Ask a person a question and you will get 100 different answers and they are all “right”. We can than imagine how big India is and how many different faces the country has.

Typical for western people that has to confront another culture is that we believe ourself like something more, something better.

I like to see it from the point that this is something new and be curious about that cause I don’t know nothing about this country and I want to see it with new eyes not searching for the bad things but looking from it on another point of view. Of cause I have some big skeptic issues and I am searching for the answer and of cause I do my own hypotheses on everything, but I still think it is important to remind yourself of the outsider you really are -first entering a new country.

I like the idea of not comparing with anything else, not my own country, not my own culture. I see what I see, but it is not certain I understand what I see. Maybe I don’t like what I see, but as long as I don’t know the background of what I see, I can not understand.

The psychological fact is that what you see is only confirming what you think you know, your missunderstandings and your phobias.

So what should India learn from us? This is not the same country, it does not have the exactly same problems, it function in a completely different way. I have my personal philosophy that “we can only learn from our own mistakes”. Let’s say that all the countries in the world are small babies and are playing together… We are curiously looking at each other and watching the other ones taking new steps. And by looking we can learn, but each of us needs to do it ourselves, the first steps, by our own.

Our world is getting smaller and smaller, more globalized. And we should look at each other and learn. But I still believe all of us small babies need to do our own mistakes to learn from it, to understand that this is serious. That will be a big “cost” for the world in a long term situation, but that is the way it has been until now and I am wondering if it’s just a human fact, that the problems needs to be so close to us before we react…

Look at the recycling problem in Europe. For instance recently in south Italy there was a overloading with garbage in the streets. People were just throwing all their garbage without any system. And in the end it was so overloaded that helicopters from the army had to come and transport all the shit as the rats started to come and the illnesses started to spread. The same thing is happening in India. But they are now facing the problem and I think the solution will come.

So how globalized are we actually and what’s makes the world globalized? Is Mc Donalds, Media, tourism, fashion, technique, exports and imports a proof of globalization? That is other questions.

About the materialistic world… A note from the Internet: “Environmental destruction in the Third World countries is mainly because people are forced to exploit natural resources on a massive scale in order to try to raise their living standards quickly”. Though I am born and brought up in a materialistic country I think materialism damage a lot more than the environment.

I remember in South Africa working with the street kids and there was a lady telling me; “These are the survivals. If the world will collapse it is these kids who’s gonna’ know how to survive, just observe how creative they are”. I like to see creativity as a survival tool. And I mean, often creativity comes with the poverty, if you don’t have that specific thing you need, you will come up with a solution, because there is always a solution. Just watching this kid in India making his own toy to have something to play with or this man in Dharavi fixing his electronic machine with something completely else than what he needed to make it work. And I think it will take India a long, long time to balance up the gap between the poor and the rich people witch also will make the creativity and innovation survive for a long time. I don’t mean that the innovation is dead if you have money, but I think the materialistic things have a tense to frame you “inside the box”. Maybe it sounds a bit bizarre, but I believe in it.

Let’s get back to the globalization and culture… I agree with Mr. Amrit Gangar, “India is already globalized when it comes to culture and has been for a long time”. India have been influenced by one of the oldest religions, been invaded by the muslims, Portuguese, Britt’s and today we can see that have been playing a big role in the Indian culture and religion. An example of a foot print of that is Dharavi, one of the biggest slums in the world. Might be that the slum is devided into different areas like the Muslim, Hindi and Tamil area. But still they integrate with each other and make business. That is a step. Though the word “globalization” is not really understandable in Dharavi I think that is happening unconscious with the Films, Radio, Tourism and Internet. Globalization comes with education, talking to people in Dharavi more and more people understand the importance of been educated, because that means success. I still think India has a long way to go when it come to modernization and what I see is that the religion is playing a big role in many situations. “But I believe the country India as a small baby has been reborn as in reincarnation, many more times than the western world. And I think we should watch it more closely.”

Had so much to write about the other day and now it all dissapeared. But i am back in Mumbai now.. oh yeah,  I went to a Wyclef Jean consert on Saturday at the Hard rock cafè, it was really amazing! What a great consert, what a great night, what a energy! I can’t really compare it to the U2 consert cause this was something different. It was a small scene, maybe maximum 1500 people and Jean running around in the crawd without people getting crazy, using the whole room, experementing with the people- that was really something to remember! Have to tell he’s a big artist.

What else, the Pange a project is getting closer and closer and there’s still a lot to do… Right now i feel zero inspierd and zero motivated as i just feel there is a lack of that little extra that makes you going. Maybe it will change after some meetings i have to do. How to find the motivation? That is my question right now… Think I have been ”homesick” the last days, longing back to my boyfriend, my mother, my friends, the food and sweden. Also thinking about my sister that soon gonna be a mother and so much whishing i could be there listening to the beats of the baby.

