4th week's sunday

two days ago, i met with rajnikant around 1:30 p.m. to take a tour of the world famous "osho international" ashram. commune, that is. no, that's not it either, they like to be referred to as "meditation resort" these days. be it!

unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures inside the resort. then again, we were only given ten minutes actually inside of the osho. before that, a 30-minutes film was to enlighten us about how bad the lives we are leading really are without osho in them. if you want to see for yourself, check out www.osho.com.

in my opinion, the resort constitutes a very well-conceived vacation park. in contrast to the world surrounding the osho, everything looks neat and fresh inside. beautiful park areas, a pool, a state-of-the-art kitchen, small cafés, and much more let this resort appear as a luxury "center park". two very clever aspects make the osho so successfull. first, in a country like india, a clean and silent area is something many people crave. second, people coming here do not have to say "i am going to hang out at this luxurious resort in poor india". pimping the whole thing by blending it with a spiritual "i am off to discovering myself" sounds a lot better, doesn't it?

the business model also makes perfect sense. nobody is denied access to the osho since prospects do not have to meet specific requirements such as practicing a certain religion. furthermore, signing up for the resort, you do not limit yourself to only one form of therapy either. yoga, arun, zen, ayurveda...you name it! all you have to do is replace your regular clothes with a maroon robe and pay (as an international) 1400 for the first and 550 rupees for every additional day. not exactly too expensive (compulsory hiv test included!). with the words of a business student: shotgun marketing combined with fixed cost degression. when osho himself was still around, he reportedly owned, among other things, more than 90 rolls royces. you do the math!

afterwards, rajnikant introduced me to some rather dodgy parts of the regular indian sunday. according to him, the hindu's calendar "tolerates" the consumption of alcohol only on sundays. the first place we went to was a restaurant possessing also an alcohol license. they did not have many lights burning there. then we went to a liquor store, where you can buy virtually everything from beer to booze. since you are not allowed to drin in public, a very, VERY filthy back room provided relief in this regard (see picture with the little boy putting away empty bottles). at last, we bought "masala paan", which is a betel leaf filled with mainly areca nut. i am still trying to figure out what exactly i had there. rajnikant got himself something blended with tobacco. "nicht fur dich, aber hab vertrauen", were his words...

on the way home, we made a detour and drove to pune aiport. on the way there, i got a good impression about what "suburban india" means.

for next sunday, we put the mahatma gandhi memorial to the top of the sightseeing list. or some town built into the mountains although that might be too hot for the wimpy european. pune scored a temperature record for the month of march this last weekend (40°c), which closes the gap to the last post...

so long,
ti-bob

indian summer

kids,

i think i got myself a descent little sunstroke yesterday. thanks to sun blocker (spf 30), i might indeed have succeeded in not getting sunburned; instead, i have been suffering from a major headache since yesterday evening.

so hang in there and bear (typo corrected!) with me if you don't mind. i will be back soon updating the blog.

ti-bob

lazy saturday

somehow i did not feel like doing much today. after sleeping in did not really work because of the rising temperatures, i decided to go work out at the gym. but before that i had to check off an actually compulsory item from today's agenda: have my hair cut. yes, that does not require half a day in my case. then again, i cannot just stop by my favourite turkish barber's saloon here.

anita had told me about a place near the gym, where app. 20 middle-aged men were already awaiting me, the foreign customer. one accompanied me to my chair and seemed a little disappointed to learn that all my head needed was a hair clipper. three words about the saloon: packed, busy, steamy. the whole joint could just as well have existed in the 1920ies what probably does not appeal to today's average westerner. in a way, there was something vintage, cozy, and classy about this place (note to myself: go back and take a picture).

the hair cut was o.k., i have seen much worse. having reestablished my regular hair length, the barber asked if i wanted a head and body massage. i opted only for the first (i will leave the latter to someone more familiar). and boy, did he do a great job; i almost fell asleep (2nd note to myself: have that "someone more familiar" learn how to do head massages). the total for hair cut and massage amounted to 30 rupees...cannot say i overspent here.

