Monsoony fun!

On Sunday I woke up with big plans for my day...then I heard something that made me a bit concerned...rain.

See my big plan was to take lots of photos for my photography class and I was ready to go out and about nice and early before India really wakes up (and on Sunday 8 is early enough). But I was concerned that the rain would keep people inside.

But I was determined so set off. One autorickshaw ride later I was at a little coffee shop having breakfast when I heard, and then saw, a big monsoony type rain. It lasted about 10 minutes and then the rain stopped so I set out figuring I was in the clear. Mother nature had other plans...

About 20 minutes later as I'm walking trying to get good shots of the fruit/veg sellers I feel a few drops. Then a few more. Then just as I get my umbrella up - whoosh! Monsoony time. Alas I wasn't in a real market just on a street so I stood under a tree with my umbrella up guarding my camera and waited for about 20 minutes for it to pass.

It was actually quite beautiful but I was soaked from the knees down.

However...I just learned how to manage shutter speeds in my photog class so I tried to get a shot of the rain falling to give you a feel for just how strong it is. Not sure if this quite gets it across (keep in mind this was taken while I was holding an umbrella) but this is the rain fall and the second picture is about 20 minutes after the rain stopped. It can take ages to drain and some times you just have to walk through a huge puddle. I walked through a few myself.

Enjoy the monsoon:

a day in the life of me...

Saturday was one of those days that felt like 3 days in one. In many ways it was a very western day, but at the same time with an "only in India" twist. It started at a local spa. Spa isn't exactly the right word, it was in a house, just a few rooms with no frills but amazing service. I went with 2 friends (one of whom speaks Hindi fluently which was good because the girls there spoke almost no English).
I got a scalp massage (sounds weird but they know all the right pressure points here to relax you and it was awesome) and they did this hair mask thingy made with all natural ingredients including a raw egg (they whipped it up right then and there) which I must say has made my hair much happier in the past few days, and a facial and a manicure all for the whopping total of $30.
Yes, $30. I think I'll have to do this once a month 'til I go.
Then it was lunch (yummy South Indian food) and off to the book fair. The book fair was a bit overwhelming, sooo many books, it was hard to focus. I bought only two...but each of us bought 1 or 2 with a plan to lend them to each other after we are done. But it wouldn't be India if it was just another day at a book fair. Oh no. There was a book that had just been released that is apparently quite controversial and it is about the founder of Pakistan and the partition of India and Pakistan. I don't know all the details and was interested in buying it but every time we picked up the book to look at it these photographers swarmed around taking pictures of us. The author was coming later for a book signing. They were more interested in my friend (of Indian heritage) looking at the book than me, but it was still unnerving to be swarmed like that. I searched on-line to see if there were any articles about it in relation to the book fair but didn't find any.
And finally the day ended with a nice cold beer. We went to a new place (well new to me) and it was so western, the closest I've seen to a real western type bar/pub since I've gotten here. All good music (per my definition), good atmosphere too. There were tons of foreigners in there, we definitely outnumbers the Indians - they had an 'ex-pat' discount - they even served Budweiser (don't worry dad, I didn't order that).
So all in all an odd day that really could have happened anywhere but with just a few little bits of India in each place; like my 'spa' trip would have probably cost at least $150 back home; I would not have been swarmed by 4 photographers at once for picking up a book; and, well, the end was totally normal, almost too normally really, to the point where I kind of forgot that I was in India.

IT trials and tribulations

The IT department for my company is, like many IT departments, located in India. Ironically since I have moved over here I find them about a million times more difficult to deal with. When we made the switch over to IT being in India I was skeptical but it actually was a pretty big improvement. The big stuff was done in house but the small stuff the guys in India would fix really quickly.
But since coming here it has been quite a different story. First it took me 2 weeks to get them to understand which office in India I was working in. I could understand them messing up the geography of another country, but not here. And now it has taken me about a week to actually convince them that what I'm saying doesn't work really doesn't work. It is odd. I swear that if I was back in Boston or Toronto it would have been fixed by now.
I mean it is a typical Indian thing to say yes when you really mean no so even though I'm a foreigner I feel like the IT guys treat me like an Indian by saying "yeah, its all set" when it isn't, and taking 10 times longer than necessary whereas back home they would just fix it.
Funny: Even though I've been here over a year I still stick out like a foreigner and am usually treated differently by everyone; the IT guys just treat me like just another Indian and I find it annoying. I guess I'll just try and enjoy the fact that in one particular area of life in India - IT - I'm just a regular person and enjoy fitting in, even if it does take 2 weeks to get a program to open.
Aside: just found out about a big book fair in Delhi this weekend. They have good deals and I'm going with an Indian so she can haggle prices down more for me. Very exciting. I'll probably buy a hundred books.

