Our Turn To R2I

Ultimate Driving Machine

2009-10-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

Got myself a Beemer a few weeks ago and hence the title. I am kind of digressing from the main topic of the blog but am lazy to create another blog.
There are two reasons I wanted to blog about the car (no; none of them is showing off)
1. Before I drove my 325i I used to be from the camp that though you need a car to go from place A to place B and that's it. Always wanted to be in the other camp as I was not really sold on the idea. Well now that I am behind the wheel the camp 1 seems utter BS. Just the way the car drives, the adrenalin rush on curves, fearless lane cuts and overtakes; oh man I was missing something in my life. Its one thing to go from place A to place B and another to ENJOY it.
2. Another reason I bought it was to get myself out of the "desi car" mentality. If you have lived long enough in the US you could easily spot an Indian gathering by looking at the parking lot. It would be full of Toyota's and Honda's and some Benz's. I would be generalising it but the common desi story is: he/she starts with either a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry. The affluent desi ends up with a Benz. It is the ultimate dream of a desi.

It is weird but there is always an urge inside me to differentiate myself from the run of mill desis, at the same time I also want to be around them. Neither can I alienate myself, nor really associate. At times in a foreign country I need that familiarity, but can't stand too many of us. Well I guess I did tie it back to the main topic of the blog in the end, on why I would rather settle in a western country and not R2I :)

Why India will never Change

2009-09-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

Since our 2 year stint in India I have come back with a firm conviction that India will never change (and I guess that's what some people like about it). There is a lot of talk about progression; new generation; change; whatever...
The problem I think is systems here try to conform to the attitude/behavior rather than change it. At times it is also seen as a great customer experience.

Of the several reasons here is an example why attitudes/behaviors won't change...
If you have been in a security check line at any of the domestic airports you will hear airline reps screaming for passengers who are late for their flights. If someone is supposed to be on a 7:00 AM flight to Hyderabad and its 6:30 AM and you are the 110th person on line; this Jet Airway (or any airline) dude will come screaming: "Any Passengers for Hyderabad or Jaipur flight??", and the person like a Hero/Heroine (mind you not ashamed) will walk out of the line. Then (s)he will be escorted in style ahead of all the passengers who have some respect about time (not many exist); jump through security and promptly taken to the aircraft.
Now why on earth if such an awesome system exists that instead of penalising latecomers actually makes life easy will anyone come on time? Most certainly I won't.

Because I am no Gandhi to "be the change I want to see". You know why? Because every time I want to see the change, jokers like mentioned above happily are served better. Either Gandhi had it easy by having only 300 million folks of which most of them had a common purpose; or I don't have the patience to change 1 billion (of which 300 mill are of the "joker" category mentioned above). I think the later is true ;)

We are back to the USA

2009-09-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

In line with my previous post where I say that time flies when you are having fun, I guess we had so much of it that 2 years zipped by. The last year must have been specially more fun as I didn't even get to blog :). Though I always had things in mind to write never got to type them.
Anyway we are back and settling down. I personally am glad to be back, the family is still mentally back home. My little one in fact didn't even wan't to come back and was OK with staying with her Grandma. My boy had enough of India though and was looking forward to come back. Pallavi, don't even get her started.
I will pen my experiences back home more often, though after the fact.

A Year Already:

2008-08-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

They say when you are happy time flies. I guess that’s what it must be as we didn’t realize that it was already a year since we left and what a year it has been.

I had promised myself that I would write frequently but after about 6 months into it other events took over and I started finding less time for this activity, or should I say for myself.

Positives:

We are all totally settled out here. Most of our neighbours know us and we have Saturday movie gatherings and potlucks. Our kids know pretty much every kid in the community and I use the kids as a directory when I need to find someone’s apartment number.
We do not ask for Bottled Water in decent restaurants any more.
Sickness, touch wood has been to bare minimum and limited to colds and the usual stuff.
Anurag and Anushka can now carry on a full conversation in Hindi. They always have some or the other friends to play with, so they are really enjoying “childhood”.
Pallavi drives the car freely and even to the crowded parts of the city. She actually can drive to Himayatnagar and Kachiguda (only folks in Hyderabad can appreciate this).
The maid has turned into a full time maid + part time cook. The trust factor has increased to the point where she has access to the house even when no one is there.
Pallavi has started working part-time, and is enjoying, and things seem to run fine, even better in the new routine. She is happy she gets more time every day to do the things that really matter, rather than housework, driving, etc.
We can plan a few weekend trips to go visit family in different parts of India.
Ability to watch live sporting events that you love. We watched the IPL cricket game, junior hockey Asia cup semis and finals, AFC challenge soccer games. I still have bad memories of being dragged into a baseball game that never seemed to end and lack of action in that sport.
Can’t help mention the 24X7 cricket and MTV, VH1 desi again
Way too many good restaurants have opened lately and we have been enjoying each one of them.
Because we were in India, we were able to attend Pallavi’s brother’s engagement. I don’t think we would have flown down from the US for the engagement.

Negatives:

Put on 15 kgs since I came back to India
Traffic still remains a nuisance and I just cannot get over it. Only thing that has gone down is road rage when I am in the passenger’s seat.
If things break down may God save you! My broadband connection had issues and it took me couple of weeks of calling twice a day and constant argument to get it fixed. Or our friend’s new washing machine broke down, and its been more than a month since they have been waiting for the company to fix it.
Power cuts. Right now we have 4 hours of power cuts. The generators in the community run on diesel and right now we have a diesel shortage. So we have to climb the 8 floors by stairs during those four hours, apart from other nuisances.

