In India

This is not meant to be political, just a taste of how things are a little different over here.

You probably read that W gave India nuclear stuff to India:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11607934/

Lemme explain, I am no fan of W, and the whole administration seems to break more laws every day ( For Chistsakes...after I left I heard Cheny shot a guy, then denied it, then admitted it....geez..), but lemme give you the view from the other side of the planet.

I remember when we had that blackout in NY, it was maybe 8-10 hours, Me and my buddyEmilio had to drink all my emergency whiskey. Then we set out for the bar in the pitch dark to get the cheap warm beer they were trying to unload...I though that was preety ghetto (but fun). In Pune every weekday from 1-4 p.m the power is off in the city. The office ( thankfully my apartment complex) and some larger stores have power generators.
So...sometimes...

• at night all the streetlights and traffic signals go out. This actually has very little impact on traffic.
• the power in the apartment (or lights in the office) blink out for 15-20 minutes while the generators kick in.
  

And I've got it good, I've had coworkers tell me that in other parts oftown the juice goes out for 2 hours at a time.

This occurence is given the euphamism 'load shedding', and everyone but me thinks it's normal.
For example I went to get a local cell phone (my co-workers were getting really upset about paying international rates to call me). I had to make some copies of some forms.

"Do you have a copy machine?"
> "Not until 4 sir, come back then"
I was confused because i could see the xerox machine right behind her.
"pardon?" (they sales lady thought I was stupid, she rolled her eyes)
> "there is no power until 4 sir"
"In the store?"
> "(sighs)...in the city sir"

She thought I was stupid...

I asked some people in the office if there was some schdule to this, they kind of smirked and said"there is some type of schedule but nobody really knows it"
and
"sometimes it's in the newspaper"

WOW!....you pay taxes?

As my friend said
"If it's the daytime and the power goes off you go for a walk, if it's nightime you go to bed".

Okay, to anyone who romantasizes about living 'the simple life', or compains that modern life is too hectic. Try living with no electricity for a few random hours every day.

You think it's dangerous to give India nuclear reactors?
You're worried about nuclear proliferaton? The political stability of the sub continent?

Shut up, you're ain't been here, you don't understand.

India needs energy, any kind of energy.
I don't care if it's 10 billion hamsters in little wheels, I don't care if the whole phsycic network is chanelling spirit energy into crystals, whatever.

Just keep my lights, fridge and the airconditioner working, please!

Let no one say you did'nt learn anything reading this blog.
The word is not ruppee. I'm teaching myself hindi, so I try to read all the words I can, the money is good because you get to read numbers bigger than ten. I figured this out one night, and I'm rather proud of myself. I don't have television, so I occupy my time with learning to read (which is really important, just imagine how hard things would be if you were illiterate. All the signs in stores, on roads, they just look like gibberish, and you can't tell if they sell shoes or stoves).

I also figured out how to switch the MS keyboard to type the hindi characters. Then it took me even longer to figure out how to switch it back. As my programming buddies know I also now have to save these in Unicode and not ANSI.

Anyway, the word is more like this: roo-pie-ah.
Lemme break it down.
Unlike english, hindi script is phonetic ( thank god because it's got about a thousand other rules)
Check it out:R (lightning bolt) र
long U (curly que right) - ू

That's a long 'U' in a word, if it's by itself , or at the begining of the word , it looks like this (three with a tail)
ऊ
In a word it usually goes under the consonant, but when you put the U under the R it curls up into the R like so ...(the lightning fork)...
रू

Lightning-bolt R (र) has a bad habit of doing stuff like this, it shows up about eight different ways depending on what letter it's next to. And it might seem ridiculous, but my little names actually help me remember these things.There's probably a term for that.

Another thing that makes this so geekily interesting for me, is that MS-Word goes and figures thisout as you type. So for each keystroke, it might have to go back one letter and redrawit. I have no idea how typewriters ever worked in such a language...worse yet I think would be Chinese (if this interests you go read "The Guttenburg Galaxy" by Marshall Mchluhan).

