Blog 6: Changes

“Hello sir, from where you are coming?”

“I’m from New Zealand.”

“Ahh niyuzeelaand! And when you are coming?”

“I arrived a few weeks ago.”

“Until when you are staying?”

“A few months I think, I’m not sure.”

“I take one selfie with you?”

It is now a month since I arrived in India, and I have had this exact conversation countless times. I was last here over 10 years ago, and I have enjoyed taking note of what has changed in that time.

The way this conversation goes is one example: recently, someone responded to me saying I was from New Zealand with “I have a friend in Boston.” Oh that's just round the corner, I wanted to say, but bit my tongue.

It is increasingly common for people to have a friend or relative living overseas; studying nursing in Germany, or working in IT in the US. Years ago these stories would have been very rare: times are changing here in Assam.

Some other changes are easy to spot: the roads are much better, as is the cellphone coverage. Though there are still the daily power cuts I remember, nowadays people barely blink as their backup generators kick in and we carry on as normal.

Development here has been very swift, often leapfrogging whole steps. Villages without electricity connections are provided with solar panels to generate their own. Solar-powered streetlights are installed where previously there were none at all. In a recent budget report, the Indian government announced a staggering 33% increase in infrastructure spending (carefully timed for next year’s general election), and bridges, dams and rail projects seem to be sprouting up everywhere.

Though progress has been fast it has also been uneven, with disadvantaged people often worse off than before. Many smallholders in Assam do not have documentation to prove they own their land, partly through illiteracy and lack of education on rights, and partly because of traditional tribal beliefs that land is shared amongst the community. When the government announces they will be taking land for a new project, only those with legal documentation receive compensation, the rest receive nothing.

India itself has also changed. It has (unofficially) overtaken China as the world's most populous country with over 1.4 billion people. It also recently slid to 150th out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, between Turkey and Sudan. The pro-nationalist wagon-circling of the local media over the Adani-Hindenburg short-selling and Narendra Modi BBC documentary has been fascinating to watch.

Life for NGOs has also become increasingly difficult. Thousands of non-profits (including international names like Oxfam) have had their foreign funding disrupted in India, and all remaining organisations have been made to open an account with the State Bank of India branch in Delhi for monitoring by the government.

Things have changed for me too. I have settled into eating rice and roti three times a day, I’ve drunk no alcohol and had as many coffees in a month as I would usually have in a day back home. People are surprised when I eat with my hands, though I can tell they are also relieved they can stop ransacking their kitchen looking for a fork.

I'm learning Hindi as well as Assamese, by which I mean I tell people I want to learn Hindi and then they speak to me in Assamese. I'm also adjusting to local customs and culture: the social hierarchy and gender roles are things I'm finding quite different from home. I've been a guest at a wedding and an Adivasi festival, two sparkling displays of community and culture beyond anything I've seen before.

On a different note, so far I've had three 'Aunties' offer me their daughters to marry.

Stay tuned for next time when I reveal... just kidding.