on hiatus

Going on hiatus again. A friend from Canada, Anya, is arriving tonight and we will spend the next week exploring this loverly country.
So, be patient, I'll be back in about a week and a half with more stories of adventures. We are going to two places I haven't been before, Goa and Udaipur, then the day she leaves I have to fly to Calcutta for a meeting...I'll have almost no time there but will try to take in some sights if I'm not to tired...are there any sights in Calcutta?
Comment du jour: you know how Bombay is now called Mumbai? Well Calcutta is now officially Kolkata, only because things are almost always misspelled here anyway you will also see several other variations of the spelling here and there, like Kolcutta, so it took me a few months to figure out what the "real" name of the city is...but I still say Calcutta.

I think I'm going crazy

There must have been something wacky in my dinner last night because I had the most vivid dreams. First I had a dream that there was a big, like 1 foot long, lizard in my bedroom. See, I do have a gecko that kind of lives in/around my apartment. She disappeared during the winter but now is back. I see her every few days, usually in my living room. I don’t mind her because she is small and also because apparently geckos eat mosquitoes, and really, there isn’t much I can do about it. However the one in my dream was really big and freaked me out…but it is a sign of how very different things are here that when I woke up I thought it had really happened and it didn’t seem that impossible that a big lizard could be in my apartment. Extremely unlikely but not impossible.
Then I had another dream that there was a big marching band parade thing going on in my neighborhood at around 5 a.m. It was super loud. This dream I was completely convinced had happened and I almost asked someone why there was a big parade at 5 a.m., then I realized how silly that would have sounded. I mean it is loud here, very loud, pretty much all the time, either music, or horns honking, or just the fact that people talk really loudly here, but I think that even the average Indian would object to being woken up at 5 by such loud music.
I don’t know why I had such crazy dreams but it really says something about life here that I didn’t consider either event to be completely impossible. Unlikely yes, but not impossible.
Here’s hoping I don’t have any more wacky dreams for a while, it is exhausting enough living in such a different reality, it would be nice if my dreams would stay a bit more sane.

drivers

First of all, I'm such a bad blogger. I've been super busy at work lately and yesterday didn't even have time to open my blog much less write an entry. But today I'm determined to find the time.
Anyway...I just finished the book White Tiger. Since I've gotten here I've tried to read books about India. The book was really good, a lot of it is set in Delhi so it was fun to read about places that I know. Without giving too much away, the book is written from the perspective of a very poor man who manages to raise himself to the level of a driver. He definitely becomes disgruntled and unhappy with his role in life.
As I was reading this I couldn't help but think about my driver, and all the other drivers in the city.
See, the life of a driver it not an easy one, they don't make a ton of money, but relatively speaking it is a pretty good job for someone without much of an education. I've noticed that among the drivers there is a definite hierarchy (as with almost everything in India). The "highest" on the totem pole of drivers are usually company drivers or embassy drivers; driving for a foreigner is pretty high up there as well since we usually pay more and demand less time; and when you are driving an Indian the type of car you drive is a status symbol.
The weird thing for me is that all day long my driver just sits outside the office waiting for me. I feel badly, but he hangs out with the other drivers, and I do, on occasion, need to go out during the day so it is nice having him there. Of course the fact that the drivers sit around all day means that if you ever want to know what is really going on in the office they are the people to ask because they all gossip with each other about us.
I can't help but wonder what my driver thinks of me, does he like me? Does he think I'm a rich spoiled foreigner? Does he not care and just see me as a paycheck? I think he does care and I think he likes driving me.
It would probably be better for my sanity if I didn't think about these things but I'm just so dependent on my driver that I find myself hoping that he is happy and that he likes me because I would hate to lose him.
I've realized over the past few months how rare it can be to have a good driver. Like our company driver I find rude and I also think is somewhat of a dangerous driver...I found out today that one of my colleagues also doesn't like his attitude so I'm not alone. And I'm on this ex-Pat email list in Delhi and once every few weeks someone will send an email around looking for a driver because they had to fire theirs for either always being late, or trying to rip them off (saying they got a full tank of gas but they really only got a 1/2 tank and pocketed the money), or, much worse, drinking on the job.
I feel like this blog is turning into an ode to my driver. I guess one of the interesting/different things about living here is that I am extremely dependent on other people in order to live my life and I'm just feeling lucky that I have really good trustworthy people that take care of me and I just hope that they know how much I appreciate them.

