It's Holi Day in India

The festival of colors are being celebrated with a 3 day weekend. On Saturday we took nearly an hour long, harrowing as usual drive to a "botanical garden". What a disappointment. Although it did feature a large & very old banyan tree, that was about it. It was no more than a large park that was not well kept. There was one small patch of flowers. We got out to stretch our legs a bit and decided we would have more fun shopping. We went to City Centre Mall which is bigger than the previous mall we had been to. Every mall and store we have been to require bag searches and metal detectors. Individual stores have security at the door. I bought some items as gifts and some stationery in Hindi, as well as a couple of Holi Day cards to remind me I was here at this time.

Last night the hotel held a Portuguese Tapas & Wine dinner by the pool featuring a band from Goa. It was a totally enjoyable time with my co-workers & fellow travelers. Besides the tapas appetizers, there was BBQ meat & fish and of course desserts. We have learned that eating fruit and vegetables at the hotel is pretty safe and we enjoy every meal that we eat here.
The folks I have been training for 2 weeks are all coming along in the class. They are mostly in their 20's and all have a college degree. There are some cultural and language problems, but they are working hard to learn and do a good job. The 4 women usually dress in a salwar-kameez (tunic & pants) set accented with a matching scarf. One young lade wears a jean jacket over her tunic. There are 8 young men in the class including the vendor trainer. They are pretty quiet and enjoy jokes and teasing. The women call me 'Mum' when they need my assistance at their computer.
We are not allowed to take pictures at the office so you won't see any images of my class.
Here is an online story about Holi:
http://www.bellevision.com/index.php?action=topnews&type=235

Out and About

We finally left the hotel 'compound'. It was good to have a day off and go see something different other than our routine drive to the offce and back. We chose to go to the Victoria Memorial. This is a museum in which we saw 18th century paintings of different India scenes and other artifacts. There was a LOT of marble and large statues. In one room were artifacts of the Indian fight for its independence of Great Britain among which was a letter from Nehru that touched me in particular. The gardens could be better tended, but nice nonetheless. The 6 of us got stared at, but I usually walk around with blinders, not looking for such things. It was also good to actually see families and little children, something I miss in this work-hotel routine I have been living. After the memorial, our driver took us to see the River Ganges and across a large suspension bridge that more than one local has told me to see. It was cool (but very bumpy!)
We saw sights that are pretty much the same in any city on a Sunday: large buildings, billboard advertising, people shopping or hanging out, but we also saw some very poor folks. One unusual sight was a sidewalk barber, no chair or pole, just 2 guys squatting on a sidewalk, one shaving the other's face. Again traffic can be pretty different from what we are used to in the states. I wonder what their driver's test is like?


After that we drove back toward the hotel to a large mall (Mani Square). Most of the stores there are small. Spencer's is like a Target store and I was making note of the snack foods there in case I run out of the stash I brought. The Mall has stores like US such as Puma, Nike, Adidas, optical, McDonalds and such. Jen and I were eager to check out scarves and things more "Indi' but felt we would like our girlfriends at the office to be with us to guide us to good buys. Speaking of which, when I walked out of the mall, there was Meena, the Lead in my training class talking with the other half of the group! It was good to see her and meet her fiance who took a snap of our group. I am sure you can tell which one she is in the picture.


We ate dinner at the hotel's Italian restaurant and because of a coworker's earlier experience at the hotel, we had a lovely time in a huge suite, complete with a balcony that overlooks the city. Drinks and then a few games of Loteria - Mexican bingo. There were about 12 of us and it was a very fun time. Here is a shot from the balcony of the hotel grounds.



I think I finally know why it is difficult to feel really well here, apparently this is a symptom of the malaria pill I have to take daily: Malarone. I sometimes wake up in the middle of what should be a good sleep cycle with a racing heart. I had been thinking maybe I am just dehydrated, so I get up and drink water, but after reading the circular that came with the pills, I am blaming it on this medication. Wish I could go off them and wonder how I can handle this for another 5 weeks.

