Goin goin back back to Delhi

Going over my past posts, I've come to realize that I certainly haven't blogged much about actual WORK here at the PaneerBelly! Contrary to how it may appear, I actually am here in India for work -- not just an extended vacation. It even says so, right here on my Visa: India Business Visa. Not Tourist. See? Anyways, rest assured that I am here working. In fact, I've been doing quite a bit of work I must say -- have been pretty busy lately.

busy

Continuing with the work theme of this post, today at 4:30 Selin and I fly up north to Delhi, where we'll be working out of the Gurgaon office on Wed Thurs and Friday. Most of my time will be spent interviewing potential candidates (mornings on Wed and Fri, all day campus interview on Thurs), but I'm also looking forward to meeting the small team up there and catching up w/ some of the expats working there and seeing how things are going.

Enough work stuff for ya? :) Thought so. The real reason behind the Delhi trip is the weekend -- we'll be making a short flight to Varanasi on Saturday, a holy city on the banks of the Ganges River. It's a destination a lot of people visit, and often have lots to say about -- both good and bad -- I'll look forward to experiencing it myself.

In the meantime -- I've got a LOT of pictures and stuff to share. I'll try to post things when I get a chance -- lately reliable internet access has been next to impossible to find, unless I'm at work (where internet is very reliable. The power still goes out on average of once a day -- but the generators kick in very very quickly -- and the Internet NEVER loses connection. Pretty impressive really). The ongoing saga of internet connection at home has gotten worse before getting better...same as always...they're working on it and wait until next week...next week a new provider is going to be set up...next week next week next week...OK. I'll wait until next week. But it is frustrating going home every day not knowing what will happen. It's made worse by the fact that occassionally, you do get lucky and get a 5 minute burst of connectivity...only then to have it taken away again...it'd be one thing if it never worked -- then I wouldn't spend an hour each night trying to access. anyway, that's enough about that. Ask me about it again next week.

Joel Update: Joel (and his tourist visa) are currently hanging out in Kerala, at Kovalam beach. Hopefully he's getting some good surf...but regardless I'm certain he's having a great time. Kerala was a fun area, great beaches, great relaxed atmosphere, good mix of tourist conveniences while not being overly omnipresent like it sometimes felt in Goa. I'd happily spend some more time there...maybe some day. :) For now I'll just have to be jealous! Have a good time bro.

Happy Birthday Bun!

Happy Birthday!!!

Miss you lots. We just got back from our long vacation, we had a great trip but it's good to be back in Hyderabad. Dad boarded a plane this morning at 3:10 am, heading back...Joel is still here keeping me company...and I'll likely be back home around the end of March. Looking forward to it and seeing you all!

Love ya, Happy Birthday!

V-a-c-a-t-i-o-n

In order to allow Joel and Dad to maximize their time in India, I sent them off on an airplane on Wednesday morning to Delhi. From Delhi, they found themselves a cab for the looooong haul over to Agra, and the fantastic Taj Mahal. I spoke with them last night, when they had just arrived at their hotel, after 12 hours of journeying -- 9 am Hyderabad departure to 9 PM Agra hotel arrival. I certainly hope the Taj offered up an amazing spectacle for the two road warriors...unless it was pouring rain (weather has been spotty up there) I'm sure it certainly did not disappoint.

Tomorrow, Selin and I are flying to Delhi ourselves to meet up with Joel and Dad. Tomorrow is an official India holiday (Maha Shivaratri), so we have the day off, and we've taken Monday, Tues, and Wed of next week off as well, so it is a nice 6 day weekend coming up to spend with our out of town visitors. Our itenerary has all of us spending Friday night in Delhi, and Saturday morning we hit the trails again -- this time flying up to Kathmandu to see the Himalayas! Should be pretty impressive -- although Kathmandu itself is in a valley, it is right there amongst the mountains, and we may try to do a flight tour of Everest and surrounding peaks. We'll see. We spend a few days in Kathmandu, and then board a flight again to Kolkatta, where we will spend one final evening and day before heading back to Hyderabad on Wednesday, Feb 21. Dad the world traveller then boards an airplane at 3:10 am on Thurs Feb 22 to head back home. Whew!

Good news is that even after all their travelling, Joel and Dad still found the energy to dance in front of the Taj Mahal. They sent me this picture to post, here they are enjoying the romantic aura that only the Taj can create.


Lookin' good guys. See you two tomorrow...hope you're having fun!

