Mumbai

From Stuttgart to Mumbai – and only four weeks until the return journey: Editorial journalist Anja Wasserbäch is taking part in the Goethe-Institut’s Close-Up journalists’ exchange. During her stay in the Indian city, she is working at the newspaper with the world’s highest circulation, the Times of India. By Andrea Jenewein

Ms Wasserbäch, what does a person take on a four-week journey to India, or Mumbai in particular?

Anja Wasserbäch: I packed presents for my hosts, clothes – mainly light things – and a first-aid kit. And, of course, my laptop, diverse charging cables, batteries, my camera. Everything needed for work.

How is the weather right now in India?

About 40 degrees during the day.

What did you have to do before your departure? Did you need vaccinations? Were there any problems acquiring a visa?

I spent a lot of time at my general practitioner’s and on hold on the telephone. For the visa, I needed official invitations from the Times of India and from the Goethe Institut. But then I received my journalist visa without any problems.

Have you ever been to Asia before?

No, never.

For the Goethe-Institut’s journalist exchange programme Close-Up, you were selected to swap your workplace at the Stuttgarter Nachrichten for one month for a desk at the Times of India. What a radical change of scenery...

It will certainly be that. India is a country in transition. But, how are the people affected? What are the lives of young women like in Mumbai? What rules can be found in an apparently disorganized city? My aim is to broaden my horizons, to get to know people who are confronted with entirely different problems than myself. Or perhaps they are the same? Stuttgart and Mumbai have been sister cities for over forty years, and yet we don’t know much about the people there.

You will certainly not just sit at a desk in Mumbai. Mumbai is huge. How will you even begin to explore it?

I will have the support of my exchange partner Sukhada Tatke, my co-workers at the Times of India and the staff members at the Goethe-Institut. That will surely make it easier for me.

I’m sure you’ve done some research on Mumbai. But, looking back at the time when Mumbai was nothing to you but a pretty-sounding name, what associations did you have when you heard the word?

My first thought was of the colourful, cheesy Bollywood films with their lovely songs.

What information about Mumbai surprised you?

More billionaires live in Mumbai than in Manhattan, while at the same time over 60 percent live under the poverty level. The division between poor and rich couldn’t be bigger.

During the attacks in Mumbai on 26 November 2008, there were explosions in the Indian city, attacks with automatic weapons and hostages were taken. According to the Indian authorities at least 239 people were injured and 174 killed. Do you feel safe in spite of this?

That’s difficult. Who feels safe? Who feels unsafe? We all still travel to New York.

What are you most looking forward to personally – besides the work?

To the experience. To finding out how it feels to be different and when this feeling might fade. The Close-Up project is a challenge both as a journalist and personally.

What topics would you like to pursue as a journalist? What is most exciting to you?

As simple as it sounds: the lives of the people in Mumbai. My list of topics is so long that four weeks are too short.

Where can we read your reports?

In the Stuttgarter Nachrichten of course, in the Times of India and online at www.goethe.de/nahaufnahme. I will also be blogging for this website and for that of the Stuttgarter Nachrichten.

The Times of India has the world’s highest circulation. Is that challenging?

Of course. The Times of India has almost four million readers. With more than 12.2 million visitors per month, their website is one of the world’s most read. Print media have high status in India. The number of newspapers and magazines that are published alone make the German publishing landscape seem tiny. I am simply curious to find out how journalism works in India. And what role the internet plays.

You are going to India and in return a colleague, Sukhada Tatke, is coming from Mumbai to Stuttgart in May. Do you know what kind of conceptions she has about Germany?

Sukhada Tatke is looking forward to Germany and wants to learn as much as she can about the culture and history. She’s heard of Stuttgart. She’s familiar with Daimler and with the protests against Stuttgart 21.

For which of you will the culture shock be bigger?

I think it will be very big for both of us.