Well, i finish this today by biting my tongue and thinking to myself;  ”get your shit together girl”.

Reading about the gay movement in India often contains; “punishable offence”.  When I tried to look up gay-bars wanting to do my research I find it quite hard as the clubs often opens and close, opens and close… Than asking on the streets if there is one to visit, people tend to get really shy and nervous, almost not wanting to talk about it. But reading more about the gay culture it seams that it is growing  and there are some people writing about Mumbai as the capital in India that do develop in the acceptance.

 Mumbai was the first city to host India’s  gay conference eight years ago and I wonder if there is just a matter of awareness that will make the small step towards a bigger acceptance. Or do they actually need to change the law that says; homosexual relations for men are illegal. I seriously don’t know.

 As most of the time in India I find that many things are accepted in the upper class of the society where there are awareness, experience and knowledge.  And where there are no education things are characterized by tradition and culture, whish I think can be harder to change.  By speaking to an Indian man he confirmed I am right, in the upper class there are people being open with their sexuality, where in the countryside there can be dramatically consequences of being gay. The people there are the law and what the community decides is the law. Also this is common in illegal marriage. If the family and the community decide a girl of age 15 should marry a unknown man,  she has nothing to say even if the law says a girl must be minimum 18 years .  

So what is love to the Indian people?

I find love just as a metaphor for security in the future. If your not allowed to choose your life partner and if there are strict rules and laws based on tradition and religion, what else can it be? For sure it is very far away from my detention of love. And I just reminded myself of a friend in Europe that was madly in love with this girl, but as he was brought up in an Indian family there was no way he could ever imagine a life with her… I find that as a real proof of the power of religion.

Well, nothing new really. We did our third idè process today around the Pangea day, and didn’t come up with much new than a clearance between us and a couple of new idéas. But than we had a break and met up some hours later we actually agreed on the base of the project – we’r gonna do it in Dharavi (mumbais biggest slum area). So the base and everyones responsibulity is gonna lay in making that project becoming something, than all the things that happands around that is just a big, big plus. We still want to work on the ”Empowerment” methaphore, but there is also this set goal. It feels really good and i can see something that i  can work towards. So my show is defenitly going… the paus is finished!

Since last time it happand some interesting stuff; i had a meeting with the founder of Mum movies and it went really well. They are in to help us out during the Pangea day and have a lot to offer us. I have to say the indian people are really helpfull in many situations. I guess it has to do with the ”exotic” fact that we are foreigners..? 

Than the other night we were a bunch of Kaospilots that went out for some drinks and ended up on this million dollar jakt boat drinking the best champagne in christall glases! I can still not really belive it and i am thinking that Mumbai is the city where anything can happand.  Quite bizzar i have to say but a nice story to tell:)

Got to crawl down to my bed now… but i will be back sooon!  

We took the train back, skipped the buss this time;) That was great, really confi’ and the kitchen was amazing. This kitchen tram where they cooked all food, i guess it was about 45 degrees celcius in there, a lot of action, ”different” smells and full speed was a nice experiance to see. I have to say they are really creative in this country in all different ways.

Now back in Mumbai i forgot how to cross the streets, but it wasn’t that bad as i thought it would be to get back… I am looking forward to start working on the project again and ”grumping” about not beeing allowed to dress as i want and so on;) There is something about that as well….   

So i had a little fight with someone so special to me and i have to tell you… you freak my head out sometimes, and i guess your just laughing, thinking -that drama queen;)!  anyway, gonna have a ”fight” with you when you get down here, you know that i will win!;)

How are indias people handeling the  countrys transition into a growing world economic people?

Do they feel any change in the status in the world? Is there more economic equity among the people as indias economic performace grows?

After listening to Dr. Arun Sawant I get the picture of a cycle is slowly starting. It looks like the people are really aware of the growing economy and as Sunita said “In 20 years we will replace USA”. But my question is; how will they handeling the big difference between the rich and the poor people? Well, as there are no big income from the taxes as some pays a little bit and some nothing there are no money they can take from there to balance up this. But there are money from the people who earns quite good that goes to a organization that further put the money into houses for the people that for instance lives in the slums. Also the States invests a lot in this country as they see it is growing so fast. Let me give you an example; the send used plast to Mumbais slum area and let the people melt the plast and recycle it. At least it gives some people a job. We can also see that as Indias economy is growing local people start seeing education as really important, the understand that they can make a big career afterwards. University nowadays also get lot of founds. But the big problem as Dr. Sawant says is that everything is going so fast and of cause people can feel something big is happening here but they have a hard time fallowing. And that is the challenge. In my point of view the ”nature problem/global destruction” is another big, BIG issue that they soon have to do something about. But as I ask questions about this people are just laughing and they don’t really know what to answer…  I get the feeling the knowledge about this problem is far to small! That scares me. But I want to end this text with a comment from Dr. Sawant “India is the land of opportunity”. I am excited to fallow this.