Almost Didn't Make It Home

After just one day on Ko Tao, Michelle and I thought about canceling our flights and staying there for the next several months. I mean take a look at the picture above, this was taken while sitting at the cafe just across from my room.  I woke up, relaxed, and fell asleep to this view, listening to the waves.

Pier to the Catamaran - the wood was a

little damp from the humidity in the air

Getting to Ko Tao was a bit of a trip.  We took the overnight train from Bangkok to Chumphon then a ferry to Ko Tao.  The train was definitely an experience.  It is a nine hour train ride on a 2nd class sleeper with fan.  It didn't get as hot as I expected, but the A/C car on the way back was much better.  Unlike the trains in Europe, there aren't individual rooms.  Each car is a single room, the beds are along each side of the car.  Before the beds are pulled down for the night, the lower bed are two chairs facing each other and the upper bed is pinned against the side. For your luggage this means either sleeping with it on your bed (not much room for a person and a large backpack) or locking it to the shelves in the middle aisle.

Once we arrived in Chumphon we then got on an almost two hour catamaran ride to Mae Haad pier on Ko Tao.  Upon arriving on Ko Tao we were picked up by a taxi from our resort and brought to the dive shop to immediately get down to planning our dives.


That's right, I am officially SCUBA certified.  It is incredible!  I took an elearning course through PADI so I wouldn't have to sit in a classroom on the island and could get right in the water.  The first day there I went out on the boat while Michelle did two dives.  I was so jealous of everyone on the boat diving while I just sat on top, but it was gorgeous on the water.  The water is as blue as any picture you've seen, clear down to 30 meters some days, and looking back at the island it is amazing.  It's not what I think of as a typical flat reef island because not too far from the beaches it goes up to about 1000 feet in the center of the island.  This is what gave Ko Tao it's name - Turtle Island, the "mountains" appear like the back of a turtle and the shape of the island loosely resembles a turtle.

Thankfully on day two on the island I got in the water.  Over the next three days I went on six open water dives in the Gulf of Thailand.  Even on my last day on the island I was considering postponing my train and flight so I could get a few more dives in because it was so amazing - also I am now three dives short of my Advanced Open Water.  However, I did make sure to get my Deep Dive certification, diving up to 30 meters/100 feet.  Since that is generally the limit for recreational diving I wanted to make sure I didn't limit myself to certain dive sites because of depth (Open Water only allows you to dive to 18 meters/60 feet).  My instructor Lee kept telling me that the first 10 meters are the toughest to equalize your ears, then after that it's easier.  I didn't believe him until I went on the deep dive, but it's true.  I didn't have any more difficulty equalizing at 25 meters on my deep dive then I did at 12 meters on my first dive.  Pressure is weird.

It is a odd combination of feelings of freedom and claustrophobia when diving.  There is so much open space around you in the water, at the same time you feel contained by the regulator you're breathing through. Once I got over the awkwardness of the regulator, I could finally starting looking at all the marine life around me.  The number one rule of scuba diving is never hold your breath, but looking at all the different fish and coral around me, it is hard to remember that.  I was amazed at how many fish were still there despite how much diving is done.  Below are images of some of the marine life I saw on my dives, I wish I had my own underwater camera (although these are probably better than anything I could take).  They are from my dive shop, Simple Life Divers, and BottomCamera.com.  I definitely had the diving bug now,  I am trying to figure out when I can get to Catalina or somewhere else to dive again.

Sea Urchin - Lee, my instructor, put one in my hand

on my first dive

Christmas Tree worms on hard coral - when you snap

at them they close up

Bannerfish

Blue Spotted Stingray

Hawksbill Turtle

Porcupine Fish

Western World in the East

After over four months in India I am on my way back to Los Angeles (for few months at least). On the way back I decided to join my friend Michelle for the second half of her two week trip to Thailand. I spent two days in Delhi - which really turned out to be two days in the office in Gurgaon a suburb of Delhi since I was still working the night shift. Then on June 2, I took an afternoon flight to Bangkok.

View from the top of the Golden Mountain

In a shopping mall in Bangkok. Really?

It was kind of surreal arriving in Bangkok. I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel to meet Michelle and Elisia (was leaving two days later, today). That ride was the most "western" civilization I have seen since arriving in India. I'm sure there are parts of the big cities in India that have these places, but the high rises, fluorescent lights, traffic sort of following rules (they at least stopped at most of the stop lights and didn't make up too many unmarked lanes), fairly clean, and not nearly as much construction.

Grand Palace

We spent my first day touring around Bangkok, stopping at several temples, visiting the exotic center (more on that later), the grand palace, the golden mountain, and eating street food. It was a great day, a bit bizarre to see the clash of the old east and the new west. Then there was the constant asking of where we were from. I would say America and immediately whomever was asking would look at Elisia and Michelle expecting a different answer. By the time I joined the trip they had given up trying to explain they were also from America, instead they said they were from Hong Kong. At that point it was commented how good their "American" was.

Wat Pho, Reclining Buddha (46 meters long X 15 meters high)

My last night in Bangkok, Michelle and I went to the Tawandang German Brewery. This was quite an experience. A German Brewery in Thailand and this is not even close to what I would start to imagine. It was again a mash of west and east. There were only three beer options - a weizen, a lager, and an ale - and maybe a handful of "German" dishes like sausages and potatoes, the rest wast most definitely Thai. Most of the patrons were Thai and all the staff that I saw were Thai. Then there was the entertainment. It sort of sounded like karaoke at first then came our first sequined woman singing Single Ladies and many other songs. She was followed by many other fabulous performances that I tried to capture with the pictures below. Michelle and I just sat looking at each other not knowing what to say. This is definitely a do not miss in Bangkok.

