Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Hello just checking in, having a great time in Thailand, but I miss everybody back home!

Happy Holidays (a little late) and happy new year (a little early!)!

-Nic

Smiles

To quote a phrase painted on an Indian autorickshaw, "Smile often, it costs nothing." In general, Indians seem to take that to heart.

School kids posing in Mahabalipuram


Women in Goa, doing chores

Kid goofing around in his parents Charminar bangle shop

Mahabs fisherman, on his boat, laughing about a greedy fish who ate both pieces of bait

Occasionally, a large group of Indians will swarm an expat wanting a photo to be taken. Here's an example. (with Alex, from Australia, as the focus)

These kids were playing on the beach in a small village north of Mahabs

Goans, out for a ride


Mahabs kids, running out of the pond to say hello


Slide



Goofing around


:)

Photo Fever

If you ever want to see even MORE photos of me, Selin, India, beaches, sunsets, puppies, and other cool stuff (who wouldn't!?), you can check out my Picasa web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/nbennett (You can also get there by clicking the 'My Online photo album' link in the links section on the right). Recently, I broke open the piggy bank and shelled out the yearly $25 fee for 6GB of storage, so now I can put every picture I've ever taken up there for everyone to see!! Hooray, excited? You should be!

I added some older good ol' USA photos too, so have a look if you like. There are some classic shots from the boyz Tahoe trip last February, some family shots from the beach and Sisters, some weddings, Santa Cruz summer '06 beach house shots...and definitely more of THIS:

Yes, don't adjust your monitor settings, that is Selin riding cowgirl style on the front of the raft into an enormous suckhole. YEAH GIRL!!!! Skills.

Hyderabad weekend

Thanks to a no-show from my prospective interviewee, I have 12 minutes to kill. Normally, I'll welcome 12 free minutes with open arms, but this time I'm a little bummed as this was supposed to be my 1st interview here in Hyderabad, and I was looking forward to getting started with that. It's a great opportunity to help and give input in the growth of our team and make sure we're still hiring good quality people. Interviewing should be interesting...I wonder what kind of interviewer I'll be? Mean, scary, and intimidating, most likely.

Down to 9 minutes now after that introduction paragraphs. Better get moving. Let's talk about this past weekend.

This Past Weekend:

This past weekend I stayed in Hyderabad, for some much appreciated and needed SLEEPING IN. Got to catch up on those zzzzz's, and sometimes a weekend of no agenda whatsoever is just what the doctor ordered. Let's see, what happened...

Friday: I don't remember if I did anything Friday night. I think I didn't. Hmm...maybe we watched the final episode of Lost: Season 2 Friday night. That would make for a good Friday night activity, but something tells me we had already done that. My memory is hazy. Maybe I've been kidnapped and poisoned by THE OTHERS! Let's hope not. Those others are up to no good. (Or are they? I wish they'd just try to talk to them sometimes in this silly show. Nobody talks to anybody anymore!) Anyways, regardless, I don't think I did much Friday night. On a positive note, Friday after work -- I DID figure out Christmas holiday travel plans with Selin! Unfortunately it's very far and very expensive to travel back home for the holidays, so instead I'm doing the next best thing and going to Thailand! Selin and I booked our airfare Friday night, we're really excited. Hyderabad-Bangkok round trip direct flight, ~$200, which was a steal considering it's listed at $1,000 something from the Thai Air actual website. (We got it thru a travel agency, Carlson Wagonlit, that Goog works with). From Bangkok we'll take connecting flights to island paradise Phuket and the cultural city/jungle wonderland city of Chiang Mai. We'll be spending Christmas day on the white sand beaches of Phuket. Anybody want to come join? Truth is though no amount of sand can match being home for the holidays, and I'll really miss everybody. It makes me sad to not be there with you all. Before my time here is up, please do make an effort to come visit if it's possible -- once you're here in Hyderabad, we'll take good care of ya!

