one year later

it's been a disturbing day. read what happened on my street in richmond. also, i am reading the Namesake (Jhumpa)right now, and crossed the scene where Gogol's train is delayed by someone committing suicide on the tracks. I will be going on a train on the 7th as well. Just last year, about this time, we were all getting on a train to go to the village...

yesterday i was in a foul mood, and it lifted, but has returned again today. i went to a dinner party last night (that's when the lifting happened) and met a christian indian couple from delhi. the husband is a journalist who reports violence against christians and the wife is a lawyer for an NGO. i also met 2 new people (american girls) who work for NGOs. there is such a large american presence in delhi-- even those not associated with the embassy are large in number.

i'm supposed to go to a party/get-together tonight, too. but i really am not feeling well (in the head) and have zero energy, so i might just go to ghaziabad.

last night on the way to dinner, kelley and i walked towards south moti bagh market to catch a rickshaw to go to SP Marg. as we were walking, we heard this awful wail/moan/moo. on the other side of the street were 4-5 men and a scooter circled around something lying on the ground. the something was very big (200lbs.) and making the most awful noise i have ever heard in my life. i *think* what happened was 2 men on the scooter hit a large-ass pregnant pig. They and the bystanders were standing around trying to figure out what to do with this dying pig. hypothesis #2: pig was never hit but starting going into labor on the street, and concerned motorists stopped to stare. what do you think happened?

last night i did not go out to dinner. but that is ok bc it was a very productive evening-- got laundry done, cooked food, and, most importantly, found the market in our neighborhood. shakti and i went out about 8pm looking for the fruit and vegetable night market that we figured must exist somewhere (where do the locals get their food? not dominoes every night). it is about a 10-15 minute walk away and rivals the Vaishali Bihari Market. we bought mangoes, limes, bananas, cucumbers, milk, and yogurt.

today during lunch it rained AGAIN, but i was prepared with my umbrella. i went to the khadi bhawan, but it has changed and now does not sell much ready-made clothing. maybe this weekend i will go to laxmi nagar... i need to buy some clothing for santosh, bhutty, and pappu, too.

this afternoon at work i went with some of my coworkers to check out the venue for the sea-container-scanner party. sadly, the number of expected hi-fi attendees is dwindling due to "landmark visits to the US," etc. but the venue is very nice-- the rooftop space of the Maurya Sheraton (used to be the lebanese restaurant).

sugar/rain headache

yesterday and this morning i felt really crappy. i think it is because for 2-3 days, my diet consisted mainly of mangoes, hide & seek biscuits, chocolate ice cream, coffee, and cucumbers. today i have eaten a better diet-- only one cup of coffee, one cup of tea, some yogurt, almonds, kichiri and oatmeal.

last night we went out for kelley's birthday to sagar, a south indian restaurant in defence colony... mmm... dosas... utthapam... sambar... after that we went to barista, where i had chocolate ice cream again. there were 8 of us (me, kelley, humberto the marine, sarah who works for the CLO and has a driver, kartik-- one of shakti's friends who is organizing a conference where jagdish bhagwati is due to present, tim- kelley's friend from davidson, and courtney and scott-- they work at the embassy).

tonight i have tentative plans to go to moti mahal in darya ganj with kelley and tim for dinner.

it is drizzling outside and i forgot my umbrella, so i am a bit trapped in the office. i had made plans to go to the khadi bhawan to look for some clothes, but that will have to wait for another day.

and then the toilet collapsed on me BAM!

friday after work santosh and i went to get our train tickets for the village. i will leave in the evening july 7th for chhapra, stay in affour for saturday and sunday, then monday go to patna, and head back to delhi monday night. i'm hoping to get a half day of work in on tuesday.

ok, so saturday night was really cool. Nick Burns, the Undersecretary in the state dept (political), was in town and was nice enough to spend an hour talking to a small group of us about the future of Indo-US relations and careers within State. the career part was very inspiring, however, not really applicable to me since i am technically interning with the dept of commerce.

sunday holly and deepak came over. before that, though, the following happened as i was going pee. i heard a funning noise like something ripping behind me, and then all of sudden, BAM!
Me: (still confused, turning around to see that the toilet tank had actually fallen on me, water gushing, me trying to pull up my salwar) Santosh! Hey Santosh! Pappu! Aaee jaldi!
Santosh: (casually walking up to the bathroom door) yes?
Me: Look what happened! (pointing to collapsed toilet and spewing water)
Santosh: Oh ho! (he quickly turns off the water and runs to the outside balcony and yells to the guard below) EY! HEY! plumber aaega aaj??? MERA PURA BATHROOM KAA SYSTEM GIR GAYAA! (hey! is the plumber coming today? my entire bathroom system fell down!)
I thought this whole dialogue was extremely funny-- definitely up there with the bad smell-dessert cooler dialogue.