A few more letters:
p (upside-down little h) - प
y (no name ,looks enough like a y)- य
On the coin it's one (ek) roo-pa-yah
रूपया

one vertical bar is the long A (again when it's in a word)
The plural is roo-pa-yeh, on the bills it this

रूपये

There's one left facing flag on the 'y', that's an 'eh' sound

'Ruppees' seems just plain wrong because you don't use 's' to pluralize things in hindi. This is probably due to the british influence.

This here is an N
न

And I'm in
पूने

But in the local dialect , the pronunciation often goes from 'ey' to 'ah'. Which is why the maps can't decide if this city is Pune or Poona.

One more then I'll stop, also on the bills, and a handy word to know.
Bank, in hindi it's.... Bank.
B (slash in ball) - ब
K (ball and a tail) - क
ai (two flags) - ै (when it's next to a constanant.)
bank
बैंक
Hey, where's the 'N'?
See the little dot over the b ( to the right of the vowel flags) That's the hindi 'half n', it's nasal, it's really hard to do ;)

I read this book called "The Simple desgin of Everyday Things". It has a bunch of interesting observations. Like pull doors should have vertical handles, push doors shoulod have horizontal bars. Soemthing that clues your brain in how the device works
The camera ran out of batteries. Then I found out it only takes rechargeable batteries. So I bought some and popped them in, it worked for about 1/2 an hour then went dead again. Stupid cheap bateries. So I bought another set and it happened again.
Finally I flipped open the manual. The batteries that come with the camera are Nickel-metal hydride ( they look exactly like double A's but have the word sony on the side). Normal bateries are alkaline.The bateries you get in India are nickel-cadmium. And the manual says , do not use nickel-cadmium batteries (on page 95 in fine print).

Oh of course ....that's nickel-cadmium, not nickel-metal hydride.

International battery manufacturers, just make them different colors, or slightly differnt sizes....something that might clue people in.

Now the thing won't work with the orignal batteries either.
I have a warranty too, the help number (ironically enough in India) said I simply have to bring it to the nearest Circut City location and they would check it out and do any necesarry repairs.....great.

It's all good ,there are plenty of electronic shops in town.

So...no pictures for a bit ( there are more in the camera, and stories to go with them).For now you'll have to deal with my witty banter.

Eating Out
You're in Pune, so you're already the adventerous sort, So try some food you can't get at home. Some restaurants have funny story entires, or things I learned about food entries. I have not gotten ill from anything at a retaurant yet. Just ask for bottled water and avoid ice, enjoy.

Lessons I learned eating in Indian restarurants:

• The lassi is your friend: Having a lassi with dinner is probably the equivilant of having a milkshake with dinner, but occassionally you will run across something in a dish which is far too spicy or too salty for your weak american palate (a chili pepper floating in gravy that you don't see can suprise you) . That's where the sweet smooth yogurt drink comes in handy. Make sure you ask them not to put salt in the lassi, which seems to be popular here.
• White dude, you look foolish eating with your hands: If you grew up not eating with your hands , this takes some practice to do correctly. You might be okay with your roti and panneer, but seriously how much rice is getting to your mouth, and how much is in your lap? Ask for utnesils.
• This menu's in english but you still don't understand: The waiter would probably help you, but be brave, just get your basic vocab down ( aloo, daal...etc, important vocab is higlighted throughout the blog).

Restaurants

This will be updated with every restaurant I go to. I hope it serves when people not from india come here ( you guys at the company are coming....right? )
What'd that HR guide from the company have? 3 pages? Some directions from the office to local hotels, generic warnings about water and pickpockets. That's all well and good if you're here for 3 days, but I'm doing a full tour of duty . This is what should be in there for the american dude coming to Pune. Enjoy (Pune, this is the best publicity your ever got). There are no addresses in India, they read like directions, so I just note them by landmark.

