It's about time

Anyone who has traveled to India has likely witnessed numerous men peeing along the side of the road. It happens in the city and rural areas alike.

Part of the problem is certainly poverty - many people do not have access to toilets and running water. Alongside railroad tracks, it's a common sight to see men, women and children bathing and conducting other activities in full view of passing trains.

But there's a huge social problem where people (ok, men), think it's fine to do this in public. In the evening, you'll see men stop their cars or bikes to relieve themselves in not so private places.

Last weekend in my neighborhood, two stopped in the middle of a bridge. A guy who used to work in my office told a story of how he stopped on his way home one night. (He was subsequently hit by a motorcycle and slightly injured, so I guess he learned his lesson).

It seems that the New Delhi government is finally taking steps to curb such behaviors. Of course, it's mainly because the city doesn't want to be embarrassed when it hosts the Commonwealth Games next year, but that's fine with me if that's what it takes.

The city is launching a new ad campaign on billboards intended to "shame" people into proper behaviors to help clean up the city. It will tackle spitting, littering, and my personal favoring, urinating in public, all accepted norms here.

New Delhi launches no peeing in public campaign (CNN.com)

I don't know if it will actually work, but it's worth a try. And it's definitely better than doing nothing at all.

Back in India

We returned to Delhi last Tuesday and I returned with a cold. A nasty cold and a chest infection. I still haven't fully recovered, but I'm feeling much better.

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And fortunately, I recovered enough to spend some time with my cousin Randy who was in town. As you may have heard me say before, Randy has the best job ever. Ever. He works for Sports Illustrated and originally worked on their website. But a few years ago he stumbled upon the opportunity to be the "On Location" photographer for the swimsuit edition. So now, he travels with the team as the shoot each year's swimsuit edition.

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And that's only half of it - he also gets to travel to amazing locations around the world where they receive star treatment. This year he's been to the Maldives, Portugal and India. And he has another international trip coming in a few weeks, but I can't tell you where. Oh yeah, and he gets to hang out with the models.

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In any case, after spending 2 weeks at Amanbagh Resort in Rajasthan, Randy added on a few extra days to his trip so he could visit Ani and me in Delhi. On Friday, I was a pretty worthless tour guide and hobbled my way through a visit to Humayun's Tomb and Khan Market. And on Saturday, I bailed on a trip to the Taj because I didn't think my body could take 8+ hours in a car. So Randy had to venture off on his own, but fortunately he was in the good company of Raju, our driver.

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But I think on Sunday, I was back in action as a hostess. First, we ventured to Connaught Place where we hopped on the metro and headed to Old Delhi. The metro was incredibly crowded for a Sunday afternoon, but it still proved to be the most efficient way to reach Old Delhi. Once there, we took cycle rickshaws through several markets to reach Jama Masjid. And of course, we ate at Karim's, a requirement for any trip to Old Delhi.

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We continued on through a bunch of other markets: the firework market, the motor markets, the silver and jewelry market, the spice market, the pan market, and of course the paper market. And like all good trips to Old Delhi, we stopped for dahi bhalla and ended in Haldiram's to buy sweets.

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On our way back home, we intended to make a brief stop at Ani's house. This turned into a much longer, but incredibly enjoyable visit where Randy got to meet most of Ani's family and enjoy the hospitality of an Indian home. Randy also took about a million photographs of the kids and the rest of the family.

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Later that evening, we said goodbye to Randy and dropped him (and all of his equipment) off at the airport. Now, we're patiently waiting for the next visitor (Brooke in late November), so we can continue to show our friends the wonders of India.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Delhi has finally emerged from 4 days of straight rain. Monsoon rains, you may say. But actually, it was about two months too late for the monsoon season. June and July were unusually dry for much of India, resulting in drought conditions across the country. While many of my friends and colleagues rejoiced at the cool, wet weather, I exclaimed that it was gross and nasty. Rain + dust makes a lot of mud.

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But the worst part is definitely the traffic. Delhi still suffers from poor infrastructure, including crappy roads and non-functioning drainage systems. Heavy rain, even for a few hours, leads to lots and lots of flooding. And I'm not sure what they use to build roads here, but it seems to disintegrate with a drop of water.

