Delhi/Agra Part IV: The Long Ride Home…

This concludes the four part series of posts about my trip to Northern India (New Delhi and Agra):

Early the next morning, we woke up, checked out of our hotel and hired a driver for a half day so that we could check out the few places we had left in Delhi to see. We knew it would be a fun day when the cab driver started trying to ask me something in Hindi – I speak about 3 words of it. Definitely relied upon pointing/slow speaking to get our points across. We arrived at the entrance to the Red Fort in Delhi and we saw two soldiers guarding it – our cab driver, after asking a random bike rickshaw driver, said it was closed. We took a look at our tourist guide about Delhi and realized that he had brought us to the wrong entrance – he was assuming the Fort was closed because he took us to the military controlled entrance (only part of the fort is open to tourists, the rest is a garrison for the Indian Army) and saw that there was no parking. After a heated exchange, we finally parked in the garage of a Sikh Gurudwara down the street and we made our way to the Fort. We were able to successfully negotiate Indian pricing yet again by flashing our neat Karnataka State Government papers – my tax dollars at work?

The Red Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was a huge fort built in 1648 by Shah Jahan (same guy who built the Taj Mahal) on the Yamuna River. It wasn’t as intricate as the architecture we saw at Agra Fort, but it was still amazing. There was a lot of Indian Army presence here – we saw at least 3 mustachioed soldiers with sub-machine guns wandering around. Also, we noticed that in India, roped off areas don’t stop people from going under the barrier like they do in the US – well, as long as the guards weren’t looking.

After we finished our tour, we went to one of the more unique places on our trip – Akshardham. The only way I can describe it is the Hindu equivalent of EPCOT Center. After ensuring that we didn’t have any of the 20-something forbidden items on our person, we went through a security screening that rivaled the TSA in terms of thoroughness. As we walked towards the temple, we saw some of the most ornate carvings and ostentatious statues we’ve seen here in India. I found it odd that they went on and on about the aestheticism of Bhagwan Swaminarayan (the “teacher” that the complex is dedicated to), like walking across India barefoot, etc. – yet he was represented by 14 foot tall solid gold statues. For a mere 51,000 INR ($1300), you could get the late guru’s blessings every day for the rest of your life. If that sounds a bit high, for only 11,100 INR you could get his blessings on only one day per year for the rest of your life. What a deal! They had an IMAX theater and boat ride, but myself and Jen passed.

After leaving that, we almost got dragged to a handicrafts store – but we demanded to go the airport. We assumed we’d only be a few hours early – turned out our flight was rescheduled for 4 hours later. Oops. I ended up studying for my work exam and listening to music for a while. The flight home was uneventful – save for the “jokes” section of the SpiceJet on-board magazine that had suggestions for ways to break up boredom on the flight that would get you arrested in the US – many included jokes about terrorism, etc. Gotta love the Indian sense of humor.

We arrived back at Infosys Bangalore around 10 PM and I hopped in a Tata Indicab and told the driver to go back to Mysore – he took the short cut, apparently. I was lying down in the back, in and out of sleep – but I do know we went down the very much unfinished tollway, went down some random dirt roads in rural Bangalore, but ended up back at Infosys Mysore in 2 hours flat. The long weekend was finally over.

FIN

Moving On Up…

Moving Up In Mumbai” – Wall Street Journal

Interesting article focusing on three young guys from the slums of Mumbai, India trying to work their way out, with a little help from the explosive growth of the service sector there.

Having lived here in India for over four months, you can see a difference in how people treat their jobs. You walk into a McDonald’s here and you notice how clean it is – you could perform surgery on the floors. You go up to place your order and you are greeted by a fresh-looking cashier who adeptly punches in the numbers and has your food up in 5 minutes or less. These people actually care about their jobs. Reading about the former employment of those three guys – I can see why.

All I know is that I will never complain about my time pushing carts at Target again after seeing the type of stuff people have to do here for a living.

Delhi/Agra Trip Part III – Wonders Of The World…

Continued from a previous post:

Saturday was another early morning – waking up around 5:00 AM so that we could catch the Bhopal Shatadbi train to Agra at 6:15 AM. We rode First Class AC Chair Car and let me tell you, it put Amtrak to shame. We got free bottled water, coffee/tea, biscuits – not bad for a ticket that cost about $12.50. We finally arrived in Agra at around 9:00 AM and found yet another prepaid taxi (a lot of taxis in India are prepay only – which can be good because a lot of drivers don’t like to turn on their meters/will take you the long way). We hopped in the sturdy Hindustan Motors Ambassador and headed for the Taj Mahal.

We were dropped at the beginning of a 1/4 mile path that led to the entrance – lots of overpriced touristy crap for sale, plus quite a few beggars. We finally got to the ticket booth/security entrance and were greeted with a pretty egregious case of price discrimination based on nationality/skin color. Indian nationals had to pay 20 INR (about 50 cents US), everyone else (Pathkars, or foreigners) had to pay 750 INR (about $20). My well reasoned argument about the fact that we pay (a lot of) Indian income tax, so therefore we should be allowed to get the lower price fell on deaf ears. We finally resigned ourselves and paid the obscene charge and got a color “pass”, a tiny bottle of water, and shoe covers – what a deal!