Driving in India

I did it. I drove in India. After incessantly asking me to drive while I was visiting Delhi over Easter weekend, Shelly finally made me get behind the wheel on our way to Rishikesh a few weekends later.

It was after Shek and Bhawna's engagement and Shelly and I were killing time before I had to go to work and he was driving back to Delhi with Shek and a few others. We decided to make a quick trip to Rishikesh, check out the rafting for some possible trip in the future (it will have to be when I return in the fall) and just hang out.

We stopped at a petrol station to fill up and the next thing I know, I'm getting behind the wheel. Nearly all cars here are standards, so not only was I driving on the wrong side of the road, in a country with very loosely defined rules to the road, on the wrong side of the car, I was now also shifting with my off hand. Thank goodness for the years of playing piano and basketball - I am relatively ambidextrous. So one challenge conquered, at least enough to not have to look down at the shifter every time I went from first to second to third.

Next challenge, spatial perception. This was actual the biggest challenge for me. I know my Toyota Corolla very well driving around Los Angeles. I know what turns I can make and what parking spots I can fit in. I go crazy when I get stuck behind a Mini that is driving like a Hummer because they don't know the corners of their car. But sitting on the other side of the car and having all the extra space to my left instead of my right, through me for a loop. It took me a good five or ten minutes before Shelly stopped grabbing the wheel and gently steering me away from the side of the road. The road to Rishikesh is flat so he wasn't worried about going off the side of a mountain, more concerned about the random bikers or carts that might pop-out. Fair enough.

I finally more or less got my perception figured out, or enough of it down that I could drive without constantly adjusting. Now it was time to start figuring out the rules by which everyone drives in India. Chicken. The game of chicken. That's the rules and not how I wanted to play. Whoever honks first has the right of way if you're driving down the middle of the road (which everyone does), but sometimes the honking isn't for you. So that just adds another challenge. Sometimes the honking is just because there is a truck parked on the side of the road and there might be a motorcycle in front of the truck, so the car is warning the potential motorcycle that they are coming. Of course, since I'm coming against this car I can see there is no motorcycle so I have to guess is the car honking at me or the imaginary motorcycle. Ahhh!

I guessed right, or Shelly guessed right for me. We survived and I made him drive as soon as we got to Rishikesh where the cars, motorcycles, bikes, cows, carts, and people multiplied. I had enough of the guessing what that horn meant game on the relatively open road and avoiding potential objects in the road to even think about negotiating the roads of Rishikesh. But now I can say I drove in India. I have had the experience and I don't need to repeat it. I appreciate even more everyone who has driven me around for the past four months and who will drive me around in the future.

Weddings and Engagements

So apparently this is the year for weddings for the Bamko India office.  I attended my second wedding a few weeks ago, there was another that I couldn't attend because it was too far away, and there are two more this year.  So the first wedding was for the sister of one of our artists, but still, so many weddings.

The second wedding was more of a big deal because it was people from my coding department, Sachin and Deepali.  Unfortunately for me, the timing of their wedding also happened to be the start of our new project so we didn't have two of our team leaders for the first ten days, but we decided that getting married was an acceptable reason.

I learned some more about the customs and traditions of weddings since I am better friends with Sachin and Deepali.  First, they are not usually allowed to leave their respective homes for three days before the ceremony.  During that time though, there are other ceremonies going on.  There is a puja at each of their homes and more that I have yet to experience.  Since many of the events happen in the evening, I can't make them all because of work.  In this case I elected to go to the main ceremony where Sachin and Deepali actually get to meet.

In arranged marriages, this would be the first time that the bride and groom would see each other.  The bride arrives first at the venue and goes into a nearby building or room.  She spends time only with the women from her family until the groom arrives.  In the room, she and her family perform another puja and continue getting ready to walk out to meet Sachin after he performs puja with the men of his family.

The groom arrives in grand fashion.  Coming down the middle of the street is a caravan of people, all dancing behind a cart blaring music.  Since we are all on foot, the usually chaotic Indian traffic is further crowded.  Sachin rode up on a donkey all decked on in a nice suit, surrounded by many people coming up to him and his family congratulating them.  I was pulled into the crowd of dancers for a brief moment, but was able to quickly weave my way out again.  In the first wedding it was this crowd that was lighting the fireworks that nearly hit me. 

Sachin

Once Sachin arrives at the venue, he is carried from the donkey.  He gets a moment of respite to stand while it looked like prayer and offerings were performed before he was again carried to the front of the hall.  He sits at the front meeting and talking with all the well wishers.  Meanwhile we are all wandering around the food buffet once again eating way too much food.  And being the only foreigner, I was stared at, and this time approached and introduced to an entire family.  As near as I can tell, one of the girls wanted to say hello to me but was too shy, so she called her brother who then came over and introduce himself, mother, two aunts, too shy sister, and cousins.  While all this was happening I was quickly abandoned by all by one of my co-workers. 

