Chennai Journal

Thoughts on India

2008-01-01T19:29:00.000-08:00

As 2008 begins and I've returned to the U.S., this will be the last post of Chennai Journal. I'm starting a new blog, called Transitions, where I'll record the adjustment back to the U.S., retirement or whatever this phase turns out to be, and other random thoughts including my experience of Vipassana.

So how to sum up three years in India? Someone wrote to me that I must have never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would end up there, and he was right. What an opportunity, a challenge, and an incredible experience. I do feel that I made the most of it--traveling all over the country and to other parts of Asia as well, and have no regrets on that score. My staff gave an overwhelming farewell to me, and I have lots of fond memories of my work experience and the people there--some of whom I know will remain in touch for life.

Someone once said of Japan that all countries are unique, Japan is just more unique than others. I think that can be said of India as well. It is a very intense place, and not one you can be indifferent about. There were things I grew weary of---a mundane one is the use of cilantro in almost every dish --and it will be a while before I venture into an Indian restaurant. I won't miss the commute to work--as fascinating as the varied tableau of cows, trucks, men peeing on the side of the road, and overstuffed buses and rickshaws often was, it was very tiring at the end of the day to know that I faced an hour and a half or more ride home--even though I wasn't driving. And I won't miss how difficult it was to get even simple things understood and done, or just the difficulty of getting around, and being dependent on a driver, or the stark poverty in places and begging. Or being separated from my family for a good part of the time I was there.

But India has left its mark on me. The culture and the spirituality fascinated me. I loved the temples, the sound of the daily rituals (sometimes I still hear the bells from next door in my sleep), the varied sights, sounds, and smells, the intense drive and eagerness of people--the sheer level of energy. These will stay with me for a long time to come. I'm very glad to be home---but I wouldn't have missed the experience for the world.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet...

2007-12-27T09:04:00.000-08:00

It's been about a week since I returned to the U.S. It's cold in Michigan---snow on the ground that has now melted with a rainfall a few days ago, but still very cold here especially compared to Chennai. The air shipment was delivered on Friday with everything intact. I've checked in with a number of friends, started getting the house in order in anticipation of the sea shipment in a month or so, and we are going on a circle tour of the eastern U.S.--will be in New Hampshire for New Year's, and then travel south to Orlando to go to Disney World and Universal Studios, maybe catching Graceland on the way back up north. I've already been signed up for a Torah reading with our shul when I get back, and then head out to Vipassana for 10 days at the Dhamma Torana.

At first, my dad, who has just turned 90, did not know me. Yesterday and today he did. Sometimes he reacts when I use a phrase from childhood ("I'll give you a potch in tuchis," or "take a lot, take two...." ) , and some days he even knows my name--but often there is a blank look in his eyes, nobody home. He doesn't walk now, and hasn't for a few months---my dad, who never took a car when he could walk or take his bicycle, and was a fixture around town, his tie flapping over one shoulder as he rode my old grade school bike--abandoned for a multi-speed model when I was in college--to the family store. I am glad I got him home from India when I did, since he would never have made it now. He is in a comfortable place in a small nursing home about 3 miles from our house. I visit nearly every day, but it depresses me to stay too long.

I've had a lot of thoughts about India, but mostly right now it feels very far away, and my attention is focused on family and settling back into the U.S. I rejoined the Ashtanga yoga class I'd enjoyed before I left--ironically, I did almost no yoga in India. In a few days, I'll jot down some thoughts--what I liked, what I didn't like, what I learned. And figure out what the next journal will be about.....

Last Day in Chennai

2007-12-18T05:03:00.000-08:00

Well, so much for the end of the monsoon....today was a blustery, rainy day with nearly constant downpours--it has never really stopped, just let up a few times---and impossible to do much of anything but pack. So I wasn't able to even take a "farewell swim" in the pool.

Now I'm in the final hours, and will have dinner with Jon and Lindy in a little while, then load up and head to the airport. I'll post when I arrive back in the good old US of A. From what I hear weather there is not much better--Marty and Sara will come to the airport with my winter coat, hat and boots. Bringing my multi-colored gloves from Darjeeling (that one's for you, Prince Roy--someday you will get there!) with me....

Last Days in Chennai

2007-12-13T09:13:00.000-08:00

The sea shipment has been loaded and locked, and sent to customs and then to the Port of Chennai. The ship was to have sailed yesterday for Columbo, where the container will be loaded on to a larger ocean vessel that sails around the Horn of Africa and straight to New York. There, it clears customs and is transferred to a truck to Detroit. Supposedly, all this takes a month--I'll believe that when I see it.

In the meantime, I decided against any more travel the last weekend I'm here. I'm happily settled at the residential quarters of the Madras Club, which are really quite lovely--my room overlooks the walking trail and the Adyar River. Just plan to have a quiet time and enjoy the atmosphere and the pool for the last few days. The monsoon, which never really came--we only had a few days of rain--has ended, and the December weather is great. All that will end when I reach Detroit, where it's freezing rain.

Attack of the Killer Salespeople

2007-12-08T06:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I wanted to buy Leela a watch, so went to the Citi Centre which is a new shopping center opened a couple of years ago. Headed to Landmark, the bookstore, where I had seen displays of watches before. What an experience--it felt like being at a night market where every vendor is hanging on you to get you to buy from their stall.

Landmark does not have an large selection of watches--three or four display carousels, one for each brand, which was fine with me because I tend to get overwhelmed when I have too many choices. A tall young man was first to ask me if I needed help, so I described what I was looking for and he started to open one of the carousels and show me watches. Within less than 30 seconds, a young woman was crowding in under his armpit to show me a watch from another carousel, interrupting both of us. They started having a conversation in Tamil and I could tell he was telling her to bugger off, but she persisted. Finally, I asked her to please step aside--that I didn't want to look at her watches. She did.

This was not the end. The young man showed me a couple of watches that looked like possibilities. But, to my left was a third carousel, and I wanted to see the watches in that one, too. Lurking in the background was another young man. As soon as I pointed to the carousel, he appeared at my left elbow, ready to pounce. The young woman was still standing by on the right, crowding next to the salesperson who was helping me. "Wait, wait, wait," I said, "I don't need three people to show me watches. Please, let this guy {gesturing to the tall young man} help me." The other guy, to my left, said, "No madam, each one is separate." Then I got it--in this less than 10 or 12 foot space with only three carousels of watches, there were at least three salespeople, one for each (I say at least because I think there may have been a fourth display, and that person must have been either absent that day or off having a tea break).

Tired from all the packing and feeling hemmed in all sides, I threw up my hands and said, "I give up---I'll go somewhere else." And leaving them open mouthed and dismayed, I walked out. I went nearby to Lifestyle. They had a similar set up with brand-dedicated displays, but it was a lot more civilized and the salespeople weren't cannabilizing each other. In about 10 minutes, I found and bought a watch.

In other news, Junior arrived safely in Detroit. Marty and Sara are as full of joy to see her as Leela has been sorrowful to say goodbye. I guess that is change and moving in a nutshell--both sad and happy all mixed up at the same time.

Packing Update

2007-12-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

The movers finished about 70% of the packing--seven or eight men arrived at 9:30 a.m. and some of them immediately started in with tape, corrugated cardboard, and boxes even before the orientation on what goes where. They had two tea breaks--courtesy of Leela--a short lunch, and by 6:00 p.m. the lion's share had been done. They will be back tomorrow. Had my last meal at the apartment and have moved over to the Madras Club, where I have an oldish but very comfortable and spacious room overlooking the running track and the Adyar River.

In the meantime, here is the progress on Miss Junior, who arrived in Frankfurt this morning and has a layover in the airport kennel until Friday a.m. Germany time:

Waiting for it all to happen

2007-12-04T19:06:00.000-08:00

I haven't been in this place for a while. The place I mean is moving and change. It was tough when Marty left and when Dad left earlier this year, but I guess I was last there in this order of magnitude three years ago when we came to India. The last two weeks before a big change are the toughest. Because lots of stuff is happening, but I haven't actually left yet. In many ways, I just want to have it over and done with. Junior seems ready too--last night I found her curled up in her container, which I put out for her to get used to--as if placidly waiting to board.

Today I came home and Leela made a normal dinner, but I realized that yesterday was really the last normal day since tomorrow night the movers will come and get Junior, and we start to pack on Thursday. So tonight is the last night we'll all be together, Leela, Junior and me. Junior stays a day in Frankfurt in the little "zoo" they have in the airport, and then on to Detroit--cold and snowy. But, it will be a relief to know that she has arrived home. I thought about taking her with me on the plane when I go, but given all the paperwork and protocol I'm glad I started earlier---and this way, she's in a larger container, and will have some time to stop and get food, water, and cleaned up, and not be underfoot and scared with the packers here. Sara is so excited about her arrival, and has been planning all of Junior's accessories ---litter box, water feeder, toys--for weeks now. Junior--the world traveler. From now she will likely live out a comparatively dull life! The good thing is that she learned to travel at an early age--she came here at 10 months old-- and rides compliantly and calmly in a car--which J.D. never did. Speaking of J.D., her remains lie beneath the balcony of this apartment---I just haven't brought myself to pay a last visit yet there before I leave.

I am ready to go home. But, of course I have mixed feelings. For one thing, Leela and Junior have bonded---she bounds up from the bed when Leela gets up at 5 a.m., and when Leela returns from her day off, Junior is at the door to welcome her. That will be the first degree of separation. Then, when I leave the house and say good bye myself, that will be the next degree, because Leela is like family (she has another job, beginning in January, nearby, and I will stay in touch with her new family, Facebook friends). And then to all of the staff at work, and friends, goodbye again. It's been a tough three years in many ways, but also very intense and rewarding.

In all of this, the secondary consideration for me has been leaving work. Officially I'm retiring, though in reality I'm taking a few months off, and then looking for something else to do. It doesn't feel as intense to me as leaving India. But maybe the human brain can only handle one big change at a time, so my mind is doing this thing sequentially....we'll see.

The End is Near

2007-12-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

It seems impossible to believe that the end of my three year stay in India is near.....I'll be leaving for good in just a little over two weeks. Junior, pictured pensively below, returns on Wednesday night, and yesterday I had to sign over a dozen documents connected with her shipment. The packers come on Thursday. Once I move to temporary accommodation at the Madras Club, posts may be spotty . I'm hoping to get in one journey out of Chennai before I depart, though, and also want to do a wrap up post on the India experience.....

I haven't decided what to do about Chennai Journal when I return. Probably I'll do a few posts about the "reentry process", just to give the complete expat experience--because truly, coming home can be as much of an adjustment as going out, based on what I found when I returned from Japan after more than four years there. I've really enjoyed blogging and it has been a great way to record my experience. Will give it some thought, but it may depend on whatever my new gig is after "retirement..." Plan to take a few months off, do the American touristy things like visit Disney World and Graceland, and also do the 10 day Vipassana meditation course in Ontario. The rest I'm playing by ear....

Reupholstery

2007-11-28T08:12:00.000-08:00

I don't know how much it costs to reupholster furniture in the U.S. these days, or how long it takes. I've heard that it's expensive and can take months. We had a couple of pieces of furniture that were very comfortable--Dad's favorite wingback chair, and a rocker we had in the bedroom--that were looking a bit tired but otherwise in good shape. So bought some fabric for about $10 a meter --$60 for the wingback chair and $20 for the rocker--and had a couple of guys who run a shop nearby come and re-do them. They came, sewing machine and all, and did both of the chairs plus some work on a couple of drapes that I want to be able to use at home that needed to be sewed together and have a space put in for a rod. They were here for two days and charged 3000 RS (about $75 US). Both pieces look better than new.

Bridge on the River Kwai

2007-11-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

I am dating myself, but the first movie I remember seeing was the 1950s re-release of Bambi. I was four years old and we almost had to leave midway through because my cousin Doug (then called Dougie) who was three, got scared by the forest fire and started crying. The second movie I remember, however--and it is an equally vivid memory-- was The Bridge On the River Kwai. I was about 6, and the movie had just been released in Detroit. My dad, who worked in the family dry goods' store, went to Detroit a few times a year for apparel shows, and he desperately wanted to see the movie. It's funny how our memories work---I remember clearly that my parents were worried that I'd be bored, so they got me a coloring book beforehand---and also that we got to the theatre 20 minutes before the end, so we saw the blowing up of the bridge, and then watched the movie from the beginning (they let you do that in those days).

Once I got older and put the movie in the context of World War II history, I always assumed that the bridge was in Burma--until I read The Lonely Planet guide to Thailand, I hadn't clued into the fact that it was so close to Bangkok. So, having all these vivid memories from childhood, I really wanted to visit the area. After leaving Laos, I returned to Bangkok and got a public bus to Kanchanaburi, about a 3 hour ride.

Kanchanaburi is a major tourist area in Thailand, and so there are lots of travel companies and guest houses to stay. I took a one day trip to Erawan National Park, which has a series of waterfalls, and the trip also included a stop at an elephant camp (you can see me on an elephant on Flickr, with Orit, a co-tourist from Israel) and travel on the Death Railway (this can definitely be missed, but seems to be a part of every tour). Perhaps most impressive was the Thailand/Burma Railway museum, which depicts the sad history of the building of the railway to connect the two countries.

The concept for the railway dated many years before its building. In addition to being a difficult task through harsh climatic conditions, for strategic reasons the British hesitated to connect the two countries for reasons of imperial control. Ensuring supply lines in SE Asia for the eventual conquest of India assumed critical importance to the Japanese, who brought tens of thousands of British, Australian and Dutch prisoners of war to the area after the fall of Singapore (some North Americans too, though the numbers were small in comparison). The POWs were were packed into railway cars--you can stand in one in the museum to get a feel of the conditions--not unlike the transport of Jews to the concentration camps---and transported nearly 2000 kilometers north. Of course, even more Southeast Asians--Thais, Malays, and others--were also conscripted, many through false pretenses, and forced to work on the railway as well. A total workforce of more than 250,000 men was used to build the over 400 kilometer railway in a record 16 months, and due to disease, and harsh conditions---very little food was provided to the men but they were forced to work sometimes 16-20 hours per day--- the death rates were staggering. Approximately one quarter of the western, and more than a third, of the Asian workforce, perished. The blowing up of the bridge, however, is entirely fictional, as is much else about the movie. In the documentary shown in the museum, a Japanese officer also scoffs at the depiction of British "expertise" needed to realize the engineering and technical aspects of the railway---this, he says, was entirely Japanese. Perhaps, in focusing on Japanese cruelty to the workforce, their engineering prowess was underestimated---that awareness surfaced only decades later.

While in Kanchanaburi, I also took a cooking class from Apple and Noi's guesthouse, which also has an excellent restaurant. We visited a local market and then went to an open air teaching kitchen on the river, where we made everyone's favorite Thai dish, Phad Thai, as well as Penang curry and a stir fry. Nice way to end the trip. Notice the yellow shirt on the market lady below---yellow is the color of the King of Thailand, who will be celebrating his 80th birthday soon, and it's considered patriotic to wear it.

More on Laos

2007-11-18T08:48:00.000-08:00

One of the important Buddhist customs is almsgiving. Every morning between 6 and 6:30, the monks in Luang Prabang from various monasteries parade through the street to the main wat, or temple, Wat Xieng Thong, which sits at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers.

Along the route, people offer rice, fruit, and other food to the monks. I suppose many do this as a daily ritual, along with the monks. It is customary for young men to serve their time in the monastery--and for some it's exactly that--as in off hours you can see them on the streets talking on cell phones, gathered around a computer terminal in an internet cafe, or laughing and joking among themselves. Below you can see one of the young monks deeply engrossed in a cell phone conversation, with his friend waiting patiently.

Of course, the intrusion of the modern world isn't limited to motorcycles, internet cafes, and cell phones. It's the tourists, too. It was not the high season yet, but still, at least 30 other tourists were out along the part of the route I was on --near my guest house, the Sayo--snapping away. A tourist brochure given to you at the airport has ten tips to help you honor the Lao culture, one of these being a plea not to use a flash and keep a respectful distance during the alms giving. I certainly tried to do this, and used my telephoto lens as well.

There are many wats or temples in Luang Prabang, and there is a peaceful sense being around them. I tried to upload a video, but it's 72 MB and that seems a bit more than Blogger can swallow. So here are a few more pictures (and there are more on Flickr):

Laos

2007-11-05T23:16:00.000-08:00

Laos was great. On Sunday I took a longboat ride on the Mekong River to a nearby cave with Buddhist statues. The cave was so-so- somewhat of a tourist trap with a sidetrip to a "whisky village" where Lao whisky is made--but it was fascinating watching life along the mighty Mekong. The river soil is very rich, and you see all kinds of vegetables being grown along the riverbank. I took a lot of pictures of the river people going about their daily business, fishermen going out for the day's catch, men, women and children tending vegetable gardens. The long boat itself is a variation on the rice barges you see in India, a place where people not only work but live (no life vests, though). You can see some of these photos on top, in Flickr.

My impressions, and the things I noticed, often seemed in contrast to India. Luang Prabang is a quiet city, not very crowded, and very clean. In fact, anywhere I went in Laos seemed clean, and it finally dawned on me: no garbage in the streets, no men urinating in public. Cows and goats were fat and sleek, and the dogs in the streets were well fed, many with collars. There are more tourists than natives in Luang Prabang--at times it seemed that every other person was sporting the Lonely Planet guide to Laos. The Lao Democratic Republic has figured out how to cash in on the tourist interest, by charging a hefty $30 visa fee on the way in and a $10 exit tax on the way out. But, considering that accommodations run under $30 a night and meals a few dollars a day, it's probably a fair bargain. There were many backpackers from Europe--especially France-- and Australia, and most in singles and couples. For the most part, Japanese and Korean tour groups have not yet discovered Laos--though there was a huge contingent from Elderhostel. Due to the French background, the baguettes were great.

On Monday I took a hill trek into some nearby villages, and then on to the Kuangsi Falls. We visited villages of two of the several hill tribes of Laos--the Khmu and the Hmong.. They live quite differently, but both are animist (not Buddhist) and so there were no temples or other obvious signs of worship in the villages. The Khmu are said to be related to the Khmer people of Cambodia, whereas the Hmong migrated from China several hundred years ago. There were several Khmu about the village when we visited, including a group of women who were preparing vegetables to sell to a nearby market, and many young children--several of whom looked to be of school age. In the Hmong village, on the other hand, there were only a few old people--two women and a man tending a baby--as the children were in school and the able-bodied adults were in the fields.

There were other interesting differences between the two villages, which undoubtedly stem from their differing origins--e.g. the Khmu build their homes on stilts, whereas the Hmong are flat to the ground. Both groups are also found in Northern Thailand.

After leaving the villages, we took a three hour hike that took us through some fields, a dense forest, and finally to the top of the spectacular Kuangsi Falls. It had rained a couple of days before and parts of the trail were very slippery and steep, but despite falling three or four times I only had a banged up wrist which healed in a day or so. Along the way we saw people working in the rice fields--some rice is grown dry here.

And this was the reward for the hike--this is a view of the falls from the front, after we had climbed down from the top.

In Luang Prabang itself I visited several of the temples ( the shot at the top of this post is taken from the one at the top of a hill in the center of town) and watched the morning alms giving to the monks. More on that in a separate post.

On the way to Laos

2007-11-02T07:25:00.000-07:00

Heading to Luang Prabang and parts east for a few days. Will post when I am back.

Tiruvanamallai

2007-10-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I went to Tiruvanamallai, about 3 hours from Chennai. One of my employee's wife's family is from there, and the place is famous for the Arunachala temple, dedicated to Shiva. Many people make pilgrimages to this temple at the new moon and other festivals, especially Diwali, which originated here. One important ritual is to walk around the Arunachala mountain (shown above). A famous sage, Sri Ramana, made this place famous, and there is an ashram nearby devoted to his teachings--Somerset Maugham among others came here. Tiruvanamallai is one of the great holy places of India, and it is said that one needs only to think of Arunachala to attain spiritual liberation.

The family made special arrangements for me to be able to visit the inner sanctum of the temple with my employee and his father in law, which was really interesting (non-Hindus are not usually allowed in the inner areas of most temples, where the religious observances occur). We went past a long line of people waiting for the main deity, Shiva, and into a small enclosed area that was quite hot. The priest brought a round brass plate filled with flowers, incense, and other offerings, and each person wishing to offer prayers put his or her hands on the plate in turn. The priest asked the name of the individual and those he or she wished to have blessed, including their astrological sign, star sign, and other important details important in Hinduism. The priest then went to the inner sanctum where the god--in this case Shiva--was represented. He said some prayers in Sanskrit, and then came back out with the same plate, this time with a small fire on the plate. Then each person puts their hands on the flame, and may take a small part of the offering that has been blessed, called the prasad. A small bit of red sandalwood paste is also taken and placed on the center of the forehead, the so-called "third eye" --for devotees of Shiva, or Shaivites, the mark is placed horizontally.

