My bean to Cup Journey
I finally landed in Chikumagalur with a lot of jitters and excitement. I waited for my host to pick me up and we headed straight home to this beautiful old house with a thinnai and one floor. I was greeted by their dog who was a beautiful black Labrador who was so anxious to meet/ smell and confirm I wasn't a threat!
It was the first time in years, I was in such a picturesque city for work. After making a work plan for the next 2 consecutive days, I was ready to walk around Chikumagalur. It is a really small rural town that had exactly one cafe and many small hotels in the neighborhood. It was when the world didn’t know what corona was and streets were okay to be crowded! I walked around and was still so excited to be in this town. Unlike big cities, being an adult with a vagina meant following a curfew in this place. My hosts would get worried if it was already 8 PM and were constantly making sure I didn't get lost or disappear in this new place.
The next morning, with all of my powerful weapons : my phone, my laptop, my notebook, I was ready to take down my interviewees with the all the questions. I got ready first thing in the morning and I was dropped off at the estate which was closer to this beautiful lake and little uphill. It was my first encounter of a coffee estate. There was nothing more than this excitement I wanted to experience on my first day of fieldwork. Having anticipated all the questions and my follow ups, I approached my first interviewees house which was all kinds of beautiful.
Minutes into the first interview, I was already out of questions to ask because all I got was one word answers. I had never done a qualitative research interview before nor did I know how I had to navigate because all of my questions were quite sensitive. I couldn't even push for answers because it would be unethical and there was hardly any cell signal for me to panic dial my supervisor. I thought this was the disaster I never prepared myself for and simply wanted to save face by giving up.
It was hardly ten mins and I was already exhausting my interview guide. I accepted to myself however disastrous this was going to be, I need to still listen carefully. Half way into the interview, I decided to stop focusing on just being so transactional and start having a conversation. That’s when I found the first spark towards actually falling in love with this process.
I took a break after my first interview, and went to talk to the trees. I told the coffee saplings, I didn’t want to be a joke. I prayed to them asking for mercy and some compassion. My second interviewee was expected to come to the same place as my first as they were friends. After a luxurious free meal, I was ready to start round 2. My second one was better than the first one for two important reasons 1. I, mindfully engaged in a conversation rather than only focusing on my objective 2. I asked follow up questions that were relevant to the conversations.
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This connection allowed to gain an ounce of trust from my interviewee and she slowly shared personal instances that were relevant to this research. There was another thing I would feel really scared about which was asking if the interviewees were okay being recorded. This was also extremely useful because then I need not focus a lot on just note taking and be present with them in the moment.
Having scored quite a few free meals, coffees and the chance to talk to so many different coffee bushes, it was the start of something big. Every time I think I couldn't find a more interesting story, there would be more. The most interesting lot of the one was Wageningen came to Sakhleshpur. It had been almost two weeks and I was missing my friends in the Netherlands and the city. That’s when I met someone who was interviewing the women coffee farmers and was from a certification body. Much to my surprise, I realized that this meeting I was invited to observe was conducted by an alumni of Wageningen.
She distributed Stroop waffles to everyone and chuckling to myself I thanked the Universe for bestowing upon me the Dutch warmth practically in the middle of no where. I was so fascinated how these timelines matched and how lucky I was to meet someone who was the global Gender theme leader for this certification Body.
In between interviews and some sight seeing, Chikumagalur was growing on me. Although I felt so lonely and needed some company! So, what did I do?
I went to meet someone in Bangalore and she was someone I had never met in the past! I got on a bus and rode to Bangalore to meet this acquaintance who due to an emergency left me her keys and went off to Chennai!
Well, like I told you, Life finds a way!
And much like the coffee, I was also roasted, dried and ready to surprise this world throughout this time!
How did I spend a whole week alone in Bangalore? Was it useful time spent away from my research?
Stay tuned for the next episode!
