I'll be home for Christmas

Where ever home is:)
Attached is a picture from this past weekend where a bunch of us attended a sangeet for Muna's cousin. A sangeet is a pre-wedding party hosted by the groom's family for the groom. From left to right is Harpreet, Muna's mom, Muna, Alison, Me and Beth. Men come too but just didn't make the picture! The sari has been seeing a lot of action lately, I think it's time for another one. Although everyone in Muna's family wore a choli lenga which looks like a sari (see muna and her mom) but is actually a blouse and skirt with a draped scarf. Cheaters!

Random thought, you know you have water management problems when you see someone on a highway median filling water bottles from the sprinklers. There was a huge water shut off this weekend, large parts of Delhi didn't get water, which is why I presume this guy was filling bottles. But that they kept the sprinklers on to make the grass green in the middle of the road while shutting off water to neighborhoods?

Unrelated interesting article on India:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/13/1451229

Heading to the states tonight so hopefully I'll see a bunch of you soon.

mice, rats and cats

So a few days before Thanksgiving Cheinan and I were sitting in my kitchen watching a pie bake. Most people wouldn't watch, but my oven has two dials; temperature and hi/lo. How the temperature can be 290 on high and 290 on low is beyond me so to bake you must check the thermometer regularly.

The last time I baked, I'm pretty sure I baked a rat, based on noises and smells. This time, the rate ran out the stovetop burner, scaring the bejesus out of Cheinan. I came home after Goa to find rat/mouse droppings in my closet. My housekeeper didn' t want to put rat poison out because of the cat (I appreciate that very much!) so we didn't know what to do. The cat however solved that yesterday by catching and killing the rat yesterday. I wasn't there to see her success but Tenzing said it was big. I guess all that practice attacking me during her first year paid off after all! (In the picture she's practicing attacking what was meant to be her sleeping basket). Nice to know she's able to earn her keep.

Goa!!

So it takes a triumvrant to make this stuff happen sometime, but it all came together this time.

1. A few of my friends just launched a discount airline, Indigo and Dec 1^st marked their first flight to Goa.
2. My friend Liz's birthday is this week (she's in the first pict)
   
3. Liz is also leaving Delhi after 5 years

So a bunch (my friends Beth and Mike, Liz, and my friend from US Cheinan) of us got on Indigo and went to Goa. Goa is a land, a myth, a legend. I was there in 2003 (2004?) as part of a company retreat but pretty much stayed at the hotel and went to their private beach. I remember the beach being nice, and having a lot of fun, but didn't get a sense of the infamous Goa culture. Goa was a portuguese colony and has lovely architecture as a result. Heavily Christian also. But it was invaded by hippies in the 1960s (?) and has become this druggie, party haven since. I was a little wary of going there because it sounded devoid of any remaining Indian culture and it those exact tourists that I try to avoid when I travel anywhere else. But the triumvirate prevailed.

It was actually much better than I expected. We arrived without hotel reservations because despite booking tickets over a month ago we were unable to make any progress on hotels. So we went somewhere someone found online, didn't like it and then went somewhere from the guidebook. The hotel was actually lovely but in a very busy, touristy section of Goa (which is a whole state, not all over which is totally crowded). In many ways it was everything I imagined; tourist restaurants, all the same souvenir crap as other tourist areas, crowded beaches of people I don't want to spend time with, 24 hour party culture. But first, I forgot that sometimes those of us who live here can use a break from India, so that Goa not being Indian, is okay once in a while. And second, I didn't realize that there were secluded, calm beaches. So the first day we went to a beach that Beth and Mike knew (they have been to Goa many times) which had little shacks for food and t-shirts but had maybe 30 people total out on the beach, so you felt very quiet and calm. And the water was lovely, temperature was perfect! Had a lovely meal, was a great time with friends and did go out in search of dancing that night.

The second day we went to the beach in front of our hotel, Baga beach. It was not nearly as nice as the prior one, with hawkers coming by every 15 seconds, indian men strolling the beach to ogle women in bathing suits and generally just crowded! But a beach is a beach and it was still wonderful (and with all the commotion it's easier to get drinks and food and massages to come to you!)

It was quick but also incredibly relaxing - I must remember that this is such a cheap and easy getaway! But you upcoming visitors should get no ideas - this is not India, and there are lovely Indian beaches (Kerala!). This is an escape from India but not nearly as objectionable as I would have guessed.

Annual Thanksgiving List

Overall I'm extremely thankful this year, I'm in relatively good health, have plenty and then some, am surrounded by good friends and find my work engaging, challenging and rewarding, so this list could be long but I'll keep it to

TOP 20 THINGS I'M THANKFUL FOR:

1. There's a glimmer of hope that Americans are the smart, caring, welcoming, rational people that I thought they were and not the crazy extremists they appeared to be the last 6 years.
2. No monkey attacks in 2007! (a few scares and close escapes but no actual attacks)
3. Tenzing (my housekeeper) and Satender (my driver). I'd like to think I'm the world's best madam but I think I really lucked out to employ reliable, considerate, trustworthy people.
4. There are a few things I'm really glad I'm not:
• a driver in India (way too stressful)
• an expat spouse in India (being at work means not dealing w/ daily hassles)
• a low caste Indian, especially a woman
• all the beggars who come to my car window every day
• a fat turkey on Nov 22
• the mouse that ran out of my stove top burner while I was baking yesterday, I presume he saw his bro die based on the "fried rat" smell
5. Tentatively, for the Nepal peace treaty
6. The growing number of friends who can find excuses to come to India - it's been great seeing Imani, Katie Bonsignore, Rachel and Cheinan and how they see India. I'm looking forward to seeing many more of you in 2007!
7. That my crazy cat Kali (goddess of destruction) is growing out of the attacking kitten stage
8. That I was able to come home in Sept to see Eric's wedding as well as see so many of you all and have time w/ family at the shore
9. Beth, for allowing me to continually clobber her in scrabble
10. Skype, and I encourage more of you to get with the program
11. My trainer, for helping (nay, being the entire reason behind) me getting back into shape
12. That i don't have to wash dishes or toilets, make my bed, iron, do my laundry, dust, run errands or otherwise interrupt my busy and oh so important life
13. That I have at least another year of this:)
14. All of you, my friends. Those of you who are new, old, in so many parts of the world, from so many parts of my life, those who I talk to constantly, those who I can talk to almost never but w/ whom I know we can always pick up where we left off, those of you who challenge me, support me, make me laugh hysterically and/or inspire me. Thank you!
15. That I'm coming home for Christmas. I miss y'all and I really miss the food (no offense to Tenzing)
16. That women in India have small feet so I can find shoes
17. That I have a mother, who upon hearing that I went to my driver's new house and found he doesn't own any forks (indians eat with their hands) sent a cutlery set halfway around the world.
18. Star World, HBO, Z Cafe, Discovery, VH1, National Geographic etc for allowing me to watch ridiculous american programming, even here. Can I tell you how weird it is to watch 'Pimp My Ride' and realize that 70% of people here would gratefully accept the 'before' car?
19. My travel coffee filters, I don't know what I'd do without them. Stupid Nescafe!
20. mmmm...... pumpkin pie.