Deepali

Finally at about 11:00 pm I decided that I have to be responsible and go to the office.  Deepali still has not come down to "meet" Sachin so I go on a mission to find her.  Thankfully there are many helpful people who find her sister who then brings me up to say hello to Deepali.  Now, if the timing had gone according to the invitations I received (one from Sachin in Hindi and one from Deepali in English), this all would have happened about two hours earlier.  But, after three months, I was not at all surprised by the timing.

The next weekend was the engagement of two more of my co-workers, Shek and Bhawna.  This was the first engagement I have attended and it was much closer to a wedding in the US.  The scale of the engagement was significantly smaller.  It was still very different, but much closer.  I'm sure it also made a difference that Shek is Catholic, his father is a bishop.

While sitting at the engagement, I was talking with Shek's friend Shelly whom I had met last time I was in Delhi.  We were discussing the differences in the ceremonies between the US and India.  It finally dawned on me what had been nagging me about the two weddings and now this engagement - there was no alcohol.  None.  Which was a shock for me because whenever we get together, we often get beers.  I know in the US, often kids feel uncomfortable drinking in front of their parents.  But here it is a whole other level.  Drinking is solely done with your peers, not in front or with your parents.  Hmmm, I can't imagine not having a beer with BBQ or mojitos at the beach.  All the size and extravagance of the wedding is something I expect and something you see at some weddings in the US.  It's the taboo around alcohol at the events that amuses me.

Delhi

Sorry all, I know I have been out of touch for awhile.  I'll try to catch up the past month with a few posts over the next few days.

First, over Easter weekend I went to Delhi for a long weekend to get some big city time in.  I never thought I'd miss the big city - every chance I get in Los Angeles I escape to mountains or the beach or somewhere with open space and room to breathe.  Anyway, this time I escaped to the big city for a few days.  After taking a turbo-prop plane from the one gate - if you can call it a gate - airport in Dehradun to the Indira Ghandi International Airport in Delhi then getting in the cab of someone who didn't know his way around - it took us over an hour and I ended up directing after about ten phone calls to Shek - I ended up at my company office/apartment in Gurgaon - a suburb of Delhi like Santa Monica is a suburb of Los Angeles.

Me and Shek

Friday night we just hung out and caught up, mostly because I slept until 9:30pm.  This is the problem with the night shift, it completely messes up your weekends.  But it was nice to just relax for a night.  Then Saturday we had planned to actually get out and do stuff - yeah that didn't happen.  But we did make it out that night.  We went into Delhi, wandered around some shops, ate at Magique, then went to F Bar for some drinks and dancing.  It was a lot of fun (well except for the dancing) and it was a good thing we didn't go out during the day since we didn't get home until after 4, almost the same time as a night shift.

Sunday I spent with touring around Delhi with Ravi then met up with Sudhir and family for dinner.  It was great fun visiting all the sites with Ravi - Humayun's Tomb, Akshardham Temple, and Dilli Hart.  Humayun's Tomb is said to be what the Taj Mahal is based on, on the Taj is on a much grander scale.  The rounded dome at the top and symmetry of the building were unique features inspired by Persian architecture.  The tomb was also the first garden-tomb on the Indian sub-continent.

A picture I found on Google

From Humayun's Tomb we went to the Akshardham Temple.  This place is over the top - in many ways.  First, before going into the temple you have to either leave all electronics in the car or check them.  This includes all cameras, phones, iPods, spare batteries, etc.  Then you stand in the security line.  There is a women and children's line and a men's line where everyone walks through a metal detector before a pat down.  Once you're finally inside, you are on the grounds of the World's Largest Comprehensive Hindu Temple - really, it's in the Guinness World Records.  Inside the temple it's a little ostentatious for my tastes, but pretty amazing.  A note for any future visitors: watch out for the lights that stick up from the floors - they are dangerous.  Mostly because your eyes are drawn to the statues and artwork on the walls so your toes find the light fixtures first.  It's been a month and I can still feel it.

Another picture I found on Google.

Because there are no cameras of any kind allowed inside there are no pictures of the inside - even on Google, I tried for a few minutes (okay, seconds).  There are many pictures of the outside so here are a couple.  One of the things I found really amazing here was the intricacy of the carvings.  Both inside the temple and outside, the pillars had incredible detail on them.  Then bordering nearly the entire base of the temple is a tribute to elephants and nature.  They are carved out of the same stone as the temple and shares Gajendra Pith: elephants existing in nature, elephants relationship with man, and elephants with God.  On the barrier are sayings promoting peace and spirituality.

It was a little weird being at this temple after just visiting Humayun's Tomb.  Humayun's Tomb from the Mughal era and then Akshardham Temple that was completed less than ten years ago.  Especially considering despite being less than a decade old this temple was built with out structural support from steel.

I then only had a little time before meeting Sudhir and family for dinner, so Ravi and I stopped at Dilli Haat.  Dilli Haat is a market of food and crafts from all over India.  Unfortunately because of time I only had time to quickly walk through.  Hopefully next time I'm in Delhi I will have more time to really look at the amazing crafts offered.

Finally dinner.  As per usual too much food was ordered and it was all delicious.  We ate at the officers club which unknown to me and apparently Sudhir has a dress code.  He had to talk his way into letting me eat there.  Since I had been touring around the city all day I was in sandals and shorts, two of the prohibited items on the list. We ended the meal with kulfi, India ice cream.  I'm not quite sure how to describe it but here is a recipe to give you an idea.  The most unique thing about kulfi is the cardamom.  It is delicious.  I'm hoping the India Sweets shop near me in Los Angeles has it.  I know they have my favorite India soda, Limca, so I'm hopeful I will also find kulfi.