So holly and deepak came over. santosh had put the toilet back together kind of, but it actually fell on both holly and deepak as well (minus the gushing water). we went to shipra mall and walked around. yesterday was very rainy (and much cooler).

today is kelley's birthday. we are going to sagar ratna in defence colony for dinner.

i walked around connaught place today looking for shoes and i think i found my new favorite shoe shop. stuff there is not too expensive, doesn't look cheap, lots of variety, and they take visa. and the salesmen are not pushy. they have a really neat way of getting the shoes from the stockroom, which is located in the ceiling. there is a small chute out of the ceiling, and the salesman yells your size up the hole and a minute later your shoes will come down the chute with a big BAM!

last night on TV i actually saw these indian people from richmond that guddu and i know. that was SO random. we also watched the IIFA awards (like the emmy's for bollywood, but in amsterdam). shah rukh and veerzara were the big winners. shah rukh started crying in his acceptance speech.

momos, mmm...

today is friday (yay! weekend!), and i have just gotten back from lunch. i think i have found my new favorite place for *real* food (i.e. NOT a coffee shop)-- Belle Momo. Actually, i have been there a few years ago with guddu when it just opened. it's on the outer side of the street that connects janpath and kasturba gandhi marg (yes, it is right across the street from barista and coffee day). i liked this place for both the food AND atmosphere (a rarity in India). i had veg steamed momos and REALLY good veg wonton soup. soup in india can usually be pretty nasty, but this was so good. i think it is bc the restaurant is owned by non-indians (they look nepali/tibetan/assami/nagalandi/burmese-- you get the picture). anyways, the only other people in there were not really indians either (but not tourists), and the waiter was not pushing ice cream on me, so i was able to sit in piece for 45 minutes and do my SUDOKU puzzle.

i didn't post yesterday bc mid-morning i had a breakthrough. basically, i have been assigned a lot of work. AND there is a *big* party coming up that i will help plan. yes, big=ministers. and you know what the party is for? equipment that scans sea containers, etc. this is a big issue in the US, so it will be a big issue in India eventually (issue=safety of sea containers).

working backwards... wednesday night i got really sweaty and then had a lot of fun. i got realy sweaty bc i went with these other girls to a shop where they got involved in shopping, and the lights went out and there was no window or fan. after this, we went to a restaurant/coffee bar/hookah bar called mochas in GK-II. that place was really neat and not too expensive. we met some french people there who were working for a consultancy firm on india's roads. i found this very interesting bc i just edited a report on india's imports on road building materials...

back to the present. this evening i HAVE to buy some new black sandals. mine are very dangerous. i also am going with santosh to rail station to get a ticket for the village. i'll be there july 7-11 (getting back to delhi on the 12th). i was in the village that time last year, too, but for chullu's funeral. this year i am going to see bhabhi's newborn girl.

it's been storming every day here, but this is not the monsoon. the heat feels alot worse now bc it is humid. the good news is it has done wonders for my hair. anand can attest that there was something wrong with my hair during the hot, dry days of may (it was very flat and straight and i had an unexplained oil slick on the top of my head for a few days that wouldn't go away with repeated washings). now my hair curly and full again. but it is getting awkwardly long. i guess i will let it grow...

p.s. i ran 21 miles this week!