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Last Friday was Day 2 of the continuous rain and I was headed to my office in Gurgaon. On a typical morning with traffic it takes about an hour to get to the office, despite the fact that it's only 25 km (16 mi) away. One of my colleagues had warned me that it took her well over two hours to reach the office and she'd left home before 7:30am. I didn't attempt to head out until 9:45am thinking that traffic would improve. But on this day, I spent about 45 minutes in traffic and barely ventured 10 kms from my house. Fortunately, my boss called me from his car to say that he was stuck in traffic and was turning around and heading to our other office. I promptly replied that I was going to do the same. It only took about 15 minutes to make a u-turn in the traffic.

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And then the rains continued and continued...

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The sun finally emerged on Sunday and things returned to normal. And by normal I mean that yesterday we were stuck behind a procession of villagers traveling on about 20 carts pulled by oxen. Oh, India.

Back in Action...maybe

I just realized that it's been almost three months since my last post and I don't really have a good excuse. I can't really blame it on Bravo, our wonderful puppy. I was also away for a few weeks in late June/early July for my trip to DC/Chicago/Turkey, but I've been back for well over a month.

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Four days at home was not enough, but it was certainly better than nothing. The best part was that I flew home for free (and business class!) thanks to my training session in Chicago (well, outside Chicago) the following week. All of this was capped off with a week in Turkey with Kelly and Brooke. We met in beautiful and "central" Istanbul from our respective homes in the 3 Ds - DC, Doha and Delhi. I won't be able to do justice to the amazing trip here, so I will refer to you Brooke's blog where she's done a wonderful job of capturing the sights, sounds and culinary delights of Istanbul and Bodrum.

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Now back to India, where I've been since early July. Things are hot-hot-hot, as Indian summers usually are. And this summer has also been quite dry. Many parts of the country are experiencing drought conditions, crops are failing and prices are rising. Despite the serious impact this will have on the economy, it is not the main news story of the week.

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Instead, all of India is up in arms about the treatment of their biggest Bollywood star, Shah Rukh Khan, during a recent trip to the United States. US Immigration officials allegedly gave him a hard time when he was entering the country at Newark Airport. They did this by asking him questions like, "Why are you entering the US?," "Where are you going?" and "Can anyone vouch for your identity?" Sure, he's made nearly 100 films and is one of the most recognizable faces in India, but how many people in the US really know Bollywood film stars?

Oh, and there was a similar uproar a few weeks ago when a former president was subjected to additional screening by Continental Airlines on a flight from Delhi to Newark. I think there's more merit in this uproar, but to keep it in perspective, this is all coming from a country where stars and politician always get VIP, or even VVIP treatment. (Do you think those with only VIP status feel inferior)?

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VIPs and VVIPs don't get screened at airports, they don't pay tolls, they are given around-the-clock security guards and motorcades that block traffic for hours. In case you can't remember just who qualifies for this status, you can check the lengthy list of "special" designations on display at airport security or the entrance to a toll plaza. Yes, these lists really exist.

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So, that's my update for now, but there's more to come. I swear.

Bravo, Bravo

As many of you have heard, our house is a little more crowded these days with the arrival of Bravo, our German Shepherd puppy.

He's grown and changed so much in the past two weeks. His ears are standing up now. He barks at all strangers. And he's much heavier, which I dont' like since I carry him down the stairs to go outside. I'm not exactly sure, but I think he's a little scared of stairs. Fortunately, he's mastered climbing up.

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Bravo's hobbies include laying in the water he's spilled from his water bowl (it's super hot here), chasing the neighborhood stray dogs, hiding in the shower (again for the cool tile) and of course, sleeping.

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Today Bravo had his first visit from a trainer, although he's been pretty good so far. He's mastered Sit and is just about housebroken. Ani and I are almost trained too, to know when he wants to go outside or when he's hungry.

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Here are a few pictures of the little puppy. Hopefully you can see him soon on your next visit to Delhi.

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And the winner is...

Yesterday culminated a month of voting in India with the Congress party emerging the winner and their United Progressive Alliance (UPA) maintaining power in the government. This also means that PM Manmohan Singh will serve another 5-year term as the country's Prime Minister. The Indian National Congress is the party of the Nehru-Gandhi family and its leaders have included: Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Sonia Gandhi. And many think that Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi's son, Rahul, who is also a member of parliament, will be the party's next big leader.

India's claims the title of the world's largest democracy and with a population of over 1.1 billion, there were over 700 million registered voters in this election. Personally, I find this number of 700 million doubtful because I've also read that nearly 50% of the country's population is under the age of 25. So this means that there are 200 million people between the ages of 18 and 25. While this is possible, I also know that not EVERYONE is registered to vote and I know that there are occurrences of voter fraud where people are registered multiple times. Anyways, back to the election...

