Quick update and pics from lunch

Wanted to send a quick note (it's 5:30 pm here) that today seems to be doing much better.... so hopefully I can start/keep managing my schedule and priorities more pro-actively to not work myself up into a stressed out tizzy!  Anyway, there seems to be interest in what I eat over here, so here are a few more pics from lunch.  We always start with watered down buttermilk (yup, that's what I said!) with some herbs in it.  My colleagues drink it like a shot, but I have to take smaller sips.  It's supposedly good for digestion.  You know, "when in Rome....".  Then, I have a pic of what my colleague Rohit ate.  I had it the other day. No idea what it's called, but you get a bunch of bowls of various dips, stews and soupy-type things then a few different kinds of bread/crunchy bread/rice that you use for dipping.  I seriously don't know what I'm eating half the time!  Then I have a pic of the two dosas that another colleague and I split/shared today.  One was filled with spicy potatoes and the other with various vegetables (cauliflower, beans, carrots, etc).  It was the first time the restaurant had this "Veg Dosa" (things are often just referred to here as "Veg" (for "vegetarian") or "Non-Veg" (for meat) and it was delicious.  You can see my colleagues hand in the background as he's dipping the dosa to get ready to eat it.
OK, I'm off to try and be productive again.  Have a good morning/day/evening!

The potato dosa (front) and "veg" dosa (rear, being dipped)

Here's the watered down buttermilk (it comes free with lunch, but if you want thicker stuff you can pay for it)

Rohit's lunch with the bready things, rice, dips, etc

Hitting a wall....

The past two evenings here have been the most difficult by far.  Monday evening I knew I was struggling and a bit frustrated but it took me until last night (Tuesday evening), when I was quite frustrated and tired, to really figure out why.  My first work week here was the week of Thanksgiving in the US, so communication (from a work perspective) was rather light, but then everyone came back to work this past Monday all refreshed.  I, on the other hand, worked Thursday (really, I only worked a few hours, went to Kingdom of Dreams for 4 or 5 hours, then went back to the hotel and worked more, so it wasn't quite a full work day) and Friday, and also all day Sunday to get/stay caught up.  So I started Monday rather tired, worked on "India" work at the office all day Monday, then as I was getting ready to leave there, e-mails started coming in from the US and I had a number of phone calls (that I'd set up!  What was I thinking!) that kept me on the phone or otherwise working until about 11pm.  Same thing happened yesterday until I finally cut it off at 10pm because I hadn't even had a chance yet to eat dinner at that point.  So, needless to say, I'm working through how to better manage and prioritize my schedule so that I don't burn out, because that doesn't do me, or anyone else, any good.  I'll fill you in later this week on how I've done in that regard!

Food and other misc.

I was thankful to have slept soundly through the night last night with no hallucinations (well, OK, when I woke up this morning there was a split second where I hallucinated that there was giant spider on my bed > but I got past that pretty quickly). 