AFN CNN

i ran 5 miles on the treadmill after work yesterday and 5 miles before work today and i am FEELIN' it!

this morning while running i watched american CNN (as opposed to international CNN). i was able to catch up on the disappearance of natalee in aruba. i think this girl disappeared before i left for the village, so i was amazed authorities have not yet found her body.

tonight i am going to GK (I or II i don't know). but they have *real* gelato there (just like at the place in c'ville or in italy). i think chocolate hazlenut sounds good? i also need to get some work clothes. the only thing i am NOT looking forward to is the heat. the low at night is 90, so there really is never an optimal time to go outside. i'm going to stop complaining about the weather now bc i really don't have the right to since i live and work and commute in AC 75% of the time.

except the AC in my room is not really working-- the fuse/circuit breaker switches flip off after a few minutes of it being turned on. hopefully that will be fixed soon. in the meantime i am sleeping on our ground floor/common room couch.

meeting crashed

i hardly slept last night. i stayed up past midnight chatting with my roommates, and, then when i tried to go to sleep, the AC kept switching off. i don't know what is wrong with it, but it is kind of like the fuse blows, and when i reset it, it will blow again after 5 minutes. so i actually spent much of last night sweating and tossing in turning...

this morning i did something kind of gutsy at work. i haven't really had much to do the past few days, and i heard of a meeting with some US gov't people and aviation execs, so i just walked in and sat down. my manager was fine with this, so i stayed. it's really neat to see how decisions get made and relationships and partnerships are formed...

i'm really sleepy right now. this evening i am not going to do much-- just go to the gym, home, cook and watch some TV. last night when i got home, i watched Friends. it was just like in the US-- come home, eat, watch Friends.

degrees of "hot," films, and scooter rides

well, i was wrong. i thought that after a certain point-- around 100F or over 40C, my body was not able to tell the difference between small changes in temperature. a little research proves i am very wrong. yesterday and today felt especially hot. i made a bunch of excuses as to why-- increased humidity, no wind, etc., but when i looked on weather.com i saw the temperature had climbed above the average 42-43 to 45-46 the past 2 days. i like looking at the delhi forecast. it is usually "hot, dust" or "hot, smog, evening squall." unlike VA, the weather here usually doesn't change from day to day. next week it is supposed to start raining, and the temp won't go much past 40C.

this weekend was fun. i went to ghaziabad as usual, and i actually had 3 really solid nights of sleep. saturday santosh and i went to the new AC mega mall near the flat. it is way hi-fi and has a lot of fancy stores that are even expensive for me. but it is a good place to get running clothes or work clothes. i definitely am going to go back there with the credit card. the downside of having all of these western stores, hoever, is that they charge western prices. the best thing to do is to buy knockoffs (unless it is running shoes!).

santosh and i also went to the movies. we saw Parineeta. like devdas, it has really beautiful costumes and scenery, so it was worthwhile to see it on the big screen. it is a period film, about a love triangle in calcutta in the 50's/60's (there was a lot of elvis in the movie). next weekend i want to see Paheli starring Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukherji. it is in rajasthan, about a ghost, and uses puppets as a medium from time to time. plus, shah rukh wears a turban and moustache.

a lot happened this morning on the drive in to work. santosh took me by scooter and it was so HOT even at 8:30am. i bet it was already over 100F at that time. anyways, we had to drive on the wrong side of the road for a little while. i felt ok doing this because we were not the only ones, but then we hit some poor guy on a bicycle. that felt like an inauspicious start to the day. then, in the middle of driving, someone called santosh's mobile. you think people in the US are bad talking on mobiles while driving cars-- trust me it is much worse having people on scooters and motorcycles driving one-handed to answer their cell phones. santosh at least has the mind not to talk and drive, so he passed the phone to me. the man was speaking hindi, and i was able to determine he was one of guddu's distant relatives from purnia who had popped into town. he was asking directions from the bus stand. i was trying to figure out which bus stand he was at while simultaneously translating the conversation to santosh (even though it would have been much more effective to just repeat the hindi). the relative could not hear me very well because of the traffic, so i just assumed he was at the main bus stand and gave him directions from there. this must have been quite a site-- me on the scooter, screaming directions into the phone.

am i in india?

ok, i can't compare this embassy to other US embassies in other countries, but there is definitely a thriving subculture here. last night, kelley and i went over to this girl cristina's house. it was a very spacious house with a yellow lab and housekeeper etc etc. we had a really good time-- cosmos, pizza, chocolate cake, fresh mozzarella and tomato, red wine. conversation mainly centered around jewelry, shopping, moving and packing, and what indian celebrities came through the visa line that week. most of these women were about my age or maybe a few years older-- most are married and work in the embassy. the men were at another house playing poker. i repeat-- am i in india?