The Routine

It has been a couple of days (nights?) since I have taken time to write. Working nights in Kolkata to accommodate the daytime in US has been hard to adjust to. By 1pm or so I start getting ready for work. The first few days I would be downstairs meeting co workers by 3pm. Meals can take a very long time especially when there are 6-12 of us. Getting the checks and then paying and then getting the charge slips can take half an hour. We don’t try to rush this (wouldn’t do any good), so we make sure there is lots of time for meals. At 4:30 we meet in the lobby then proceed to the cars the Indian company has sent for us.
Riding during this ‘rush hour’ is like no where else. There are no sidewalks, but the roads are lined with people. There are vendor booths with some kind of food products, working people, dogs, and other vehicles. Even though we are only traveling between 25-35 miles per hour, the brake pedal is rarely used. There are no lines in the road to define lanes. If someone is driving slower than the driver wants to go, he beeps the horn and goes zipping past, with maybe an inch between the cars. The horn is beeped just to let those around that we are coming at all of the aforementioned people and dogs. No one is insulted and pedestrians ignore the beeps at their own peril. There is no such thing as right of way. If it wasn’t for the median dividing the one way direction lanes, no one would ever get anywhere because there is no limit to the little tricks one will use to get where they want. The roads are bumpy, but not potholed on our route.
The employees I am training consist of 7 men and 4 women one of which is the Lead- Meena. The Indian trainer is Suman. They are all college graduates, very polite and respectful. I was warned that they might be too shy to ask questions, but that has not been so. They ask questions after I explain something and they ask for help while they are online working the system exercises.
The first cultural bump was in their not recognizing our US brand of addresses so I had to explain what Rd, St, Av etc means. I have had to learn to interpret the head bob means. A tilting of the head over the shoulders means they do understand my topic or question but a still head or slight nod means they do not, but do not want to say that. I hope they are learning that it is safe to ask for further explanations.
The restaurant in the hotel has very delicious food. I usually eat more westernized food at the hotel because at the office we have a lot of Indian food given to us. The first dinner we had a soupy dessert like the consistency of watery ricotta cheese. I didn’t get the name of it but it is apparently made with goat milk. It was very tasty and I finished it as it is a nice way to end a spicy dinner. Another dessert is like a donut hole that has been dipped in a sugar syrup. It was also very good, but the sugar in it caused me to be very sleepy in the latter half of training that morning.
It is very easy to still be confused about day and night. When we meet for our first meal after waking up, we say good morning, then remember it is 3pm; we say good night when we get back from the office when it is 3am. I am just trying to say ‘greetings’ or ‘good day’. 8>)
I have 2 newspapers delivered to my room each morning. One is the Times of India www.epaper.timesofindia.com The writing is very colorful and basically uncensored and un-sanitized. If a deed is dastardly, the article will say that. It is very interesting to read multi-syllabic and colorful words in comparison to US newspapers. – Go to the website and give it a try.
If you want to see what my hotel room looks like, it is EXACLTY like the one on the home page of the hotel’s website http://kolkata.regency.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/
Sorry if there are no exciting tales to tell just yet, but life is between hotel and office on these work days.