There is more than one sanctum to which you can go, and we also went to the one for Shiva's wife Parvati, also called Uma. This place was less crowded than the main Shiva sanctum, but followed a similar process. Then, we went to the place which I also saw in the temple in Madurai, which is dedicated to the nine planets. The custom here is that you pay to light small oil lamps, and then walk around the display nine times. Then you pay respects to a representation of Chitragupta, who is the recordkeeper of human deeds, and who decides if someone goes to heaven or hell when he/she dies. But, as explained to me, it is considered bad luck to look directly at Chitragupta, so you look only from the side of the enclosure where he is represented. Finally, there is a ceremony where you sit down and receive the prasad, and then outside the sanctum, those partaking in the blessings prostrate themselves.

Arunchala is a lively place, and being the day after Ayudha Pooja, ceremonies were still going on as depicted below. .

Although the temple is an important place for prayer, equally significant are the daily rituals done at home. Hindu homes will usually have a small room for this purpose, called a pooja room. When I am home on weekends or leave later for work than usual, I feel as if I am participating vicariously in this ritual, as the people next door--wealthy brothers who built a large complex to house their two families--have a large statue of Ganapathy (Ganesh) in a courtyard on the side of the house. Regularly at 8 or so in the morning and 6 in the evening, I hear the bells rung for the ritual, and if the porch door is open, the faint smell of sandalwood and camphor drifts over as well.

Beggary

2007-10-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

While in Kolkata I had the idea to write a post about begging, since it is such a part of the landscape especially in large cities (though less in Chennai than elsewhere.). Begging is also big business. There was a story last year about the "richest beggar in Bombay" who owns a couple of flats and has healthy assets stashed away. One number floating around --who knows if it's true--is that beggars in Bombay alone earn about 180 crore (about $40 million) per year. One writer estimates that a beggar plying one particularly busy intersection in Bangalore takes in as much per month as a software engineer.

You see a guy like the one pictured above, huddled on the street in Darjeeling, all bundled up, or an old woman outside a fabric store frequented by wealthy Indians and foreigners, or a one-armed mother with a small baby follows you in the airport parking lot in Bombay or Delhi and taps on the taxi cab window. What do you do? Though we may feel ourselves special "targets", foreigners are obviously not the only ones solicited--beggars could never make a living from us since we're too few in number. The reaction is mixed. Some hand over a 2 or a 5 rupee piece, some ignore the beggars, and some brush them aside. People say to give a child a piece of fruit or candy, rather than money that will only be taken by the adult who sent him or her into the street to beg. Since coming to India, I have done all of these.

Beggars are seldom on their own, though they may appear so. The crippled man with a tin cup who waits for cars at a busy intersection, or the child who follows you out of Mother Teresa's house, is part of a community--on the front lines because their youth, age, or disability will attract sympathy. Some, born with defects or unable to work because of an accident or other misfortune, may have few other choices. But, as everywhere, begging is also a way of life, and a livelihood, co-existing with the small entrepreneur who sells seasonal fruit, or the streetside barber. It may be a family tradition, with the territory passed on--for beggars can be very territorial. There are stories that children and women in particular may be deliberately maimed to attract sympathy, and there was a scandal last year or so that some doctors have been involved in this, as part of a "beggar mafia."

There is an old man who stands outside a nearby grocery store that is frequented by foreigners (Amma Naana which means Grandma's). I call him Marty's beggar because Marty often slipped him a 5 rupee piece and I sometimes do as well. Of course, we are not the only ones, and I suspect this guy takes in a fair haul. But he also works. You often see him picking through garbage and pulling out bits of things that can be collected and sold.
I remember last year meeting a fellow traveler in Darjeeling, an Australian who comes to India fairly often. Years ago, he befriended a young girl who was begging outside a temple and wound up paying for her education at a convent school in Darjeeling. She is now a teacher herself, not wealthy, but happy because she has an apartment and a microwave oven.

You have to come to your own conclusions about how to handle beggars--and sometimes, as in the cases above, it's just situational. While in Kolkata, I found it difficult to walk a block without someone soliciting me. I didn't give to a single beggar while there. But I did make a resolution. Although begging may be a business, and some beggars (like the millioniare in Bombay) even dress for the part, there are still many, many destitute people here who do not have sufficient means to live without help. So for every beggar who approaches me now, I put aside a small sum, which I'll donate when I leave to a worthy organization that is helping people get a real livelihood.

Soup's On....

2007-10-14T06:21:00.000-07:00

Leela makes the best soups. All of them are vegetarian, since I don't eat meat here, and all of them are delicious. It seemed a shame not to capture and share her secrets, so I invited a couple of friends over to join the lessons--and help eat the proceeds....

Leela uses a pressure cooker for her soups, which I'm convinced contributes to the rich and intense flavors, despite the lack of meat. It took me a bit to get past my fear of these--I was raised in an era when pressure cookers were rather tricky and dangerous, and my mother used to make me leave the kitchen whenever she used hers.

During yesterday's lesson, Leela showed us how to make two soups, Vegetarian Vegetable and Dal (lentil) with rosemary.

Veggie Soup à la Leela

1 T olive oil
2 small onions – chopped
1 spring onion – chopped
2 carrots – chopped
1 handful green beans – chopped
1 potato – chopped
1 handful peas
1 stock celery – chopped small

Sauté onions in oil in pressure cooker until golden brown
Stir in the rest of the veggies
Add ½ litre water
Pressure cooker – bring to boil and 3 whistles
Open cooker and apply potato masher (see below!) for 1 minute
Set aside until ready to heat, may be reheated.

Note that there is no seasoning in this soup. You can add salt & pepper to taste.

Dal Soup

For this recipe, you need Mysore dal, shown below.

1 small tomato – skinned, chopped
½ C mysore dal (soaked 1 hour)
1/3 litre water
Put ingredients in pressure cooker, boil, 3 whistles

While the dal is cooking, saute a clove of garlic and half teaspoon of dried rosemary in olive oil. Stir into dal.

This soup is very simple, but delicious. Sauteeing the rosemary helps produce a very nice, aromatic quality in the soup.

Both soups give about 4 servings.

Kolkata Part II

2007-10-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

While in Kolkata I walked to the "Mother House" where Mother Teresa is buried. On the way there I got lost, which is not difficult in Kolkata because the streets often have different names from those shown on the map. While detouring, I found a park with this sign, which one probably wouldn't find in most parks in the world:

Not surprisingly, an enterprising fellow attached himself to me as a guide, offering to take me to the Mother's House if I would buy him some milk. We took an even longer detour to get to the shop where he traded, but in due course he deposited me at the entrance to the house, shown below.

You are not allowed to take pictures inside, except for her tomb, which I passed on. The tomb is decorated with flowers and sits in a small chapel, where services were being conducted. There are chairs around it and people just come in and sit, reflect and pray, and some genuflect before the tomb. There is also a small museum showing artifacts from her life--the chair she sat in, her dishes and utensils, her clothing, and pictures of her life in India. The house is still used by the sisters, and it is in respect to their privacy that photographs are prohibited.

You do feel a presence in this place. Despite the cacophony outside, it is very quiet in the house, except for the voice of the priest and the occasional murmurs by the small congregation--about 30 people were in the services when I was there. You wonder about the twists of fate and destiny that led this small Albanian woman to not only devote her life to the poor of another country--and eventually many countries-- but at the world acclaim that she attracted, which was largely due to a documentary created in the late 1960s. Her life and works are not without controversy, even in her own city. The poor of Calcutta are little different from the poor of Bombay or Delhi, and arguably in better circumstances than those of some of India's most destitute states such as Bihar--and Calcutta is actually a more liveable city, with fewer infrastructure problems, than Bombay. But ironically, in part due to the work of Mother Teresa, it is Calcutta which bears an image synonymous with teeming multitudes of the destitute.

When I left the house to walk back, I was accosted by beggars who clearly have staked out this spot as a "mother lode" (sorry for the bad pun). This situation, and a subsequent discussion with co-workers in Kolkata have led me to a new paradigm on street beggars, which I'll write about in another post.

October/November is the festive season in India, and in Kolkata the biggest celebration is for Durga Puja, culminating Navarati, or nine nights. Although Durga is a Hindu deity, the Durga Puja in Kolkata is more like a Mardi Gras--everyone celebrates, and the streets have a carnival atmosphere.

In preparation, thousands of Durga idols are produced, most of them on a single small street in Kolkata called Kumartuli, or Potter's Town. (The idols are not only for use in Kolkata, but for export as well to Bengalis celebrating the Durga puja in the Indian diaspora.) The cab driver who took me to the synagogue also took me here, where the day was just getting started.

The whole community ("Kumars") gets involved in making, painting, and transporting these idols, in work that has been going on for four centuries since the Durga pooja was first celebrated during the Mughal era. The idols are made of hay and clay (making them somewhat more environmentally friendly than the plaster of paris Ganesh idols that I showed last week), and the finishing touch--painting the goddess's eye--is reserved for the eldest of the community.

O Kolkata! Part I

2007-10-03T06:49:00.000-07:00

I am back from a few days in Kolkata (renamed from Calcutta). Although compact and you can mostly walk around to the main tourist sites, I can't say it's a relaxing city---at one point, after several hours battling crowds and beggars around the markets and area near my hotel, I just needed a break from it all and had to pop into the opulent Oberoi Grand for lunch and peace and quiet. This said, it's a fascinating place and I'll do a couple of posts with my impressions.

Kolkata was the great seat of the British raj. Here, fortunes were made and lives lost....the "Black Hole of Calcutta" was the 1756 incident (hotly disputed in terms of numbers/veracity) where over 100 British and Anglo Indian soldiers were said to have suffocated from being holed up in a dungeon after the capture of Fort William. Many more in the days of the Raj--probably most-- died of disease and many were young women and children. On the first morning I was there, I wandered down to the Park Street Cemetery, where there are hundreds of graves of British residents of Calcutta, dating from the mid-1700s when the cemetery was established. An association funded by descendants of the buried and others interested in British history maintains the cemetery, which has been ravaged by vandalism as well as the effects of time. Most of the tombs are in English only, but the one shown to the left, of a Christian philanthropist, carries inscriptions in Arabic and Hindi as well.

Kolkata once had a thriving Jewish population, more than 5000 souls. Most were from Baghdad or Syria, and were traders who found themselves at home and accepted in British India. On Monday I tried to find a synagogue that was marked on a local map. I walked all the way from my hotel up past the famous Writer's Building (so called because young men from England were sent as scribes to the East India Company) but was a bit too late in the morning---by 8:30 a.m., the sidewalks were already jammed with street vendors and traffic was horrendous. I could see a sign on a building that said "Synagogue Street", but no one could tell me where the synagogue was. I finally gave up and resolved to come back in a cab, and earlier in the morning. The next day, despite having a cabbie who spoke no English (and he didn't need to, because the only people who knew directions spoke Bengali....), I nearly had the same fate, and then, purely by accident, I spotted the word "synagogue" peaking through a mobile phone advertisement and a makeshift rain canopy over some street stalls:

My cab driver parked the car and accompanied me across the street, but this synagogue--Neveh Shalom--has been totally appropriated and is no longer a shul--to put it mildly. A street vendor pointed us down the street and around the corner, where, amidst blaring horns and a few bleating goats, we weaved our way through fruit stands, shoe shiners, morning tea drinkers, and assorted other entrepreneurs to find the magnificent Magen David Synagogue, once the largest and most splendid in Calcutta. The caretaker, an old Muslim, kindly let me in when I showed my necklace with a Star of David.

Magen David is not in regular operation---it still does have two Torah scrolls--but it is clearly cared for. In stark contrast to the cacaphony outside (which you can hear on the video below), the inside was full of peace and reverence. This week is the harvest festival of Sukkot, which follows on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and members of the nearby Beth El Synagogue--the only functioning shul in Kolkata these days-- had built a sukkah outside which you can see at the end of the video. A lulav and etrog, were on a stand at the entrance to the sanctuary, along with a kippah (men's headcovering) which looked as if it, too, dated from the 1800s.

Bandh

2007-09-29T01:54:00.000-07:00

We had an unexpected long holiday this weekend. October 2 (Tuesday) is Gandhi's birthday, but now a Bandh (means "closed" in Hindi) has been called for October 1. Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister, has said that the strike is not called by the government, but "by the alliance parties to draw attention to the people's demand in a peaceful manner." The "people's demand" is for the realization of the Sethusamudram Shipping project, which would involve dredging a canal between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Since the waters between the two are quite shallow, large ocean going ships have to navigate around Sri Lanka to reach the eastern coast of India. The canal would allow a shipping lane through this strait between the two countries.

As an idea, the canal project has been around more than 150 years, but for various reasons has never materialized. It got more of a kick start a couple of years ago when it was backed by PM Manmohan Singh, but still faces controversy---according to some reports, it isn't economically viable, and the environmental impact on marine life--including the trade of small fishermen along the Coromandel coast--could be devastating. There are religious objections, too---a necklace of islands between the two countries is called Rama's Bridge (Hindu) or Adam's Bridge (Islamic) and is tied to mythology about Rama's pals building the bridge so he could reach Lanka to rescue his wife Sita. The Islamic version would have Adam crossing to stand on one foot on the highest peak in Ceylon (old for Sri Lanka) for a 1000 years to repent his sins. This same mountain is also sacred to the Buddhists. Anyway, interesting timing to choose a "bridge day" between a weekend and a major holiday to announce a bandh over such a project...

Although things are expected to be peaceful and the Madras High Court has charged the government to ensure that services are not disrupted and traffic runs normally, I decided to take the opportunity for a bit of travel. So I got on the web and quickly organized a short trip to Kolkata. Despite its association with poverty through the work of Mother Teresa, it's supposed to be a lovely old city with lots of places to see and old Raj charm. And Bengali food is among the best....more when I return....

Ganesh Chathurti

2007-09-23T04:22:00.000-07:00

(Video in 2 parts)

Since coming to India, I've seemed to miss the annual plaster- of- paris- to- the- sea festival that is otherwise known as Ganesh Chaturthi. But this year it fell on Sunday and I had Antony drive me down to the beach to see the festivities. On the way,we passed three wheelers, trucks, and bullock carts with statues of varying size accompanied by shouting and cheering devotees.

The festival is the culmination of a 10 day long celebration of the birthday of Lord Ganesh, one of the principal Hindu gods. Ganesh is the elephant god, a roly poly deity with the head of an elephant and human features such as arms, and he is worshipped as the bringer of prosperity and protector against obstacles. You can follow this link to read more about the story of Ganesh creation.

Ganesh Charturthi is celebrated in Bombay, Tamil Nadu and other states that have ready access to water. The ceremony is not that old -it was popularized by Lakmanya Tilak in the late 1800s whose motives were less religious than political, as he felt that religious celebrations would fuel nationalism and help thwart British rule. The Ganesh idols are decorated by the devotees with garlands and brought to a body of water where--depending on the size-- it is hoisted on a crane and lowered into the sea and then taken out in the water by several men. Although I went around 1 in the afternoon, probably a few hundred Ganeshes had already been submerged--and judging from the idol-laden lineup of trucks and carts on the road to the beach when we left, many more were to come.

In recent years, Ganesh Chaturthi has also attracted criticism for the environmental impact of throwing several thousand pounds of plaster of paris into the seas and rivers. In addition to the longer term impact, scores of dead fish are found in the waters around the festival sites in the days following the ceremony.

A Memorial

2007-09-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

I'm in the U.S. for a week or so for the High Holidays, and will return to Chennai next week. Weather in Michigan is pleasant---a bit cool today, with rain.

This post is dedicated to our friend Karen Mika, who died of breast cancer this past week. She battled bravely for 7 years, but lost her fight last Wednesday, and we attended her services yesterday. Whenever I wipe down a kitchen counter, I think of her--it was a legacy from both our mothers who were of a certain generation, and a private joke we shared. There are many other things to remember--she was a wonderful mother and friend to many--- but this is one that was a funny and unique bond. May her memory be a blessing.

Recruiting Again....

2007-09-02T02:15:00.000-07:00

One of my colleagues from another company passed this ad around at a recent conference. This ad speaks volumes about the challenges of managing people here and some of the remarks--like the one about excuses---may resonate across borders. (Note, you will have to click on the photo to enlarge and read it).

Dhobi Ghats

2007-08-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

The Dhobi Ghats are probably the world's largest open air laundry. From all over Bombay, laundry is brought here and washed, dryed, pressed and sorted. It is quite an operation to see. The dhobis (laundry men) wade knee deep in bleachy water and it is said that each has a unique mark so that none of the laundry ever gets misplaced.

On the road

2007-08-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

In Bombay at the moment and heading tonight to Thailand for business meetings, back later in the week. Took some good shots of the Dhobi Ghat (laundry city) of Bombay, where thousands of clothes are washed and hung out to dry every day.

Udaipur Part II

2007-08-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the previous post, while in Udaipur we took a side trip to a famous Jain temple at Ranakpur. This was about a three hour journey on narrow, often narrow one lane roads, through small villages and cow paths, in a Tata Indigo that had its windshield taped to the body (see right). A bit of a harrowing trip, but well worth it when we arrived at Ranakpur.

Jainism is one of the world's oldest religions although today one of the smallest in terms of followers. It is not a sect of Hinduism; it predates Hinduism and in many ways is similar to Buddhism, with an emphasis on enlightenment, non-violence and self control. (Some scholars believe that Buddhist sprang from Jainism.) Jains are strict vegetarians- and the more extreme followers may wear a covering on their face to avoid ingesting, and thereby, killing, small insects. Similarly, potatoes, garlic and onions are also avoided. The holy symbol of the Jains is the swastika. Of course, the swastika--despite its horrific appropriation by the Nazis-- has an ancient and sacred heritage in India. It is seen commonly here---and connotes peace and well being. Typically, you will see it on buildings and in the form of rangoli lovingly made by women in front of their homes as part of the morning prayer ritual.

The temple at Ranakpur is a marvel of art and architecture. It has 1444 columns in all, and according to one source took 22,000 manyears to construct. Each column is meticulously carved and supposedly, every one is different. Below, you can see Marty in awe as he looks up at the dome.

Udaipur Part I

2007-08-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

Marty and I had a wonderful stay in Udaipur. This will be the first of a couple of posts, since we spent three days there, taking in the sites both in the city itself and we also took a side trip to a fabulous Jain temple and a fort.

From the airport, we were driven by a smartly dressed chauffeur--replete with turban---to a boat dock where we boarded a small power boat that took us across the lake to the welcoming party from the Oberoi Udaivalas.

The Oberoi is one of the luxury hotels of Udaipur, the other being the Taj Lake Palace. Marty and I splurged and stayed there for two nights. The views are magnificent (see several of these up top on Flickr) and the service efficient and mostly not too cloying--usually a problem at these upper class establishments. The food was good---even Marty enjoyed a vegetarian mezze-- with a marinated feta cheese that was so outstanding that we called the chef over to explain---he prepares a marinade of mint, cumin, cilantro, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil, and lets it sit overnight. Other dishes were also good---Marty had a tandoori lamb that was excellent as well.

While at the Oberoi we did an afternoon of sightseeing--to the Monsoon Palace, which was visible from the open hallway in front of our room, and which provides breathtaking views of the city below. We also visited the auto museum which houses the luxury car collection of the maharaja of Udaipur, including the famous Rolls Royce that was used in Octopussy, which was partly filmed here. The collection also includes some old Morrises, several other Rolls Royces---including one with a purdah screen so the Muslim women could ride--and even a Ford Model A.

Another famous sightseeing spot in Udaipur is the city palace, which is the largest palace in Rajasthan and was built beginning in the late 1500s by Maharaja Udai Singh, for whom Udaipur is named. We went up and down narrow stone staircases to view courtyards and gardens, and room after room of gold and silver encrusted artwork, depicting processions of the Maharaja, peacocks, and the three sacred animals of Rajasthan--the elephant for luck, the horse for power, and the camel for love. The architecture is a blend of Mewar--Rajasthani--Mughal, and Chinese.

The Maharaja had several wives, each with their own quarters. One interesting room to me was the queen's guest bedroom, which was used when the queen had sleepovers with her girlfriends.

To Udaipur

2007-08-10T06:27:00.000-07:00

Marty and I are headed to Udaipur in Rajasthan for a few days. It's supposed to be a very romantic city. Pictures and impressions when we return!