During my first week in India I would try a little bit of everything at breakfast, but I've determined that I was just eating too much!  The malaria medication seems to have decreased my appetite and when I'd override it and just eat what I considered a normal amount, I'd feel stuffed (and therefore tired) all day.  So I've adjusted my regime so that for breakfast I only eat fruit, and maybe a little muesli in the morning (along with my "South Indian Coffee" which I think is just normal filtered coffee with milk, but it tastes much better than the weak stuff you get if you order just "coffee"), then for lunch a few days a week I'd just have fruit and a "Lara bar" (a sort of power bar made with just dates and nuts > I brought a pile of them from the US) for lunch, and then a "normal" dinner at the hotel.  This has been working well the last few days.  On days when I'm a bit hungrier, I'll eat lunch with co-workers.  We either go to the restaurant upstairs or we send the office boy out to pick up food for us from the street vendor.  Yes, I said "office boy" and yes, I also said that I'm eating from a street vendor (I have antibiotics with me in case that doesn't work out too well for my digestive system and I end up with the runs....).  The responsibilities of the "office boy"  (I know, it sounds terrible and doesn't feel right/great to me either, but it's completely normal here.... ) include: opening the office in the morning, making sure all guests sign in and out, making sure that whoever needs/wants it (like me!) always has bottled water, bringing us coffee in the morning and afternoon, cleaning the kitchen after everyone has lunch, being last to leave and locking up, and then any other tasks anyone asks of him, such as: washing and cutting up fruit brought for lunch, or going out to pick up whatever anyone wants for lunch. 
Today my co-worker and I had "paratha" for lunch.  It's similar to Naan, for those of you that know that delicous flat-bread you get at a typical Indian restaurant.  The only difference I've been able to figure out between the two is that Naan is made with white flour and Paratha with whole-wheat flour.  You can have them plain, or get them stuffed.  For lunch we got two Paratha's > one stuffed with cauliflower and one stuffed with potato, and then split them.  You can use them to dip into other "saucy" dishes with beans or cheese (paneer), but that's when I find I get over-the-top stuffed.  So today we just put a little butter on them, ripped them up and ate them.  Delicious!
I have not been comfortable eating raw vegetables here (and I'm a HUGE salad/raw vegetable eater at home, so that's been a big adjustment), so I try to get cooked veggies in my system wherever/whenever I can.  It hasn't been hard because they seem to be available all day long.  It's not unusual for me at breakfast, along with my fruit and cereal (or whatever else I might eat if I'm splurging) to decide to also throw in a side of roasted pumpkin or sauteed zucchini. Seems weird, I know, but I don't care as long as I'm getting some veggies in my system!
I'll attach a picture of my lunch.  I'll also try to attach at least one of the videos that didn't upload the other day.
Talk to you all again soon.
Sheri

Here's a video of the auto rickshaw ride last week to the Kingdom of Dreams.  I can't stop being fascinated by riding on the roads here...

Malaria Meds and videos

So, after sleeping really poorly about every other night for the past 5 or 7 days I realized that rather than it being due to jet-lag I think it's a side effect of the malaria medication I'm taking.  I'm on Malarone, which typically has the least side effects, but it is different person by person.  Last night I am sure I never slept more than an hour at a time and when I was awake I was somewhat paranoid and my skin felt very itchy (as if mosquitos were biting me - imagine that!  Of course there didn't appear to be any mosquitos in the room but I was forever scratching at my skin, and tossing and turning in bed).  Oh well.  At this point all I'm going to do is hope it gets better.  If it doesn't I'll have to make the decision of whether to keep taking it or not (though I'm pretty committed to continuing to take it, esp with a four day trip to Mumbai coming up next week....)

I'm experimenting with the best way to upload videos.  Not sure why it's so difficult, but I do know that while over here, I can't seem to watch any of CNN's US videos, but can watch the videos from their International version, so I'm assuming whatever is driving that is part of the difficulty I'm having uploading videos from here that those of you outside of India/Asia can view......

Gotta run.  Have a great end of the weekend and/or start to the week!

Sheri

Kingdom of Dreams, Delhi, Weddings, etc

I've had the chance to get out and about over the last few days and have so many things rattling around in my head that I want to share with you all.  I hope I can both remember and adequately express them all.  Also, it appears that the video didn't properly upload and post last time so I'll try again today.  (No promises though....).
As mentioned, I went to Kingdom of Dreams on Thursday afternoon.  (The picture of me on a camel is just outside of it.)  Inside, there were two main components: An area that I'll refer to as the "mini Indian Epcot Center", which has food and shopping from all of the major areas of India, and then the theater, which houses two large productions.  The Epcot center area was awesome.  Since I won't have time while here to visit all of the areas of India that I'd like, at least I was able to see some of the food and typical products, and my colleague was able to tell me about some of the primary characteristics of each area.  We ended up eating some delicious Punjabi food, which is from northern India.  Ironically, I am in Gurgaon, just outside of Delhi, which is also northern India, yet I find myself eating a lot more Southern Indian food, both in the hotel and in the restaurant at the office.  My colleague theorized, and it seemed reasonable to me, that since everybody here eats Northern Indian food at home, when they go out they want something different.  While at the Kingdom of Dreams we also saw a show called Zangoora.  I can only describe it as a mix between Cirque du Soleil and a Bollywood movie.  There was constant singing, dancing, costume changes and performers flying all over the theater (for those of you that have seen Spideman on Broadway - this show gave them a run for their money as far as the flying around the theater aspect and spraying the audience with things...)  I loved it!  The costumes were expecially fascinating to me.  One of my favorite parts about India is the beauty of the women's clothing.  The Sarees, scarves, etc are so vibrant and just fascinating to look at.  I could sit and people watch all day.....