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India's political system is extremely fractured with a numerous parties. Although the Congress and the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) are the two major ones, there are a host of smaller parties that are driven by state/region, religion and caste. As a result, the winning party (usually Congress or BJP) is often forced to form a collation government with several of the smaller parties in order to gain control of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament that is directly elected by voters.

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Many of these parties sprout up when a leader breaks away from the Congress or BJP and forms his/her own party or grow to national prominence because of the leader. Lalu Prasad Yadav, the Railway Minister, has his own party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) that has waning popularity in Bihar, his home state. Mayawati, Chief Minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh, heads the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which is very strong in her home state. The party claims to represent the interests of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Mayawati is a Dalit and, had her party done well in the elections, would have been poised to become the first Dalit Prime Minister.

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Voting occurred over the past month in 5 phases throughout the country. Each election day was a mandatory public holiday in those states with voting. I really like this, as it sends a strong message to people that voting is important. Election day, as well as the day preceding the election, is also a dry day, meaning alcohol is not sold in the state. "Votes for liquor" scams are not uncommon and the declaration of dry days is meant to curb this.

After voting, an ink mark is usually placed on the voter's index finger. Without fail, newspapers the next day features photos of politicians and celebrities showing off their ink marks. For some reason, in Bombay, they marked middle fingers, so there were full page spreads of all of the Bollywood stars sticking up their middle fingers. Quite funny if you can here. Here's a photo of the Bachchan family, the royal family of Bollywood, giving the middle finger to the media. I wonder if they secretly got pleasure of out of this?

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And I've added this BJP campaign poster below because I think it's funny. What on earth is he doing??

I've only learned a bit in my time here about the complex political system. One important and interesting topic I haven't touch on is corruption within the system. In this election there were a significant number of candidates with criminal cases pending against them - from all parties. Maybe I will pick this topic up later.

Summertime in the City

The summer is officially here and it came quickly and without warning. Last week, temperatures reached 42C, which is about 108F! Central and Eastern India are experiencing an early heat wave, with temperatures reaching 45C in some places.

The strain on the power supply is also apparent. Yesterday, our power went out several times for just a few minutes in both the morning and evening (and probably during the day too, but we weren't here to experience it). Fortunately, we have an inverter, so we have some power even during outages (but no AC). But the best part of this is that our internet connection works even when the power's out.

While there are many things I hate about the summer (sweating the moment I walk outside, the ants that appear in my kitchen, power outages), I've decided to focus on the things I love about the summer.

Things I love about summer in India:

- Fresh mangoes, mango juice, mango shakes
- Not having to turn the geyser (hot water heater) on because the sun and heat do it for you

So, that's all I've got for now, but hopefully the list will grow as I prepare to deal with the summer heat. Wish me luck.

IPL 2

This weekend kicked off the second season of the Indian Premier League. The only catch to this year's follow up to the first highly successful and lucrative cricket tournament is that it is being held in South Africa, not India.
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Thanks to the ongoing elections in India (more on the elections in the next post), the entire tournament was moved to South Africa. State governments insisted that they could not provide adequate security near election days and the IPL was forced to come up with an alternative schedule. This schedule had random cities without an IPL team hosting many matches and several host teams without a home game, including Delhi.
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Finally, Lalit Modi, founder of the IPL announced that the tournament would not be cancelled, but would be held outside of India, in either South Africa or England. I think it's quite a shame for India. The buzz and excitement around last year's IPL was refreshing and the money generated from sponsorships, ticket sales, and merchandise is something that is not usually seen in India. Although people can watch from here and buy all of the Delhi Daredevil t-shirts they want, it's not the same as the real deal.
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Already I find that I'm less inclined to watch the matches, but maybe that will change with time.

Bombay

First off, yes, I call it Bombay and not Mumbai. I've found that several of my colleagues refer to it as this, and most switch between the two.

A couple of weekends ago we returned to Bombay for the first time in over two years. During what was my first visit, we stayed at the Marriott in Juhu Beach, which I now know to be quite far from the center of the city. As a result, we spent most of our time hanging out at the hotel - enjoying the pool, the incredible breakfast buffet and the (once) popular nightclub there.

This time I vowed to get out and see more of the sights. Fortunately, there aren't that many sights in Bombay so we were also able to spend a lot of time relaxing at the hotel pool and enjoy our view of the sea from our hotel room. Here's the view...