Beauty Queens

Sorry, I've been a very bad blogger of late. I've had a touch of homesickness combined with head cold (no doubt the former was somewhat caused by the latter) which has made me unmotivated to blog. But today I'm back on track, I managed to get up for my morning walk (its been raining the past few mornings - good for the crops, bad for my mornings) my head is clear and I have some blogging to catch up on.
First, saw my hummingbird again last night. Almost caught a photo of it because my camera was on me but it makes a sound when I turn it on which caused him to flit away. One of these days I'll catch him...
Anyway...so Monday was the Miss Universe pageant. Bet you didn't even know. It was a pretty big deal here. That and Miss World too...I didn't know that there was a difference. Bollywood's most famous export (in my opinion), Aishwarya Rai, won one of them years ago, and a few other Bollywood actresses have too. Apparently if you win you are all but guaranteed a career as an actress.
Apparently a win is seen really as a win for India and its people (at least from my impressions). People are quite proud if the Indian wins.
I think it is interesting how something that is seen as kind of frivolous in one country can bring a great sense of pride to another.
Anyway, the Indian girl this year didn't win, the girl from Venezuela did. Too bad for India, but good for Venezuela I suppose.

joyful times and uckey candies

So on Sunday I had a new nephew join the world (welcome! can't wait to meet you...although I'll have to wait a bit seeing as I live pretty far away). Now in Indian tradition I should be announcing this all over the office and buying everyone candies or something. Just last week I was subjected three times to having to say no to sweets for various reasons (the sweets are pure sugar with some sort of sweetened milky thing keeping them together - I had one bite once and could barely swallow it, they are soooo sweet). One was because a guy in the office is getting married so he passed them around; another was for a birthday so the birthday boy brought them in (although kudos to him for just doing the sweets because usually everyone in the office forces the person whose birthday it is to buy the office lunch); and another was for a birth of a baby some how related to the person.
Seeing as I don't like these candies and don't want to further increase the tooth decay of my coworkers I kept my news to myself. Plus seeing as it is a boy I would have had to go all out and probably would have had to buy lunch.
But I wondered, why it is that when something good happens to someone they have to buy things for other people. So I asked a friend who is Canadian but has Indian parents (actually asking an Indian could insult them so she is one of my two go-to people for questions about Indian traditions) and there is an explanation. Turns out that there is a pretty strong belief in the evil eye here and you don't want people to get jealous of good things that happen to you. So when something good happens to you by giving gifts to others they won't be jealous of your good fortune. Of course they could avoid all of this by simply not announcing at the top of their lungs when something good happens but then half the candy stores in India would go bankrupt.
I discovered something else interesting last night at my photography class. One of the women took lots of photos of Indian children and quite often the very young ones, under 2 or 3, will have black around their eyes, looks like kohl. Turns out that is done so that children will not be as attractive because if you are perfect or too attractive as a child then something bad will happen to you.
Some Indian traditions I like, both of these I'm not a fan of...although I do admit that if I liked the candies they had here I could very well change my opinion on the first tradition...but I like cute babies and think that nothing should be done to make them less cute.

Coconuts and bicycles

My final picture for the week. I haven't taken even one photo for next week. I'm too stressed about it. I shouldn't be, I mean this class is for fun, right?
Anyway, this photo is two of my favorite things in Delhi; click on it for a better view. On the left you have a big pile of coconuts. They are for sale, people drink the coconut water. I've had some coconut water (from the coconut with a straw in it - so funny), didn't love it but didn't hate it, didn't really have a feeling about it. But I love that a little under a year ago this coconut guy set up "shop" in this one spot and has been there every day since selling his coconuts. No clue where he was at this exact moment though but no one seemed to want to steal a coconut from him, although it was quite early and I was one of the few people out and about.
On the right is a boy on a bicycle that is chock full of brooms. He is likely on his way to a local community and will bike around selling them to maids, or delivering them to a market, although more likely he sells them himself. I love it when I see people on bikes like this; it amazes me that they can a. get so much on the bike and b. actually see where they are going! Hopefully one of these days I'll catch one of the bikes where they are carrying baskets...they are piled a mile high, it is amazing. You don't see them very often though.
So here is your Friday photo. Enjoy the weekend:

Corruption Tirade

Sometimes the level of corruption in this country just annoys me to absolutely no end. I honestly and truly believe that until they fix this corruption problem that India will never be able to truly be a player with other major power countries. I mean I know that lots of politicians are corrupt but here everyone at every level of government is corrupt.
How bad can it really be, you are asking? Well, while here I have had to apply for my Indian equivalent of an SSN (SIN for Canadians) so I filled out the form and paid the fee and then waited and waited. Nothing, apparently they lost the form. So I filled out the form again and paid the fee and waited. I then found out the application was rejected because my passport has my middle name but my proof of address doesn't so they couldn't be sure that I was the same person. Odd since I'm the only Alison I've come across in India, who knew there were so many that I could be faking it?
So I filled out the form again with a different proof of address with my middle name and paid the fee and waited. This form was rejected because my signature wasn't "in the box". See there is a box for your signature and this box has a line in it so I signed on the line - which was wrong. No one could explain why there was a line if you aren't supposed to sign on it so clearly it was just a fake reason to reject me.
So finally I refused to deal with it and made my rather incompetent accountant fix it. So he filled out the form and the company paid the fee and I signed not on the line and then he brought the form in. Yesterday I got my card with the number. The difference this time? Apparently some extra cash was slipped to the guy at the counter who processes the form.
That is 100% India. 3 times I did everything exactly correct and they came up with bogus reasons to reject me for something they are legally required to do just because they wanted a bribe. Drives me insane. I mean really, how on earth do they expect anyone to take any government worker seriously if a desk clerk requires a bribe to do their job?
The worst part is that absolutely no one here thinks that this is weird or wrong, it just is the way.
Grrrrrrr, so annoying.
So that is my quick tirade on corruption for the day. I feel better having gotten that out.

picture time

So...my homework for my next photography class has me really nervous. We each came up with topics based on the photos we had taken. There were two themes to my photos; one being the obviously beautiful things, like flowers and monuments and deer, and the other being the photos of people who work on the streets and sidewalks; like the "barber" who has a chair and a mirror and sits on the sidewalk giving shaves and haircuts all day - very common to see; or the "shoe wallah" who sits in his spot repairing shoes all day. Ultimately it was decided that I would focus on those people; people whose "shop" is a spot on the sidewalk. And...I have to use a mirror - we are playing with light and stuff this week. Hmmm, should be interesting.

But, before I delve into the lives of these people here are some of my other photos. The first is from the deer park fairly close to where I work, I had heard about it and went searching for it expecting there to be 2 or 3 deer. I didn't find it and then suddenly one day got lost and saw some deer behind a fence and realized that there must be a hundred of them. Very cool. Now I sometimes visit them while I'm on my lunch break . The second took me about 20 photos to get just right - I was playing with focus, and I really like it; it is taken at the same garden as yesterday's photo was taken.

the un-4th and cutting grass

I'm very happy that I decided to take Friday off in honor of Indian Independence day (which was Saturday) because pretty much everything was closed on Saturday. I stayed in because I figured it would be like the 4th of July back home with everyone out and about and I would just be annoyed by the volume of people. Turns out it is pretty much the exact opposite of the 4th. For some reason I don't remember the holiday last year at all, probably because I had just recently gotten my cast off so wasn't that mobile and was more focused on that. Anyway, from what I can tell pretty much everyone stays in; and it was a dry day the day before and day of so you couldn't drink. It was oddly quiet, I was happy on Sunday when things got nice and noisy again.

Anyway...on my Friday adventures I went to my favorite place in Delhi, Lodhi (or Lodi) Gardens to take photos for my photography class. Now that I'm taking this class I will likely be posting lots of pictures (note the new flower photo for my profile taken this weekend). I had a few ideas of what I wanted to take but mostly was just playing it by ear. Well, I saw something I haven't seen before here - and that is saying something - I saw men cutting grass by hand. Seriously. It was amazing. The really odd thing is that later I saw someone using a lawnmower (the oldest lawnmower I've ever seen) but I think that the mower only works on flat grass because these men were cutting on a hilly uneven surface.

