Taj Mahal

Now that we are safely back in Bangalore, I can tell you how I spent my weekend. After we informed Gopal and Deepak about the unfortunate balcony episode on Friday morning, Ramesh whisked us away to the Bangloare airport where we caught a Kingfisher flight to Delhi. Kingfisher also makes Indian beer, which we have been enjoying lately. I am not sure what bothers me most, that an airline brews beer or that a brewery flies planes!

We arrived in Delhi several hours later, exhausted. Neither of us had gotten much sleep the night before and the plane offered no real rest. We both lied down for just a nap that turned into an all afternoon/evening snooze-a-thon. We are such exciting travelers!

At 7am we settled in for a 4 hour drive with a driver we had hired through the hotel. He warned us that the roads may not be that good on part of the journey, but hey, we've been Ooty! They can't be that bad. Fortunately the roads were pretty good for the whole trip.

We stopped at what I can only describe as a rest stop/tourist trap. There were restrooms, a coffee shop and a gift shop. We did have a cup a coffee and some cookies. Since I hadn't done much shopping for souvenirs yet, I persuaded Peggy to browse the gift shop with me. She warned me that the prices would't be that good and we probably shouldn't buy there. Before it was over, we both had purchased a skirt. I may never wear it, but at 312 rupees, ($7.50) it was a steal. Peggy's was not so cheap but much longer.

Back on the road again we saw countless things we did not see in Bangalore. Many modes of transportation were used to move goods between Agra and Delhi. We saw an elephant, horses, cows, camels, donkeys, tractors, cars, bikes and people. All of them shared the road with very little conflict. The driver even pulled over a bit so I could take this picture of the elephant.

Once we got to Agra, we picked up our the tour guide, AD, He jumped in the back seat and introduced himself. He explained that we could drive only so far before we had to get out of the car. They only allowed electric buses near the Taj Mahal because of the pollution. We were able to catch one that dropped us a bit down the road and we had to hike it the rest of the way. We paid our admission, got our bottle of water and our booties to put over our shoes and went through a security checkpoint. They were checking for video cameras and other electronics, but didn't find my MP3 player in my purse. Oops!

We entered a big open area with 4 large red sandstone gates. The one to our right was the gateway to the Taj Mahal. Up each side were verses from the Koran in marble inlay, increasing in size as you go up so that it looks like the letters on the top and bottom are the same size. There are 22 small domes on the top of the gateway, 11 on each side. Each dome represent a year in the building of the Taj Mahal.

As we proceeded through the gateway, the Taj Mahal came into view. It was beautiful! Between the gateway and the Taj, were gardens and a long reflecting pool. Everything in this place was very symmetrical. I could relate to that. They built a mosque on one side, so they built an identical building on the other that was used as a guest house. Instead of walking up the middle towards the Taj, we ventured to the right and walked under the shade of the overhanging trees. Shade was good because we found out later it was 108 degrees!

When we got to the end of the shade trees it was time to put our little booties over our feet so as not to damage the marble. The stairs we had to climb were solid marble slabs that had to be at least a foot deep. Peggy was a trooper and slowly but surely made her way up the stairs. Not a bad feat for someone with a knee that won't bend. We took a breather when we go to the top and admired the gem stone inlay in the marble walls. Each one was done by hand, as were the intricate marble carvings.

Once inside we were not allowed to use our cameras. It was a bit cooler though because of the way the building was designed. It actually has 2 domes, an inner and outer, to keep the building cool. Of course it was no match for the throng of sweaty bodies passing through, but you did feel a bit of a dip in temperature.

The heat was getting to Peggy so she opted to sit the rest of the tour out. I walked around the perimeter of the building with AD explaining every little detail. Once again, the symmetry was quite evident. And when you turned to face the gateway, the doors of both the Taj and the gateway were perfectly aligned. I was eating this up.

After a short breather we headed back to the car. We were very lucky to encounter a bus right near the entrance so we didn't have to take the walk like we did in getting there. Part of the tour package was lunch at the Taj Palace Hotel so that's where we headed. It was a buffet, and we ordered Kingfisher beer and water to go with it. Both hit the spot. They did have a nice ginger tart on the dessert table that was very tasty. When lunch was over, we told the driver we wanted to head back to Delhi, no shopping. The drivers get commission from places they stop along the way, so he was not particularly happy to hear we were done for the day.

The trip back brought with it an unfortunate encounter. There was a traffic jam on a bridge and by the time we got up to the bottleneck it became apparent that a camel, carrying quite a huge load of hay, had expired and was lying in the road, still hooked up to the cart. The farmer and others were gathered around, trying to determine their options. I am sure they were not close to home and they were not close to Delhi either. It was so sad for everyone involved, especially the camel.

Back at the hotel we stopped at the bar and had some refreshing libations, discussing all we had seen and done that day. We were waiting to hear from Chandan who was going to meet us for dinner. We got back much earlier than anticipated (no shopping) so opted to meet Chandan for lunch on Sunday instead. We had dinner at the Piazza Plaza at the hotel, which was an Italian restaurant. It was accompanied by a VERY NICE bottle of wine. Ask Peggy how nice the wine was!