unfortunately, i was to find out that the gym was closed (3rd note to myself: remember to not expect everything to be open on hindu new year's day). instead, i managed to find the bookstore my boss recommended: i am now equipped with the two allegedly most influential indian business magazines ("business&economy" / "business india") AND the english translation of an originally german book ("measuring the world" by d. kehlmann). i surely had to go to india to get my hands on the latter one. cannot wait to learn about what giulz' "boss" kept himself busy with when he was still around (read: in the 19th century).

then i had lunch at "kobe sizzlers" - the first meat in three weeks! - and facilitated the digestion of the same by administering a descent café latte at "café coffe day". nothing particularly indian about this saturday i have to admit. therefore, rajnikant and i will go take a tour of the "osho international" ashram in koregaon park, pune tomorrow. they do not seem to allow taking pictures there but i will give my very best.

finding of the day: besides getting gray, i am also slowly going bald. of course, the last four weeks here in india have neither induced nor spurred this development in any way. but we will see what i look like when i come home (which will be as soon as in only nine weeks!)...

indian engagement

yesterday night, nikhil took me to an indian egagement ceremony. one of his friends from the german classes at university had invited him and said it was no problem for me to come along.

i was very surprised. first, the whole thing rather resembled a party or happy gathering than a ceremony. while the traditional elements of an engeagement were carried out meticulously, the guests catted or took pictures. second - i could have figured - this engagement involved more people than many german weddings:

the engagement ceremony consists of three parts. first, the fiancé's family welcomes and/or accepts the fiancée to the family. as far as i understood, the fiancée undergoes the same ritual for every family member: they touch her forehead, stick something to eat in her mouth, and she finally touches their feet. thus, you will be better off picking a groom with a family that both is small and cares about clean feet (as most indians do)...

during the second part, the fiancée's family passes on the responsibility for their daugther to the fiancé. same subsequence of rituals as aforementioned. these two elements are often more than just an old tradition, since, as in this case, the two families barely know each other if at all. i was told that this was an example for a very modern couple since it was a) a love marriage (as opposed to an arranged one) and b) the caste system did not play any role.

exchanging the engagement rings constitutes the third and last step of the ceremony. as opposed to e.g. german customs, hindu traditions do not repeat the ring exchange at the acutal wedding.

these three steps lasted approximately one hour. the engagement party then moved on to the buffet to eat (in our case: from one side of the room to the other). the students of german obviously could not quite believe the food was not "zu scharf?!" for me at all.

during the ceremony, i also got to chat with one of the professors of the german department at pune university. understanding that she had the prototype of the german business world in front of her, dr acharya invited me to visit their newly established business german course to give a lecture. topic to be determined via e-mail but it will probably deal with something like "what the heck does controlling stand for" or "angela merkel and the economic downturn". they seem to have difficulties finding germans who are capable and willing to do such things. since i always enjoyed having foreign visitors in my french or english classes, i agreed on the spot; report will follow.

more pics

good evening everybody,

here's a brandnew slideshow for you to see how i am doing:

what do you see in the pictures? let me jot down a quick table of contents for your convenience:
- ti-bob wearing a short kurta at work on friday
- lunch, canteen, and slum view through the building's all-glass front
- visiting the mall
- beer on sunday
- indian wedding
- indian means of transportation (my favourite)
- burgers the indian way (totally meat-free!)
...supplemented with random shots of pune city for smoother viewing.

enjoy!

the reader

today, i went to the movies with rajnikant; "the reader" is in the cinemas since friday here in india. having discussed and analyzed the book in detail as a student of german, he wanted to see if the film could make it up to the book's story. i just wanted to go because the story sounded interesting. of course, i have not read the book.

before the film started, the entire audience was asked to rise for the national anthem of india. no kidding, the whole theatre stared at the indian flag on the screen; nobody even dared to move.

