Back to reality?

We came into Kolkata on a bus from Durgapur in the morning. I was able to take a few pictures from the bus, though they didn't come out that well...

The gate to Kolkata West International City.

Howrah Bridge

After getting into the city, we headed for clean bathrooms: a mall, where else? We also had some delicious snacks, and a short visit to a famous Bengal confectioner's called Flurys. We then went on to do a bit of shopping and a lot of wandering around. Karuna had promised to bring back some mithai for the office, so we stopped at a mithai shop and also tried a local specialty: mishti doi.

After that we didn't have much time - we headed back to Ambalika's place, got all packed up, and then headed out to the airport.

Two last images from the trip that have little practical value, but I crack up everytime I look at them.

Yes, this is real. It's a bank. In Kolkata. With Spiderman.


No, I have not changed my name. Even better: this was absolutely not a problem for going through security. Love this country.

Day 2 of Factfinding in West Bengal

We started out early in the morning from Asinsol, as we knew we had quite a few interviews to get through before we needed to head back to Kolkata. We were well on our way to the village when we got a call from one of our village contacts. It turned out that Mukesh, our main contact the previous day, had been arrested the night before, sometime after we had left the village.

So… right. We go into the village, and hours after we leave, the person whose home we went to, and who we talked to the longest, and who led us around, is arrested. We didn’t know what to think – were we the reason? Was there something else going on we didn’t know about?

We decided to stop in advance of the village, and meet with some of the men who had met with us yesterday, in order to try and figure out a plan and if we should do anything. We discussed possibilities of going to the police station to see why Mukesh was being held, going to the court to file an action immediately, if we should even go into the village again. Ultimately we decided that we should go to the village, and prepare a petition to be filed immediately. We wanted to make sure the villagers themselves were prepared to file a suit, and could file it themselves – we did not want to give the impression (or actually have it) that we were forcing legal action upon the villagers: it should come from them, rather than from us.

When we got to the village, we decided we first wanted to find out what, exactly, had happened the previous night. We started talking to the villagers, and quickly realized we were getting conflicting stories: some villagers claimed dozens of police officers came in the middle of the night and were banging on door; eventually taking away Mukesh. Others, including those immediately neighboring Mukesh’s house, claimed to have heard nothing, only finding out in the morning that something had happened the previous night.

These stories were difficult to believe – when we were walking through the village, literally everyone came out to see who we were, what we were doing there, etc. This was not a village that used to visitors from outside, and any disturbance would surely be noticed immediately. What was clear, however, was the fact that Mukesh had talked to us, and then gotten arrested. It was no stretch to believe that the villagers did not want to be talking to us for any length of time, for fear of what might happen to them. Mukesh's wife did not really answer our questions, and she also didn't seem to be much affected by the fact that her husband had been arrested the previous night (though it's hard to say what an "appropriate" reaction would be in the situation).

In any case, we ended up leaving the village after an hour or so of fruitless conversations. The wife of a man who had previously been arrested (in the first batch, still in jail) was unwilling to take our contact information in order to get legal help for him.

We then ended up going to a nearby village, whose residents had also been involved in the march to the police station. We met with some better luck there, in terms of people who were willing to take the HRLN contact information, and perhaps move forward with a case.

The investigation was an interesting experience. We collected quite a bit of information, and even if it doesn't go towards an immediate case, I know that the information will, at the very least, find its way into a larger human rights report regarding police abuses and other problems in West Bengal.

We ended up only making it as far as Durgapur on Tuesday night, as we missed the last buses to Kolkata, and so we stayed in a hotel there. The hotel search was a little complicated - our driver (apparently listening to us converse in English, assuming we had lots of $$$$) took us to an incredibly nice 4 star hotel, which we could not afford (though I wish I could have seen one of the rooms, I have to see what a luxury hotel in India looks like!).

Day 1 of Factfinding in West Bengal

On Monday morning, we headed out to Asinsol by bus. The bus ride took about 3.5 hours, and after reaching Asinsol, we checked into our hotel. After freshening up and having a bit of brunch, we headed out via car to the village where our investigation was taking place. The drive, we were told, would take about an hour. Four hours later, we came to a halt inside the village. Three guesses as to a key reason for delay, and the first two don't count.