Overall it was a great weekend.  Definitely nice to get into the city, see some old friends, and just be a tourist without being stared at quite so much. 

First Birthdays

So I will admit that I never really quite understood why big parties were thrown for a first birthday.  I understood that it was celebrating the first year, but really ... their not going to remember any of it and most of the presents received at age 1 are long gone.

Of course, then Korvin was born (my nephew) and there was no way I was missing his first birthday.  I was taking time off work, flying across the country, to make sure I was there to celebrate.  It all started making a little more sense to me when he was born.  I'll admit, I still don't quite understand the parties with fifty plus people showing up, but I definitely appreciate having your family and a few close friends coming.  For Korvin's birthday I had a great time playing with him, spending time with everyone, and was thoroughly bummed when I couldn't make it out for his second birthday.  I know he won't remember I wasn't there, but I still wanted to be there.

Then I was introduced to a whole other kind of first birthday celebration last Friday night.  This is the second birthday party in India I have attended - I was here for Ankur's daughter's third birthday as well.  So I thought I had an idea what to expect for Yuvi's birthday, Ankur's son.  But not quite.  The party was held in the same location as the wedding I attended in January.  There was likely over 200 people who showed up, clowns, a DJ, open bar, waiters coming around with appetizers, and a fully catered buffet.  I promise this was not all family, I know Ankur's family and some of his wife's but there were many other people as well.  Nearly our whole office was there, as well as many from the office next door.  The party officially started at seven but most people did not show up until after 8, and it lasted until midnight when your car got locked in.  If you were taking a taxi home you could stay a little later. 

This really was a whole new experience.  It reminded me more of a reception after a wedding in the US, and less like a birthday.  Comparing it to a wedding reception is the closest I can get, but I still don't feel like that is quite right.  Mainly because of the venue.  The hall and outside patio and garden was reserved solely for our party.  So while there was at least 200 people there, 2000 or more people could have attended.  There were tables to sit down at but not quite enough for everyone so there was a lot of mingling.  There was a big announcement when they cut the cake.  Several people in the family (wedding party) changed clothes after the cake cutting.  Who besides the one year old and other young kids changed clothes at our first birthdays - okay maybe the parents if they kids have a little too much fun with the cake.  But it was like changing into a more comfortable dress for the reception.  I was constantly being asked if I had eaten, did I need another drink, was I having fun? And afterward, groups of people split off to hang out some more.  Not that there is much open in Dehradun at 12:30am. 

Overall, it was a lot of fun.  Great food as always, and another experience.  Another insight to the culture here - the importance of the first birthday.

Tourist Attraction

When you come to India you want to see the Taj Mahal, the markets, the grave sites of Mahatma and Indira Gandhi, and enjoy the food.  You don't expect to be the tourist attraction yourself.  I don't think I quite believed my parents when they told me they were stopped at the Taj Mahal by random strangers to be part of their pictures.  They had photographic proof, but I still couldn't quite wrap my head around it.  This is my second trip to India and I have been here for over two months now, and not once had I been stopped and asked to be part of a picture.

Then at Kempty Falls near Mussorie (a hill station in the foothills of the Himalayas) I had my first experience.  And for the next few days, walking around Mussorie, Rishikesh, Haridwar, and Dehradun, I was part of not only photos with my family, but photos with many random strangers.  Below are a few examples.  The baby in the upper right photo was just handed to me - they were kind enough to take her back as soon as she started fussing.  And the girl in the lower left photo is dressed in traditional Kashmiri (I believe) dress.  These could be rented at stands all around Mussorie and Kempty Falls.

After this experience the only thing I could identify that set these trips to Mussorie and Haridwar apart from all my other trips was my parents, aunt, and uncle.  I was walking around with four other obvious foreigners instead of four other Indians.  On every other tourist trip around the country I had taken, I was with several of my colleagues.  I was the minority surrounded and talking with my colleagues so no one was willing to break our circle and ask for a picture.  I knew my colleagues here protected me, but I hadn't quite realized how much.  This is definitely a benefit, I get to see more uninterrupted when I'm not the tourist attraction.

Surrendered

I've been working at Bamko for almost three years now, and I've been working with our coding department at least part time for nearly as long.  I have resisted being a part of the IT world, letting people know that I work with a team of 20 programmers because, well, I left that world after three semesters of engineering and ran in the other direction ... communications.  But today, I finally accepted that I was officially there.  I may not know much, or anything really, about writing script or setting up networks, but at one point today I was remotely connected to three different computers in the Los Angeles office through three different programs resetting passwords and connecting people to our data server.  All I could do was sit back and laugh.  Ugh.  What have I gotten myself into?

India Through the Visitor's Eyes

I have been in India for two months and I still feel like the foreigner.  Whenever I leave my apartment, people are staring at me - and they are not shy about staring, so I know I'm not imagining it.  I still don't know what the names of all the dishes I'm eating or how public transportation works.  There is still a lot about India for me to learn. But last week I had one of my colleagues staying with me.  Sheila spent several days in China before coming to India.  Her first few days she spent in Delhi and Agra with our colleagues, but then she came to Dehradun and we spent the next five days working together, visiting nearby places, and hanging out. It was during this time that I realized, maybe I have adjusted to living in India.

