Long Overdue Update

As someone recently pointed out to me our blog has been devoid of entries as of late. My last post dates from just after moving into our apartment. Looking back its hard to believe we have been on India soil for just over three months and have been in our apartment for two months. As we became engrossed into the process of establishing our new home we have gotten into a routine that doesn’t seem too glamorous to write about, work, sleep, shop, language study (Cole), shop some more…… The reality of living in an exotic place is that eventually you have to establish normal day to day routines or you will burn out. Also, even though we are in a city of large population (17 million at last count) finding goods is an adventure. Everything that we undertake to settle our apartment into a home takes more energy and time than it would take in the States. The progress in getting settled is measured one completed task at a time rather than several tasks completed in a day. Patience is something you develop quite quickly. Patience is practiced in every traffic jam, every shopping experience, every encounter of Indian logic (which to the western mind set is no logic at all!). Cole has a wonderful way of looking at the foibles that make up living in India, ‘find something to laugh at every day!’. Believe me there is no shortage of chuckles when you live in India. While our days have begun to take on an India rhythm we have still had a few adventures in the past eight weeks. So let’s look at some of the ‘exotic’ parts of the past three weeks.

Hyderabad
In the beginning of November I had the pleasure to finally see another city of India, Hyderabad. While I was only there for a weekend it really reinforced Cole’s comments upon his return from his trip to Dehli and Moussorri….’you have to get out of Kolkata and see other cities in India’. First you have to understand Kolkata. Kolkata is old, very old, 300 years old with all the infrastructure that comes with a 300 year old city. The IT wave that has rolled across India in the past ten years is finally cresting here. (Guess that’s why I am here, eh?) Kolkata still is the small village encased within a population of 17 million. Roads are fair to poor, one stop shopping is not a common occurrence, cell phones are everywhere but everything else is a works in progress. When you live here its easy to think all of India is this way, trying to be modern but doing a poor job at it. Then you travel to a city where the IT crest has washed through and you see what Kolkata will be in a few short years. Hyderabad is one of those cities, gleaming shopping malls, smoothly paved roads with lines making the driving lanes, IT parks with major corporation’s buildings gleaming in stone and glass. As I drove around I thought, ‘so this is what Kolkata will be one day. But I digress…..

Hyderabad is a city of medium size proportions for India in Andhra Pradesh. That means its population is only 5.5 million! Believe or not after Kolkata it actually felt like going from Duluth to Grand Rapids or comparing Minneapolis to Duluth. Hyderabad was the second city in India to experience the IT boom in the 90’s. To create the IT sector hub the city mayor actually cut through miles of houses and shops to create the infrastructure to support the IT growth. Even today you can see the open floors and rooms of the houses and shops that were literally chopped in half.

Hyderabad is in the southern part of India where the weather is dryer and the landscape is more like the US Southwest than like Florida. Gigantic boulders and rock formation are everywhere, very reminiscent of Utah or places in Wyoming that I have visited. It is considered the part of India influenced by the Rajasthan culture. The Rajasthan influence is what most people equate with India when they think of India, elephants, turbaned men, Taj Mahal (no, not the blues singer!), camels, snake charmers, a mixture if India and Muslim influence. Hyderabad is known as the pearl capital of India. Even though it is not near the ocean this is where the pearl merchants of India sell their wares. Consequently Hyderabad has become one of the jewelry capitals of India and the wedding capital of India. Downtown Hyderabad is filled with stores displaying ornate wedding jewels and garb. The jewelry I saw was truly stunning. If you love jewelry and you ever make your way to India put Hyderabad in your itinerary.

Since I was in Hyderabad for work I didn’t have a lot of time to explore but did find time to visit Chandimar which is an ancient gate and mosque. Across from this structure is the second largest mosque in India. As I stood on the top promenade of Chandimar the noon call to worship of the mussehein wafted across the market area that surrounded the monument and mosque, an eiree moment and a moment for a prayer of a different sort on my part.

Enjoy the pictures taken from Chandimar and try to imagine……..

Mumbai

Again another business trip…too much time consumed with work and not enough time to really explore. Cole accompanied me on this trip and had the opportunity to do the ‘tourist thing’ while I was at work. Amazingly we both came away with the same impressions. Mumbai is a major, westernized metropolitan, cosmopolitan, center. It is on the same level as New York, London, Tokyo, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc…… it’s a place that is big, a city for night life and people younger than ourselves. While Kolkata’s city motto is ‘City of Joy’, Mumbai’s city motto is ‘The City that Never Sleeps’. I can attest this is true. Traffic in Mumbai actually INCREASES the later the night progresses. That’s a statement in its self since traffic in Mumbai in the day time is the worst congested traffic I have seen anywhere in my travels.

So what were my best memories of my week in Mumbai? Top on my list was the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean I could see everyday as I walked along the sea walk. I had forgotten how nice it is to look out across a body of blue expanse and see all the way out the horizon. The ocean walk in the bay reminded me of Duluth’s lake walk and I enjoyed it everyday I was there. My second best memory of Mumbai was the fantastic sea food you can enjoy at a location on the ocean’s edge. We feasted on prawns the length of my forearm and lobsters as long as my arm, crab as big as a plate……all for very reasonable prices. My third best memory of Mumbai was tied to a novel I was reading at the time. A friend at work had recommended I read the book Shantaram which is situated in Mumbai. During my walking tours with Cole I was able to see some of the actual locations described in the book. It’s always memorable to link locations with the images you create in your mind with reality.
Tomorrow Cole and I leave for our first vacation in India since arriving here. A whole week without work and with no agenda for getting acclimated, organized and established. We are journeying to the hill country of West Bengal to visit Darjeeling and Kurseong. These are ‘hill stations’ that were established during the British Raj era of India so the inhabitants of Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) could escape the heat of the summer months to the foothills of the Himalayas. If we are lucky and if the mists and clouds are kept at bay we should be able to see the highest peaks of India. Temperatures will be like those in Duluth in November and I can’t wait to feel some cold, clear, pine scented air. While everyone else says, ‘get out of India to somewhere that works’ we want to explore our temporary country. Hopefully we have great adventures to report.