The village was very remote – we left paved road a good thirty minutes prior to actually getting inside the village, and most of the homes were without electricity. One of the HRLN staffers who came on the trip, Miriam, was from Germany, and she was the only (visibly) non-Indian. I asked her later how she felt when she was in environments like this, but she brought up a good point – we all looked like foreigners to these villagers. Kolkata was far enough, let alone Delhi (or the US/Germany).

The first house we went to was that of Mukesh*. Mukesh was clearly a leader of sorts in the village, though there was nothing formalized about it. Mukesh and his wife laid out the background of the situation for us: Some time earlier, the local villagers had started a movement to make some changes in the village – going to the higher powers (state authorities, etc.) to try and get paved roads, etc. They were told over and over that these things would happen, but nothing happened. [This wasn’t exactly related to why we were there, but is in the way of providing a background for these villagers.] Most recently, the villagers had tried to close a liquor store that was located in a neighboring village – the purchasers of the alcohol were almost universally becoming drunk and then beating their wives/families, back in the village. Unsurprisingly, the liquor store owners did not take kindly to this movement. A group of villagers had gone from the village to the liquor store in order to explain their reasoning, and within a day or so, several of these villagers were picked up by the police.

The liquor store owners had not just stopped at complaining about the villagers’ interference – they claimed that these villagers were linked to the local Maoist movement. Twelve villagers were arrested. When the rest of the village found out, they were upset about this – particularly as not all of those arrested were even those who had gone to the liquor store in the first place. The villagers gathered together, and decided to all go to the police station together and find out why the men had been arrested, and what they could do next.

Mukesh estimated roughly 500 people went to the police station. Upon entering the gates to the station, police officers came out of the station and without explanation or warning, began to beat the villagers. We documented dozens of injuries which were still apparent, nearly two weeks after the week – bruises from lathis, cuts from the bayonets which are on police rifles (can I just say, WTF?? Police still carry bayonets??), marks from the rifles themselves. The police had beaten the villagers without discrimination: we talked to young men in their 20s, women in their 50s, and everything in between. The women were self-conscious about showing their injuries, often telling us to come back into their homes so they wouldn’t have to lift their skirt or turn their back out in the open. Some of the saddest moments were when the victims were convinced they had to have a huge mark on their arm or back given the amount of pain they still felt, but there was no visible evidence of the hit.

After all that, more villagers were arrested, many of whom were released later that night. Since the march/attack, which was on 12^th September, most of the arrested villagers had been released, but there were still 4 men in jail.

At this point, after taking dozens of pictures and speaking to several villagers, it had gotten late, and we needed to return to Asinsol for the night. We would be coming back the next day to make sure that we could speak to the families of the men who were still in jail, and make a plan for legal action against the police.

*Forgive me my paranoia.

Traveling within India

I went to Kolkata last week on a fact-finding investigation with HRLN. I'm writing about it in two separate posts, because the experience was so surreal that I feel I had to split it up. On the one side, is the privilege of traveling by air, seeing the new international terminal here in Delhi, and staying in AC hotels. On the other side are villagers most of whom are without electricity, in a remote area, where police have no compunction in beating innocent people for no good reason. The whole trip was kind of like India, in a nutshell. Land of the extremes.

So: first for the fun stuff! We traveled to Kolkata on a flight that originally came from JFK, so even though we were flying domestically, we went through the International Terminal, which is beautiful. Karuna, Smriti and I treated ourselves to a cup of coffee at The Coffee Bean (heyy that sounds familiar). Their drinks menu was similar to the U.S., but the food options were a little more localized :) I also got a kick out of the wall paintings to indicate gender for the restrooms - sooo much better than a stick figure (or worse, an unidentifiable figure!).

The flight was on Air India, and domestic flights here actually serve full meals, complimentary! Best flight food ever. Palak paneer, rice, gaajar muttar, kheir, and salad. YUM YUM YUM. They also had the little tv screens with movie options, which I was excited about, but then I saw that the movie playing was Paathshala, which might win the award for one of the dumbest movies ever. Oh Shahid, what were you thinking??