Stir Fry (E-square, above the movie theatre)

Food: Good chinese dumpling soup, spicy shrimp in black bean sauce. Large portions, beer in bottles :)

Decor: They've got a little waterfall inside, skylight and everything is bamboo, classy.

Smoke in there?: yep

Cost of dinner: With two beers Rs.800

Anecdote: The waiter brought me beer, I said "shukriya", he said "Cheers",these were the only words we knew in eachother's language.

Illness: Nope

Decann Blue (FC road across the street from Feurgeson College)

Type : indian and chinese veg only.

Decor: Wood interior lined with neon light, kind of asian feel.

Smoke in there?: nope

What I learned about food there: I had a parathna here. Parathna is another variation on bread, kind of like a pancake, fried in butter , filled with various things. It comes wiht a small cup of Daal (lentils),channa ( chick peas), and raita (yogurt). And a side 'pickle'.

• Pickle: 'pickle' is not like a kosher dill pickle. In india, It's a pickled...something...I think it's an unripened mango, servered in a chili paste. This is usually served with raw sliced red oninons, and lime wedges.
  

The espresso was more like a cappucino, but it's India.
Anecdote: After dinner they brought a large cup full of hot water with a lemon wedge in it. I was puzzled.

"Chai?""nahi ....(more hindi I didn't understand)"

"do I drink this? mein pee raha hei?" (me drink am doing...I don't know many verbs, but peena is to drink)
The dude was holding back the laughter. He went back and got his manager

>>"It is for washing your hands sir"

"ooooohhhhh...sorry", we all laughed.

I still have my american attachment to utensils ( mostly), so my hands don't get too bad. I'm learning.

Cost of dinner: Paratna + lassi + 'espresso'. Rs 105.

Roopoli (FC road, across from the Subway sandwich shop)

Type: veg indian snacks

Decor- kind of dark, plaster made to look like stucco.

Food: I had a dhosa, not bad...menu is limited to dhoas and some snack foods,not really enough for a full sit down meal, decent for a quick bite.

Cost: Dhosa + lassi ~Rs 50.

The New Yorker - JM road, just south of the park with the tank. Had to go because of the name.

Type: All veg ....their take on italian,mexican,lebanase and indian (those being the major ethnicities of New York)

Decor: Hilarious, looks like an 'oringial ray's pizzza', with an outdoor deck overlooking some of the park. Wall size paintings of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, JFK, Charlie Chaplin (americans).

Food: Interesting...lasagna with corn in it. I passed on the Italian, get a sizzler ( this means served in a skillet), it's a mountain of food. I got the indian one, It's channa and rice and paneer, and mixed vegetables in a tomato sauce ( biryani?).

Cost: Sizzler+ garlic bread + soda : ~Rs. 300.

Washawara (FC road down by the chowk with JM road, chowk means intersection)

Type: (sigh) all veg again, and either this is like a tappas place or the waiter got me to order dinner twice.

Decor: Could be on Smith street, nice little outdoor with umbreallas and wicker chairs.

Food: Small stuff, some larger dishes (just relatviley larger)

What I had: Pav bhaji - it comes with extra pav or extra bhaji (which would be cool if i knew what either word meant). It's lentil soupy stuff, not spicy. The pav is these two dinner rolls saturated in butter (inside and out).

Later i learned pav is the bread, bhaji is the lentil part.

Papad - another bread, like a cracker
Anecdote :After that the waiter came back and I ordered an espresso, but he shook his head and kept pointing to the specials on the menu....confusion.

"Yes I see, but I don't think I want coconut kachori, just coffee"

>>"specials...aappe?"

"What's aappe? sweets?"

>>"No"

"coffee?"

>>"Not coffee, specials"

"Okay....you seem really set on this , bring an aappee" ( I was still hungry and at least I'd learn something)

Aappee - pretty boring , small fried dough balls served with that green chili dipping sauce.

Total Cost: pepsi + pav bahji + aappee + papad = Rs. 75