My (almost) brush with fame

This morning there were all these people lined up outside when I was leaving. They had flowers and incense and kept watching the door. I found out the Dalai Lama stayed in the hotel this afternoon when I got back. But I missed him. Rats!

Of course, Richard Gere is in town also, and it's possible he's staying here too....

Elephants and Monkeys

Maddie likes monkeys. Amelia likes elephants. In the US, you can get all kinds of things with monkeys on them--blankets, shirts, jammies, purses, earrings, etc. But elephants are harder to find. Not here. There are elephants whereever you turn. Carvings, statues, figures of Ganesh, etc. But I did finally see two monkeys today in unusual places, so Maddie, these are for you.

Mia, you are cleaning up on elephants when I get home. =)

Why don't we have these?

At the airport, in the cafeterias at work, at some shopping centers, you can see these charging posts where you can plug in your phone if the batteries are running low. This rocks! Why don't we have these? They have different plugs for all the different models they sell. This one was at the Hyderbad airport in the main waiting room.

Bookstores

Rule no 1 for travelling to India. Don't bring books. I've been to several great bookstores and books are much cheaper here. Revathi and I went to a terrific bookstore called Blossom. Like a lot of stores, you go up a steep set of stairs, but then it's like the Bookworm on steroids. And if you have something you want, you just ask and they go find it for you. This store was a combination of new and used. I saw a Japanese anime graphic novel series on Buddha. I would have gotten it, but the series would have taken it's own suitcase!

Revathi was looking for A Prayer for Owen Meany, and they had not 1 but 3 copies. Two in mass market paperback and one hardcover. They had everything from new releases to antique books.

Here are a couple of things I got. The top shows some of these funky Hindu stories in comic book format that I got for the girls. They are hilarious! I also got a little cookbook, a book of hindu wisdom, buddhist teachings and a really funny little "Thus Spake The Christ" (INR 5= 11 cents). I picked up a couple of other interesting things too--all small, like matchbook-sized Bhagavad Gita and Vedic Stories books...

If and when I come again, I'm not bringing any books with me. I'll get them all here.

Stores in India

I decided that rather than make myself nuts trying to cram everything into my small second bag, I'd buy an inexpensive suitcase here. This is sort of a typical store on Commercial St. It's packed floor to ceiling with stuff. The rest of it was up a curving staircase with just enough room to get one foot in front of the other. Even by the standards of the store we looked in, that was pretty tight but the rest of the store looked like a lot of the stores we were in. Very narrow, packed to the rafters and lots of staff. There are a couple of guys who worked there that aren't even in the picture.

We put our bags into the suitcase and then one of the guys carried it several blocks to where our driver was parked. Can you imagine a clerk in the US helping you carry a $30 suitcase 4 blocks? It had wheels, but he carried it. And they were pretty insistent that Revathi and I shouldn't carry it ourselves. It wasn't like we filled it with 200 lbs of stuff--just some books from the funky bookstore we went to.

Bangalore Palace part 3 The hunters

I should have taken a picture of the really bizarre painted golf statues, but somehow I didn't. I did take a picture of the dead things. Apparently the Maharajas were big into hunting. Here were some of the things we saw.



The footstools just seem like a really weird 30's thing. These are Elephant and Water Buffalo stools.

This trunk was actually a planter, but I accidently cut the top off in the picture. It doesn't look like it's lasted all that well.

Bangalore Palace part 2 The Outside

The building out there is the kitchen...

The old green house.

The palace grounds are rented out for weddings and parties. This was being set up for a fashion show later in the day.


Not really sure who this guy is, but apparently he died in the Afghan War. He's not a Wodeyar, so I can only surmise he was pretty respected. He's right in the main entryway!

Bangalore Palace

The Wodeyars of Mysore ruled this area of India from about 1399. In Bangalore, they had a summer palace. The palace is still owned by the current King of Mysore, although the title is only a formality. The other palace, in Mysore itself, is now owned by the state, and is pretty spectular. You can read more about the Wodeyars here: http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/deccan/wodeyars.htm

The palace is pretty funky. It has fallen into disrepair, and they are doing a lot of renovation on it. They have the funding pretty well figured out--for Indians, INR 100. For tourists, INR 200. If you want to take pictures, it's INR 500. Smoooooooooth.

Blogger will only let me put 5 photos to a post, so I'll break these up into a few posts. I think I read that the palace was based on Windsor castle. It's pretty impressive, even where it's not completely fixed up. Near as we could tell, it was probably last used as a residence regularly around the 30's or 40's--there was a lot of furniture of that era in the Queen's Residence and the King's residence.