90

It was 90 degrees on Saturday. 90 - and it is still March. Oh dear. I remember it being hot last summer and I remember everyone telling me that it was actually a mild summer last year and I thought they were lying.
I have a sneaking suspicion that they were telling the truth and that it is going to be even hotter this summer.
Oh dear. Already I have to make sure I put sunscreen on and wear a hat and bring a bottle of water with me when I go out.
It is going to be a looooooong summer.

oh india...you do take me by surprise some times

Just yesterday I was thinking that I think that I'm pretty well adjusted here, things that are "weird" no longer strike me as weird and I haven't been surprised by much of anything lately. Well, I think that India heard me because today I got a surprise.
As I was going to my Hindi class today I saw a road being paved. Now the fact that a road was being paved was surprising in and of itself, but how it was being done was extra surprising. First of all, there were just a few small cones blocking off the area where they were working, no signs, no one directing traffic; so my driver, along with everyone else, just drove into incoming traffic and went around the construction, and the two lanes of incoming traffic just turned itself into one. Somehow this worked, no accidents, no slow downs, nothing. Then I noticed the workers. For some reason they weren't using regular blacktop but they were putting down squares of black-top like material, almost like laying carpet; there were three guys crouching down in the middle of the road hammering in these squares with nothing but a few small cones marking out that they were there. I didn't notice but I have a sneaking suspicion that they were only wearing flip flops on their feet, this seems to be the footwear of choice for most of the men doing the construction around here.
This way of paving a road seems neither safe nor productive to me, but just like many things that don't make much sense to me here, it somehow works.
I guess it is good that India can still surprise me, it keeps things interesting.

March Madness

March Madness is about to begin. Hooray! I won my office pool last year (thanks Kansas!) and have come in second twice. Not surprisingly there is no March Madness pool over here in India, but I'm joining one back in Canada (I'll be sending my pool money back with a visitor - how I will get my reward if I win I'll figure out later).
I miss watching sports over here, I'm definitely not an athlete myself, but I am a good fan. Cricket is the only sport televised here, and not only do I not find it that exciting, but the matches go on for days, literally...who has the time for that? The essential problem, I think, with cricket as a spectator sport (other than the fact that it goes on forever) is that when the batsmen hit the cricket equivalent of a home run they don't have to actually run, they just stand there. Where is the fun in that?
So, I am go to be a March Madness fan/gambler from afar and get my sports fan fix that way.
Oh - I picked Connecticut to win it all...but I did put Kansas in the Final 4 out of loyalty since they won for me last year.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patty's Day! In India St. Patty's Day is just another day of the week. I'm wearing green, but that has more to do with the fact that I own a lot of green than anything else.
So, in honor of the day of green I'm going to talk about some of my favorite green place in Delhi. See, before I came here I was told by someone that one thing that Delhi doesn't have are open spaces, like parks or gardens. Turns out this person was totally wrong, there are plenty of parks in Delhi, you just have to know where to look. Some of this may be a repeat, but I'm enjoying the spring here so thought I would share my happiness with a tour of my favorite green places in Delhi:
1. The rose garden by my office. I can walk there on lunch, which I don't do often enough. It has lots of roses which are fully in bloom right now and a fountain that has actually been working the past few weeks.
2. Hauz Khas village area. My favorite Sunday destination (Sundays my driver is off so I stay close-ish to home because I like to know exactly how much the auto rickshaw guys should charge me and where to go if they get lost). This is a really large area where I actually managed to get lost this Sunday. One part has a few old tombs, another area, called the deer park - which I think I mentioned before - has deer, obviously. A few weeks ago I saw what looked like two deer trying to fight each other but really they had gotten a stick stuck in their antlers and they were trying to get it out. There is also a huge "basin" which is actually a rather sad looking big pond, but it looks really good after monsoon season, it is just very dry right now. And, the area where I got lost this weekend was the Bougainvillea (sp?) garden. These flowers are very much in bloom right now, they are super bright colors; but the reason why I got lost was that it was so secluded I couldn't hear any traffic...a very big deal in Delhi...so had no sense of where the street was.
3. Lodhi (or Lodi) Gardens, my favorite. My favorite probably because it is the first green space in Delhi I went to, but it is a lovely garden with these beautiful tombs throughout, and last time I went a took a different turn and found their green house.
And, not only are these places pretty, but they also have some fun signs about what is/is not allowed. Like, don't smoke, don't drink, etc., but also "don't gamble" - seriously, I've seen that twice, and in Hauz Khaz where there is the sad looking pond "don't to laundry".
So, if anyone comes to Delhi and visits me, expect to see one or two, if not all three of these places and you will see the green side of the city.

