Thursday - heading home

Today I head home from India and will return in January. You'll see a few pictures at Magarpatta City - the entrance sign, and a fountain area that they call the Oxygen Zone. I also tried India's cola Thums Up at lunch today (very sweet). I've also included a picture of Jayanti, Kanchan and Nikita taken in the cafeteria. I'm wearing one more India style of dress - a top called a kurti.

Scooters

There are several ways to get around in Pune - you'll see trucks, cars, bicycles, auto rickshaws, and lots and lots of scooters (motorcycles). On Sundays, you'll see all the scooters lined up at the markets in the old city of Pune - the markets are where people can buy new and used items. You'll also see lines of scooters in traffic every day. I saw a family of 3 and a family of 5 on a scooter as well.

Indian clothing

On Sunday, I had measurements taken for an outfit - called a salwar kameez - it has 3 pieces - a dress, pants and a shawl. My driver picked it up for me from the shop on Monday - and I wore it on Tuesday. You'll see a picture with Nikita, Kanchan and Jayanti, along with an individual shot of the salwar kameez. I wore another outfit called a kurta - which is a long shirt dress you wear with pants; along with mojris (fancy shoes). You'll see a picture of both the shoes and shirt dress as well.

Shopping District

On Sunday, Jayanti spent the day with me and took me to the shopping district in the "older" part of Pune - here are a few pictures of the various shops and the streets with traffic. It is pretty common to see people carrying packages on their heads - wanted to get a shot of a woman to show you. Jayanti took me to a place where I could have a garment made (think Indian pantsuit - includes a dress, pants and a shawl) - you'll see a picture of the fabric on the table where she is providing the tailor my information and another picture of me getting measurements (I feel tall in this picture!). I'll show the finished result later.

Saturday

After conducting an interview at noon on Saturday, I spent late afternoon going shopping with one of the ladies in the office, Jayanti. She took me to a chinese restaurant called Mainland China (very nice) and shopping on MG (Mahatma Gandhi) Road. Devdoot had me over to his home for dinner - this picture was taken in his living room - I'm in the picture with Devdoot and his wife Pranita. Had a wonderful time.

School Children

For the past few days, I've ridden to work and have seen children wearing bright colored uniforms walking hand in hand with either a parent or grandparent. I've also seen several children piled in an autorickshaw riding down the road. On Friday morning, I asked the driver to slow down so I could get this picture - all the children here in bright orange uniforms getting a ride to school. Click on the actual picture to see an enlarged version so you can see them.

5:00

It was 5:00 on Wednesday and the group all went upstairs to the cafeteria and outside to celebrate Jyotiprasad's birthday (he goes by JP) - the sky was beautiful - the clouds were full of red as the sun was starting to go down. Here is a picture of the sky, along with JP and the group - look on the table and you'll see 2 chocolate cakes - they were layered with frosting; and had been kept in the refrigerator all day to keep cool. The group all sang "Happy Birthday" and clapped through the song. JP is wearing a creme colored shirt - and has a goatee.

Flowers

India has a wide selection of tropical flowers that are displayed at the hotel every day. I'm not sure if they are grown nearby or sent in, but are beautiful. When I came back to my room on Friday last week, I had this bouquet waiting for me. My favorite flowers are gerbera daisies, and they can be seen all over the hotel - as well as in this bouquet.

Water

There are several different companies in India that manufacture bottled water. Last year when I was in Pune, I remember three - Aquafina, Oxyrich and Kinley. This year, I see more of Oxyrich which is owned by a company called Manikchand and Kinsen which is owned by Coca Cola. The Manikchand plant is right next door to my hotel - and I can see the building from my hotel room. A 16 ounce bottle of Kinley at the work lunch line is 8 rupees.

TGIS

Instead of hearing TGIF here in India, it's TGIS - Thank God Its Sunday. Workers usually work Monday thru Saturday here - and Sunday is the only day off. You can feel the 'energy' on Saturday afternoons that it is the weekend. On Sunday, it was nice to sleep in, and take time out to enjoy the lounge chair on the Terrace rooftop. Here are a few views - one from the rooftop, another of the view from my room (on the 8th of 9 floors).

Elephant

On Saturday, I worked out at the factory - which is an hour drive outside of Pune. There were a lot of sights to see on the way there - camels on the side of the road, people cooking food at nearby stands, and storefront buildings starting to open in the early morning. Coming back into town in the afternoon, I saw a man riding an elephant down the road. Look toward the front left of the picture to see it. Notice all of the layers of vehicles all sharing a 2 lane road in this picture.

Electricity

I was at breakfast yesterday, and the power went out. I felt bad for people who may have been in the elevator. Fortunately, the power only goes out for a minute or two before it comes back on. I didn't realize why there weren't plug in alarm clocks in the hotel room when I was in New Dehli, but now I do. The hotel I am staying at provides a battery operated alarm clock - it plays "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" for the morning alarm.

Whenever items are plugged in (look behind the hot water pot), you have the option to turn them off with a light switch at the power outlet. Whenever you come into your hotel room, you need to insert the room key in order for the lights to work.

On the drive

Every day the traffic in India amazes me. Yesterday I saw a man riding an elephant down the road. Today I saw women carrying large packages on their heads wearing colorful dresses. Children walk down the streets in preparation for school with bright colored uniforms. A coca cola sign advertising coke for 5 rupees (45 = $1.00), a bicycle shop selling tires and rims (there are a lot of bicycles on the roads, along with auto rickshaws, cars, busses, trucks, scooters (motorcycles)), and a lot of christmas lights hanging on buildings which were 'left over' from the Festival of Lights Diwali, which just ended last week.

Here is a picture of a common sight - a truck that has a sign on the back that talks about using the "dipper" at night (flashing your brights) and blowing your horn. I forgot that traffic in India is like orchestrated chaos - stop lights are nice suggestion - yet there are few accidents. People will blow their horn to let you know they are coming up beside you so that you can scoot over. The horns on these trucks sound like a high or low trumpet moving up and down (trilling) quickly.

Hello to you from India!

As I was getting ready to leave Chicago, I just had to take a picture of the international hallway for American Airlines - I love the view of all the flags. Look for the big gold lit globe in the middle of the aisle further down the hallway - very cool.

I met a kind man named Satish who sat by me during the flight to New Dehli. He taught me how to say good night (shub ratia), explained the language of urdu (muslim language) which is considered more of a musical type of language which is where shukria (thank you) comes from, and we talked about the transition of India to generate more of a middle class with globalization. It was a fascinating conversation.

After flying 14.5 hours from Chicago to New Dehli, I entered a sea of white uniforms to find my driver to take me to a hotel for a short night's stay. I left early morning on Wednesday for a 2 hour flight from New Dehli to Pune, and arrived safely on Wednesday morning (11.5 hours ahead of QC time).

Paula
=8-)