Kyrgyzstan

A coworker just now emailed this out...if you have 10 minutes to kill, give this a shot:

http://andys.org.uk/countryquiz/

If you take the quiz, post your score in the comments section. No fibbing, and no cheating -- we're all friends here. To get the spirit started, me, with all my worldly ways, having just spent 6 months over on the other side of the earth, managed an all-too-impressive score of...120. (that is not a very good score. My coworker scored 63. Good for you David Wiesen, eat my shorts! Note: in this quiz, the lower your score, the better) (spelling skills are helpful. As is fast typing, dad, you might not do very well on this one. Click. Clack. Clack.) (in my defense I was not very scientific in my approach. And I had music playing in the background which greatly distracted me. And Selin was helping me for the last 2 minutes.)

Happy Holi!

H A P P Y H O L I !

Holi celebrations are kicking off around India this weekend...and people are pretty excited. Holi seems to be something folks here get pretty pumped up for -- there have already been five emails sent out to various email lists wishing folks 'Happy Holi!' and it's only 12:45 on Friday afternoon. Usually, those don't start until at the earliest 3. :) So, what is Holi you might ask? Well, I don't really know (I'll find out soon!) but I do know it is called the Festival of Color and that it is pretty much one big colorful party where everybody throws and paints everybody else a whole bunch of colors....if you want more, read about it on Wikipedia. I'll also post this summary of the legend behind Holi from this site here, which does as good a job of any of describing it:

"There are many legends given as the reason for celebrating ‘Holi’. There is one popular legend that is reputed to bring about the birth of ‘Holi’. It seems that long ago there was an evil king named King Hiranyakasipu. His son, prince Prahlad however was very holy and often prayed to God and this infuriated his father. One day, the wicked king ordered his sister, the demon Holika, to kill his son. The demon Holika, who was immune to fire, captured prince Prahlad and entered a fire furnace. She had done this to kill the prince, however it was her who was burnt to ashes. Prince Prahlad was safe and was not burnt at all. The legend goes that before the demon aunt died, she begged for prince Prahlad’s forgiveness and the prince forgave her and announced that her name would be remembered once a year. Thus the festival ‘Holi’ was created."

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it, and will be glad to be up here in North India for the celebration, as it is celebrated even more heartily in northern India than it is in the south (from what I read at least). We'll specifically be in Varanasi over the weekend -- which as an extremely holy city is especially a hotbed for Holi celebrating and festivities. Should be fun...and I'm going to have to make sure to try and pick up a spare t-shirt on my way out -- as I have a feeling that whatever clothing I wear on Sunday might not stay very clean!

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