Bombs blast Delhi

One of the things I have been working on over the past year is taking care of myself. Making it a priority. Today, I am thankful for my efforts.

Last night our host at the Delhi call center invited troy and I to shop at the markets before we arrived at the call center--lets leave the hotel around 5pm he said.

After waking up around 10am (we work 5pm-5am) I was exhausted. I caught up with P on skype and then headed to lunch. Troy and I discussed our options...and decided that we should naps instead.

Upon our arrival we learned that the same markets that we were suppose to be shopping at are exactly where those bombs went off......

We leave this crazy place tomorrow...heading to Mumbai.

Traveling to the TAJ

The trip to Agra is four hours from Delhi. Sleep in the car? Not on this trip.

I am going to write about what I saw yesterday on my journey to the Taj then I will show you how beautiful it is in my next entry...in an attempt to separate the two worlds that you experience on this trek. India is India, there is a new surprise around every corner.

Our driver arrived to fetch us at 7am..early considering we were delayed by the combination of rains in Bangalore and a helicopter accident closing one of the runways making us arrive very late to Delhi.

One of the first things we noticed on our drive was the dramatic increase in soot in the air. Delhi seems much dirtier than last year. It reminds me of the old movies about London when they employed burning gas lights, there is a haze over everything. I traveled to London with my family a few years back and they spoke of how dirty the air was during this time....not only can I imagine it..I have experienced it first hand. You know the air is dirty when you feel it on your teeth.

Camels....carrying everything you can imagine...more specifically, rice, dirt, beans, wheat...placing a new perspective on the indian rice I purchase from my local Indian store.



People are using animals to move everything here. Rocks, people, stacks of silk(I wanted to reach out and grab some brightly colored scarves), boxes full of televisions (NEW!)...bicycles, animals and people pulling carts all working to move everything everywhere.




And all of this is experienced while passing through extreme poverty on each side of the road.







And then the farms coming rolling in where people are growing rice and living in mud huts...just like this one.




And finally we arrive in Agra...and head to pick up our guide...

Raining, Raining, Raining......

Its raining..like you can not imagine here. Today on the way to the call center the roads were flooded in some sections with cars stalled out.

The ironic India continues to amaze me as we drive along the flooded streets, which are likely filled with sewage, trash, and anything else the water could grab, and you see the buildings, probably about 30 of them being constructed for future outsource contracts. These buildings look just like they do at home, empty concrete shells that will eventually look like modern office buildings. In front of them are pictures of what they will look like when completed, beautiful and sparkling ready to be inhabited by the highest bidder.

Along the streets they are attempting to install fiber, or more internet lines. The brightly colored cables float on the side of the road...no one thought to protect them before the downpour.

We leave today to head to Delhi. Tomorrow we head to the Taj!

How to get fit...in India

When ever I come to India, I hit the gym. Gyms here are usually in the basement so they are quiet....

The gym at my current hotel is a bit different. Basement yes, quiet, yes, weird DEFINITELY. First, there is the man that works there. His job is to provide you with water and towels while you are working out. The procedure he uses to implement this job are as follows.

1.) You walk in and he hands you a towel and water. I always reject the water and he gets fussy but gets over it. "Mame, you need water".

2.) You start doing your business on the treadmill and he just stands there and stares at you. Today I decided to see how long this could go on conducting a research survey called:

How Long will the Indian Man in the Gym Stare at me?

So this is interesting...talk about a great way to "breakthrough" any goals you may have set for yourself. I am NEVER on the treadmill for more than about 45 minutes. Today? 57 minutes I walked along with my Indian pal right there staring at me.

3.) Yesterday I asked the man to leave the gym, nicely of course at first and then firmly on a second try. He promptly left...then started pacing back and forth outside the gym, passing by the window about every 3 minutes....checking on me from the hallway.

4.) Perhaps the problem is they are working on turning those that work out there into people that look like this:



Surprisingly this poster is on the wall accompanied by other photos advertising muscle drinks.....hmmmm....

Beautiful scene outside the hotel

yes, you to could have this glorious view of traffic in Bangalore...for only 290 a night!

1.) Yes, that is a hole in the street next to the orange flowered tree. No clue what they are doing, but that whole has filled up with water twice now. Someone mentioned telephone wires...

2.) Those yellow topped things are rickshaws....lots of them in the city. They are three wheelers, pretty sure they just drop the body onto a three wheeler as the driver has the same handlebars, you know the one with the breaks?

3.) On top of the building on the right, which by the way has no windows on the top floor, there is a bunch of people that seem to have set up shop. Yesterday when it rained---over 121 cm so flooded--they washed their clothes in the mud puddles.

4.) I so wish I could send you the noise...there is no peace here only honking that starts at 6am every morning and ends around 2am. These people are on such disruptive schedules with the combination working on Indian time and the influx of work from Europe and the US offering hours starting at 3am in the morning.

5.) Behind the gas station a lake has shown up, full of dirty water from the rains over the last few days.

6.) No, thats not a cloudy day...thats the soot that sets in over the city about an hour after sunrise...there is no "sun" here as we think of it.

Motorcycle Accident

Yes, I got hit by a motorcycle yesterday. Troy and I went for a walk down M. G. Road to check out the sites. I was walking along and then stopped, looking at something on the street...then BAM. A motorcycle like this one came flying out of a driveway crashing soundly into my leg. Troy was yelling "STOP" and trying to grab me. Thing was, I was pretty much stopped already and this jackass was not paying attention.

WHY? Because in India the right of way is backwards. The biggest truck as the right of way, followed by smaller cars, rickshaws, motorcycles, bicycles, and then the ever discriminated against pedestrian.

The driver of the motorcycle just made a weird noise, then smiled, like this guy, and drove off. Injuries include a very swollen knee and big bruise on my leg. But, I was able to walk on the treadmill today...so I will heal eventually.

This mornings paper....

Thought I would share a few ads from this mornings paper. These are found under the "Matrimonials Wanted Groups by Religion section".




For those folks believing that the Caste system is dead in India, think again. It seems to be alive in well across all the religious groups--Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Sikhs.

This ad is my favorite. This highly educated female, schooled at some of the best schools in the world is put up on the block in the Sunday paper:

" well established high status Bisa Aggarwl business family settled in Singapore/Delhi seek alliance from an equally high status family from India or abroad for their beautiful/educated/well cultured daughter, graduated Wharton Pennsylvania University, presently pursuing MBA from Oxford University. Born 1980 / height 5 6'

Thoughts on this...in all of my ignorance, I always assumed that matches were made based on known qualities, friends, friends of friends, etc. Perhaps these methods don't work as well as they used to in today's hectic world so facilities like ads in the paper are required. Perhaps being global, as many of these ads indicate, is another hurdle to matchmaking.

Whatever the reason, these ads make the arranged marriage process seem calculated. These women, hundreds of them in today's paper, are offered up for the taking based on their caste, looks, size, and education in some cases. Women are described as "amiable wheatish" in one christian ad, presumably this is a nice way of saying obedient. To end my rant, I am also quite taken by the ads the request a match in the US for a daughter already located there....