have to deal with pragmatically. If there is no option to get the children back to school, the next best thing is to negotiate with their employers to allow them some time in the evenings to meet as a group, study, play and learn some basic skills that can help them in life. Facilitated my a NEEDS’ field worker, they manage their own bank account and personal savings, organise social activities and maybe most importantly get the support and confidence to take back some control of their lives. I’m just happy to be able to play a small part of the process.

I’m off to Bhubaneswar for a VSO programme review this week, followed by a quick trip to AZ in Bangalore, then back to Delhi for a break over Christmas.

A shout goes out to the Marples Clan, especially my Dad whose 70^th birthday is just before Christmas and Libby my little niece, to whom I’m an absolutely awful Godfather, who will be two on 10^th January – expect presents on my return!

The days are getting pretty short now, with the sunset just after five. The nights are a little chilly - specilally in houses with concrete floors designed to stay cool in the summer. I have a great furry 'Jinnah' hat and shawl that I sport in true Indian style. To the indigenous population, the 15-degree nighttime temperature is like an ice age has come. Even during a nice sunny day they tend to sport a great ramshakcle collection of woolly hats, scarves shawls and gloves tied around various parts of their body. I can't help thinking they look a little like an Asian Scott of the Antarctic.

And just in case you were wondering about my little zoological collection, I have a new best friend. Next door’s dog I don’t think gets much love, so after I tickled his tummy and scratched him behind his ears, Peter as I have christened him (even though he’s probably Hindu), is my faithful companion.

In the words of Groucho Marx, ‘outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend, inside of a dog it’s too dark to read’ – if it’s an Indian dog it’s probably because the power has just gone out.