2. Trainees (the good batches!)

3. Drives down ECR (East Coast Road)

4. IST (Indian Stretchable Time)

Honestly, I have to admit it...sometimes it is nice to not have to be so....well...punctual. I mean, yes, there are time when you plan something and you want everyone to be there on time, but other times it's kind of nice to tell everyone that you're going to meet up somewhere at 8 pm, knowing full well that no one will show up until 9. Or knowing you don't have to show up for a wedding reception that lasts from 6pm-10pm until 9:30.

I think I should have added this one with yesterday's post:

5. Affordable pedicures & manicures

3 more working days!!!!

6. Having a servant maid

I don't know what I'm going to do back in the US when I have to sweep & mop floors, clean bathrooms, do dishes and hang out the laundry by myself!

Ok, with a clothes dryer maybe the last one won't matter so much in the US, but the rest still applies!

7. Sending out the ironing

And I'm going have to iron my own clothes again instead of sending them out for ironing at 5 cents each!

Hmm...I think I'll need to shop for some wrinkle-resistant clothes when I get back!

8. Alterations

And I'm definitely going to miss the fact that, if clothes don't fit in the store, you can get things altered at the store at no cost!

I'll take a bonna fide tailor over the petite section in a store any day!

Here's another one that has its good and bad parts:

9. Bargaining

I'm not saying that I'm great at bargaining by any means...except maybe with autos...sometimes. :) Bargaining can be both frustrating and daunting, especially at first. However, there is a certain satisfaction you feel when you bargain for something and are satisfied with the price that you paid for it-it's hard to describe. I know it often helps me feel like I'm adjusting to life here when I can complete a successful bargaining transaction, like things are not so out-of-control.

And two things that I am going to experience this weekend, as we are off to take a houseboat cruise in Alleppey :

10. Travelling by train

11. Fresh seafood in Kerala-grilled, with some butter and garlic, no heavy sauces...mmm!

12. Travelling by bike, feeling the wind (or the rain) on your face

Helmet laws, though, go into effect on June 1st in Chennai, so I guess this one is coming to an end (if they enforce it!)

These guys, in Port Blair, seem to have found a great solution though-cover your head while still feeling the wind on your face...though I have to wonder how well a hard hat would protect your head in an accident, if it stayed on your head at all! I wonder, though, if real helmets are scarce in the Andaman Islands and this is why we saw so many people resort to using hard hats?

13. Bangles...lots and lots of bangles!


















14. Indian clothing-and feeling like a princess when you get dressed up

15. Getting preferential treatment because you're a foreigner

I have to admit that this has both its upside and downside...but for this list I'm focusing on the good parts...for example, when I went to pay my electricity bill. Normally, they calculate the amount due and the maintenance people in my apartment bring the card to me; however, due to a problem over a previous payment, I had to go to the office to get the calculation and make the payment. Normally, you stand in line, get the amount, step out of line, get the payment ready, and then get back in line to make the payment. (Efficient, huh?) But, because I was a foreigner, they let me write the check and make the payment in the first line. (It was great-the people behind me in line were even complaining about it!) :)

10 more working days...and that figure will actually remain the same, since Liz can't come... :(

16. All-night parties at Zach & Crystal's....

...where we somehow always ended up in the Bay

which brings me to:

17. Being so close to the beach!

Mmmm...food

I knew I would fall behind in my list...but then I had more pressing things to attend to-like applying for jobs! *crossing fingers* Let's hope something comes from all the frantic searching!


13 more working days...although I'm taking off my remaining leave days next week when Liz is here, so that actually makes it more like 9 more. :) Either way it sounds good to me.



Anyway, back to my list....



There are a bunch of South Indian foods that I'm going to miss back in the US:



18. Masala dosa...and my new treat, mushroom dosa...pretty much any kind of dosa, actually











19. Mutton Biriyani-especially Hyderabadi Mutton Biriyani at Zubair's house! MMMM!

20. Fresh lime sodas-a little salt, a little sugar (kuncha salt, kuncha sweet to the Tamil vendors...which always makes them laugh!) is my favorite way to have it-so refreshing on a hot day!

I guess it takes some getting used to, though. I remember Stephen's face as he tried to get used to the taste of a drink with salt-he was not a fan!



