Hyderabad wandering, peer pressure from 20 women, and making $0.20 a day

Above picture: Fun game: Try to find Andrew

I took the night train to Hyderabad last week and was there for about five days. I spent my days while there travelling around to different villages pre-testing my survey on very poor women who run their own businesses.

It was the second such trip that I have taken since being here in India. Each trip has blown my mind on what such small-scale the extreme poor work at. They have the same entreprenuerial spirit and determination that any other businessperson has, just not the same resources.

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After their group interview, the women in the above picture tried to get me drunk. No joke.

They brought out a bottle of their favorite homemade village concoction, "toddy" juice, and promptly urged me to partake. I had previously heard how people foreign to the "toddy" juice get violently ill, fast. So, I tried to politely say "no, thank you".

They didn't understand. They kept getting more and more urgent about me drinking the stuff. They got so excited about me drinking their "toddy" that my hosts, TBF's Hyderabad staff, had to intermediate.

Even after the intermediation the women kept going strong. So, I decided to quell their chanting with a small sip.

This made them very happy.

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One of my stops brought me to a semi-urban village where I came across some women who made Rs 9 a day. That is the equivalent to roughly $o.20 a day. And, these women had normal day-to-day jobs making yarn for saree weaving.

Lesson of the day: Beware of the "toddy" juice. Cute name, ferocious bite.