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.