It is time to talk about Indian teachers in Addis
Ababa. Indian teachers are recruited and selected by Global Placements, a placement
agency in Hyderabad. As the placement company is in Hyderabad and as there is a
conception that South Indian teachers are good at teaching, most teachers who
land up in Ethiopia belong to the South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
Among the south Indian states, it was Andhra
Pradesh that had the most teachers in Ethiopia followed by Tamil Nadu. There was always
an undercurrent of competition between Andhra and Tamil teachers.
Most teachers got placed in the many new universities
set up in all parts of Ethiopia in the early 2000s. Very few Indian teachers who
come to Ethiopia can fathom the big ten
that they would terribly miss: Home,
Movies, Television, Sports, Speed (of everything; life, internet, fast cars),
Indian News, Gossip, Festivals, Indian food and moderness. Indians become
brawling babies when they realize that they or their state or India are important
for the local population. Even the biggest event of India hardly warrants any
excitement for the Ethiopians. Only a major catastrophe becomes news.
Ethiopians are fond of athletics and EPL (English
Premiership League). And unfortunately India does not do well in neither. I remember
when I was almost waylaid by our silent, placid and laid back assistant librarian
of PEDA (Circa August 2003). He was breathless “Dr. Aneel” he was gasping “Do
you know Anju Bobby?”. “No, is she a new Indian teacher, I don’t know. Newly
arrived is it?!!”. “NO, NO” he was horrified. “I am talking about the FAMOUS INDIAN, ANJU BOBBY!!!!”. I was
non plussed, the only Christian Indian teacher’s name I knew was Clara Gladys
my colleague from Accounting department, but he knew Clara very well himself.
Our Assistant librarian was almost in tears “Dr. Aneel”
he was wailing now “I need her phone number”. I took him to the Cafeteria.
Almost sobbing into his coffee he told me his heart-rendering tale. I believe
he was watching the live telecast of the World Athletic Championship being held
in Paris. He was obviously enjoying his countrymen and women doing well.
Suddenly the long jump competition started. His
eyes widened when he saw a young and very beautiful girl competing. His eyes
almost popped out of their sockets when he saw the name of the country. It was INDIA. He almost jumped out of his
chair. ‘An Indian and doing well in
Athletics’. He could neither believe nor could digest the fact.
That Indian who stole his heart was Anju Bobby who
was competing in the long jump. “Indian girl and she was really doing very
well” he added with contempt!
Our Assistant librarian was smitten by the nubile
Indian and was head over heels in love.
I was told in tears that for the next one hour our man was willing Anju
Bobby with his heart to win and was greatly relieved when she bagged the bronze
medal.
Incidentally that was the first medal for India in
any world athletic championship. The assistant librarian was pleading “She is a
fellow Indian, can’t you give me her E-mail address and her phone number?”. I
was horrified. I assured him “I don’t know Anju Bobby personally and I don’t
have her phone number nor her E-mail address”. As I bet a hasty retreat I said
to myself “what would you do if you knew that Anju Bobby is married and that
her husband too is an athlete and his name is George”. I let the man live in
his own dreams. Why should I shatter a love smitten heart?
A place that has some real semblance of an attractive
foreign assignment is getting placed in Addis Ababa University. Of course there
is Defence Training Institute in Addis Ababa but there too the competition is
very stiff. Only experienced university professors with doctorates have a chance
to get a placement.
Indians in Addis Ababa tend to be snooty and full
of airs. Padma warmly greeted an Indian lady “Namaste” in Bole supermarket.
The lady recoiled as if she was shot. She took off and we all watched her with
open mouths. With a little bit of training this Indian lady could make it to
the Indian team in the 100 metres dash at the Olympics.
Ahmed sir who was with us bellowed in laughter.
“Anil Sir” he remarked “Addis Indians are all like her. They think if they
speak to us, we would ask some favours, like requesting whether we could stay at
their homes, help us get some information from the Indian school or worse if
they could help in getting an extension of our contract”.
He went on to add. In some cases, Indian teachers
have fought and I mean literally. There was a case of an Indian teacher who had
water coming from the roof of his bathroom. The tenant on the top floor too
was an Indian. And both the Indians came to blows. Very sad and it left a bad taste
in the mouth.
Most Indian teachers in Addis live in fear that
they would not get an extension and this leaves them mentally scarred. They would
not speak to other Indian teachers and would bitch like housewives, vicious and
full of malefic intentions.
“You
mean they all came together (8th wonder of the world)!” was
the incredulous response “and hosted a party for the Ethiopians (9th wonder of the world)”.
Soon the Internet was buzzing. The teachers in other universities were asked
whether a similar year-end party was held at their place.