Strange lovely moments

So work has been so busy lately that I haven't had time to think about interesting things to write. I can however, tell you what's stopping men from wearing condoms!

But yesterday I went to see a Hungarian pianist play a relatively short solo concert and it got me to thinking that some of my favorite moments in India are doing totally non-indian things. It's not that I don't appreciate Indian culture, 'cuz I do, but rather it's interesting to see the mixture of cultures. For instance, last night the pianist finished an incredibly difficult Liszt piece took his bow and left the stage. About a quarter of the indians in the audience ran to the door (literally). This is common because there are usually so many people it's best to try to beat the mobs. But of course the rest of us stayed knowing there'd be an encore. He played a short Bartok piece for encore and then half the remaining Indians left. He played a total of three encores and you can imagine the audience was down to mostly foreigners by the time he ended.

Being part of the "foreign community" means I go to far more cultural events here than I did even back home - Sunday was the brazilian documentary about female prisoners, this weekend is some spiritual arts thing my old boss is co-hosting and then come the many many thanksgivings! Maybe it's not about being a foreigner so much as when your social opportunities are limited you take advantage of them more! Anyways, they are fun.

Happy Halloween!

Thought you might enjoy my incorrectly colored jack-o-lantern!

Delhi has been shut down for three days. Since the government is destroying any illegal businesses (which are most) all businesses joined together and declared three days bandh (strike). Of course this is the day I'm trying to make a bunch of cakes and my hand mixer breaks. Can't replace it until the bandh is over. There have been reports of massive traffic headaches and a lot of offices are closing but thankfully I have experienced none of that.

Things that make me smile and wonder:
-the street vendor announcing Savitri Bar Beq
-the ads for the upcoming season (2) of Grey's Anatomy that don't even mention or show the two main characters (the girl and Mcdreamy)

Katie's Visit

Travelling like crazy over the past few weeks. First to Bangalore to visit our activities, and disseminate research results to other NGOs, then to Chennai to see some interviews and focus groups on condoms and quickly visit activities and then to Hyderabad to visit their activities for the first time and watch more research. Then I came back to a week of holidays and fesitvals including Diwali, probably the biggest holiday in Delhi - the festival of lights. Usually I enjoy diwali, everyone lights all these candles and gives presents and it's really pretty. However this year I had the misfortune of living under my landlord's family. Another aspect of diwali is setting off fireworks - personal fireworks - also known simply as crackers. Of course it can be many things; pretty, awe-inspiring, polluting, frightening but for me, this year, it was simply annoying. Families like to show their wealth by the amount they spend and the amount they spend also seems to relate to how loud they are. So it was several hours of incredibly loud sonic booms (as they are literally called) with 20 minute spurts of what sounded like machine guns firing into my living room. The rooms got smoky (despite being well sealed) and my cat started sprinting from corner to corner and eventually I found her shaking and cowering in the corner of a cupboard.

Anyway, one highlight of my trip around the south, was that I happened to be in Chennai when John's (of my mom's John) granddaughter Katie was docking as part of her working on a Semester at Sea. So I took a day off and we (and her friend) went to Mahaballapuram. I'd been before with my coworker Dana and it's just a fun small town with great carvings and temples and pretty beach. Last time I went it was the hottest thing I've ever felt so even though it was probably still in the high 90s, it felt much cooler this time!

It was great to hear about their travels - japan, china, myanmar, etc. What a great way to see the world! I finally saw the shore temple which is like the big deal of Mahaballapuram but I missed last trip (stupid early closing hours). It is right on the beach and was not only totally engulfed during the tsunami but has been battered for centuries (millenia?) by the ocean and salty air. It's amazing how much is still there. Anyways, it was a much needed break and always wonderful to see people in different settings (than family gatherings).

Satender's house

So last night I went to see my driver's (Satender) new house. His parents sold their house, that he was living in and split the proceeds between the three sons (the daughter got a little bit but not much). So Satender used his money to build a new house. It's in an area of Delhi called Sanik Farms which was intended to be farm houses for the military, and apparently 80 of those exist there but there are 100s more that are just rich people and are illegal. Farm houses are a common term here but they don't mean what I think of as a farm house, really they just mean huge (and I mean huge) houses with a yard. Sometimes the yards are quite large and you can see the "farm" analogy but many today just have basic yards (a luxury in delhi, as it is in cities in the US). And here all the farm houses have huge walls around them so you can't see them and driving through the area is like going through a very complex maze.

And then suddenly the walls and farm houses end and the colony begins, which is much poorer. When we turned off the road to where Satender lives, I couldn't help but take a very deep breath. Dirt roads, a level of poverty that has become very familar to me here (these cement houses that look as though a wrecking ball hit them, they all seem to be missing a wall or a doorway or something). But I've never known the people who live in these places. But then we walk to his home and it is really lovely. Big sigh of relief. Marble floors (specially requested by his eldest daughter), high ceilings, a big living-dining area, three bedrooms and a nice sized kitchen. Of course 9 people live there so I expect that sleeping is cramped in 3 beds. Beyond the beds they have almost no furniture, a desk for the kids' studies, a dresser in his parent's room and a small living room set. I noticed there's no where to eat. And of course my housewarming gift was placemats and napkins and a set of serving containers for typical pickles or sauces. Hard to use without a table..... I was pleased to see that the doors and windows all have screens - as we're facing a dengue epidemic in the city.

They also have a second floor which they rent out to a family member (probably not actually related) for the going rate in the neighborhood of $20 a month!