Setting a Schedule in Kolkata

Because our office hours will be overnight we have to adjust to those hours pretty quickly. I was lucky that having arrived Saturday 11pm to have Sunday as well as a holiday Monday off. On Sunday afternoon fellow travelers on the project told me to stay up until 4am and get up at noon to get adjusted. I ended up needing a nap around 5pm though for about a hour-I was totally unconscious. I took a sleep aid about 3am. I had set my alarm for 12:30pm but was awakened at 1pm by a phone call. My alarm didn't work! It was the outsource manager telling me not to come in as planned for Monday since the rest of the team had not yet arrived due to their flight being cancelled. I joined the others who have been here for 4 weeks for a 3pm 'breakfast' and then they left for the office. It is odd to get up and dress and all just to have sunset a few hours later.
Not a very active afternoon / evening and just like yesterday I needed that hour nap. That can't happen tomorrow when I am training!
Dinner was at 10pm like last night. This is the dinner time at the office where Indian food is catered, so again, getting my hours adjusted to the routine here that will be my life for 6 weeks.
The hotel is luxurious, the staff is very nice and attentive. Just beyond the hotel compound it looks shabby by comparison. Every car that enters the drive must go through a security check, as in under the car & hood, and in the trunk. You must then walk through a metal detector before entering the front hotel doors.
Although we have been warned to not eat anything that is not cooked, the team that has been here for a month have ventured over to salads and fresh fruit that is served by the Waterside Cafe inside the hotel. None have gotten ill from this. They still drink & brush their teeth with bottled water only.
I have been told to expect 12 hour work days that include pre training meetings and then daily briefings at the end of the 'day'. Due to this my blogs may be much shorter. We have to work on Saturday to make up the holiday Monday.
The best part of today was receiving Valentine's roses from my husband of nearly 40 years. Indians give a sweet with a gift so a candy bar came with the delivery.

First 24 Hours in Kolkata

Business class on the flight was pretty nice. We had an Indian meal-so much food I couldn't eat all of it and I had wine to help with sleeping. We had TV monitors but my headset outlet didn't work. I could hear background (for TV & music) but voices sounded garbled. As soon as dinner was done, we were given blankets, the lights went down and everyone started snoozing. This was about 7pm eastern which was only 4pm for my home time zone, but since I was pretty worn out from the trip to & day at JFK, I was ready! I slept a few hours though. I woke up & Jen was also awake. She tole me to use her TV & audio, so I watched a couple of TV shows, then went back to sleep. Just as they keep to a tight schedule for dinner / sleep, they also want breakfast on schedule, so after a quick fresh up in the lavatory we ate.
We landed in Delhi and as we were deplaning, I heard a man announce 'something something Kolkata'! Then just up ahead another directed us transferring to Kolkata to step into the corridor on the left. Not one person in my company who has been here had told us to be aware of this! Soon there was a good sized crowd and then an airport gentleman came over to us to ask our names to check against their list. We were then asked to follow him with another gentleman. We were led away from the crowd -well this is a perk of business/first class. We were taken directly to the airlines Maharajah Lounge to await our flight. There was some food we snacked on and soft drinks and bottled water. We had about a 3.5 hour wait (lost track of time, so not exactly sure). Near boarding time we were escorted to security. The security officers have it way over TSA in making me feel secure - they are in shape and they carry rifles. We were led to a shuttle after showing our boarding pass & passport several times. So we got to the plane and put into the first class seats. I could not stop myself from falling asleep shortly after take off. I was awakened for dinner which I didn't want, but the attendant insisted some soup. It was a light tomato soup that was like someone put in too much pepper. I ate that and fell back to sleep.
At the Kolkata airport, a man assisted us with our H1N1 form and escorted us through the lines at immigration and on to baggage. Jen and I were so tired and both feeling aches and pains that we were grateful to let him. He and another loaded our bags onto carts and led us outside where we found the 3 TCS trainers and a Hyatt hotel driver - no one from Supermedia. After a brief visit with Suman, Chandan & Vengat our bags were in the car and we were ready for the 20 minute drive to the hotel. After checking in and being shown my room's features, I took a heavenly shower. I watched NatGeo on the TV until I fell asleep just before 1am.
I awoke around 6:30am. It was just dawning over the city. I can see the huge Eden Gardens cricket stadium from my room. It is closer than I thought from seeing it on google maps. Down below is a large empty field and even that early there were young men gathering to play some pickup cricket or soccer. They were there all day (not necessarily the same groups).
I have been advised to stay up until 4am & get up at noon to start getting acclimated to working nights here - trying my best. Sorry for such a long post.
Time to go to dinner...