Sunday dawned and it was my birthday! We had a day of pampering scheduled. Peggy told me that the girls back at the Sentinel wanted to send me flowers for my birthday and wanted Peggy to arrange it. We decided that a facial was easier to pack! Thank you Sophie, DeeDee and Karen for the lovely facial given to me by Pooja. She was very thorough. She worked on my face for about an hour. I feel so hydrated! We also got leg massages and pedicures. This was my gift from Peggy. Thank you Peggy! The leg massages were even more thorough than the facials. Talk about painful! The guy was ramming his fingers into my calf muscles. I felt good when he was done.

After lunch and a nap, it was back on the plane and back to Bangalore. Another adventure-filled weekend in India!

Never A Dull Moment

Upon returning to the apartment Thursday night after work, Peggy and I noticed a nearby neighborhood lit up like Christmas. She took some pictures from her balcony and I attempted to do the same from mine. I took my camera out to my balcony, careful to close the door behind me so as not to let in any skeeters. Little did I realize that the door, which I have had trouble latching from the inside before, would now automatically lock. I proceeded to fiddle with the camera until I could get a shot I was happy with. Time for bed. But no. The door was locked and I was stuck.

Here I was on the ninth floor, at 3 am, locked out on the balcony. My BlackBerry was on my nightstand since I had just taken it off before I went outside. I could not call anyone to alert them to my dilemma. Even if I could call, no one could get in. I had already bolted the front door closed. Panic started to set in. How would I get in? How could I let someone know? There was NO ONE out at 3 am and if there was would they answer my pleas or just think I was crazy. I actually peered around to the balcony next door but saw no lights. I figured that I wouldn't answer if someone came knocking at my balcony door at 3 am, so I was pretty sure they wouldn't either.

I started to run through my options, which were few. I jiggled and jimmied and knocked and pounded on the sliding glass door, hoping to somehow unlatch it. It wasn't budging. I tried to pull it out of the track but could only pull the middle panel out a bit at the bottom. I even tried to wedge myself into the small opening I created at the bottom by pulling it out of the track. That only managed to get my left leg lodged in the door up to the hip. Nothing else was going in.

I was going to have to break the glass, but it was 1/4" thick. There was no room to make a running start at it. The only thing on the balcony was the drying rack, which was not very substantial. Pounding it with my fist was only effective in hurting my fist.

I went back to the middle panel and pulled it as far as I could. Then I started working it back and forth. The glass cracked. I tried to kick where it cracked but that made no difference. I pulled one more time on the panel and finally the entire door shattered. What a noise it made! Or was that my heart beating? Luckily I was not cut at all and was able to step over the glass and back into the apartment. I put on some Deet before I went to bed because those pesky skeeters could now freely enter the apartment through the broken panel.

Notes and Observations

I have been here more than a week now and some things have not escaped my noticed. I thought I would share a few observations.

Indian TV
Since I tend the have the television on all the time for company, I have been exposed to quite a bit of it. The first week I stayed in my bedroom for much of the time and realized that the channels in the bedroom are not the same channels in the living room. I don’t think there are as many in the bedroom. I don’t get HBO or ESPN in the bedroom. I wish I did, even if there are commercials on this HBO.

I did get to see quite a few Indian music videos and have determined that most of what I saw falls into one of 3 categories.

1. There’s the male singer, singing his heart out and dancing in front of a group of men that I can only describe as line-dancing. Everyone is in sync and doing the same moves.

2. The next is very similar except the singer is female and her dancers may also be also female. I have been told these first 2 are Bollywood style videos.

3. The third category is a couple, usually out in a field, near a tree, singing and dancing.

The first 2 are not too far off many US videos where there is either a male or female singer with a whole group of people dancing behind them. In the US video though, the dancing is more like grinding and it’s anything but synchronized.

Power
Power here is nothing to be taken for granted. It comes and it goes, but that fact is barely noticeable to those that live here. The lights often dim at IBM. All but one light in the room will go out, but the computers are not affected. Neither are any of the folks in class.

At the apartment we usually have power blips in the late mornings and early afternoon. I figured I would be fine because I can run the laptop on battery. The wireless router doesn’t run on battery and it wreaks havoc with my network connection! Argh! Once I lose my VPN connection, it’s nearly impossible to reconnect, even after several reboots.

With no VPN access and a limited number of network connections in the training rooms at IBM, I am bothering everyone at the Sentinel with questions I could answer myself, if only I could get in!

Laundry
Ok. I confess. I gave up. I tried to do my laundry, but there were so many obstacles. First there was the washing machine. It is obviously not automatic. You have to switch it from one cycle to the next. Not a problem, if I remember. If not, my wet clothes can sit for hours. Steve, you know how good I am at remembering that, don’t you?

Then there are those mysterious brown blobs of something that show up on my clothes after I have “washed” them. I have no idea what they are. I tried running the clothes through the rinse cycle again, but that only resulted in more blobs. Hmmm.

Handwashing! I grabbed a bucket from one of the bathrooms and poured a very small amount of laundry detergent and some warm water from the shower. (I haven’t figured out how to get warm water in the kitchen yet.) I swished and agitated and swished and agitated. The water was turning murky, so I dumped the water and started again. I did this several times, and then did the same thing to rinse. When the water wasn’t nearly as murky, I decided they were clean. I wrung them out and hung them to dry. Everything was crunchy when it was dry. Ironing helped somewhat, but who wants to iron socks?