to make a long story short, i cannot but recommend this film. great story, great places, great actors. after "revolutionary road", "the reader" proved once again that kate winslet becomes more beautiful the older she gets. besides that, it was kind of strange to sit in an sold out movie theatre with only indians around, watching a film whose story takes place in germany. even more strange, however, that those two hours reminded me insistently that i am nothing but german, no matter how far away from home i am or how much i enjoy being abroad. yeah, that is us, look at how neat and structured everything was in germany already in the fiftees... also, the crowd almost broke into laughter when, towards the end of the movie, the "little apartment" michael rents for hanna is shown. "pure luxury what you germans call little" was what i understood.

after the movie, india quickly hauled me back into its reality with the heat, the unorganized chaos (no typo!), and the dirty streets. but there was something else pointing out that i was not at home here: still discussing the nuremberg trials with rajnikant, i spotted a book on display in the store right next to the movie theatre. "adolf hitler, mein kampf. with rare photographs."

ti-bob

nano space

when i stepped out of our office building after work today,
it was already dark outside,
i almost stumbled accross four little girls
playing in the gutter.

right above their heads
our office building's name
shining from a silver plate.
"nano space".

this situation, of course,
did not exactly ask for picture taking.
altough an important fact about india
could not have possibly been depicted better
than by those four dirty children
and their own, special headline.

because in this country
there often literally is
merely a nano inch of space
between first
and third world.

the four girls, however,
went about their play
lifting their heads just halfheartedly
to greet me with a broad grin.

today's findings

hello everybody,

i'd just like to share a few thoughts here.

1.) the gym enrolled i at must have bought one of those "bravo hits XX" from the nineties. today, wighfield ("saturday night"), sasha ("i feel lonely"), and even mr. president ("coco jambo") joined me during my sweaty activities.

2.) compared to germany, a lot of women frequently engage in lifting weights here in india. admittedly, i had expected just the opposite.

3.) according to an article in the times of india, the subcontinent accounts for some ten per cent of the world's traffic deaths with only one per cent of its cars. i will probably continue to feel fairly safe taking the rickshaw until i witness the first major accident.

4.) i haven't had much meat for lunch or dinner since i arrived and i do not miss it much. and just for the record: mango pickle rules!

ti-bob

pune city & university area

yesterday, rajnikant took me out to tour pune city. this time, we hit the "real" center of pune, which means the mahatma gandhi road in particular (referred to as MG road by the locals). here, you find many shops, restaurants, and even bars that sell alcohol. we entered one of these joints, which had somewhat of a dodgy atmosphere to it, and i was to get to enjoy my first beer since i have left germany (king fisher strong, i.e. 8% alcohol, 650ml bottle for just 150 rupees).

we then discussed a little bit the indian customs regarding alcohol consumption. being hindu, rajnikant could not have a beer since it was a religious holiday. but he admitted that not everybody always observes the "religious standard". neither can you buy alcohol in a regular supermarket nor can you order a bottle of beer in a restaurant. bars like the one we paid a visit to need a specific concession to serve alcoholic beverages (rajnikant's estimate amounted to about 5 million rupees for such a concession). it was not long until the entire bar was packed with drinking people. whiskey, gin, everything you can possibly think of. and there were not only foreigners drinking, mind you.

the evening out made something very clear to me: going out here will not be as relaxing as it would be in any bigger city in europe or the us. you might leave a bar and find a little girl playing with her even younger sibling in the street, literally covered with dirt. while you are contemplating how these differences can coexist in such astonishing peace, a screaming rickshaw almost hits you. you jump onto the sidewalk where a small boy insists on giving your shoes a shine. trying to shake him off, you almost bump into a cow rubbing it's back against a street lamp. a little condensed description but you get my point.

this slide show contains both pictures of pune city yesterday and a few day-light shots of the area where i live and work:

today, i checked out the pune university area. this area spans 1,6 square kilometers and mainly consists of forest; the buildings seem scattered all over the place. unbelievable that this university combines 46 academic departments, about 118 recognized research institutes, and 269 affiliated colleges offering graduate and under-graduate courses. have a look at the following slide show and you will admit that this does not resemble a university in the european sense at all:

next weekend, i will go see a part of pune called "koregaon park" which, according to my travel guide, harbours the more upscale places of pune.