And my visit was clearly a big deal. His wife looked much better than the only other time I met her (in the hospital). They had bought me the chocolate cake that I always have Satender buy me when I'm having a bad day:), and diet coke (which I don't drink but the other American girl in the office does so I understand the intent). Also dates and peanuts and cookies - it was clearly a special spread for me. And they bought me a garland of roses, which is the sign of an honored guest. His three children, wife, brother, niece and nephew were all there and they brought out the video camera, he said they had been eagerly anticipating having his madam come to visit. Oh, and they apologized that I had to eat the food with a spoon because they own no forks.

His eldest daughter is in 12th grade and depending on her test scores she's hoping to get a seat in one of the government colleges for her BA but there are very many people and very few seats. I wonder how much college would cost to go to a private one? His son, in 10th grade (and in a better school than the daughters) said his favorite class was English but they don't read any novels - that sucks, how does one learn to appreciate english if they just use text books?

Satender was obviously very proud of the house. He said he built it for his kids (I assume he meant to will to them later) and spent ALL his money on it. Which I believe. I'm just so relieved that it's a nice home.

Dussehra

I know I've misspelled that but Monday Oct 2 was the tri-fecta. Durga Pooja (a big bengali festival celebrating the goddess Durga), Ghandi's birthday and Dussehra. Ok, Durga Pooja and Dussehra are always on the same day but it's not usually Ghandi's b-day. Last time I was in a Bengali neighborhood so Durga Pooja was a big deal. This year however, I live in a muslim neighborhood so Durga isn't such a big thing. A few friends and I went to see the Dusharra festival instead.

Every park in Delhi has something going on but we decided to go to the big one. So there's an area about half a football field cordoned off. In the middle are a bunch of things to set off fireworks. And on one end three enormous (like the height of a 7 story building) paper maiche "men" with faces painted in flourescent colors. I found out later that these men are in fact the Ravana (super devil) and his devil brother and devil son. So this guy on a loud speaker talks for about 2 hours (especially boring when you don't understand the language). I've been told it's just about thanking the people who paid for the festivities. And fireworks are going off, which instead of being pretty is quite scarey because they don't go very high and you're standing like 15 feet away from the launch pad so you're just ensuring that you don't get hit.

Then the action begins. First they have these 8 feet tall things that look like kitchy wind mills (y'know the kind people keep in their yards that spin all around) and they light them on fire so fire is spinning and shooting everywhere. Inevitably some fire ball is thrown from the spinny thing about 30 yards, hopefully within the "safe zone", but maybe not, and the crowd cheers with delight at the risk of certain death.

Then, after endless waiting and anticipation, they fire flaming arrows into the statues which explode. Literally these huge statues are reduced to nothing in a matter of 3 seconds each. And the flames are so big that the indian start running away. People are so non-chalant here that when they start running you know you're in trouble. And then it's over.

I wasn't planning on going to this, and went straight from an ultimate game, so didn't have a camera but for a picture of some other park's statues, I found these. http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/Culture/Festivals/Dusseh.html but their statues were dinky compared to the ones I saw.

Coming Home

So I'm hopping on a plane tonight and will see the US again Saturday morning. Very excited!

I've been travelling like crazy the past few weeks. We are "re-launching" an STI treatment kit and so I and two other people have been travelling to each state to conduct all day meetings. It's been fun and encouraging but tiring. I'm getting too good at living each night at a different hotel!

In one trip the first day was in Pune and the other was in Mumbai which are two cities in the same state. And they've opened up an expressway between them, so it's about a 2 hour drive between them. The crazy thing is how strange this road is in India. It's huge and people stay in lanes and there are no cows (there are railings specifically to keep them out) and there are little pit stops along the way with petrol pumps and dominoes pizza and little tea stalls. I really felt like I was having an out-of-india experience. It was a good primer to go home.

The picture is to remind you that if you thought your commute was bad - you ain't seen nothing!!

Dibrugarh, Assam

I don't know that I've ever been somewhere not even listed in the major guidebooks (Lonely Planet, Rough Guide) but Dibrugarh, in the northeast of the state of Assam, close to Myanmar, is just that place. In trying to come up with options for a five day weekend (Tuesday was Independence Day and Wednesday was Lord Krishna's birthday) my travel agent suggested it and it sounded lovely. We stayed at a 160 year old tea estate manager's bungalow called Mancotta Chang Bungalow. Chang is the type of house, built on stilts to make boarding your elephant easier and to avoid flooding and animal attacks. It's a reminant of the British Raj and was sold to an Indian family after Independence (1947).

Since we had no idea what to expect, it was a pleasant surprise. We were the only guests (they like it like that) so we had several terraces, living rooms, dining rooms etc. at our disposal. On our first day we toured the tea plantation (picture on left). It takes many more steps than I ever realized to turn the leaves into tea (I guess I always thought you just dried them!). Picture below is of one of the centrfuges that dries and sorts the clumps out. Woman pluck the leaves and wear these enormous sombrero-like hats to protect them from heat and rain, while the men spray the pesticides and do the factory work. It's a family plantation so if you're a plucker, your daughter will likely be a plucker. We were there over Independence Day, for which the Assam separatist group ULFA called a bandh (strike) so since we couldn't go out on the streets we walked around the tea plantation on that day, including the worker's villange. Obviously the work is tough and their lives are difficult but they have lovely thatch/brick houses and yards, provided by the plantation (as are food rations, education and health care). Very lush looking with palms, bamboo and stunning flowers. But I digress.

In the afternoon of the first day (Sunday) we visited some silk weavers who make Mekhela chaddar (the local dress, like a 2-piece sari) and hired a boat, which had clearly seen better days, to go down the Brahmaputra. A picture of myself, Liz and Dana on the boat is below. It's an enormous river (the only male river in India) which starts in Tibet and runs through Bangladesh, with the world's largest river island and dolphins! It's the height of monsoons right now, and we were only a few hundred miles from the wettest place on earth, but they had gone 30 days without rain so the banks and islands looked dry. Stupid global warming.

That evening we had dinner with the owners of the plantation, Vinita and Manoj Jalan. They offered us a complimentary ride on their amazing thoroughbreds through the estate but apparently I don't know how to ride horses, so I passed (Liz and Dana went).