That brings me to my next point.  Yesterday I was out an about in Delhi.  A driver picked me up at the hotel and we met up with a colleague who took me shopping in a large outdoor market (Dilli Haat > you can google it for good pictures), then to some local monuments (India Gate, Parliament, the President's house, a beautiful Hindu Temple) then on to a yummy lunch.  While all of those were very interesting, I really loved the time that I was just sitting on the car seeing the different neighborhoods of Delhi.  The streets of Delhi seemed to be a bit more organized than the streets of Gurgaon, and I have to admit - I missed the chaos!  Now, if I was the one driving, that would be a different story > I'd have a heart attack from the stress, regardless of the location, but as a passenger, I love riding in the midst of it. 

I regret not getting some better pictures to share, but most of the interesting moments would come and pass too quickly for me to capture it.  I can't tell you how many times I tries to snap a picture of a family on a moped/small motorcycle.  Usually a male would be driving, then a female sitting side-saddle on back, often in her saree, looking quite relaxed/comfortable.  Then their might be a small child wedged between them and even a baby in her arms.  It was amazing how comfortable they'd look crammed on that tiny motorized bike in the midst of chaotic traffic.

There was one neighborhood in particular that was extremely interesting to me.  I would have loved to snap some pictures, but it felt invasive, as if I were gawking, so I just tried to imprint the memory in my brain.  Along this one street, right on the side of the street were a number of street vendors selling off of carts.  It looked like they were mostly selling vegetables.  All of a sudden next to a cart there's be a large pile of trash with cows and dogs grazing in it (cows are sacred in this society, so you often see them just wandering around).  Then there'd be an empty cart with a stray dog sleeping on it (I've seen a number of dogs, but I think they're mostly strays.  I'm not sure who really has the room or money to keep them as pets). Then behind the carts was a row of two story buildings that were really pretty, each one painted in a different pastel color.  There were makeshift ladders going from the ground up to the second floor.  On the second floor were one-room "houses", where I'm quite sure entire families lived.  I saw a teenage boy scrambling up one ladder and an old lady in a beautiful saree walking around on the second floor of another building.  Picturing that older lady just trying to get up and down that rickety ladder pained me...., but the concept of folks with very little making the best of it was a really beautiful picture.

I think it might be wedding season over here right now.  Driving around yesterday we saw a number of different wedding tents being set up.  I was told that it can take up to a month to set up (at a cost of $10,000 - $20,000 USD!!!).  Then when I got back to my hotel I realized that there was a wedding, or at least a wedding party here.  Looking out my room last night there music, decorations and dancing on the hotel property just in front.  It was really fun.  On the same theme, while we were visiting the Hindu temple my colleague explained that that's a very common place for a potential bride and groom to meet for the first time prior to an arranged marriage.  So he would point out couples to me who were walking around, talking quietly, with the female often looking a bit shy/timid and say "I think that's a couple meeting for the first time"....  Quite different from what we're used to in the US.

The last thing I'll mention before I try to upload a picture or two and that video of my ride to work in the morning is that I'm delighted at what a small world it is.  For those of you that don't know, I taught English for three years in Budapest right after college.  One of my prior students from that time happened to be on a business trip to India this past week and was also staying in Gurgaon, so we got to have dinner together on Friday night!  What fun it was to catch up > even if it did make me feel really old!

Hope everyone's had a restful and enjoyable holiday weekend!

So the camel picture worked, now let me try the video again!!!!  Hmmm.... I can see it, but I don't think you'll be able to see it.  I'm going to send it to my Blog Guru in the US and see if he can properly load it for me instead.....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
I know that we each have much to be thankful for.  I hope you have a great day with family and friends as you consider all your blessings.  I wanted to share with you a quick video I took from the car on my way to work this morning, just to help you visualize what it looks like here.

Talk to you again soon!

P.S. Sorry I'm a little late but I thought I'd posted this yesterday and just now realized that it was still in draft form. 