If only everyone were as cool as me

Today a bit of commentary not in India or Indians but on us foreigners living here. Not to completely generalize, but most ex-Pats fall into one of three types here in India. This is somewhat true in other countries as well but it is even more noticeable here because things are so very different. The types are:
1. The people that resist being here. These people pretty much spend all of their time seeking out other foreigners to hang out with and when hanging out with them all they do is complain non-stop about India. I don't actually know why these people came to India because they seem to hate it. I have actually asked one person that very question - "why did you come here" - he had no response. It is best to avoid these people...if you happen to move here avoid them upon arrival as they like to add others to their misery. They are uncomfortable around those that actually enjoy living here. Although, I have a sneaking suspicion that these people upon returning to their home country will drop the sentence "well, back when I lived in India" quite often.
2. The people that come to India to "find themselves". Also known as hippies. They aren't seen that often in Delhi as they are usually off in an ashram somewhere. But when you do see them they are very easily recognized due to the fact that they don't dress like westerners, although they are almost always American or Canadian. Every time I see one of them I can't help but think about their parents. I figure their parents are either also hippies or they are back in the States rolling their eyes and hoping their child comes to their senses soon. They are generally very nice and very quiet and keep to themselves.
3. The super cool people. Clearly I consider myself one of this group :). This group is generally fairly well traveled and usually has lived abroad somewhere else. We don't 100% give into India as in group #2 but we also don't resent it as in group #1. We try to see and do as much as we can while here. We like living here although knowing that one day we will leave is very important to us.
And thus you have a complete generalization of the ex-Pats in India.

the day after

So Holi has come and gone and it was different than I expected, not that I knew what to expect. As instructed I stayed inside but I did spend a bit of time on my balcony seeing what was going on.
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that is was quiet, almost eerily quiet. This is a pretty noisy country so you notice when it isn't. I went and looked outside and didn't see anyone...also rather odd. Then all of a sudden I heard voices yelling and there it was, holi in action. A few kids were running away from a few other kids throwing color on them. And thus the day progressed...generally very quiet with random bits of people - mostly kids - running up and down the road either throwing color, or water balloons, or trying to dodge what was being thrown.
The way I figure it most of the adults stayed inside to avoid getting covered in color; in the office today there is only one person who clearly got doused yesterday (one of her ears is completely covered in purple paint, it looks funny); and then kids run around trying to catch people...and each other. It was kind of like Halloween, except totally different.
And of course today there are sweets because no Indian holiday is complete without sweets.
I tried to get some pictures but they didn't really come out. It was hard to get too close without putting myself in harms way. But I'll see if I can get one that is good.
I can't help but wonder at the origins of Holi. It is the celebration of color, how does something like that begin? Someone said something about the change of seasons but they don't really have spring here, but maybe it is the beginning of the harvest or something. Oh well, I guess you don't really need a reason to have fun!

