Bye Bye

Well it’s my last day in the office and to celebrate a power outage was scheduled. Interestingly it is only computers; office lights and air conditioning are still functioning. I am sure the laptop battery is good enough for one last blog entry.

Nothing extraordinary happened yesterday except that I finally broke down and tried western food at the hotel for dinner. Not going to repeat that mistake again. I met the Chef and he is an Australian. Perhaps to geographic distance explains his lack of familiarity for the norms of Italian cuisine.

In one respect today is a very sad day. I am probably having my last cup of coffee at the Chennai office (the man who delivers it just left). I don’t know what I am going to do when I get to Tucson. Perhaps I will be able to convince VMS management to adopt India’s more civilized office practices.

If you are waiting for section of the blog that relates the picture to a fascinating story about Indian culture, it could be a long wait. It’s a tree. I thought it was pretty so I took a picture. Really, it’s no more complicated than that.

Well this is turning into a blog primarily about food, so I should mention lunch. Two of the senior people here took me out. After a short walk (including crossing on a river that is currently employed as an open sewer) we arrived at small hotel with a nice restaurant. After all the polite inquiries about how I was handling the spicy food an appetizer we ordered was too spicy for one of my lunch companions, but not for me. I felt I had upheld the honor of our country. Is there some sort of congressional medal for advancing eastern understanding of the American appetite for spicy food?

All the news

I hope you enjoyed Vinayaka Chathurthi (you know, the Ganesha festival/ National holiday here). Since the office was closed, I worked from the hotel, but after a few hours cabin fever set and it was time to get out. Fortunately it was unseasonably cool, and thus a perfect day for a walk. I saw very little signs of the holiday. The roads were still crowed with people, shops still open. I did see one small Ganesha procession moving through a back street, on a cart pulled by what I am assuming were worshipers.

Although cool, it was still extremely humid and by the time I got back to hotel, it was afternoon and the perfect time for swimming laps in the hotel pool (hence the picture above). As you may have noticed, the pool is on the 8th floor and has a fairly commanding view of the city. If you are thinking that the photograph fails the capture the grandeur of the cityscape, you would be mistaken. It is exactly as majestic as the photo suggests.

The pool, however, is truly a mechiah (Yiddish for pleasure, joy). When not swimming, there are ample places to lie in the shade reading a book (which you can safely assume is how I spent a couple of hours).

Speaking of reading, I have been dutifully reading an Indian newspaper every morning. There are several very common topics. One was a series of attacks on a community of Dalits (untouchables). Another was recent measure to ban cell phones in local university. I noticed that education was actually quite a common topic in the local paper. I saw articles on a recent changes the government specified curriculum and some articles specifically about the topic of history education. This is a very education focused country.

The most common topic on the editorial pages, however, has been Hurricane Katrina. The prevailing view seems to be utter mystification about how the most powerful and wealth nation in the world could have such an anemic response. I think this have done more damage to the world’s image of America than even the war in Iraq. Almost ever letter to the editor compared the US response to Katrina with India much more successful response to both recent flooding in Mumbai (Bombay) and the Tsunami (which I was informed killed about 3,000 people in Chennai).

Dinner at the Taj

I just got back from dinner and it is worthy of an entry of its own. Actually I just got back twice. The first time, I left my debit card at the restaurant. When I arrived back at the hotel (a short auto rickshaw ride away) I noticed my wallet seemed a little thin. Well another short auto rickshaw ride later I had retrieved my card and my pulse and blood pressure returned to normal levels.

Dinner was at the Taj Coromandel hotel. I started with tomato soup which, like everything else in Indian cuisine, was quite spicy. That was followed by an appetizer of dried lamb (with whole cloves are garlic), and a main course of eggplant (spicy & spicy). All this eaten with an order or garlic naan that must have contained at least a ¼ pound are garlic. I concluded with a dessert that was kind of like melted ice-cream. It was truly a feast of the highest order (plus excellent protection against vampires).

I was actually going to walk to the restaurant but after about a ¼ of a mile I realized that my nerves could not withstand another 10 minutes of walking in Indian traffic. There were sidewalks, but they were all broken up and almost impossible to walk on. That left only the street. I believe my fears were justified, because I soon found out that Ravishankar, one of the members of our team here, was in a motorcycle accident and is having surgery on his leg today.