Made the first leg of the 3

My flight to JFK from Seatac was pretty uneventful. In fact, we landed over half an hour ahead of schedule. Too bad, I could have used the snoozing time. I didn't sleep well. When I get overly tired my leg muscles cramp and the worst thing for that is an airline seat in coach. At first I had an empty seat next to me & I was looking forward to maybe even stretching out a bit, but for some reason they moved a man into that seat during the flight, so back to cramped quarters. So, I had 7 or so hours to kill in the terminal. First thing I had to do was find the shops (well it's the only place to sit, eat etc). I noticed at the gate in Seattle that my backpack roller had a 3 inch rip. For a 6-week tour, that is not acceptable, so this is why I had to shop. I had to find a suitable (read, big enough - but not too big) replacement. Of course there are the high end stores that think it is perfectly reasonable to charge $150-$300 for a BACKPACK. Give me a break. I finally found one for $50. The clerk even let me make sure all my stuff would transfer into the new bag before buying it! My feet got very tired with walking around. There was no way I was going to lay down on the floor to sleep though. FINALLY, Air India opened their ticketing desks (I was first in line but had to ask where the Executive check in was as it was not obvious where I was standing in the queue waiting to get into the queue. That was weird that we were in a side line before accessing the real line. Anyhoo I got my boarding pass.
Oh, there were supposed to be 6 of us traveling together from JFK: 4 from Dallas, 1 from Tampa and me. Because it snowed 11.5 inches in Dallas, that flight got canceled! So just 2 of us will be departing today. When I got my boarding pass I requested seats for us next to one another. I expect to be sleeping the first 8 hours, disregarding the clock - whatever time it is wherever it is. The Dallas folks are hoping for a flight out tomorrow. Good thing Monday is a holiday and we were just going to check things out at the office in readiness for Tuesday. That's it for now...

Travel Day is Just a day away

So, just a few more things to pack and then I will be zipping up the 2-large suitcases, a carry-on & a backpack. The two big bags will be locked with TSA approved locks to keep any non-TSA people from thinking my stuff is their own personal store. First flight is SeaTac to JFK, about 6 hours overnight. This will be followed by a 9 hour day of wandering around the JFK terminals. India Air has a nice lounge that I will definitely plan to take advantage of. Then it is Business class for a 19 hour flight to Delhi. I have been told that there will be individual TVs, food and pampering in Business class. I have 5 coworker travelling companions as well to visit with and know I will enjoy their company. All this part is gonna be OK, the crowds and noise in India is what I am not looking forward to. I'll let you know how it goes! Luckily I have good friends who are cooking dinner for us tonight - Epic Score!

The big suitcase

I started putting clothing into the big suitcase ~ this always makes an upcoming trip more real. The dog stays close by, he knows what it means when I am messing with those big zippery boxes. I am trying to keep up a list of everything that gets packed. I know I will pack too much - too bad. We have been told our bags will be checked all the way from our original airport through to Kolkata. Keep your fingers crossed. There is a large bald eagle just outside and high above our house windows, perched in a tall cottonwood, keeping an eye on the low winter river. THAT's part of the stuff I will miss for 6 weeks.

Gotta Stay Healthy

Here is what I have packed so far - just to keep feeling well. Most of this came from the Passport Health nurses:

General
1 pair Plastic flip flops for use in hotel room
100 Daily Multi vitamin packets
Flu prevention
10 Tamiflu
1 Respirator mask
6 hard surface cleansing wipes
1- 2 oz antiseptic hand cleaner
1 pair nitrile gloves
2 disposable thermometers
100 antiseptic hand cleaner packets
Anti-diarrheal
6 Diamode
6 Ciprofloxin
1 vial water purification tablets
3 oral rehydration packets
1 qt plastic water bottle
60 Imodium caplets
10 Neosporin to go packets
anti malarial
50 Maladrone tablets
1 Duration Insect repellent for clothing
1 Ultrathon insect repellent for skin (deet)

I also have a few snack items to take with me