The State of Education

2007-08-05T00:08:00.000-07:00

A lot has been written about the state of education in India, and I can't do justice to the topic in a short blog post. But I have been thinking a lot about this topic in part because it is the focus of so many community service initiatives here, as I noted last week, and also one critical to India's future.
The sound byte version is that India has among the finest educational institutes in the world--and also the most substandard and pathetic. The social and human rights imperatives aside, India's continued ability to grow and attract both domestic and foreign investment will hit an abrupt ceiling if it cannot find a way to bring quality education to a greater percentage of its population. The supply of skilled and educated resources is simply not keeping up with the demand--and education is a major reason (infrastructure is the other).

There are a few good government schools But because the vast majority of them are of such poor calibre, virtually any parent who can afford to sends his or her children to a private school. Household servants, who typically make less than $150 per month, may take loans from their employers (or the employers may gift them the money) to send their children and grandchildren to private schools. The tuition for some of these schools is modest by western standards--perhaps $200 to $300 per year---but is still out of the reach of the vast majority. Government schools are not even in the consideration set. In addition to a more limited coverage and curriculum (usually age 5 or 6 through 10th standard), the drop out rate is high, and standards low. Children are passed out of each grade up to grade 8 automatically. Many cannot read despite having passed the 5th grade.

The problem includes the parents and teachers. According to a study done of some of the schools around our factory neighborhood, only about 50% of the parents of the children attending these schools are literate themselves (literacy rates in India vary by state, with Tamil Nadu having about a 75% rate overall). Many of the men are unemployed and about a third are alcoholic (but most households have a TV). Only about half the teachers are qualified to teach, and few have any computer literacy or even sufficient English language skills. As English is the medium of the higher education system---not to mention essential for many higher skill jobs---the fact that the children study only in Tamil automatically limits them even if they are academically inclined.

It is especially difficult for girls to get educated. There are many barriers, from parental concerns about the safety of a young girl walking to a school several miles away, to the more cynical--but engrained-- belief that education is wasted on girls and they are better off at home helping to tend livestock or earn a living. For all poor children, procuring a notebook, which only costs a few rupees, may be impossible. In some villages, there have been efforts to train educable adults who, although they do not possess teacher qualifications, are preferable to outside teachers since they are part of the fabric of the community. There are many other models with modest, but achievable goals.

The problem is complex, and both private and public resources and interventions are needed to improve it. It is not only a matter of money, although financial resources are of course required---for everything from building infrastructure, providing school resources, and training and incenting teachers. A number of non-governmental organizations as well as private industry associations, concerned about where they will get future employees, are involved in various efforts with individual schools, the government, and villages. There is no level of the system that doesn't require help---although the sheer number of primary schools and teachers is insufficient, the colleges and universities also have wide variability in quality and many are turning out graduates who are simply not equipped for the working world.

In addition to international institutions such as the UN and World Bank, Rotary, Roundtable (noted last week) and many other local service organizations have improvement of the country's education system as a top goal. Given that there is so much to do, it may seem disheartening to view the magnitude of the task. Yet, the literacy rate in Tamil Nadu, 75% as of the 2001 census, has climbed from just 54% in 1981. Other states are further behind, but in all cases the trend is up rather than flat or even. So the work of many hands-- and hearts-- is bearing fruit.

Community Service

2007-07-30T07:34:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night I went to the annual meeting of a chapter of the Roundtable movement, a friendship and service group for young men aged 25-40. This chapter has formed an affiliation with a trust that, in cooperation with Ford, runs a health center near our plant, and for the last nine years or so the Roundtable has donated money and sponsored events that have benefited thousands of villagers. A modest and open air clinic, more than 80 people per day from nearby villages come for free treatment, trauma care, and testing. Our employees are not allowed to be treated there, so that care can be focused exclusively on the villagers.

As a movement, Roundtable is another British invention that has blossomed in India. The origin is only indirectly related to the famous Arthurian legend--the movement was inspired by a speech of the Prince of Wales in 1922, exhorting young men to get round the table and "adopt methods that have proved so sound in the past, adapt them to the changing needs of the times and wherever possible, improve them'. The Arthurian legend figures into the concept that all are equal around the table. Each table---the one I attended was #94---has one meeting a month that is purely social and often involves families, and the other is a business meeting. The theme for the India affiliate is "freedom through education" and the various Roundtables have a goal to educate 1,000,000 Indian children through the building of classrooms in primarily rurul areas. Despite the enormous rise of the middle class here, millions and millions of Indian children do not attend school but work from a very young age---so the twin scourges of child labor and illiteracy focus the attention of many service organizations.

Roundtable was founded by a Rotarian, and in fact, many of the young men--who "retire" at 40 to become "square legs" of their chapter, do then join Rotary, which is also a very big organization here---albeit one that accepts women (the spouses of the tablers have their own mirror affiliate, the Ladies' Circle). The tablers clearly have a good time at their meetings---there were nearly 20 speakers including myself at their annual general meeting, including a series of roasts of the outgoing officers. I am not normally a patient person at such gatherings, but it was rather good fun, and the work of the tablers is certainly inspiring.

A Birthday, a Prime Minister, and Harry Potter

2007-07-22T02:26:00.000-07:00

This past week I marked another birthday, my last one in India. I got some cards and the team got together and had a little celebration with a chocolate cake and a very nice gift--a coffee mug with everyone's name on it. It will be a nice memento. This was not a big birthday (which I define as one ending with a 5 or a 0), and it was an ordinary working day. The custom here is that the celebrant gives sweets or candies (this is true for the birth of a child or other auspicious event as well) so people trooped in my office during the day to shake hands and take a candy. Finally, I was finding myself dipping into the bag a bit too often, so I turned it over to a training group that was taking a break.

The big news here is that India has elected its first female President. Her name is Pratibha Patil, and she had served as the governor of Rajasthan, a large state in the northwest. She was a compromise candidate, and a member of the UPA, or United Progressive Alliance, which is a coalition or amalgam of numerous political factions including the Indian National Congress, which is the major party here, and led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi (wife of the former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in Chennai in 1991). Her nomination was not without controversy and some members of the alliance--including those in Chennai--threatened to abstain. Finally, many of the Tamil Nadu politicians did vote, although the biggest holdout was opposition leader and former Chief Minister Jayalalitha. There is no love lost between her and Sonia Gandhi---and often she manages to be out of town whenever politicians from Delhi visit the State.

It will be interesting to see how Patil does. She has made some controversial statements on the rights of women---e.g. opposing the Muslim custom of purdah--and is widely seen to be a strong advocate of women's rights. But she also has some other controversies behind her--including a cooperative banking scandal and even allegations that she used her political influence to protect her brother from a conspiracy charge connected with the murder of another politician in Bombay. The President's role has been mostly ceremonial and it's hard to say how strong an influence she will have.

Meanwhile, the other big world event---release of the last of the Harry Potter books--was heralded here as well. According to this morning's Hindu, 170,000 books were sold in the first day. The book is a bit more of a bargain here--975 rupees, or about $24. Of course, this is a lot of money for anyone below the middle class. Not surprisingly, there were glitches in delivery. Those who ordered the book in advance had to wait until late in the day, whereas those who lined up in front of the stores got their copies quickly. Blame went all around, with the online orderers pointing the finger at the fact that there was an embargo and "shipments are delivered between noon and 7 p.m." Penguin, the publisher, blasted the distributors for "sloppy planning." Marty and Sara both have copies and Marty will bring his with him to India next month (won't you, Marty??), so I'll hold off on buying one here. I have to say that while I enjoy the books and movies, I did kind of lose interest after about the third one. So now that I know that Harry lives, I can wait to fill in the details.

Vignettes of Daily Life....

2007-07-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

It is always helpful to go home because when I come back I see things here more clearly. Over time it is easy to get used to the pace of life and my frustrations at the daily annoyances. In general I think my tolerance level has increased significantly, but it is at its lowest point immediately after I return from being out of India. Not only do things register with me at a heightened level, but I also react more sharply. Two examples:

When I first came here, I had a big problem getting internet hooked up at home. So I purchased a wireless aircard which I used on my old computer when the internet was down. I no longer need the card or the service, so over the past two or three months I have tried without success to cancel the service. Upon returning from the U.S., I tackled this again with renewed energy. After talking with two different people on the phone, writing a letter, and sending Antony to the store twice I failed to make the sale. I finally balked at the point that I had done everything requested (sending Antony back to the store a second time with a letter filled out to their exacting specifications) only to get yet another call saying that no, I was not yet cancelled---now I had to call their customer service department. At this point I blew my top and said I would simply decline to pay the next bill. This morning the service that collects the fees (this is done house to house here) came and told me that they also need some information off my computer to cancel and I still have to pay the final bill. Saga to be continued.

Marty had to send me some documents via Fedex. He sent me the tracking number and everything was going fine---the package arrived in Delhi and was on its way to Chennai. On Thursday, I was working in our city office in one of open office areas and I got a call from Fedex in Chennai asking me the address and directions to my house. Although the address was obviously on the package, I repeated it and gave directions. A couple of hours later, I got a second call from a different person, asking for the same information. Noting that I had already given this once that day, I repeated it, this time a bit more loudly and stridently. Shortly after this, I received TWO calls simultaneously from Fedex (I put one on hold to take the other one) again asking me for my address and directions. After a moment of trying to navigate this situation, I gave up and asked one of the employees near me to talk to them in Tamil. She did so, using as much English as Tamil to describe the address and directions. The package thankfully arrived Friday (it was then too late for them to deliver on Thursday). When I checked the address, it was written legibly and completely---all other mail has reached me with this address. In the meantime, everyone in the immediate area where I was working also knows where I live---we must have a party.

For another story (on tailors) check the link on the right for the Barkhouse Family. As I have said before, there is a reason why calming practices like yoga and meditation have their origins here.

Back in the Saddle Again

2007-07-08T07:01:00.000-07:00

After a wonderful vacation and a few days in the office, I'm back in Chennai again. We spent several days in New Hampshire at our place in Keene. Harry and I climbed Mt. Monadnock --he made it all the way to the top and I will save that for another day--supposedly is the second most climbed mountain in the world after Mt. Fuji in Japan.

And of course I spent time with Dad. He is not walking much now, as he is quite unsteady. But he seems content. I took the iPod with me to the nursing home, and played some of his favorites for him--Ravel's Bolero and 101 Strings "Soul of Spain." He would have been proud that I biked instead of rode the car on a couple of occasions--the nursing home is only a few miles from our house. Back in Tawas, Dad was an ubiquitous sight on his bright red bicycle--"I never take the car when I can ride my bike, and I don't take the bike when I can walk." Now, sadly, he is unable to do either.

I was dismayed at how the price of produce has shot up in the U.S. Everything seemed expensive, even more than meat. In New Hampshire we got some delicious strawberries at a local farm, but even those were pretty expensive. I did discover a new item--garlic scapes. These were delicious and very versatile.

Back in Chennai, the hot weather has broken and the mornings especially are very pleasant. Southern India does not get the summer monsoon that hits the North and West, but now there are occasionally rainstorms that also seem to have a mild cooling effect. Every season now is my last in India, and though I have grown acclimatized to the intense heat, I can't say that I will miss the oven blasts of spring and early summer here......

Vacation

2007-07-02T05:17:00.000-07:00

I am in the U.S. on home leave and will post when I return the weekend of July 6. Enjoying a cool New Hampshire morning......

Shimla--third time the charm

2007-06-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

I went to Shimla again over the weekend, since I was in Chandigarh on business on Friday. This time the weather cooperated. The shot above is the same one I took in September---but now you can see the mountains.

There is a temple above the town, past the landmark Christ Church which was built by the British when they first started using Shimla as a hill station in the early 1800s. Winding through residential areas all the way up, the last bit is quite steep, and left even the school boys out of breath when they reached the top. They rent walking sticks for 5 rupees, which are as much to beat off the monkeys as to aid in the climb.

I made the climb in 45 minutes, which classifies me according to the table above as "absolutely fit."

One thing I noticed here especially, even more than Chennai, is the way people are used as beasts of burden. Almost everywhere (and you see this in Darjeeling as well), men are laboring up the hills with huge loads---the guy at left is transporting lumber, and the one below is stopping to take a rest after coming down the hill to the shops below the church.

And, like everywhere, construction consists of several people (and a foreman who only watches) laboriously moving rocks and dirt on bowls carried on their heads.

Letter to a Young Job Hopper

2007-06-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

I've written before about the recruiting market here, and how young people tend to hop jobs for things as mundane as the canteen food. This week I got a CV from one of them for a position in HR. Usually, I don't even read these, but forward them to the recruiting team, unopened. However, for some reason this one caught my eye and I read the young man's write-up as well his letter to me ---"Dear sir" ---"give me a chance and I will never let you down."

Here is the letter I wrote in response:

Dear Senthil,

After reviewing your CV and your note, I cannot consider you for employment in our organization.

First, you address me as "Sir." Detail is important when you are applying for a job. You should have checked my gender and proofread your note before sending it.

Second, your email to me--which is clearly a form note-- is sent in the middle of the afternoon, when I imagine you should be working rather than looking for another job. We are looking for people who will put their full attention on their job responsibilities.

Finally, and most important, you have jumped companies three times in almost as many years. Past record is the usually the best indication of future behaviour, so I must assume that this trend will continue and you will quickly become dissatisfied here as well.

Your present organization is a very reputable one, and the head of HR there, who is known to me, is an accomplished professional from whom I am certain you could learn a great deal. My advice to you is (1) stay with your present organization long enough to make a real contribution and (2) if you must job hunt, do it on your own time, not your company's.

You know the story about the boy who walked along the shore, where thousands of starfish had washed on the beach and were dying. He started rescuing a few of them by picking them up and throwing them back in the sea. He was observed by an older man, who counseled him to stop, saying "there are thousands of them, how will you ever make a difference?" And the boy, holding one starfish in his hand, replied, "but I will to this one."

While I doubt that this starfish will stop his search, he did write me back apologizing for calling me Sir and saying that "all the suggestions are really precious."

A Restful Weekend

2007-06-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

This weekend I spent a night at Fisherman's Cove, which is a resort hotel on the East Coast Road, not far from Mamallapuram. I've been there for dinner a few times, but had not stayed overnight since Marty and Sara and I spent the weekend there in July 2005.

Marty has been nudzhing (sp) me for a while now to get back into yoga and meditation, both of which I enjoyed and did a lot of in the States. Ironically, since being in India, I've done very little of either, other than taking the Art of Living course. This weekend I had a chance to change that and had some sessions in yoga practice as well as an Ayurvedic consultation.

Last night after dark I did trataka, concentrated gazing, using a candle. In this meditation, you stare a candle until your eyes water, and then close your eyes and try to hold the "after image" steady for as long as you can. The practice is to develop powers of concentration and focus. This morning I did two others, Surya Namaskar and Hirdayakasha Dharana. One of the foundational poses, or asanas, in yoga is the Surya Namaskar, literally "Salutation to the Sun." There was a whole class just on this pose, which took over an hour. The instructor, Anand, was from the Bihar School of Yoga, (publishers of Yoga Magazine) and was both patient and very knowledgeable--- it almost felt like he was an instrument of the teaching, rather than the teacher---a place that few Western teachers of yoga reach. The Hirdayakasha Dharana, which literally means "concentration on the heart space" was a guided meditation to open the heart chakra. I found it very powerful.

When I went to the spa yesterday afternoon to make appointments, I was carrying a book that one of my staff had given me on Friday---the team had a celebration for my 20th anniversary with Ford---Ken Blanchard's Leading at a Higher Level. The Ayurvedic doctor spotted the book and asked if he could look at it. The spa wasn't too busy, so over the course of the next day he read about half the book while I did yoga sessions with Anand. Finally, I also did an Ayurvedic consultation with him as well. He didn't try to sell me a lot of medicines but gave me some oil to rub on my legs and feet to help with the neuroma (enlarged nerve) I have in my left foot.

Both of them were really lovely and spiritual people, and made the stay not only relaxing but uplifting as well. How much time I make to get back into regular practice is another matter...

My Madurai

2007-05-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

I picked up a lovely book over the weekend, called "Multiple Facets of My Madurai" by Manohar Devadoss. A few months ago, Roberta and I visited this temple city of the south, located an hour's plane ride from Chennai. The book is a series of sketches and little stories about the city's history, the author's experiences, and the Meenakshi Temple. He grew up in Madurai, but has lived in Madras since early adulthood.

As you will see from following the link above, Devadoss and his wife Mahema have had serious misfortune in their lives---first, in December of 1972 they were in an auto accident while traveling between Madurai and Madras, which left Mahema a quadraplegic. Then, Devadoss discovered that he had a rare eye disorder, that over time would leave him nearly blind. Yet, he continued to draw and has written three books, and the couple is very active and inspiring to all who meet them.

Perhaps the most amusing part of the book to me was the description of various kinds of dung--cow dung, elephant dung, and horse dung. Cow dung is used to line floors, and for fuel. Orthodox men take the urine and sprinkle it for religious purposes. Elephant dung--huge mounds in the streets--attracted bare-foot boys who believed that jumping in the dung was good for their feet (and fun). As a boy, Devadoss found dust on the curb near his house and examined it under a magnifying glass, discovering that it was horse dung. This was the least respectable of dung---"horse dung" my father would say, "is an untouchable among dungs."

Working on the Line

2007-05-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of old news, but sometime back I was in a weeklong training , which included a day working on the line. My team of five was put in the paint shop on what is called the sealer deck. This is where a substance is applied to the joints and overlaps in sheet metal so that no water can get into the car---very important here especially during the monsoons. I found the pictures they gave us, and thought this one was worth posting.

You might think that the paint shop would be very uncomfortable especially since you have to wear coveralls, head covering, and gloves. But in fact, the area is well ventilated and not unpleasant. In fact, it's probably more comfortable than the rest of Chennai these days--today the ambient temperature hit 45 degrees C. (113 degrees F.)!

Compared to other paint shops in other parts of the world, this one, as you might expect, is considerably more manual---a lot of the work we did would be automated elsewhere. And it is not easy. I have never been particularly adept at putting on eyeliner, and that is a bit what applying sealer on a car body resembles---you have to put on just the right pressure and then move the gun very quickly, so you don't waste sealer. After that, you take a brush--that's what I'm doing in the picture--and then spread the sealer between openings and joints so that it creates a water and airtight surface. And then, after you apply the sealer, you pick up and place several sound dampening pads on the floor and posts of the area of the body you are working to keep out wind noise and vibration.

Part of the purpose of the training was to learn shop floor disciplines in quality, process improvement, and cost, so that these techniques can be applied elsewhere in the organization. Although I had worked on the line once years ago, it was a great refresher. The office environment, though typically less disciplined than a plant environment where the line, the parts and the cars have to be choreographed to the second, can benefit a lot from applying some of the rigors of the shop floor--whether it is mapping and taking unnecessary steps out of repetitive processes or looking for even the tiniest cost saving.

Each of us was assigned a trainer who was an expert in the job we were supposed to learn--and who in all honesty was also there to make sure that any mistakes we made got corrected and were not passed on to the next station (or ultimately, the customer). Whether vice president or staff worker, all of us were equal and followed the same rules on the shop floor. Every time I used too much sealer, my trainer would admonish me with "muda." (This is the Japanese word for waste---now common parlance in manufacturing plants throughout the world). And when I didn't quite get all the sealer brushed to her exacting standards, she would patiently but firmly show me once again, and then remind me that this defect could lead to "customer problem." After a day on the line, all of us working on sealer deck (as well as those assigned to other parts of the shop) were much humbled by our experiences---and glad to turn the job back to the real experts!

Hot, Hotter, Hottest

2007-05-13T05:30:00.000-07:00

Summer has arrived with a vengeance in South India. Temperatures are daily rising above 40 degrees Celcius (104+) and the humidity is pretty high, too. It hits you in funny ways. After being out in it a while, I will find myself sitting, even in a cooled place, and suddenly breaking out in a sweat. There is a Tamil phrase similar to the English "dog days", and the streets aren't as crowded, as people just stay put and try to keep cool however they can as well as drinking fluids--with all the sweating, you can get dehydrated in a hurry. They say that we are in for another two to three weeks of this before the summer monsoon arrives on the west coast of India and begins to generate a cooling effect.

Friday was a big day in Chennai and in fact in all of Tamil Nadu, as there was a huge celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Chief Minister's election to the legislature. People came in buses from all over the state, and Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, and other national figures were here as well. For several days before the event on Friday night, we kept having brownouts and the lights in the apartment seemed continually on low wattage. As in fact, they were. The streets were lined with banners, hordings or billboards, and temporary fluorescent lights which, together with everyone lucky enough to have air conditioning running them at full blast, seriously tasked the power capacity of the city ---which is none too stable even in the best of times. I got caught in the traffic on the way to the city Friday afternoon, and it took me over two hours to get to our city office, which is usually little more than an hour's ride.