Holy Holi

Tomorrow is Holi, the festival of color, here in India. What happens on Holi is people throw dried paint on each other.
Everyone has told me to stay at home tomorrow and not go out because people will also throw water and sometimes the dried paint is oily and you can't get it off.
I'm very intrigued by this holiday, I've actually been wanting to see it since I got here, which means that I will probably be disappointed, but I will try to give a full report on Thursday of what exactly this festival of color is all about.
All I know is if I do go out I will wear clothes that I don't care much about.

Living in India I am

So, first of all, to answer a comment from Dan, the word for cow in Hindi is "Gai", kind of sounds like guy. I like it when people make comments which is why he gets a special mention.
Next, hooray for daylight savings time! I am now a mere 9 1/2 hour time difference from the East Coast and 10 1/2 hours from central. Trust me, it makes a huge difference when I can call back to the US at 6:30 p.m. (when I'm usually still in the office) rather than at 7:30 (when I forget).
And finally. I had a funny experience this weekend where within a matter of 5 minutes two people said things to me in English that sounded like the way Yoda speaks. I, of course, can't remember what they said but it was something like "last night I so much danced that today tired I am". I almost laughed out loud, but restrained myself. The people I work with almost never talk in English which drives me a bit crazy, so laughing at them when they do would hardly help my cause.
From a linguistic perspective it makes sense, they put the verb last, kind of like in German or Latin, of course they also put prepositions after the noun which is where I get really confused.
Example: in English you say: I drive to work in my car. In Hindi it would be: I car in work to drive.
I'm really concerned that when I come home I'm going to talk in Indian English. I still notice almost all of the "errors" so I hope I don't talk funny.
Oh, just heard a pseudo Yoda-ism in relation to how many applications someone is sending us "So, in total six you are sending?". Good times.

sooo busy

I am suddenly sooo busy at work. The thing with India is that everything happens last minute, there is zero sense of deadlines. And a favorite thing is for people to say things have been done when they haven't been done at all. Usually this is for payments. "We sent you the check today" roughly translates to "maybe we will contemplate sending you the money at some point in time during the next month"; but we should trust them and just book all these non-refundable items. Luckily I'm not trusting because 75% of these people never send the money.
However, what this really means is that all of a sudden I have tons of work that has to get done immediately...or else. Definitely not my favorite way of working.
Usually everything works out, actually it is quite amazing how things work out, but I'm fairly certain that if people in India would actually start doing thing when they say they will do them that this country would be in amazingly better shape.
The really odd thing is that it isn't like people here are lazy, it is just that culturally this is how they work. Baffling.
Anyway, as I said I'm super busy so that is enough blogging for today.
Anyway, have a good weekend. Question...is daylight savings this weekend? We don't move time but I'm excited for everyone else to move back so I'm a bit closer in time zones. I think it might be for the US and Canada but not Europe.

bread

One thing I really miss here which I didn't expect to miss, or to even think about for that matter, is really good bread. Don't get me wrong, the naan bread is very yummy, but I'm talking about bakery bread with the good crusts, or (even better) a nice french baguette. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
See the naan bread, or some variation thereof, is pretty much the only bread you get. You can get sandwich bread but it isn't as good.
Anyway, this morning I was at the Oberoi hotel for a breakfast meeting. The Oberoi is a very swanky hotel, probably 5 stars (they have Louis Vuitton and Hermes shops in the lobby) and, like most of these super nice hotels they have super nice restaurants. Well we had breakfast in their newly opened deli and patisserie and they had good bread! and great pastries! I had a pain au chocolate (chocolate croissant), it was absolutely delicious, almost rivaling the stuff you get in France. And the cakes and other breads they had looked just amazing. I really want an excuse to go and buy a bunch of stuff (it is already hot enough here that you can't really keep breads for more than a day before you have to refrigerate them). Of course they were pretty expensive. Actually, the bread was reasonable, but the cakes were crazy expensive.
There really is no point to this post other than that I wanted to share my exciting discovery of really good bread here in Delhi. Who knew that I would ever be this excited over something so simple?