so long,
ti-bob

the foreigner experience

the longer i am in pune the more i come to realize that there is more to the movie "lost in translation" than just fiction. despite english being one of the two national languages in india, you absolutely have to speak the local language - hindi for the state of maharashtra - to really become self-efficient here. otherwise, you will always be limited in your ways to explore a foreign country.

the average auto-rickshaw driver or the attendant in my apartment do not even possess the english skills of a sixth grader in germany. this situation is understandable because if they did, they could easily find better jobs. this country offers so many opportunities but you will not even get a glimpse of them without appropriate education.

having said the above, i also do have to concede that the sometimes poor communication with locals also stems from my inability to "roll the r" in the way required to pronounce street names correctly.

ti-bob

unfortunately...

...i could not participate in the holi festivities since "after eight" was the motto at work today. but i am back online again, so there will finally be pictures and movies of last weekend. stay put!

wait a second, i do have one picture of holi...next to our apartment building they lit a huge fire and shared indian sweets.


ti-bob

happy holi!

i am lucky enough to have come to india just in time for one of the allegedly biggest and oldest festivals celebrated here: holi. usually, the festivities span two days but can, in certain parts of india an abroad, extend over as many as ten days.

on the first day, everybody wears traditional indian clothes (sari for women and kurta for men). the women paint their skins with henna and in the evening there are bonfires burning everywhere. the story behind holi includes a father who intended to alter the belief of his son prahlada. prahlada prayed to the god vishnu and denied his father's demand. therefore, the father tried to kill him. one attempt involves the father's sister holika who was able to walk through fire. she should jump onto a fire with prahlada so that he would burn. but vishnu stepped in again and both protected prahlada and made holika to die despite her tolerance to fire.

the second day is called “colour day” and basically consists of applying as many different colours to other people as possible. the colour can come in the form of coloured water or powder. in a nutshell, this day wipes away all differences bethween the celebrants such as caste affiliation. the downside of this friendly happening: as opposed to the old days, the celebrations do not entirely rely on natural colours. the use of artificially produced and very harmful colours comes cheaper and is therefore often widespread. symptoms caused by these artificial colours include skin conditions, temporary and rarely permanent blindness, and serious lung congestion.

depending on when i can leave the office today i will provide you with first-hand experiences...

ti-bob

pune city or indian traffic on a motorbike

last sunday, my colleague nikhil picked me up at my apartment complex at 5 p.m. a few seconds later, we were like fish in a sea with very strong currents, which is rather euphemistically put when talking about indian traffic. first off: i never felt really unsafe during the approximately 45 minutes we were rolling to and through poona city. nobody wears a helmet over here, neither did we, although the non-existent traffic rules and the prevailing chaos definitely demand for one. then again, at the spots where danger seemed to peak, the moving crowd also lowered its driving speed to a minimum. the average passenger in flip flops would always advance faster here.

anyway, neither nikhil nor i were injured or harmed in any other way. admittedly, more than just once notions such as “there it is coming, this truck is going to hit us big time, here we go…” were flashing in my head. but as if every vehicle had its own protecting carma as an invisual bumper, nothing ever happened. if i had to write a book about how to survive and succeed in indian traffic, i would probably go with the title “recognizing and seizing opportunities”.

apart from the traffic, an abundance of mind-boggling impressions - again - struck me during this quick ride. join me here, here, and here.

we finished the day off by climbing on of the mountains nearby that offer a quite scenic view on pune. i there came to remember that pune as agglomeration is larger than any other german city…a marvellous view.

ti-bob

offline

hello everybody,

just a quick note from work: i am fine.
i was not able to skype or update the blog
with the first pictures from pune city
since i am - again - offline at the apartment.
they are surely trying to fix it
but i am not quite sure as to whether
we're talking about a few hours
or rather days here.

we'll see when i will be back riding the digital waves!

so long,
ti-bob

the first week's over

today is sunday, which means that i have been in india for almost a week now. it acutally feels much longer but that is probably because i have seen and done so many new things during the past few days. "india is an assault on the senses" is how my travel guide puts it, and there definitely is a lot to that statement.