The next day we visited a Tai Phake (I think Tai refers to Chinese roots not Thai) buddhist village. The drive was about an hour and a half from the bungalow past lush rice fields, endless tea estates and some small villages - it was quite beautiful and despite the lack of rain, quite wet. The Tai Phake are one of four types of buddhists who came from the same originally family centuries ago. They took refuge first in Myanmar for a century or so and then came to Assam. They now number maybe 10,000. We sat and spoke to two monks, we had a wonderful guide from the bungalow, Deep, who translated but fortunately the monks like most of the Assamese spoke hindi. We admired their ancient books (written on handmade paper bound with fabric) and as we left they gave us each prayer flags made by villagers. We then all (with the monks) visited a "typical" Tai Phake family who lived in a Chang-style house made entirely of palm and bamboo (picture is of that house). The man worked in the rice paddies while the women were weavers. The monks hung with us during lunch (they fast after noon) and chatted on their cell phones. They, as is common to all the monks I've encountered, were incredibly calm, learned, funny and kind. It was a joy.

Overall, Assam was both what I expected and not what I expected - India is still the land of contradictions. It was more indian than I expected, both in ethnicity and architecture. It was wondefully peaceful and quiet and lush and gorgeous. There were apparently some incidents in town during the bandh but for us it just forced us to relax for a day. The fact that there is little tourism is wonderful but means we really had to plan - we couldn't go to the State Park/animal reserve because the guy running it isn't always available on short notice to let us in?!? But all in all a wonderful chance to see yet another side of India - and it leaves me wanting more!

The last picture is just a kid playing the universal game of spin the tire while running!

Health Insurance

I feel like I haven't done anything worth blogging about because I haven't travelled in 10 days! But that's about to change...

I've had funny little moments - like the sign reading "kabab and lollipop festival". I didn't actually go but the marketing genius behind that one still makes me laugh. I also had a roommate for a month - Kelly - who is doing in MBA in Toronto and was interning for CARE Canada here. That's a picture of us in front of my doorway.

But the big thing occupying my thoughts is that my driver's wife just had surgery. She had a fibroid growing in her uterus causing immense pain so they had to remove the uterus. I've offered my employees and their families "health insurance", essentially I pay their medical costs. Medical costs here are really cheap and comparing to the US, this surgery was cheap but it was still $900 (bargained down from $1200). That's six months salary for my driver so obviously he can't afford it. So I agreed to pay for it. She went into the hospital on Monday and had surgery Tuesday. On Wednesday I was out buying shoes ('cuz I'm that shallow) and picked up some flowers for Satender's wife. I wasn't sure how he would get them to her (he takes the bus from my house) and as we were talking he suggested that we go give them to her now. So I went to the hospital (where of course they don't allow flowers!) and went up to meet his family for the first time. And his whole family was there (he said it was half), his three kids, mother, mother-in-law, brother, niece. The hospital was depressing (it's a cold, barren place) but clean. She was in a room with 4 other people. I assume the "VIP Rooms" were for just one person.

When we went into her room and she was sleeping. She woke up but was clearly heavily drugged and managed to see that I was there, figure out who I was and she groggily and painfully whispered 'thank you'. Pretty gut wrenching. Then the mothers started saying 'Ap acha, ap bahut acha' meaning 'you are good, very good'. It was too much so I left.

Satender is very happy that his wife is in the 'good' hospital - where they give her hot packs for her stomach and use 'american' dressings for the stitches. It's not the best hospital in Delhi but it's better than the government ones.

Pondicherry

Last weekend my childhood friend Imani, whom many of you may know, came to Pondicherry for her friend's wedding. Pondicherry is an Indian Territory located within the state of Tamil Nadu that is a former French Colony. It's sort of infamous with Indian tourists as being this wonderful place, although I had heard mixed reports from friends. So I came down to Chennai on Friday and we drove in a very packed van into Pondicherry that evening.

We stayed at a beach "resort" that was pretty standard quality for these parts but the beach was nice, as it was private and therefore clean. It was too hot to sun bath but we did hire a boat to take us out into the sea to swim. They used one of the fishing boats that all seem to be donated by NGOs post tsunami. We were far enough out to see the coastline but barely. We jumped in the ocean and since the current was strong we held on to a rope and just floated with our life jackets. The best part they pulled everyone back on board by grabbing their hands. I don't know what happened to me because I wasn't the biggest person but I ended up pulling the guys into the water. First I pulled them over my head. Then when they tried again one ended up going backwards off the other side. I still laugh every time I picture it. We did get to swim in the shore as well, which is nice cuz many Indian beaches aren't swimmable.

Pondicherry wasn't impressive. Not enough street vendors with baguettes. See Cambodia was a French colony and they had baguettes everywhere so I had high expectations. Cuz non-indian bread (naan, roti, chipati) isn't any good, a step lower than wonder bread, I like to say. There were a few french buildings but really it was a standard indian town.

It was really nice to have a beach break, though and it was wonderful to see Imani! Since she knew the bridge and groom from Amherst there was whole Amherst contingent. I really enjoyed some of the girls but I got to say, how many great women can I meet before I meet a great guy???

Sunday I went to Mumbai for work. There's been a lot said about the spirit of Mumbaikars and it's true that the trains are running (although stopped for several bomb hoaxes) and people went back to work the next day but the city is hurting. Almost everyone knew someone who died - Indians have large family/friend networks. The newspapers are all about it, profiles of the injured and dead and speculation on who is responsible. I saw a horrible bollywood film, we walked out at intermission (yes, they have intermission).

Do I have to talk about bombings?

Sigh, well I guess I should talk a bit about the Mumbai bombings as I understand they are getting a lot of press. And maybe it should, using a death toll estimate of 200 (and that's India police estimate which my driver, Satender, claims is usually about a quarter of actual) - Wikipedia is listing it as the 9th largest death toll due to "terrorism". BTW the tsunami killed 287k, Bhopal disaster killed 15k and AIDS is 25million and counting.

2,986 - September 11, 2001 attacks, (New York City, Arlington, VA, Shanksville, PA, United States, 2001)
344 - Beslan School Siege, (Beslan, Russia, 2004)
329 - Air India Flight 182 (Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, 1985)
299 - US and French barracks bombings, (Beirut, Lebanon, 1983)
270 - Pan Am Flight 103, (Lockerbie, Scotland, 1988)
257 - 1993 Mumbai bombings (Mumbai, India, 1993)
225 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, (Tanzania, Kenya, 1998)
202 - 2002 Bali bombing, (Indonesia, 2002)
200 - 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings.
191 - 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, (Spain, 2004)

I don't have any personal stories - everyone in PSI has been accounted for and is okay. I'm heading there on Sunday so I'm sure I'll hear stories then.