Monkeys

Monkeys are always a fan favorite for tourists here in India. I can see why. They're fascinating little creatures -- small, (sort of) cuddly appearing, exotic, and most of all so interestingly and amazingly human-like in so many ways...it's difficult not to be drawn to them. (They've also got that whole Curious George thing going for them too -- definitely doesn't hurt). Some Indians, always quick to identify tourist money-taking opportunities, have realized this, and will take on pet monkeys, which they attach to ropes and will walk around with...this was never more evident than at some weird truck stop type place our non-english speaking Delhi to Agra driver (when we were on our way to the Taj Mahal) chose to pull over randomly and stop at for some 30 minutes while he went and disappeared somewhere. A steady stream of guys with pet monkeys would keep coming up to our car window (Selin was sleeping) trying to get me interested in their tied up pet monkey, trying to get me to want pictures, trying to get money...when really I just wanted them to go away so I could go back to sleep. Something about a monkey tied to a rope is a little bit sad...when they're free to roam around, they're cool, like you'd imagine...but when they're tied up captive monkeys, it's just not quite the same. I've had a lot of lifetime to get myself used to pet dogs on ropes...pet monkeys...not so much. (or bears either, for that matter. Apparently, in that same region (Rajasthan), pet bears used to be all the rage. They'd teach them to dance and would use them for the same purpose (tourist money extraction). Luckily, that practice has been mostly stopped, as the bears were becoming extinct and are now heavily protected. Who knew bears even existed in India? Amazing country.)

But I didn't start this blog post to tell long stories about the ethical treatment of monkeys...I just thought I'd share some fun pictures of monkeys we've encountered in our travels. Sometimes, I really lose focus of the objective at hand!!! With no further ado, monkey pictures:

Hampi Monkey. This picture may be a repost. I realize I already blogged about Monkeys once before now. Darn you Curious George!
Mahabs Monkeys. These guys were hungry little critters! And not shy either. They really kind of freaked me out actually, I am lucky I did not fall right off that rock. They were looking for some sort of food or goodie, but my pockets (and backpack) were empty. Sorry.

Cheeky monkey, Mahabs

Monkey attack! Mahabs.

Mutant Monkey! Actually, it's a Goat. Haha, a funny goat at that. People sure were getting a kick out of this guy, everybody who would walk past him would start laughing. Mahabs.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Better late than never -- Valentine's day has come and passed here in India, but for you all back home, it's still not technically too late...

Like most big American holidays, Valentine's Day seems to be catching on more and more over here...for better, or for worse. Our office was certainly decorated with red heart balloons and signs all over the place for this festive occasion. Love is in the air!! Happy Valentine's day to all my Valentine's! Love ya!

(Although, I should add, not everyone in India is feeling the love on Feb 14. Certain parts and religious parties of India are very much against this "culturally corrupt" holiday of Valentine's Day, and there have been protests and threats in the past. I certainly didn't notice anything out of the ordinary here in Hyderabad, but...it's out there. To read a bit more, check out Google News, or here or here.)

Welcome to India Guys!

Joel, Dad, and Dad's passport all made it to India. :) Glad to have you, "india me aapka swagat hai!" -- that's "welcome to India" in Hindi according to this English to Hindi translation site.

Lunch/Dinner in Mahabs

Passports in the mail

I will keep this short, but for the benefit of anyone reading...

PLUS



Usually not the best combination. No offense to 39 cent postage or your very hard-working mailman...but this is what FedEx and UPS (or at the very least USPS Priority Mail!) exist for. Seriously.

Dad, I hope your passport/visa arrives tomorrow. I'm going to sleep thinking positive thoughts. It'll work out. See you in India soon.

Look what I found:

ME! On the world wide web! Today I made a fun discovery of a picture of me surfing (scroll down for the pic) on somebody else's blog. The more I use my blog and learn about them in general, the more I feel that blogs are pretty cool stuff. It's fun to read other people's writings and pictures, and have all that new, fresh, un-edited content just so available to you. And technology to search blogs and make the content even easier to find is pretty awesome also: to find my picture I used Google Blog search, searching for the keyword "surfing mahabalipuram." (I was trying to find if anybody else had been blogging about surfing there.)

Unless you're some celebrity and are tired of it, it's pretty cool to find a picture of yourself on the internet. With soooo many websites and soo much stuff out there, it is quite a moment when you stumble upon yourself out there like this. Small world we live in, and amazing how connected we can all be...The World is Flat. Good book recommendation by my Grampa. And I don't think old man Friedman even talks about blogs in it! Anyways, thank you 'Shrinked Immaculate' for your blog, and thank you for including my picture. I hope you enjoyed your dip. I left you a comment. :)

Final note: sadly, that picture does as good a job of any of capturing what the surf has been like most of the time over here. Not very good. (But not very crowded!)