bhutty called from bangalore. he has done a complete 360 and has taken admission in a biotech course. i'm glad he is enrolled somewhere. other news-- bhabhi had a baby girl. it was about time- she was just shy of 10 months! i am planning to go to affour to visit-- maybe after the july 4th holiday. if i leave thursday night, i'll get there during the day on friday. i can then come back sunday night and get back here monday morning.

i also recently discovred that if i call the embassy hotline and ask for a car, they will drive me from the embassy to anand niketan. did i mention this already? i hope i don't get a surprise bill at the end of the summer. i am going to check into it.

subway

yesterday i went out for lunch and actually decided to get food instead of only a coffee drink. lucky for me, subay is sandwiched between barista and coffee day, and is priced right, too. i walked in, and it was much like a subway in the US-- the look was the same and it was staffed by Indians. Here were the differences: the customers were all Panjabi and foreigners, there were two separate lines (veg and non-veg), and they had a few additional Indian items on the menu. i opted for a 6-inch veg shammi sub on country whole wheat. it was very worth the Rs. 52. after the sandwich, i got a frappucino (arabian heights-- cardamom flavoured) from coffee day.

tonight i am going with kelley to a "girls' night" get-together. i think the plan is to watch sex & the city, have pizza and some drinks in vasant vihar. i feel like walt is missing from the picture-- i immediately think of him when i think of embassy people, sex & the city, or vasant vihar.

do you see how confusing life is here??? it is eerily similar to the US and/or past experiences. just tweaked a little.

a classic ghaziabad moment

eric and natalie-- you will especially enjoy the following anecdote about the desert cooler.

yesterday i went to the train station to see off mausa, mausi and sonali. mausi was wearing these huge glasses which made her look like an owl (not in a bad way, mind you). apparently she has had these glasses all along, but only wears them when needed. i do not know what the need was for them on the train...

anyways, so the ghaziabad flat is really emptynow because bhutty is in bangalore still. Last night it was only me, Pappu, and Santosh. It was REALLY hot, but there were no mosquitoes. i prefer heat to mosquitoes, so i was ok with the situation. well, we turned on the desert cooler and all was well. after a few minutes, however, the room really started to smell like a latrine. santosh and pappu seemed to be cool with this, but soon i found it unbearable and we had to turn it off. santosh then got the brilliant idea to spray the room with perfume (NOT air freshner). catching onto the idea, pappu then suggested to spray perfume into the water in the desert cooler. i thought this was quite bright, but when we switched the cooler on it smelled like latrine AND too much perfume. it was difficult to breathe in the room. santosh commented, "That is the bad thing about this flat. You see, the dumping station is nearby and about once every 30 days there is a really bad smell." What the real estate agent doesn't tell you...

Let there be cable!

One would think that, with the increasing urbanization and gentrification of Delhi, Indians would be less willing to try to understand my Hindi. Here's an example: we called the cable guy to come to Anand Niketan. Two men showed up and in addition to setting up the cable, I got them to tune each channel and to tighten all the screws. We had a small discussion about our payment plan, as well. The cable guy knew a decent amount of English, but all of this happened in Hindi. Similar instances happen in shops-- both in Delhi and Indrapuram.

So now we have cable TV. Thank heavens-- otherwise I may never had know Michael Jackson is innocent!

Also, my teeth look really yellow. perhaps it is because of the massive amounts of Nescafe, Bru, and Chai that I drink. And my daily trips to Barista and Coffee Day do not help. I wouldn't need all of this caffeine if I could manage to get more sleep at night, but for some reason it is impossible for me to sleep before midnight. Not helping the siutation is that you can get a REALLY good latte here for less than a buck. I am spending a lot less money here than I expected because I am managing to get free rides to work and am cooking most meals.

really bad PR

i have no comment. this is from the Hindustan Times:

Six arrested for balloon incident; released on bail
Press Trust of IndiaNew Delhi, June 13, 2005