It was tricky to get a photo without making it obvious that I was taking a picture of them but I did manage to click a few frames and here it is (as always, best if you click on it to see it full screen):

butterfly in the stairs

After my blue-bee sighting, and because I'm now taking a photography class, I actually have been bringing my camera with me every day. My homework assignment for my photography class this week is to take pictures of things you either love or hate about Delhi and India. Am trying to figure out how to get a good photo of traffic to represent things I hate but the honking is actually what drives me batty and that doesn't come through in a photo.

Anyway...one of the things I love about Delhi (and India) is the randomness of things; that I have 3 times seen elephants in the street, that people sell coconuts on the streets and people put a straw in the top and drink the coconut water, etc., etc. But the problem with random things is that they are, in fact, random, so how do you catch them in a photo?

Well last night as I'm walking up the stairs to my apartment there was a butterfly sitting on the stairs. So I very quietly grabbed my camera (which luckily was in my bag) and took about 20 photos...playing with all different sorts of light and this is what I've got. Not the best because the background is sort of blah, but still you can see that this is a very beautiful butterfly just chilling out on the stairs at my place - very cool.

surreal moments

So I just had one of those "I can't believe this is my life" moments. See my maid usually comes while I'm at work but because I went into work late today we overlapped. So while I'm sitting on my sofa reading a book she came in and did my dishes and made my bed, etc., etc. Then when I did go to work right as I got downstairs my driver pulled up and I got in the car to be driven to work. At which point I laughed to myself and just thought - what a life! I mean it isn't all glamour (see the power outages) but I'm going to be in big trouble when I leave India. I'll have to do my own dishes, my own laundry, and clean again. I have definitely gotten used to having that all done for me. And while I do miss driving I also like being driven - I never have to worry about finding a parking spot - how nice is that!
Well at least I haven't gone totally Indian, I mean I don't have a cook and if I want a soda in the middle of the day I walk to the little store 10 meters away rather than sending someone to get it for me (yes, people do that, no exaggeration); but I must say that it is a rare day when it actually occurs to me just how odd this life...I think I should try to remember that more often so I don't totally freak out when I go back to the real world.

discovery

I have recently made a discovery which explains a lot. We have once again been having a lot of power outages. Last summer the power would go out every other day or so for a 1/2 hour, maybe 1 hour. This June the power was going out all the time. When I got back from my vacation in July things were back to normal (read: like last summer) but just recently the number of outages has increased a LOT. Like on Friday night between 8p.m. and 1 a.m I think I had power for a total of 2 hours...and given the heat and humidity that made for some very hot hours. Last night it went out for exactly an hour from 11:06 to 12:06 which makes me think it was timed...something that is done here apparently; rolling blackouts. But then it went off again at 3 a.m. for a 1/2 hour and woke me up (the AC makes a weird noise when the power goes out that wakes me up).
So what is my discovery and why does it have anything to do with power outages? Well apparently a lot of the electricity in India is hydro generated and since the monsoon was super late we had lots of issues with power in June; and then the monsoon came but has been pretty lame (although right now we are having an awesome downpour) so there is less hydro power and people are still using the same amount of AC if not more because you don't get the once a day cool-down (wow...it just got super dark too...the monsoons are so cool).
So I will continue to sweat away in the power outages and continue to pray that the monsoon will pick up so we can avoid these outages...and I will also hope that the power will stop going out while I'm in the shower because it is really difficult to light a match when you are dripping wet.

art anyone?

Sorry I disappeared there, took a sick day and then was playing catch up. But now am back to being myself again, hooray!
This weekend, or rather this Saturday, I went back to the Museum of Modern Art. I love this museum and had told a friend about it and she wanted to go so I was happy to go again. I found out about the museum totally by accident, I noticed it when driving by it and while I'm not a huge fan of modern art I thought Indian modern art could be very interesting. Turns out it is quite interesting as it is, for the most part, much less abstract than western modern art, which I like.
What was also really interesting is that both times I have been to the museum it has been practically empty. The first time there were maybe 10 people there and this time about 20...both times were Saturdays; this after having been to the MOMA in May and having to wait in line for tickets it was so busy (of course that was a Monday when the Met was closed...but I'm sure even on a normal day it would be packed).
Gross generalization time: I've noticed that Indians tend to put very little value on art. They do study it in elementary school and you can take lessons but the pressure is to do well in the sciences to become a doctor or an engineer. I've asked two people about this; one Indian and one a Canadian with Indian parents, and they agree. I think it is quite unfortunate. I feel that people are missing out on so much because they are so focused on getting a certain job or having a certain title.
I think it is also so unfortunate that this amazing art is sitting there in a city of over 10 million and that maybe 100 people go and see this art on a Saturday. I'm busy telling everyone I can that they should go and check it out because it should be seen, I just wish I had discovered it earlier.