for the first time, i went to the "city center" of baner village all by myself. the rickshaw driver (i still have not managed to find out if there is actually one single correct way to spell this word) did not understand where i wanted to go but agreed that i would simply direct him. here's another crazy rickshaw ride, this time at daylight:



worked out well, he dropped me off where i wanted. he demanded 30 rupees but i only had a 100-rupees note. surprisingly, he did not want to accept the 70 rupees as "tip" and finally managed to get smaller notes so he could return them as change. first, i walked for about a mile to get to know the area a little bit. the ultimate goal was the mcdonalds in the northern part of baner. having eaten indian food all week, i was craving a decent burger and some fries. even the burgers are more spicy than in europe; the "maharaja menu" came for just 123 rupees and the burger was very delicious. at mcdonalds, i saw many young indians, especially girls, who would talk to each other in a combination of their mother tongue, supposedly hindi, and english. as if there was nothing more natural.

after having filled my stomach with fast food, i enrolled at a fitness center which is about 2 miles from where i live and work. since jogging or swimming do not represent feasible options here, going to the gym will be the only way to destress a little (and not to return fattened to germany).

then i walked home, about another 2 miles. i was surprised at how little attention my presence attracted although i was the only obvious foreigner around. here are some pictures of this little journey:

the little walk yesterday made me realize that being in india has to exhaust the average european to a certain extent. i assume we are not used to this many differences within only a few meters or minutes. it's like boot camp for your senses, to rephrase the quote from the travel guide. but that also makes india more exciting than what we usually get to see...

this afternoon, i will explore the city of pune for the first time. nikhil offered to pick me up with his motorbike and show me around. yes, you heard me, i will be travelling on a motorbike in indian traffic...

moritz/ti-bob

let's talk about financials

being the obsessive controller you all know, i probably will not surprise anybody here by presenting what living in inda means in terms of cost.

this is a rikshah fare table. using this card prevents the cost-conscious traveller from being gypped by the rikshah driver. reportedly, such cards exist everywhere in india and are widely used.

nikhil and rajnikant, two colleagues working as german-english translators, told me about it yesterday and gave me one today. yes, it is only 10 rupees per kilometer. to give you a feeling in european currency: i withdrew 5000 rupees in exchange for 76 euros on tuesday, which equals an exchange rate of roughly 65 rupees per euro. therefore, i do not really mind the two rupees by which the standard price per km was reduced since the card was issued due to recently cheaper fuel (by the way, the government has issued a decree which requires every rikshah to run on either one of two natural gas types from may). i have to admit though that i have yet to try the crazy-rikshah ride. maybe tomorrow; i need a waiver to top up my indian mobile card.

another occasion on which i ran into a cost comparison today was when i enjoyed one of the freshly mixed fruit juices offered in our cafeteria all day. "mixed fruit" goes for 18 rupees, is incredibly delicious, and does - obviously - not destabilize my gastrointestinal fauna.

at the end of the day, the stay here in pune will earn the label "low-cost". the company pays for the apartment and the food (included in the apartment rent and also provided twelve hours every day in the company cafeteria), the coffee at work is also for free.

besides financial considerations, i am very confident that i will soon be doing more than just put in long hours at work. the aforementioned nikhil and rajnikant as well as "my trainee" mihir offered me to show me the city center of pune (company premises and apartment are not located in the heart of pune but in a suburb, or rather village, called "baner"). nikhil also brought up the idea of visiting one of the two-hundred-and-something forts in maharashtra. forget going there by car; these places are often only accessible if you hike there. we'll see what the european lung can tolerate in the indian heat...

to close today's posting, another picture. when i woke up yesterday morning i perceived a strong odor, similar to burning wood. and i was right: in the small but existent slum areas right next to our building, people simply need an open fire to get warm water. as simple as that. awkward notion that the european foreigner first had bad personal hygiene as reason in mind, don't you think? the picture shows how steemy the area looks in the morning; and believe me, this is not exclusively due to morning mist.

first visual impressions from pune

check it out:

and here's a short drive on the road where i live and work...

the first day

well, the flight to mumbai was very pleasant indeed. not fully booked, the plane offered more than one seat per passenger. out of the plane in mumbai, i got my luggage very quickly and without any damage. after this point, however, the big adventure india seemed to be let off the leash.