Roberta Departs

2007-05-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Roberta, shown smiling with Leela helping her pack, left early Saturday morning after we had a lovely Shabbat dinner with our new friends Jon and Lindy, Janet, and Shael and Mohan. Jon, who is a rabbi studying for his Ph.D. in Jewish Ethics, even made challah and brought some study materials on Parshat Emor, the week's reading from the Book of Leviticus.

It will seem strange not having Roberta here---and she was sad to leave as well. Thanks to her, my social life picked up considerably, as she is much more outgoing and gregarious than I tend to be. And it was great to get to really know her--we seem to enjoy a lot of the same things ( on a number of occasions one or the other of us remarked we were doing something that Marty, much as we missed him, would NOT enjoy!)

The challah making is a story in itself. There is no standard white flour in India (at least not in Chennai), and maida, the Indian version, does not work because it has no husk at all ground in--it is superfine. Jon had to go buy the wheat and then have it ground---essentially making his bread a completely whole wheat version (healthy and delicious, but it didn't rise as much as he would have liked). Suppose you could combine with a bit of maida, but how much? Anyway, the challah was roundly pronounced as a vast improvement over that supplied by the Taj a couple of weeks ago when we had our first Shabbat gathering.

Earlier in the week I was in Bangkok and Koh Samui. I went to Samui because I had heard it was good for snorkeling, but the snorkeling trip I went on was a disappointment. Really not much to see, and if you are looking for the world's great snorkeling spots, Samui isn't one of them. Otherwise, it was relaxing and a nice break---though it did rain while I was there.

Tonight I am going to the Madras Hash---this is a part exercise, part fun event which occurs regularly here. I have not been to one before, but it is supposed to be great fun. "Hares" stake out a trail which everyone is supposed to follow, with twists and turns to throw you off--followed by beer and munchies.

Koh Samui

2007-04-28T04:40:00.001-07:00

I'm in Bangkok and on the way to Koh Samui, an island off the coast of Thailand. Plan to get in some snorkeling and relaxation. I'll post later in the week.

Kanchipuram

2007-04-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

Roberta and I went to Kanchipuram, which is nearby Chennai and known as a temple town as well as the center for silk fabric making. We didn't get to the silk making places because it started to rain and we had to get back to Chennai for the evening. But we visited a fabulous 7th century temple called Kailasanatha. The temple is mostly in honor of the Hindu god Siva and Parvati (his wife) and there are numerous stone wall carvings in their images. It is one of the few temples that allows non-Hindus into the inner sanctum.

Some of the interior painting, which was covered over and then laboriously removed, remains, and gives an indication of how stunning the temple must have been in its heyday.

After we went to temple, we visited a place called the Sankara Mutt, which is where Sankaracharya (seer) of Kanchi presides. Roberta was very interested in this because right after she arrived, she had a laser procedure done on her eyes at Sankara Nethralaya, a world famous eye hospital.

According to the story, S.S. Badrinath, an opthamologist who had been educated and worked in the U.S. but had returned to Chennai, was asked to operate on the Sankaracharya, a holy man residing in Kanchi. Religious strictures prevented the Sankaracharya from traveling to Chennai--he could only walk or be carried-- so the physician had to operate and treat him in Kanchi. This interaction resulted in the founding of Sankara Nethralaya. Badrinath, privately frustrated by conditions in Chennai, was on the verge of returning to the U.S. But his exposure to the holy man led him on a very different path---to bring his knowledge of state- of- the -art eye treatment back to India--and to serve the poor. Today, Sankara Nethralaya is not only a premier institute, but fully 40% of its patients are non-paying.

Back in Chennai

2007-04-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

Thank you, readers, for your patience. I returned to Chennai early Monday morning after a week in Detroit, where it was snowing when I left. Back in Chennai, the hot season seems to have arrived and the only pleasant time of day is in the early morning hours. From here it will only get hotter. This will be my last summer in Chennai, so having been through it twice before I will sweat it out.

We had two lovely seders, one with our cousins and the other with friends, and I also got to see Dad every day. He has good days and not-so-good days, but in general is doing okay. He has a walker on wheels that he enjoys very much. During my visit baseball season started, and I took him down to the activity room to watch the Tiger's opening day. Although it was something he would have loved a few years ago, honestly I don't know how much of it he followed. When I left, he was nodding off.

Marty has moved into a neat little house in Huntington Woods, a suburb of Detroit. It is about a half hour walk from our synagogue, which I did the day after I arrived despite the cold weather. The house is smaller than our one in Beverly Hills, but all we need. Given the way the real estate market in Detroit is tanking these days (the publicity on Chrysler being sold was hot news while I was there), we decided to rent instead of buy. This was a house refurbished on spec, but the owner wound up renting instead of selling. Everything was brand new, including the kitchen, so we were able to use it as is for Passover rather than going through the laborious process of kashering everything. Given that I haven't really cooked for over two years, I was relieved that my chicken soup with matzo balls still came out well!

Roberta decided while I was in the U.S. that she would stay until the first weekend in May. That was good news. Today we went to a local art gallery and next weekend we are going to have a Shabbat dinner party and then try to go to Kancheepuram.

Homeward Bound

2007-03-29T07:13:00.001-07:00

I'm headed back to the U.S. tonight (actually early Friday a.m.) for Passover and to see my family. Will post after I return.

A Sad Chapter

2007-03-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

Roberta, Jonathan (shown above at the entrance) and I went to the Jewish cemetery. It has been moved a couple of times, most recently in the 1980s, and is located in a bustling area, down a narrow street, a couple of kilometres from the new City Centre shopping building on the one side and from the beach on the other. Next to the Jewish cemetery there is a Chinese cemetery and a Bahai cemetery, carved out from the same general area.

Other than being overgrown with weeds and tomato plants (which are cleaned out every few months by the caretaker) the graves were in decent repair, aided by a 12 foot high wall that was built with funds from one of the Jewish aid societies in North America. There are less than ten gravestones---the oldest from the 1700s and the most recent the caretaker's stepmother, buried in the late 1980s. Besides the Salomon family, who were merchants in the 1700s, the others are more recent and somewhat random (varying dates and names), including a young European woman (1920-1943) who may likely have been a refugee from Germany. But, from the dedication marker below dating from 1901, it is clear that much of the Jewish community of Madras had already disappeared by the turn of the last century, since the state of the cemetery even at that time needed oversight.

Jewish Life in India

2007-03-18T10:06:00.000-07:00

In previous posts I have written about Marty's and my trip to Bombay for the High Holidays, and visits to Cochin to visit the old synagogue there and what remains of Jewtown. Here in Chennai, there is no indigeneous Jewish community, only a cemetery with a very sad history that dates from the time of the East India Company. However, as everywhere, even a small Jewish community will manage to find itself together, and that is what happened last night when Roberta and I were invited to our friend Rochelle's house to meet two young people, Lindy and Jon, who have recently relocated to the city.

Rochelle, who you see in the middle of the picture, has been in Madras for over 50 years, moving here with her husband from Bombay in the 1950s. Her family is originally from the B'nei Israel community in Pune, near Bombay, but she grew up in Hyderabad, where her father had a cinema business. During World War II, refugees from Europe, turned away by other countries, found their way to India, and a number of them came to Hyderabad. Usually they found their way to Rochelle's parents house.

Rochelle's father died when she was a child, and every day her mother went to the small cemetery in Hyderabad where the Muslims (Hyderabad is a heavily Muslim city) had given over a small portion of their own cemetery for the Jews to use. There were only a couple of dozen graves there, and the one next to Rochelle's father was that of a European woman--which Rochelle's mother, out of a sense of obligation, tended along with her husband's. Decades later, Rochelle happened to be at party in Madras and sat down next to a foreign woman who was visiting the city. After chatting, they discovered not only that they were both Jewish but that the woman's parents had been in Hyderabad during and after the war. If you are Jewish (and probably even if you're not), you know the rest of this story---the European woman buried next to Rochelle's father was none other than the foreign woman's mother.

There is a Jewish cemetery in Chennai, though as noted above it has a sad history. It was originally located near the beach, and about 40 years ago, the land was needed for other purposes and the cemetery was about to be razed. At that time, there were a number of other Indian Jews living in Madras, though all of them but Rochelle have since moved to Israel, died, or gone to other cities. This group met and tried to decide what to do. They were successful in persuading the government not to destroy, but remove, the graves to another spot. However, the new location is poorly tended and it is a constant struggle to maintain. One day, Roberta and I plan to visit it and see for ourselves.

Singapore Fling

2007-03-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Roberta and I went to Singapore for her birthday, and had a lovely time at the orchid gardens. A different set of orchids was in bloom than when Marty and I visited a year and a half ago, but still beautiful.

We also went to the Jurong Bird Park, which has several hundred varieties of birds from all over the world. A couple of times a day, there is a bird show, where trained macaws, flamingoes, and even hawks entertain a fascinated audience, flying through hoops in formation, retrieving money from members of the audience, and even playing ping-pong. There is a "Lory loft" where brightly colored birds (see below) drink sugar water from cups supplied by the park attendants. One poor little girl was nipped by an eager bird trying to cram his way onto the feeding cup. But for the most part, the birds were well behaved, as were the children.

Back in Business

2007-03-04T01:12:00.000-08:00

BSNL came and got the internet working (turns out it was a faulty phone connection), but my home laptop crashed and despite reloading Windows, the ethernet driver is nowhere to be found, and the computer is still very, very slow. So, plan to invest in a new one shortly. Fortunately, I had backed up MOST of the photographs I've taken over the last two years--though I'm sure I'll discover some good ones missing.

Today is Holi, a primarily North India holiday that is a spring festival of colors---you see both people and cattle decorated with face paint and colorful dress. There are various stories about the origin of this holiday, in which vibrantly colored powders with medicinal properties ward off the viral diseases and colds so common in spring. Coincidentally, it is also the Jewish festival of Purim, which celebrates the defeat of the Haman, evil aide to the King of Persia, who plotted to destroy the Jewish people. I missed hearing the reading of the Megillah (Book of Esther). Sara went as an Indian princess in her latest salwar kameez!

A while ago I wrote about the advertisements for brides and bridegrooms that feature prominently in the Sunday papers here. Last week I found one that has to be the proverbial needle in the haystack--but definitely a sign of the new India that is increasingly recognizing the professional worth of women.....

Groom Wanted

Good looking, very fair post graduate Doctor bridegroom aged below 29 years and height above 5 foot 8 inches Kamma Naidu [from the Warrior caste] is required. He should have been brought up in any one of the big cities of Tamil Nadu and convent educated. One of the parents shall be professinally qualified and well stabilized financially. Groom with Doctor parents preferable. The Groom should be dynamic, self initiative [sic] and ambitious. He should be self confident and will be able to appreciate the professional performance of the spouse. He should be able to relish better placed, very rich, very fair, well qualified and well recognized spouse. He should have a very high level of moral values and should be a team player both in profession and family life. If you are one of them [sic] please contact......

Out of Commission

2007-02-25T22:32:00.000-08:00

Had a bad weekend with technology. Internet has been spotty the last few days--BSNL tried to fix it but still isn't working properly-- and then, in a separate disaster, my computer crashed on Saturday night. Will post in a few days when I've gotten everything up and running again.

Bits and Bobs

2007-02-18T08:30:00.000-08:00

This is a bit of a random post this week, with various bits gathered in part from a short trip to Delhi this week and some from the news:

In Delhi some expats live in farmhouses which often have acres of property around them. You can rent an elephant for a day to come to your property to just hang out and entertain you (or to ride around your campus), for less than $100 a day.
Buses here "ply" routes. I have never seen the word used so much in my life as here, but always (and almost exclusively) to describe buses: for example, "buses regularly ply the route between Delhi and Agra."
The caste system is alive and well in some Indian companies, which have a preference for certain groups (e.g. Brahmins). Everyone seems to know which companies these are, but names are not mentioned. It is said that an arm put around the shoulder by a supervisor at such a company may not be a sign of encouragement, but an attempt by the superior to detect the sacred thread worn by Brahmins.
Surrogate mothers are the latest in outsourcing. The Indian Council of Medical Research, which is codifying the legal aspects of egg donation and surrogate mother arrangements, believes it will mushroom into a $6 billion business. A surrogate mother in Delhi gets between 2 and 4 lakhs ($5-10,000) compared to $20-50,000 in the U.S.
Project Tiger, a well publicized attempt to save India's dwindling tiger population from extinction by poachers who kill the animals for the various body parts and medicinal properties in demand from China, is pretty much acknowledged to be a failure. Tigers continue to disappear from most of the national reserves and the estimated numbers by the various parks are widely thought to be overstated. An article in the Jet Airways flight magazine shows a billboard at the entrance of one of these parks, depicting a tiger with a quote bubble coming out of his mouth which states:

"Dear Friends. My sighting in the wild is a matter of chance. Single-minded objective for me during park visit may disappoint you in a great way. I request you to enjoy this park in its total wilderness."

Visa Woes

2007-02-11T01:18:00.000-08:00

Over the last few months, the work visa renewal process in India has changed. At first it sounded like an improvement: you no longer had to leave the country, but could renew through the local Foreign Registration office. However, just about everyone I've talked to using the "new process" has had problems, with a ton of bureaucratic drag and lack of accountability between the FRROs and the Home Ministry in Delhi. Worse, it's no longer even an option to renew abroad, but must be done in country. Some have said that the change is a deliberate attempt to discourage foreigners from working here. I don't know if that is the case, but the lack of clarity around the whole process has been frustrating to many. (It doesn't affect me personally because my own visa is good through early 2008, by which time I will have returned to the U.S. anyway).

There is also a lot of variability abroad in the practices of the Indian consulates and embassies with respect even to non-work visas. Some are pretty quick and reasonably efficient--London and New York are mentioned as examples. Others, like Chicago, can't even manage a simple tourist visa---in both Lia's and Sara's cases, it required a trip there to arrive early in the a.m., and then stand in line and wait--and wait. Sara's, sent before Thanksgiving express mail, hadn't even been opened early in late December when Marty and she drove down there finally concluding that they had to handle it in person. The person at the counter said they had not gotten to January visas, so if anyone was traveling that weekend, they were probably out of luck unless they did what Marty and Sara did, and show up in person. If the country wants more tourism, they are going to have to make it more user friendly. Americans don't need a visa at all for Thailand or Japan, and if you want to visit Australia or even Cambodia, you can get an visa online these days.

I guess people here would say the same --or worse--of the rigmarole the U.S. demands of our foreign visitors. However, this doesn't excuse what is a very inefficient and difficult process here. India has been able to automate the train ticket business quite efficiently, so it's certainly within the realm of the possible to do the same on tourist visas.

Back to Jodhpur

2007-02-04T09:28:00.000-08:00

I never did finish writing about Lia's and my trip to Rajasthan, especially the trip to Jodhpur. As Jaipur is called "the pink city," Jodhpur is known as "the blue city." You don't have to be there long to understand why. As the photo shows, building exteriors in the old city are awash in blue.

This has an interesting history. A section of the town was occupied by the Brahmins (highest Hindu caste) and they washed their houses in blue to identify themselves. Over time, non-Brahmins also adopted the distinctive coloring for its practical application--keeping cool in the hot Rajashthan summers.

The train station in Jodhpur, which Lia and I experienced because we took the train from Jaipur, is probably one of the sleaziest I've seen here. In the main lobby, hundreds of people, most looking like beggars, were sleeping when we arrived shortly after midnight. Touts were all about, and it was a good thing I had arranged for the hotel to pick us up, especially since the hotel was almost 10 kilometers outside the city.

The most imposing and impressive feature in Jodhpur is the Meherangarh Fort, which overlooks the city. In retrospect I was glad I chose this place to visit with Lia, because the climb would have been difficult to impossible for either Roberta or Marty. The climb is worth it, though--the view of the old city from on high is breathtaking.

And yes, the origin of jodhpur riding pants is this city, which is world famous for polo. There are museums and lots of pictures from the days of the Raj, and if you're so inclined, you can even have a pair made while you wait. (I didn't).

Madurai

2007-01-28T22:05:00.000-08:00

Dad has arrived safely in the U.S. and is settling into his new place. It was a grueling flight, with a long stopover in Frankfurt, and he didn't get much sleep until the Frankfurt - Detroit leg. But he seems to like his new place, and he is surrounded by older people and activities, which was difficult here. When Marty left him after the assessment and check-in, he was already absorbed in a game of bingo. I have spoken to him only once, but once he gets a phone in his room, we will be able to talk every day. Marty says he is more animated and talkative than he has been in a while--probably due to being surrounded by people. Dad is definitely a people person.

It is harder on those he left behind. The house seems quiet without him and Ganesh, and his room sadly empty. Leela now goes to her own little room after dinner, no longer needing to stay up to watch TV with Dad and walk him to his room for bed. She has a small TV and cable, which she is enjoying, but the hole left by Dad is large. Ganesh has called a couple of times and he will also be able to speak to Dad when the phone is in. But we are not sure how long Dad will remember much about Ganesh or Leela, or how he knows them. (Without me there, he thinks Marty is a friend from high school.) He has never forgotten my name or that I am his daughter, but I fear that being away from him for a while might confuse him about me, too. Marty has taken over pictures similar to what we did when Marty left here.

This was a long weekend -- January 26 is Republic Day-- so Roberta and I took a short trip to Madurai, a temple town located about an hour's flight south of Chennai. We really enjoyed the city. In addition to the fabulous Sri Meenakshi Temple, the city has a museum devoted to Mahatma Gandhi and a bustling tailoring industry. We toured the temple the day we arrived and again this morning. This morning it was jammed packed--today was an auspicious day for weddings and a number of happy couples and their guests thronged the temple. It costs 50 rupees to be married in the inner sanctum, where only Hindus are allowed.

The temple is dedicated to Meenakshi, a goddess consort of Lord Shiva, and the name according to our guide literally refers to the eye of the fish. The fish's eye never closes, and so the goddess never stops watching over her people. People from all over India come to pray at this temple. At one point, they may circle nine times around a shrine devoted to the planets--a thousand or more years before Galileo, Indian astrologers and astronomers knew that the sun and not the earth was the center of the solar system. There are many other points of devotion in the temple complex. It was fascinating to spend time there.

Near the north entrance of the temple are temple ruins that house a bustling market of vendors selling household items and textiles. A long row of tailors whips up whatever you like---a copy of your favorite shirt, Indian or western style clothing--in a matter of hours. Roberta and I both succumbed and for only about $100 between the two of us, got some new threads.

We also enjoyed the Gandhi museum. Depicting the life of Gandhi in words and pictures, the museum contains the original loincloth that Gandhi was wearing when he was assassinated, as well as other memorabilia. It was in Madurai that he first donned the loincloth, Indian homespun, and he was never seen in anything else after that. The museum is free and popular with school groups---the charming youngsters below were waiting with us for the museum to reopen after lunch.

Dad Departs

2007-01-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

Today is a sad day at our house, which seems very empty without Dad. As I write this, he, Marty and Sara are on their way to Frankfurt and then to Detroit. Last night we had a little farewell, with Ganesh bringing his daughter and son-- who had visited frequently while he worked here-- to say goodbye to "Grandpa Joe." Leela broke down completely--she has been very devoted to Dad, sitting with him every night as he watched TV after Ganesh had gone home, and holding his hand to accompany him to bed. It was often difficult to get her to take time off, because she didn't want to leave him.

We have been explaining to Dad for several days about his return. A couple of days ago he finally understood that Leela and Ganesh were not going with him. He became quite upset, saying we were kicking him out of the house, but by yesterday, he had calmed down. I sent along the pictures you see here, along with some others,to remind him of his time here. It is at times like this that his dementia seems a blessing---within a few weeks or maybe even days, the whole experience will seem to him as if it were ages ago and blunt the inevitable sadness of leaving such wonderful caregivers and companions. And yet, with all his loss of memory, he has never once forgotten Leela's name--nor, I suspect, will he when he sees her picture. It seems that the things that touch his heart remain clear for him--which is a beautiful thing.

Ganesh already has another job lined up with his service, and will take a few days off before that starts. I am really grateful for Roberta being here (she plans to stay until May) as I would feel totally bereft in an empty house with only Leela, myself and Junior. Although I am returning to the U.S. for a week at the beginning of April, this is the longest I've been apart from Dad for several years, since he came to live with us before my mother died.

So begins another chapter...

Angkor Wat

2007-01-21T03:31:00.000-08:00

Angkor Wat, the generic name for the Khmer temples around Siem Reap, Cambodia, is one of the truly great sites of the world, and I am glad we were able to go there before it becomes completely commercial. Already scores of hotels have gone up in Siem Reap and more are on the drawing boards in this otherwise sleepy little town that saw its main historical site occupied by the Vietcong during the Vietnam War.

