Dinner with Rauhl Gandhi

...well, not really.

But I did have my first Indian celebrity sighting on Friday night. Ani and I had just finished dinner at our favorite restaurant, Smokehouse Grill. As we got up from the table, we noticed Rahul Gandhi sitting just a few tables away. To our surprise, he wasn't surrounded by a massive security detail, like most Indian politicians and celebrities.

The 38-year old Rahul Gandhi is the "heir" to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. He's the son of Rajiv (former Prime Minister) and Sonia (current head of the Congress Party) Gandhi, grandson of Indira Gandhi (former Prime Minister), great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru (India's first Prime Minister) and great-great-grandson of Motilal Nehru (leader of the Indian independence movement).

A long and distinguished family history.

An Olympic Outrage

Today there was an uproar in the Indian media about the Indian Olympics team. Apparently the team was to stay in a dingy 2-star hotel upon its return to Delhi. Anyone who follows cricket here knows that the mens' cricket team frequently stays in the top hotels in the city, and the media was quick to point this out this difference in treatment and lack of support for sports (other than cricket).

Now it seems that the Indian Olympic Committee is back tracking and claiming that was never the case. Either way, the team is now staying at the very nice, and 5-star hotel, Claridges...

And the whole country celebrates...

My favorite part is the use of mettle instead of medal. I have to assume this is a mistake, but you never know. I've heard some crazy bastardizations of the English language here.

Our Journey to Darjeeling

Last weekend we headed to Darjeeling for the long weekend with 9 other people. Our group resembled the UN, not only because of the multitude of countries represented, but also because half the people work for the UN (either with UNDP or UNICEF). In all, we came from 8countries: the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Iceland, Ireland, India, and the US. And Armenia was also represented thanks to Armen and Nyree.

On Thursday morning we all met inside the domestic terminal of the Delhi airport (which is much improved and now looks like a real airport) for our flight to Bagdogra in West Bengal. 3 hours later we landed at a civilian/military airport and hopped into the 2 rental cars that would stay with us throughout the weekend. We headed to Siliguri, a nearby town, for lunch and a stop at the liquor store. The following day was Independence Day, which is a dry day across the country, so we had to stock up.

We took the long route to Darjeeling and stopped at a lake in Mirik along the way. The ride was lovely, but cloudy and rainy. We soon learned that we were unprepared rain, except the German and the Japanese. How's that for stereotypes? Fortunately, there are plenty of people willing to sell you umbrellas so we were able to stay relatively dry. We finally arrived at our hotel in Darjeeling around 9pm after a quite scary car ride through the mountains and lots of fog.

The next day we walked 9km to the nearby town of Ghoom. We took the scenic route and through little mountain-side houses and shops. It was pouring down rain when we passed by a small house with a sign in the window saying "Tea & Coffee" and thought it was a good time for a break. We weren't sure if we could all fit inside this house, but we did. All 11 of us. We were served tea through a little window that connected to the kitchen. The house was definitely a bit lopsided and it took some getting used to. After the tea break, we made our way to Ghoom where we visited Ghoom Monastery. Afterwards, we were met by our cars and headed back to Darjeeling for a late lunch.

The following day we took the toy train to Kurseong. It took 3 hours to make the 30 km (~20 mile) journey from Darjeeing. The train is so slow that you could easily run along side it. Half of us actually missed the train in Darjeeling, so we traveled by car to Ghoom and joined the rest of the gang on the train. Finally in Kurseong, we wandered around for a bit before stopping for lunch. Finally, we made our way to Makaibari Tea Plantation for a tour of the factory and grounds and of course, some tea tasting.

Most of the group left the next day so they could make it back for work on Monday, but Armen, Nyree, Ani and I stuck around for one more day. Initially we planned to head to Sikkim, another state in region, but decided against it because of the travel time involved and the cloudy, rainy weather. We spent most of the day and evening hanging out at the hotel, with a little venture into town for lunch.

Making Amends

This evening while we were at Ani's parents' house, Ani had a little visit from an unknown guy (accompanied by 2 other guys that did all the talking for him). It turns out that it was the driver from our accident last October. I wasn't there for the actual conversation, but this is what Ani conveyed to me about the guy:

• He's due in court on August 24th and wanted to discuss an "out of court settlement"
• He claims he is poor and wants to avoid paying lawyers fees and what ever settlement the court comes up with
• He apologized and even touched Ani's feet (a sign of respect here)
• He admitted that he was drunk that night
• He offered to pay our medical expenses

It was weird to talk in detail about something that happened nearly a year ago and we had put well behind us, but we discussed the offer. In the end, Ani agreed to accept a small amount in "damages" to cover the camera that was in my purse that night and is now functionality, but badly smashed. I'm actually surprised that this guy bothered to come to the house at all. I would imagine that it was a difficult step and certainly took more courage that showing up in court and fighting the charges would have.

And I'm even more surprised at the slow, yet functional legal system here. We heard from Ani's brother-in-law (who is a Delhi police officer) that the driver was arrested that night and posted bail. And we assumed that because it was a government car, little action would be taken. In the days and weeks that followed, we were so occupied with doctor's visits and recovering that we didn't bother to follow up with the police. It even took us 3 months to collect Ani's bike from the police station. We figured we were healthy and didn't need to deal with the headache of the time-consuming and usually ineffective Indian legal system.

Hopefully, this is the end of it. And don't worry, no more riding motorcycles for me (or Ani).

Olympic Gold

India won its first Olympic gold medal yesterday. Yes, its first. Ever.