Annoyances:

The never ending 5 minutes. When someone says that he will be there in 5 minutes or something will get done in 5 minutes it could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 days or may be months.
People cut lines: does not matter how professional or upscale the environment is.

Why do people cut lines:

2008-07-20T06:40:00.000-07:00

One of our colleagues who is from Hongkong and has spent a lot of time in the US is also in the India office for a one year assignment. Because of him we have started noticing that people cut lines a lot. Every single day that he has been here some one cuts the line he is standing in when we are at the cafeteria. He gets very pissed off and yells at the person. That started a discussion on this topic. Here are some of the reasons that came out:

People don’t value and respect others’ time.
This is a cultural problem in India
There is a lack of resources in India and hence people have to fight for everything.
A lot of people that work in the professional environment come from a background where they don’t have exposure to the so called “civilized” way of life. So these habits still remain with them no matter where they go
Everyone likes to do a little bit of mischief and break the rules once a while.
The fittest will survive is true in South Asian countries which leads to this kind of behaviour.

I would love to see more reasons here in the discussion forum.

The FRRO Process:

2008-03-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

March 5th 2008 - Since I entered the country as a foreigner I had to get myself registered at the FRRO. Shalini, the IOS consultant, was helping me out with the process. She helped us out in our relocation also and is a lot more than an IOS person to us almost like family. She gave me the good news that we don’t have to go all the way to old city for the process. Cyberabad has a new office now and documentation requirement is also a lot less. The form was to be filled online and it all seemed so 21st century until we reached the office. No matter how much technology and advancements you have once you have to deal with people not much changes. The ACP who is supposed to be a work around 10 never shows up till 11:30. We got there at 11:30 as Shalini knows the drill. Then you go in and the folks there validate information you entered online with the supporting document you carry. The person doing it seemed like he was seeing the computer for the first time. So after a painful half an hour and help from some other guys we got through it. One of the questions in the form is Place of birth, for which I entered SANGLI, my birth city. Now this moron is trying to match SANGLI with his document that requires INDIA. So I told him SANGLI is in Maharashtra. He goes: which COUNTRY is that. I didn’t know whether to roll with laughter or kick him so hard in his brain that he remembers some history and civics lessons. You really cannot make technology work with these kinds of jokers. Then they take a picture of your IRIS. Another half hour to figure out how to do that. The printer in the room was not working so they had to print it in some other room and fetch the documents. It took them 15 minutes to get the documents so I think it also includes a tea break. Then two other folks sign/stamp it and pretend to check it. After this entire circus we have to go to the ACP’s office for the final signature. He is a bit agitated as we were interrupting an important TV show he was watching. He looks at the documents and points out a mistake of the expiry date of the FRRO permit. Apparently the program has the classic developer’s bug where you don’t clear/refresh a field before populating it. If you don’t clear it and leave it blank then the old values carry over and that’s what happened in my case. At least the ACP justified his salary by pointing it out but what were the two morons being paid for. They signed, stamped and pretended to validate my docs. Our tax money working really hard. So went down and then they decided to do a manual override. But guess what, it was their lunch time by then. So another delay of about an hour and after several attempts they finally had the documents ready. So we go to the ACP again. Well he is still watching another TV show. Takes our docs and starts signing. After 3 out of 5 signatures another dude walks in. I am sure he was more important than me as the ACP starts a dialog in Telugu for good 5 minutes. Finally it is all done and we come down. So something that should have taken about 30 minutes took us 6 hours. The consolation was the manager below apologized for the delay by blaming it on lack or resources and technology. Wasn’t technology supposed to simplify life? It will, if the right people use it. Mera Bharat Mahan.

Journey back to India:

2008-03-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

Feb 21st 2008 - After getting the passport I had to get a visa, and not just any kind, I needed an employment visa. What an irony. 12 years ago I came to the country with my H1B visa and now returning back with an H1B for my own country. The process wasn’t as painful but I had to spend 4 extra days. My return ticket was for the 20th and got the visa that afternoon. So we went to the city with my entire luggage, picked up the visa and went to the airport directly. Srini left and I had about 4 hours to kill. Made a few phone calls. There was a weird feeling all along. The same feeling I used to have when I used to come back from India each and every time after a vacation. The feeling of why do I have to go back. I didn’t know which country I could call home anymore, back home really means different now.

Passing away of Pallavi’s uncle:

2008-03-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

Feb 15th 2008 - The reason I have this personal incident in the blog is because of some similarities that I see in the life in Hyderabad and in the US. Being in the US one thing that always gave us a lot of grief was not being able to share the happiness and the sorrows with the people who mattered the most. Especially when a near and dear person passed away in India one felt really helpless. Due to the distances you couldn’t reach in time for the last visit or atleast the rituals.
Pallavi’s uncle who suddenly fell sick got into critical condition very fast. Pallavi was asked to get to Pune ASAP. The fastest way was to get on a plane but Pune airport was closed due to renovation. Next fastest way was to fly to Bombay and go by road but the flights to Bombay are only in early morning or late evening. There are no buses in the middle of the day. So finally she had to end up taking the car on a painful 500KM journey. At the end of it she didn’t make it in time. Though she was there for the rituals being in India didn’t matter at the end of the day. Being there with the family did help her to get a closure but that guilt will always remain.

