Some of you are probably wondering what's next for me, which city am I going to start up, where will we be living for the next year? Well, I was wondering the same thing, up until yesterday :-) But after 1 month of scouting Kolkata, Patna and Lucknow, we decided based on market potential to start up operations in Kolkata!
Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is India's third largest city with around 14 million people, it is the capital city of the state of West Bengal and used to be India's capital city during the British rule. Kolkata conjures up images of human suffering to most Westerners, but locally it is regarded as India's intellectual and cultural capital.
I'm really excited about this, and I'm flying there on Sunday! First things to do will be finding an office / place to stay (we call it "the hive"), furnish it, meet with local potential partner NGO's, map out the city and its slum communities, and prepare for the first 1 month Fellowship program in July! Thankfully Tao (my buddy city co-founder) is arriving in India in a couple of weeks and Julie (the HQ finance manager) is coming up from Bangalore to help me in this daunting task :-)
Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is India's third largest city with around 14 million people, it is the capital city of the state of West Bengal and used to be India's capital city during the British rule. Kolkata conjures up images of human suffering to most Westerners, but locally it is regarded as India's intellectual and cultural capital.
I'm really excited about this, and I'm flying there on Sunday! First things to do will be finding an office / place to stay (we call it "the hive"), furnish it, meet with local potential partner NGO's, map out the city and its slum communities, and prepare for the first 1 month Fellowship program in July! Thankfully Tao (my buddy city co-founder) is arriving in India in a couple of weeks and Julie (the HQ finance manager) is coming up from Bangalore to help me in this daunting task :-)
City scouting in Lucknow
For the past 2 weeks I've been in Lucknow basically conducting surveys to see how big the need for our products is out here. It's been very intense, driving around the city in the (very) hot sun, hearing all these people's stories and collecting the data. Lucknow looks like a great city for Pollinate Energy, being the 8th largest city in India but one of the poorest. Based on my field research, around 60% of the households living in slum communities have access to electricity, most them them illegally "hooking up" to the grid network and bribing the grid officer. However, since power cuts are quite frequent here, I still hear a lot of interest for a solar light. On top of that, it looks like there is a large demand for water filters.
As you can see in the picture above, I still need a translator by my side at all times, although my Hindi is improving day by day. It has been quite a challenge to find them, so I'd like to thank them all for their help! Big up for Nidhi, Ridhi, Manish, Yogesh, Anand, Abhisheik, Julius, Jyoti, Rajesh, it's been awesome to meet, work and talk with you guys!
As you can see in the picture above, I still need a translator by my side at all times, although my Hindi is improving day by day. It has been quite a challenge to find them, so I'd like to thank them all for their help! Big up for Nidhi, Ridhi, Manish, Yogesh, Anand, Abhisheik, Julius, Jyoti, Rajesh, it's been awesome to meet, work and talk with you guys!
Who said traffic was crazy in their country never came to Lucknow, India
So I'd like to finish up this post by showing you how crazy the traffic is around here, I've been having A LOT of fun analysing it over the last few weeks and I thought it would be funny to share it with you. Enjoy!
1. The honking: More than a means of communication, it is a way of life here. Not sure why they need to paint this at the back of the autos (shortcut for automated rickshaws), they certainly don't need someone begging them to use their horn! I have witnessed some pretty funny 5 min communications between a car and a motorcycle (literally, 5 min). There's no point in getting annoyed, although I have tried yelling at them to make them stop and it works (it's even pretty funny), but they'll start again 2 minutes later, so you better embrace it!
2. The animals: Cows being the most obvious, you will most likely find yourself honking at them at one point, along with the occasional horses, elephants, pigs, dogs, chicken, etc. This black one looks like it's ready to take on traffic horns first, while her buddy is just relaxing in the shade.
3. A traffic what? While they have installed traffic lights at every big intersection, they are obviously there because they look very pretty and have nothing to do with regulating traffic. Instead, the cop in the middle is orchestrating the whole thing (thank you cheap labour), while his buddies are taking a break from the hot sun. At least they seem to be solar-powered!
4. Temples, autos, rickshaws, the choice is yours, depending on where and how far you're going.
- Temples (the larger green ones) are pretty awesome. Made to carry 6, they can fit up to 14, and they have specific routes, kind of like buses, but much more frequent, and they're so cheap (from 5 to 15 rupees depending on how far you're going and the driver's mood). There's no way to tell where they're going either, except for yelling your destination to the driver. If he wobbles his head... well, who knows what that means :-) Just hop on and you'll see! As you can see, they are also great for napping.
- Autos (the smaller green and yellow ones), made to fit 3, can also be shared, in which case they can fit 6 or more.
- Rickshaws, the cycling ones, made to fit 2, can fit up to 4 or 5 I think (with kids) if the driver's up to it and / or it goes downhill. They are very slow and usually are responsible for a big part of the traffic. Some can carry goods as well (on the right).
- Temples (the larger green ones) are pretty awesome. Made to carry 6, they can fit up to 14, and they have specific routes, kind of like buses, but much more frequent, and they're so cheap (from 5 to 15 rupees depending on how far you're going and the driver's mood). There's no way to tell where they're going either, except for yelling your destination to the driver. If he wobbles his head... well, who knows what that means :-) Just hop on and you'll see! As you can see, they are also great for napping.
- Autos (the smaller green and yellow ones), made to fit 3, can also be shared, in which case they can fit 6 or more.
- Rickshaws, the cycling ones, made to fit 2, can fit up to 4 or 5 I think (with kids) if the driver's up to it and / or it goes downhill. They are very slow and usually are responsible for a big part of the traffic. Some can carry goods as well (on the right).