Six persons, including a senior official of NGO 'Save the Children', were arrested for alleged negligence as 20 children were injured when hydrogen balloons caught fire during a candle light march on Sunday evening, police said on Monday.
Brian Heidel, the Programme Director of the UK-based NGO, was arrested on Sunday night along with D Lakshmi Rani, Jagriti Sharma, Srinivas Vardhan and Manvendra, all involved in organising the march to mark the 'World Day against Child Labour'.
They were later released on bail, police added.A case of negligence has been lodged against Save the Children for using combustible material in a public place.
Most children were holding lit candles while some of them were holding balloons filled with hydrogen. When they were about to release the balloons, a few balloons came in contact with the candles and immediately burst splattering burnt rubber on the children and some people nearby at India Gate, police said.
While few of them were given first-aid on the spot, several others were taken to the nearby Ram Manohar Lohia hospital from where they have been discharged after first-aid.

airport

i can't believe how much stuff happened this weekend. friday night, saturday night, and sunday morning were focused on working out the kinks in santosh's marriage plans. we met with potential in-laws and proceedings have moved forward, but the contract is still pending. now the ball is in their court and we just have to wait.

in addition to all that unexpected excitement, natalie and anand also left to go back to the US. we spent the last few hours in true ghaziabad style-- crammed on the bed, taking photos with the digital camera and then watching them on TV. after we dropped anand and natalie at the airport, we swung by anand niketan to drop me and the TV off. while there, i showed mausa, mausi, pappu, and sonali my "house". they were very impressed with the american bathroom, dining table, huge fridge and 4-burner stove. they left around 1am and i finally got to sleep around 1:30.

also, anand started training his father (mausa) about flight procedures. mausa is so cute-- he was practically taking notes on everything-- how to catch his connecting flight, check his luggage, use the plane bathroom. i can see him and mausi on the airplane now-- wearing a dhoti and sari, respectively. they are expecting to come to the US in October or November when Natalie has her baby.

speaking of babies, my bhabhi in the village is now 9 months, 3 weeks pregnant. they are taking her to the hospital for a c-section i think. i'm a bit anxious about all of that.

tomorrow mausa, mausi and sonali will leave to go back to bihar. the house will feel very empty-- right now only pappu and santosh are there. bhutty is due back from affour any day now, but he will leave again to go to bangalore to take admission in a nursing program. i'm planning on going to the train station tomorrow after work because it is so close to the american center.

work is going pretty well because i am pretty busy. so far i have gotten pretty good feedback on my work, but the real test is coming up with that article i have to write.

it still has not started raining yet. it is SO dusty. everyone has sinus issues and you can feel yourself breathing in the dust when you go outside.

schpiel

well, i asked for work and i got it. i have an article to write for a magazine and a load of editing to do for some market research reports. about the article, i am not really writing it-- more like assembling it and smoothing out the bumps (you can do this in the federal government, apparently). and as for the editing, i am on my second report which is much more difficult than the first one was.

there are certain buzzwords in india right now-- privatisation, infrastructure development, FDI, etc.

on tuesday i am meeting the #2 here in delhi. i am excited about that. i really do like it here and i really do like this type of work. i don't know if i can ever work on US-domestic issues now. it seems so bland.

it is friday and i am going to ghaziabad for the weekend. anand and natalie leave sunday, so it is the last i will see of them for a long time because they are moving to CA.

i need a familiar crowd

last night when i got home to anand niketan (again a Rs40 ride from Malcha Marg-- new goal: a sub-40 rupee ride), i was really down for about an hour. first of all, no one was home. and there is no tv nor radio so it is very quiet there. and lonely. i tried to busy myself with housework-- i had to cook and wash clothes. there was only one match left to light the stove, and of course i lit the match when the gas wasn't turned on, so then i had no way of cooking on the stove. the nearby shop is down a sketchy alley and i didn't feel like going alone, so i decided to wait for kelley my housemate to come home. In the meantime i tried to wash clothes in the washing machine, but the know was broken and it took multiple attempts to get it started. Once the load was done, i realized i had washed the clothes on the wrong cycle and messed up a pair of good pants. then, i really wanted to call ghaziabad bc i was lonely and frustrated and i needed to vent in english to anand, natalie, santosh or bhutty, but none of them were home. they had left the phone with ranju, and i tried venting to her in hindi, but it didn't have the same effect "tanhai lag rahi hai, matches khatm ho gayaa, washing machine kharab ho gayaa"

kelley soon came home and we went to the market and got a box of matches so big they will never run out. again, i ended up staying up late and waking early. i had to go to barista at 11am to get a latte bc i couldn't keep my eyes open. i go to a coffee house everyday now. it is so convenient, even if it is a bit pricey. but then i realize i am spending $1 on a latte, and i don't feel bad. plus, i am saving money now since i am bringing my lunch.