It's been interesting to watch the reactions (mainly of the press). Three years ago they would have immediately blamed Pakistan, this time they've been more cautious. There have been so many instances of communal violence based on reports like this that I think and appreciate their immediate calls for unity. The Varinasi, Delhi and Srinagar bombings over the past few months have all been speculated to be trying to cause hindu vs muslim violence by a third party (likely Kashmir groups who don't like the peace process).

A few days earlier in a slum/suburb that I work in, Bhiwandi, there was communal violence where villagers retaliated for the police killing two civilians by killing two other policemen. It was over whether land was for a muslim graveyard or a police station.

In 1993 there were similar bombings in Mumbai which resulted in horrible communal riots/violence, people seem pretty happy that this hasn't happened this time and instead are reporting on all the cross religion aide that's been given. Okay - this isn't fun to talk about - I'm off to Pondicherry tomorrow and promise better stories:)

learning .... slowly

So I spent the beginning of the week in Chennai. The first day I was visiting our condom activities like I normally do. I always try to dress modestly when I visit these activities because I'm walking around slums and all of the activities are for men. So I have my long kurta on that goes below my knees. I notice that these men seem to be staring at my feet. But I figure that I'm wearing sequined flip-flops and they're sparkly so it makes sense that they are staring.

Finally at the end of the activity, the men come up to me and say, through a translator, that I need to wear two anklets. I had one on my left ankle and they kept insisting that I needed another. Apparently in the south you get two anklets from your grandmother when you're little so she can hear the pitter-patter of little feet. And then you get new ones when you hit puberty so you can learn to walk without making a sound. And then you get new ones when you're married. But always two! I was told this once before, by the kitchen lady in our Delhi office who the first time I was in Delhi came running up speaking very excited hindi to tell me that only having one on insinuates I'm a woman of loose morals. I thought that maybe since I was a foreigner I could get away with it but apparently not. The picture is of a guy who won "Mr. Chennai" award for buying a condom.

Then, on my third night in Chennai, I got food poisoning. I skipped all my morning activities but decided that I really wanted to go to a going away event for the State Communication Manager who has been promoted to State Director of a different state. So I got there and the front row was cleared for me, they are big on heirarchy! Then a guy who looked like he may of been a minister of something gave a speech in Tamil for about 40 minutes. I couldn't read the program and couldn't understand a word, so I sat there trying to look attentive. Suddenly someone leaned over and said, they've asked you to come on stage. I then handed out awards of some sort (I did the diploma shake with one hand, pass with the other). Then I was told I had been asked to give a speech! So I have no context, no idea what people are talking about, and I'm just trying not to throw up! Let's just say, I'm sure I've given better speeches!

Diversity in India

So I’m writing this from Chennai after two solid weeks of no travel. It was nice while it lasted. Last week I had a chance to go to a few out of the ordinary events. The first was Fete de Music, world music day for the French (and former colonies). I don’t know why it’s celebrated here, other than there being some motivated French folks. This year they had an outdoor music festival with African and Indian bands. When I arrived there was this band from Congo, who was so much fun. I ended up in the African section where everyone was dancing. It reminded me of Jazz in July for any Amherst folk out there. Except fewer dogs and Frisbees. Oh, and fewer vendors selling hot dogsJ Anyway, it was nice, particularly because if there’s anything rarer here than white people, it’s Africans. Not counting the African American guy that plays ultimate I think I’ve seen Africans 4 times in the last 7 months. So it’s nice to see another culture once in a while.

It’s funny – I remember when I first came to India I was struck by how lacking India was in diversity. I would look around and just see Indians. Now I look around and am shocked by the diversity. Not because there are more non-Indians here now versus 2003 (which is also true) but because I can now recognize the diversity within Indians. It’s almost as if Europe was one country with Sweden and Austria just being states, for instance. Each state has its own identity, food, language, politics, terrain, movie industry etc.

To finish my story, the second event this week was a dance recital that my friend was in. They had 25 classes all performing some moment in history (my friend’s was the gold rush). The great part was there were several classes of kids and some of them were so goodJ I wish I knew their names, cuz they’ll probably be bollywood stars someday!

The picture has nothing to do with the post. It's a guy trying to sell a fake mustache and beard to me! His looks pretty good, right?

Osho Ashram

It's amazing how quickly time goes when you're travelling! I went to Chennai to interview some communications candidates two weeks ago. Always interesting to interview in another culture. When I got back to Delhi the pre-monsoon rains had started, which meant it got a lot cooler.

Then I went to Pune for a three day training. The training was fine - a bit of a bizarre sign greeted us at lunch the first day.... the picture is below. Mankind is a pharma company but you can see the confusion.

The training ended Friday at lunch and since the next flight back to Delhi wasn't until evening, I took the opportunity to spend the afternoon with my former boss, Carol, who was the trainer. She had decided to spend the weekend at Osho Meditation Resort, a famous ashram in Pune. Named after guru Osho, who spent a great deal of his life in the US and is famous/contraversial for his teachings around sex and the fact that he set a guiness record for most Rolls Royces owned?!?

It was really bizarre. And huge- 40 acres. The activities seemed very interesting; meditation, yoga, thai chi, bollywood dancing, etc. But then there's the cult-ish feeling. Everyone must wear maroon robes (you can buy them there) during the day and white robes for the evening meditation (the brochure specified that any dupatta (scarf) worn must be white with no cream) and you'll be asked to leave if you cough. So there are all these strange westerners (and a few indians) walking around silently in matching robes..... weird.

Then there's the fact that they require an on-the-spot AIDS test before you can register. It's annoying for two reasons. 1) what is the message that they're trying to send? I read the brochure and thought of a nice quiet weekend, am I supposed to be having sex? I presume the message is you can participate in free love because everyone here is clean. Which brings me to my real problem with this. 2) they offer no counselling for negative people (testing is a prevention method if you provide counselling to negative people), they ignore the window period which means that anyone who was recently infected won't be picked up. And when you're recently infected is when you are most "contagious". And finally, what about all the other reasons to wear a condom; syphillis, incurable herpes, pregnancy? It's irresponsible.

Anyways, it's a bizarre place- a tiny backpacker's corner in an otherwise normal city.

On another topic I got some amusing feedback at work the other day. I was told that some state teams I work with appreciated that I didn't tell them what to do but couched my feedback in a constructive way. I responded that I was surprised because I think of myself as too critical particularly when compared to my colleague. My boss' response was, "yeah, but they can't actually understand what you're saying and you're body language is upbeat". Ah, language barriers. So much for my helpful advice that no one is understanding!

