BBC Pop Up India

Now on BBC News.

BBC Pop Up India brings you a series of short films

from across the subcontinent.

Do I ride in on an elephant or a horse?

Did you say you are going to

wear a wedding dress or a saari?

An Indian dress.

So not a saari?

A saari isn't necessarily an

Indian dress.

By the way I'm recording this.

This isn't the most professional lighting setup but I'm

getting married this year, my fiance

is from Varanasi, India's most holy city and

the closer we get to the wedding the

more we are talking about culture.

In the past few years we have

struggled to explain the term boyfriend to Indians, and explain

vegetarian cooking to my Italian-American family.

But we are not unique.

Roughly 30% of Asian Americans in the US, like my future

wife, now marry someone of a different race.

Here are some more facts about one out of every 100

people in the US is Indian-America and many were born overseas.

In fact, about 90%

of Indian-American adults.

As the richest ethnic group in the US they certainly pull their

weight economically.

This is all to say, as a future husband, and really

as an American, this may not be a bad time

to learn a bit

more about India.

This is BBC Pop Up.

We journey from country to country, turning your story ideas into short,

beautiful films.

In the past year we have been across Canada,

the US and Kenya.

And up next is India.

We film stories suggested by our audience.

What stories do Indians right here in sunny Los Angeles want us to film

once we arrive?

The most important topic is

the current education system.

They are trying to improve the education system in India.

Social and economic progress.

All the political parties playing their game

to get everybody together to work together.

Cricket.

Cricket?

Yeah.

Of everything that's happening in India

you think it's cricket?

Not only India, everywhere.

The infrastructure is the worst of their road conditions.

If you go to Bombay from the airport it takes more than one and a half

hours, even though it is six miles.

BBC Pop Up has landed a India.

I flew in from Los Angeles and another video journalist has flown

in from South Africa.

After a really small bout of Dehli-belly - please

do not ask what that is, we're here in the Delhi

bureau to meet some of

the other team members.

She is going to take you around the beauru.

This is where BBC Hindi and Urdu team is based.

They basically are busy churning out online and radio

reports for the day.

That is Captain Cool, Aisha.

I'm cleaning my desk.

As far as our country is concerned the hot topics these days include

the debate over nationalism, the fight of a woman's

right to enter a

temple, and of course the ongoing assembly elections in different

states of India.

Pop Up is the company's crowd-sourcing unit.

You send us your ideas and we film them.

Today were off to an apartment block in the suburbs and to one of the

local colleges.

My idea to show India in a positive light.

One idea would be to come up with women

entrepreneurs.

The prevalence of child abuse in Indian households, it is

really serious issue.

Last year in Calcutta there was this one incident

where it was a transgender person.

This was the first time that something of the sort happened.

This has taken ground very strongly in the

last five years.

The rise of this place as a colonial town and its role as a dominant

hill station in India.

Girls learn self defence to be able to protect themselves.

We're back at the office and that has been an

exhausting day but we are excited by all those brilliant ideas.

So one of the stories BBC Pop Up was asked to

do was to tell the story of Africans living in India and some of the

experiences they may have.

We thought this would be a very interesting

story, and instead of just filming it we went one

better, and the man who

suggested it is going to help us to make it.

India is very exciting.

Every day I go out and see something new.

There are lots of Africans now

in India studying and there is a lot of racism.

Recently there have been a lot of news stories about Africans

being attacked, molested, beaten up.

When I hear these stories it makes me feel so bad about it.

How are you doing, you guys?

How are you?

What are your experiences of Indians?

Actually, there is not good chemistry

between Africans and Indians.

We don't normally associate with Indians.

Normal Indians, they don't trust us, or some of them

don't trust us.

So it is very common in India, Indians think all the black

women are prostitutes.

When they see you they ask how much, like how much

do you want me to stay with him?

They ask this kind of question.

We all have similar experience of the the local people toward us.

Not all, some are very good and very open-minded.

Some of the stories your friends told us were quite

disturbing and that largely happens because Indians don't know their own

history, that Africans played such a big role

in India between the 14th and

17th century.

Today a big African community lives in the state

of Gujarat.

It would be really good for you to come along and meet

them, what do you think?

Yeah, this would be good.

Lets go and meet them.

After a long drive we are about to meet this community.

I am so excited, so pleased to see some Africans here in India,

in this part of India.

I really want to meet with them and

interact with them more.

Hello.

How are you?

Fine.

THEY SING

I feel like I'm in Africa.

It feels like I'm an African city.

If they go beyond the outer the city and villages in other parts of India

they are also stopped and frequently asked,

"Are you from West Indies, are

"you from Africa?"

Exactly the same kind of question you face.