The Interview and the Oath process:

2008-03-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Jan 22nd 2008 - The citizenship Interview was at 7:30 AM in Garden City. You have to sign in downstairs and then go up to another room to wait your turn. How they choose who goes for the interview seemed a bit of random process as a few folks who entered the room before me went in ahead of me. Finally my turn did come. She started going through a bunch of documents and started asking for documents that were not requested for in the interview letter, like my birth certificate and marriage certificate. Then came the round of 10 questions which were no brainers after one reads through the 100 questions. The silly part was having to read couple of sentences and then write a couple. Obviously they have to do it for some folks but after we conversed for good 15 minutes this part could have been skipped. At the end of it she goes next time bring all the documents and my heart sank. I am like why didn’t they tell me in advance. Then she said that you will get a letter in the mail about the oath date. The waiting game had started. In my opinion governments, no matter of which country, breed inefficiency. I think one reason is there is no motivation for the employees to work. When I asked how long will it take she says it could take anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months. In these scenarios I would rather deal with governments like India where you atleast can get things done no matter how.

Feb 13th 2008 - The Oath.
Just when I was deciding to come back to India not knowing how long it will take for the oath I did get the letter. After that atleast I could plan my days ahead. My oath was at 8:30 AM in Brooklyn. I started at 6:30 AM on a rainy morning. Murphy’s law was at its best and by 8:30 AM I was not even half way there. Totally stressed out I got on the phone with Srini who calmed me down and we decided that Subway would be the best way. Thanks to Garmin I got to the nearest Subway just to find out that I would have to change 3 trains to get there. Anyway after all the struggle I got to the court at 9:45 AM thinking that I would be sent back. I was huffing and puffing and all wet and started explaining the delay to the folks overseeing the process. The guy was pretty cool and asked me to take it easy and have a seat. A couple of guys walked in after me. So I was not the only one.
The procedure is: they make everyone sit in a first come first serve order. Then each one is called and first asked to produce the appointment letter and then check the naturalization certificate for details. Once everyone (about 500 folks) is done the judge shows up. Everyone takes the oath and the judge gives a pep talk. Once he is done everyone is again called in the same sequence to collect the certificates. So even if you reach there at 8:00 AM or 10:00 AM you will get out there only around 12:30 PM. My recommendation is – go late.
After that I went to the city where the company “Its Easy Services” does the passport in a day. All relieved got back in the train and reached to the subway where my car was. Murphy was not done yet. In the rush I had left the lights on so the battery had died by the time I got there. Managed to salvage it with help of a Gas Station guy close by and reached work around 4. At the end of the day, all is well that ends well.

Back Home (?)

2008-03-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

Jan 30th 2008 - I am back in the US for my citizenship process that takes 4 weeks between the interview and the oath. Decided to go to Los Angeles and meet up with old friends I haven’t seen in almost 3 years. It felt like coming back home. Its hard to wrestle complex emotions when you don’t fit in India anymore (or have to make an attempt to fit) and feel so much at home in a foreign country. Afterall Rohit, Pranav and Mahesh are more than extended family to us. All our kids have grown up together and the emotional/moral support has invariably always come from here. So it was a great feeling of home coming and a hope that maybe we could come back some day, talk about ironies :)

Dec 6th – Four Months

2007-12-04T22:13:00.000-08:00

It’s already 4 months and it is time to do another self evaluation.
Positives:

We all seem really settled down and in a routine. No one has complained even for the smaller things in the last 3 to 4 weeks which is good.
Kids have become a little more independent. They go to their Taekwando and singing classes in the clubhouse all by themselves and come back. They go play in the evenings w/o the need for us to supervise them constantly.
Anushka loves her school now and also the bus. She refuses to be driven to school.
Both kids finally did catch a bad cold and I am really glad, as I had started thinking that we might be the real life versions of the Incredibles. Still haven’t visited a Doctor yet.
Started driving my Honda City and got back my independence.
Pallavi also is comfortable driving now.
Pallavi started working part time and is getting in the groove
The maid is also settled down and abruptly didn’t show up only twice so far
Can’t help mention the 24X7 cricket and MTV, VH1 desi again
Found a couple more great restaurants

Negatives:

Work hours still remain a concern
Quality time spent with kids also has not improved
After sales customer service is non existent. In a specific eg Pallavi’s Nokia phone broke down in couple months. When we went to the dealer he asked us to take it to some common place to get it fixed. After week they did repair it but replaced the faceplates to some other run down ones. So another week to get that done. We must have spent close to 1000 Rs in Petrol and several hours in traffic for this. Though the driver did most of it the ineffiency in the whole system is too much. In another incident the RTO guy did manage to get my registration done in a week. When I got it my name was Lalitha instead of Lalit. Its been more than a week and I am still waiting to get it fixed.

Annoyances:

Cannot pay my credit card bill online unless I have a bank account with the same company.
To check my phone/dsl usage bill online I have to submit all details with a photo again and still have been waiting for 3 weeks to get access.

Revelations:

All family members and friends have their priorities and responsibilities. It is wrong to expect that they will spend more time with you.

