Native Dress

Today we wore our traditional Indian clothing to work. We went shopping this past weekend and each bought a salwar kameez. It was a great deal - the blouse, pants, and the dupatta (scarf) all for less than $20 USD! Everyone seemed to love it, and we got great reactions, especially from all the guys! Here is a quick shot of all the great women that we are working with.



I also tried on the saree that I bought in Mysore a few weeks ago. I got the "Western Saree," which means that the skirt came pre-stitched so that I don't have to worry about trying to pleat it and pin it myself. I'm not sure how frequently I'll get a chance to wear it, but it's so beautiful!

I know I've been negligent in blogging lately, but I promise I'll catch up soon. I'm off to Goa in the morning for a short weekend of relaxing by the ocean!

The Taj Mahal - Part 2

Our tour guide, Daniyel, was very patient with our crazy picture-taking. We later determined that between the three of us, we took about 700 pictures in the 24 hours that we were in Agra.

As we got closer to the monument itself, the beautiful inlay appeared more evident. From far away, the monument looks like it is made entirely of white marble. When you get closer however, you can see the intricate details and patterns in the inlay work. The overall pattern of the carving and inlay is a floral one, but around all the doors and archways, the inlay is of various verses of the Qur’an in an elaborate calligraphy script. The Qur’an verse inlay appears to be consistent in size, but the marble-workers had a very clear understanding of perception and the inlay that is farther away near the top of the monument is actually of a much larger size, so as to appear the same size when viewed.

The detail of all the work was really stunning. As I had mentioned in the previous posting, the building itself only took 8 years to construct, but it was all the embellishment and detail work that took the additional 14 years. The inlay is still in wonderful condition in many places; in some places, visitors have chipped out pieces of the semi-precious stones to take home as souvenirs. The British were actually blamed several times for removing items of value from the Taj Mahal and also the Agra Fort, which we visited on Sunday. I’m not sure how accurate that claim is, or if it is just leftover resentment from so many years of British occupation. There is a wide variety of the semi-precious gemstones that were used in the inlay work; among them are jasper, lapis, and carnelian.

The construction and overall layout was very symmetrical; even the interior of the monument had a symmetrical floorplan. When facing the monument, there is a mosque to the left, and a mirror image to the right. The mosque needed to face Mecca, but since there needed to be balance, an empty building was constructed to balance it out. The photo on the left shows the mosque; the one on the right shows the “mirror” building peeking out from behind the trees.

The trip to Agra went by far too quickly, but we definitely have some memories to last us a lifetime!

Up next – our trip to the Agra Fort!

The Taj Mahal - Part 1

By the time we arrived in Agra early Saturday afternoon, the haze and fogginess we had been experiencing since Delhi had finally lifted. We had been undecided about whether or not to go to the Taj Mahal on Saturday or Sunday morning, but since the sun had come out, we decided to visit the Taj Mahal then. We were definitely glad we had made that decision when we woke up on Sunday morning – the fog was so thick you couldn’t see things that were three feet away!

Our driver told us we had a complimentary tour guide (we still have no idea how or why), and he met us at the hotel and rode over to the Taj Mahal with us. Because of the delicate nature of the marble, cars are not allowed within 1 kilometer of the monument. Visitors must park and can get to the Taj Mahal by walking, taking an electric car, a horse and buggy, or our choice – a camel cart. After climbing down from the camel cart, we approached the gate, bought our tickets and entered. You’d never guess that this unassuming wall was hiding something so magnificent.

All the buildings that surround the Taj Mahal are made of red sandstone, and are pretty stunning in their own right. You’ll notice that there are 11 minarets on top of the Great Gate, which signifies that it took 22 years to complete the building. They added one minaret every two years until construction was complete. There were touches of marble inlay on the Great Gate – but they were nothing compared to the amount of inlay on the Taj Mahal itself. In fact, the inlay is why construction took so long. The building itself only took 8 years – all the decorative touches took another 14!

And when you walk through the archway in the Great Gate …

There are roving photographers all around the monument. They take your photo in a variety of poses and develop the pictures while you are touring. You can buy the photos you like for 100 rupees ($2) each. Of course, we eagerly participated in this slightly crazy photoshoot, and bought full albums from the photographer. I’m sure they count on the American tourists to meet their daily quotas – we’re a little souvenir crazy sometimes.

Below are the “action shots” as taken from our cameras – the professional pictures look much better, but I think these are too funny to not share!

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

There actually weren't any trains involved in our trip to Agra this past weekend, but it took significant effort to get there - a 2.5 hour flight and 5 hour car trip!

