Munnar, India Oct 2-4 2009

Munnar, India Oct 2-4 2009

Steven's Birthday September 21 2009

I thought I would surprise Steven for his birthday this year. I never know what to get him, well I do know but it's electronics and he has to pick them out. So, I called a travel company we deal with at times and hired a private boat to take us out for a sunset cruise out in the Cochin inlet in the Arabian Sea. It wasn't what I had planned and then it rained but we still had a nice time. After our boat ride we had reservations across onto the Island of Fort Cochin at the Malabar House.

Maldives Holiday September 2-6 2009

Our 6 month having to leave the country was coming up in October and we found that Steven had a couple days off from work for a holiday here called Onam, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onam. I then looked online and found a half way decent price (compared to other times) for a 5 day holiday package to the Maldives, so we decided to take advantage it of all other right situations and leave on September 2. Though, when looking at the packages, we found that the shortest and cheapest flights were all on Air India. After having said to each other that we don’t want to fly Air India anymore due to their recent mechanical errors, fatality rates and the uncleanliness. We decided to take a chance and go Air India anyway.

The taxi picked us up at 6:00 A.M. to go on our 8:00 flight, stopping in Thiruvananthapuram which take us 1 hour and then 1 more hour to Male. We got on the plane and Steven sat in what looked like baby puke, which was not only on the seat but all over the seat in front of us and the tables. Yuck! We found another seat but couldn’t get over all of the seats that were broken and TAPED up. OMG!!!

When we arrived in Male, http://.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives, we got our luggage, walked out of the airport right to the Port and in our hotel Sheraton’s boat!

We arrived to our hotel no more than 15 minutes, with a warm reception from some of the staff.
We found that our hotel was on a small island by itself. It was just so beautiful. We were going to upgrade to a water bungalow but found our room just as nice if maybe even better. While there we went on 2 dive trips, Sunset Dolphin Cruise, Island Hopping/Snorkle all day trip and a trip to the main island of Male.
I think the main excitement of the trip was on our last dive we saw manta rays with 9 foot wingspan. We sat on the bottom and watched 3 of them for about 45 minutes. We were taken to this place where they feed on top of a rock and it was one of the most awesome things I've ever seen. A lot of people sat on the bottom of the rock and watched in awe as well.

It was one of those once in a life time trips to do since we are so close because it is so expensive. We won't go again unless we win the lottery!

Our Trip to Goa August 14-17 2009

Steven had a day off from work so we decided we wanted to go to Goa. Goa is only about 248 miles from Kochi. We found out that there are no more direct flights from Kochi to Goa. We looked in to going by train and it took twice as long. So we decided to go anyway by plane. Our flight left at 9:30 at night getting us in to Mumbai at 11:00. We walked around and tried to get in to the comfy area known as the Crown Club at home but they were closed. There were no places to sit, it was unbelievable! We finally found a small area next to a snack counter and we tried to make ourselves more comfortable along with all of the roaches crawling around our feet!
Our place left at 5:00 AM for Goa which was a 1 hour flight. We arrived in Goa at 6:00 A.M. and our hotel was not there to pick us up. We talked with a airport hostess which called our hotel and said they would be there in 1 1/2 hours. We paid Rs. 500 for a taxi. Our hotel was pretty nice. We were so tired and slept until late afternoon and had a wonderful dinner at one of the restaurants at the hotel. The next day we had our tours
which were Dona Paul Cliff, Basilica of Bom Jesus Church, The Shiva Temple of Shri Mangesh Shiva Temple
and Fort Aquada & Lighthouse. We tried to find the Hash House Harrier's supposedly local hang the owner said they were there once. I guess the Goa HHH doesn't update their website. However, we did make 3 new friends there at Harry's Bar. Flying back to Kochi was easier, making it about a 4 hour trip. The plane made 2 stops but we didn't get off the plane. It was a short and sweet trip. We really like Goa and want to go back however on a different flight getting there.


Here is a link to the rest of our Goa pictures: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=9IcsmjVy1aJ4

Advice to SB

Below is some advice for SB that I wrote in an email. SB is considering moving to Kochi. It probably isn't particularly useful for you in your present situation, but it does give some insight into daily life here in Kochi.