Bangalore SAP TECHED 07

2007-12-04T22:11:00.000-08:00

Had an opportunity to visit Bangalore and also checkout the SAP conference in India. Having not checked out any other Metro lately and also heard so much about Bangalore the expectations were very high. And boy, what a let down it turned out to be. My plane touched down at 7:45 AM and as I had naively planned, I thought I had more than enough time to reach before the keynote at 9:15 AM. Well, in the crazy traffic it was only after 10:30 that I reached the center. At one point the traffic was standstill for such a long time that the driver got down, went to a roadside vendor to get a banana, ate it and came back to find nothing had moved. Then came the climax, folks started driving on the other side of the road which kind of freaked me out.
The conference seemed like a money making business. 5000+ folks turned out. The center was not at all geared for that kind of mob. The classrooms were temporarily put together. Each one had capacity of about 150 and more than 500 folks wanted to get in. So huge lines before the sessions. Only one toilet and couple of portables for 5000 folks and so on. So either these conferences are always this way in India or I am spoilt due to the facilities in the USA.

Content wise 50% of the stuff seemed good. That’s a pretty good number for a SAP conference. Audience though seemed heavily in the 20 something age range which was surprising to me.
Traffic was a constant nag as it took us hour plus each way to get to our hotel which was 7 km away. On the last day spent some time with a friend and asked him to drive us around. On a weekend day we were in the car for 40 + minutes for 2 KMs and then I gave up. I guess either it was Murphy’s law for me or the infrastructure there has totally crumbled as I keep hearing from folks.
Positives from the trip:
The hotel was really nice. Luxury in India is far better than the US in the same class
Met some friends and enjoyed the Indian hospitality
Appreciate Hyderabad all the more. From whatever short time I spent there I don’t think I would recommend Bangalore.

Diwali:

2007-11-13T04:17:00.000-08:00

After a long time (almost 12 years) got an opportunity to celebrate Diwali at home. We all left on Wednesday night and got to Sangli in time for “Kali Chaudas”. Traditionally on this day we pray our “Kul Devi” (goddess of our lineage) and there is a special sweet made out of wheat called “Ghoogri” that is served on this day. Have been longing for this for a while. Mom had also made all my favorite sweets and savories that are traditional to the festival.
Then went to the market with my nephew Chirag to check out some fire works. I had not lighted any crackers in eons so ended up over buying them. It was worth it though.
Next day was Diwali. The kids enjoyed the preparation for the pooja by participating in the garland making and Rangoli (artwork made out of powdered colors). Later in the evening everyone dressed up traditionally for the Puja. Anurag and Anushka got to participate in the Puja and “Chopda Vidhi” (starting the books for the next year) and they enjoyed every bit of it. The poojan was followed with light snack.
The new year (Padva) was real busy day. My Aunt and almost all cousins in Bombay visited us for a couple of days. It was great spending time with them and all the kids playing together. These are the things that we totally miss out on in the US. Kids knowing their cousins and growing up together. Every night we lighted crackers for almost 2 hours ending with some adrenalin pumping grown up fun like lighting “Sutali Bombs” in hands and collecting all left overs and lighting all at once. It was so nostalgic and every single moment of my childhood came back.

Though for the most part it was fun some where I felt the traditions are fast changing and also getting lost. The usual Diwali Lunch which used to be such a fan fare growing up, was actually in a restaurant this time. The exchange of “Faral” (sweets and savories prepared for the festival) was almost non existent. My cousin sister actually didn’t even make any “Faral” at home, everything was store bought. None of the ladies in the house were actually keen on dressing up and going to the temple on Diwali day. No one attempted to visit other families for “Padva” (new year). It almost seemed like just the two of us had too much enthusiasm all through out (I guess Pallavi and myself are still stuck in 1996).

Travel to Delhi/Agra/Jaipur

2007-11-07T01:47:00.000-08:00

Kids were off for Dushera so we decided to do some sight seeing in India which we haven’t done in 12 years. I couldn’t get much of Delhi as I was in the US. Kids and Pallavi enjoyed Delhi. On the only day I was there we managed the tour to the Parliament (it is by “vashila” only). To be frank it was such a let down. The premise is so poorly managed and does not give the feeling in any way that you are at the parliament. The carpets are run down, buildings are plain, the signs are pathetic, even the names of the members etc are in handwritten paint. It left a very bad impression and I wished I would have used that time to check something else out. In the evening, on insistence of other family members I went to the Swami Narayan Temple (Akshardham). It’s a huge premises with really nice architecture. It definitely is very beautifully done, but seems like a gross waste of money to showcase life of Neelkanth.

On the way though I ventured into the Delhi Metro which definitely was very impressive. It was very clean, great stations, signs that made sense and overall great. Would have liked Maps inside the trains too so that I know where to connect just in case I forgot what I saw on the Map outside (which I did).

Then we set off for Agra late evening. Reached late night. This whole trip was semi planned as in only the mode of travel was planned. Everything else was as and when we get there. So after reaching at about 12ish I set out the desi way of finding a hotel. After checking out 3 places managed to bargain a 5 start hotel guy to half price. Did feel good and part of mother land.

Next morning woke up at 5:30 to check out the sunrise at the TAJ MAHAL. The roads leading to the Taj or so awful that you start wondering if you actually are going to witness a wonder. After reaching we found out that the gates don’t open until 6:00 AM. Not to my surprise 80% of the folks out there so early were foreigners.

http://picasaweb.google.com/shahlalit/TajMahal02

Once the gates opened and we were beyond the security frisk I got a glimpse from the entry door right across. The whole setup really adds up to the anticipation and once you are through the door in front of the monument one just gets amazed. I was transfixed in a position for a long time until I remembered I had to take pictures too J Luckily the sunrise was still a few minutes away. In about 10 minutes we could see the orange tinge appearing on the monument and getting brighter. It was spell binding. In fact I don’t have words to explain the whole experience; you have to be there to take it all in.
Well it was just Mummy and I as the early birds so we headed back to the hotel and kicked the others out of bed. First stop was Agra fort followed by Fatehpur Sikri and then back to the Taj for the others.