View from our room at the Trident

On the first night, we walked around the Colaba area, including the Taj Palace Hotel and Cafe Leopold, both targets in the Mumbai attacks. We stopped by the Gateway of India, which I found utterly unimpressive and very small. It left me asking, "This is it?" After that brief stop, we had really yummy food at Bademiya, a Bombay institution. It rivals Delhi's Khan Cha Cha, but it's even bigger and takes over the entire alleyway with tables and chairs.

The Taj Palace Hotel

On our second day, we did the required visits to Victoria Terminus, Bombay University and the High Court, wandered through the Oval Maidan to watch a few cricket matches and eventually made our way back to the hotel for some pool time. As weekends in Calcutta (at the Park Hotel) and Bombay (at the Trident), I've decided to give up staying in smaller (and less expensive) hotels in major cities. The comfort, amenities and service are too much to give up! We ended the day with a very nice, relaxing dinner at the restaurant Indigo in Colaba. If we lived in Bombay, we would make regular visits to this place!

Victoria Terminus

Bombay High Court and Bombay University

On our final day in Bombay, we gorged ourselves on the great breakfast buffet and squeezed in a little more time at the pool. Finally, we headed off towards the airport, but stopped at Dhobi Ghat and the Racecourse on our way. Dhobi means washer in Hindi and Dhobi Ghat is the main place where the washers do they thing - cleaning laundry in the rows and rows of bins and then hanging them out to dry. And as luck would have it, in the 2 minutes that we stopped at the Racecourse, a race was just about to begin and we managed to catch the horses running by.

Dhobi Ghat - where most of the city's clothes are washed and ironed

A glimpse into the fashion world

We managed to get passes to one of the fashion shows during Delhi Fashion Week which was held here a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that we arrived incredibly late and missed all but the final walk, it was cool to see.

On a different note, I was shocked at the mall, the DLF Emporio, that played host the Fashion Week. Wikipedia sites it as the most luxurious shopping mall in Asia (with rental touching $20 per square foot) and claims that the mall features gold lining and Italian marble. After the show, we checked out the mall and all of its glamorous stores including: Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Cartier, Dolce and Gabbana, Versace and even Tiffany.


I just can't figure out who's shopping here?

Oh Calcutta!

We traveled to Calcutta, sometimes referred to as the Paris of the East, last weekend, which was my first visit to the former British capital. It's the third most populous city in India, after Bombay and Delhi. It's known for its heat, dust and poverty, but also for its food, sweets, arts community and architecture. I loved Calcutta and thought it felt much more like a city than Delhi. You could actually walk places or easily hop on the metro (the first in India). Though old, the metro convenient and cheap. People were also out and about throughout the day and night, unlike Delhi where you would think twice about anyone walking down a street late at night. People also seemed much nicer, but I feel this way about most places in India, so I am coming to the realization that it is Delhi that is mean and rude.

Calcutta is the literary and arts capital of India and this can be seen throughout the city. Book stalls line the streets and there's a bookstore or two around every corner. I couldn't resist the urge because books are so much cheaper in India. A book that costs $10 or more at home, is only about $4 there.

The focus of the weekend really seemed to be eating and we took this opportunity on every street corner. Between bites of rasgulla and prawn curry, we managed to squeeze in some sightseeing to Victoria Memorial, Howrah Bridge, the Marble Palace and even a quick dip into the hotel pool.

Calcutta's architectural history is due to the British, as Calcutta was the capital of the British Raj before New Delhi. Unfortunately, much of that history is fading, crumbling and unprotected. Victoria Memorial is one exception though. The entire grounds are very well-maintained and inside we found a surprisingly nice museum and a photo display from the British era. One of my favorite photos showed a street in Calcutta, with wide avenues and crosswalks to our amazement, all of the cars were in their lanes and all of the people were in crosswalks. Funny to think that 100 years ago, things were much more orderly than they are today!

Springtime in Delhi

Well, Springtime is long now. It's now a balmy 85F during the day, but I think it feels much hotter. I don't know what that means for me as it gets even hotter. But we took full advantage of the nice, but brief spring weather.

A few weeks ago, we visited the Mughal Gardens at the President's House. Unfortunately, it's a super restricted area where no phones or camera are allowed, so we wouldn't capture the beauty of film.

And soon after that visit, we went to the Delhi Garden Festival at the Garden of Five Senses to enjoy the weather once again. And like all good festivals and tours, it ends with a shop. So we of course, bought several plants for our terrace. Unfortunately, many of these plants aren't doing too well and I spent several hours today trying to bring them back to life. I hope they make it.