As mentioned, we got up very early on Saturday morning to catch our 6:45am flight. The Bangalore airport is a good 45 minutes outside town, so we wanted to make sure we got there with plenty of time to spare. The airport is brand new (it opened within the past year), and we actually had a lot of time to kill once we arrived, since check-in and security were super efficient. Security seems tighter here than at US airports, but there are also things that they are more lax about. For example, just to get into the airport to get to security, we had to check in outside and have our passports validated, and then a military guy with a gun was checking passports and boarding passports at the door into the airport. Once we passed that check, security seemed to be a breeze. They don't require you to get out your little baggie of liquids or even take off your shoes! However, they stamp all your hand baggage to show that it was screened, and then the stamp is checked at the gate before you can get on the plane.

We flew on Kingfisher Airlines because it had a reasonable price and the best flight times. It ended up being a great choice! Kingfisher is an Indian airline run by the Indian equivalent of Richard Branson. The service was great - for less than I pay for a round trip from RDU to Buffalo, we travelled 2200 miles round trip and were served free beverages and full meals -- with real silverware! I would have taken some pictures of everything, but I didn't want to appear too suspicious.

We met our Hertz driver at the Delhi airport and set off for Agra - 200km to the southeast. You'd think you could drive 200km is 3 hours or so -- but not in India. There are random stops along the side of the road where the driver needs to purchase tourist permits, autorickshaws with 12 passengers hanging off all sides, cows strolling along the side of the road, and construction in the middle of the road that you have to drive on top of to pass. While the drive from Delhi to Agra (and back!) is not one that I would probably want to do again, I'm glad that we did it, since it was definitely eye-opening. We're pretty sheltered here in Bangalore. It's a diverse city with a lot of professionals, and while I'm sure there is plenty of poverty here, it's not amazingly evident. It was so very different on the drive - we were passing through small towns and villages and getting a glimpse of what I would consider the "real" side of India. People were living in shacks, the water supply is stagnant, and the children look malnourished. Yet - people looked happy. Perhaps it's because they don't know what else is out there, but the children were playing, and the women sitting together in the fields chatting, and it looked like all was well with the world. It really made me think a lot about how blessed I am, and how thankful I am for all the things that I have been given.

So that's a lot of story without a lot of pictures. Unfortunately, the pictures don't come out too well when you're speeding down the road at 100km/hour! However, I do have a few to share.














Yes - this very overloaded trailer is being pulled down the highway by a camel! Just another day in India....

Sneak Peak of our Agra Trip

We had a very quick weekend trip to Delhi and Agra that went by way too quickly! Unfortunately, we didn't end up getting into Bangalore until almost 2:00am Monday morning, so I haven't had time to pull together my post(s) on our trip. Yes, you read that correctly -- there will be multiple posts on Agra and the Taj Mahal for all you blog-addicts out there!

However, we have so many beautiful pictures from this weekend that I wanted to give you a quick sneak peak! Keep checking back for all the details and even more pictures!

By Special Request

I've been told that I haven't been blogging enough lately, and I apologize. Unfortunately, this past week has really just been about work and the hotel, so I didn't have much new to share. Since there is nothing new, I thought I'd share some of the other pictures I've taken since we arrived in Bangalore. But don't worry - we leave for Agra at the crack of dawn (actually, before that - our driver is picking us up at 3:45am!), and by the time we return very late on Sunday night, I fully expect to have plenty of pictures and videos of the Taj Mahal to share with everyone! If today's post doesn't excite you, hopefully the posts recapping our Agra visit definitely will!

Because we're travelling for such an extended period of time, IBM reimburses the cost of laundry service at the hotel. They've been great so far - which has impressed me, since I have a strange need to line dry practically every item that I own. It gets picked up in the morning and returned to me around 7:00pm at night -- everything beautifully folded and packaged in a wicker basket.

We've also noticed that we tend to attract a lot of attention everywhere we go. We expected it when we were in the smaller towns, since American tourists are probably not all that common. But we even get it on the streets of Bangalore - which is probably the most diverse city in India! And trust me - the attention is NOT subtle. It's charming when it comes from the cute little schoolchildren in their uniforms, who say Hi, and ask us our names to practice their English. It's a little weird when it's a group of 30-something year old men that want to take their picture with you!

I've learned that skin as fair as mine is quite a fascination here in India. A lot of the ads you see on TV are for lightening creams, so that you can lighten the tone of your skin. I obviously have no need for anything like that, since I'm already white as a sheet. When we were shopping in Mysore, an older gentleman and younger woman both told me that I had skin like Nicole Kidman, and wanted to touch my face (so I let them). After that, the woman returned with sparkly bindis for all of us. You'll also notice the red mark on my forehead. We received those at the temple on Chamundi Hill, and I believe it's called a Tilaka.

Finally, we did have a day off here on Wednesday, January 14. It was the start of a Pongal, which is a regional harvest holiday. Here in Karnataka, it was in honor of the sugarcane harvest. Everyone gets dressed up in their finest clothes to visit friends and share homemade sweets. On Thursday, many of the girls in our class wore their beautiful sarees to celebrate, and we couldn't resist getting a picture!

