Thanjavur

One of the first things that I did when I got back to India was take a train journey to Thanjavur (pronounced Tanjore) to attend Log's friend's brother's wedding. I do not recommend flying for 20+ hours and then, within 48 hours, taking a 12+ hour train ride to attend a major function in a small town. Beware if you do so, because you might end up looking like this:

And the people there will look at you like this:

I actually don't remember much about the ceremony. (Not that I knew what was going on most of the time anyway!) But, after I was able to rest, we were able to visit the famous Bragatheeswarar Temple (The Big Temple). It hosts one of the largest statues of Nandhi, the bull ridden by Shiva (the destroyer/transformer). Then it was again time to get on the train and head back to Chennai.

Customer Service

My mom sent me this great email:

When you call Customer Service and speak to someone in India and you can't understand him/her, perhaps it's a fault in the wiring?

I must admit, I've never actually seen anything even approaching this bad while I've been here. However, it does remind me a lot of the descriptions in Suketu Mehta's book, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found. (I recommend this book for anyone who is familiar with India.) He describes taking a flat in Bombay (Mumbai) and how each tenant had brought in a new electrician to completely rewire the flat. I'm sure you can imagine how tangled up and patched together things would end up being after several tenants. He also describes how the slums and other poor communities tap into electricity sources. I imagine that it would eventually end up looking something like this.

I'm back!

Hi Everyone! (Although I'm not even sure if there will still be an everyone out there! Maybe no one will be checking my blog anymore, since it has been so long since I posted! :-( )

Oh, well, in the hopes that I still have a few readers left, let me update you all on my life. The reason that I have been so busy is that there are a bunch of new North American trainers that have come to work at our office with me. One is here on a year contract like I am, while the other three are here on a temporary basis (though there is already pressure on them to stay longer!) So, I've been spending most of my free time helping them get adjusted to India-finding the things they need, teaching them how to get things done, and translating (well, Log gets to do most of that!)

Basically I have realized that our company has learned absolutely nothing from the original group of NA trainers that they brought here. These new trainers all had similar stories of being picked up at the airport by a company driver who didn't speak much English and dumped into an apartment with no information on how/where to get food, change money or the like. In fact, there were originally 4 temporary trainers, but one has already decided he couldn't take it and jumped at the first opportunity to go back.

I, however, am happy that they are here. I didn't realize how much I was missing Ralph and Tim after their respective departures...and how alone I felt. Therefore, I'm doing my best to help them get settled here so that I will have company for the remainder of my time here.

Anyway, I have lots of stories to share-including a trip to the hospital! But you will just have to wait a couple of days for that one.