21. Fresh-squeezed juices...especially grape, which tastes nothing like the packaged grape juice that you buy in the stores! Oh-and sweet lime too!


















22. Chaat-especially anything with dahi (yogurt) such as dahi poori

















23. And, even though I don't get it much in Chennai (it's a Kerala dish)-appams with coconut milk.

Ok, now I'm hungry....time for me to go make lunch! :)

Places I'll miss...

24. Lounging poolside at Aqua

25. Tapas at Zara's....even though they revised their drink menu!!!

26. Hanging out in Geoffrey's

27. Sunday brunches at the Taj

28. Smoking hookahs at Mocha

Port Blair

Ralph came for a visit from Kuwait, so we went off to explore a new part of India-Port Blair, in the Andaman Islands. Port Blair itself is a rather dull town that doesn't seem too interested in catering to tourists. Its one concession to the tourist industry is the number of scuba diving outfits that are there. We investigated the possibility of snorkeling, but decided against it when we were told that fins were not available.

Port Blair does have historical significance, though. We visited the Cellular Jail, which was used to incarcerate the Indian Freedom Fighters during the independence movement.

We also traveled to Ross Island, which was occupied first by the British and then by the Japanese in WWII.

The British settlement, once abandoned, was quickly brought to ruin by the natural vegetation; however, they have attempted to restore some of the old buildings. These were officer's quarters:

And this was the church

March Madness

21 more working days! :)

I'm so excited about heading home; however, I don't want to give them impression that all of my experiences in India have all been bad. I have decided, for the month of March, to list 30 things that I will miss about India, naturally with special emphasis on Chennai. I'm going to attempt to do this each day, but probably there will end up being groups of things every few days. Keep in mind they are not in any specific order, other than things I am thinking about at the moment.

I planned on starting this yesterday, so here are my first two (which is okay, since they are related):

30. NO SNOW!!! I haven't seen snow for the past 2 years (except during vacations back to Rochester in OCTOBER!) and I haven't missed it at all!

29. Warm weather year-round. Need I say more?

Birthday Celebrations

Originally, I wasn't looking forward to turning 30 in India...however, it turned out to be fun!

Thursday, I celebrated with friends at Zara's & Zanzibar...

...then headed to Kodaikanal for the weekend.

I finally found a cold place in Tamil Nadu: Kodaikanal is a hill station, where people here go to escape the heat of the summer. The summer heat hasn't fully arrived here (give it another month or so), so it wasn't too crowded there yet.

It was quite a trek to Dolphin's Nose, but I loved the fog that surrounded the mountain

Suicide Point:

The hotel had a great lake view!

One Countdown Begins....Another Ends

I'm excited to announce:

I have 30 more working days...

...and today I turn the big 3-0!

Oh Canada!

I've been assigned to work with one of our new programs that supports clients in Canada. Now that my roommates (both Canadians) are both gone, I guess they figured an American was the next best thing. I think I managed okay with my first batch, changing the places where I used to say "Your American customers expect..." to "Your North American customers expect...." :)Throughout the batch, though, I was reminded about how little I actually know about our "neighbors to the north." While scrambling to find basic information (standard address formats and the like), however, I was relieved to find out that I'm not as bad as these people....

Way to Take One for the Team!

Jenna has been visiting Chennai this past week to visit me and help out with the next phase of Equip's latest venture. I didn't see her much during the week, but since I didn't have to work Friday (Republic Day), we had plenty of time to catch up over the weekend. The one thing that everyone here knows about Jenna is that she has a mad crush on the Indian cricket player Dhoni: This weekend, Chennai hosted the World Cup ODI (One Day Internationals) between India and the West Indies (I think-I'm so up on my cricket!). In between her training sessions, Jenna began plotting a strategy to meet Dhoni here in Chennai (previous attempts in both Delhi & Mumbai had already proved unsuccessful). It seemed fated to be when she met a cricket commentator in The Leather Bar Friday night who offered to leave us passes to the next day's match.