The next time Deepak came over, he offered to do the laundry. I jumped at the offer. Now each day I come home to a pile of freshly-washed and ironed clothing. He seems to be using the same washer, yet he gets no brown blobs. I’ll chalk that up to one of the mysteries of India.

Now we're Mac-ing it!

As I arrived at IBM on Tuesday and was unpacking my laptop, Avinash informed me that he had a present for me in the other training room. I immediately recognized the debris strewn about. The new iMacs were here! They were setting up 2 and you could just see the excitement in the team's faces! This was the LAT/Newsday team who are set to start taking calls next week so it was imperative that we get them familiar with these beauties. They were impressed with the large, bright beautiful screen. Since we couldn't project it, I asked everyone to gather around and we just dug right in. I gave them a rundown of the hardware, where the ports were located, how the optical drive worked and surprised them with the iChat camera. We went through all the System Preferences so they could become familiar with the settings. I was asked more than once where would you reload any drivers. I told them that Macs are very much much plug and play. "It just works!" After my presentation to this group, I hung around for questions, but stressed that they needed to get on the Mac and play with it. Being as they only had 2, they all rotated through and worked well in sharing their new-found knowledge and excitement!

After the dinner break it was my turn to give the Orlando Dog and Pony show to our group. I had previously given some info, but not to the whole group. I showed them the tools that were available to them in Citrix and I also showed them the Knowledge Base, which will be added later. We discussed Trax and Merlin and other Sentinel sites. I explained how we image our computers, what naming convention we use, what email programs are utilized. I also showed them how we want our incidents filled out. I detailed the list of our bureaus and how they may be referenced different ways. There was such much! I hope I didn't leave anything out. Well, I am still here for another week and a half if I forgot anything. I am sure I will have more to say later.

I am still getting to know our team and seeing the list of names submitted for account access has really helped. I asked them to please start using name cards so that I get to know each one by name. Later, I will take a picture of each one so Orlando, and the other papers, can get to know them as well. Peggy shot a bit of video of each of her team members introducing thim/herself. That sounds like a great idea! In the meantime, here are shots of the class. They were just returning from dinner, so everyone may not be in the pictures.

Peggy brought me a coffee mug from her apartment this morning. Oh bless you! Finally a decent size cup of coffee! This is the cup I have been using, which is not much more than a shot glass. How many of those do you think it would take to fill my coffee mug back at the office, twice?

Back to Bangalore

I woke up Monday morning to the sounds of a band at 6:45am! There was a lot of percussion so it sounded like a marching band. I looked out the window but all I could see was the parking lot. I did see some folks peering down the driveway of the hotel so I assumed it was one of the many festivals they have here. We checked out and our baggage was loaded into the car. Ramesh wouldn't let me get in though. He was pointing to an area behind the car. There was a huge banner announcing a wedding and the wedding was taking place just inside. We were invited in and offered tiffen (snacks) and coffee or tea. We politely declined and tried to take an unobtrusive spot in the back. I was so disppointed that my camera batteries died just after we got there, but I was able to get a couple of shots before that. The bride and groom are on the right, with the groom facing the camera and the bride in yellow. It was a very lovely ceremony. We didn't stay long because we still had to see Mysore Palace before going back to Bangalore.

Mysore Palace was beautiful--and huge! Ramesh took me to the Palace grounds where I was able to take a few photos, but no cameras were allowed inside the Palace. What a shame! I paid my admission, and dropped my shoes off at the shoe stand and made my way into the Palace. I was offered a private tour by an approved guide "Only 45 minutes and you will hear much history!" I opted for the self tour and was glad I did. I could freely wander (within the ropes) the Palace interior. I love the stained glass dome! The sun was at just the right angle to illuminate it beautifully. Some of the panels reminded me of peacock feathers. I just wish I had my camera! Oh well. I will have to keep this memory in my brain and not my computer. We'll see how that goes!


Before we left Mysore we had to hit the Silk Emporium! Everyone there was eager to wait on us and 2 guys were actually fighting over us. We went with the 3rd guy who wasn't as combative as the other 2. He was pulling out all colors and styles of scarves. Everything was so beautiful, it was hard to choose. I finally narrowed it down to 4. I also bought a nice, comfortable, cool shirt (I'm not sure of the specific kind) that I wore out of the store.



We stopped at Eagleton Golf Village, which was about a kilometer off the main road, so I could pick up a couple of items for Steve. I got you covered, honey! The golf village is fairly new, with new houses going up all around. Sounds like home! The club house was very large and stately. Lots of marble and columns. I asked the reception desk for the Pro Shop and they directly down the stairs and around the back. The Pro Shop was not as stately, but had everything I needed to make my golfer back home very happy. I only got a glimpse of the course, but it looked very nice.


Of course, not road trip is complete without a little car drama. We had a flat tire, but were soon on our way after Ramesh quickly changed it. We had seen disabled vehicles along the road before, and were marked with rocks, similar to our cones, to warn other drivers. He had it changed out before I had a chance to find any rocks to lay out.



