Ian's Adventures in India

Weekend in Goa

2006-10-18T04:09:00.000+10:30

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

2006-09-28T23:57:00.000+10:30

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

2006-09-28T23:48:00.000+10:30

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

The past two weeks:

2006-09-21T03:55:00.000+10:30

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....

2006-09-02T21:04:00.000+10:30

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'

2006-09-02T20:23:00.000+10:30

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...

2006-08-29T04:21:00.000+10:30

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?

2006-08-27T23:20:00.000+10:30

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

2006-08-25T03:25:00.000+10:30

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

2006-08-23T16:36:00.000+10:30

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

2006-08-21T03:27:00.000+10:30

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.

The Apartment Hunt

2006-08-20T07:00:00.000+10:30

After a long search and a lot of help from friends and friends-of-friends, I finally found an apartment that I'm happy with. I was originally planning to find something as cheap as possible - However, I was repeatedly told that I wouldn't be able to stay anywhere - I needed find a place that would be up to my Western standards. I thought that was nonsense until I started seeing some apartments. There's no way I could have been happy sharing a room with a twin-sized bed to sleep in, no hot water, frequent power outages, squatting toilets, and some pretty serious bugs crawling around. Needless to say, the amount I was willing to pay shot up after seeing a couple of places with that description.

My apartment is running me around $300/mo, but I think it is well worth it. It's a service apartment, which means it comes fully furnished and with a few other amenities - internet, breakfast (a very nice old man that cooks anything you want for breakfast every morning), laundry service, and cable tv. It's also in a neighborhood that has been most frequently described to me as "posh" - a word they really like to use in India. Lastly, my location is only about a 20 minute walk from work (providing I don't get lost), which I am thrilled about.

The apartment hunt helped me realize how different the standards of living are here. Yes, everything here is much cheaper than in the U.S., but you still kind of get what you pay for. Another example is the food - while the 20 cent lunch I eat here is delicious; the ingredients probably weren't refridgerated, the vegetables probably have pesticides on them, prepared food is with bare hands, and all the water used in the preparation (cooking and cleaning) of the meal is mildly contaminated. That meal would be considered unsanitary and deemed unacceptable in America. This point probably should have been obvious, but I guess that without an alternative for comparison, I hadn't thought much about the standards I have. The good news is that it seems like people are able to adapt (expectations get lower, stomachs get stronger, etc.).

Goodbye America

2006-08-19T23:44:00.000+10:30

What started off as a stressful day (believe it or not, I left all the packing for a five-month trip to the morning I left) got considerably worse when I put on the news to to see a reporter live at JFK, telling how the airports were complete chaos because the UK had foiled a terror plot during the night.

It ended up not being that big of a deal - I wasn't allowed any carry-on baggage except for a clear plastic bag (plus no ipod, which was significant), but the airport went pretty smoothly and the flight, although very long (about 28 hours jfk-london-delhi-mumbai-bangalore) was without a hitch.

The only things i found interesting were 1. the stewardesses all wore saris, 2. they also walked up and down the aisles "disinfecting" the plane of something - they assured us the spray was not harmful 3. a guy sitting next to me for only an hour and a half (the delhi-mumbai leg) gave me his contact info and insisted I get in touch with him if I should make it up to north India 4. I was alarmed to see multi-storied shacks full of people not even 50 yards from the wings of the airplane in Mumbai

After landing in Bangalore, I get into a cab and had my first introduction to Indian traffic - the congestion and chaos of the roads was instantly overwhelming for me. As I reached to put my seatbelt on, the cab driver grabbed my arm and said "there's no need, my friend...you're in India now."
Right...