Plan in the evening was take the train to Bikaner, then drive to Jaisalmer and spend a day there and come back to Jaipur. In a way it was a boon that we didn’t preplan the whole trip. The train to Bikaner was 5 hours late, which in turn would have completely messed up our Jaisalmer plans as we wouldn’t have been able to do the dunes. So we dropped that plan and got off at Jaipur. The travel was like what we had heard about Uttar Pradesh. 20 people were already occupying our berths and after a lot of arguing we got 2 of them back. I wonder how it would be in Bihar, but don’t want to find out personally.

Jaipur we were at Pallavi’s friend Ruchira’s place. Got some royal treatment there.
Really liked the city. They have preserved the old city very well. The City Palace was great and so were all the other sites like Hawa Mahel, Amber Fort with the ride on the elephant to the top, Seesh Mahal, Jantar Mantar, Chokhi Dhani, Jal Mahel, etc. We also took a day and half trip to a place called Khimsar. It’s a fort that is converted into a resort style hotel. But the time where we spent the night was at a Sand Dune that they have a resort at. It was beautiful. Jeep ride to the Dune, then Camel cart to the huts. Only 15 odd huts surrounded by serenity. No TV, no telephone, not even intercom. You actually have to ring a traditional hang bell to get the attendant. Took a camel ride to the top of the dune for the sunset, followed by dinner at the fort. Whole experience was relaxing and refreshing.

One thing I noticed after checking out the several forts and taking the guided tours. The Kings in that era really had a really lavish lifestyle. Cannot compare it with any other kings in history. One of the kings in Jaipur had built a fort to accommodate his 12 wives. Each one had a separate apartment of her own. They were architected in a way that at any given time any queen does not know who is with the King.
Perfume fountains, Summer and Winter sections in the Forts, Live dancers as pawns to play Ludo, the list is endless. The architecture was also amazing. Pillars of Diwan E Am so arranged that everyone has unobstructed view of the King, Air conditioning without electricity, Windows that have visibility only from one side, exquisite Marble carving, paintings that use vegetable colors and liquid gold… it was fascinating.

The other thing that I detested was the vendors shoving stuff in your throat. As an Indian I was getting so embarrased when they repeatedly harrassed the foreigners to buy stuff. How much ever reasoning I tried it really pissed me off.

The BAI’s (Maids):

2007-11-07T01:45:00.000-08:00

This species has evolved and is amazing. The BAIs of our time were so different than what we have right now. Now they make the calls, we have to conform to their schedules, they decide what they will work on yada yada. On 3rd day at the job she demanded (not requested) a saree for Dusherra.
2 weeks into the job it was already time for change due to the constant bickering and Bai No. 1 was fired along with her accomplice.
Bai No 2 has survived since then for over a month now, so there is hope. But again the way things work is you have to micro-manage all the house hold help and net net time wise there is not a lot of saving. We in fact end up spending a lot of time just following up. Hopefully these are initial settling down issues.

Experiencing India all over again

2007-11-07T01:37:00.000-08:00

Have been wanting to write this one for a while but stuff keeps coming into the way.
So we finally moved out of the comfort zone into our rental apartment. Within no time we had a reality check. Since the apartment we moved into was brand new it had its own brand new problems. The taps in washing area were not working. So these guys had to break half a wall in the kitchen to figure it out. Then things work in corporate style. The guy who breaks does not collect the mess. The guy who collects the mess does not fix the hole. So I was dealing with three different levels to get one small thing fixed which should not have been broken in the first place.
Then it was the carpenters turn. The 10% work that needs to be finished is taking 90% of the time I guess. We have to keep calling/bugging/yelling for these guys to show up. The amazing part is he will always forget the most important tool he needs for the work and spend another 2 hours searching.
Next was the turn of interior decorator and his folks. His usual drill was "10 minute me bhijwsa deta hun (will send some one in 10 minutes)" and we would wait till end ot the day. This went on for a couple weeks until we got stuff done. While I am writing this a month later we still have couple things unfinsihed that we gave up on.
On the positive side my belongings arrived and the local movers came over to deliver. They were very eiffecient. Unload, Unpack, put all stuff together in about 7 hours. The only difference I witnessed was amount of people needed. Same job that was done by 4 folks in the US needed about 9 here.

A month already!!

2007-09-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

Time just flew. Its been a month since we landed. Settling in nicely but still in a very sheltered environment. Due to corporate accommodation we haven't faced the real music yet.