Back at IBM the class was exited to hear about our weekend. He hit the high points and got to work. We have added our IBM team members to ITSM and created incidents for each one of them for account access. LA has already started creating acounts for them. Suresh told me that the Mac hardware has arrived and he would like to go over Macs on Tuesday. I agreed, but still have lots of work to do. I would like to create handouts or some kind of documentation for our team, most of which have never worked on a Mac. I looked forward to introducing them to the wonderful world of Macintosh. There is still Knowledge Base to update and Orlando tools to cover. LA is going live for some calls next week. I am glad we still have a bit of time!



Until next time, here's hoping I get this washing machine figured out!

Touring India

When we arrived at the Holiday Inn last night I thought what a great end to a great journey. Boy was I wrong! It was only the beginning! Ramesh picked us up at 8:30 am so Peggy could catch the scenic train ride to Coonoor. I opted to ride to Coonoor with Ramesh. It was a beautiful day for a drive. On the way I got to talk to my brother Kevin who called me on his way home from a night out in Charlotte. This was the first time I had talked to him since the tradegy at VT. It was good to touch base with him.

Peggy arrived on the train and was excited to tell us of all the folks who wanted to take her picture. Unfortunately, her camera battery died right before the scenic bridge so she did not get many pictures for herself.

Once we picked up Peggy we were on the road again. This time to Dolphins Nose. We first stopped at a scenic overlook and saw more monkeys. They were scampering around the platform when Peggy brought my attention to a couple of them near the road. It was a momma and baby and oh so cute. They hung around just long enough for one picture. We were then back in the car, and up the hill.

There was another scenic overlook at Dolphin Nose where we could see St. Katherine Falls. I asked Peggy to hold my still camera so I could get video. When I turned back she was posing once more with a group of folks. I was asked to join as well. Again everyone is curious about where we are from. I have taken to answering, "Florida, U.S." because no one here would have a clue if I said Casselberry. The falls were beautiful and we stopped at a Kothari Tea stand and had some chocolate tea. It sounds strange, but it was very good. I should have bought some there. We had the tea proprietor take our picture with Ramesh. We have been calling him our god, Ramesh. He has been the best tour guide and the most skilled driver.

After the seeing the falls, Ramesh took us to the tea factory. When we walked in there was an older gentleman explaining the whole process to a couple and their son. He quickly included us in his tour. He explained how they dry the tea and how the different processes work and he walked us through the whole factory. Orthodox tea is mashed and CTC tea is cut. We saw lots of big machines, but it was clear, lots of this work, such as sorting and bagging, is done by hand. We enjoyed a cup of tea outside the factory and were soon joined by the group that had asked to take our picuture at Dolphin Nose. Later we found out that our tour guide did not work for Brooklands Tea, but was the driver of the family he was giving the tour to. His father used to work there and he knew all about the place. No wonder we were getting strange looks from all the tea factory workers!

After we purchased some tea, we headed out and thought we were heading back to Mysore. Ramesh told us that the highest peak was not that far and it was definitely something to see, so off we went on the twisty, winding, narrow, steep, hair-pin bending, bus-eating-pothole-filled road! By the time we got to the peak we were exhausted, and we were only passengers. The ride had taken it's toll and both of us needed to freshen up in the ladies room, or so we thought! As a rule, we avoided public toilets, but this was a pay toilet, so it should be better, right? The question was, better than what? I wasn't sure what protocol was, but there was a hole in the floor, a faucet, a bucket, a cup and no paper! The woman who went in before me sounded like she was taking a shower! Whatevever we did in there probably seemed unclean to them, but they probably got more Rupees out of us than necessary.

So let's just get back to Mysore, back down that road, and back past Ooty, and back through the Wildlife Sancutary and on the road to Mysore. (Sounds like a Hope/Crosby film). Peggy and I settled in listening to our iPods. (Ok, mine is not an iPod, but you get the point.) Before long we were turning off the main drag into the very narrow streets of a village. Ramesh kept stopping and asking everyone the way to the Mysore road. What was this? Our god Ramesh has lost his way? As it turns out there had been fatal accident on the main drag the night before and the village residents were striking the use of the road. That forced quite a bit of traffic into their village. We were stuck for quite a while behind a large truck as he and another truck coming the other way decided who was biggest. During this time, we gathered quite a crowd of villagers and most were pointing and staring at Peggy in the front seat. I am glad I didn't go for those lighter highlights in my hair last time. This blonde lady was quite an attraction for them.

When we finally got moving and to the intersection, there was no way we were turning left on that road to get back to the main drag. There were cars and buses as far as the eye could see. We headed straight, assured by the villagers that we would find the road up ahead. Peggy wasn't so sure. We were putting a kink in their herding that afternoon and we didn't think they were thrilled to see us driving through their herd.

We finally made it to the main drag and Ramesh starting driving very fast. Peggy assured him that if we didn't see the lights at Mysore Palace tonight, it was ok. When we arrived in Mysore, Ramesh was confident that we had enough time to check-in at the hotel and still make it for the lights. We said ok. We got to our rooms and decided the Palace could wait until tomorrow, even if we wouldn't be able to see the lights. We ordered room service and retired for the night, our heads still reeling from the day we had!

Where do I start?

We went shopping on Friday to pick up a duffle bag for me because we're taking a road trip this weekend. Ramesh took us to Commercial Street which lived up to its name. We found a vendor selling duffles and I surprised myself by questioning the pricing. I got a pretty reasonable price on a nice size duffle bag -750 Rupees or just over $18.