The Kolkata airport, sadly, was not as nice as the Delhi airport, but we weren't there for too long. One interesting quirk of Indian airports: they check your boarding pass and for security tags on the way OUT. Not sure what the utility in that is, but hey, whatever makes the men with the rifles happy.

Sunday night we stayed at Ambalika's parents' house, and then we set out for Asinsol early on Monday morning.

Amigo = Dost

On Saturday I hung out with my uncle's nieces and nephew (for which I'm sure there is some specific name in Hindi, though it's the most bizarre relation). Great to finally hang out with people in Delhi who are close to my age. We went out to Rohini first so I could meet the rest of Nishu's family. Rohini is in North Delhi, so we got a nice scenic tour of Delhi roads from the office up to Rohini. (Yes, on a Saturday, I was in the office. Situation normal for HRLN, sadly enough.) When we were getting ready to leave, I discovered that I had left my wallet at the office, and Nishu, Munmun, and Puneet were gracious enough to have us first drop by the office, and then head off for our evening adventures.

We decided on Mexican cuisine, and Nishu had been to a restaurant called Amigo, which she said had good food. It was a bit of an adventure to find the restaurant as we did not have an address, and none of us (obviously not me) really knew the Delhi streets too well. I can't remember the last time I was in a situation like this where at least someone didn't have an iPhone, but we managed to find the restaurant after talking to a few autowallahs and asking around.

The restaurant was clearly an upscale place, as indicated by the blast of cold air that greeted us upon opening the doors. I think it might have been the first time here in India where I felt the lack of my cardigan which was a daily staple back in the U.S. with hyper air-conditioning in every establishment.

Also to my surprise: Amigo did not just serve Mexican cuisine, but also had Italian, Mediterranean, and a variety of other food. We decided to stick with the food that we came for: Mexican. The waiter served chips and salsa to start. The chips were more like taco shells than tortilla chips, but they were still delicious. I was also expecting the salsa to have a more Indian flavor, but they stuck to what I could only identify as American Mexican. Also surprisingly, it was not too spicy! I thought for sure that like the Indian version of Chinese food, they would throw in a lot of hot peppers, but it was fairly tame.

The menu was standard for a Don Pablo's type restaurant: tacos, enchiladas, nachos, fajitas. There were a few uniquely Indian additions - with paneer, etc. We decided to go with nachos, veg fajitas, and one of the paneer dishes.

All three were quite good, but I have to say, my favorite was definitely the nachos. Guess my tastes don't change, no matter what country I'm in!

I heart pizza.

Including in India! Vijay Uncle and I decided that we needed a change in cuisine, and decided order food from Domino's pizza - which delivers!It was a tough decision, but we decided to order the Veg Extravaganza: black olives, onion, crisp capiscum, mushroom, fresh tomato, golden corn, jalapeno, and extra cheese. We also got an order of garlic breadsticks.

The pizza arrived within the hour, and it was delicious. Not quite as spicy as the menu promised, but good nevertheless. The pizza and breadsticks tasted surprisingly similar to when ordered in America - usually American-style items here still have a distinctly Indian flavor, but not so much here.

YUMMMMMMM

Weekend Getaway!

This weekend I went to Rohtak, my mom's hometown. I traveled down from Delhi after work, with a friend of my uncle's (who is also a Supreme Court advocate up here in Delhi). The distance between the two cities is less than 50 miles, but took about three hours on Friday night, due to a combination of traffic and bad roads.I basically spent most of the weekend eating sweets (my uncle owns a mithai shop, basically snacks and desserts), shopping for earrings with my cousin Rupal, riding around on her Scootie, and hanging out with various family members.

This weekend commenced the Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. Many of the neighborhoods in Rohtak had pitched in together and made mini-mandirs in their roadways, with a large Ganeshji murti. Later, at the end of the festival, the murti would be taken to a nearby river and immersed in water (along with various accompanying rituals).

Colorful lights were hung over the entryways to the mandirs. The Ganeshji murti was, of course, the center of the display.