There are many, many temples you can visit while you are there, and for all but the most avid, you can easily get burned out. To avoid this, Roberta, Marty and I took a leisurely pace of a couple a day, with ample breaks for tea, naps, shopping, and meals. Also, we took a cruise on the nearby lake, where we were able to peek into the daily lives of the families that live in houseboats along the water.

The main event is Angkor Wat itself, which is best seen either at dawn or late in the day, when the sun is low in the sky. Below you can see people climbing the extremely narrow and treacherous steps to one of the towers.

Despite the hype, Angkor Wat itself was not my favorite. That honor goes to either Angkor Thom (pictured at the top), or Banteay Kdei, the first temple we saw. Angkor Thom has absolutely fantastic bas reliefs, depicting both the historic and mundane events of the era---from women picking lice out of each other's hair to grand battles. At Banteay Kdei, Marty had a decidely "deja vu" experience which was very eerie. He had a strong feeling in a couple of places that he had been there before, even though this was his first visit to Cambodia (at least in this lifetime). You can see him in one of the places that felt familiar, clearly awestruck.

Cambodia is still a poor country, though it has invested far more in tourism than the main spots in India. The airport is very modern and clean, financed heavily by the visa fees of $20 per person and the exorbitant exit tax of $25 USD.

Thousands of land mines still remain in Cambodia, and the large number of survivors do their best to make a living through various means. At several of the temples, amputees have organized into small music groups, and take donations. Outside restaurants in the city, mobile booksellers ply everything from histories of the area and Cambodia to cheap copies ($4-5 USD) of Lonely Planet guides. And everywhere are the children. The young fellow at the right--who could not be more than 3 years old --was hawking postcards at Banteay Kdei.

Dad's Return

2007-01-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

Marty, Roberta and Sara arrived on Wednesday morning. Marty and Sara will go back to the U.S. on January 25, and Roberta will stay with me until mid April teaching at the Asian College of Journalism. When Marty and Sara go back, Dad will go with them. He has been slowing down in the last few months and we want to get him back to the U.S. while it is still manageable for him to travel. He will enter an assisted living place near where Marty and Sara are staying. This is a difficult decision, as he has quite a pleasant life here and filled with caring people in Ganesh and Leela, who have looked after him as if he were family. (More on this later). But it is time.

Marty, Roberta and I are traveling at the moment to Bangkok and Siem Reap, Cambodia, where we have taken in the sights including the fabulous temples and ruins of Angkor Wat. More on this when we return to India in a few days.

Wildflower Hall

2007-01-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

Before coming back to adventures in Rajasthan, I'll make a brief detour back to the Himalayas, this time on the western side of the country.

This week I went up to Chandigarh, the capital of Haryana and Punjab states, to meet with one of our dealers, and so gave Shimla another try on the weekend (I got rained out the last time). This time the weather cooperated beautifully---it was crisp and cold with great visibility all weekend. I stayed at Wildflower Hall, a luxury hotel that was once the estate of Lord Kitchener, a British general who served as the head of the Indian army in the early 1900s, after leading British forces during the Boer War.

The picture at the top is the view from my hotel room. The hotel was deserted after the long holiday, and I didn't see more than a handful of other guests. Wildflower Hall is a bit of a drive from the main action in Shimla--probably a half hour or so---but it is surrounded by beautiful woods and there are plenty of walking trails. I tried out one of the shorter ones, and was glad I didn't attempt a longer one---the altitude (about 8500 ft here) quickly tires you out if you're not used to it. Wildflower Hall has all the amenities--a fitness center, pool, steam room, and spa---along with great food. And---something I just haven't been able to get anywhere here---a decent martini! But it's the scenery that is really front and center.

During my trip to Darjeeling, one of the Australians I met had also traveled to Kashmir and highly recommended a book with the provocative title, Jesus lived in India. The premise is that Jesus had come to India during the so-called "lost years" and then returned here--to what is now Kashmir--after having survived the crucifixion. (It is fairly widely accepted that Thomas, one of the disciples, did come to India and that he is buried near Madras). Funnily enough, although I haven't seen the book in Chennai--it was written a number of years ago, so isn't widely available -- the Wildflower Hall bookstore had a copy. I finished it on the plane-- it is very well researched and makes fascinating reading--if totally destroying Christian theology in the process. In addition to detailed analysis of the crucifixion and its aftermath, the author contends that many of Jesus' actual teachings (as opposed to the later doctrines created by Paul) are derived from Buddhism, which he studied in India during the "lost years".

Travels North

2006-12-31T07:04:00.000-08:00

Lia and I returned from several days traveling to Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Jodhpur. She left early this morning for the U.S. She got lots of practice with her Hindi in Rajasthan, where English is not spoken very well especially among the working class--e.g. drivers. It is also pretty unusual for a westerner to speak Hindi, so she attracted attention even among the hotel staff---one enterprising hotel manager took it upon himself to teach her more phrases!

Hyderabad is not really on the main tourist circuit, but it has a number of attractions including the Salar Jung museum, Golconda Fort, and Ramoji Film city, which is both an amusement park and a series of film sets. We visited all three, and spent our nights at the Amrutha Castle Best Western, where I met my first hotel mouse since coming to India. The Amrutha was heavily decked out in Christmas decorations, including a doorman dressed up as Santa-ji. We had a great Hyderabadi meal at a Lonely Planet- recommended restaurant called Gufaa, where Santa-ji was also in attendance (see Flickr above).

Salar Jung museum is one of the highlights of Hyderabad, but to me, it is a very mixed bag. Hyderabad is over 30% Muslim, and the Salar Jung family were nobles during more than 200 year Muslim rule before Independence. The family were veritable collectors of stuff from all over the world, and there are more than 40 rooms, each dedicated to a particular area---e.g. jewel encrusted sabres, clocks, dishes, furniture, textiles, Hindu religious statues and items, etc. The highlight is a clock in the center of the museum, kind of like a cuckoo clock, where a little man with a hammer comes out to chime the hour. People gather in the room and on the balcony up to a half hour before the hour, and the clock's motions are shown on two very washed out video screens --which is about the only way you can see them without being practically on top of the clock. No photography is allowed in the museum.

The Salar Jung collection is amazing---it is touted as the largest one man collection in the world--and although the museum contains a number of western items, it is the sheer number and variety of Indian cultural artifacts which is most impressive. Unfortunately, the museum is poorly maintained, and because of this, many parts of the collection appear to be in danger of disintegration in the not- too-distant future. The recently opened western wing of the museum is climate controlled and uses recessed instead of unfiltered fluorescent lighting, but in the older wing which dates from 1951, the most basic conservation techniques are ignored (with the exception of signs everywhere, even on inaccessible items, that warn not to touch). There is no humidity or climate control, silverware is badly tarnished, textiles and jade faded almost beyond recognition---what was described as deep green jade was nearly gray. Of course, this may date from the original state of these items when the museum opened, but the conditions there aren't helping. An article in the local paper described labor unrest at the museum as well---despite the addition of a dozen more rooms in the western wing in 2000, the maintenance staff has been reduced from over 250 to 150. Sad.

In the evening we went to Golconda fort for a light and sound show narrated by the King of Bollywood cinema, Amitabh Bachchan. The history of the fort and Hyderabad is impressive if complicated---I confess to not following more than half of it, and certainly could not have passed a test afterwards! The sound byte version is that the fort was built in the 13th century after a shepherd boy found the spot for the ruling Hindu kings, the Kakatiyas. The fort then passed to the Islamic sultanate and then to the Mughals.

We were among the few foreign tourists at Ramoji Film City, which is located about an hour from Hyderabad. The site, which is supposedly more than 2000 acres, contains a theme park and the rest of the area is film sets--the largest in the world, even larger than Hollywood. Lia is pictured below (with one of her admirers) in one of the sets next to the theme park--you can almost picture the dance numbers, typical in Bollywood films, on the large stage-like area in front of the gardens where Lia is standing.

In truth, Ramoji was a fairly weird place to us--we arrived before noon and the crowds at the entrance were overflowing. Our driver, an enterprising fellow, drove us a couple of kilometres up the road where there was another, "VIP" entrance. The attendant said they were sold out of VIP tickets for the day, but gave us general admission tickets---which everyone else was waiting in long lines for. Feeling a bit guilty about this but not wanting to miss the action, we hopped a bus and in a few minutes arrived at the theme park main entrance, where we spent a few hours exploring. Gift shops had all manner of chazzerai, but little of it related to the park. A "scary house" located in the hole of a ship consisted primarily of video games. There were long lines for the entertainment, although we did catch one dance and acrobatics show that was only average.

I'll post more on the trip to Rajasthan later....Happy New Year!

Heading Out

2006-12-22T05:39:00.000-08:00

Lia and I are headed up to Hyderabad and then to Rajasthan for a few days. Will post when we return. Happy Holidays!

Dad's Birthday and Lia Arrives

2006-12-17T08:11:00.000-08:00

Update: Lia "pre-shopping" for saris at Nalli's in Chennai. We took a tour of Chennai today and checked out some of the main shopping places, and Lia also picked up some VCDs.

Thursday was Dad's 89th birthday. We had a quiet celebration at home. He seemed to know that it was his birthday but could not remember how old he is---and this morning when I asked him, he still didn't have a clue. When I told him he was 89, he paused for a few seconds and said, "Gosh, pretty soon I'll be an old man." It is gratifying that despite all the decline, he has not lost his sense of humor!

In other news, the college aged daughter of friends, Lia, arrived last night at 3 a.m. Lia studies Hindi and recently taught a course on Bollywood at the University of Michigan. After I finish work this week, we are heading to Hyderabad to Ramoji Film City where some of the films are produced and then up to Rajasthan to Jaipur and Jodphur (yes the famous riding clothes are named after this city). She is still sleeping as I write this or I would also post her picture---I forgot to take my camera to the airport last night.

I am still fighting the cough that came with the cold that I got in Darjeeling. This is a typical pattern for me and I expect the cough to hang on for another couple of weeks at least. This is the first cold I've had in India, so I've gotten all kinds of advice on how to deal with it. Both Leela and my admin are carefully monitoring what they will let me eat and drink. No bananas, no cucumbers, no cold water--only hot water. In India it is believed that certain fruits and vegetables are "cold" and others are "warm" ---so when you have a cold you should not consume "cold" foods.

More on Darjeeling

2006-12-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

The stars have not been very well aligned this week-- have a bad, hacking-cough-kind-of-cold, my printer at home has gone on the fritz, and there have been numerous other petty irritations at work and in doing errands--today's crisis was trying to get another SIM card for the spare cell phone used by visitors....I won't bore you with the details. So, let's just head back up to Darjeeling and have some tea, shall we?

I stayed at a little inn called the Shangri-la Regency. I found it on traveladvisor.com, to which I'm a regular contributor. The inn is right near the center of action, the Chowrastra, and got warm and cozy writeups, but the visitors who stayed there before went in October, and I was there in December and it was cold. The Shangri-la does not have central heating, but they provided a space heater and---sharp knock at the door at 8:00 p.m.----a hot water bottle for my feet. Still, I think the nights in this place probably account for the cold I came down with earlier this week. I hope it doesn't linger too long.

The Shangri-la was not full, but among my fellow travellers was a very pleasant Australian trio, two men and a woman, who were on a month long sojourn through Nepal and northern India--after Darjeeling, they were headed to Sikkim. One of the men was a student (as opposed to a devotee) of Buddhism, and was visiting some of the more well known monasteries scattered through these parts. They had also caught up with a young woman that he had sponsored years before in Kathmandu--an 8 year old beggar girl whose family he befriended during his time there and he wound up paying for the girl to go to school in Darjeeling. She now is a primary school teacher and has an apartment with a DVD and a microwave--a life she never could have known without his largesse.

Darjeeling is also home to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute. It's connected to the zoo, which is one of the better ones in India--red pandas, a couple of different kinds of tigers, leopards, leopard cats, and many other exotic breeds I hadn't seen elsewhere. HMI contains a storehouse of treasures and photos of the great expedition led by Sir Edmund Hillary to reach the summit of Mt. Everest--accompanied by his trusty sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, resident of Darjeeling. The museum contains all the original gear--right down to the boots, tents and pickaxes--used by the Hillary expedition. His reaching the summit coincided with the very day of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II--no bad omen.

As everywhere, drivers are a great source of local knowledge, and Darjeeling was no exception. One day I took an ill-fated pre-dawn expedition to Tiger Hill, where you are supposed to be able to see the complete mountain range including, on some occasions, the distant peak of Mt. Everest, but this was the only day during my stay when the sky was completely cloud-covered. The driver was a young man named Jason, whose grandfather was employed by a British military man stationed in Darjeeling, and who had been converted to Christianity. When the last of the British left Darjeeling after Independence, the man left his grandfather his house and his 1952 Land Rover, which Jason still owns and maintains. His family also still lives in the house. I am sure there are many other stories like this one---and some not so generous, as well.

Near the Chowrastra, or main square of the town, is a temple up on a hill, called Mahakala Mandir,
which is a place for both Buddhists and Hindus. It was colorful in the morning sun, decorated with thousands of prayer flags. I sat on a bench and watched as people went into the temple and came out and were decorated with a small paste on their forehead. It was a peaceful setting.

Back to the grueling business of getting that SIM card......

Darjeeling

2006-12-04T20:53:00.000-08:00

Just back from a few relaxing days in Darjeeling, where I experienced the essence of tea... Darjeeling and the surrounding hills produce a quarter of India's tea, and all along the route up the mountains, tea plants are terraced into the hills and valleys. One day, wandering back to the hotel from the Darjeeling train station, I went into Nathmull's, a famous local tea merchant, and had some samples. Tea growing and production is every bit as sophisticated as wine, and I was patiently educated about first, second, and third flush, orthodox, and white, green and black teas not to mention proper brewing---sampling at least half dozen of the myriad varieties that Nathmull's carries. Finally, I went away with some Margaret's Hope and Avondale, both higher end varieties. And for pretty much the rest of the trip, I forsook my usual coffee (which wasn't that good there anyway) for the local brew.

The most well known way to get to Darjeeling is by the toy train, which is a World Heritage site. But it's an arduous eight hour trip, and doesn't coincide with the flight arrival times at Bagdogra airport nearby, so I traveled to Darjeeling by car and settled for the toy train "joy ride" that runs between Darjeeling and the next stop down, Ghoom. Though one hour to cover about 11 kilmeters, it incorporates most of the best scenery of the trip anyway, and they use the old fashioned steam rather than the long haul diesel engine, which is really a hoot (no pun intended). About halfway to Ghoom, they stop for water, and most of the passengers get out to take pictures. I'll post these when my internet connection is a bit faster.

The rail line itself is a veritable beehive of activity during the majority of time that the train doesn't run, with local peddlers setting up shop right on the tracks in places like the war memorial and the Ghoom monastery.

Darjeeling itself is a buzzing little town, clearly geared for tourism. About a quarter of the local residents are Tibetans, exiles or descendants of exiles. Besides the Tibetans, many others are of Nepali or Sikkim extraction, and also bear Asian features and coloring. This is the corner of India that shares common borders with Tibet, Bhutan, and Nepal. Foreigners need a permit to enter nearby Sikkim (the usual destinations are Gangtok and Pelling), which is directly on these borders, but they're easy to obtain in Darjeeling and transportation is also simple to organize. If I'd had more time, I definitely would have included at least Gangtok on the itinerary.

The Tibetans run a "self help centre" which incorporates a carpet factory, orphanage and school, and refuge for the elderly of their community. Due to the outpouring of foreign support, as well as their industriousness, the Tibetans here are pretty well off. They are less in need of charity (in my observation) than the traditional poor of India.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-26T11:00:00.000-08:00

In recent years, Thanksgiving has been a holiday I've been content to pretty much ignore. In the States, it's a long holiday weekend and good for travel or just catching up, and following on Rosh Hashanah only a few weeks earlier, I'm not usually hungry for another turkey. But this year I felt pretty blue about being here, probably because I was alone. It was just another work day, and on Friday morning in India, when the phone was passed around at Marty's cousins as people were finishing up dessert (three kinds of pumpkin pie and whiskey cake to boot!!), I felt really homesick. Dad, of course, had no idea what day it was---but even he seemed sad. For a couple of days before Thanksgiving, he announced at the dinner table that he was "less than 100%" because "I lost my mate." He rarely speaks of my mother, and sometimes thinks it's been 20 years since she died (it's just 3 years next month), so I wonder if his internal clock wasn't also registering the holiday.

Growing up, Thanksgiving was really a big deal in our family. We always got together with my mother's sister and her family, and there were certain traditions that my cousins and I still talk about. By popular acclaim, my aunt always made the gravy and my cousins and I got to sample the turkey in advance of the meal---but only the wings (and a bit of stuffing if no one was looking). One year, the cousin closest to me in age (now deceased) and I invented a radio show using my dad's portable tape recorder (in the early 1960s, a very new and state-of-the art device.) Call letters for radio stations in the eastern U.S. start with the letter W---so we called it WHAM radio, and used a nearby block of wood to make the "wham" sound on the table that accompanied the call letters. How many years later it is, and I can still recall the excitement we felt hearing our voices played back on the tape recorder. Not to mention the taste of Aunt Leora's gravy!

Later this week I'm heading up to Darjeeling, in the far northeast, for a long weekend. It's one of the famous British "hill stations" as well as the home of Darjeeling tea, and the views of the Himalayas are supposed to be fantastic---you are even supposed to be able to see Mt. Everest on a clear day. I'll post when I'm back, and hope the weather cooperates this time.

No Shows

2006-11-19T04:13:00.001-08:00

It's common knowledge that there's a shortage of skilled talent in India, especially in the IT industry. Companies like Infosys, Satyam and Wipro, not to mention hundreds of smaller companies, add thousands of jobs each year, but at the other end, the supply is drying up. Every year, Indian universities graduate only about 200,000 employable engineers. According to some estimates, the IT industry hires over 80% of these graduates, with not much left over for other sectors. Those already in the workforce have their pick of jobs, and can "trade up" for assignments that will ensure a U.S. "on site" experience or other perqs. Sometimes, people come in with other job offers, and are obviously just "shopping" to get the best deal.

With the supply and demand situation so skewed, recruiting does sometimes resemble sales more than traditional hiring. Whether done internally or outsourced, recruiters use terms like "prospecting", "warm and hot leads" and "closing". Increasingly, even "closing" (the person accepts and signs an offer letter, agreeing to join an organization) is no longer a guarantee that he or she will actually show up on Day One. Just like airlines and hotels, IT employers may have to "overbook" to ensure enough acceptances to fill their job openings. Of late, this means not only accounting for offer turndowns, but also for a certain percentage of people who accept offers and then just never turn up for work.

I don't know if this happens in other countries with a hot job market. (I'm told that it DOESN'T happen in China-- turnover and attraction are challenges there, as well, but once a person commits to work for an organization, they show up.) The other day we had a guy who failed to show, and when the HR team went to contact him, his cell phone was disconnected as was his house phone. He did respond to an e-mail however--it turned out that he had moved to the U.S. and was starting work for another leading multinational.

But some employers are starting to rebel, as this story illustrates: a candidate came in for an interview. After a while, he laid two other job offers on the table and told the hiring manager that if he could offer 2,000 RS per month more than the best of his offers, he would be willing to join The hiring manager concluded the interview, and then told the the guy that he wasn't selected---the manager was looking for someone who would work for him, not the other way around.

Arrival of the Big Boxes

2006-11-12T04:53:00.000-08:00

Well, it was bound to happen. Earlier this month, Reliance Industries announced that it will open up large convenience stores in Hyderabad, which is another large IT and business process outsourcing hub about one hour's flight from Chennai. Reliance, a big conglomerate here, also plans to open a superstore in the western part of the country.

So far, there aren't many large stores in the country, at least not by western standards. Today, I went to a new bookstore in town, Crosswords, which advertises itself as huge at 6,000 square feet. It is a nice store and it is well laid out with lots of browsing cushions and chairs.....but Borders or Kinokuniya (one of, if not the, largest bookstore in the world, in Singapore) it ain't. Most places, even grocery stores, don't get much bigger than this. And of course, the tiny little holes in the wall where you can buy everything from bootleg wine to daily necessities abound. As in Japan, the economy is built on small, several times weekly purchases instead of the once a week marathon where you come home with (as I have accused Marty) your own small warehouse of toilet paper and the like.

With this new foray by Reliance, the mom and pop stores are up in arms, and the foreign superchains are champing at the bit to get their oar in the water, too. So far, the Indian government has resisted Wal-martization (if that's a word), by pretty much blocking foreign direct investment in the retail industry. The few chains that have entered have done so in franchise arrangements, which is permitted under the current laws.