Saturday I slept in until noon. Then one of our drivers, Niranjan, come over, and we drove to a paved and relatively untrafficked road close by. I took my skateboard, and had a grand ol' time riding it around on that street. There's a little hill, so I'd have Niranjan pull me up the hill (slowly, of course) with me holding on the the car and riding on the skateboard, and then I'd ride down on my own, and repeat the process. This was fun in and of itself, but what really made it a unique experience was the expressions on people's faces as they watched me cruise by...I'll tell you Indians really get a kick out of that skateboard, and the spectacle of a big crazy white person riding by on it. It's completely foreign to them. Whenever I rolled by pretty much everything going on on the side of that street (construction workers, security guards, people walking by) came to a standstill so everyone could stare and gawk at the alien foreigner rolling by on a piece of wood with wheels. One other thing to point out, people here aren't shy about staring. As any girl will tell you (especially white blonde ones), people here STARE like nobody's business. It's just a different culture, it's not considered rude like it is in the US. They see something interesting, by golly they're gonna look at it for as long as they darn well please. Next time I go skateboarding I'll have to take my camera, to catch some of this in action. (That'll be an even more interesting sight, big crazy white man rolling by on board with wheels holding a camera).

Niranjan was amazed at my skateboarding skill, which was fun. As anyone who actually knows or has seen skateboarding would be quick to point out, I suck at skateboarding, all I can do is ride it in a relatively straight line at relatively low speeds. I started telling Niranjan about people who will do tricks on the board, jump it up in the air, slide down railings, make it flip and spin...but I think that went a little beyond his comprehension level of what is humanly possible. It actually amazes me as well, those people are insane. So oh well -- no worries -- Niranjan can continue to be amazed by me just rolling down a hill, that's cool with me. :) I've been trying for a while to get him to try standing on it, but so far he's resisted...but maybe one day he'll give it a try. First time standing on a skateboard is a pretty scary moment, I suppose...if I can convince him to do it, I'll have to make sure to hold on to him, wouldn't want him to fall off.

(My 12 minutes ran out 6 minutes ago. Let this be a lesson: don't blog at work. I wasn't able to finish at work, so am wrapping things up now from home, before bedtime.)

Saturday night Selin and I met up with a coworker/friend here, Neel, and went out to dinner at a restaurant called 'Little Italy', which is known as the best italian joint in town. Worth pointing out that it is a VEG place (vegetarian), but still it was pretty good. They had some mushroom appetizers that were outstanding. For my meal I had a pizza (some combination of onions and pineapple and some other stuff) that was OK, but really needed some sausage or at least canadian bacon on it to round it out. The desserts were quite fantastic as well. Neel's friend also came and joined us about halfway thru. Nice guy. After dinner we all went to another friend of Neel's place for a wedding party -- it had been going on all night but we just swang by to stop in and say hello. Pretty fancy occasion, Neel and his friend (who are both from the US, but Indian, and have family and friends all over India) hang out with some of Hyderabad's high society. Was fun to see that and meet a few other people and hang out with them that evening. Entertaining company. Carried over from the Brits, Indians love their scotch, so we were drinking Johnnie Walker Black Label -- which I understand is pretty expensive scotch? (Not that I know anything about scotch). We got invited to the actual wedding ceremony which was happening at the Taj on Sunday night (fanciest hotel in town), but had to decline as we already had plans for Sunday, and also Neel and his friend couldn't make it, so we wouldn't have known anybody. Note that in the Indian wedding culture, that really would have made no difference -- hundreds if not thousands of people are invited to weddings -- but still, we might have just felt slightly out of place. We'll make it to an Indian wedding before time is up here, that's for sure. (although at the Taj? That might not happen again) :)

I woke up Sunday morning, again around noon, although this morning accompanied by a little bit of a headache. Black Label may be smooth...but it still gives you a hangover. Nothing some good breakfast couldn't cure though -- hit up the Taj Sunday buffet for some delicious food (and an aspirin), and I was good to go.

At 4:30 I went and played basketball at an outdoor court a coworker had tipped me off to, where people meet on Sunday for a pick-up game. Sure enough around 4:40 some locals started showing up, and we wound up playing 4 on 4. Decent game, the guys were OK skilled, but you can tell there's not much in the form of organized basketball out here: shots were being chucked up from everywhere. Surprisingly, a large enough percentage of those chucks went in, a few guys were real bombers, but still...leaves a little to be desired. But what can you expect, after all it's a pick-up streetball game. In India. At least Indians don't spend 10 minutes arguing about every foul call. (or maybe they do -- some of em were getting pretty heated, talking in Telugu. I have no idea what they were saying.) All the same, it was fun to play, and I'll definitely go back there the next Sunday I find myself in Hyderabad if I can. Nice guys, like pretty much everybody in this country -- so accepting of me, it's great. One final interesting note about Indian pickup basketball...they played games to SIXTY! haha, no joke, 60 points, 2's and 3's. How and where and why they came up with the idea of games to sixty I do not know, but they did.