After that Peggy had Ramesh take us to lunch at the Blue Ginger. I still wasn't sure about eating, but the place was beautiful! It is all open to the outdoors with lush landscaping all around. I had some veg and glass noodle soup because of my timid stomach, and ate the noodles with chop sticks. I tried to use the chop sticks to pick up a small piece of chicken and was so amazed that I had done it I ate the whole piece without regard to the knot in my stomach. Suddenly I was feeling better. It was hunger! I even had ice cream for dessert, but I couldn't tell you what kind it was. It was very good and we learned later it was diet ice cream.

We headed into IBM and Citrix was down (again!) so the team couldn't access ITSM (our help desk software). The weren't sure what they were going to cover at that point so I volunteered to do an Orlando Sentinel spiel. I explained to them how we create 3 partitions on a PC and 2 on a Mac, what network shares everyone connects to, what kinds of computers we have, how the Mac folks change passwords, just an overall to give them a better understanding of our computers, images and configurations. I talked a bit about Orlando weather and the daily thunderstorms. Some of the IBM folks that have worked at other call centers said that Americans are always curious about the weather where they are calling. I explained about Phat Phriday and how Technology has come together as a team and we wanted to make sure they feel part of our team. I stressed that they could contact us if they had any questions about anything, just as any of the Analyst do now. I think we are all going to get along rather well!

Upon returning to the apartment I had a task and dinner! Peggy fixed some pasta so I stopped by her place and made myself a plate. I settled in on my new couch (that Deepak and Gopal finally switched) with my pasta, a coke and my laptop. I started working through the Knowledge Base. Our Knowledge Base is a tool that will assist our team in India as they troubleshoot or route calls for us. It needs to be as concise and complete as possible. I went through each entry making sure it was understandable, consistent and pertinent. I made notes as I went and Alex (bless his heart) was getting emails of all my edits. I stayed up pretty late and got about halfway through. I went to bed at 1am because Ramesh was picking us up at 8am. I figured I could sleep in the car.

I did not sleep in the car. There was too much to see! Our journey was a little more than 200 miles but took us over 7 hours. As we drove on some not very good roads, my mom's voice was in my head talking about the rocky road to Dublin! The trip took us through a National Wildlife Sanctuary where we saw an elephant hiding behind a tree (there's a joke in there somewhere) and lots of monkeys. I was so thrilled to get this photo of one of them.

The end of the journey brought us to the top of a hill where a very nicely appointed Holiday Inn was waiting for us. The views of the mountainside were beautiful if not foggy as it had started to rain shortly before we arrived. At check-in we were presented with small glasses with a pink liquid. It was our welcome drink. I thank them very kindly and discreetly set it aside. I had no idea what was in that glass and was just starting to feel better. When I got to the room the first thing I checked out was the bathroom. There was a tub, but best of all NO BUCKET! I think I can get a normal shower and a normal size cup of coffee!

I am going to curl up in bed with my laptop and continue going through the Knowledge Base. But best of all, I haven't heard a car horn in several hours!

Home sweet apartment

This is where I am living these days. It's not fancy, but it is functional. The living room has this red leather seating area that Peggy wants because hers is really close to the ground. We have yet to convince Gopal and Deepak to switch them.



The dining room is where I usuall work on the computer. I tried to work on the desk in the living room but the legs were all different lengths so it wobbled every time I typed.The dining room has a glass table which makes it difficult to use an optical mouse on.


This is the bedroom. It's not the Waldorf-Astoria, but it's comfortable. It has all the comforts of home: bed, nightstand, closets, TV and it's right next to the bathroom, which can be convenient at times. There is another bedroom, but it pretty much looks like this as well.


Peggy and I took an AutoRick to the Forum (mall) today. I bought the PC headset so I could talk to Steve on gtalk. The time difference is really an issue. When I am available to talk he's either asleep or at work, and the other way around. Peggy doesn't have it so bad. Her time difference is around 12 hours, so when she gets up in the morning, they haven't gone to bed yet.

I brought my laptop in to class today which made it easier to keep in touch with everyone back at the Sentinel. It has a much bigger keyboard than the Blackberry. I gave out the lighted Orlando Sentinel pens that I had shipped over and the class loved them. They were packed in small boxes and everyone thought they were chocolate. They seemed a little disappointed that it wasn't chocolate (they love chocolate!) but the light up feature of the pen won them over. I was adding to the Active Directory discussion and by the end of the class everyone said "Good-night KJ" as they passed by me. It made me feel part of the team.

Getting Better

I woke up today feeling better and I even had some coffee. I didn't make it very strong because I don't have milk or sugar, but it still tasted familiar (Maxwell House) which means it tasted good. I have decided I need to get into a routine here so the coffee was a good start. I installed iTunes so I could stream radio while I get ready for work. The first time I tried it told me that it was not yet available in my country. Doh! Yet, when I went back later it just worked! Nothing says home like Country Music!

I am still hesitant about eating. I made some toast but because the bread is so thin, even on the lowest setting on the toaster, it was overdone and dry. Not very appetizing even on a good day. My stomach does still have a knot in it, but that could be nerves about eating again.