Mysore - Monkeys and Elephants, oh my!

On Saturday we took a day trip about 150 km south of Bangalore to the city of Mysore. Mysore used to be the capital of the state of Mysore, which is now the state of Karnataka. The former royal family used to live in the palaces in Mysore, and their descendents still do – however, since India is now a democracy, the maharaja seems to be really more of a figurehead.

We left early in the morning (around 7:00am) and arrived in Mysore around 10:00am. On the way into Mysore, we stopped at Dariya Daulat Bagh, the summer palace of Tipu Sultan. This palace was built in 1784 and is full of teak carvings. Nearly every surface is covered in colorful paintings, which were in remarkably good condition. Tipu Sultan and his father deposed the previous rulers of Mysore, and united with the French to battle the British invaders. Their cooperation with the French led to two victories against the British Army, but he was ultimately defeated in 1799 and his kingdom was annexed and partially returned to the previous ruling family.

After touring the palace, we walked around the beautiful grounds for a short time before getting back in the car and setting off for Chamundi Hill. Chamundi Hill is a great place for a panoramic view of Mysore, and is also the location of the Sri Chamundeswari Temple, home of the goddess Chamundi. On the way up the hill, we had to pull over to take pictures when we saw all the monkeys! They were very cute and a lot of fun to watch.

After lunch and some shopping, we headed off to Mysore Palace. This palace was built to replace one lost to fire in 1897, and was completed in 1912. The maharaja at the time was quite worldly, and commissioned a palace that combined the three religions of Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam in its architectural style. The exterior of the palace is permanently affixed with 96,000 light bulbs which are turned on during times of celebration. I’m sad we missed that occasion – it would have been amazing to see! The maharaja who built this palace was also instrumental in bringing electricity to the region as early as 1902, as he utilized the hydroelectric power that had been recently been developed in Niagara Falls. How amazing to travel so far from home and hear about something that is so familiar!

As we were leaving, we saw what may have been the highlight of the day – an elephant! Of course we had to get our picture taken with him before heading home.

We had a great but exhausting day :)

Friday Fun

We made it through our first week in India and it's been a pretty good one. We've been spoiled by the hotel staff, eaten a lot of really good food, and have been working with a great team in training.

We're headed off to Mysore early in the morning (no sleeping in here!) and I'm looking forward to both the sights and the shopping! We were a little concerned that we might not be able to make the trip, since there is a strike happening right now. The officials in the oil companies (which are state-run) are on strike in search of higher pay hikes. Additionally, the lorry (truck) drivers that deliver the petrol in Bangalore are on strike, so there are no new deliveries. However, Shankar has assured us that our snazzy little Toyota Innova can go 600km on a single tank, and since he filled up yesterday, we should be able to get to Mysore and back without an issue. For the eco-conscious amongst you, our Toyota actually runs on bio-diesel, so we're doing what we can to be green, even all the way over here in Bangalore!

Here is a shot that I took on the ride home from work today, showing everyone in line at the petrol station. You'll notice that the men standing there are holding containers of every shape and size to fill up. There is no requirement that you fill an official petrol can. In fact, we saw some men walking away with soda bottles full of petrol!

And for a laugh, I noticed this sign painted on a wall today. You'd be surprised how many men we see on our daily drives that have just stopped by the side of the road to relieve themselves -- right out in the open! It appears that the owners of whatever building was behind this wall did not want to experience that view on a regular basis!



Hope you all have a great Friday -- keep an eye out for a recap of our Mysore trip by Monday morning!

Mehendi

Last night, we went to the Indian buffet offered at one of the hotel restaurants. We ate outside next to the pool, and the weather was actually turning a little chilly since the wind had picked up. For the buffet, the hotel brings in a mehendi artist, a caricature artist, and a magician -- all to entertain the guests.

After we ate dinner, we had mehendi applied on our hands. Mehendi is an art form that uses an herbal mixture containing mainly henna, eucalyptus oil and lime (no water) to decorate the body. It is most commonly seen as a decoration on Indian brides. The whole process was very quick - the artist was drawing free-hand, and the mehendi looks a lot like puffy paint when applied. It takes about 10 minutes to dry, and then it starts to flake off to reveal the color underneath. It should last for about 3 weeks as long as I don't apply detergents or scrub at the skin.

During application:

The "puffy" stage:

What it looked like after it flaked off:

After dinner, we met with a friend of Robin's at a very cool lounge called The 13th Floor. As I'm sure you'll guess, it's up on the 13th floor of a building in downtown Bangalore. We sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful evening, and made some new friends with the Budweiser sales staff that was there to celebrate their outstanding sales numbers for Karnataka state. They ended up buying us -- what else, Budweiser - and we learned that light beer is not manufactured in India because Indians like strong beer!