I find that India is rather xenophobic. In addition to outright staring at foreigners, every Indian state I’ve visited so far always seems prejudiced against whatever state’s immigrants have “invaded.” It’s not much different than the Cypriots who hate Turks, the Greeks who hate Macedonians, the Singaporeans who hate Indonesians, the Spanish who hate Moroccans, the Texans that hate Mexicans, the Koreans who hate Japanese, the Vancouverites who hate Torontons, etc, etc, etc. In other words, I haven’t ever been anywhere where the local majority didn’t dislike some other group. I think nature has inbuilt these prejudices and they can’t be avoided. If you put two different fish in a tank, they’ll swim around together as a pair. If you put in more of the same two types of fish, they’ll suddenly split into little schools of like and like fish.

I haven’t figured out the gay thing here in India. Most Indians, men and women, seem rather androgynous to me. Women and men are usually segrated so all the guys go around hanging all over each over. Yet no one talks about who’s gay or who is not. Are all the guys on the down low? Or just some of them? Recently, the papers made a big deal about reform of the anti-gay laws. Regardless of all the celebrations in other cities that were shown in the Kochi papers, I didn’t see much acknowledgement of the change here in Kochi. Maybe we don’t go to the right bars…

One of our past times in the U.S. would be to go hang out at a neighborhood bar and drink with our friends. Drinking doesn’t seem to be such a past time here. Supposedly, Kochi has one of the highest per capita drinking rates. If this is true, then everyone must be drinking alone. We’ve learned how to buy beer and liquor at the government run outlets. (They have wine too but it’s all pretty nasty to me even though Angela seems to tolerate it.) We’ve learned how to tell which bars we might be welcome at and which ones are off limits. (Yes, I really have been personally recommended to leave several.) There are even fewer where we actually *feel* welcome. And at those, we feel like Norm from Cheers because everyone knows who we are. I assume the bartenders and servers think, “Here come the rich Americans who leave us tips.” Of course we’re not rich, but who says you can’t buy your friends?

One thing about Kochi is how fast it is changing. I’m talking about big radical changes. When we first moved here, there were 2 state run radio stations babbling in Malayalam. Now, there are many private and state run stations playing a variety of American top 40 hits from the 70’s and 80’s with ads and all. Somebody decides, and “BOOM!” it happens. I just wish I knew who the somebody was. As another example, a year and half ago, everyone just tossed their garbage out in the street and either burnt it every now and then or let the rains wash it away. Now, we have semi-organized city-paid collectors who put all the garbage in a big pile on the outskirts of town and burn it every now and then or let the rains wash it away. Another example is the upcoming “transportation hub.” Within two months of its publicity, a huge 100 acre site was declared as the new terminal for local city, intrastate, and interstate busses, city taxies, and a proposed system of water taxis. According to the planners, the complex will be completed by next April and they haven’t even broken ground yet!

We find it hard to go anywhere from Kochi. There just aren’t enough flights between Kochi and interesting places. Every time we want to go someplace, we end up having to take crappy flights that take 4 times as long as they should. Our last trip to Goa, a mere 400 miles away, took us 14 hours (door to door) going and 7 hours returning. The other issue you need to check is working days. Most companies here in Kochi work 6 days per week. The usual hours are 9 to 5:30 Monday – Saturday. On the plus side, many people seem to only work half day on Saturdays. I have suggested it several times, but no one seems to believe me, that we could be more productive by only working from 8:30 to 5:30 Monday – Friday. People who are paid to think need more time off to not think.

Playground Fun

I occasionally read trade journals online and have a favorite columnist or two that I follow. Dr. Howard Johnson is one of them. He has a knack for explaining complex phenomena in ways that make the relationships intuitive. In a recent column, Dangerous Games, he decried the “lawyers and politically correct parents” who have ruined kids’ playgrounds. (Yes, Dr. Johnson often gets a little off topic for an electrical engineering design magazine, but that’s one of the things that makes his column interesting.) He ended with a quote I found funny enough to pass along:

People who spend their formative years huddled in the library searching for loopholes in the physical-education requirements for junior-high graduation should not design playgrounds.