And there's some good news in all this.....according to a couple of reports, Starbucks is finally coming to India. Although I know that to some people, Starbucks has taken on the "big box" image itself, I'm still a fan (especially when compared to South Indian coffee, which can, without warning, come laced with chicory.) I still have fond memories of Starbucks from the old days in Pike Place Market in Seattle, before it expanded nation, and then worldwide. Back in those days, the mermaid lady logo was a little more risque. Now she's globally PC ---and I'm happy that she's about to put on her first sari.

Not much interesting reaction to the news of the U.S. elections here. There was a celebration of the Democrats in India, but I had a conflict and wasn't able to attend. Meanwhile, my Bush countdown clock wound down to 799 days this morning....

Deja Vu all over again.....

2006-11-05T21:15:00.000-08:00

I'm sure some Indian astrologist could find this in my chart, but I have been quite fortunate, as Dean Rusk once put it, to be ''present at the creation" of some remarkable transformations in the world business shift of power. As some of my readers know, I spent over four years in Japan at the time when Japanese companies were coming on the world scene as major competitors--the book, "Japan as Number One: Lessons for America " was published while I was living there. Though a pop rather than an academic book, some of Ezra Vogel's lessons still apply---and have been ignored at our peril.

Now living in India, it sometimes feels, in the immortal words of Yogi Berra, like "deja vu all over again." Today's Hindu carries a story of the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Chennai, who declares that "we will make India the manufacturing workshop of the world."

This is, of course, in addition to India as the IT and back office processing center of the world.
Americans are complaining about losing jobs to India the way they used to (and still do) complain about losing them to Japan. Is manufacturing next to be "Bangalored" ? (That's about to become Bengaluru, by the way, as Bangalore goes the way of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta in Indian-izing its name)

The jury is out, but there are some echoes of the situation 30 years ago. First, everyone points to labor costs. Japanese workers were cheaper back then, just as Indians are today. There are numerous import restrictions and high tariffs, preventing western countries from selling imported products here (though fewer restrictions doing business as a multinational). Legacy costs are also lower, and the workforce much younger. So---if you want to find excuses for not being competitive, the only thing that's really changed is that these excuses have moved southwest.

There are large differences between India and the Japan of 30 years ago. Infrastructure is of course the big one. Though when I first went to Japan the city I lived in had only 40% flush toilets and no skyscrapers, it took only a few short years for this to change, and of course surface transportation including the Shinkansen or bullet train were already world class. As a small, homogeneous country, Japan was able to rapidly mobilize itself to meet external conditions and share the benefits with its own people. India has a long way to go in this area, and it is a major constraint to growth. If you fly into Delhi, the airport hasn't changed much from what it was 20 years ago (other than that baggage claim was on dirt instead of tile floors). You've seen my pictures of flooded roads and poor drainage. Manufacturing requires a strong and stable infrastructure, and that is where India has a lot of catching up to do.

On the cultural side, the Japanese commitment to quality and follow through is legendary, and India also has work to do here. Although even in Japan the bloom may be off the rose, in part due to changing attitudes of young Japanese who no longer wish to die with their suits on, the Japanese attention to detail and quality is still world class, and individuals will honor any commitment at great personal sacrifice. I learned this the hard way when I worked for a Japanese company. If you say you are going to do something by a particular time, your Japanese counterpart expects that you will do it---and they will follow up in dismay if they don't hear from you. In India, things can be a lot looser, especially in the service industry. The intention to get back is often just that---an intention that may go astray. This cultural tendency can create issues for Indian companies trying to expand to the west ---not to mention multinational companies who want to service global clients here. The IT and BPO companies have had to find ways to overcome this and train a more rigorous attitude into people. High attrition--a problem the Japanese lacked---doesn't help.

On the flip side, many Indians find it easier to mix globally than Japanese do, and this is a great help in advancing global business. Part of this is the lack of homogeneity here which is a kind of microcosm of the world, as well as the effect of the Indian diaspora--not to mention the key ingredient of English language ability. You see more and more Indians as heads of global companies, as thought leaders, as entrepreneurs. Skills and sensitivity to deal with diversity, conflict, and ambiguity are main ingredients to being successful globally. There is a strong entrepreneurial bent--and willingness to take risks. The main problem is that there aren't enough of these people and the demand for them is very high. But their quality is world class.

The differences between the two scenarios are many, and the list could go on. What interests me equally are the similarities.

Probably the biggest thing is the desire to learn and grow--and to achieve. When I lived in Japan I was continually amazed by not only the work ethic, but also the lengths to which people would go to get a job done. Here, I would say that the work ethic is not only as strong (albeit more uneven--as in the U.S., there are a fair number of people who just slide by), but the conceptual skills and ability to deal with ambiguity tend to be better. Taken with the hunger to do well and prove oneself, this is a powerful combination. People highly value learning and training, and like the Japanese, the focus on education--especially math and science-- is very strong. As the world changes more rapidly, this desire and ability to learn new things is a true competitive advantage.

Whether this translates into India becoming a manufacturing powerhouse, surpassing the U.S. and even Japan, is yet to be seen. But I remember the advice someone once gave me about hiring: take a chance on the person who is eager and engaged, but inexperienced, over someone who is skilled and can do the job, but has less energy. These words also apply to nations.

Return to Down Under

2006-10-29T10:18:00.000-08:00

We went back to Australia for R&R, this time to Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef. Sydney is a beautiful city with lots to do, and we enjoyed a trip to the Hunter Valley wine district which is located about an hour outside the city. We also flew to Cairns for a few days, where we saw the rain forest and went snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, about an hour's boat ride from Cairns.

This was absolutely the best snorkeling I've done anywhere--including the Grand Caymans, which I thought was spectacular---crystal clear water, myriad varieties of coral and fish, and warm temperatures. It was a bit windy, but that didn't get in the way too much, other than causing virtually the entire Asian population on the catamaran to get seasick on the way to the reef. The boat staff was well prepared for this, and diligently carried bag after bag to the deck for disposal in a large garbage can apparently there just for that purpose.

The day trip to the rainforest was fascinating, and we had a great guide, who was very knowledgeable about the flora and fauna as well as the history of the area. Below you can see a huge fiddlehead (not edible), and many of the fern varieties date from prehistoric times. Australia has eight of the world's ten most poisonous snakes, and most of these are in Queensland in this area--fortunately, we didn't encounter any of them. From the rainforest, we took a nearly 45 minute chairlift ride to Kuranda, a small touristy village filled with the obligatory didgeroos (Aboriginese music sticks) and other overpriced art. After lunch, we took the Kuranda scenic railway (see Marty above), which winds down through lovely forests and waterfalls, back to Cairns.

Back in Sydney, the highlight was a trip to the Hunter Valley--again with a very knowledgeable guide. I had done some reading about Hunter Valley wines, which represent only a small portion of those produced in Australia (most are in the South), and there are a more limited number of grapes which do well here due to the very hot Australian summer in this area. One of these is Semillon, a French variety which produces a very light, crisp table wine. A speciality of this region is also dessert wine made by allowing the grapes to shrink and develop a fungus called botrytis--I'm not a big fan of ice wines or botrytis, but these were quite good. The cellar we enjoyed most was Brokenwood--only a small percentage of their wines are exported (they are best known for their shiraz called Graveyard, which was not included in our tasting due to the price), and on the white side they had a delicious Viognier, with an interesting fruit/peppery overtone, that we picked up. Due in part to a cork shortage (and lack of quality) that has forced innovation in bottling, many of the best Australian wines are now screw top instead of corked--and we were educated in the proper way to remove a screw top (which is NOT from the top). All in all a fascinating journey, and we're now back in monsoon-soaked Chennai....

Jerusalem of the East

2006-10-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

I had a Friday night meeting in Delhi, so instead of returning on Saturday I took a quick trip to Varanasi, also known as Benares. To Hindus, Varanasi is the holiest of cities, and it is one of the oldest cities in the world ---dating back more than 5000 years. Many come here to bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganges, and the devout are cremated and their ashes committed to the river. At sunrise, to take a boat ride on the Ganges is to watch a tableau of the prayful life --people bathing, washing clothes, praying, and cremating their dead.
It is said that for a Hindu to die in Varanasi signfies an end to the need for rebirth. Throughout the city you see signs and pictures of Siva, one of the Hindu deities, as it is thought that Varanasi was founded by him. (Despite the large number of Hindu deities, Hinduism is, in fact, a monotheistic religion--the deities are merely the form that G-d takes).

You are not allowed to take photos at the burning ghats, in deference to the grieving, but you can get quite close to the scene. There were several cremations going on in the morning. Only men participate, and certain people--pregnant women among them---may not be cremated.

I stayed at the Rashmi Guest House
which is located right on the river. Getting to the guest house you walk through narrow streets filled with tiny shops, cattle, goats, and of course, tons of people. It is next door to the main location for the evening prayer, or aarti, which itself is quite an experience---took a boat to observe it from the river.

The ambience of the city did remind me of Jerusalem, in more ways than one---despite this being a predominantly Hindu city, it is not at all uncommon to see Hebrew signage. I didn't get a completely straight answer for why this is, but it appears that there a number of business ventures with Israelis. I talked to one young man, a Hindu fluent in Hebrew, who said that it has become popular to study Hebrew in Varanasi.

Chikungunya

2006-10-07T05:37:00.000-07:00

Back in the States, I used to regularly give blood. Here, I can't do it because my blood pressure is elevated and that rules you out. I remember having to check a lot of boxes on the American Red Cross form about where I had been and if I had ever had a long list of diseases. One of them that stuck in my mind---because of the odd name---was chikungunya.

Chikungunya is carried by the Aedes (Greek for odious) mosquito, which also carries yellow fever and dengue fever, and is endemic to Africa and India. Mosquitoes usually come out at dusk, but this pesky little creature is a daytime mosquito. It becomes a transmitter of the virus by biting an infected individual, so chikungunya tends to occur in families. There has been an outbreak of chikungunya in Tamil Nadu over the past couple of months, and one of dengue fever in Delhi and several northern states. Although chikungunya is completely curable, it causes fever and pain in the joints that can linger for several weeks. Dengue is more dangerous. Both diseases are seasonal, and are associated with the monsoon season. There has been a lot of publicity in Tamil Nadu about ways to keep the mosquitoes at bay by making sure there is no standing water around. Our apartment complex is fogged regularly, so there aren't usually too many of them around. Apparently, Chennai has the highest consumption of mosquito repellent in the country, so people are taking no chances.

Chikungunya has become a political topic in Tamil Nadu, with the recently ousted Jayalithaa claiming that over 200 people have died. The new Chief Minister denies this and has demanded that she name them.

Ayudha Pooja

2006-10-01T12:45:00.000-07:00

This is the festive season in India, with a series of holidays culminating in Diwali, the festival of lights. I will miss Diwali for the second year in a row, as the string of holidays also provides an opportunity to take R&R---and we will be going to Australia again, this time to Sydney and Cairns (Great Barrier Reef).

Today is Ayudha Pooja, the ninth day of a festival called Navarathri (which means nine in Hindi). It is a day when tools, implements, and even cars and trucks are blessed with a ritual or pooja, and throughout the city you can see them decorated with garlands and coconut leaves.

At the plant, we had a ceremony on Friday. Representative tools were placed on a table in the canteen and everyone gathered for a ceremonial lamp lighting, a safety oath, and a moment of silence. Ayudha Pooja is a Hindu holiday, and since we have Christian and Muslim employees as well it requires some finessing to make this a non-sectarian occasion. A few years ago, someone decided that we would not have any company observance given the religious overtones, but this led to small fires being lit in front of machinery throughout the plant, so the decision was hastily withdrawn. Having the ceremony center around a commitment to safety in the workplace is not only in line with the theme of the holiday, but reinforces an already strong emphasis on maintaining an accident free environment.

Rosh Hashanah

2006-09-22T04:58:00.000-07:00

I arrived in the U.S. last night for a whirlwind stay for Rosh Hashanah, which begins tonight at sunset, and will return to India on Tuesday night. So no post this week.

L'shanah tova!

Best of Show

2006-09-17T02:15:00.000-07:00

Every year Global Adjustments, which runs cultural training and offers other services for expatriates and outbound Indians, puts on a photo contest called "Beautiful India" exclusively for expatriates. We entered several photos taken by Marty, Roberta and me. The one at the right, which I called "Reflections", won not only the prize for its category, "Places", but won the overall grand prize for the whole event! There were about 170 photos submitted, and the judges were an expatriate, a film producer, and a local business person. I was surprised not only to win the overall best but also that some of the other photos we entered didn't win anything (a representative sample at the top).

Today was the prize distribution and, not realizing that I would be called to the stage, I told them in advance that since I had another engagement in the morning I would be late. The American Consul General, David Hopper, received the award on my behalf, which included a one week trip for two to the Maldives. By company policy--and my personal conviction-- I cannot accept such a gift, so I've asked them to donate the proceeds to a local charity.

To the Punjab and Back

2006-09-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

This week I went to Chandigarh and Ludiana, in the state of Punjab, to visit two of our dealers. Punjab is a state heavily populated by Sikhs, who broke away from Hinduism in the 16th century. All male Sikhs are named Singh either as a last or middle name (although not all Singhs are Sikhs) and females are given the name Kaur. One of the dealers, who is orthodox, explained their prayer ritual and gave me a mala---a kind of cotton rosary (this is the closest analogy I can think of) that is an aid to meditations and has 108 woven beads as a short hand for the 10,800 breaths that one is supposed to take in a day. (It is believed that prayer magnifies by 100, therefore the 108 becomes 10,800). The Sikhs believe in one God. As in Judaism, anyone can say or lead prayers---it does not require a priest---and prayers are offered for any and all events---opening of a shop, starting out on a journey, or occupying a new dwelling.

Chandigarh is only about 3 hours drive from Shimla, an old British hill station which usually has fantastic views of the Himalayas---unless socked in by rain and fog, as it was both days I was there (see above). The maddening thing was that the weather on Thursday and Friday was evidently very nice. I do seem to have bad luck when it comes to hill station weather---Marty and I had a similar experience when we went to Ooty. I am told that after October the weather should be more predictable. Shimla was a lovely place even in the fog, and it would be worth going back.

Bon Secours

2006-09-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

In any neighborhood here, no matter how wealthy, you don't have to go very far to find the poverty that permeates this nation. The scenes here are from an orphanage just down the road from my apartment complex, run by the sisters of Bon Secours.

The orphanage has about 100 girls, most from the surrounding villages and the city itself. They come to the orphanage by various routes---most through word of mouth. Some are "half orphans"----usually meaning their mother is dead--but most are "full orphans" , with no living parents or family. They go to school next door at the St. Francis Xavier academy.

One of the women in our IT group spends some time here every month, and has donated funds to teach the girls to dance. They put on a little show for us, and also helped another co-worker celebrate her birthday by singing "Happy Birthday" --in English!

Goa

2006-08-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry I am a bit late this week. I was in Goa from Thurs. - Sat night for a conference at the Taj Exotica. Lovely place, beautiful grounds, good food, good service---but a huge problem with power outages. There must have been 15 or 20 of them during the three days. My laptop battery was malfunctioning so the computer would just shut off during one of the outages--very frustrating.

Goa was a Portugeuse colony and still retains an old European (as opposed to British) feel. The Taj Exotica is right on the water and has a spa, swimming pool, small golf course, and a lot of other attractions. I didn't get much chance to explore Goa or the hotel for that matter, but there is lots to do there. However, water activities are a bit dicey because of riptides, and a couple of weeks ago several employees from the big Indian IT giant Infosys died when they got caught during an early morning swim. There were no lifeguards, according to one report, because they are on strike demanding statutory benefits!

One of the conference presentations was very interesting. All companies experience difficulty in finding and keeping qualified personnel, and given the scale of recruiting especially in the IT and business process outsourcing companies, it takes a whole army of people just to do the backoffice work connected with finding candidates, screening them, scheduling interviews, selecting and then onboarding them. One company has found a creative solution. They have networked and provided computers to graduates in about 150 villages, trained them to screen resumes and set up appointments, and pay them about 3000 rupees per month. Attrition is low because most people in the villages don't leave, and this is by far the best employment in town. Someone quickly termed this "VPO" ---Village Process Outsourcing! Given the talent shortage here, you really have to be thinking out of the box to keep ahead.

Cabbages, Condoms, and Long Necked Ladies

2006-08-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

We got back from Thailand on Wednesday, and Marty is now on his way back to the U.S. In Bangkok, we stayed with friends from our synagogue and they took us to dinner at a famous local place called Cabbages and Condoms---so called for its work in AIDS prevention (and where pretty much everything is decorated with condoms). We arrived on the Queen's birthday (known as Mother's Day in Thailand), and there was a huge celebration in the evening at a large local park (see above). The Thais really know how to throw a party--there must have been at least half a dozen stages and mobs of people, most sporting either yellow (for the King) or blue (for the Queen) shirts. In Thailand, each day is associated with a color, and since the King was born on Monday (yellow) and the Queen on Friday (blue) it is a sign of respect to wear one of these colors.

After spending a day in Bangkok (and ordering more clothes at Nickermann's) we headed up to Chiang Mai, about an hour's flight from Bangkok.

Chiang Mai has lots of things to do. We took a tour one day up near the Burmese border, visiting an orchid farm, a cave with very interesting Buddhist art and statues including the famous "reclining Buddha" and finally, a
village of the so-called "long neck women." They are refugees from Burma, and have a custom of wearing very heavy (about 40 lbs for an adult woman) rings around their necks and sometimes legs as well. Girls at the age of about five begin to wear them, and as the girl grows, more and more rings are added. There are various stories about how the custom got started, both religious and practical. The women weave and sell their wares for very reasonable prices--- given the number of visitors, they likely do very well assuming they get to keep most of what they earn.

When we got back to Chiang Mai, I checked out the Night Market which was right next to our hotel. ( Marty passed on this--he has seen street markets in virtually all the cities we have visited and feels that if you have seen one, you've seen them all!).

Chiang Mai has lots of other activities for tourists, and the following day we did a Thai cooking class, where we learned how to carve vegetables, make Pad Thai and some other stir fry dishes, and visited a local market. I'm having trouble posting more photos on the site right now, but if you look on Flickr at the top, you can see Marty in his apron!

Headed to Thailand

2006-08-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

Marty is here and we are going to Bangkok and Chiang Mai, located near the border of Myanmar (formerly Burma) for a long weekend. Will post when I am back.

Vishranthi

2006-08-05T05:37:00.000-07:00

This week our IT unit did community service at a home for destitute women. Several women at the home, including some of the staff, put on entertainment for us and for the other residents. I thought Dad would enjoy the experience so we took him along. He was treated as an honored guest and got a special cloak wrapped around him and the staff was very solicitous, insisting on helping him to the car and bringing a walker for him to use. More pictures are at the top, on Flickr.

There are over 100 women at Vishranthi, living in spartan but comfortable accommodations. Most are widows abandoned by their families, or otherwise left homeless. The women put on a skit about a dispute between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law in which the son winds up mediating to a happy ending---which most of them could not say about their own stories. Some of the women also sang Tamil songs, accompanied by traditional instruments. The women had clearly prepared extensively for our visit. The entire walkway on the side of the building was lined with ornate rangoli and a special lunch (which we missed) was served.

Dad enjoyed seeing other older people and though he didn't understand much of what was going on, he smiled a lot and seemed to have a good time. Lately he has taken to singing to himself, frequently humming the tune to "Swanee River", and the other day he burst into "America." He doesn't remember the words, but remarkably, makes up verses that, while they make no sense, do rhyme. Watching the old women the other day--their faces lit up as one of our employees joined in the entertainment to sing a old Tamil love song--it was a chance to reflect on the connection that music makes with the aged---even when they are hardly able to speak or get around.

Dad did so well with the walker that I went out and bought him one to use in the house. Now, he doesn't even remember visiting the women, but he does enjoy his "new toy" as he calls it.

Real Estate Woes

2006-07-30T18:29:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been talking with a number of other expats in Chennai about the housing situation here. The two subjects at the top of the list are finding rental housing, and then maintaining it and getting the landlord to do repairs.

There is no multilisting service here, so word of mouth, advertisements, who you know, and who you can get to negotiate for you counts for a lot. There is a big money to be had in Chennai helping expats find housing, and there are at least three or four firms here that are into this business and critics say they are driving the prices up for everyone else. All of them operate on pretty much the same conditions: up to one month's rent from the individual or company as a fee to assist the expat, and one month from the landlord. (Landlords pay this because, nine times out of ten, the expat real estate company offers them much more than a local national would--in fact, for a while last year, several beach houses sat vacant because landlords were waiting for BMW executives to arrive).