Loved these light displays - you can't tell from the picture, but the blue rings were actually spiraling around Ganesh, and he was changing colors.
Of course, peacocks are obligatory :)
A close up of the murti.
OH and I forgot one of the best parts of the weekend: BOLLYWOOD MOVIE!! Yes, three weeks into my trip, I finally got around to seeing a film in the theater. Seeing a movie in Indian movies theaters is such an experience - people cheer when the hero comes on the screen, whistle when the heroine enters, cheer and sing along with the songs... it's one big party. We saw Dabangg, the latest Salman Khan movie. It was (unsurprisingly) absurd and over the top, but generally good fun. The entire country is crazy for one of the songs, which is pretty catchy, I have to say.



There's a new Ranbir Kapoor movie coming out in a few weeks that I have my eye on - can't wait!

Indian Courts are like everything else in India...

Crowded, a little insane, but somehow productive. In the last week or so, I've been to the Delhi High Court (roughly equivalent to U.S. Appellate/Circuit courts), and the Indian Supreme Court. A random set of impressions, many of which I'm sure I will expand upon in the future:

The courts here have a fairly strict dress code of black and white - all advocates must wear black and white, with a black blazer, and a white neck band. However, because of varying dress of people in India (particularly women), the white and black can take the form of white shirt with black pants, black and white salwar kameez, black and white sari, white kameez on top of black pants, etc. The weight of tradition is really felt when you see a women in a sari with a black blazer and white neck band on top. In the Supreme Court, all of the above is required, along with a black robe (similar to what judges in the U.S. wear). I've taken to wearing the traditional black and white, if only so people will think I'm an advocate and I can get away with going places more so than if I was otherwise dressed.

There's quite a bit of hustle and bustle in both courts, as there are dozens of courtrooms, and on any given day, there are dozens of matters listed. There are no set case hearing times, and if you're in Court No. 3, Item No. 7, it could be heard at 10:45am, or 2pm, depending on how long the previous matters take. The judges try to efficiently deal with cases by allowing for "passover" (if the advocates have to be elsewhere, or the advocates/judges know there will be extensive oral argument), and moving quickly through the remaining cases. Judges will often dictate their judgments from the bench, while court is in session (which slows things down, but has the nice advantage of instant gratification to know the ruling). There are no time limits when it comes to oral argument - if you're a persuasive advocate, the judge will listen as long as you will speak. Conversely, if the judge has made up his mind, there's nothing you can say to make them listen longer. The judges are addressed as "Your Lordships."

There's almost no transition time - the advocates are waiting on the sidelines to take up the prime positions as soon as their matter is called. In fact, it's nearly impossible to hear the opening words of any case argument, because of the sounds of shifting paper and people as the old matter is cleared and the next one takes center stage. Each courtroom (panel of two judges, typically) will hear upwards of 50 cases a day - ranging from deciding whether to take a petition, deciding on an interim order of relief, and hearing the final argument of the case.

There is also an interesting quirk of the use of law clerks for various legal offices. As far as I can tell, they're a mix of paralegal and administrative assistant, handling all case files for a given office, and will also do the transport from office to courtroom. This makes it a little difficult when you have a case if the court clerks are elsewhere in the building, and you need your case file in another courtroom - hence a lot of running back and forth.

There is also quite a bit of security. All non-advocates need visitor's passes for the High Court, and it is specified down to the exact court room and matter number at the Supreme Court. No cellphones/electronics are allowed, and at the Supreme Court, no bags or anything except papers/files are allowed in the courtrooms. There are guards at the front of every Supreme Court room, and every visitor gets a pat-down before being let into the courtroom.

I could go on and on with observations, but I'll stop there. And write more upon more visits, I'm sure.

Globalization for realz

On a lighter note: something I saw from my auto one afternoon which cracked me up.


Pizza delivery! India has truly arrived.

