|
||
| This week has been dominated by the census. It's a holy month for Muslims so I attended
a Milad at the small mosque on the roadside. Bhalot lost the Al-Kamrani Memorial
Cricket Tournament Final to Fauji Foundation Cement Factory Team. Lastly I ended
the week with a night with friends which has left me a physical wreck for the time
being. I have been a manager in companies in the past. Getting people to do work is not entirely new to me but I have found that getting village students to do the job that I want them to do is testing all my mangerial skills. This is due to several reasons. The questionnaire, I have discovered, is not as straighforward as I thought it was-- in spite of being revised several times to eliminate ambiguity. The Urdu translation I have also discovered had some problems-- which hasn't helped. There have been technical hitches with the diskman used for recording interviews (people erasing each other's interviews or their own-- not out of maliciousness but ignorance). Some interviewers have a knack at being at ease with a recording device in front of them and others are obviously very self conscious-- which means the 'naturalness' of their speech is highly suspect. I had to be sort of a bad guy one day when I had several days in a row with no census forms coming in. The sad thing is that in Pakistan people accept bosses being bastards so my 'bad guy' act is pretty pale compared to what they're used to. It doesn't seem to make them any less eager to work anyway. In spite of all the problems and the headaches associated with this census the data I am getting is very valubale ot me and I will sing the praises of my team till the day I die-- they are trying and their mistakes are as much my fault as theirs (my inability to really explain and my inability to write a fool proof questionnaire). Perhaps the most interesting thing I've learned is what people think I'm doing in the village. Most people seem to think I'm either here for a year long 'picnic' or to learn Urdu. I emailed a friend about this and she very sadistically suggested that I wasn't really doing any work at all-- just having fun for a year. Well, I am having fun for a year but it's hard work all the same. So far one person seems to know more or less what I'm doing here. Since he's a good friend of mine I'd have been disturbed if he hadn't understood what I'm up to. I am waiting to see the responses from the Maliks-- since those are the people who I have explained in most detail why I'm here. This month is the birth month of the Holy Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him) so there have been several dheks and other celebrations. On the night of the 20th a maulana from Khanpur came to the small mosque on the roadside to deliver a sermon of sorts. I was asked to videotape this event and so duly showed up with my video camera. I was then informed that I mustn't videotape a maulana while he is preaching. There was then some confusion as one of the Imams told me I must tape the whole thing. In the end I videotaped a part of the function but not all of it-- thus satisfying no one. This is the reason I am glad I have not chosen to focus on religion for my thesis. As a background topic I find it fascinating but it is just too full of potential opportunities to offend people at a very profound level. I don't know that I offended anyone at this milad-- the Maulana certainly had no objection since he smiled at me throughout the event and I was sitting about 3 metres from him with the video camera pointed straight him. I am now uncertain if I should ever use this video publicly. I suspect I will leave this footage in a drawer for the time being. Fortunately for me people in this area seem to be infinitely tolerant of my blunders and understand that I am not a Muslim so depend on them to tell me what's acceptable or not (the problem being of course that what's acceptable is not always consistent from one person to the next). I suspect I will never again accept the honour of being the Chief Guest of Honour at a Pakistnai sporting event. It's too expensive. Chief Guests of Honour don't have to give money but everyone expects them to-- and although I had offered a figure somehow that figure got elevated-- it then got reduced again but I somehow still ended up paying more. No matter-- the match was fun and the tournament has been fun. I've learned a lot about cricket and it's inspired me to play more often. The tournament, for me, was only marred a bit by some of the cheating which I witnessed. I guess I am just too narrow minded for Pakistani village cricket-- I don't understand why anyone would cheat at a game. I do believe that the winners and losers are unimportant but participating and doing your best is what matters. Not everyone was involved in cheating but a few teams abused the trust of the rest and I was disappointed. Over all I did enjoy it however so I don't want to imply that the little cheating that went on outweighed the overall good ambience of the tournament. An long evening with friends has left me exhausted and ill. I got to sleep well after 5 in the morning and then was woken up by my favourite story teller, Baba Saftar, whose age protects him from my foul temper in the early morning. The subsequent electricity cut meant it was too hot for me to sleep comfortably and the stream of visitors that started coming meant sleep wasn't to be had in any event. I am mostly recovered but if I have very many more nights like that I will have terrible headaches and will just have to declare a holiday for myself and put my 'Please Do Not Disturb'sign on my door. People don't like that sign and mostly ignore it but it gives me the excuse to point at it and say that when this is up they mustn't knock. As far as I can tell it has absolutely no effect except to increase the volume of apologies for waking me up. As with most things however I find myself shaking my head and laughing when I think about it later. I think the wiser course of events is just to avoid those friends for a bit. I am debating whether to continue with the census after the 31st of July. Since the demographic data is looking doubtful I will either modify it it greatly to where it is not necessary for the interviews to be limited to one per household or I will scrap it and hire the best interviewers of my team to go out and collect songs and stories with me. It means a lot to my team to be working for me and the money is very important to them so I if possible I'd like to continue to employ them even if it's only a little. However I can't do it as a charity. If they aren't doing something that I really need them to do I can't afford to continue to employ them out of kindness. For the time being however this is occupying an inordinate amount of time. |
||
Return to Home Page |