Happy reading, first full week
Settle down and relax and enjoy this reading.
I will recap, the hotel is very nice. Its located in an area called New Friends Colony, have not found why is called that but once I do will pass it along. I’m in a corner room on the 4th floor. I have a view of the Lotus Temple, which I believe is a Bahai temple. I plan on visiting there tomorrow, Saturday.
I have a ledge in a window, I was fortunate to have been waken up at 6a on Tuesday by a bird that sounded like a hawk. I got up to see what it was, well it was a hawk and it was eating his breakfast a nice juice mouse. YUK.
I stood there looking at it thinking, turn away you idiot that’s gross. Well I guess the survival of the strongest and fastest, and guess who lost. Not sure if it’s the same hawk but its been back everyday around the same time, and if you’re wondering. I have not gotten up to look, I know what its doing.
I also have a little patio that I am sure was used at some point, but they have sealed the door so it cannot be opened.
The commute to work everyday is not for the faint at heart, the cars get so close to each other you can touch the driver or passenger on the car next to you. There are
auto-rickshaws everywhere, motorcycles weaving around the cars, bicycles that think they are cars and jay-walkers galore. Well actually I would not call it jay-walking, is more of like crossing the street no matter what. Speaking of my commute, I saw an elephant in the street when I was going to work.
I am not kidding. That is one of those moments that make you say HMMMMM, this is India. J
I saw a truck with a bumper sticker that said, how am I driving, please call and it had a number. I thought, if I could get my hand peeled from the door handle and my mobile works, I would call. That’s when I wondered, why do they bother painting lines on the streets to make lanes, drivers make their own lanes.
On the way to work you can see people living on the sidewalks, street vendors selling lots of fruits and fruit juices. They look awfully tempting, but that is one adventure I will not explore. There also lots of street hairdressers, guys can get a shave and a haircut. Too bad for me, I got my haircut before I left Phoenix, and I like to shave in the privacy of the bathroom. J
There was dust storm the other night, it cooled down the weather just a bit. There was a howling noise and I got up to see what it was, and when I looked out the window it was good old fashion dust storm. The howling sound was from the keyhole opening on my patio door.
On Wednesday going back to the hotel from work I noticed something. I could look right at the sun without my sunglasses and it did not bother my eyes, I felt like I was looking at the moon but it was the sun.
The power keeps going out, not for long, only for about a minute. Kinda makes leary of taking the elevator. Oh and that reminds me, the lights at the office also go out, every once in a while. The first time it happened, I was like HELLO! What’s going on, everyone did not even flinch, they kept about their business. Then the lights came back on, and it was as if nothing happened. I asked Anoop, one of my team members and he said this happens often. When this happens it gets really dark in the floor, specially since we are in the basement and have no windows.
Let me talk a bit about my 1st driver, Rakesh. He was a nice old gent, but spoke no English, or so he told me. I asked him the first day if he spoke English and he said no. That made me wonder, is he kidding with me? So went along for 2 days, he picked me up from the hotel and took me to work, no problem. I then asked him I would need him to work Wednesday night as I was going to meet with Cathy Nicholls, a Director from GTFO ( Global Travel Financial Operations ) that works in Gurgaon. My BL said I should reach out to her and get the non local view of Delhi, anyway I’ll talk about Cathy later.
When I asked Rakesh if he could work, I was not sure if he got it or not, that worried me. I reminded him again on the day I needed him and again I got worried. I asked my TL Amit to call him and remind him, what he did was talk to the office admin who booked the car and driver and ask if I could get a driver that spoke some English. That was the end of Rakesh, I felt so bad for he guy I did not want him fired, but is better to have someone I can communicate.
The admin left for the day and did not give me the number for the new driver, so I had to call the hotel and have them pick me up. I also asked the driver from the hotel to work the night and take me to Cathy’s house.
Back to Cathy, she is super cool and I also met her companion, at this time I cannot remember his name L I will have to ask her on Monday. Cathy gave me directions to her house and this is what she sent me. “When you arrive at Vasant Vihar , look for E block market. There is normally a walls ice cream seller on the corner. ( should be on your right side) Turn right at the seller, (street hairdresser on your left) through the gates
(past the cows) turn immediately right, go straight until end of road and
then turn left, house 100 yards on right.”
I could not stop laughing when I read her directions.
Oh yeah this reminds me, cows are everywhere. There was one causing a traffic jam in from of the office on Wednesday.
I visited for a few hours, had some delicious appetizers and Indian beer. She gave me some good information and we also talked about going to brunch before I left.
She has a gorgeous 2 story house and a really cool rooftop terrace where they built a badminton court. I loved it.
Here is a bit of information Cathy gave me about the people that live in sidewalks. The reason they do live there is, the exhaust fumes from the cars kills the mosquitos, they would not be attacked out in the open, and of course because they are poor.
My new driver Ramesh is nice, he has 2 children a 4 year old boy and girl that is only 1 week old. He also speaks English.