Driving to Rishikesh - selling chickens and drinks

First, driving.  Driving in general in India is notorious for it's chaos - the scenes in movies are actually pretty accurate.  The lane marking, if there are any, is only along the center and is really there just to show the middle of the road.  Even if you are the only car on the road, your driver may be playing Pacman with the lane markings, eating up every dash.  However, being the only car on the road only happens in the rarest of circumstances and doesn't last long.  More often than not, you are negotiating motorcycles, trucks, auto-rickshaws (three wheeled taxis), bicycles, cows, dogs, monkeys, and people all while trying to get to your destination as quickly as possible.  This means a lot of weaving in and out and sudden start and stops.  Apparently, I had gotten used to this constant game to chicken and slalom, because I was just enjoying the drive while Sheila was wide-eyed and constantly telling Namit or Sachin to slow down or watch out.  We quickly decided that Sheila should not have a direct line of sight to the road - no shotgun and no middle in the back.

Once we got to our destinations we would park the car then just walk around.  When walking in India, at least where I have been, you don't walk against traffic.  This goes against everything that I have been taught since I started walking to school in kindergarten.  When I first got here, I started walking against traffic (which was challenging enough since they drive on the opposite side of the road), but I felt out of place.  I realized I was not only walking against the flow of traffic, but against the flow of people.  As soon as I switch sides of the road, I no longer had to dodge people.  Now this is habit for me as I walk to work or to get snacks on the weekend.  But walking around Mussorie and Rishikesh, I was reminded of how awkward I found this at first as Sheila started off walking against traffic and we had to constantly steer her to the other side of the road.

My coders - wide awake at 4:00am

Working at night.  Don't get me wrong, working the night shift is hard, and I don't think I would ever want to do it full time, but I have definitely adjusted to it.  The night shift hours are 8:30pm to 5:30am. The question then is when do you sleep?  Some people go home and sleep right away and get up mid-afternoon, others stay up and go for a drive to maggi point, hang out for a while before returning home to sleep or watch a movie then sleep.   Personally, I stay up, finish some work, surf the internet, watch some tv and sleep from 11:00am or noon to about 7:00pm.  Whenever you decide to sleep, we all make it through the night awake, more or less.  Some nights are more difficult than others, but most often, we make it to at least 5:30am awake and coherent.  By 3:00am, Sheila was a walking zombie.  She was wandering through the office, drinking chai or coffee, just trying to stay awake for another two and a half hours.  As soon as the clock hit 5:30am, Sheila was out of the office and on her way to bed.  I remember the first few weeks of the night shift.  I was constantly exhausted, I couldn't seem to get enough sleep.  Some days I would sleep right away and I would sleep all day, other days I would have insomnia, if you can call it insomnia staying awake until mid-afternoon instead of sleeping.

Trash disposal. This is the area that I'm still adjusting to.  I've definitely become accustomed to the trash disposal methods here - just throw it out the car window or toss it on the side of the street.  Don't get me wrong, there are dumpsters around to throw trash bags in but there aren't many around. Where there are dumpsters, they are often overflowing, surrounded my various animals (dogs, pigs, chickens), and there is trash on the ground outside the dumpster.  But more often than not, trash is just discarded on the side of the road while walking or driving along.  I've traveled a lot, to many different countries, but how to get rid of trash has been one of the hardest things to get used to here in India.  Sheila and I got a cup of coffee while walking around Mussorie.  We finished the coffee and kept walking with empty cups in our hands.  At some point we were going to want to get rid of these cups.  Thankfully, Harpreet finished her coffee and put her cup down on the side of the road.  I followed suit, feeling less awkward since I wasn't the first (although I had been wanting to do that for several minutes I just couldn't bring myself to do it).  Sheila still had issues with just putting her cup on the side of the road - thankfully we actually came across a rare trash can a few minutes later.

These are just a few things that came to me during the week that Sheila was here.  It was a great week sharing India with another foreigner, and seeing it all again through fresh foreign eyes.  I'm sure there are more difference that will come to me this weekend as my parents, aunt, and uncle are visiting. This is my life now, living and working in India.  I'm enjoying it, but will definitely be ready to return to Los Angeles.

Festival of Colors

Ankur came to pick Sheila and I up at 10:45am.  When he walked up to the door, Sheila didn't even recognize him.  Already he was covered in colors - pinks, greens, yellow, blue, silver.  I will give Sheila credit that she had only just met Ankur the night before for about 10 minutes, but still, she should have at least recognized him the next day.  This was the beginning of Holi.

Holi is the holiday I was most looking forward to when I came over.  It is celebrated by throwing colored powder or colored water on each other.  If you would like the whole history behind Holi, visit Wikipedia or The Holiday Spot.  They both provide the story back to Lord Vishnu and the burning of Holika who was supposed to be immune to fire.  The story of the colors comes from Lord Krishna (believed to be the eighth reincarnation of Lord Vishnu).  Depending on where you read, either Lord Krishna played pranks on the girls in his village by dumping water and colors on them or Lord Krishna complained to his mother of the difference in skin color between him and Radha (his divine love).  To remove the difference in color, his mother applied color to Radha's face.  This is why when we see pictures of the Holi celebrations, we see all the colors.