After detailed investigation it finally dawned on Addis
teachers that the BDU Indians had stolen a march over them. Not only did they unite
but hosted a party for the Ethiopians. The Bahirdar Indian teaching community
was quickly dubbed “The Best Indian Teaching Community in Ethiopia’. We were
extremely proud to win the title.
Indians are starved for fresh vegetables in Ethiopia.
The only ones we get in Bahirdar were Onion, tomato, Potato, Cabbage and
Carrot. In Addis Ababa vegetables like brinjal (eggplant), Okra, beans, Donda
(scarlet gourd), bottle gourd were available. But initially they were not available
at supermarkets and an enterprising Ethiopian would source them from nearby farms
and sell it on every Saturday morning. He would come to the apartment were the
Indians stayed and sell the vegetables at very reasonable prices.
In the first few weeks everything worked smoothly.
Indians took this process as a normal phenomenon. Very soon they realized that
they were enjoying the forbidden fruits. As long as no one was getting the vegetables
there was a longing and feeling of missing something. As soon as everyone was getting
the same precious things, there was a burning in the heart. “How can someone else
enjoy what I am enjoying and that too without any pain”.
The Indian Jugaad kicked in and the Indian teachers
hit upon a dubious method of manipulating demand and supply. (My only hope is
that no one had written a research article and got it published in a reputed
journal of Economics).
The next Saturday the mobile vegetable vendor was
shocked to see Indians waiting with huge shopping baskets. They fell like hungry
vultures and took as many vegetables as they could pack in their shopping
baskets.
The Ethiopian vegetable vendor was nonplussed. “Why
are they buying so much?” as he saw each man and lady packing as much as five
to 10 kgs of each vegetable. He knew by experience that their average consumption
was hardly kilo/week.
The poor naive guy. He must have thought that the Indians are buying in bulk so that they could sell it on the side. ‘Nothing like it Sir!!!!!!!!’. They were buying in bulk so that they could deny the other Indians from laying hand on the precious vegetables. By denying fellow Indians vegetables, the ones that have got the vegetables felt a sense of achievement and satisfaction.
This very soon caught on and it was a madhouse and
after some time the entire exercise was given up by the frightened vegetable vendor.
Vegetables are available now in the supermarkets and the Ethiopians charge a
hefty premium. They now know that Indians are desperate for their weekly
rations of vegetables.
Similar was the case with tamarind. Ethiopians did
not use tamarind. It was not part of their cuisine. Till the early 2000 tamarind
trees would grow wild and Indians could get as much of the tamarind fruit as
they wanted. But the greed got better of us. Some enterprising Indians started cutting
and spoiling the huge tamarind trees. This was noticed by the locals and presto
before we knew the huge tamarind trees disappeared from plain sight and tamarind
was not free and it had to be bought.
May be missing home, is what that leads Indians to
act differently. We had the case of an Indian teacher who would walk as many as
five kilometres to buy Nyla cigarettes as they were available for 15 centimes
less. 15 centimes work out to less than a rupee, exactly 75 paise to be exact.
To save 75 paisa this teacher would walk five kilometres! I told Padma “he
would get exhausted by the time he reaches the shop and I am sure he has a shai
costing at least 20 centimes!”. He was saving 75 paisa and spending a rupee!
We had a POLY teacher who stayed in a house opposite
to our own. One Sunday he came to my house and asked Padma if she could tell a
recipe to cook Fish eyes. Padma was totally stunned. Very naively she asked “sir,
what fish eyes. I only know about the name Meenakshi (Eyes like a fish) but a
dish only with fish eyes. I am not aware”. The teacher was adamant. He wanted
to know how to cook fish eyes.
He told me that there was a market near POLY where
fish was sold. Usually the eyes, the scales and the body organs are removed and
the clean fish is handed over to the customer. Our brilliant teacher found out
that fish eyes could be had for gratis (free). He wanted to get these, make a
dish and save money. Padma had to be revived with the help of smelling salts!!!
Another very exalted Indian teacher dropped in. He
told me “Anil Saab, I am told that University officials want to award foreigners
who did exemplary social service and I want to apply for the award”.
Naïve as I was, I beamed in happiness “sir, that is
great news, what social service have you done?”. “Kya Anil Sir, aap bhi” he added
“I am giving my maid 100 birr a month and because of me her family is surviving. Where else can there be a better
example of social service”. I was so shocked that even Pranav and sahithi’s best
antics could not bring me out of the stupor.
It is not my claim that all Indians behave this way
throughout the world. I have served in many other countries and found that
Indian behaviour is the same. They behave the way they behave in India and these
other foreign countries had huge Indian population.
The case in Ethiopia was different. The Population
of Indians in entire Ethiopia would not cross a couple of thousands. There were
very few Indians and this led to inbreeding in thinking and excess socialization.
“Proximity breeds contempt’. The extreme intimacy leads to problems. And the
lack of alternatives for food complicates the situation and examples like the
ones cited above happen.