The outside of the palace:


Some of the Kings of Mysore:


This is the great receiving hall, and one of the few pictures from this trip that I'm actually in, so I included it here. This is where the people came to see the King, and the little structure behind me is where the Queen sat. The King received people while sitting on a golden throne. It's not still there though... =)


This is the King's courtyard.
This is the Queen's courtyard.

Technology and not technology

Before she left, Madhuri gave me a cell phone that you "recharge" periodically with more rupees. I went to the Airtel shop to recharge it. I ran into this thing I have now seen in a variety of ways--a weird hybrid of technology and 1900's bookkeeping. To add rupees to my cell phone, they call it and enter a code. They can't do a big amount all at once, so they did it in 4 INR250 increments. They don't use computers and you can't do this from home. They pull out a ledger and handwrite the information about how much they recharged your phone with, and what codes were used. The ledger and the phone they called my phone with to recharge it are shown below.

For some reason, no one here seems to think this clash of technology and not technology seems all that strange, but it seemed pretty amusing to me! I can beam cash to your phone, but I don't have a computer to record the transaction on.

Construction in India

There's a lot of construction going on here, but it's a really strange hybrid of modern and ancient. Scaffolding is generally wood tied together with rope. Here at the Windsor, the scaffolding is metal, but it's still tied together. And in case you were wondering how tall the structure is, I've included a shot down into the artium. Here are some examples.

But does it come with sleeves?

I bought an ethnic India outfit at this funky market and discovered something I really would have never guessed--nor probably been able to figure out if I hadn't been told. This is a typical kurta. It's a long shirt--really almost dress length but slit pretty high on the sides. It comes with the top, the matching pants, a scarf, and the sleeves. The sleeves are completely separate--just matching pieces of cloth you sew on yourself later if you want sleeves on the shirt.

Oh, and this 5 piece ensemble ran Rs598 or about $13.50.

Including the sleeves.

Veg or Non-Veg

Welcome to the change in world reality. In India, you get asked "veg or non-veg". Non-veg, or meat eating, is completely common. However, Veg is predominant in many ways. At Oracle, non-veg is only served in a separate cafeteria, 4 floors down from the other cafeteria and in a part of the building that isn't completely finished out.

Oh, and here's one of the cows I see on the streets of a major city everyday.

Airport Screening

At an Indian airport, you have separate screening for men and women. Here's the women's screening. A lovely little tent of nice silks to shield us from anyone seeing the wand waving in front of us.

It's not posed

This picture looks so incredibly posed, I couldn't help but add it. That's Patrick, Sameer C looking at what a good job he's doing, Amit and Revathi deep in discussion over a product concept with Sameer B looking on, and Amrut feeling pensive about all of it.

Yes, I'm working while here

See, we have laptops, we are working. Really.
From the left, Adesh, Sameer, Amrut, Revathi, Sonal, Sumi and Usha. This is the conference room at Oracle Hyderabad. Since it's basically just a generic conference room, there's not a whole lot more to say.

Priveleged Single Lady Traveler

Double click this one to see better what I get as it turns out I am a priveleged single lady traveller.

Globalization makes the whole world weirder, Part 2

This is the 60's and 70's band in the bar. They sang all the stuff you'd like to forget, only with a weird german accent.

Tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old OOOWWWWAAK tree...

Globalization definitely just makes the world weirder.

Two wheelers

People put a lot on what they call the "two wheelers". Here are just two of the families I've seen on them. See if you can figure out in the first photos how many people are on that. It's also pretty common that only the driver has a helmet on.






T

Gandhi

Just above the hood of the white car is the very large statue of Gandhi, outside of the state legislature building. If you click on the picture, it will enlarge to the point that you can see it more clearly.

Verala Ayurvedic Massage

Not your standard massage in the US, to be sure.

Madhuri mentioned that we should get an ayurvedic massage. Turns out the hotel doesn't offer them, but they set us up with one at a center across town. So off we go. First we ended up getting a little lost, but we finally arrive at the Verala Ayurvedic Centre. This is Jeremy Ashley, the Vice President of User Experience for Oracle (that would be my boss' boss), standing at the door. He's happier to be there than you might think from the picture... =)

Up until we got there, I don't think any of us really had any idea what we were going to get. Turns out we were getting a massage from 2 people simultaneously who work symmetrically. Jeremy was to get a massage from two men, Madhuri and I from two women. They are working each side of your body at the same time with the same motions. It's really interesting.

And it's not like any massage I can say I have ever had. First, there's no pretense. You walk into the room, which they lock with a sliding bolt. You are, at that point, to undress. Completely. One woman then tied a loincloth about my waist and pulled the loose end up through my legs to tuck in from behind. None of this "I'll give you a moment to change" and the robe to discretely drop and slip under the sheets. No way baby. They are massaging all of you--what's to hide now?