Oh, an upon returning to Delhi it went back up to 120F. I totally forgot we were only in June.

Dharamsala

So I've just returned from quite a weekend. Two friends and I went up to Dharamsala for the weekend - the craziness of that decision was that we were unable to get train or bus tickets so we hired my driver (Satender) to drive up the 10 hours Friday night and back last night. I got into Delhi at 5am - and boy are my arms tired... oh, wait.

Anyways - Dharamsala is up near the border of Jammu and Kashmir, close to both Pakistan and China in the state of Himachal Pradesh. It is where Tibet has set up their government in exile - and where the Dalai Lama lives. While it is admittedly overtaken by backpackers it is stunning. The first day we went into McLeod Ganj, which is where most of the commotion is - Dharamsala proper is just the government. Beautiful people, shops and monastaries. I finally understand all those "Free Tibet" bumper stickers plastered around Amherst! The house we stayed at had a copy of the Dalai Lama's autobiography, I managed to read two chapters and am now totally hooked. I'll track it down this week to read the rest. And the town is not so fond of China (although there was one restaurant with 'Indian Chinese' food!) . Monsoons are just about to start in Dharamsala and we got caught in some real rains as we were about to head home to cook dinner. We waited out the hail and ridiculous opening of the skies in an italian restaurant drinking tea. We made a break for it as it let up and had to keep seeking refuge under big rock cliffs and were fairly soaked by the end.

On Sunday we went for a hike to triunde, this peak where you can practically touch the snow caps of the himalayas - it said elevation of about 10k miles. It was actually quite a trek, three hours straight up hill (thankfully the other three hours were straight down). It's a popular trail, we passed tons of backpackers and their dogs, israelis with their blasting music (why?), a group of school children and even a barefoot sadhu. And about every hour there was a random chai stall. Which was good because we definitely needed breaks. But seriously, there is no where in India to be alone. Even when I did that camel safari a few years ago, a man selling cold soda and beer found us when we couldn't see anything as far as the eye could see.

On the way up it was really foggy (actually most of it was clouds) so that kept it pretty cool. When we finally got to the top it had a scattering of tents, chai stalls, cabins, herds of goats, even a water buffalo. But we couldn't see the peaks (in fact we could barely see 10 ft in front of us) due to the cloud cover. Some of the hikers we talked to that were coming down as we went up said that we should expect it but be patient as the clouds would break for amazing views. And they didn't lie. My friend Liz, when told that the clouds had broken said "where?". Look up - and right in front of us were the most amazing snow caps. It really was breath-taking.

All in all, totally worth the drive, how tired I am and the crazy sun burn I got walking back down the mountain (if you see the straps from my water bottle and camera you'll get a sense of the stripes across my chest today!).

Sorry!!!

Okay - I'm sorry, I've fallen behind on blogging. Was in Mumbai for a few days last week and Pune (a smaller city near Mumbai) for a few days this week. Got back at like midnight last night and am leaving for Dharamsala in a few hours. No big stories except that I've discovered that 3pm is the time to go swimming - there's no one else there! Okay, fine there's always that older fat woman swimming perpendicularly (I wonder if it's always the same woman?) but not 100 of her!!

Dharamsala is where Tibet has their government in exile, so huge tibetan refugee area. Dalai Lama lives there. I'll let you know if I run into him. I'm excited to head to the hills - it's too hot here. It's up in the himalayas so good clean, cool air!! Yippee! I'll take picts.

Ruins ruins everywhere

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again in another month but it's easy to forget how amazing Delhi is. Saturday morning two friends and I went on a photo shoot in an area called Mehrauli (near the Qutub Minar - for those who have been here). When I jogged with the 'Hash' group here a few years ago I had jogged this area but hadn't explored it since. We turned down this road and as seems to happen on these outings, inherited a child tour guide. Raja. Raja first showed us the stepwell, first picture. I'd seen a stepwell similar to this in Rajasthan and there were two here in Mehrauli. They are all dry now - apparently all year, not just in dry season, which is a really bad sign, no? They are incredible structures that were meant as practical devices as well as places for women to socialize. The first one here was fairly simple (relative). The second one we saw was much more elaborate with rooms off each side, tombs and rooftop areas. And way more intricate decorations/engravings. As we continued we picked up more and more kids. The neighborhoods nearby are average low income areas. In the park though, it's the really down-and-out. So a bunch of the kids were covered in mud (maybe you can see the two on the left of this picture of dana). I have no idea why - maybe to keep cool?

Anyways, so the kids ran around the ruins - how cool would it be to grow up with these as your playground? Although in the US they would be walled off and untouchable as everyone would assume kids would fall down. While this park is not the haven that Lodi Gardens is (beautifully manicured lawns and joggers and picnic-ers), it is well used by villagers who were going through with bullock carts and carrying things on their heads. The next picture is Raja leading me up a stairwell. When we got to the rooftop the view was amazing. It's this forest with ruins dotting the horizon for as far as you can see. Interspersed with current buildings. It really is like everywhere you go in Delhi, you turn a corner and there's another ruins.

The final picture is of a guy we came across who hangs out in this tomb (that's not as weird as it sounds, as the tomb is a massive structure with good air flow and a roof). I just thought he was cool looking.

It was a billion degrees out so we cut the trip short. I also played ultimate with a bunch of expats that afternoon and therefore spent Sunday laying on the sofa rehydrating. Well, I did go to the 'American Diner' for pancakes but that's just necessary.

Swimming. It's like driving... only wetter

So have I mentioned how hot it is? Articles in the local papers are now saying "at least it's not the hottest day ever recorded on the planet earth!" That was in Libya in the 20s in case you're wondering!

So I'm unable to go jogging outside and there are no convenient gyms that I actually want to go to so I've decided that swimming is my best bet. There's a city country club down the road (tax-payer subsidized country club for the rich) that has a nice big pool. I first tried to go last week in the morning. I got there and realized they have all these crazy rules, like you can only enter on the hour (so me being there at 7:30 wasn't working), you had to wear a swim cap, etc. And when I went and looked the pool was PACKED! So I decided that I would go on my lunch break instead as I heard a rumor that during the peak heat hours it wasn't as full. Over the weekend I purchased myself some very good looking (read: hideous) goggles and swim cap. I was about to go on Monday but happened to check their website and realized that they are closed on Mondays. Fine. Then I tried to go yesterday at about 2pm only to discover they are closed every day from 11-3. So there goes my lunch hour theory (I got a manicure/pedicure instead).