As a result, unless they make other arrangements in the local market, most expats or their companies wind up paying through the nose. Despite a lot of building going on in the city, and what appears to be a surfeit of properties on the market-- with newer amenities such as built in air conditioning--- you will hear that there is a shortage of decent housing, that prices "are going through the roof" and that an apartment "that was 60 or 70,000 rupees a few months ago is now fetching a lakh (100,000 rupees or about $2200)." But, if you talk to a local, you will find out that no Indian in that apartment building is paying more than 40,000, including the guy who moved in last month from Delhi. Bottom line: the rent is entirely negotiable.

Many of the consulates have purchased housing and many of the consular corps stay in these government owned and maintained homes--but this is not an option for everyone, and in fact, although persons of Indian origin can buy here, other foreigners cannot. So rental on the open market is the main choice. If you have or can get the connections and can do it, it's best to go direct or through a local contact, one with the ability --and incentive--to negotiate hard. In my own building going direct means a reduction of up to 25% over what the expat rental firms will tell you is the rent. It makes sense, of course---the rental firm has no financial incentive to negotiate, since their fee is a multiple of the rent, and the landlord wants to amortize the fees as well.

However, for some people, finding a place is only half the battle. Once you move in, unless you are in a professionally managed rental (I am lucky that way), any maintenance problem tends to be yours, and tenant's rights are virtually non-existent here. I would liken the attitude of many landlords to that of commercial property in the U.S., where generally you are renting four walls and the land, and anything that happens while you are there is your responsibility. For people coming from a western framework, where a residential tenant's rights are strong, this is hard to accept---particularly if you are already paying more than a local. This situation does vary with the individual---one local woman I know said she had one landlord who was very accommodating about allowing her to deduct repairs from the rent, and another who was equally the opposite--but in general the landlord may not even view structural problems as his or her responsibility. And, there is a curious willingness to just let properties sit on the market rather than accommodate a potential tenant on something like putting in a backup generator, which also doesn't help once they are rented and plumbing and electrical that has sat for a few years finally starts to get used again. But, if you can negotiate a good deal on the rent and like the place, then money spent on upgrades or repairs may not be such a bad deal, especially with labor rates being low.

Censored but Om Well

2006-07-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

For most of the past week I was unable to access the site. Blogger was fine, and while annoyed I didn't think too much of it for a couple of days. But as it persisted, I went on a blogger user group to see if anyone else was having the same problem. A number of people---only in India---reported the same thing, and sure enough, I also couldn't access any of the Indian blogs I normally check in with. The mystery was solved with news reports that the Indian Department of Telecommunications had sent out a list of banned websites following the bombings in Mumbai last week, and a number of ISPs had wholesale blocked Blogspot and other blogs. The reason? No one knows. Apparently, a few blogs (17 according to a report in the Hindu) were considered incendiary.....

In other news, I took the Art of Living course this week. Art of Living, headquartered in Bangalore, is non profit organization doing peace and meditation work throughout the planet. The first stage training, which takes place over four nights and two half days on the weekend, is a combination of yoga and breathing techniques, the centerpiece of which is called "Sudarshan Kriya" which is a patented by Art of Living's founder, Sri Sri Ravishankar.

There is some controversy over the patent, which Gurudev, as he is called, says was a defensive move to allow him to continue to teach the technique at low to no cost---the training is very reasonably priced and is free to prisons, relief organizations, etc. Considering the "yoga war" of a couple of years ago in the U.S. where a famous Indian yoga teacher tried to patent age old postures in order to make more money, this may have been a smart move on Sri Sri Ravishankar's part, though it is still opposed by some. The technique consists of a warm up of ujayyi ("victorious") breath , followed by another breathing technique called bhastrika and then the main event, which is a series of short and long breaths done over about 10 minutes in a particular order. Following this you rest for about 10 minutes. The process definitely works to reduce stress---when lying down after doing this only the second time, I literally felt myself vibrating and had no thoughts whatsoever going through my mind. The training is offered all over the world and courses can be found by consulting the main Art of Living website noted above.

"Bombed but not Bowed"

2006-07-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

This was the headline in the Times of India front page story about the deadly blasts in Mumbai, which were targeted at first class compartments in the main commuter train in the city, which are mostly occupied by businessmen, doctors, and lawyers. It was the 8th such attack in Mumbai in a dozen years, and followed only days after heavy monsoon rains that again taxed the city to its limits. (Despite last year's devastating monsoons, the government has continued to release vacant land to building, and has done literally nothing else to improve the situation--in fact, had this year's rainfall been as severe as last year's 90 cm in 24 hours, the results would have been even worse). Because of the lack of even basic emergency support services in Mumbai, volunteers leaped to assist and people near the train brought sheets and blankets to wrap the injured and dead, while others helped transport them to hospitals. In video clips right after the disaster which we watched in Agra, you could see ordinary people frantically working while the police wander around aimlessly.

Initially both cell and landlines were out, but these were quickly restored and in fact within hours all normal activity resumed. Despite a headline in a local magazine proclaiming "Mumbai 7/11", there is no overwhelming aftermath here such as 9/11 saw in the U.S.---it's more like the scene in Israel when there are attacks by suicide bombers. Still, the local papers and magazines are filled with vignettes of those who lost their lives, or nearly did---a man who had only started traveling first class the week before, another who evidently died on the way home to celebrate his birthday, etc. But, otherwise, it's business as usual in Mumbai. A few hundred suspects have been rounded up and the Indian government is narrowing in on the perpetrators, most likely Kashmiris with links to Al Queda. In Chennai, IT buildings were put on "red alert" at least over the weekend and there are delays at the airports, but these are the only visible signs we have seen of heightened concern.

I was in Agra and as noted below, we visited the Taj Mahal for a "moonlight viewing" ---but as you can tell from the picture at the right, the weather did not cooperate and the moon was heavily shrouded in rain clouds. Security was extremely tight---you are put through two metal detectors and can bring only a camera (not even a tripod) --and can only go just past the first gates for the viewing. A couple of the people with us decided not to go under these circumstances, since they had never seen the Taj before and wanted it to be in the best light, so to speak. That I understand completely. When you are past the security, your first sighting of this magnificent monument is the one that does take your breath away. Fortunately, several in our group were not leaving until later the following morning, so they were able to visit the Taj at dawn as I did a few months ago.

Back in Chennai

2006-07-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

It was good to be home after more than a year away, and less had changed than I would have thought. Things in Detroit are pretty grim with the troubles of the former Big Three, but the rest of the country seems in better shape (New Orleans excepted). Here you can see Marty at home in his favorite shopping site, Costco. Things were very cheap here; Marty had purchased a combination microwave/toaster oven for only $39.95.

It was also good to stop by our favorite restaurant, Beverly Hills Grill, where Benson (pictured left) still makes the best martini in the world!

After spending a week in Detroit, Marty and I went to our vacation home in Keene, New Hampshire. I had not been there yet in the summer, and it was just great. We spent time exploring the city and environs, doing a lot of walking, and even making an attempt to climb the local mountain, Mt. Monadnock. Next to Mt. Fuji in Japan, Monadnock is the most frequently climbed mountain in the world. Emerson and Thoreau both have spots named after them, in honor of their own climbs. I overheard a couple of fellow hikers discussing a Tuesday -Thursday club, where locals gather at 6:30 a.m. to climb to the summit, and our neighbor told us of one guy who climbed it every day for a year. Above, you can see me at the halfway point.

Now I am back in Chennai, where jet lag is setting in this morning with a vengeance. Tomorrow I'm on the road again, to Delhi and Agra for business. Weather cooperating, we are supposed to go to the Taj Mahal on Tuesday night for a moonlight viewing. The Taj has only recently been reopened in the evening, after being closed for more than 20 years, and then only on the days around the full moon. Stay tuned!

Homeward Bound

2006-06-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

This will be my last post for a while until I return from home leave in July. I'm very excited about the trip. It has been over a year since I have been back, and am looking forward to seeing family and friends as well as driving on the right side of the road again (: (:. Not to mention just driving, period.

If there is time, I will post while on home leave, to give impressions of how the U.S. has changed. We plan spend one week in Detroit, and then the remainder of the time in our vacation/retirement home in Keene, New Hampshire. There is also the wedding of the son of family friends, not to mention Marty's 60th birthday on 3 July---so lots of celebrations, too. And I have a couple of days of at the office in there, to catch up on some things (and to be sure I'm not forgotten!)

After returning to India it will be a busy month of travel, with a trip to North India (Delhi and Agra) on business, and then Marty will be coming back in August.

In the meantime, I've added some links of some other Indian/expat blogs of note. Desipundit is a compendium of entries from lots of blogs ("desi" is a Hindi word equivalent to the Yiddish "landsman"--from my country or homeland) that has sometimes picked up posts of mine, and the other two are by people who have also linked my blog to theirs. Now if only I could figure out how to get Blogger to right justify, so the titles of my posts don't get increasingly separated from the body.....

Finding a Partner

2006-06-11T01:08:00.000-07:00

I don't pretend to understand all the ins and outs of finding a marriage partner here, and within the country the practices and customs vary widely---weddings in Tamil Nadu, for example, are usually very early in the morning whereas in North India they would be in the evening---so that even those who come here from other parts of the country have to learn new ways.

But every Sunday I find myself drawn to the matrimonial ads in the Hindu, which never fail to be a source of learning, and sometimes, of bemusement as well. Here's a typical one from today's paper:

"Vadamal Srivatsa Vishakam alliance invited for boy (27 yrs) B.Com, CA employed in a Finance BPO drawing Rs. 15000 pm and pursuing CA final, seeking a good looking girl pursuing any post graduate course in Science age between 23 to 25."

Translation? This is Brahmin family whose son is working on his chartered accountant qualification (roughly equivalent to a CPA in the U.S.) and is employed in a business process outsourcing concern making about $350 per month. This family has probably consulted their astrologist who has pinpointed the most eligible match to be a girl interested in science. (Vishakam is one of the positions of the moon as it passes through the sky---similar to the zodiac, but more detailed because of the numerous phases of the moon.)

Or:

Hindu MBBS, 30/154 Good looking Wheatish from well educated family. Seeks good looking Doctor (MD/MS) or Engineer. Caste no bar. Send bio data, photo, horoscope.

This is for a 30 year old woman, 154 centimeters tall (weight is usually not included, but sometimes there are descriptions like "slim" or "lean" ), with a fair complexion. (Fair skin is an advertising point for many, and there are lots of skin care products on the market promoting "fairness." ).

For girls, it is common to find ads placed by brothers and/or parents. And for those who are educated or working abroad and who come back to India to find a bride or groom, the parents often take matters into their own hands and advertise proudly that their son (or sometimes daughter) is working for a well known MNC and has a green card (or more commonly, an H1-B or employment visa). When responses are received, astrologers are consulted and those with the best qualifications and horoscopes are contacted. Both families, as well as the potential bride and groom, will help decide if there will be a marriage. One of my employees who went through this process came in excited to announce that she and her would - be (as fiances are called) astrologically matched on 8 of 9 different factors, which is considered very good indeed. (The number of factors may vary depending on beliefs.).

But my favorite ad from today was this one:

Vanniya Chettiyar 27, B.A.C.S., Well settled Business man having own company good looking, seeks homely looking girl.

Here the meaning of "homely" is closer to the Yiddish, "haimish" , or "warm and comfortable". Do hope this guy--and the others listed above--find their beshert (soulmate) soon!

Getting Around

2006-06-04T04:42:00.000-07:00

There are so many ways of getting around in India, in contrast to the U.S. where we are pretty much limited to cars and airplanes, with trains, subways, and buses limited to the major metro areas. Here, count the ways:

1. walking
2. bicycle --the supervisor of my apartment complex comes this way!
3. motorbike---may be a family outing!
4. Manual rickshaw--you still see these in Kolkata (Calcutta) but I haven't been there yet...
5. Autorickshaw---how many people can you stuff in one? (Í've seen up to nine in an ordinary sized one) ---the yellow and black vehicle next to the green bus in the right hand picture
6. Mini-bus
7. Ambassador taxi---I took one from Bangalore to Kabini in style! (white old looking vehicle in the lower right hand photo)
8. City bus
9. Train
10. Truck
11. Car--not many have one of these but we're certainly working on it!

Please do note the Ford Ikon in the top picture--there are over 1 lakh (100,000) of these on Indian roads and they really are workhorses! They can wade through anything...

Buses are very basic for most people and an important way to get around. In Chennai, the buses are pretty pathetic and look as if they have seen better days (picture on bottom right). In some of the other cities we have been, the buses are in much better shape. The main aspiration is, you want to be able to move up to a 2 - wheeler, which might be a scooter or something bigger, but gives you independence. Bajaj and Honda are the key players in this space. You can get a motorbike (scooter) for under $1000 USD here.

My favorite, though, is the auto-rickshaw, which Marty and I first took in Ooty. Marty became quite a veteran of these in Chennai when our Endeavour wasn't available. Found throughout Asia, and known in Thailand as "tuk-tuks" , the auto is really just a glorified motorcyle. The whole deal is --- you negotiate the fare upfront, because none of the meters seem to work! A trip to one of the major hotels here runs about $1. I would love to import one back to the U.S. but with no seatbelts etc. I think I have a fat chance.....

Most of our workers take a company- run bus to work. This is common, and you see buses from most of the Indian majors---Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant etc. plying the roads. Then, from wherever the drop point is, people get an auto or walk.

As for cars, the market is just booming. The so-called B or mid-sized segment is rapidly growing. Diesels are very big here due to the cost of fuel. Although the small car market is the largest, many are looking to trade up to a larger car where they can take the whole family.

Kabini River Lodge

2006-05-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend at Kabini River Lodge about 2 1/2 hours from Mysore, in the southwestern corner of the neighboring state to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka. Kabini is a former hunting lodge of British diplomats and royals as well as the would-be royal, the Maharaja of Mysore--the appointed Indian ruler of the Mysore area. Built in the 1800s, it is a fantastic place---deep in the wilderness, at the edge of the Nagarhole National Forest, lush and secluded.

Although not a Marty-friendly place (no air conditioning, very little meat, and bone-jarring rides through the backwoods), Kabini offered peace and quiet and wonderful views of wildlife---not to mention a joyride on an elephant (my first). The place was full of pictures of from the days of the British raj--a delegation from Russia camped there in the 1890s, and the last British viceroy to stay at Kabini was Lord Mountbatten, shown in a 1933 photo with then Prince Edward (three years before he abdicated the throne to "marry the woman I love."). It was also surprisingly cool after the sweltering heat of Chennai.

Mysore was not returned to India until several years after independence, and Kabini was used for a number of years by the Indian military. It became a resort in 1979, after the construction of a dam that flooded local villages, but also provided a more secure environment at Nagarhole for wildlife. It was at that time that Colonel John Wakefield---now nearly 90 and a resident of India for most of his adult life, save for schooling in Britain and service in the British army in Singapore and Burma during World War II ---came to Kabini. He still lives there in a wing of the Viceroy's compound, and entertains visitors with lively tales of the area's history. Now a committed conservationist, he shot his first tiger at the age of 9.

The Nagarhole park which Kabini abuts has about 65 tigers, but as the park is over 300 sq. kilometers in area, that makes them difficult to sight, and I wasn't lucky enough to see one on this trip (though one was spotted the week before). The closest we got was to see the telltale "pads" along the dirt road, where tigers often traverse at night. One group did see a leopard (for 45 seconds) which is even more unusual to spot than a tiger, and we saw a pack of wild dogs, which are also considered rare.

More common are elephants---including stately "tuskers" (in Asian elephants, only the male has tusks)--spotted deer, barking deer, gaur (Indian bison), peacocks, wild boars, and painted storks. We went out in safari jeeps late in the afternoon and early in the morning, which are the best times. One afternoon, we also went by boat and saw a couple of crocodiles, but I much preferred the jeep rides. It was wonderful to see so many elephants in the wild--munching on bamboo along the road, a mother leading her two calves through the forest, a lone tusker by the water in the late afternoon. A pack of ten wild dogs entertained us this morning, watching us warily as they made their way down the road and into the woods. These are not guys you'd want to mess with--though tiny, two of them can fell a spotted deer and the pack will clean it up in 15 minutes or less.

By the water in one spot was a tiny Ganesha--a Hindu god that is part elephant--and he certainly seemed to symbolize the place. This was the last good weekend to visit Kabini, though, before the monsoon, which hit the coast this morning. Over the next two or three months, Kabini, along with much of the rest of Karnataka, will be drenched with rain, and while the forest will be lush and green, it will also make the dirt roads impassable and hide many of the residents ---including the elusive tiger.

More Construction

2006-05-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

I have been doing battle with the construction next door, and wound up having to get the police involved.

About a week ago, I was awakened at 3:00 a.m. by the sound of earthmoving equipment. A full blown operation was going on next door---in the middle of the night! I didn't know what to do, so I moved into the room that faces the inner court, where the noise could not be heard.

The next night the same thing happened, this time at 1:30 a.m. By this time, I had found out that there are ordinances about disturbing the peace here, and also where to call--the police emergency line at 100. Although it was difficult to make myself understood because I don't speak Tamil, I must have gotten through, because about a half hour later, the noise suddenly ceased. I dropped back off to sleep.

But not for long. The phone started ringing. I missed answering it the first time, but it rang again. It was the police administration office.

"Madam calling, sound," said the female voice. "Madam living place?" Not understanding, I said, "Yes, no sound now. Thank you. " I hung up the phone.

I went back to bed, and had just dozed off when the phone rang again. Same voice.

"Madam living place" said the voice. By now I am getting irritated, and I really don't understand. "Madam living place needing," said the voice. "You call, police come, needing living place." "No," I said, "please not come to my house now. I am sleeping. I want to sleep."

"Madam living place needing," repeated the voice. "Which street Madam living place?"

Finally I get it---she wants my address for the official record. But I am by now very tired, and very cranky---so after a few choice words at the irony of it all--- I simply took the phone off the hook.

The next day our government affairs person was able to get through to the commissioner's office to get the situation permanently resolved (since I was pretty sure the situation would reoccur with the same results every night until one or the other of us gave in). Earthmoving and other heavy construction equipment is in short supply here, so undoubtedly the contractor that is building the apartment building next door had figured to save some money by having the work done at night. Now they begin during the week at 5:00 a.m.---which is also not great, but at least it's just before I get up in the morning. With all the construction going on in Chennai, I'm sure it won't be long before they disturb someone else's sleep.

Dad

2006-05-08T05:59:00.000-07:00

People who know my father often inquire how he is faring in India. In February, I gave a talk at a conference in Mumbai, and I told the audience that I was here with my family including my 88 year old dad. What surprised me is that when I said that I thought he was getting care better than he could get in the U.S., the audience burst into applause.

Overall, Dad's health is pretty good considering his age. He has slowed down a lot since we were in the States, though, and doesn't get around quite as well---he's more wobbly, I notice, and walks more slowly. A few times a day, he has to use one of those lung capacity devices with the balls that rise to the top as you blow air into them. When we left the States a year ago, he was still able to accompany Marty to Costco and push the cart around. When we arrived here, we often used to take him when we went out to dinner. But now, this is quite an ordeal. Every day, he and Ganesh take a couple of short walks back and forth in the apartment complex, and even this will leave him tired.

Ganesh comes six days a week, and stays until about 8 or 8:30 p.m. and he stays all night when we--now I-- am out of town. They watch T.V. together or read---Dad has an array of Titantic, astronomy, and Emily Dickinson books on the coffee table that he picks up---and was quite interested the other day in a article I showed him on the last American survivor of the Titanic, who died at the age of 99. He retains very little of what he reads, but he is still able and interested to do it, and that is what counts.

What is sad for me is seeing him lose more and more of his mental capacity, and yet, despite this, his personality still shines through, and it is really a blessing that he can be with us. He doesn't have Alzheimer's, but more of a garden variety dementia that, although it has robbed him of his short term memory and cognitive ability, has thankfully not taken his wit. One morning when Ganesh was off, Marty went into Dad's bedroom to wake him up. Dad had other ideas, and told Marty petulantly, "Go pick on somebody else." He sometimes doesn't remember that we are in India, so at dinner we play a game where I ask him where we are, until he gets the right answer. But last night when I asked this question he just rolled his eyes at me and said, "why, at the table, dear"---so I think I'm going to have to come up with a new game.

Marty Heads Back

2006-05-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

Today is a bummer day for us. Marty is returning to the U.S. early Monday morning, and we are not sure when he will be back. This is related to his business. When he was home in March, he reserved an efficiency apartment in the same building as our daughter Sara, and has started to purchase a few things online (Costco of course) so that we don't have to get into our storage. I will be going on home leave in about six weeks, so it won't be that long of a separation this time---but it will still be a big adjustment for both of us. From there we will have to play it by ear....always exciting being an international service employee!!