Positives:

Everyone managed to stay healthy, not even a cold. Touch wood. We definitely were worried about this with the rainy season and what not.
Anurag loved school day one and has not complained yet apart from the daily Rice fix for lunch
Anushka adjusted after 2 weeks and doesn't mind going to school any more
Anurag can write all the hindi letters except "Ksha and Gnya" and read some from newspaper. Anushka sings a few hindi rhymes and knows the whole national anthem.
The Multiplex is way better than US and added is the choice of Samosas/Veg Puffs/Chai
Hot and different breakfast every single morning
Have not ironed a single garment or washed a plate since arrival
24X7 Cricket on TV, that too FREE
News and Newspapers that have sensible news. I am back into routine of reading them every morning

Negatives:

Have to work late hours though I do start work late
No amenities/facilities like GYM/Racket sport/etc at work
No concept of voicemails. Though I am getting used to the "missed call" culture it still seems so ineffecient to not be able to leave a voice mail and just keep calling the person until one gets through
The traffic is way crazy and messed up (I don't know why I was not expecting this degree of messiness)
Dependency on some one always to get around. I was hoping there would be some mapping system in place by now
Cannot spend quality time with the kids

Annoyances:

People will not wait for you to get out of the elevator (even at work)
Body Odor. This is a real problem and I don't know how I will get used to it. Given the cramped elevators and other crowded places it is inevitable.
Escalators mostly only go up, you have to walk down (painful when my Mom was around as the elevator usually is a mile away)
None of the urinals, even in the new Malls, made kid sized. Anurag always has a challenge.
Folks, even in the cafeteria at work eat rice and curry with there hands submerged to their elbows
People cutting lines even in places like Multiplexes and high end Malls

Things I miss:

Taking long hot showers as the water will get cold in about 10 minutes or so in the Geyser
Olive Garden and Tacobell
Driving

Its too soon to answer the question: "Do I like it here?"। In another couple of months once real life begins would be a right time to evaluate. अभी देल्ही दूर हैं!

Glad to be Alive

2007-08-30T05:38:00.000-07:00

The recent bomb blasts really shook both of us. We were in Lumbini park watching the Laser show at 7:15 PM exactly 6 days before the blasts. To make it worse we were planning to be there again on the day when the tragedy happened.

Whatever happened is really sad and a colleague eloquently put it in a few words in his blog.
http://www.collabor.com/blog/?p=35

As far as we are concerned we are getting back to normal with the solace that New York is no safer. Doing all the common sense things by avoiding crowded places etc. and really are glad to be alive. At the end of the day its the blessings and wishes of friends and families that help guide one's destiny.

Housing Rental Market:

2007-08-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

Its been 3 weeks now and we have been actively house hunting. The rental market is way beyond what we had expected and is a shock. For a decent 3 bedroom with amenities you have to shell out close to Rs 35,000 ($900). The duplexes are in range of 50 to 70k and the independent villas in a gated community range 70k+. The general pattern we found was apartments in Banjara and Jubilee hills are better quality and spacious but lack amenities of any kind. The new developments in Hi-Tec, Whitefields (we called it matchboxes) Kondapur, Madhapur etc have smaller apartments as they cater to newly weds or smaller families. Banajara and Jubilee hills has that homely feeling and is central. The new developments are a bit remote and are a complete concrete jungle. We have been stuck between not wanting to commute but still want a big place with amenities. Leaning towards compromising on the space to save commuting time and serve the kids needs for the time being.

Also as soon as you go a bit remote like Nizampet road, Miyapur etc the rents drop dramatically which is equally proportionate to the quality of construction and people around.

The market here is not controlled and there is no concept of MLS like in the US. Two houses next to each other could be sold/rented for a totally different amount. We enquired about buying some properties and it was pretty sad that we cannot afford what we like. The 5 bedroom villas go for 4 crores (1 million USD) and 3 bedroom apartments close to 1.5 cr ($300K). All these amounts seemed to be pulled directly out of thin air but I guess it is what it is.

In short it looks like I will end up paying top dollars for renting a decent apartment.

Tourist Attractions:

2007-08-28T04:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday Aug 18th we ventured out to some tourist places here and it was pretty impressive. The Salar Jung museum has a decent collection and the clock is always the key attraction. Its kind of unfair that Indian citizens are charged 10 Rs and non Indians are charged 150 Rs. Also all the local galleries downstairs are a bit run down. As soon as you enter the western galleries it is a world of difference.

Next stop was Birla temple. Once you maneuver through the tiny streets and traffic hazards the temple itself is magnificient. The location is just too good and you get a 360 degrees view of Hyderabad where you can see the huge concrete jungle that it has become.

Then we went to Lumbini park where kids had their first taste of slides/swings/sand and all the park things. They were excited. It was pretty good but for the amount of kids there. I guess with 1 billion and counting this cannot be avoided.

A trip to the Buddha statue on a boat was tempting and ended up being a good experience. It’s a quick 10 minute ride and the island is nice. The statue, as I am told, is carved out of a monolith rock.

Laser show was next on Agenda and I think it was highlight of the day. It is a mixture of musical fountains @ Bellagio and Disney worlds “Fantasamic” kind of a show with Laser projections on water fountain. The production value of the show was pretty good with a quick lesson in of Hyderabads history. Overall a great experience enhanced by a cup of Desi Chai during the show.

We ended up the venture at EAT street. This was another amazing place. It is an outdoor food court on the banks of Hussein Sagar lake. Food varied from Pizza, Burgers to Chats, Panipuri, Chole Bhature etc. The Malpuas for dessert were mind boggling. Both Kids and Parents enjoyed as everyone got to have their kind of food.

All in all a great experience and most of the places deserve a second..third visit which is inevitable given the list of people who promised will come over to see us.

School:

2007-08-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

There are numerous options for schools ranging from the basic to the very high end. Schools like Oakridge are international schools with fully a/c buldings, a reception that beats any 5 star hotel and top of the line infrastructure. Other schools in that category are Orchids (not recommended by many folks) and Sreenidhi (does not have that feeling of a school though the new school which is remote might be good).