Follow up to 2008 Mumbai Bombings

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/20/world/asia/india-mumbai-execution/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

I hope the link above works (I'm not sure I copied the entire thing properly), but I just saw on CNN that today India executed the last terrorist associated with the bombings in Mumbai in 2008. The reason this struck me as interesting was because just yesterday I asked Rohit (the General Manager and my colleague here) why all of the security at the hotel (our car is thoroughly searched - trunk opened, dogs sniffing, mirrors under the car before it is allowed on the hotel property each time, and then I must go through a metal detector and my bag through a scanner before I'm allowed in the hotel). He reminded me of the Mumbai bombings and that higher end tourist hotels were one of the targets and said that ever since then it's been like this.

On just as solemn a note, I happened to glance down at the paper while I was typing this and saw an article on the front page that 23 Delhiites die every day due to respiratory ailments from the poor air quality/pollution. That number is double what it was four years ago! 

Wow, I didn't intend this to be a downer of a blog. I was really just trying to share information that I'm seeing and learning that's interesting to me!  I am continuing to have a fantastic time and really adore the folks over here. Happy Thanksgiving!

Taking it all in

I continue to really enjoy my time here in India.  I'm still living a fairly sheltered existance: I eat breakfast at the hotel (they have a fantastic buffet that includes typical Indian, British, European and American breakfast items - and I try them all!), I'm picked up at the hotel for work in the morning (not until 10am, which is an adjustment in itself), dropped off at the office, normally have lunch at the 1 restaurant in the building which specializes in South Indian food (that's always an adventure - I'll start posting pics of a few of my lunches - typically eaten with my hands!) and then dropped off again at the hotel around 7, where I choose one of the two hotel restaurants for dinner.

It sounds pretty simple, but there's still plenty that I see and experience that fascinates me, and that will grow as I get out about more, especially on the weekends.  I'll try to take a video of the trip to the office one morning so that you can see the chaos of the roads, the various rickshaws (there are manual ones - in which the driver is pedaling a bike, and automated ones, where a moped is essentially powering it), the food vendors on the side of the road, and this morning I saw a makeshift "barber shop" on the side of the road - with the guy sitting on a pile of wood and another guy giving him a shave.

Today the head of Consulting for my Firm (Gary Sturisky, for those of you with McGladrey) is visiting.  He's a big supporter of giving folks the opportunity to travel and was one of the key drivers in allowing me this opportunity. I believe he's heading home tonight (well, on a 4am flight!) to try and spend time with his family for Thanksgiving, but it's been great to have him here.  It's a shame he can't stay for tomorrow because a co-worker will be taking me in a rickshaw (one of the automated ones, thankfully) to a huge entertainment venue in the area called "Kingdom of Dreams".  Here's the link if you want to check it out.  http://www.kingdomofdreams.in/  We have tickets to see a show there called "Zangoora", which I've heard is spectacular.  I'm envisioning the Indian version of Cirque du Soleil, but we'll see if I'm right.

Typically when I travel overseas for the first few nights I take an over the counter sleep medication to help me get onto a proper sleep schedule. That seemed to have been working well here and I felt like I was adjusting just find, so last night I decided to not take it and see how I did.  I was fine, until I suddenly woke up around 2:30am.  My iPad was on the bed next to me, so I picked it up to check the time (OK, and to glance at e-mails to make sure there was nothing too pressing).  I picked it up by the case, as I often do, but apparently I hadn't snapped my iPad back in correctly yesterday (after I'd removed the case to take a video) because when I picked it up, the iPad promptly fell out and clocked me on the bridge of my nosing, leaving a small cut and a larger bump.  Ouch!  That was enough to jolt me awake for a while, so it took me a good hour to fall back asleep and my sleep was fairly restless the remainder of the night.  Not that I can really complain - this is where a later start to the work day really comes in handy!

All the reasonably priced hotels at the Taj Mahal were sold out both this Saturday and next Saturday, so it looks like I'll be sight-seeing in Delhi this weekend and then heading to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) next Friday and visiting the Taj on Saturday, 12/1. Oh my goodness, it just struck me as I wrote the date - how is it possibly almost DECEMBER already.  This year has flown by!

