Weekend in Goa

After learning on a Wednesday that we had the upcoming Monday off for Gandhi's birthday, I decided to take a trip to Goa. Goa is an Indian state on the coast of the Arabian Sea. It's known for wild and crazy beach parties....unless, of course, you go there during the rain season. In that case, the way to have fun is to ride around the beautiful countryside in a rented scooter, and drink beer in beach shacks all day.

My 3-day weekend turned into a 5-day weekend when I tried to check out of my hotel and learned they did not accept credit cards. As it was clear that I didn't have enough time to get to the town's ATM machine and back, plus the hour-long drive to the airport in time for my flight (the only one of the day); I changed my return flight to Weds, because there was a big strike across Bangalore that day and work was cancelled anyway. Later on that day, I trekked through the rain to get to the ATM in town, and it ate my card - leaving me with no cash. Then I realized my cell phone wasn't working because it got so wet from the rain. Plus they don't sell or serve beer or alcohol anywhere on Gandhi's birthday. It was a rough day.






pouring rain
















passing time on the beach
















same as above













my buddies, charles and sten














scooting around Goa















stuck in the rain

Mytrip to Mysore

As I left work this past Saturday afternoon, I got a text message from a friend, Umer (an entrepreneur from London), asking if i was interested in leaving town for the night. As there's not much to do in Bangalore aside from the nightlife, I enthusiastically said yes. An hour later, I met up with Umer and his colleague, Reddy, in a bar to look through travel books and pick a destination.

Time passes quickly when you're reading travel books and drinking beer, so as it started getting dark, we decided on the closest option: the small town of Mysore, only three hours away. So we hired a car with driver, and were on our way.







Thinking hard about the plans...by the way, i'm in the process of growing my hair long



















Umer, enjoying the drive up














Reddy, doing the same












Leaving Bangalore












This is an amazing phenomenon in India...if you stop to ask someone directions, within about two minutes, you'll be surrounded by 10-15 people trying to help you.












Cows love Mysore















The palace at night














Getting directions home from a new friend














Treating ourselves to brunch in a palace after spending the night in a ratty hotel room

















"Oy! Check this geee-zah out!" (that's how they speak in London)











the happiest tiger in the world...I heard they like being confined to a 30 sq. foot area












































Don't be fooled by this guy's adorable outfit and bright smile...that fiberglass stick he's holding is designed to crack your skull
















travelling around via donkey...these things normally hold about 6 Indians













the palace















the palace courtyard













the two coolest kids in the world

ganesh chaturthi hangover photos

Pictures of the pumped out lake where the ganesha's are submerged:

The past two weeks:

I haven't posted in a while for a couple reasons; mainly because I got really tired of carrying my camera around (it's bulky and makes me feel like a tourist). Then it occured to me that my audience is probably far too sophisticated to care about pictures....So here's a picture-less recap of some highlights from the past two weeks:

- I solved the mystery of what happens to all the Ganesha dolls that are shoved into the lake. I decided to walk home along the lake the other day, and became overwhelmed by the stench of sewage as I passed the tank section. All the water had been pumped out of the tank, leaving only thick black mud in the bottom - and piled up about three or four feet high along the sides (the source of the smell). There were also what seemed like hundreds of plaster lord ganesha's covered in the smelly mud along the side, I would guess, waiting to be picked up and refurbished for the next season.

- Work has been going pretty well, in that it's kicking my butt and I'm learning a ton. There were questions raised among some staff members about whether or not I'm qualified to do this work since I don't understand the Indian context. I was nervous that my work would be derailed for a bit, but it now seems like we are back on track and moving forward.

- I was waking up every morning with a sore throat (probably a reaction to the air pollution here), so I went to see a doctor. After a 30 second wait with no paperwork, I was sitting across from a doctor. Then came the bill: 40 rupees - that's about 80 cents in USD. Even when I do my purchasing power adjustment (10 rupees = purchasing power of 1 dollar) that still means I got to visit a doctor for $4.....How is this possible? Seeing that same Indian doctor in the US would have cost a minimum of 20x more. On a related note, I read somewhere today that 38% of doctors in the US are of Indian descent....also 34% of Microsoft employees and 28% of IBM employees

- I met the tallest white man in Bangalore at a night club, the one I saw a few weeks earlier. Turns out he's not French, but German...I think his name was Hans. Our conversation went like this:
me: Hey! you're the tallest white guy in Bangalore!
Hans: yes, I am.
me: Man, I was sure that I'd be the tallest white guy around here...
sss: Sorry to dissapoint.
me: yeah, it's cool...soo...airplanes rides suck, eh?

- I was sitting on a park bench reading last Sunday, and I got approached by some some guy with a big smile, offering me 10 rupees if I would pose for a picture with his 5 year old daughter. Since I was having a good day and feeling generous, I let him do it for free.

that's all i've got for now...I'm glad to see you made it to the end, despite the lack of pictures...I promise to do a better job of updating this in the future!

How I survived a near-attack by a band of wild monkeys....

After taking a tour of the farm (see below), we had a meeting with a man in the nearby village. As we leave the house, we see a monkey sitting on top of our SUV. I thought this was the coolest thing, until somebody said "oh no! they're all inside!" Sure enough, one of the truck windows was left open and there was about ten wild monkeys bouncing around inside. The driver pounded on the closed windows, and the monkeys jumped out and into a tree next to the car.