My camera batteries are charged and the spares are here so I thought I could upload the photos I took of the apartment. Either the web site or the wireless connection has other ideas though. I am not able to get the photos on the site.

I had some time to think yesterday and I thought I would record what I have noticed about this place so far.

Peggy was right. The whole city is under construction. Buildings are coming down and buildings are going up. The streets are all tore up as they are being widened. The amazing thing about all of this is that it seems it is all being done by hand. There are large piles of rocks everywhere and I see men moving them with bowls or trays no bigger than about 16” in diameter. The buildings are coming down with sledge hammers and the new ones are being built with wooden scaffolding held together with ropes.

There is noise everywhere. The sound of car horns is pervasive. Because of the nature of the traffic, the horn is not used in anger, but is more informational. “I am here to your right.” I hear occasional sirens that seem stationary, not like you would hear on a fire truck or police car. There are many other sounds I hear that I cannot identify. Some are within the building and some are outside.

Speaking of outside, we had a little thunderstorm last night. I was just starting to doze of when I heard thunder. I looked out the window and there was lightning and rain, quite a bit of it. I thought I was back in Orlando! I started to go back to sleep when I remembered I had laundry drying on the balcony. I thought it was going to take long enough with the amount of water still in them from the washer. I didn't need to add more to it, so I hauled the whole rack inside. Boy do I miss my dryer!

I will post more photos when I can.

As the Stomach Turns

Well, we won't be going any where near the IBM cafeteria from now on. The chicken sandwich got me. It wasn't really bad, but I have been confined to the bedroom/bathroom. I started with the Pepto last night, moved to the Imodium this morning and took a Cipro before we were due to go out. I was feeling better by then, but still thought it best that I stay here today. Oh well.

However, the package has arrived! I was soooo happy. I have granola bars and fig newtons. Of course I haven't felt like eating them yet, but knowing I can gives me such comfort! I was hit with customs and duty fees upon delivery. Between Peg an me, we were able to scrape together 9500 Rupees. ($225) Those are some expensive granola bars.

I tried to do some laundry last night. It's a very small front loading washer. I figured, hey, I have one of these. I can do this. I put the clothes and detergent in, set it for 60 minutes and normal and turned it on. Several minutes later it hadn't seemed like it was doing anything so I shut it off and opened the door. The clothes were getting wet so I shut the door and turned it back on. This morning when I got up, it was still running, but didn't seem any different from when I left it. Hmmm, maybe 60 didn't stand for minutes after all.

My Blackberry stopped working some time last night, but this afternoon, while I was sleeping off the Cipro, I heard the unmistakable tone it makes when I have new mail. Yippee!! I was trying to use it to send an email to Peggy this morning 2 doors down to let her know I wouldn't be going out. I couldn't sent out. We haven't figured out her phone number yet since they changed her phone the other day. (Funny, it seems here the phone number goes with the phone, not the phone line--and it's a landline!) She summed it up perfectly: Oh to be so connected across the globe, yet not 2 doors down. So true.

My job today is to figure out what we are doing this weekend and do some research. Gee, I not sure I know how. ;-)

Things are coming together

When I got back to the apartment last night Deepak had taken care of everything on my list with the exception of gas for the stove. Tonight when I arrived home the propane tank had arrived. I can now cook. Yeah, I know Steve, why should I start now?

We were scheduled to go shopping before work this morning, but I have been going since I got here and took this morning to kinda veg. Peggy was relieved! I did head out to the supermarket on site though and picked up some bread, peanut butter and jelly. I'm set.

Last night I had some concerns about the testing they were doing with the class. They were getting very granular in the Office products and I thought they needed to concentrate more on the core issues. Today I changed my mind. It was not about the test, it was about figuring out how to do something. It was giving them resources (it was open-computer) and letting them use logic and reasoning to figure out how something is done. I am really impressed by how Pinaki stresses that you have to think about the issue and use logic to resolve it.

I don't have any pictures to post today. The batteries in my camera died while I was taking pictures of the apartment. The good new is that they are rechargeable. The bad news is I don't have any spares to use while they are charging. I did send some to myself in that package that has yet to arrive! At last check it was in Bangalore though. Oh happy day!!!! Coffee!!

I spoke to Steve briefly today and it was good to hear his voice. We are working on getting GoogleTalk going and I am impressed that he has taken to it so quickly. I will get my headset tomorrow at the mall.

Avinash and Rishi were surprised that I hadn't brought my laptop with me each day to IBM. Well Peggy hadn't been bringing hers so I thought that you couldn't. I didn't realize that it was her choice. She confesses to not being as geeky as I, but then again, who is? I was going to bring it in tomorrow, but since we are going straight to work from the mall, I didn't see the sense in lugging it around. I will on Thurs. It will give the Blackberry a rest. Do you know how hard it is to carry on 9 instant message conversations at once on those things? You should see my thumbs flying!

I am going to bed now. It's hard but I have to. This is prime time for communicating with folks back home but we have been going into work around 2pm and getting home between 12:30 and 1am and trying to fit everything else in in the mornings. I'm not a night owl anymore, even if it is daytime in the states.

Cross your fingers. I ate in the IBM cafeteria, on the opposite side of where Peggy ate and got sick. It was just a chicken sandwich. Stay tuned...