But not to be dissuaded I decided to go after work. Again it was busy but I was determined this time. But they swim like they drive (yup, I've re-entered the me versus "them" mode)!!! Lanes were irrelevant - in fact while two-thirds of the people swam the long way of the pool, the others swam laps going perpendicular! So here I am trying to do laps with people banging into me from all sides. Even the people theoretically going the same way I was were not going straight. This country takes chaos to a whole new level. Today I'll try another pool that I hear isn't so crowded.

PS. For those keeping track, the days until the mall opens sign got down to about 100 days and then was taken back up to 200 days:)

Email posts?

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Cheers!
Risha

Mamallapuram

Greetings from Mamallapuram (formerly mahaballapuram, for those having difficulty pronouncing the first one). I've spent the week down here in Tamil Nadu. The first two days I spent working in Chennai on our condom activities - reworking an activity that teaches how to properly use a condom. It was actually quite fun to work on on-the-ground activities as I usually work on mass media stuff. It was really inspiring to see that not one of the promoters was just coming to work - they were all truely trying to do the best job possible.

The next two days were spent in a company training on social marketing for senior leadership, led by me previous boss and something I helped her plan. It was a huge success. We stayed at the Green Coconut Resort which sounds just lovely but was a disaster. I called them for a mosquito coil three times on Thursday and they probably still haven't brought it. And it was unbelievably hot. 115F easily and muggy!!! Anyways, despite that - the training was great. The people I work with are so unbelievably smart and fun. Where else can someone yell for the group to "stop", put on a dance remix of "life in a northern town", and everyone in the room dances??

And then I and a colleague took the weekend to come a little further up the coast to Mamallapuram, a little beach town that is famous for its stone sculptures. It's pretty impressive - and equally hot! The first night we went down to the beach and the shore temple - everything here is from the Pallava era (7th century AD). It was great to see all the indian families enjoying the beach. Very strange that the women go in fully dressed though. And it meant I haven't yet gone in the ocean - as I feel a bathing suit would be inappropriate. But dinner at a beach shack is always a good time. Then Saturday (today) we spent touring the stone sculptures. There are the 5 rathas (ratha means "looking like a chariot" or something) - so there are these temples that are meant to look like the chariots of the gods. Lifesized elephants, lions, and a larger than life cow. They were buried under the sand until 200 years ago. Then we toured some temples that are mostly carved out of huge boulders and have relief sculptures that are nothing like I've seen in India. They remind me more of Cambodia or something. There is this ancient lighthouse (oddly like 500 meters from the shore) that you can walk to the top of and from there you can see how far the tsunami came inland. Only 12 people died in this town which is surprising considering how far it came and how much damage it did. All the boats are new and donated from international aid groups (mostly Catholic Relief Services).

1st Photo - Women at the Sea Breeze Hotel in Mamallapuram working to build more rooms.

2nd Photo - The fishermen bringing in their boat in front of the Shore Temple.

3rd Photo - Two of the Five Rathas.

4th Photo - Relief carving in a stone cave of Durga (woman on lion on left) fighting the buffalo demon. If you click on the picture to see it bigger, check out the little woman in the center bottom with incredibly cut abs but a belly:)

5th Photo - A view from the top of the lighthouse to the ocean (Bay of Bengal/Indian Ocean). The big rock is how far the tsunami came up - it's an unfinished Ratha.

Rafting the Ganges

Yup, it's officially summer here. Over 100F every day, I think the high so far is 106. Last weekend some friends and I spent an afternoon sitting by the pool at the American club and then this week there were two holidays (Id and Good Friday) and my friend Liz had her sister and brother-in-law in town so a bunch of us went up near Rishikesh to go rafting. I had done a similar trip a few years ago and it's just wonderful. You camp on the beach, in really comfortable tents with cots. On the last night it was a full moon so three of us slept outside the tents, underneath the stars. Very cool. We saw many monkies, barking deer, the eyes of some strange sounding owl and of course cows. We went rafting both days. The first day we also went kayaking - which I love despite not being very good at it. And went for a short hike. The second day we went for a tougher rafting trip and a much better hike. That hike took us through the local hill villages, it is truely amazing how many people and animals live up in the hills - with no roads or stores or anything.

Then on Friday, the third day we left camp and went into the town of Rishikesh which is a Hindu pilgramage site. But really it's become a hippy, yoga site for westerners. It's packed with crazy looking tourists - they are more interesting even then the Sadhus (holy men dressed in saffron orange with crazy beards). We tried to go to the yoga ashram that the Beatles stayed at but its been closed and locked up. The whole of the Ganges (Ganga) river is considered holy and if you bath in it it wipes away your sins. However certain towns/places are more special than others. A town near Rishikesh called Haridwar is one of the seven holy places for Hindus (not all on the Ganges) as Vishnu was said to leave a footprint there. Haridwar literally means Gateway to God. When people die this is one of the places they go to cremate the bodies and put them in the river for good fortune in the next life. At night they sent aarti down the river (palm leaves filled with marigolds and essentially an oil lamp).

All the pictures here are of the hike (or the camp site) since I didn't have my camera when I was in the water.

Photo 1) The Ganges, at our camp site.
Photo 2) Our group - From left to right, Dana - a colleague, me, Scott, Alison(from the US) and Liz.
Photo 3) Some kids that were playing at the end of our hike.
Photo 4) Women doing laundry in a creek (not the Ganga).
Photo 5) A woman in the fields - the whole area is really dry right now but they have wonderful irrigation so we saw them growing bananas, onions, peas and all sorts of things.
Photo 6) We took the train in from Delhi to Haridwar and then drove the 2 hours to camp. These are windy twisty hill roads and if you're not used to the Indian driving, it is very frightening. A lot of close calls. The whole way are the cutesy signs in English (so I assume they are more for the people in the backs of the cars than the drivers) that say things like "Speed thrills but kills". This sign was my favorite.
Photo 7) An old man we passed on our hike. The men seem to like to have their pictures taken, the women not so much.

First Day of School

So after months of looking at schools, being treated badly by some of them and generally being given the run around, "Come back in March" - In March: "Oh, come back on the 27th".... Tenzing (my maid) and I finally found a school for her son. Tenzing's son, Tenzing (it's actually their last name), is 7 and he started school April 1st for the first time:) It was really an interesting process for me. There are three types of schools; government (which are not free but very cheap), public (which are private but mid-range cost) and private (which tend to be boarding schools). I was told by everyone here that Government schools are to be avoided, it is possible to get a good education but not always and that they are especially not good for boys (although I suspect that's just because people value boys' education more). Also though, since they are Tibetans in exile they don't have the proper papers to enroll in a government school so it would be quite difficult.