They also throw the ball in from out of bounds (sideline) after every made basket. For a minute I said "you guys want to play like we play in America" and we were checking it at the top of the key, but some more guys showed up and we quickly reverted back to their familiar out of bounds throw ins. It's their country, I can adapt. :)

After basketball, I changed in the car, took a towel and Purel shower (adapting), and went straight to the IMAX movie theater with Selin to watch Superman. Our driver Niranjan came with us and watched the movie too, first time he'd seen an english movie, also first time in the IMAX theater -- first time for us too. The screen was enormous. If the movie hadn't have been 5 hours long (at least it seemed like it) it woulda been awesome! As is, still well worth the 100 rupee (that's about $2) price of admission. And cool to have Niranjan come along.

Well, there's a fun-filled action-packed weekend in Hyderabad for ya! 12 minutes turned into 30, but really it coulda been 60, I'm having a lot of fun over here and experiencing a lot of fun things. Tough to keep up with it all, but I'm doing my best. :)

Miss you all back home, hope everyone is doing well...Goodnight!

And OH - one last thing:


YOSHI AIR ATTACK 2006 PLAYOFFS:

3 WINS ZERO LOSSES


Yep we won all three of our playoff matches. Well, really only two as we had a first round bye in one league, but we managed to pull out an upset win in the Beaver Den and held off Matt Taylor's #8 seed SA-LJ duo in the other. Semi-Finals here we come!

Joel vs. Spotless 100 yard dash

JOEL BENNETT

Age: 26
Ht. 5 foot 11 inches
Wt: 180 lbs

VS.

SPOTLESS BENNETT

Age: 2
Ht: 1 foot 8 inches
Wt: 17 lbs

And the winner is...








SPOTLESS BY A NOSE!

America-Time: Fantasy Football

Warning: This post has nothing to do with India. My weekly dose of America, Fantasy football style!

Exciting time of the year: Fantasy football playoffs start this weekend. And it's even more exciting when ALL 3 of your teams make the playoffs. 3 for 3 baby! How u like them apples!! (In all honesty, I really should have been 2 for 3. But I managed to sneak in as the 7th seed in the Beaver Den league, thanks to a big final week, and a commish who likes to change rules on a whim. No complaints this time -- watch out for the underdog!). Let's take a closer look at the Year of Yoshi and analyze each individual team's performance and outlook.

• Yahoo League: ...is that something you'd be interested in? (SCU Alum)
  
• 9 wins 4 losses
• #2 seed
  
• Breakdown: This team has been pretty solid all season. I had a strong draft (#1 pick, took LJ -- man can u imagine if I took LT? This one would be all over! At least I didn't take Shaun Alexander), and have been relatively lucky in avoiding the injury bug. Strong, albeit slightly inconsistent, QB play from Michael Vick, running from Larry Johnson, and solid defensive efforts (we play individual defenders in this one), and I'm sitting pretty good as the #2 seed. I like my road down the playoffs as well. Hoping for a payday on this one.

• Yahoo League: Google06 (co-workers/football morons)
  
• 9 wins 4 losses
• #1 seed
• Breakdown: OK, this one...I've dominated all season long. During the draft for this league, I was pinching myself because it was like magic, every guy I wanted, I got. End result is a stacked team that has never been out of 1st and is #1 in total points, by a longshot. Sometimes it's fun playing with football idiots. This team features Vick, Andre Johnson, Roy Williams, Steven Jackson, Brian Westbrook, Fred Taylor, Jamal Lewis...pretty deep. No phenomenal performers but solid from everybody. But, the downside of playing with idiots, is that sometimes there can be some stupid trades. A bitter rival (Matt Taylor) duped the token girl in the league into giving him Shaun Alexander for a bag of peanuts, and now he has a backfield of LJ and Shaun...and also the #8 playoff seed. Of all teams I did not want to meet, this would be it. But...sometimes that's just the way the cookie crumbles -- we'll have to be ready for this one from the beginning. No coasting to victory here. Once past this horrendous 1st round matchup, I like my odds. Possibility of a payday here as well, if I get some breaks (get it, breaks? Shaun Alexander? Broken foot?).
  

