It is now the 8th of December. The weather has cooperated every day of my stay. It has been in the 70’s daily. I have the same pattern daily for the most part. I wake about noon India time, go to the gym, clean up, head for dinner at Geoffrey’s pub, take a 30 minute or so nap, and then head to work. I then get back around 4AM and do it all over again. The work week consisted of setting up times to meet each individual team to deliver a seminar I pulled together. I was able to spend about 1 hour with each team. Each group had great questions, and they were eager to get more perspective about how to do their job better. They also were inquisitive about Americans and our culture.
The news here is similar to our news, and story headlines try to get the wow factor. One story that really stood out was labeled “U.s. Supreme Court says it is o.k. for American authorities to Kidnap.” Just seeing the headline I thought “what the hell is this about.” I read on, and it only turned out that the Supreme Court says it is o.k. to detain suspected terrorists. It is no wonder that people want to know more about our psyche. If I received news like that, I would be afraid to go to America.
While doing a seminar with the first group on Thursday, Abhinav called me to go to a special dinner for a couple hours. I bounced some appointments around, and rode over to a restaurant with Ashish. We would not be returning to work this night. We all chatted about the normal things through the dinner such as family; work, where people were from, etc. Someone told me also the reason for the spiciness of the food is to help kill the bacteria that many get the “Delhi Belly” from. I must admit that around Monday, I felt the Delhi Belly, and have not been able to kick it since. I was drinking the filtered water, and ate dinner in the cafeteria Monday, and my stomach started turning. I hope I won’t need to use the antibiotic I have, but will decide once I know I have enough doses to use it through the end of the trip. Allison also invited me to go with her to the Garden of the Five Senses on Friday at 9:30. I was able to get to bed by about 2, and was awaken by a call from Brenda about 7 am. I decided I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, and ran off to the gym.
Allison and I left for the Garden of the 5 Senses around 10. It was about a 45 minute drive into Delhi. The driver had to stop and ask direction to the garden 4 or 5 times. It was fine, as it gave me a chance to snap some photos of monuments and of some people. We chatted about how much of the properties lacked the normal maintenance in order to keep them from depreciating. Getting to the Garden, we both felt we were in a different world. It went from the grimy feel of the city, to a park that the air felt clean and free of the dust around the city. The hustle and the bustle of the city were vacant from the park. There were school children in their uniforms learning, young adults wooing each other, and even in an outdoor auditorium there were actors taping. We visited some of the gift shops in the park, and both noted the premium prices on some of the goods there. There were high areas of the park where you could see over the hills and trees of the area. On one of the highest elevations, you could see the apartments that many did not have windows and even walls were missing. They did not seem to be condemned though. We talked about how they are building all of these neat structures, but then the maintenance is not done.
It is Saturday, and I will be going into work to make up for leaving early on Thursday. Anuj and I are rescheduling our trip to the Taj Mahal until next week. Tomorrow I will be shopping for items to furnish the apartment with. I also plan to hit shopping for things to bring home. I have not been able to get any postcards yet, and that also is on my list of things to do. My cab driver arrived at 4:30, an hour and a half early. I went to the room, gathered m y things, and off to the office. Inderjeet is having a party at his house after work, and I am looking forward to get together with his management team.
The news here is similar to our news, and story headlines try to get the wow factor. One story that really stood out was labeled “U.s. Supreme Court says it is o.k. for American authorities to Kidnap.” Just seeing the headline I thought “what the hell is this about.” I read on, and it only turned out that the Supreme Court says it is o.k. to detain suspected terrorists. It is no wonder that people want to know more about our psyche. If I received news like that, I would be afraid to go to America.
While doing a seminar with the first group on Thursday, Abhinav called me to go to a special dinner for a couple hours. I bounced some appointments around, and rode over to a restaurant with Ashish. We would not be returning to work this night. We all chatted about the normal things through the dinner such as family; work, where people were from, etc. Someone told me also the reason for the spiciness of the food is to help kill the bacteria that many get the “Delhi Belly” from. I must admit that around Monday, I felt the Delhi Belly, and have not been able to kick it since. I was drinking the filtered water, and ate dinner in the cafeteria Monday, and my stomach started turning. I hope I won’t need to use the antibiotic I have, but will decide once I know I have enough doses to use it through the end of the trip. Allison also invited me to go with her to the Garden of the Five Senses on Friday at 9:30. I was able to get to bed by about 2, and was awaken by a call from Brenda about 7 am. I decided I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, and ran off to the gym.
Allison and I left for the Garden of the 5 Senses around 10. It was about a 45 minute drive into Delhi. The driver had to stop and ask direction to the garden 4 or 5 times. It was fine, as it gave me a chance to snap some photos of monuments and of some people. We chatted about how much of the properties lacked the normal maintenance in order to keep them from depreciating. Getting to the Garden, we both felt we were in a different world. It went from the grimy feel of the city, to a park that the air felt clean and free of the dust around the city. The hustle and the bustle of the city were vacant from the park. There were school children in their uniforms learning, young adults wooing each other, and even in an outdoor auditorium there were actors taping. We visited some of the gift shops in the park, and both noted the premium prices on some of the goods there. There were high areas of the park where you could see over the hills and trees of the area. On one of the highest elevations, you could see the apartments that many did not have windows and even walls were missing. They did not seem to be condemned though. We talked about how they are building all of these neat structures, but then the maintenance is not done.
It is Saturday, and I will be going into work to make up for leaving early on Thursday. Anuj and I are rescheduling our trip to the Taj Mahal until next week. Tomorrow I will be shopping for items to furnish the apartment with. I also plan to hit shopping for things to bring home. I have not been able to get any postcards yet, and that also is on my list of things to do. My cab driver arrived at 4:30, an hour and a half early. I went to the room, gathered m y things, and off to the office. Inderjeet is having a party at his house after work, and I am looking forward to get together with his management team.
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