These kinds of things,

how do you solve them?

We also face them but how do you tackle them?

Do you ever have the feeling like you want to go back

to Africa or do you still want to be in India?

He says he is like any Indian, why would he want to leave

this place?

When I came it was like I was emotionally charged and I

almost wanted to cry when I saw all of the black

Africans coming out

to greet me this afternoon.

Coming here today really has changed my

perception of India.

It has created a bond, a mindset in me now that

there are people who are ready to receive Africans in India.

Seeing this society has given me hope that

in the near future India will be a less racist society.

This community is a symbol that

Africans are also Indians.

One of the first things I noticed after landing in Delhi was

the traffic.

It's loud, smelly and been here for a long time.

It is the types of cars on

the road that are changing.

Uber servies are becoming quite popular.

Those cars cannot be my automated rickshaw

which some of you call tuk tuks.

Let's do a thing, let's have a little race.

We're in central Delhi

and we will go to a place which is a mess of roads.

You get into an Uber, I'll take a tuk tuk and we

will see who gets there first.

We're off to a good start, going twice as

fast as the tuk tuk on the road, but now we've hit traffic

and the tuk tuk weaving in and out of the buses and

motorcycles and we are just sort of sitting here.

As you can see there's plenty of traffic, cars and buses.

Let's see what happens ahead.

Traffic during rush hour in Delhi is like hell.

The traffic is noisy, Delhi traffic is a little polluting.

You just have to shut your nose and mouth whenever there is cars.

You carry a handkerchief in your pocket

to cover your mouth?

It can run you out of patience.

People are angry on the streets and the local people get

into fights.

India represents an easy way of comuting.

What it

means that you step out of the house, pop into a tuk

tuk and tell the person what you want to go.

There are old the drivers that can take you just about

anywhere you want.

They know it very well because they have been doing it

for years.

What makes them so relevant and Delhi?

Because they are everywhere.

Where are you?

We have taken a turn into a bylane which

the tuk tuk driver pays for a much faster rate.

There is unbelievable traffic.

These are inexperienced drivers so they do not

know, do not have the map in their minds.

I think it is next to impossible to actually figure out

all the small alleys and roads that are probably not even on the map.

I have the app but I don't use it as regularly as I would use it a

tuk tuk because there's a lot of tapping and waiting.

I am not patient enough most of the time, I just go

to the streeet and get a tuk tuk.

You have to book a cab and the cab will then you have to

sit in the cab, it might just take a little longer.

It's the closing of the door that just takes so long.

We have arrived at our destination, beating Uber by quite a margin.

Are you at the shop?

I am.

I have a feeling you were just a minute or

two behind me.

He doesn't know the exact location.

What is happening right now is my driver is now

talking to locals about where this candy shop is.

I think, like many other people said, this is the

problem of car services and using GPS and it is not exact in a place

like Delhi.

You win, congratulations.

I win!

Unfair.

I don't know how but it is unfair.

So we didn't jump on the car right away, tell me what is going on.

and the Uber driver are

having a conversation.

The tuk tuk driver is insisting and telling the

Uber driver he cannot jump the red signals

and he must follow all traffic.

The tuk tuk driver is quite into it and that he wants to win.

BBC Pop Up went to Rajasthan, an area of

India popular with tourists.

We have been asked to film a specific temple were

hardly anybody goes.

Because it is cursed.

We were dared to come here because locals

believe if you stay here

after sunset you will turn a into stone, so I accepted the challenge

for both of us.

Thanks, mate.

Probably about 20 minutes until it is dark.

I think you're nervous.

Come on, man.

Switch on the light.

As you can see we haven't turned into stone.

Thankfully.

BIRD CALL

What's happening?

That was a bit worrying.

I'm a BBC journalist and I live in California.

I'm a BBC journalist

and I live in Delhi.

It's dry in my state.

It's dry in many states in India.

It's the driest it's been in California in 165 years

of recorded history.

India have seen more than 40 severe droughts and the last 200

years alone.

In Los Angeles, if I go out to eat with my friends I have

to request a glass of water, I'm not automatically served it.

Those in central India have to walk for

miles to get the glass of water.

This month we travelled across a lot of India to cover a variety of

stories, ranging from drought in central India

to dying tattoo art in

a north-east.

Many online asked us to portray India as a tech-savvy

nation with a large business sector, and while this is true, there are

infrastructure and cultural issues that

beg to be addressed, as the

result of that change.

So that is the end of BBC Pop Up India for

now, I suspect we will be back soon.

In the meantime I better head back to California, I have

a wedding to plan.

And let us know where you want us go next, via #Popup.

And let us know where you want us go next, via #Popup.