The cow jumped over the moon...or at least into the street

Two completely unrelated thoughts/comments/observations for today.
First, I don't see, or at least don't notice, the moon that often here, but for the past two night I have had a really good view of it from my living room. It is at the new moon stage but the strange thing is that rather than being a side-ways slice of the moon, like ( It is more like slice of the bottom of the moon, like a smile. I can't help but wonder if this is just the way the moon is in India? Or is it just the moon this month? Or am I imagining things. So, I ask you...what does the moon look like to you right now?
My second comment is about cows. As I've mentioned before they are trying to mooove the cows out of Delhi so I see fewer and fewer. When I got here I usually saw one or more a day, now it is maybe one a week, if not one every two weeks. Although every once in a while I will see a bunch (it makes me happier when I see a bunch together rather than one on its own, I don't want the cows to be lonely). A few weeks ago when I was going to pick up my glasses there was a big cow standing right in the middle of the market. That definitely surprised me, but she just stood there with people shopping all around and didn't move. This morning a cow ran into the street in front of us. She ran right into the middle of a fairly big intersection, literally sort of jogged through with every car just driving around her - amazing that these things don't cause accidents. I was so surprised I said "cow!" and pointed, my driver didn't even flinch, just quickly avoided her...I think he found my concern amusing. I suppose to him it is normal, to me it is just yet another reason why I would never drive here.

A day at the market...

So, I've talked in the past about markets here but I thought I would try to go into further detail since it is so very different from shopping back home. So, every neighborhood has a market and some markets have more stuff than others. A market here is basically a collection of stores, the closest thing I can relate it to is a strip mall, only the stores are (usually) very small and chock full of stuff. Usually you walk in, tell them what you want and they will collect it for you.
In my neighborhood the market is pretty small but it has the basics. There are a few "grocery stores", which means a store about the size of a pantry where I can get bread, rice, etc., etc; there is a pharmacy, a dry cleaner, an electrician. The basics. Some of the other neighborhoods have much bigger markets with more options as well as restaurants and other stores (like book stores and shoe stores). So, every other weekend I will visit one of my preferred markets.
This weekend it was Khan Market. Khan Market was actually built for the British back in the day so it has a good amount of foreign stuff. There is also a restaurant there that I really like to go to for lunch. So after lunch I went to my favorite little grocery store there, I like it because they always have the yogurts I like in stock and I buy a bunch of them (I eat yogurt here like crazy because buying milk is slightly annoying and I need my calcium - but the milk story is for another day) and, as usual, there was another foreigner shopping there. She was there with two little girls, probably around 9 or 10 years old and the mom asked the girls to pick out what type of goldfish crackers they wanted when the girls saw fruit roll ups on the shelf. The girls were so excited and were begging their mom to get them saying "fruit roll ups are so rare!". I can only imagine if I was thrilled when I saw Pop-Tarts just how exciting it must be for a kid living in India to see some of their favorite snack foods from back home.
After stocking up on my yogurts I went to try and visit two other stores. First a book store in my constant quest to find a soduku book here since I went waaay ahead on my page a day soduku calendar (interestingly there is a book store called Crosswords, yet they don't sell Crossword puzzles), only to find that the book store had closed for lunch. In Europe that happens all the time but I haven't seen that in India before. The next store I tried to go to was closed because they were at "a family event" for a few days.
Such is the saga of shopping in India, at least for me. You aren't always sure what you are going to find, and sometimes when you know what you want the store is closed for some odd reason or other, but sometimes you get pleasant surprises like, for those little girls, fruit roll-ups, or for me this weekend, finding pesto sauce - very exciting!