But as we went to get into the car, the monkeys snapped and got really aggressive towards us - hissing, and showing their teeth. We kind of backed away, and then noticed that one of the baby monkeys was having a hard time finding it's way out of the car, and the older ones were just trying to keep us away.

On a side note, if you ever get a chance to ask a person who grew up in rural India about their monkey stories, I strongly suggest you do.





These are the actual monkeys that had a problem with us...the top pic is actually from the internet, but pretty representative - kind of like a dramatic reenactment

Organic Farmin'

On Friday, I was able to take a trip into the field to see one of Svaraj's projects - an experimental organic farm about an hour outside of Bangalore.

The goal of this project is to create a model that other farmers can follow. The farm is able to uses minimal amounts of water, engages in "mixed cropping" to help the soil maintain its nutrients (as opposed to the popular cash-cropping where a farmer specializes in one crop with a high economic value) and, of course, does not use any pesticides or chemicals, which made it slightly ironic that I was covered with DEET for the trip (because I've stopped taking my malaria meds).

Thus far, it seems like the farm will have a pretty high yield, and the experiment looks like it will be successful. Furthermore, farmers in the area have been very supportive of the experiment and cooperative in sharing their yield info as a control group.








Our crew













This pit was dug to catch rain water
















Some natural fertilizer












Mixed croppin'














Cherry tomatoes

And Ganesh Chaturthi rolls on...

I stumbled on some more Ganesh Chaturthi festivities on my walk home from work today. There were big crowds of people surrounding a lake holding Lord Ganesha dolls. The dolls were made of clay, brightly painted, and between 3 and 8 feet tall. People would walk the dolls into the water, dip them a few times, then push them face-up into the middle of the lake, where they gracefully sank to the bottom. I know that the immersion ceremony is called "visjaran", but I don't know the meaning of it, or what happens to all the clay ganesha's at the bottom of the lake.

So...does this make me Hindu?

So I'm laying in bed this morning, trying to sleep in and until my hangover wore off, when I get a knock on my door. It was 6 of the guys that work at my service apartment, coming to wish me a happy Ganesh Chaturthi (the day that Lord Ganesh makes his presence on earth for all his devotees).

The one guy who speaks a little english offered me a treat from a box of what appeared to be cookies and other Indian desserts, and then passes a silver cup of some type of red sauce in it. As I go to dip my cookie in it, and they start laughing and yell: no! no! no! it goes on forehead!

All in all, it was a pretty cool experience, and I'm pretty sure that I haven't oficially converted religions...not that there's anything wrong with Hinduism, I'm just not into making that big of a commitment right now.










Lord Ganesha

My Job

I got very lucky with my work situation here. I'm doing exactly the kind of work I want to be doing, I really like the people I work with, and it for as good of a cause as any.

The organization I'm working with is called Svaraj (a Hindi word translating roughly to "self-governance" - www.svaraj.info). It used to be the Indian branch of Oxfam Great Britain, but severed itself a few years back to become an entirely Indian organization. It's primary function is project management - big philanthropic organizations and individual donors will give Svaraj money to complete a project. Svaraj, in turn, finds a smaller NGO to handle the implementation of the project, but keeps the management responsibility and accountability towards the funders. It also does a bit of issue-based research and advocacy. The current projects are in the areas of water management (a real big issue out here), disaster relief in Tamil Nadu (the tsunami from a few years ago) and Gujarat (the earthquake in the same year), and the environment.

I was originally supposed to create a business plan for them - a plan describing where and how they were going to secure enough funding to make them sustainable - but as I started this task, it became more and more apparent that they need an overall strategic plan more than anything else. So now, I get to work on the whole deal - the mission/visioning process, the internal/external analysis, and development of the goals and objectives for the organization. It's great because it fits perfectly with my plans to work in management consulting.








My desk.

I am not the tallest white man in Bangalore

I swear I saw a white guy taller than me last night...He must have been like like 6'9 and, man - he looked sooo goofy and out of place!

He was speaking French though, so I'm not sure if he counts....

Rickshaws

The primary mode of travel around town for most people is by rickshaw. They have three wheels, go about 15 mph max, and are small enough to slide in between lanes when there's heavy traffic. They are generally pretty cheap too, provided you're not white, a woman, or I guess a foreigner or any other sort.


Pretty much without fail, my interactions with rickshaw drivers go sometihng like this:

Me: Hi, can you take me to Basyram Circle in Sadashiva Nagar?
Rickshaw Driver: Ok, 100 rupees
Me: I want to use the meter (knowing the ride should only cost 40 or 50 rupees)
RD: No, my friend...Sadashiva Nagar is very far, I won't get a return trip.
Me: I want to use the meter
RD: 80 rupees
Me: [sigh] I want to use the meter
RD: Ok, 1.5 fare - I show you the palace on the way.
Me: [starting to get out of the rickshaw] So you're not going to use the meter?
RD: My friend!
Me: Ok [stand up outside of the rickshaw]
RD: Ok, ok - sadashiva nager, ok - what country? what country?

And that's the charade that goes on just about every time I take a rickshaw. It reminds me of Will Ferrell's character in Austin Powers that refuses to answer a question unless he's asked it three times. It's not that big of a problem, the drivers will usually agree to just charge you the metered rate eventually, the whole process is just a little tiring.