Jet Set

Bhuj, Gujarat

The majority of my fair trade research is to take place outside of Bombay, and thus I embarked for my first destination - Bhuj, Gujarat. In order to save myself from enduring a 17 hour train ride, I decided to take an hour and twenty minute domestic flight from Bombay to Bhuj. Well, that was the plan at least.

Overall my first domestic flight experience in India was pretty smooth. The service was good, with the exception of a little incident I had with the stewardess. I am carrying my passport and a fair amount of cash with me, so when I was told to place my ‘purse-size bag’ with these precious items in the overhead bin, I refused. Apparently there are no bags, despite their size, allowed with a passenger when seated in the emergency exit row. Forget about the fact that there are 10 pounds of magazines loaded in the seat pocket in front of me, but my tiny bag was not permitted to remain by my side. To avoid a huge scene, I proceeded to take out all my valuables from my bag and placed them in my lap – which was allowed because they were not in a bag. OK. Then I was asked if I need a brief on the safety precautions and procedures of sitting in the emergency exit row. I responded, “Yes, please.” Aside from the airline employees enforcing rules which they can’t explain, the service was excellent and the food was not so bad either.

Take-off was amazing. I have never seen Bombay by air during the day. I’ve been told that due to unions in Europe, all airlines coming from Europe arrive in India in the early morning. By air, the city is not quite as intimidating as on the ground. Perhaps it is because while the city is massive, it is largely flat – only more recently built buildings are over 4-5 stories high (b/c buildings up to 5 stories do not require elevator installation). From the sky, the large slum areas seem to tile the city.

I was flying on Jet Airways, which is a mid-price airline and prolly one of the most professional airlines as well. Aka. They don’t have a reputation for canceling flights at the last minute. The flight was pleasant. I made friends with the retail bank manager sitting next to me and an offshore vessel inspector from Singapore. Right when I thought that all the small talk was over, approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes into the flight, the pilot announced that due to technical difficulties we were going to return to the Mumbai airport. It was a bit scary b/c technical difficulties could mean many things yet the pilot ensured it was not a safety concern. Humf. So, though we were minutes away from Bhuj, we were going to turn around and head back to Mumbai – at least it was not a fuel issue :*) There is only one airline and one flight that flies to Bhuj. So I didn’t really have the option to take another flight. Maybe we had to return to Bombay b/c there is no commercial airport in Bhuj (Jet Airways has struck an agreement with the Indian Air Force to use their base). Once we landed in Mumbai it took about an hour for the airlines to decide that we would board another flight. In all, it took me five hours to reach Bhuj from Mumbai, which still beat sitting on a train.

Flying into Bhuj reminded me of home. When flying into Midland you can see that the outskirts of the city is dissected into endless square units with a lone horsehead pumping away within each square. Similarly, flying into Bhuj, the outskirts of the city is dissected into endless square units of tan brown and dry farmland manned by a lone tree within each square. For every 10-15 farm plots, would be a cluster of shaks. Motionless river beds were outlined in salt, though most were dry and awaiting the advent of the monsoons.

Many people are familiar with Bhuj b/c of the devastation and therefore international attention/relief the city and surrounding areas received as victims of a major earthquake (~7.0) in 2001. Bhuj is located in an area known as Kutch Gujarat, which is a dessert land that shares a border with Pakistan. The area is home to the ancient Indus Valley civilization also known as the Harrapa Civilization. While most of the major excavation sites are in Pakistan, the only major one in India is in Kutch. Most people living here, like in most of India, are farmers. Yet, people say it rains once every three years here. So, the harsh geographic circumstances of this dessert land (droughts) along the coast (cyclones) necessitates the people to be innovative to provide a livelihood and therefore in addition to the extreme dessert heat, this area is also known for its abundance of handicrafts – embroidery, copper bell making, batik, leather work, wood work, etc. And indeed they are beautiful...more to come on this.

I marked my arrival into Bhuj with rain – I felt really lucky. Pradeep, Asha’s social worker, and his wife, Anjana, picked me up from the airport (pictured). Upon leaving the airport, I felt like I had traveled back in time – it seemed like for every human, I could count a cow and dog wandering in the street; one of the first sites I saw was that of two women balancing four pots of water on their heads each; and just as everyone could identify that I was not from Kutch, I could distinctly identify tribe/village people by their elaborate and exotic dresses. Compared to Bombay, the change of scenery and pace were very much welcomed and I was very excited to see what was ahead of me.