Now, Ankur had come to pick Sheila and I up.  He insisted that someone pick us up and that we not walk to the office.  I didn't quite understand this, but he was very clear in his insistence and so I assumed there must be a good reason.  The first thing I noticed when we got in his car was that all the windows in his car were up.  I don't think I had ever been in Ankur's car with all the windows up, and especially now that it is getting warm out.  I quickly found out the reason behind us not walking to the office and the windows being up.  In the short drive to the office, we passed at least a handful of people with squirt guns shooting colored water at cars as they passed by.  Welcome to Holi!

Once we arrived at the office, we walked into a wall of our colleagues all prepared with colors in their hands.  We didn't make it five feet before we were already unrecognizable.  Some of our colleagues had taken the powder and mixed it with water so it ended up more like a paint.  We both started out in white shirts and black shorts/pants - obviously that didn't last long.  The colors were continuously put on our faces, in our hair, thrown into the air, and shot out of water guns.

It didn't take long before Sheila and I learned you have to carefully protect your own bag of powder so you can get back whoever comes at you.  My pink bag lasted us well, we painted and colored many people pink.  Later I got my hands on a bag of yellow powder that I was able to hold on to for quite a while until I made the mistake of being nice to Sachin, and instead of taking just a handful he took the whole bag. 

Eventually, nearly everyone was there and everyone was covered.  We started running low on powder so we were a little more careful with using it.  Then the drinking, eating, and dancing started.  There were momos, fried sweet dumplings, pakora (seasoned french fries dipped in spicy sauce), and some other desserts.  Of course, like nearly all holidays, there was alcohol.  Fosters appeared to be the beer of choice in gigantic bottles. 

There was also a lot of music.  At the beginning there was four guys drumming.  It was really neat to watch, then Sachin took over at the DJ table and dance music started playing over the speakers set-up.  Whenever someone would trip on the cord and pull it out the drummers would start again.  So there was constant music for the first two hours.  Unfortunately then the drummers left, before the beer was spilled on the DJ equipment and ruined it.  Thankfully, someone was able to find another player so we were only without music for about 30 minutes. 

Indians love to dance.  I believe these guys could have gone on dancing for hours.  I could barely make it through one song, it was hot outside and with all the colors on my face it just made it worse.  However, at the end, my colleagues decided it was time to dispense with the water guns and go for the buckets.  They started dumping full buckets of water on whomever they could sneak up on.  I was the "victim" many times and traded buckets of water with Sachin.

Overall, Holi was excellent.  Now the trick is how to get all the colors off.  I have been relatively successful but still have some green on me.  Hopefully by work tomorrow it will all be gone.

Small Town of 450,000 People

So I grew up in a small town - corn fields in the middle of town, farm fields surrounding town, school getting canceled because it was too cold for the rural kids to stand outside and wait for the bus.  Everyone and I mean everyone knew me, or at least it felt like it.  I went to the school with the same people since from kindergarten through twelfth grade, I played sports, my parents heard about events at school before I got home from practice, there was never more than two degrees separating me from knowing the person I was talking to.  But I can't imagine the two events that occurred this past week happening after only living there for two months.

First on Sunday, I wanted to get a few onions and tomatoes for cooking.  So on my way home from walking around on Sunday I stopped at the cart (I'll explain fresh fruit and vegetable shopping another time) and used sign language and fragmented English to get five small red onions and two tomatoes.  However, I only had a 500 Rupee note with me.  The guy standing behind the cart took one look at the note, laughed a little, shook his head, and said "Next time."  He then handed me the bag of onions and tomatoes.  This is the first time I have bought, talked, nodded, or really even looked at him or his cart and I'm walking away with the food I wanted to get with a promise to pay him next time.  Shocked to say the least.

Then, yesterday I was walking home from the office and I hear a car behind me honk.  No big deal, I'm used to car horns, I don't even flinch anymore.  It's like the white noise of Los Angeles traffic.  Except this time the car is slowing down and we're not near a house or another street.  Now I'm a little more aware.  Inside the car, a woman leans over and offers me a ride - "I'm your neighbor."  Okay ... don't ask me why, but I got in the car for the last two blocks to the house.  I passed up a ride on the back of some guy's motorcycle on the way to work (I'm pretty sure it's the second time he has offered), but I just hopped into her car.  I met Fareen.  She has great English and lives just across the street from me. 

So, in the span of three days, I walked away with onions and tomatoes after my first attempt to purchase them and was randomly offered a ride by my neighbor who I don't remember ever seeing.  All of a sudden the town is pretty small.  I may not recognize anyone, but everyone sure knows me.  Sometimes it pays to be the only foreigner among 450,000 people. 

Electricity is Fickle

On Monday around 3:25pm and the power had just come back on.  I was sitting in bed, watching a movie on my computer, and surfing the internet killing time before work when all of a sudden the light went off.  For about ten minutes I was sitting in the dark, watching my movie (The Jane Austen Book Club if you're curious) and continuing to wander around the internet.  About 30 minutes later, the power went out again for a few minutes.  This, bizarrely enough, has become normal to me.  At least it was the middle of the afternoon so I have the sunlight to see my way around the apartment.

At least once or twice a week this happens at work as well.  Only at work when the electricity goes at work it is 1:00am so the only light is from my computer, not the sunlight.  Three other people in the office have laptops (one of which the battery is so old it doesn't hold a charge), so the office is really dark.  I've got my computer so I can do some work but when the power goes, obviously so does the wireless so the primary communication with US is cut.  All forty of us in the office just sit at our desks while someone goes outside to start the generator.  The generator is so loud that I can barely carry on a conversation with Santosh who is sitting three feet from me.  Thankfully the power outages at night do not last for more than 10 or 20 minutes, so normal work can resume. 