Which is how I found myself, approximately 10 minutes before the match was about to end, standing outside of the gate of the cricket stadium-the smell of urine and horse poop wafting through in the air-waiting and waiting and waiting. Surprise, surprise-no passes! Sigh. Jenna frantically calls the commentator guy-I mean we are so close to Dhoni, she feels that tonight will be the night she finally gets to meet him! Especially since he isn't playing tonight: he will be in the stands just watching the game-what a perfect time to chat him up!! As we are waiting for the commentator to come down and get us in, she points out to me that I need to be the one who has the mad crush on Dhoni. She can't, because she's been flirting with the commentator to get us in in the first place! You know me-I'm sooo good at faking hero worship. :) But, I don't have long to prepare for my role (I'm just hoping that there will be no follow-up questions!) as he comes down and gets us in. Jenna wastes no time-in the elevator to the VIP boxes, she tells the commentator all about my "crush". I try to play it off like I'm embarrassed that she's telling him all this; though I'm not sure if it came out that way! He did smile indulgently at me and suggested I stake out the hotel where the players are staying.

But the whole charade was all for nothing!!!! Sigh. The commentator dumps us in an empty VIP booth, on the opposite side from where the players were sitting and tells us that he has to go for a studio shoot. So, dejectedly, we sit and watch India loose the last few minutes of the match, knowing we have no hope of meeting Dhoni. We can't even see him across the field from us!

Why Chennai will never become a tourist mecca...

Actually, I could probably write several posts relating to this topic; however, I want to deal specifically with one thing that made the front page here in Chennai recently:

Tamil Nadu hikes auto rickshaw rates
Chennai, Jan 10: Tamil Nadu government today announced an upward revision of auto rickshaw fares in the state from January 26, 2007. The minimum fare, which was fixed at Rs seven in 1996, now has been revised to Rs.14. This would be valid for the first two kms, state Transport Minister K N Nehru told reporters here.The fare for further distances has also been hiked to Rs six per km from the present Rs.3.50, he said.He said the autorickshaws should be fitted with electronic metres within the next six months failing of which, stern action would be taken.The last revision was made in 1996 and the prices of petrol and diesel have increased many times since then, he said.

Ok. This may seem like a generally fair thing, right? Raising the fares to a more reasonable price to take into account the hikes in petrol prices? Let's examine a bit closer:

1.) The current auto rates in Bangalore, where the cost of living is generally higher than Chennai, the auto rates are set at Rs. 12 for the first 2 km and Rs. 6 for each additional km.

2.) Generally, in Chennai, it is actually impossible to get an auto driver to take you anywhere less than 2 km for less than Rs. 20...

3.) ...Not that this is verifiable because the auto drivers in Chennai do not use a meter-EVER. In fact, most drivers have completely disconnected their meter and I have even been in an auto where there wasn't even a meter. So what does this mean? You have to know the area well enough to be able to bargain the correct price with the auto driver. What does that mean if you are a tourist, first time in Chennai? That you should expect that you will be cheated if you take an auto. Because, the fact is, if you are white, they generally assume you are a tourist and will raise their rates even more.

Case in point: Liz & I had brunch at the Courtyard Marriott the day she left. When we left, we came out to negotiate for an auto to go back home. Right outside the hotel, the drivers all started their bargaining at Rs. 150, telling us, "Long distance madam. At least 25 km [its actually around 9!]" When we crossed the street, to get away from them and to head in the right direction, the negotiations started out at Rs. 100. Imagine: a Rs. 50 difference just by crossing the street! But how would I know that if I was a first-time tourist?

Why is it like this?, one might ask. This brings me to point #4.

4.)I have heard, though not verified, that it is because the cops own most of the autos here in Chennai. Of course they are not going to enforce the meter laws (which were in existence all along), if they get more money by letting their drivers negotiate for fares. That's why I have my doubts about the "Stern action would be taken" phrase in the report. This phrase is already the Indian equivalent of "There is no punishment defined, so we won't bother to enforce this law." And who is going to enforce the laws anyway if the cops are implicit in the problem?

Now, knowing this (most of which you can find in any tourist publication), would you want to visit Chennai as a tourist? Chennai is the fourth largest metro in India, with several noteworthy tourist spots. It could use the influx of tourist dollars to develop even more. Unlike the heat and humidity (another tourist deterrent) this is something that could easily be fixed to turn Chennai into a viable tourist destination. But, does anyone care?