Well, it was the first gold medal in an individual sport. The national hockey team was even undefeated in the Olympics from 1928 to 1956 when it won 6 consecutive gold medals. India last won a gold medal in hockey in 1980. But even India's national sport has lost its luster, as both the men's and women's teams failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.

But back to the first individual gold medal. This is a bit surprising for a country of 1.1 billion people and counting. Did I mention that the gold medal was in 10m air rifle? Yes, 25-year old Abhinav Bindra claimed gold for India, which has convinced the rest of the country that it's the next China, the next Olympics powerhouse.

And what does Abhinav get in exchange for his gold medal? Aside from endless cheers and random dancing in the street from his fellow Indians, he's getting piles of money. So far he has amassed Rs 4 crore (~$1 million) thanks to several government agencies and a few mega-businessmen. Everyone wants a piece of the action.

But the best part...Abhinav has also received a lifetime railway pass. Personally, I would take all that money and buy myself some plane tickets, but then again, this is India.

Surviving the Monsoon

Most of India is in the midst of monsoon season. Before this summer, I guess I didn't really know what monsoon meant. I thought it was a massive rainstorm, but at least in Delhi it just means that it rains all day, every day. Sometimes the rain is light. Sometimes it comes down in buckets. Either way, it is constantly raining.

Delhi has actually had a poor monsoon this year. There was about a week of straight rain at the beginning of the season. But the past few weeks had been pretty dry, until this week.

This week I learned what monsoon really meant. On Wednesday, I arrived at my office just as the rain started coming down in buckets. I was dropped off right at the front door, but in the 5 seconds it took me to get out of the car and run to the door, I was drenched.

My favorite part of the monsoon mess is how much people LOVE the rain. Here are some monsoon-related conversations I've had recently:

• Don't you just love this weather? You mean pouring rain and brown skies? No.
• The weather is so nice today, we should make plans for the evening. What are you talking about. It's raining like crazy.
• Isn't the weather so nice today? Um, no. Are we looking out the same window?

But one of my colleagues had a good explanation for this difference in thought. A good monsoon means a good harvest. A good harvest is good for the economy. And everyone wants the economy to do well. So therefore, Indians heart the monsoon. Makes sense.

But I still hate the monsoon. Traffic is absolutely horrible in the rains, if you can imagine anything worse than the usual Delhi traffic. Commute times double. And I'm not sure what they use to build roads here, but it seems to dissolve in the rain, leaving giantic potholes for people to attempt to maneuver around.

In any case, I will learn to deal with the monsoon, just like everyone else, and hope that the rains bring a good harvest and that somehow that good harvest puts more money in my pocket.

Salogra and Shimla

Two weeks ago, we headed out of town to Shimla - a hill station in Himachal Pradesh. Shimla was the British summer capital and a very popular weekend destination in the summer months.

The train journey was fascinating. It started with a regular overnight train from Old Delhi to Kalka. This must be one of the slowest trains ever because it took 6 hours to travel 300 km. We arrived in Kalka early in the morning and crossed the station to wait for the train to Shimla.

Because this train literally goes up the Himalayas, it is much smaller, is on a narrow gauge track and travels at less than half the speed of a normal train. But all these factors made for a wonderful trip because you could literally stick your head out the window and enjoy the mountain air while taking in the spectacular lush, green views of the countryside.



In Salogra we stayed at the Railway Officers' Rest House, thanks to Ani's connections. We were the only people there - plus several dozen Boys Scouts camping on the grounds. Fortunately, the Boy Scouts didn't get in our way and it was incredibly quiet and peace.

The only downfall of our stay is that there really weren't any restaurants around, so we were pretty much on our own for food. In the afternoon we had a simple meal of rajma chawal (red beans and rice) and we bought supplies for our breakfast the next morning and some snack food.

After making our omelettes on Sunday morning, we caught the train to Shimla - another 2.5 hours away. We walked around the main pedestrian-only area in Shimla, along with lots of other tourists. We also found our way to Chapslee, a British-era manor that is now a small hotel (and featured in 1,000 Places to See Before You Die), but we found it closed. The guard was nice enough to let us wander around the grounds and peek into a few windows. We'll definitely need to make a proper stop here on our next visit to Shimla.



Once we were sick of walking around, we grabbed lunched and then stopped in a cafe to pass the time and escape the rain, as our train back to Kalka didn't leave for another 4 hours. After nearly 2 hours in one place, we headed down the street to Barista (basically India's Starbucks) where we had more coffee before going to Domino's (yes, that's right), to pick up a pizza for the train. Our pizza was much better than the food served on the train.

We arrived in Delhi around 6am exhausted and tried. I went back home to shower and sleep before heading into the office. But I got a little too settled in and never actually made it to the office.

Fourth of July in Delhi

We went to a 4th of July party at the US Embassy, which I thought was an exclusive party for US citizens. That was definitely not the case, as friends from all over the place managed to get themselves in the door too. And it was better that way.

The party was held on the baseball field of the embassy. Yes, they have a baseball field. There were moon bounces and thoughts of summertime games for kids, including a pie eating contest and a tug of war. There was lot of alcohol and tons of food stalls. My eyes lit up when I saw the assortment of "American" food: fried chicken, corn dogs, pork bbq, apple pie. It was almost like being at home for the 4th, except it was the 5th of July and we were in India.

The highlight of the night for sure was the dance-off between two 10 year old girls and a few of my much older expat friends. Despite valiant attempts from Rory and Armen, the girls certainly won.