I don't know what is going to happen when it really gets hot here if the power is going out when it's relatively cool out.  Hopefully the warmer weather won't bring more overheating and more power outages.  I just hope I'm not here during the rainy season, because that is the worst.  Sometimes the internet is down all "day".

Independence - Ordering Pizza

I did it.  I successfully ordered delivery on my own.  No big event at home but I was quite proud of myself for successfully ordering and getting delivered a pizza and chocolate lava cake from Dominos.  The first challenge was figuring out the area code to use when calling since I was just referring to a coupon from pizza Ankur had ordered for me before.  This only took me about 20 minutes before I thought to try online - duh, that's what I'd do in the US.  And they even have online ordering, but I'm not quite ready for that. 

Then I called and got passed around to four people before it was confirmed that they do indeed deliver to my neighborhood.  English was definitely the challenge.  I know I talk fast, so I was making sure to speak slowly, but I still got passed around.  I checked it out online when I was looking for the phone number, but wasn't positive.  I live in the Judge's Colony (Bhargathi Enclave) in Dalanwala.  Dalanwala was listed, but there was another neighborhood that was specifically listed by colony so I confused myself. 

Finally I was able to order my pizza and chocolate lava cake.  Dominos has chocolate lava cake here? Crazy!  It was alright, not very hot by the time I finished eating my pizza, but still satisfied my chocolate fix.

Oh yeah, the delivery.  So I live in a colony and not all the homes have numbers posted on the outside, and by this I mean mine does not.  So, I'm sitting in my living room, watching West Brom play Wolves (English Premier League), and listening for a slow going motorcycle.  Unfortunately, I heard him a little too late and since mirrors aren't used while driving here he couldn't see me waving at his back.  I ended up standing outside for almost another ten minutes waiting and hoping that he was going to loop back around and trying to figure out how I was going to get my pizza if he didn't get here soon. 

In the end, I was successful.  And pizza has never tasted so good.  It was almost as good as The Coop or Cosetta's back home (LA or MN respectively) and that's saying a lot.  It may have something to do with my primarily eating Indian food or toast in the five weeks I've been here, but I think it mostly had to do with finally feeling like I'm living here.  Sitting in my living room, watching soccer on the tv, and eating delivery.  Now this weekend, hopefully figuring out how to get to Rajpur Road.  May need some help with that as it sounds like I can't just take one Vikram.

In My Apartment

A week later than I had hoped for, I am officially in my apartment.  The apartment is painted brown on some walls, a very very light pink maybe peach on others, there is a couch and two bean bags in the living room, a bed in the bedroom, western toilet and shower head in the bathroom, desk and chair in the second room downstairs, and that's it.   During the day I went shopping for dishes, sheets, pillows, towels - just a few of the necessities figuring I'll give it a week then identify exactly what else I need. Everything was brought back to the apartment, then I returned to the hotel for a bit to finish packing, took a nap, had some dinner, and waited for the bed to actually deliver.  Once it was delivered, Varun (a colleague) picked me and brought me over to the apartment, this was about 9:30pm.  Upon arrival I found out, the water had stopped working, the refrigerator wasn't here, the water purifier (not that it would do me any good right now) wasn't here, and the stove wasn't connected.

So maybe I pushed it a little, but I really needed to be out of the hotel and moved in.  It's time to really begin this adventure, living in India.  I'm living in what is called the Judge's Enclave, just down the street from my office. It only takes two minutes to drive, so hopefully only ten minutes to walk.  It'll be nice to be able to walk to and from work, a little exercise each day.  It's also a lot quieter than the hotel because I'm in a residential neighborhood instead of on a major street.

Of course, today it's raining so it makes it a little more difficult to get out and explore, plus I kind of need to be here when Varun comes back to hopefully get everything fixed.  But soon enough, I will be cooking and really living in India.  I've already made requests of a few of my colleagues to teach me how to use public transportation and teach me how to cook.  Mostly I can't wait to learn to cook.  Cooking Indian has always seemed a bit intimidating because the seasoning seems so different from anything else and there seems to be so much seasoning in every dish.  Hopefully everyone will have enough patience with me while I try to record it all.

I will post pictures once I get a little more settled.

Mouth and Stomach Disagreements ... Ugh

Everything I have eaten here in the last two weeks has been delicious - curries, masala, some spicy, some not so spicy.  I haven't learned the names of everything I've eaten, but I recognize the foods - red beans, chicken, potato, peas, corn, rice, green beans, noodles. Even the yogurt was good, different and I have fully formed my official opinion on it but I don't dislike it for sure.  It is definitely good with the spicy food, but I'm not sure how I feel about it alone.

However, all the delicious food caught up to me yesterday.  Although the thousands of taste buds on my tongue, my stomach decided it had enough of all the delicious food.  Some of this was to be expected and I had already faced some of it, but nothing too bad and nothing that a little Immodium couldn't handle.  Yesterday was spent in bed curled in a ball, yelling at my stomach and frequenting the bathroom more times than I can count.  And to me the worst part is that it happened yesterday, the day of the office party.  I was so looking forward to going to the party, having a few beers, and enjoying a more social time with my colleagues.  But alas, it was not to be.