Here's hoping that the PC wimpification of the world doesn't get too much worse.

Cricket Contest, part 2.

This is a continuation of my story about participating in a contest related to the T-20 Cricket World Cup Tournament held in June 2009. See T20 Cricket Contest for part one of the story.

After a week off on our trip through north India, I returned to work refreshed. With the contest going at work, I had followed the T20 World Cup cricket tournament. I only followed until the top 2 favored teams, which of course I had selected, were knocked out. I didn’t really mind not having to try to get the results. We met very few people who could communicate in English and who were also following the tournament. Whether they didn’t understand the question or I didn’t understand their answer, more than once I was given incorrect info about the previous day’s results. ¹

As the tournament end approached, I started to worry about what I would get for the prizes. Recalling the prize I received from the lucky draw (which was probably rigged for me to win) at last year’s company party, I decided that the winner might like a gift certificate from Music World or Planet Music. With CDs costing around Rs 500 (~USD 10) sponsorship wouldn’t be too painful.

Fortunately I found out from Shiyas that the prizes had already been acquired before I went out and got more. He and a few of the other supervisors and engineers had also been tapped as sponsors and had contributed money. While talking to him, it wasn’t clear if my role as sponsor was being supplanted or supplemented, but when I offered to contribute as well, he was very quick to accept.

As with many purchases in India, the amount to be paid was not set. When buying in a shop, you make an offer and hope you are in the right ball park. If you offer too little, you receive either indignation (way too low), a counter offer, or grudging acceptance. If you offer way too much, you get a refund or disingenuous thanks depending on the character of who you are dealing with. If you are just a little high, you get happy and enthusiastic service. I guessed right and was glad I didn’t need to go shopping.

The prizes were going to be handed out at afternoon tea². Since I had gotten off light on sponsorship so far, I figured I would bring snacks to go with the tea. People often bring snacks for the whole office to celebrate the birth of a child or to brag about getting a promotion or a new car or home. I had seen the same snacks at the local bakeries and figured I could manage this over lunchtime. At first the bakery counter clerk was confused by my questions about his goodies and perhaps by my mere presence in his shop. I began ordering a few of these and a few of those and this and that. He caught on quickly and started having fun suggesting things for me. Mission accomplished.

At the appointed time I went down and assembled with most all of the operators, technicians, engineers, and supervisors, about 35 people in all. As expected, I was asked to say a few words and then present the prizes. I don’t know why, but I absolutely believe that Indians think receiving a prize from a foreigner makes it better. Why else have I been asked to hand out prizes many times now, including once by a radio DJ who was broadcasting live at a home show Angela and I attended?

I thought the prizes I passed out were rather cheesy and slightly tacky. However, everyone really seemed to like them. I see the stuff in the “Ladies, Fanci, Stationery, and Gifts” stores around town. The stores are unrelated mom & pop stores, but they all use similar names, often with the same misspellings. Indians’ love of kitsch is also used as part of the storyline in Outsourced³ so I guess it’s confirmed now.

After passing out the gifts, we had our cakes and snacks. The contest organizers provided some marble cake which was passed out first. It was typical Indian cake: dry, not too sweet, no icing, pretty blah in short. I was pleased to see my selection of goodies gobbled up. I’ll know what to bring for my next birthday. (I had difficulty getting rid of the cake I brought last year.)

So over all, the cricket contest was a success with a good time had by all. One of these days, I may even get to go to a live cricket match.

Notes:
1. As the tournament was played in London, the results weren’t usually known by the morning newspaper’s deadline and weren’t covered in the paper we read at our hotel breakfast. The previous day’s results weren’t published either since they were old news by then.
2. Tea time is at 10:30 AM and 3:30 PM. The “tea ladies” bring a cup of coffee, tea, or chai—usually containing more milk and sugar than brewed liquid—to each person in the office. It is often the highlight of my day at work.
3. Outsourced is a movie about a guy who comes to India to improve the performance of an order fulfillment call center which was outsourced from the US. We really enjoyed the movie since we could relate to so much of what the guy goes through.