My team and I went to out to lunch to celebrate our good scores in the interim survey, we actually came to my hotel. They have a wonderful buffet lunch. This was funny, as I sat to eat my food I looked up and there several team members looking at me, they smiled and asked me, do you like? I smiled back and said yes. They are worried I’m going to get sick. This also reminds me we’re having a potluck on Thursday, they’ve asked me to bring dessert. They also assured me the food they’re bringing will not make me sick, someone said the food is hygienic, I laughed, and said Thank you.
Lunch has been a bit challenging, the team did not recommend I eat the food brought in since its too greasy, so I’ve bought pizza twice. I will have to get more creative, maybe I could order something from the hotel and they can deliver it in the AM before I left. I have not had a chance to find this out.
Thursday my team had a monthly call with the Phoenix team to update on current projects, as they talked about mine one of the Phoenix people said, “before Louis left for his 6 month rotation in India, we went over the information he needed to know for his project” I sat there and said, excuse me 6 weeks not 6 months, right????
They all started laughing. I sat thinking, is not funny!!!!!!!
Friday was an exciting day, I went to Gurgaon and worked on my project and visited with my QC counterparts for a while. This is the team that worked really hard with me last in reducing the Mexico errors from 40% to 14%.
The commute was about 45 minutes, Gurgaon surprised me with all the companies that have offices there, and all the high rise apartments. I thought this place was a small town and American Express was the only company there. I felt bad for Ramesh as he waited outside for me ALL DAY LONG. What he did was sit under a tree with the other drivers and talk. It was at least 105 all day, and he still had a smile when he met me in front of the building to bring me back. I met all the teams that I interact with on a daily basis, and shared some good ideas with the QC team. I went out to lunch with Swati who is the TL for the QC team and Maya who is an analyst. They took me to this restaurant that specializes on cuisine based from country side Indian villages. We had the following:
Chach - This is plain yogurt, blended with water, salt and coriander leaves.
Murgh - This is chicken in Hindi, with a brown sauce filled with spices.
Allo Matar - Potatoes with peas in a sauce.
Moon Dal with Spinach - I think that was lentls with spinach
Itla - Little dough balls made of wheat flour soaked on a sugar and water solution.
Buttered Nan - Indian bread.
My stomach was doing well until I got to the hotel, and OH MY GOD!!!!!
Imodium here I come, WOOF.
Saturday, my first full day of touring in Delhi. I told Ramesh to pick me up at 1030a and take me around. The first place he took me was the White Temple, or Lotus Temple. I could not take pictures inside, so I sat inside and wrote the following.
“I am sitting in the White Temple or Lotus Temple, is about 1110a. I had to take my shoes off even to get close to the temple. Boy am I glad I wore socks today, if I didn’t I would have like 2nd degree burns on the sole of my feet. Looks like the structure is made of marble and cement, even the seats are made of marble but the backs of the seats made of a very ornate wood carvings. The echo in here is amazing, there are 3 girls singing or chanting and with the acoustics in here their voices seem to go right through your soul. At the very top of this structure there is an opening covered with a star made of gold, in the star there are slates for windows. Its amazing.
I just noticed is not hot in here, there is no AC, however is comfortable. There is a rainbow of colors on all the beautiful saris the women are wearing. There are birds singing inside and their songs make this place even more spectacular. What I’m thinking is, imagine what it would be like to be inside a lotus flower.”
At this point I put my notebook away and sat there relaxing, and enjoying this place.
Ramesh then took me to Qutab Minar, a soaring tower built in 1193. This place was surrounded by beautiful stone architectures, I did take pictures and I will send them out soon. From there he took to Indira Gandhis Memorial Musem, that was moving. They had in display the actual Sari she wore when she was shot, and still had the blood stains. The path she walked on prior to her shooting is covered in crystal, there is one spot where there is a clear glass bottle is where she collapsed.
While I was there I bought a little book about Gandhi “ A pinch of salt Rocks an Empire” I remembered this from the movie Gandhi, which I will have to get now.
After the museum I started feeling a little light headed, but I did not want to stop touring. Ramesh then took me to India Gate. This is magnificent structure which reminds me of the way the Washington monument is set to the Capitol building. India gate is a war memorial arch built in honor of 90K Indian soldiers who lost their lives in WWI. Below it burns the Amar Jawan Jyoti, the eternal flame in tribute to all martyred soldiers of India. I also took pictures of this monument.
At this point I was not feeling well, lightheaded, and extremely hot. I still had to Red Fort to visit and that was a huge place, all outside. I knew I would not make it, I told Ramesh to take me back to the hotel. I only toured for 4 hours, the heat today was unbearable the humidity was unbelievable. I was soaked mess, to top it all I had long jean pants because some places I read do not allow shorts. Ramesh said if I wanted he would take me to Agra next week to see the Taj Mahal, I agreed.
I came to my room, ordered a club sandwich and 2 pepsis, to my surprise the sandwich was made with tuna, bacon, fried egg and tomato, OK that was gross The mayo was on the side and it looked like it has been sitting out for a while, did not even get near it.
Well needles to say I ate the fries, one part of the sandwich and drank the 2 pepsis.
That’s it, my first full week in India. Thank you for all your comments and offers to send me care packages, I’m doing good. Is all a matter of getting used to the amount of spices used on the food.
Bye for now……..To be continued…….
Louis