Thankfully, it seemed to be a twenty-four hour bug.  Today at least I'm feeling much better.  I had some maggi, which is the ramen noodle, curry flavor with some onion and chives, and a little bit spicy.  I had some mango juice with it, definitely needed because even though I only asked for a little spicy, I needed something to drink with the maggi.  Then a beer on the way back to the hotel.

Hopefully, this will be the only real bad day.  I don't expect this the only time my mouth and stomach will disagree as I plan on tasting pretty much everything put in front of me, but I don't want to miss another party.  At least it was only twenty-four hours.  Now on to more wonderful food.

Weddings

** Note: I have a habit of starting a post one day and finish on another.  Blogspot however, dates the post on the day I started.  This is something I will have to adjust to.  So just a note that the first post should have been dated January 21 and Apartment Hunting should have been posted the same as this post, January 30.

I went to my first wedding this week.  Well actually, I went to about one hour of a two day wedding.  Yes, a two day wedding.  Oh and apparently more than one thousand people may be attending this wedding throughout the two days.  During the one hour of the wedding I attended, I ate great food, listened to music, and nearly got hit by a small firework.

This was the wedding of the sister of one of the artists for my company.  He invited me on Monday and the wedding started Thursday evening.  I arrived with several colleagues and down the street I hear the music and the firecrackers that I have been hearing daily outside my window.  Now it's all making sense.  This is the groom and his family arriving to the wedding. 

However, I'm ushered into the hall that seats about two hundred and standing room for another one hundred.  Remember how I said one thousand might attend this wedding at a given time, hopefully they don't all want to be in here at the same time.  We said "Hi" to our colleague and his mother, then take a seat. Up at the front there is a small dance floor, more loud music, a small couch, and a raised platform with stairs leading up on opposite sides.  People are sitting and talking, there are servers walking around with appetizers - very good appetizers.  I had an egg roll and some vegetable soup.  There was also some cheese and other food. 

After twenty minutes, I'm being ushered back to the entrance, apparently the groom is arriving.  The music from the groom's party is much louder and now the fireworks are being shot in the air like the fourth of July.  There are also smaller, high pitched fireworks that spiral like a balloon when you let go after inflating it.  This is what almost hit me.  There is lots of dancing too, and the groom is being carried in a carriage.  When the family is in front of the hall entrance the bride's family greeted the groom's family and put flower necklaces on what appeared to be the elders of the grooms family.  Then when the carriage with the groom arrived, he was carried from the carriage by friends and family into the hall.  He was not allowed to touch the ground.

At this point I had to get back to the office, but first I was "required" to eat.  There was a massive, and I mean massive, buffet.  At least ten different dishes for me to choose from, plus two or three types of dessert.  It was delicious.On the way out, I was introduced to the bride.  She was gorgeous, dressed in red and gold, hidden away from all the guests still. 

I so wish that I had been able to stay for longer, to see more of the festivities.  Hopefully there will be another wedding that I get to attend.  I don't know that I could make it through a two-day wedding, but perhaps a shortened version.  Then I will also be able to get pictures.

Apartment Hunting

I thought apartment hunting was tiring in Los Angeles, it's even more frustrating in Dehradun. Ankur has been trying at least two weeks to find apartments for me to look at, so I could decided which apartment would be best. However, what I thought was a pretty basic list has proved difficult to find. I wanted an apartment that had the following:

• furnished
• two bedrooms
• a kitchen
• western toilet
• within walking distance of shops and restaurants

The most difficult has been the furnished part. Then when Ankur finds a potential apartment he or someone from the office has visited first to make sure it is in good shape. Once it's approved for me to look it, Ankur talks with the landlord one more time. This is when the apartments generally get crossed off the list. Apparently, there are many ways to say "we don't want to rent to a foreigner". The reasons I heard went from the more subtle we want to rent to a local government official to let us think about it. Let me be clear to, I won't be renting the apartment, Bamko India will be entering the lease, I will just be staying there. However, that didn't seem to matter.

Finally yesterday, there were a few willing to let a foreigner stay. I looked at one, two, and three bedrooms unfurnished (we'll figure out where I sleep later), and at one and three bedrooms furnished. We shortlisted two and now I'm crossing my fingers that the landlords don't change their minds. One will require a little fixing, but the landlord said it shouldn't be a problem.

Hopefully I will be in my apartment by next weekend and be able to cook my own food. I'll post pictures as soon as I can. I am really looking forward to being out of the hotel and into an apartment. That will really make me feel like I'm here to stay instead of just visiting. I'll be able to settle in, have a point to reference to orient myself to the city, and really start exploring.

And the Adventure Begins

It's official, I'm in India, Dehradun to be exact. I landed on Friday at 10:30am only short one piece of luggage. Not too bad, although a little confused how one piece of luggage got lost during a nine hour layover, but oh well. At least my cool weather clothes and toiletries made it.

So why am I here? Thank you work. You may think I'm kidding, but I'm not, I promise. I really am excited to live in India for the next four to six months. I will be living in the city of Dehradun, the capital of Uttaranchal. It is located right at the base of the Himalayas, just to the northwest of Nepal.

Bamko has an office in Dehradun comprised of many different departments - accounting, art, coding, operations and sales. I will primarily be working with our coding department. One of the goals of this move is to assist in the organization of the coding department. With twenty people working on more than a handful of websites for clients and the company, it can easily get chaotic. So I will be working to make it less chaotic and develop better strategies for project development and bug resolution.

Apartment searching begins tomorrow, then after that to the office. Let the adventure begin!