"Honor" Killings

Yesterday HRLN hosted an Indian People's Tribunal about "honor" killings. Honor killings are where

the murder of a family or clan member by one or more fellow (mostly male) family members, in which the perpetrators (and potentially the wider community) believe the victim to have brought dishonor upon the family, clan, or community. [link]

The tribunal was set up so that victims from various neighboring states in India came and told their stories, and a number of NGOs focused on this particular issue also came to speak about their efforts to provide support for victims, as well as attempts to provide awareness about the issue. Victims meaning those who were lucky enough to run away from their village, or get some police security - we heard many stories from relatives and advocates who spoke on behalf of those who were not so fortunate, and were murdered.

One of the speakers was Ravi Kant, an advocate from the organization Shakti Vahini. He presented a few statistics on honor killings. The tribunal (and his presentation) was focused on honor killings in cases of marriage - marriage which the family did not agree with, for a number of reasons. The highest reason for honor killings (according to the information presented by Ravi Kant) was intercaste marriage. Most shocking to me, however, was the number of honor killings done simply because the couple had found each other, rather than arranged through families. These were cases where there wasn't a caste issue, or difference in religion - but just because the couple had committed a "love marriage."

One of the stories presented has been quite big in the news in India (which has led to a lot of public discussion about these so-called honor killings): Manoj and Babli. Manoj's sister told the story, as both Manoj and Babli were murdered by Babli's family three years ago. Manoj and Babli were what the local caste council had determined to be the same gotra:

gotra denotes all persons who trace descent in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor. . . . In almost all Hindu families, marriage within the same gotra is prohibited, since people with same gotra are considered to be siblings. [link]

Manoj and Babli got married and were living away from the village for their safety, as Babli's family was adamantly opposed to the marriage. But Babli's family went and lodged a fake kidnapping report with the police - claiming that Manoj had kidnapped Babli. There was a warrant put out for Manoj, and the police repeatedly harassed their family despite the protests of Manoj's family, that it was a fake report. Finally Manoj and Babli went to the local court, so that Babli could testify that she had left of her own volition, and she wanted to be with Manoj, and that they were married. The court ordered police protection until they could get back to their home away from their village. But instead, the police simply dropped Manoj and Babli at a bus stand, from which Babli's family members picked them up, took them to a field, and murdered them.

The stories were all similar to this - cases where the police had failed to provide protections, where the local courts would provide no assistance, cases where the local village councils often sided against the couples, all but endorsing violence against the couple. It was hard to listen to the stories - many were speaking about their own mothers and brothers who had committed violence against them, which is unimaginable to me.

The one highlight that came out of the day was from the various advocates and social activists who were there representing different NGOs who are focusing on this issue. Providing their own security to couples, helping them get legal papers for their marriage, and simple support to those in need - all the representatives were earnest and eager to speak about further collaboration and future directions for advocacy.

The Universal Sign of Lawyers

Oh tabs. How did I not realize that Indian lawyers would love you so much? Almost made me feel at home.

First day of work today! It was remarkably similar to the DOJ: I showed up, and no one quite knew what to do with me, even though they had told me when and where to be. But also like the DOJ, by the end of the day, I met some awesome attorneys, and got started on exciting work! (Wow cheese.)

My attorney supervisor, Jayshree, is very enthusiastic, and seems very committed to giving me a complete experience. By the end of the day I had already shifted from the intern area (in the basement), to a quasi-desk by hers so she could pull me in to whatever was going on for her. As she put it, if I was in the basement, "I'll just forget about you." Got to love the honesty.

I'm working on a case involving witch hunting, in Northeast India:

Cases of witch-hunting occur largely in rural areas of half a dozen states, primarily in the northern and central parts of India. About 700 women were killed last year under suspicion of being a witch, according to news media reports. . . .

Labeling a woman as a witch is a common ploy to grab land, settle scores or even to punish her for turning down sexual advances. Cases have also come up where a strong-willed woman is targeted because she is assertive and is seen as a threat. In a majority of the cases, it is difficult for the accused woman to reach out for help and she is forced to either abandon her home and family, commit suicide or is brutally murdered. [link]

I'm doing legal research (per usual), and hopefully will get a chance to draft part of a Supreme Court petition to hear the case, involving the lack of enforcement for a state law regarding witch hunting.

Should be more good times tomorrow!