We decided on Future Kids which is in Nanakramguda village and is remote. The access to the school is also via a “Kacha Rasta”. This school was recommended to us by a few expats and once we met the director, principal we were not disappointed. The school infrastructure is barebones and nothing fancy. Well ventilated classrooms, rocks all around, open spaces and so forth. All kids generally seemed very happy. The curriculum followed is ICSE 5th grade onwards. Prior to that they have their own curriculum which is a mix of ICSE and western education philosophies. The director, Shailaja Rao, seemed a very passionate person and has a great vision. The biggest selling point though was Anurag. As soon as we went there and after he checked out the school he insisted on enrolling into that school. Also since then every single morning he cannot wait to get to school and is so excited on the way back. He has managed to survive and also start liking the lunch provided there which is always a different kind of rice, followed by curd rice and a sweet. The snack is something different everyday. He has a lot to talk about the day. Another thing he is super excited about is the school uniform. He also had a great time with the 15th Aug celebrations. Overall we would highly recommend this school. I will keep posting more about the school as the year progresses.

We started Anushka in Euroschool as Future Kids didn’t have openings. Overall a good school with a philosophy in line with the western schools. Anushka does not like it though so far and misses her school in the US. The fact that there is less play time and more studies is not jiving too well for now. Lets see how it goes, other wise we will have to look for options. She is definitely going to Future Kids next year.

Some other schools are Chirec, Meridian, DPS etc which we didn’t venture out as there are no openings and the management is typical Indian where you don’t get to talk to the top guys unless you are some one important. We ruled out Oakridge as we heard from several sources that the kids in that school end up being spoilt brats from the very wealthy families or politicians. There is no "Indianess" if you will to this school. Plus there were no openings so it was an easy decision as the infrastructure is definitely very bery impressive.

Other school that did catch Pallavi's eyes was “Shloka”. This school is based on some Waldorfian philosophy. It is kind off similar to Montessori based education. Kids from 4 to 6 are in the same class and per them both end up learning from each other. There is no academics at all till 1st grade I think. Also all the toys are natural made of wood etc. No plastics or artificial toys at all. I personally am not too keen on the Montessori based education and also they were in middle of a move to a bigger place and expected us to share the cost if we enrolled the kids there. So we decided against it.
Schools here are pretty expensive. For more details and specifics feel free to email me (shahlalit@gmail.com) and I will share any information I have.

The Traffic:

2007-08-16T22:41:00.000-07:00

I did get a taste of the traffic a couple of times. All areas west of Banjara Hills are well planned and the traffic moves well. Once you start going east towards Hyderabad all hell breaks loose. Motorcyclists try to find any small area that they can squeeze in and the auto drivers even if they want to turn right and there is room far left they make sure to get there first and make a right later. Traffic gets to a complete stand still many times for a good 20 minutes or more and it just crawls after that. So it’s irrelevant when some one says that we are just 5 KM away. It could take you even an hour depending on the time of the day and also the direction one is going. By the way rush hour is from about 7:00 AM to 8:30 PM in most areas.

Early impression of work culture:

2007-08-16T22:32:00.000-07:00

Walking into the office campus and to the office it did not seem any different than any other office in the US. In fact my office space is larger and has more privacy than I had in the US. The “SIR” culture does not exist, atleast at my workplace which is a welcome change. Mostly everyone I dealt with so far has been very professional and courteous.

Few things that stand out though –
-The elevator is always full to the brim and if there is another centimeter of space you can bet that the guy/gal will squeeze in.
-The office supplies reside with a receptionist who resides in a remote corner, so to get a pen it’s a journey. Then you have to make an entry into a journal with the details of what you recieved.
-The cups for water/coffee are 1/4th size of what we are used to.
-The security guard at the door just makes an attempt to look at the ID, if I were to show him and expired ID or a colleagues ID he would have no clue.
-A few people in the cafeteria still indulge into eating with their hands, especially rice and curry. I am not sure why but it does bother me a lot when this is done outside of home.
-Conference rooms are in a very short supply.

Customer Service:

2007-08-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

Growing up this was the most painful part in India, lack of or even existence of customer service. It has turned around 180 degrees and I am taking a while to get used to this. Here nowadays you don’t go to the services, they come to you. For e.g. I wanted to buy a Blackberry so I was hopping a few shops and no one carried one. The next day my colleague says why would you go shopping, call them and they will come over. And that’s what I exactly did. Same thing with the Bank and the courier guy and so forth, they all show up at the office and mostly on time (20 to 30 minutes late is considered on time). I guess it will take me a little bit to get used to this and I hope I don’t get too used to this.

Also I still have not had to deal with government services yet and I am sure they will bring me back to reality. Or may be the reality has changed and I hope thats the case.