From left to right - Karey, Kelli, Maria, Robin, Sayanee

Traffic

I don't have much new information to share, since we haven't really done much except work, eat, and sleep since we arrived on Sunday. We do have some fun things planned for this weekend. On Saturday, we will be driving down to Mysore (or rather, will be driven to Mysore by the awsome Shankar, our driver), to do some sight-seeing and shopping. Mysore is called the City of Palaces, so it sounds like we will have plenty of photo opportunities! On Sunday, we're planning on doing a walk around the city to learn about Victorian Bangalore - it leaves from the church right across the street from our hotel, and only costs 495 rupees (about $10), which includes breakfast!

I did take a video from my balcony after we got home from work today to try to show everyone the traffic and the noise. I'm going to try to get some video from inside the car on the way to work one day so that you all can experience it first-hand :)

Bathroom Etiquette

The restroom facilities at the building we are currently working at are very well maintained. However, water shortages must occasionally occur. There are signs posted all over advising that in times of water conservation, a "half-flush" is acceptable. However, my favorite is the large blue bucket on the floor with the label "Water for Emergency Use." When you open the bucket, it is full of water, and there is a small plastic pitcher floating in it. Apparently, if the water stops running, there is a back-up in case you need to flush :)

Sleep Deprivation

So I'm hoping that my body clock will adjust to the time change in the next day or so, because it's really crazy right now. This morning I woke up at 4:30am local time and could not go back to sleep. I did a little bit of work (hooray for wireless internet!) and then watched a little bit of TV. The majority of the channels that we receive in the hotel broadcast in Hindi, so I get my choice of about 6 channels - none of which have US news. They broadcast the strangest things - the 4:00 hour had a rerun of Cold Case, and now at 6:00am, I'm watching Office Space.

The first day of training went really well, and we're actually already ahead of schedule. The team is really enthusiastic, so it's a fun experience so far. Last night we ate at one of the hotel restaurants - Memories of China. I had the sweet and sour chicken and steamed vegetable dumplings, and they were both outstanding. I'll have to exercise my willpower to not order them off the room service menu many times in the future.

The Taj Residency

We're staying at the Taj Residency in Bangalore, which is a gorgeous hotel that is probably way outside my personal price range. The staff here is going way out of their way to ensure that our stay is comfortable, and we are being very well taken care of. Every time we leave our rooms, someone comes in to tidy up and straighten the room.

This afternoon, we went to the Jiva Spa in the hotel for a Vishram massage, which is an aromatherapy relaxation massage. The custom oils that they use are scented with Sandalwood, Sesame and Frankincense. Prior to the massage, we used the steamroom, and then afterwards, we were treated to hot chai tea in the relaxation room. We also each received a necklace of Mysore Mallige flowers, which is a type of jasmine. The scent is beautifully light and exotic, and I'm going to see if I can try to find it in a perfume.

We're meeting at 7:30am for breakfast, and are leaving the hotel around 8:00am. Training starts at 10:00am. Can't wait!

And now for some pictures of the hotel:

The view from my balcony


The bathroom - the shower is amazing!


The very comfortable bed

Lessons on India

We arrived in Bangalore this morning at 4:30am local time. We've been traveling for about 24 hours, and have managed about 4 hours total sleep during that time. The Bangalore airport is brand new and very nice. Customs and Immigration were both very quick and easy, despite the fact there were several flights arriving at that hour. All of our luggage arrived (thankfully!), and we were able to quickly change some dollars to rupees and exit the airport to find Shankar, our driver.

The Bangalore airport is about 45 minutes away from downtown, and I'm sure the ride is quite harrowing when the roads are packed. The roads are not lit, and there are random speed bumps on what appears to be a highway, which requires the drivers to slow down to a crawl.

Some of the lessons we have learned so far:

• The driver of the car sits on the right-hand side, and traffic is on the wrong side of the road.
• The lines painted on the road are optional. There should be three lanes of traffic, but it's common to straddle the lines and have only two lanes of traffic moving.
• Horns are not used in anger or aggression - horns are honked very regularly as a notification that we're approaching on your right and will be passing you.
• Cows and dogs roaming the street is standard practice.
• Superior service is highly valued. We walked into the lobby, and had four employees asking us if we needed help. Our luggage has been carried everywhere for us. Rooms are cleaned and tidied immediately upon your departure, so that everything is spotless upon your return.

If you're worried about our security, things are definitely safe here. There are guards outside with rifles, all visitors must go through a metal detector, and the luggage is hand screened by security. The hotel also has a manned gate, so we're in our own little fortress.

I'll try to post some pictures from our hotel room later today... but for now, I'm going to nap :)