In other news, this week we were invited to the home of a Tamil film producer, Ram Kumar, who is in the same Rotary club as Marty. His father was a very famous actor named Shivaji Ganesan, called "the Marlon Brando of India" who starred in something like 300 films. He died about five years ago, and his children now live together in the large family home not far from our place, which is a veritable shrine of awards and pictures of the film star's life. Although none of Shivaji Ganesan's films are in English that I know of, everyone says that he was a marvelous actor, so I plan to pick up a DVD and try to follow one of the more famous movies, even though I won't understand but a few words of it.

This is election week in Tamil Nadu. The post of Chief Minister, currently held by former Tamil movie star Jayalalitha, is hotly contested. Jayalalitha, a Brahhim (highest caste) from Mysore, near Bangalore, has been in the job three different times. She was forced to resign in 2001 because of a bribery scandal, but came back 5 months later. She is one of the first people you "meet" when you come here, because her face is all over the place in billboards and other signs (even on walls as to the left) with the appellation "Amma" or mother. Her opponent, Karunandhi, is also from the film industry---but as a script writer. He has also been Chief Minister on several occasions. The Hindu polling is calling the election "too close to call," but to ensure that people go to the polls sober, the government has imposed "dry days" on the State from 4 p.m. on Saturday and today. The election promises by both sides are very interesting---free computers for students passing a certain test, free color T.V.s for the poor, free rice, and gold bracelets for girls ("certain categories") being married. More ominously, Karunandhi promises 3 lakh (300,000) government jobs.....

Green Kerala

2006-05-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

We spent a long weekend in Kerala--a couple of nights in Cochin, and one on a houseboat tour on out of Alleppy, about an hour and half drive from Cochin.

The houseboat tour took us into the backwaters of Kerala, where we had a chance to observe the rice farmers, fisherfolk, and coir workers who live along the waterways, not to mention some of the most lush and verdant landscape in the country--overwhelmingly green. We had a one-bedroom (air conditioned from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.) boat, with a crew of three including a cook. These boats, which are now built for tourism, used to be rice haulers, with the rice stored in the hold and the living quarters on the top. Kerala rice is quite different from any we've had elsewhere---the grains are almost the size of orzo. Kerala cuisine is heavy on coconut and bananas, and we even had fried bananas as an afternoon snack.

The river is used for washing clothes, utensils, and for bathing---we saw quite a few people taking baths along the way. (more pictures on Flickr up top).

This area is called the "Venice of India," because it is a series of waterways where the only way to get around is by boat. The government provides ferries that get people around, and there are government schools along the route as well, going up to high school.

Kerala does not have much industry besides the traditional trades and tourism, because the politics are heavily communist and labor tends to be quite militant here. Interestingly, the state also has one of the highest literacy rates in the country. Recently, they have tried to attract IT and other industries here, but it seems to be tough going. Many young Keralites leave the region and head over to Tamil Nadu for employment.

Kerala is also heavily Syrian Christian, so called because of the influence of Thomas the Apostle, who supposedly came to India in 52 A.D. and converted both Hindus and some of the Jewish settlers who had preceded him (this history is in dispute). Cochin, in fact, has the oldest Jewish community (now mostly dispersed) in India. We visited the synagogue at the end of the street called Jewtown; here you can see Marty in front of the ark.

Due to the imported Chinese flooring (every tile is unique) you are required to remove your shoes before entering the shul:

Only a few Jews remain in Cochin, so the synagogue rarely gets a minyan, except on holidays, and is mostly a tourist sight---in fact, there were a surprising number of visitors when we went there, both Indian and Western. Along the way, we stopped at Sarah's Embroidery, where Sarah herself--a sprightly octagenarian--presides. She makes a number of hand embroidered items, such as Sabbath bread covers, yarmulkes, and other items. Today, these are among the few

Jewish items available on Jew Street. Jewtown, which used to be lined with Jewish shops, is now mostly Christian, with shops catering to tourists offering everything from clothing to fake antiques. Merchants literally lie in wait (picture to the right) cajoling you to "come inside and see my goods, no obligation to buy."

Heading to Kerala

2006-04-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

We have a long weekend coming up so Marty and I are headed to Kerala for the weekend. We are flying into Cochin and taking a houseboat tour around Alleppy. We will also do some touring in Cochin, and will be back in Chennai on Monday night.

Feeding the Spirit

2006-04-23T00:56:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, someone inquired what I liked most about India. When asked by someone who genuinely wants to know (versus a polite question from a complete stranger at a social gathering or in a business setting), this is a tough question. You want to be able to give an answer that is honest but not too superficial or general, e.g "people are friendly", "I can get health care for my dad and buy prescriptions at a fraction of the cost of the U.S" , "I like not having to do household chores" etc. I have been here long enough now, as well, that I feel I should have a well-thought out and sensitive reply to such a question.

Although there are many things I might point to (see below), I think what I would put at the top is the deep spirituality that you feel and observe in this country, at least in South India which is where I spend most of my time. The daily practices of the people around me reinforce this---from the tilak on foreheads that come in different shapes and colors depending on one's religious customs and beliefs within Hinduism, to rangoli that graces the entrances to homes and businesses, to moon and other fast days observed by the devout, to the ubiquitous silk/cotton thread bracelets that show visits to a particular temple or observance of family ceremonies, such as the one that ties brothers and sisters (rakhi), to reliance on astrology and other esoterica to make important life decisions. Almost every day, you are conscious of the way that things beyond the material and the mundane are part of the fabric of people's lives. In some areas, such as dietary practices, there are parallels in this culture/religion of action to Judaism that I find oddly comforting especially so far from home.

Of course, India is the world's center of yoga, meditation, and other healing arts such as Ayurveda so the spiritual bent is hardly surprising. Every day you see advertisements for courses for all ages---it is very much part of the daily scene. Though I haven't yet taken any classes in yoga or meditation here (except for a couple of quick Sun Salutations every morning, I ironically do less of this here than in the States), I definitely want to before I leave. Two that I'm most interested in are Art of Living and Vipassana. Both can be done in the U.S. as well (see Prince Roy's upcoming review of his experience of the latter), but I'd like to experience one or both while here if at all possible.

If I were to draw up a more comprehensive list of what I like, here are some other things (some related to the spiritual aspect, some not) that I would mention:

1. The respect shown to the elderly, especially by medical personnel
2. The sense of social consciousness of many in the middle class to "give back to society"--Marty sees it in abundance at the Rotary, and I also see it at work
3. Bright and colorful clothing --some of the most beautiful I've seen
4. Beautiful sites--temples in particular
5. The antiquity of many places---this is something appreciated by Americans perhaps more than others
6. The way poverty is always in your face---although I don't like it and it makes me sad, it also forces me to think on a daily basis about how fortunate I am ---and that I'm on the planet to make a difference
7. Affordable, competent medicine
8. Slower pace of life (at least in the South)
9. Great opportunities to see nature ---some of the best wildlife and natural settings in the world.
10. Discovering what isn't different--especially when it comes to people

A Week in Hong Kong

2006-04-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

Marty and I just spent a week in Hong Kong. It was my first visit since December 1981, and needless to say, lots had changed. We stayed at the Bishop Lei International House on the Hong Kong side---Frommer's recommendation to take a harbor side suite (US$ 167) was right on the money---very inexpensive by Hong Kong standards. It turned out to be one of the most spectacular views in the city (see above), with floor to ceiling windows in the tiny bedroom that made you feel like you were part of the landscape (not a great picture to the right with the camera flash, but gives you the idea), and a nice sized sitting room besides. Although the Bishop Lei is very unpretentious and doesn't have the fancy lobbies and on- the -water location of some of the 5 star hotels, it was also near the Jewish Community center and only a five minute walk from the escalator to Central Hong Kong, which is lined with restaurants, bars, and shops.

The escalator was new since my last visit. Built in 1994, it connects the Central business district of Hong Kong with the residential areas midway to Victoria Peak, and runs down the hill from 8-10 in the morning and up thereafter. It's quite a trip, and brought back memories of another trip to Hong Kong in the late 1970s, when I was living in Japan. My friend Barbara, a classmate at Yale, was in Hong Kong with her parents---her father was stationed there with his employer---and they lived (as I recall) about halfway up the Peak. I don't remember how we got around then, but the escalator sure makes the midlevels, as this area is called, very accessible.

One of the things you must do while in Hong Kong is take the tram to the Peak---a steep ride indeed. There is also a wonderful walk around the Peak that takes about an hour, and gives you breathtaking views. Marty passed on this due to his fear of heights, and from the drop below to the harbor you can see why.

On Wednesday night we went to a community seder sponsored by the Jewish Community Center. It was very enjoyable. Most of the Jewish community in Hong Kong are expats, but there are two synagogues, both located on the same street, and there is also a kosher "emporium" where you can buy wine, kosher meats, etc. We sat at a table with two expat families and a visiting professor and his wife from the Wharton School, and found many common interests. The professor, who travels to Hong Kong several times a year, introduced us to his tailor in Kowloon, where Marty subsequently had a suit made that fits him perfectly. Good Hong Kong tailors are no longer cheap, but the fit and selection and quality of fabric more than makes up for it. There are also a lot of Indian tailors now around Hong Kong---they employ hawkers on the streets, and their prices tend to be cheaper, but we chose to go with a first hand recommendation.

Hong Kong is also no longer the place to buy electronics, at least not cameras, and we narrowly missed being taken in by a common scam. Marty, the King of Costco, asked at just about every camera shop for the price of the Lumix FX01, which is the digital model he has his eye on and had seen at Costco for US$299. Only one shop could beat the Costco price, and said they could do it for $220. We were seated and the guy demonstrated the camera and took our money (I had a funny feeling about the place, and insisted to Marty that we pay cash) while his associate went to get a new, boxed model. He then proceeded to tear down the features of the chosen model, and demonstrate other, higher priced ones. The associate came back and said he didn't have that model on site, he would have to get it from the warehouse---only a few minutes. More hard selling ensued. By this time I started looking at my watch. When the guy told us "40 more minutes for the Lumix FX01, but I can sell you this one right now (a higher priced model)" we bailed and got our money back. I'm just glad that the store didn't get one of our credit card numbers.

Early in our stay, we also went to Macau, about an hour jetfoil ride from Hong Kong. Macau was formerly a Portugeuse colony, and also turned back to China in 1999. Twenty seven years ago when Barbara and I went there it was a rather sleepy place that seemed a poor second cousin to Hong Kong. Now, it is the Las Vegas of the East. Major casinos like the Sands and the Venetian have sprung up (the Venetian is due to open later this year), and they are packed with Chinese tourists, most of them from the mainland. But the casinos were too rich for our blood. For blackjack, which Marty likes, you could find a few tables at the hotels where the minimum bet was HK$100 (about $13). For most, it was HK$200. The tables were packed and most were betting much more. Outside the Sands, we walked by a number of dejected looking people who had obviously gambled and lost. We heard that it is not uncommon for people to save up for months and then come and blow it all in a day (or a few hours).

One of the sites of Macau is the Kun Iam temple (Buddhist), site of the famous stone table where Caleb Cushing, Envoy Extraordinairy and Minister Plenipotentiary (apparently what the U.S. then lacked in clout it made up for in lengthy titles) signed the first treaty between China and the United States in 1844. But the table was inaccessible during our visit due to repair work. Below you can see an inner view of the temple, with the ubiquitous incense coils hanging from the ceiling.

Finally, just like India, Hong Kong is the home of some pretty unusual English. Two examples that we saw during our stay are depicted below.....

Going to Hong Kong

2006-04-07T23:04:00.000-07:00

Marty and I are off to Hong Kong for a week. We will attend a Passover Seder at the Jewish Community Center there, and do some sightseeing including Macau.

I haven't been to Hong Kong for nearly 25 years (I stopped there on a reverse around the world trip from Japan to the U.S. in 1981) and am looking forward to returning. My favorite memories are of the Peninsula Hotel humidor (where you can sniff the best quality cigars in the world) and the famous stone table in Macau where a treaty of friendship was signed between the U.S. and China on July 3, 1844. Will do a post when we return next weekend.

In the meantime, holiday greetings......Happy New Year and Vishu, Chag Sameach, and Happy Easter!

Recruiting

2006-04-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

One thing you do a lot in a country with a growing economy is interview--both for new and replacement positions. Attrition tends to be high here, with only a few companies able to keep it in single digits. This is not all bad, because it does make it relatively easy to shed non-performers, and it's a common practice that the first six months of employment are conditional---people must be "confirmed" at that point to remain on the rolls. But it also means that both HR and operations people spend a lot of time recruiting and training new people. In fact, when interviewing HR candidates, they usually tell you right away how many positions they filled on their last job.

The first hurdle to overcome in hiring is resumes ("rezooms", as it is pronounced here) or C.V.s. They come in the thousands and for large employers like the IT companies and BPOs, in the tens of thousands. It's not only volume. Resumes here resemble college papers---the average is 5 or 6 pages, and I've even seen one that was 16 pages. (Since many candidates have under 5 years experience, this is not a good omen for the eyesight of future recruiters.) In many cases, you find the contents merely a litany of everything the person claims to have done on prior jobs, and a telephonic screening will often produce some holes--some of them gaping. References can be equally suspect---on one occasion, we found that the applicant included a speaker he had met at a conference.... An HR person at an IT company here recently told me that to deal with the volume and lack of focus in the C.V.s they were getting, they tried to introduce a web site where candidates would have to fill in their experience and qualifications using an online form that would help the company do key word searches to screen for people meeting their specifications. But, most candidates simply refused to use the site and kept sending their 5-20 page C.Vs directly. So now, the company hires a third party to key them in.

Although most candidates will have a lot of experience interviewing, this doesn't mean they are good at it. Although there are obviously those who interview very well, the most common thing I've observed on the negative side are people who just can't stop talking---and who have to be asked repeatedly to answer the question asked and not go off on tangents. (Sometimes getting a word in edgewise to do this redirect can be a challenge. ) The other thing I notice is a tendency to lack self-insight, or to come across as overconfident. A particularly difficult question for many candidates is "if you had one thing to do over in your career, what would it be?" Interestingly, when pushed to the wall on this question, they sometimes say they would not have changed jobs so frequently!

Attrition comes from the luxury of having a booming economy where new companies and jobs are constantly popping up, but it's also due to the nature of jobs themselves, and the expectations of a young workforce. It's not unusual to see a person who has had 3-4 jobs in five years (of course, for many positions, those resumes don't make it past the screening stage here any more than they would in a mature economy). At lower levels, such as in typical BPO or call center jobs, people will leave for things as simple as not liking the canteen food. Since a lot of those jobs are also quite boring, people burn out quickly, especially if they are working night shifts (daytime in the U.S. and Europe). Increasingly, these companies have put very proactive measures in place to try to retain people, but it's an uphill struggle. Beyond the traditional "employee engagement" work of HR that focuses on career development, communication, etc. there can be a special team devoted just to keeping employees "pepped up" as they say, with things like games and contests and even regular professional entertainment!

Going to the Dentist

2006-03-25T00:18:00.000-08:00

I confess, I have put it off. I rarely get cavities, but do build up plaque, and my dentist in Michigan recommended that I have cleanings every 4 months or so, rather than the normal twice a year. I have put it off while here, and now it has been over a year since I had my teeth cleaned. Other health stuff I have attended to, such as having thyroid and blood pressure tests, but this is just one I have let go. So today I finally went.

It was one of the most gentle and high tech cleanings I've had, and though not inexpensive by Indian standards, was still much less than in the U.S. They even put numbing gel on your gums to reduce the discomfort. One thing I found out is that I am not drinking nearly enough water. The dentist, a woman, could tell this from my gums and even from my teeth. I drink a large bottle a day, but apparently should have two or three. The heat here means that you have to work constantly at keeping hydrated. It is starting to get hot and humid again, working up to the peak heat in May.

In other news, Roberta leaves on Wednesday for the States. She was going to stay until the middle of April, but there is a Southern Courier reunion (she used to be a civil rights reporter) in Montgomery, Alabama that she doesn't want to miss. We will miss having her company.

Construction Ladies

2006-03-19T01:23:00.000-08:00

There is construction going on next door---a couple of apartment buildings like our own, that have been underway even before we looked at this apartment a year ago in January. Almost everything here is done by manual labor, but despite lots of people it takes a long time. A few months ago we had to complain to our building management because the construction workers were pounding next door in the middle of the night. Fortunately, our building is owned by ITC (the Indian Tobacco Company), so they were able to leverage their influence and within a night or so, it was quiet again.

Women play a large role in the construction industry here. A common job is for them to carry bricks, gravel, and sand from where they are dropped by the contractor to where they are needed on the site. They wear a little plate-like stablizer on their head, and then someone helps them fill a bowl up with construction material---I've seen bricks piled 8 or 10 high. Once at a British Social club event, we had a contest where we tried to see how far we could carry two bricks on our heads before losing balance. This is trickier than you think---these ladies make it look so easy.

Roberta has been fascinated by their colorful garb, not to mention how much stuff they can load up on their heads, so a few days ago she went off to take some pictures. She gave each of these ladies 100 rupees, which is probably close to a few days pay for them, so now they smile at us every time we walk by.

(Blogger is giving me a hard time today posting photos, so you'll see the pictures up top, on Flicker.)

Last night when we were walking home from swimming, some men were working on the power station between the Madras Club and our apartment. One of them was welding---sparks were flying, but he had no goggles, no helmet, and no shoes. Safety awareness has a long way to go here.

One Year in Madras

2006-03-14T07:53:00.000-08:00

It seems impossible to believe, but I've been in Madras one year today. I don't know if it seems short or long---sometimes both in the same day. It is also a special birthday for my cousin Helen in Seattle, so I want to publicly wish her a very happy day!

This evening Roberta and I went over to the Madras Club and swam in the pool by starlight and a full moon. The pool is the only one I've been in that is cooled instead of heated, and looking up at Orion (very high in the sky here, since we're near the equator) and seeing the other constellations by backstroke is pretty neat. Also, you don't have to worry about sunburn ---the pool is open until nearly 10 most nights, so may try to do this more often (famous last resolutions).

Bangkok

2006-03-12T07:33:00.000-08:00

This past week I was in Bangkok for business meetings. Good news is that we have decided to meet twice a year, so next time I hope Marty will be able to join me. Bangkok is a great city with lots to do, tons of restaurants (serving meat (: ) and other stuff. I hadn't thought much about traveling to Thailand while in India, but after having been to Bangkok again (I first visited two and half years ago) it is now a lot higher on my places to spend some time.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon and promptly headed for the weekend market, which is packed with clothes, crafts, fake Rolexes and DVDs, housewares, and jewelry. I didn't take pictures because frankly, the layout doesn't differ much from either Kuala Lumpur or Jaipur, the other markets we've been to recently. Bargaining is the order of the day, and the more you buy the better the prices.

After we were done shopping, we tried to get a cab back to our hotel at the other end of town. It took us about a half dozen cab drivers to find one that knew the hotel, and who spoke sufficient English. One other evening I took a cab and ran into the same problem. I've concluded that you probably need to learn some Thai if you are going to spend much time there. In four days, I learned a few numbers and directions and more would probably have helped.

Bangkok is famous for tailors, and with good reason. Although tailors are inexpensive in India as well, they are not as skilled (in general) at making Western style clothes such as suits and dresses (even though many of the tailors in Bangkok are of Indian origin). I had two suits and an emerald colored evening dress made for under $500 US--more than I remember paying in Hong Kong several years ago--but still very reasonable. The place we went, Nickermann's, was very good---it is in the basement of the Landmark Hotel---and I want to give them a plug here, because they really went over and above to deliver the clothes to me in a short time and the finish and fabric quality are excellent.

Living in South India I wasn't overly worried about the food being too spicy for me. Surprise. One night we ate in the hotel and I ordered a salad made with glass noodles (so named because they are transparent). It was listed in the menu as having one chili so I thought that was about right. Whew! Was it hot! They were very nice and took it back and cooled it down a bit, but even then my mouth was on fire. I guess I'm more of a wimp when it comes to spicy food than I thought, or just used to a different variety of chili pepper. Anyway, with the food that hot you can't eat very much of it, so it's no wonder the Thais are a very slim bunch, especially the women.

To Bangkok

2006-03-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

India survived the visit of George Bush--barely. He got to see some farmers in Hyderabad, but much of the visit had to be without crowds for security reasons, and there were violent protests. Arundhati Roy, the Booker Prize winning author, wrote an editorial that got wide publicity here, "George Bush, Go Home." People were particularly offended at his visit to the Gandhi memorial. Of the letters to the editor to the local papers, the vast majority were negative. But he's left now, gone to Pakistan.

Marty has gone back to the States for three weeks and I'm headed over to Bangkok for a four day business meeting at our regional headquarters, so will write more next week when I'm back.