Chutneys:

2007-08-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

This was one of the most highly recommended restaurants by several folks and it did not let us down. On a Saturday afternoon getting a table was challenging. 30 people in front of us, everybody thinking that the person helping with the seating was being unfair to them, Anushka whining that she wants to go the McDonalds and the general chaos brought our enthusiasm down. But as soon as we were seated about 25 minutes later it changed. The service was great and so was the food. He got the “Chutney’s” on the table while we were waiting for our food and in fact we ended up eating one bowl of the coconut chutney w/o food. It was just amazing. All the courses, Idli, Ghee roast Dosa, Uthapam’s, Sambar, Coffee were great.
Finally feels like being in South India with the taste of real south Indian food coming back. Its like enjoying (getting used to) Mexican mangoes when you are away from Alphonso’s for years. The taste buds do get immune :)

My first Drive: Saturday Aug 11th

2007-08-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

We have a rental car which is chauffer driven (any other way wont work I think) and I asked the driver if he would let me drive. Reluctantly he did and I had a ball. Drive in the Banjara Hills area was not challenging at all. We had to go to the Begumpet Airport junction and once I passed Hyderabad Central and entered the older part of the city is when I got the real feel. Autos and Motorcycles just whizzing past and cutting me at will. There was one major 4 way junction with no lights. I stopped and asked the driver when should I go. He smiled and said you will have to just enter the junction and force yourself. So I did and it worked. It proves my theory again that there is always order in chaos and that’s why thing work out. Drivers in India are always very alert and hence it works out. Each one expects another person to be stupid and is on look out. On the contrary drivers in US are not alert because they don’t expect other drivers to make a mistake. Another simple rule in India is the biggest vehicle has the right of the way or the bravest driver has.
Report card after the drive said I drive slow and always in the lower gear which will affect the average of the vehicle I drive. I need to honk more often and not wait for my turn. Overall I got a B-

First impressions:

2007-08-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

Hyderabad is in the Deccan Plateau and has a very rugged landscape. Huge rocks all over the place with some amazing formations. It is fairly hilly too. Seems like a combination of San Francisco and places in Utah put together. I can bet if some of the US marketing heads would see this they would have made a natural park out of this and start charging 20 bucks claiming this as world’s best rock formations :)

First Run: Tuesday August 7th

2007-08-08T22:55:00.000-07:00

Day 2, Jetlag hit me. I was up at 4:00 AM. Tried to watch TV for about an hour but it was all junk. Finally at 6:00 decided to venture out. Just about a KM away is a beautiful park called KBR Park. It is just like the Central Park of Hyderabad. Started running and had a good two mile run. There were decent amount of folks jogging, running, walking, pretending and oh a few of those aunties shaking their hands vigorously.

On the run down I decided to venture out in the Lotus Pond park close to my apartment. It was a pleasant surprise. With a huge lotus pond in the center there is a walkway of about 2 KM around it. Most of it is stones so not favorable for running, but the park was wonderful. Didn’t seem like I was in Hyderabad, or may be I had low expectations to start with.

I think I like it so far, too soon to say though.

Day 1 – Hyderabad

2007-08-08T22:52:00.000-07:00

Landed about 4:00 AM. The flight from Dubai to Hyderabad was nothing great. The airport was decent and clean.
The immigration check was a breeze. On the way out to pick up the luggage one has to go through X-Ray to get the hand bags inspected. The person there was not too happy about the two Laptops and all the Jewelry so he tagged the custom clearance receipts. The luggage had all arrived by the time we got there. A couple of guys helped us load the bags (9 in total) on two carts. The kids had to go to the bathroom badly and the toilets in that area were closed. So Pallavi had to find toilets outside the airport immigration area. Welcome to India.

On the way out the guys looked at the tags and asked us to speak to the officers. It took some convincing for the two laptops and after he could not argue the point the focus shifted on Jewelry. After about 40 minutes and some more convincing they finally let us go. Lesson learnt here is if you have Jewelry more than worth 20K wear it. For whatever reason the police guy at the door wanted money and I had no clue why. The relocation person was waiting outside with my name. We got to the Toyota Innovas and loaded them and drove to the service apartment/guest house. The ride early in the morning was not bad at all as there was hardly any traffic. I could say quite a few flyovers being constructed.

We got into the apartment and it was a world of difference. It was an exceptional 3 bdrm apartment fully equipped. All rooms had air conditioning, top of the line furniture and electronics. A couple guys were there full time to help with everything from cooking to cleaning to shopping etc.

Commute to office was challenging. The guy who drove me did not know the address and we asked about 10 to 12 folks before we got there. Though I grew up doing this all along all of a sudden it seemed weird not to be able to take a map and figure it out. We ate at Ginger Court which was decent.

In the evening we decided to eat outside. We went to a restaurant called Krisna Veg Bistro, a forgettable experience. Awful and cold food, not a great experience to start with.

T-1 Week

2007-08-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

This posting is from about a couple maybe 3 weeks prior to our R2I journey till today.

The planning is picking up speed. The movers are decided, still struggling with what to take and what to donate. Cars still not sold (tip: start this process early). Going down the checklist and making sure most of the things are taken care of sooner rather than last minute rush. Electricity, Cable, Gas, Phones, Newspapers, Magazines all have been disconnected/discontinued effective 27th July.

A lot of friends invited us for going away dinners. Cesar, a very good friend arranged a beach party. Collegues and Friends at work had a going away lunch and all 22 folks invited showed up. These guys are definitely eager to get rid of me :)

Wednesday before we were to leave a shocker from the INS arrives. Pallavi (my wife) recieves her letter for oath for Citizenship on Aug 1st, a week after we were supposed to be gone. Good and Bad news. Glad that we could get over with it while here, Bad as we had to replan the whole trip and had to drop stop over in Dubai :(. Also the house was rented out so we were homeless and car less (i managed to sell my Sienna meanwhile, thanks to cars.com and Civic is also almost on the way). So we were back to camp Srinivas. What would we have done without the Akella family and Mehta family? All friends had given an open invitation for a stay at there place, we are so blessed to have so many of them. We decided to split our week between the Akella's and the Mehta's.