“how many laptops do you bring to india?”…i had been warned. and since they had just scanned everything i was about to bring into the country, lying was not an option. “you are allowed only one duty-free laptop”. 200 dollars, that’s what this customs officer envisioned as an appropriate fee, which should represent 35 percent of the depreciated value. as already mentioned, i was prepared. “all i have is 50 us dollars”. “only 50 us dollars. this might as well be possible but in this case you won’t get a receipt for the payment”, said the honourable officer. since i had already factored in such a fee, i was not surprised and agreed. from there it went like in a bad movie. i had to follow one of his colleagues who showed me the inside of a little tiny room which must have served as lumber room some time ago, mumbled the word “friend” a couple of times, accepted the money and smiled. off i went, still in possession of both my laptops. 10 meters further, the last control. “how many laptops?” “one!” (i had just paid for the second one to turn immaterial). “holding any foreign currency?” “just a few one-dollar bills is all that i have left over.” “two dollars, please” is what this eager officer replied, waving me through the last door to mumbai.

many words to describe just the way from the luggage belt to the waiting crowd of taxi drivers. my driver was the last one in the long line of course, waiting patiently together with another colleague from Germany. yes i had already smiled at how much can go wrong in only a few minutes…unjustifiedly. it cannot be unintentionally that it was a huge jeep our driver steered onto the mumbai-pune expressway a little later. that took at least the motorbikes as threatening obstacles out of the game. i always thought i had seen bad, dangerous driving in the u.s.! what we were about to experience during the following three hours is probably best depicted by “a hell of a ride”: trucks with and without functioning lighting, always obtaining two lanes at the same time, and a driver who was willing to tackle this situation with a descent amount of aggressiveness. his main tools: horn and headlamp flasher. this way, the aforementioned trucks would leave just enough space, sometimes under consideration of the fourth “shoulder” lane, to let us pass. the surprised foreigner was not surprised that literally every truck had written “please honk!” on its rear bumper. i was fortunate enough to catch one with my camera; yes, it is a truck transporting gas.

having survived the drive from mumbai to pune should give me a little advantage whenever destiny will be looking for a victim.

around 4:30 a.m. indian time i finally arrived at my apartment complex. the sleepy guard on night watch told me very proudly about him being christian and the two attendants in my apartments awaited me desperately. they really asked me what i would like them to cook for “dinner”. i went straight to bed, without any food. and just for the record: being in india does not equal people with good english skills around.

room and bathroom are ok for three months i guess. the air condition is working properly and the television is probably larger than anything i will own in my life. the shower resembles a lot those “rain showers” in german wellness clubs; it takes some time to get all the soap off of you. you’re right, the described is still waaaaaay above indian average.

waking up the first morning in india felt surprisingly good. i did not sleep long but well, the sun was shining and i was served fresh papaya for breakfast. the colleague whom i am expected to introduce to the mastery of project controlling - he has been with the company for only one week - picked me up at my apartment. fortunately, the apartment complex is located literally next door to the “nano space” where the company moved into new offices a couple of weeks ago. and what can i say - this can absolutely be deemed “western standard” if not - thinking of what we have in lippstadt - “and even beyond that in some cases”. lots of glass, water running down a wall, a colourful cafeteria, and the first separate office in my working life! but besides all the luxury, a look out of the window unveils india’s ambiguity: there are still people living in slums among all these construction sites.

all in all, too much for me to get my head around now. good night, i definitely need it.

ti-bob/moritz

p.s.: pictures will follow as soon as i will have internet access in my apartment. so far, “it giant” india has been unable to get me online...

off to india

everybody,

tomorrow morning i will set out for pune.
in other words, it will not be long
until you can tune into the first eye-witness posting
from sizzling hot india.

start counting down the days,
i will be back sooner,
than the expression "three months"
makes it sound.

ti-bob