• NFL.com League: Beaver Den (Crescent Valley HS Alum)
• 6 wins 7 losses
• #7 seed (based on Power Rankings. This league we have divisions. I was in by far the toughest division. Even though I had a losing record, I was tied for 3rd in overall points scored...amongst the entire league. That got me in to the playoffs despite my sub-500 overall record.)
• Breakdown: This one has not been pretty. Not pretty at all. But, it's also been my favorite team, as it's been the most exciting. The other two have run mostly on auto pilot...this one, not so much. I had a pretty terrible draft in this league. I mean my first pick was LaMont Jordan, who got me about -9 fantasy points this year, and my second pick was Reggie Bush. It's a keeper league, so I'm excited about Bush for the future, but he didn't do much for me this year (aside from 4 TD's last week -- keep that up and you'll be well worth it, Reggie). Oh yeah, and my #1 QB was Trent Green. Yeah, all those picks really worked out great! Luckily though, some good value picks in later rounds kept me afloat. Notably Chester Taylor and the Bears defense, which I reached for early in round 6. The Bears have been pretty dominant this year, and have singlehandedly kept me in a couple games. But things really turned around for me when I traded with none-other than Andy Koong, owner of the worst fantasy football team in Beaver Den history (1-12 overall!), to get Chad Johnson for Chester Taylor. Fair trade, as I was getting killed at WR and he was getting killed at RB...but a few weeks after making the deal, good ol' Ocho-Cinco really broke out in a big way, and has been HUGE for me. A few more big performances out of him, along with my supporting cast of Philip Rivers, Bush, Jamal Lewis, Roy Williams, and da Bears, and anything can happen in this one. Like I said above -- watch out for the underdog! I like the makeup of this team: scrappy, dealing with adversity, fighting together working as a team to achieve ultimate victory: PAYDAY!

So, that's what I'm looking at for this weekend. Going to be a big Monday at work for me, as that is when the scores start rolling in...(Monday morning here is Sunday night in the US). There are downsides to having three teams, primarily the fact that routinely I will have one player on my team in one league, only to be playing against that same player in another league, negating anything he does...but it's been a fun season and it's great having all 3 of my Yoshi Air Attack teams in the hunt for championships. I'll update how it goes as the rest of the playoffs unfold.

Now we return you back to your regularly scheduled India programming:

Flashback: India Sales Conference 2006

A few weeks ago (maybe almost a month ago now!) we had the sales conference. Just getting to it now -- sorry for the delay. This was quite an event, not to be missed...the first ever of it's kind here in India! We had some of the VP's come speak, along with quite a few other folks in varying positions. Fun to see and hear people talk (although some used recycled material!), also fun to hear people talk about the growth (funny to think that I'm an old-timer around here -- it's all relative), but the real fun didn't start until the party at the end!

Expat dance circle: Sonia, Paul, me, Rob, Stefan, Neel










The team here are all dancing maniacs. Good times had by all. Can't see in this picture, but we brought in a live band to play to the audience...none other than EUPHORIA! Apparently they are a pretty famous band in Hyderabad/India. :) Anyway folks loved it and were getting into the music, even more so once the techno DJ got started when Euphoria finished their show.



More Dancing mania, with Euphoria rockin' out in the back ground.








(credit goes to Stacy for all these pictures, as I was camera-less. Thanks!)

My Bollywood Debut!

So, one thing I failed to mention: in my free time, I've been taking on starring roles in Bollywood blockbuster films. The pay isn't great, but I don't do it for the money, I do it for the love of cinema. (And the great action scenes!)

Ha, just kidding. But, if you're bored, check out this video my friend Zac created. He's been messing around with this website he found where you can pick scenes from cheesy old Bollywood movies, add your own subtitles, and create your own movie! He's made some classic films, including this one about me and India, also starring Selin and with a cameo appearance by none other than Brother Joel. Enjoy!

Bollywood Blockbuster: A Bennett Adventure in India

Thanks Zac. You have a talent!!! You've also done your homework -- the cereal consumption is absolutely critical in keeping us well-oiled fighting machines.