I'll try to start posting a few more interesting pics and/or videos of food, the roads, etc.  Thanks to those of you who've posted comments.  For those of you in the US (or Americans abroad) have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I'll talk to you again soon!
Sheri

First work day

So, I've officially survived my first weekend in India. I didn't do a whole lot other than relax, acclimate to the food and time, catch up a bit on reading, etc. My hotel is on a road that I wouldn't want to be out walking on by myself, and I wasn't yet up for the taxi experience, so I stayed put most of the weekend. I did go out to dinner on Saturday night with Rohit, the General Manager of our office here, and his wife Divia. Together we tentatively planned the rest of my weekends here (and collectively realized that three weekends is really not much time!). I'll spend one weekend in the Delhi area, taking a tour led by one of Divia's friends, visiting another main attraction with one of the guys from the office who just moved back from the US and wants to visit it himself, and then of course - shopping!
The next weekend I'll be arranging a trip from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon to Agra, home of the Taj Majal. And the third weekend will be spent in Mumbai. My firm has what they call a "Network Firm" in Mumbai and they thought it would be good if I came and trained them on some of the types of project work we might use them to assist with, so I'll head there on Tuesday or Wednesday for work, spend the weekend sightseeing and then head back to Gurgaon for three more days of work before I fly home at the end of the day on Wed December 12th.
Alright, although I've only been in a car here twice so far, they've both been very interesting trips. I feel very confident making the statement that I do not think I'd EVER be able to drive in India. Lines on the road to establish traffic patterns mean absolutely nothing. There could be three lanes painted out, yet five cars (or four cars and a random moped), or even, as I experienced Saturday, a pig with us on the road.
The only "rules" I was able to work out were that:
a) if there's space ahead of you on the road it is yours to either grab or lose to someone (or something) else and
b) just because you are in a space on the road and traffic is moving, doesn't mean you have to be moving. If you are lost, just stop exactly where you are and ask someone (no need to pull to the side), or if your rickshaw needs repair, again, no apparent need to get it off the road before you try and fix it.
OK, the other interesting thing that happened returning from dinner was that we went through a roadblock where they stopped every car and had the driver blow into a breathalyzer on the spot (apparently no concerns about sanitation). Rohit had only had one beer over multiple hours, but that is apparently the limit. Had he had two, I have no idea what would've happened.

I'm going to sign-off now and get ready for my first day of work. I don't start until 10, and then we'll work a little later so that we overlap with the US a bit.

Before I go, I did want to share with you a picture of Gurgaon from outside my 10th story hotel window.  It will probably help you understand why Rohit suggested that I bring an extra inhaler to help me better manage my asthma/lungs... :-(

For those of you on the road early for Thanksgiving, safe travels and have a very wonderful holiday!
Sheri

Made it!

So, I made it safely to Delhi and then on to my hotel in nearby Gurgaon. In fact, despite a late departure from JFK (supposedly because we were waiting for Air Force One to land) we still arrived close to an hour early. I was through immigration, had my luggage, was through customs, found my driver and we were off the airport property all before the flight was even scheduled to land.

As for the flight itself, three things of note happened:
1) I was in the aisle seat in a section with three seats. I was initially very excited because the middle seat next to me was unoccupied & said a silent thank you to my trusty travel angel. However, within about 90 seconds of the doors closing the elderly Indian lady on the other side claimed that middle seat as her own (in addition to her aisle seat). She literally sprawled out across both seats for most of the flight, often nudging into the little space I had left of my own. I let it piss me off for about three minutes but then decided that this older lady  just wanted to try and sleep/relax & being pissed off wasn't going to help.
2) At one point the flight attendant made an announcement saying there was a passenger that needed medical attention and asking any doctors or nurses on board to contact them, or to go to seat 22h. For those of you that know my history you can breathe easy. I was NOT the passenger in 22H :-). For those of you that don't know, I got sick on the plane while flying to Italy in May and they discussed landing the plane and taking me off of it. Anyway, on today's flight, as soon as they made this announcement, a HUGE crowd gathered around the sick person to see what was going on. I felt badly for that ill passenger and was thankful to have been surrounded by discreet passengers (or maybe just to have been too sick  to notice if they were gawking) on my flight in May.
3) Despite Grandma crowding my space I had a number of 1-3 hour periods when I was able to get some shut eye. When I woke up from the last one we were about 90 minutes from landing. While I was asleep that last time a number of the women seemed to transform. When I fell asleep less than 20% of the women were wearing saris or even scarves, and when I woke up that number to seemed to jump to more than 80%. I, on the other hand, just stayed in my stinky t-shirt and sweats....