The Nomad - Deloitte Employees' Social Page
With Alexander Annaev

In this month’s edition of the Nomad, we talk to Alexander Annaev, who has worked in Consulting for two years. Alexander used both paid and unpaid vacation totaling 3 months to volunteer for the Conservation Action Trust (CAT), a non-profit environmental organization based in Mumbai, India. He had several reasons for undertaking such an endeavor:

“As an ERS consultant focused on Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability services, I wanted to gain some environmental expertise, as well as try living in one of most vibrant cities in the world, where the famous ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ was shot.”

Being the first time Alexander had visited India, his first moments in Mumbai were quite a culture shock, as he was surrounded by “shabby buildings, narrow streets, heavy rickshaw traffic, and crowds in ethnic clothing.” However, within a couple of days he had become accustomed to the pace of the city.

While in the Mumbai, Alexander stayed in a 4-room flat on the top floor of a modern building in Versova, the district where most Bollywood stars live. He had a Bollywood starlet for a neighbor, and lived with 10 flat mates, who were also working as volunteers, and hailed from places as different as the US, UK, Germany, China, Bulgaria, and Tanzania. The entire group worked for different charitable organizations in Mumbai and often went out and traveled together.

Alexander was kept extremely busy during his trip and, as part of his work for the CAT, he helped to organize various activities, such as writing a script for the “Indian Story of Stuff”, a local version of a famous documentary about consumerism. He also had the chance to use his business skills in preparing a marketing plan for the Mangrove Wetland Center, drafting the organization’s pilot annual report, and facilitating two sessions on eco-tourism, as part of capacity building workshops for village fishermen. He also got to see some of the wilder areas almost every day when he ventured out of the city to carry out environmental monitoring in the mangrove swamps around Mumbai.

Mumbai’s unimaginably crowded local trains, for which the city is famous, will live long in Alexander’s memories. With 10 passengers per square meter, and 7% of passengers actually traveling on the outside of the train carriages, it proved to be quite an experience. Unfortunately, given these hectic conditions, it is somewhat unsurprising that 10 people die every day on the city’s train tracks.

“I spent about 3-4 hours every day in this kind of transport. Getting on and off was definitely a challenge! I felt proud when I could jump off a train while it was still moving, so as not to have to confront the inevitable mad crowd ready to leap on board when the train stopped.”

Another feature of the city is its extensive slums, where 55% ofMumbaikars (the local term for citizens of Mumbai) live. Alexander visited these areas to learn about local businesses and lifestyles, discovering in the process that there is more to the slums than meets the eye.

“The slums actually perform a useful function for Mumbai, as the locals sort out and recycle waste produced by the city’s wealthy classes. But they pay an unacceptably high price in terms of health for carrying out this work, and it often costs them their lives. The unhygienic conditions are truly terrifying. While on the train, I saw many men using the area in front of the railways as a toilet, as only one person per 1,000 slum dwellers has access to genuine toilet facilities."

In spite of the slums, Alexander noted that Mumbai is considered the glamour capital of India, with its colonial architecture and Bollywood movie sets. While it could seem a daunting place, even for Muscovites, Alexander did not hesitate to recommend the city as a destination for the more thoughtful tourists among us, adding that:

“It just depends on what you are looking for. Like Moscow, it has posh hotels, restaurants, and boutiques. But I prefer the other side of it. I enjoyed staying in India so much so that I almost felt like an Indian myself by the end of my time there.

“It is an up and coming country of abundant business opportunities, with friendly people, a magnificent culture, and amazing natural wonder. If the experience has taught me anything, it is to be more flexible, open-minded, sensitive, friendly, and proactive in my life.”

Published Date : 2 October 2009