i might be helping write an artile for a small publication in the next week or two. and i am going to meet the ambassador soon, as well. so that is exciting. yay.

No Loitering

Well, Bhutty was instructed to pick me up at 5pm yesterday after work. At 4:30 I called Santosh and he told me Bhutty was already outside the American Center, waiting at the revolving restaurant next door. I have a view of the street from my window, so I looked to see if Santosh was correct, and sure enough I saw Bhutty-- but he was surrounded by 4 Delhi police and some embassy guards! I figured they probably picked him up for loitering. I asked my boss if I could leave a few minutes early, and she was cool with that. When I got off the elevator, two more guards AND the receptionist informed me saying there was a man outside claiming to know me. When I got outside and the police let Bhutty go, the guard actually apoligised saying that Bhutty looked suspicious, which is why he gave him a hard time.

Spent the night in Ghaziabad. Anand's parents were there, so there was quite a crowd and we ran the inverter out, so we had to sleep for a few hours without the fan running. This is why I need to live in Anand Niketan.

Work is going well. I got a tiffin and masala and will start bringing my lunch to solve my food issues (I've have been surviving on mangos, coffee, and veg patties from the street).

and the work begins

Well today was my second day of work at the Foreign Commercial Service. So many topics from my Public Management class arise daily—performance evaluations, monitoring, measuring outputs/outcomes. It is kind of refreshing to know that something we studied actually exists in the real world, even though in class it seemed very pointless.

I hesitate in calling the Embassy environment here the “real world.” There is this weird subculture here of Americans who rarely spend a moment outside of the American compound or their AC cars. Hopefully I will get some exposure to Embassy events as they happen—I’m very curious to see how people can be in India without really being in India.

My housing situation is very good. I share a small building (the size of a house) with two other American interns, Shakti (male) and Kelley. I really don’t think I could have eneded up with better housemates—both are laid back and we are all very eager to help eachother out.

The house itself is quite nice—an American kitchen and AC in the bedrooms. We also have a 24 hour guard. We have no TV, but we are planning to take the 2nd TV that is with Santosh to use for the summer (Does Ghaziabad really need TWO tvs?).

The transportation system is also working out well. Apparently, the embassy provides an AC car free of charge to and from our house in Anand Niketan to the Embassy. Shakti and Kelley can arrange for this car, but I am not sure if I am able to, so for now I just ride along with them. The arrangement works quite well because we arrive at the Embassy in time for me to catch the Embassy shuttle to Connaught Place. I work at the American Center—the same place with the AC library and cool, green, liquid soap. I am SO glad I work in Connaught Place because at least at lunch I can escape outside and sit in a café or shop.

The only real problem that needs to be sorted out is the food issue. Luckily, I have a solution and all it will take is a little time to fall into a routine. My plan is to go to the Mother Dairy in the morning and get vegetables, milk and fruit. Eat breakfast and go to work. After work, use the gym at the embassy, then catch a rickshaw or a ride home. Get home and either cook or reheat leftovers or go out with people. On the weekends I am planning to shop for staples—soap, spices, etc. I will get them when I visit Ghaziabad—they’ll be cheaper there, plus I don’t have to worry about the price if someone else is buying.

It is really weird to keep jumping from India to America. When you step into the office, embassy, or our house the atmosphere totally changes. It’s a bit baffling to go through the transition with a 24--hour plane trip to allow you to debrief.

It rained last night. Stormed with very heavy winds. Not the monsoon, but just a warning. Today is Tuesday, and I am going to Ghaziabad tonight to visit with Anand and his parents. Natalie has totally redone Santosh’s flat with a Turkish/Mughal/Rajput style lowered seating area.