I was instructed to sit, while she gave me the most intense head massage. She started by rubbing oil vigorously down the center of my head. That was followed by slapping the top of my head rhythmically. Then she started working my hair--getting her fingers up and lightly pulling it. This is a really unusual and in the end, pretty pleasant experience. Your scalp feels great afterwards. By this time my hair is soaked in oil and she scooped it up on my head with a rubber band.

Then they instruct you to get up on the table. This isn't the usual massage table, nicely padded. This is more like a formica tabletop. You lie face up with your head on a sponge, and they put sponges under your knee and ankle joints. Then they scoop handfuls of warm oil, mixed for your particular needs. It had a very unusual earthly quality--sort of like sandlewood and camphor. Jeremy thought his smelled like mushrooms. They get to work, vigorously massaging you with each woman (or man, in Jeremy's case) making the same sweeping motions on your muscles and tighter massaging motions on your joints. Up the front they go, with no alteration in technique to avoid the, ah-hem, upper chest area. It's all getting massaged, baby.

The funny part was when they had me turn over to work my back, legs and backside in general. By this point I'm thoroughly greased, and with every rub, I would slide on the table from all the oil. When every inch of me was covered with oil, they steamed me to soak the oils in and release the toxins. Afterwards, I was rubbed down with towels and instructed not to shower for at least 45 minutes, to give the oils a chance to soak in and the toxins a chance to seep out.

They only had rooms for two of us at a time, so when I finished, I went out to talk to Madhuri. Turns out she'd never had one of these massages before, so I was telling her about it. She went in for hers and after a bit Jeremy came out.

"You can't say we aren't trying the local experiences" he said. We compared notes and all agreed that the head massage was almost the best part of the whole experience.

Two people massaging you for an hour or more cost us each 800 rupees, or about $18.

To top off the local flavor of the day, we decided to take one of the motorized rickshaws back to the hotel. Here we all are in our blissed out, greased up splendor:

Shopping for Silks

We went to the old part of town to go shopping for fabric. My boss' boss Jeremy is married to a woman who, in addition to being a senior manager at Oracle, sews. A lot. And knows fabric. He was looking for a very particular type of cotton fabric as well as some silks. We drove down until we got into this almost alley of a street lined with fabric shops.

For those of you who asked me to bring straight fabric back, I'm bringing you silks. Lots of silks.

Here are some of the pictures of the street:

Globalization just makes the whole world weirder.

This is the Sri Lankan Mariachi band that came to sing to us at our dinner table in the buffet in the hotel. Dinner was a bizarre buffet of chinese, indian and british food, with some extraordinairy french pastries. And the Sri Lankan Mariachi band.

I didn't get a shot of it, but one guitar had an Apple computer sticker while the other had a glittery Jesus Saves sticker.

Globalization just makes the whole world weirder.

Traffic

I was just watching some of the traffic and thought I'd throw in a few comments on that.
The two people above the black car in the photo above are pedestrians. It looks like a sidewalk above them, but everyone walks in the street. And yes, the motorcycles are in the same lane. They just go around.
The yellow cars in the photo above are these odd taxi things. They are really more like encased motorcycles.It's a little hard to make out, but the motorcyle in the middle lane furthest back has a woman sidesaddle in a sari on the back.

No helmet.

Lights, Camera...

I almost forgot to write up one funny thing from the night I got here. I was getting ready for bed when I realized I couldn't turn off the overhead lights. I was walking through the room, flipping every switch anywhere near the door and nothing would turn the overheads off.

Now, I was tired, but not tired enough to sleep with all the lights on.

I hadn't really paid enough attention when the bell captain (or equivalent) brought me to my room. In trying to turn the lights off, I discovered that he put my room key into a slot next to the door--you can see it in this picture:
I tried the switch several times, nothing happened. At one point, I pulled the card out of the slot to put it next to my bed. I started walking back to the bed when all the lights went out. Everything. Pitch black.

Hmm, I guess the card controls the lights? I found my way back and reinserted the key. Lights back on. Reviewing the light icons under the picture above, I see that the icon on the left shows that key out=lights off. Key in=lights on.

Ok, only, I know this can't be the solution, because with the card out of the slot, I can't even flip a switch and turn any lights back on in the room. If the key is out, the power is off. And unlike the US, there appear to be no other instructions in the room. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but apparently I needed 2000 to figure this out.

Turns out it's a dual switch. Key in turns the lights on when you get back at night. You turn the lights off at a switch on the side of the bed furthest from the door. How stupid of me. I should have known you control the overheads with the light switch in the least likely placed in the room.

Ok, really, now that I get how it works, it makes some sense, and it's kind of nice that you can leave the overheads until you go to bed, but my mental model of where light switches are tells me that I should be able to turn them off next to the front door.