IBM India

We are going to try to do some sightseeing or shopping before work each day to maximize our time here. On Monday we did just that.



We visited the Bull Temple, which we were told by our driver was built to house a granite bull that kept other bulls from ravaging the crops. The granite bull inside was quite large, 15 feet tall and 20 feet long. The dark bull was draped with flowers and looked very festive. We were given jasmine blossoms that were strung together to offer at the temple. We later noticed that a lot of Indian women wear the same kind of jasmine in their hair. It is very fragrant. We had to take our shoes off to enter, but I saw that many approached the temple without shoes on. Peggy got a picture of the bull, but I did not. We realized that this was a place of worship and did not want to be too intrusive.



Next to the Bull Temple was another temple which I think was dedicated to an elephant but we did not get a good view. There was some ritual going on inside and there was a line of people there to observe it. We kept back a bit, still being mindful of the religous nature of these buildings.


After the temples, we visited Tipu Palace, which was the summer home of the Tipu Sultan, a most revered Sultan who fought the British at MySore, several times. Those pesky British! Tipu Sultan eventually was forced to sign a treaty, dictated by Lord Cornwallis and his two sons were taken hostage. Hey, didn't we defeat Cornwallis at Yorktown?



At the palace we were asked to pose for a picture with a large Indian man. Peggy said it is because a blonde white woman is a rare sight in these parts. Everyone we talked to was very interested in where we were from. Peggy explained to one missionary woman that she and I were both from the land of Disney, only on opposite sides of the states.



All this touring gave us an opportunity to really experience the Bangalore traffic in its prime time. You really have to have great peripheral vision to drive in this city as there are things coming at you from all sides. I have to give it to Ramesh, our driver, as he does have quite a talent for maneuvering around the city. He drove us to Sunny's where we had lunch. It was highly recommended and somehow I was expecting BBQ. It was definitely not BBQ. I had a Thai Prawn soup, Grilled Tuna and a Ganache Tart. Karen, I think you might win if this keeps up!



After lunch we headed to IBM. After all, isn't that why we are here? It was good to see Avinash, Rishi and Zuber again, and I got to meet the rest of the team: Teena, Vijay, Suresh and Pinaki. They are all very nice. I talked at length with Vijay about all of the things we should visit while we are here. He was going to give me a list of places close to the apartment that we need to know, like Pizza Port!



The class had an assessment, after a review of hardware and software. I spent the time communicating with folks from the CSD through AIM (welcome back DeeDee!) and checking my email. It's really frustrating to only be able to talk to Steve through email at this point. I haven't gotten my ATT calling card to work and it is so expenisive to call on the Blackberry. Avinash recommended another calling card, which I will look into.



After the test, we got down to ITSM training. So far we are only covering the fields and how they should be filled out. Teena, Vijay and Suresh are very good at explaining this and I would put in my 2 cents about what and how we want info. It is still too early to give them too many details about specific ways to handle certain cases, but we are stressing to verify the client's department, phone number and asset number and workstation each and every time. If something does not match the Peoplesoft info, they need to make notes in the Incident Symptom. They will also be asking for the client's location and putting that in the "Building" field under the address. Suresh stressed that they are very clear in their notes and need to go back and read them to make sure they are understandable. No abbreviations or jargons. Everything must be spelled out.



We we took a break, Avinash and Rishi took me to the IBM cafeteria, but not the part that Peggy visited before she got sick. Since I had a big lunch, I only opted for a couple of small muffins and pineapple juice. I had a slight headache which I am attributing to caffeine withdrawal! They serve coffee here in such small cups! I can't wait for my package to arrive. It has Maxwell House singles, amongst other things. The last I checked on its status clearance proccessing in New Delhi was complete, whatever that means. I am concerned because my tracking says that is being shipped to New Dehli, not Bangalore and there has been no new activity on the tracking since 4/16 at 4:38am.



We left IBM around midnight, but before we left I got word of the shootings at Va. Tech. How horrible! Both my brothers and my sister are Va Tech alum and my sister was just there on Tuesday with the boys. What an awful thing to happen and I worry that it will forever mark the school, such as Columbine. That would be a shame. I went to bed with CNN on, trying to get the latest. What a sad note to end the day.

Happy Monday!

What a beautiful morning. The sun is shining, the temperature is 75 degrees outside (24 degrees Celcius) and no more Navy showers!


When they moved me to my "new" apartment it became clear that whoever was here previously took lots of stuff with them. There is no washer, no toaster, no propane tank for the stove, no garbage cans, no ironing board, no TV in the bedroom and no bucket in the shower. They have since remedied the TV and ironing board situation, but everything else will be coming "tomorrow, yes!"


Well, without my bucket in the shower, I opted for pulling the shower lever instead of pouring water over my head from the bucket. Amazingly, the shower stayed on when I let go of the lever! WhooHoo! I could stand under running water. Granted the water pressure is not that great and it takes a while to wet down my thick hair, but I will take it!

I had what I can only describe as miniature mangoes and miniture bananas for breakfast. Deepak brought me some fruit last night so I didn't need him to come in this morning to fix breakfast. I also had a cheese sandwich thanks to Peggy for giving me the cheese.