The initial fees (which they call a donation) run from $20 to $300 (most that we looked at were about $100 - which is one month of Tenzing's salary). The more expensive schools don't include books and uniforms in those fees, the cheaper ones do. And then monthly fees range from $10 to $30. Busses are extra in all cases. I was very torn as to which type of school to agree to. I want Tenzing to be able to continue sending her son there after I leave so I don't want the fees to be too much and our agreement was that I would pay the initial fees and she would pay the monthly ones, so she needed to be able to afford those. We (she) finally found a school in the lower end that seems okay.

I was also torn as to what to pay for - obviously these costs are not high, for me. So why not just pay it all? In the end, I wanted her to be investing in the education as well (it's the reason PSI doesn't give its products away for free - people value things they pay for). I also didn't want to just pay for all the fun stuff (backpacks and lunch boxes). But I agreed to pay for her son to continue with a private tutor as well, as I suspect that it will be a struggle to start school all of a sudden, and I paid for uniforms and books (which at $40 seemed very expensive for India - I think the school is profiting). But you have to love his uniform, right?

It makes me very happy to know he's in school.

Rest of Bangalore and Mumbai

The pictures on this post are of PSI's activities in Bangalore (or the scenes around our activities)- we do one-on-one communications about getting STIs treated with high risk groups like these guys in the vegetable market.

But that was a week ago. I had a wonderful weekend, got up early Saturday to go rollerblading. Although the only place we could think to go was the driveway of the local "country club". Still it was fun. Then I played squash with another friend. Went to lunch to two other friends. Bought some fabric so I could have my tailor duplicate my favorite GAP pants for $6 (including fabric), met up with two other friends for coffee. The one is recently pregnant so very excited! It was an exhausting day, particularly because it's getting so hot here but it was a really nice Saturday.

Then the beginning of this week I spent in Mumbai. I felt really good about the work but didn't get out to see much. After one day that I spent at a meeting a colleague and I walked down to the beach. There was a wonderfully green park. People here tend to walk only in parks and in circles as the streets are not at all pedestrian friendly but it's always nice to see ocean! It's what I miss most living in Delhi. Then that night the group of us went to see some of PSI's activities in the "red light district". Mumbai has a very large area where each street is just lined with brothels. We sat down for an evening of entertainment, the crowd probably had 300 people and our folks did various entertainment and educational activities around getting HIV tests, where, why, how much it would cost, how long it would take, etc. It was all in hindi so I only understood about half of it. But an older sex worker (as she was a women in the area I assume she was a sex worker) was sitting next to me and could tell I couldn't understand so kept explaining everything to me but IN HINDI. So that didn't help much!

The cat, Kali - goddess of destruction, lived up to her name while I was gone. Broke this wonderful vase I had recently bought. Guess she's feeling better! The last picture is of the water bottle they gave me in the Mumbai office. I love the idea that the selling point is more oxygen. My first reaction is wouldn't the amount of oxygen change the entire property of H2O? I.e., it wouldn't be water anymore? But someone tried to explain that they put more oxygen between the water molecules. Whatever, I still think it's funny!

Holi and Bangalore

The fact that I haven’t posted anything about Holi is reflective of how I celebrated. Holi is the festival where you throw color on each other. Two years ago I was in the desert in Jaisalmair and really played – link to that story. This year, the night before (called choti or “little” holi) I went to a friend’s family’s place for a party which included much singing and dancing (not by me) but very little color. It was nice to see how families celebrate. Religiously Holi is a holiday that represents the triumph of good over evil. The story goes that there was a bad woman Holica who was the aunt of a very good little boy. Bad means atheist and good means goes to temple. She grabbed the boy and jumped in the fire to kill him but the fire killed her and the gods saved him. Anyways, instead of “playing” holi on the actual day, I stayed in and thoroughly defeated a friend at scrabble. Wild, I know. :)

Now I’m in Bangalore, the Indian version of Silicon Valley. Although I must admit that I don’t see the visual parallel. I came a day early because I realized that I never see the cities I travel to for business. So I came in on Sunday, spent a day with a friend/colleague at her place, shopping, eating. It was good to get a sense of Bangalore. I’m staying at a beautiful renovated garden house that’s part of the Neemrana network here. Neemrana takes old decaying but beautiful properties and turns them into boutique hotels. This is the third one I’ve stayed at. The first one was Ramgarh Villas up in the lower Himalayas and the second was Neemrana Fort right outside Delhi. It’s quite basic in its amenities but it’s so nice to be in a nice places versus just another hotel! Plus they make these incredible jams that they serve for breakfast!

No Stress Passing

I was in Mumbai on Thursday for a quick one-day conference and under a flyover (over pass in the US) was a sign about how Mumbai owned the land and that "Stress passers will be persecuted"! HA!

I've been procrastinating about posting the rest of the pictures from Rachel's visit. Last Sunday we tried to quickly cross a few more outings off the list. First up was the Q'tub Minar. It's Delhi's first city and is home to the world's tallest minar. Here are Rachel and I in front of said minar. It's really a gorgeous set of ruins, but more ruined than most here so it's harder to imagine what the city would have been like. The Agra fort which we had seen the day before, on the otherhand, was very easy for me to imagine living in - in pure luxury of course. However, they didn't seem to be interested in selling.

Later that day we went to INA market, which is a general market, with a little bit of everything but particularly good for random food. It's the place you go when you can't find that ingredient. It's chaotic. Many asian cities I've been in have their equivalent to INA, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia it's the Russian market, in Vientiane, Laos it's the Morning Market. At INA it's crowded aisles of all sorts of things. In the back is the live animals (about to be dead) section with fish, chickens etc. It's smells not so nice - and I'm sure there's no bird flu here:) Actually I was sitting behind a colleague of mine on the flight back from Mumbai. She's a really good doctor and she ordered the chicken - so now I'm feeling much better about eating chicken. I still don't want Tenzing to prepare it though, cuz it's easier to catch in preparation then after it's cooked.

We then went to the Big Chill for lunch, and their famous Mud Pie and ran into a bunch of my friends, which is nice becuase the Mud Pie is just too big for 2.