I saw another interesting example of the differences between US and Indian roads on the way home from the office yesterday. Many of the streets of Chennai are lined with large trees. Some trees, however, do not line the road, they are in the road. Not the middle, mind you. We passed a tree about 4 feet from the curb. I see now why when I suggested to Steve (when we were both here last week) that we rent a car he immediately responded with, ‘No way’. Good call, Steve.

Work, again?

Well its Monday, and unlike the US, it’s not a holiday here. But before you feel sorry for me (as if that were possible) Wednesday is Vinayaka Chathurthi, a national holiday related to the Hindu god Ganesha. Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati, has the head of elephant and body of a man. I am definitely going to need to read a lot more Hindi mythology when I get back, I can only name two of the ten incarnations of the Lord Vishnu (Krishna and Rama).

This reminds me of an interesting thing I heard in the museum on Saturday. An Indian docent was explaining some of the statues, including telling some of the mythology related to the characters that are commonly depicted. She said the purpose of the mythology was to teach an underlying philosophy. Certainly not the dominate idea in my country, where God actually speaks to the president and the bible is meant to be taken as literal fact (and if possible taught in public schools rather than that evolution nonsense).

On a less philosophic note, many people were worried that I would not be able to find Diet Pepsi in India. Let me allay your fears, Diet Pepsi is plentiful and available at every restaurant I have been to. But because the coffee and tea are both so good here, I haven’t been drinking anywhere near my normal quota. Anyone check Pepsi’s stock to see if it fell in my absence?

I haven’t really spoken much about the food here but, as expected, it is outstanding. Tonight I am going to venture away from the hotel to a local restaurant. The hotel is so good; it’s tempting to eat there every day. Of course I have been eating the complementary breakfast every morning (its nothing like the continental breakfast at the Motel 6). Besides the omelet bar they also have a variety of both western and Indian breakfast favorites, served buffet style. I don’t remember the names of the Indian dishes, but they have all been very good. Topped off with a glass of fresh watermelon juice and I am ready to face the day.

It did take me a while to get the hang of eating alone. At first I tried to sit in a dignified manner with an expression that implied I was contemplating the nature of the universe. Now I just bring a book.

Let's do it again

Its Sunday and time for more sightseeing. Today was a trip to Mamallapuram. It's a 14th century temple complex about 30 miles south of Chennai. Of course to get there you have to brave about an hour of India style driving. First there was 20 minutes of driving winding around the local streets. Each street jam packed with people and small stores. The real fun started when we hit the high speed road. Now I don't want to give the impression that is was a highway. It was about the same type of road but the speed just picked up. As I mentioned earlier, the line between the sides of the road is a recommendation. This was certainly true today. My car spent about half its time straddling the line (half on each size). Motorcycles are just expected to zip into the shoulder at a moments notice. Several times we were passing cars the same time cars heading the other direction were passing. But some how, each time, head on collisions were avoided.

The temples themselves were quite impressive. The temple in the picture is carved from single piece of granite. Of course the carvings are of the complete pantheon on Hindu Gods. Perhaps that's why the temples are so large, its a very large pantheon. During the tour of the ancient temples we stopped at a functioning temple. The priest blessed my the whole family. The final temple was almost on the beach and was assembled of stones dragged by elephants.

After all the touring I returned to the modern world by having a late lunch a five star beach resort. I had seafood and listened to the waves crashing on the Indian ocean. I followed that with a leisurely walk in the surf. Not a bad way to end a day.

My First Day of Sightseeing

Since its Saturday, its time to switch modes from dedicated computer programmer to tourist. I spent Saturday morning seeing some of the sites of the city (and this is a giant city). My first stop was a working Hindu temple. Since it was Saturday the temple was full of worshipers but no one seemed to mind my presense. I worked around (without shoes, of course) a whole serious of smaller temples, each one with its own priests. In one there was a group of musicians playing, including a horn much like the one you saw as a kind in cartoons of a snake charmer. The temple itself, however, was relatively new, only 600 years old. After that, I wanted to keep an religous balance, so I visitted a very old c

Another day in India

Another day in India is almost over.  On the ride to the office today the streets looked very foreign.  I had the distinct feeling I had fallen into a scene from the movie ‘The Year of Living Dangerously.’  The collection of rickshaws and swarming motorcycles (and the occasional oxen) really made me feel like I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.  Of course in the film the characters are beset with dangers, here I am merely beset with relentless courtesy and spicy food.

I am looking forward to this weekend.  On Saturday and I going to visit some ancient temples (where else would a nice jewish boy like me be going on shabbas except temple).  I actually brought a digital camera (borrowed from Joshua) but haven’t really used it yet.