I believe we are going to see Tipu Palace and have lunch at Sunny's before we head in to work at IBM. Yes, there is work involved here. :-)

Bangalore by day

I woke up about 9 this morning, local time, because Peggy said a guy would be by at 10 to make my breakfast. I wanted to make sure I had the shower figured out and was dressed by the time he arrived.

The shower wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, but could be considered a Navy shower. There was no way to keep the shower running the entire time so you had to either only run the shower part when you wanted to wet down or rinse off. Or you could just fill the bucket and use that to wet down or rinse off. I opted for the second. The reason it wasn't as bad as I thougt it would be is because it is warm enough here that you don't get cold standing wet in the shower without warm water flowing on you.

Peggy showed up with da boys (Gopal et al.) and we moved me 2 doors down from her on the 9th floor. Instead of having someone cook breakfast, we opted to do brunch at the Leela Palace which turned out to be an excellent idea. It was beautiful! I have never seen so much food in my life. It was served with sparkling wine. I tried a little bit of a lot of things and enjoyed all of it. They even had live music. It seemed the place to be in Bangalore on a Sunday afternoon. After brunch we toured the Palace grounds.

Then Ramesh, our driver, took us to Food World to pick up supplies. Peggy had to cover me since I didn't have any Rupees on me yet. We tried to remedy that by hitting the ATM. After 2 unsuccessful tries at 2 different ATMs, I had a good feeling at the one at Citibank when it greeted me by name. It was then back to the apartment for naps and unpacking (for me).

I'm here!

And what a journey it's been!

Check-in at USAirways took and hour and Security took a half an hour. The plane got delayed leaving Orlando and then we were in a holding pattern for 30 minutes so I had to pull an OJ in the Philly airport, running to the farthest gate in the next concourse over--with 5 minutes to spare! The nice part of the Orlando to Philly flight was that at one point I looked out the window and lo and behold, it was none other than the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel directly underneath.

The flight to Paris was not good. I was not feeling well and it could probably be attributed to many things:
-I was flustered when I boarded, having run almost the length of the airport.
-I hadn't taken my Dramamine yet, afraid I wouldn't make the connection in Philly because it makes me sleepy.
-Nerves (Am I really doing this?)
-I had way too much water on the last plane making me feel quite full.
-The one that put me over the edge was the plate of rare (raw tuna) they set in front of me for dinner. I had to ask them to take it away because it wasn't helping. I even tried a little of the rice from the cucumber sushi, but I was way past food by then.

After taking the Dramamine, I was able to get to sleep pretty easily watching a movie (just like at home.)

I met a nice guy on the flight named Simon (I think he's French) and he was invaluable in directing me to Terminal 2 in Paris once we landed. Thank goodness, because Orbitz for Business doesn't give you information about any shuttles you need to take.

I got to relax in the AirFrance lounge and have pain (bread) and cafe long. I am not sure exactly what that is but it was basically coffee.

The trip from Paris to Bangalore was pretty cool. The first class seats recline all the way and they had flight tracking on the video screen. I didn't realize our route would take us somewhere between Baghdad and Tehran! They also had a camera mounted on the front of the plane so we could see the landscape on take-off and landing.

Peggy was at the airport to greet me, as was Avinash and his wife Salmer (did I get that right?) The driver, Ramesh drove us to the apt and said to call him if we need him tomorrow (today? what day is it?)

I will stay in this apt. tonight, but will move to another closer to Peggy's apartment tomorrow. There are 7 floors between us and I don't want to trus the elevator because of power outages.

Well, time to get some shuteye. We are going to Brunch tomorrow (today?) at one of the hotels and I will get to see Bangalore in daylight for the first time.

Heading Out

Today's the day.

Not much sleep last night. I stayed up way too late making sure I was clear on TSA regulations and all my last-minute home geeking was done. When I did go to bed, sleep didn't come quickly.

I am just about ready to go, but I keep getting those brief "Did I take care of this or that?" moments. Even if I am not staying as long as Peggy, three and a half weeks is a long time to be gone.

I have started taking my Malarone (for Malaria) and Culturelle (a probiotic to ward off digestive issues). I hope it's true what they say: "Better living through chemistry."

My cousins Kevin and Rosemary will be taking me to the airport as they are scheduled to fly out today as well. They are heading back to Scotland, hoping they don't get stranded in Chicago because of the weather. According to the USAirways website, the whole northeast may have some issues in the next couple of days because of weather. I am going through Philly. Cross your fingers that I don't have any delays. I would hate to have to explain to some French guy that I am trying to get to Bangalore. I haven't spoken French since Junior High.

All my gadgets are charged up, and so am I.

See you on the other side of the world.

And the Adventure Begins

I leave tomorrow for India and have been asked to keep many folks posted on my adventures there. I figured that as geeky as I am, why not blog it!

I have started packing, which gives me sort of a comfort level because I get to start checking things off my many lists. For those of you who know me, you know what joy I get in that!

Today is my last day at work to get everything I need, and to know everything I need to know. That's no small order. I think Sophie is going to lock us in her office all day to go over Knowledge Base and SOP. I think the fact the she is freaking out is keeping me calm. Thank you Sophie!

I have already learned so much since "we" decided to outsource: about Technology at the Sentinel, about outsourcing, about India and even about seat pitch on airplanes! I look forward to learning so much more.

Stay tuned as the adventure begins!