another random holiday

Indians do love celebrating things. This month we have a few more random holidays.
Sunday was "friendship day". Not a holiday but everyone went around to everyone else in the office on Friday AND Monday and said "happy friendship day". They might as well have said - happy day that gives me an excuse to put off working.
Today is Raksha Bandhan; the brother/sister festival. This is a Hindu festival but like most (in my non-official survey) seems to be celebrated by some people but not all and not only by Hindus. We have about 7 (out of 25) people working today. There are so many of these pseudo-holidays that we only have 5 official holidays in our office and then people get 5 floating holidays to take off the days that they celebrate.
From what I know of this holiday brothers and sisters tie a red string on each others wrist which is a symbol of protection. You may notice an Indian person with a red string on their wrist from time to time; for men it is on the right wrist and women the left...or vice versa...but I do know that they are opposite wrists; I've asked a bunch of people and no one knows why it is that way, it just is. I had one on my wrist from last divali but it fell off some time this summer. Usually I see them more on men, I guess all the sisters put the strings on the brothers but the brothers not so much on the sisters. Hmmm, tomorrow I'll check out everyone's wrists.
Oh and this holiday is also an excuse to buy lots of candies, the candy shops...sweet shops here...have set up extra tables to sell extra sweets. I personally find the Indian sweets waaay too sweet - they are pretty much pure sugar - so I hope that none make it in to the office this time because I really offend people when I say no thanks but either that or I toss it out.
Next Friday is apparently Lord Krishna's birthday and Sunday is Independence day so it will be a long weekend of lots of celebrating various and sundry things.
So in honor of the brother/sister holiday thingy I say Hi! to my brothers and sisters from afar :)

stranger in a strange land

Every once in a while I feel so completely out of place here and other times I feel completely at home here. This weekend was an odd combination of both of those feelings.
On Saturday I had a great lunch out with a friend at a newly discovered restaurant and then went to one of my favorite museums. I was out and about in the city; not even thinking twice about asking a cop for directions to the market the restaurant was in (which, while a great find, was remarkably difficult to find) and had fun showing my friend around the museum. I didn't even think it was odd when suddenly 40 (literally) cows started walking across traffic in front of us; my first thought was not how odd it was that 40 cows were suddenly walking in front of us but rather that I really hoped it wouldn't cause a traffic jam.
It didn't. Indian drivers are quite adept at getting around cows.
Aside: there was one little baby calf - it was so cute!
Aside #2: it occurred to me later in the day that 40 cows strolling through traffic is not normal.
And then yesterday everything made me feel out of place. I suppose it started while I was waiting for an autorickshaw and a man came up to me and asked me if I was foreign (ummm, yeah!) and then asked to talk to me because he "had never seen a foreigner before". Highly unlikely and a rather bad pick up line. Luckily an autorickshaw pulled up and I jumped in it very quickly and willingly overpaid by 20 rupees.
Then I had two beggars come up to me and actually grab at me - which never happens! I know this sounds strange but usually the beggars here can tell that I'm a 'local' of sorts so will ask once for money then move on; knowing that with real tourists if they keep asking they will probably get money but with those of us that live here either we give right away or not at all.
And then when I got to the mall I had another man come up to me wanting to talk to me. He said he remembered me from the British High Commission to which I (probably rudely in retrospect) said that I'm not British so that is highly unlikely.
There were a series of other things that happened that just made me feel like I didn't belong here. I haven't felt that way in a long time; I guess that after over a year I figured I wouldn't have that feeling any more but India is very very different so I suppose it is only natural that I feel that way sometimes. I suppose it is actually more odd that most days I don't feel out of place.