Government price-gouging aside, the Taj was amazing. It was breathtaking to see it in person – I can definitely see why it was selected as one of the new Seven Wonders Of The World.

They even had a post office there, so you could get your postcard stamped at the Taj Mahal. On the way back to the cab, I saw a beggar with legs gnarled from polio – it really made me realize how miniscule the fact that I had to pay extra to see the Taj Mahal really was. I gave him my free bottle of water, hopefully the gift of clean water was a good one. We then made our way to Agra Fort. There was some amazing architecture and breathtaking views – the most notable being the view of the Taj Mahal that Shah Jahan saw while he was imprisoned there for many years.

After enjoying some lovely Chicken Tikka at a restaurant called “Indiana”, we were forced to go to a handicrafts store – yet again. It was interesting to see how they hand-make carpets (that cost upwards of $10,000!), but all the stuff they were selling was at least double the price of the exact same thing back in Mysore. Being the unfunny person I am, I asked the guy if they had a painting of Elvis Presley or Jesus Christ on crushed velvet. Unfortunately, sarcasm doesn’t translate well in Indian culture and he told me no, but they could have it commissioned. His assistant pointed to the velvet painting of Ganesha – close, but no cigar. When we left without buying anything, our cab driver became sassy with us – guess we aren’t the dumb tourists that he usually drops off (and that got dropped off one cab after another while we were in there). We didn’t want to pay his ridiculous fee for 3 more hours, so we told him to drop us back at the train station.

We made our way to the prepaid taxi stand to find another driver, all the while being aggressively harassed by auto rickshaw drivers. We got to the government run stand to find that the police officer manning it spoke no English. The taxi drivers were basically operating it as they pleased – the inmates were running the asylum so to speak. We finally got a good fare (and almost prompted a fight over who got the drop) and we went to the person’s cab.

It was by far the worst car I have ever ridden inside in my entire life. It required a full bottle of water poured into the coolant reservoir to even turn over and rode like the springs had been cut. Multiple doors were broken, which was another comforting sign.

We made our way across a 1.5 lane bridge, almost hitting numerous things while crossing over to Itmad-Ud-Daulah’s Tomb – aka “The Baby Taj”. It was very peaceful and beautiful – a lot less tourists there than at the other attractions.As Jen and myself walked along the outside of the tomb, we had rocks thrown at us by the beggar children on the beach below because we wouldn’t give them money. It was darling – really.

We also made a stop at the Chini Ka Rauza – another Mughal tomb. As we walked along the wooded path, we realized that no other tourists were there. Turns out we were right – it has been basically abandoned by the government and left to rot. Most of the beautiful blue Persian tile is gone, the only visitors there were the local hustlers – hence why our cab drivers followed us. It was a shame that such a beautiful place has been abandoned – I’m sure it was amazing in its prime.

After talking the driver out of taking us back to Indiana (I think they pay a pretty good kickback), we realized that most of the sights were closed – so we foolishly agreed to check out another handicrafts store (we were tired of fighting at that point). We walked in and found – surprise – more excessively overpriced art and gifts. The highlights of that trip were the fact that I found a table top that cost as much as I owe to the US Dept. Of Education in student loans – aka it was pricey – as well as finding a velvet embroidery of Jesus Christ himself (remember my request earlier in the day?) – totally out of the blue.

We finally made our way back to the train station in our trusty cab – which we found out had no working headlights or turn signals, and was being driven by the cab driver’s brother who may or may not have known how to drive – and began the process of waiting for the train to show up – turns out it got delayed, by over 45 minutes. It gave us even more time to experience the chaos that is an Indian train station. There is the obligatory metal detector that no one is watching/cares about when it goes off, pallets full of goods, families sleeping on the concrete as well as the overzealous shoe shiners who thought that they could convince me to get a leather shoe shine on my non-leather Merrell trail running shoes.

We finally were able to board our train and make our way back to New Delhi. We walked outside expecting to find a prepaid taxi stand – turns out that it was a misnomer, as they only dealt with auto rickshaws. We had to make a hasty deal with the menacing cab drivers and finally found someone not wanting to rip us off totally and got a ride back to our hotel in a Maruti van that had the worst transmission I have ever had the displeasure of hearing. Hopefully our 200 INR will be invested into a new clutch.

Thankfully, the locals had run low on Diwali “crackers”, so we were able to drift off to sleep in relative peace.

To be continued…

Delhi/Agra Trip Part II – Diwali Madness

Continued from a previous post…

We hopped in the allocated cab and were greeted by a young driver and his older, surlier “assistant”. This “assistant” proceeded to demand our pre-paid cab slip before arriving at the hotel, which is not allowed. We refused, as we weren’t taking any chances of him ripping it up and charging us an arm and a leg, preferring to give him the actual address. This made him cranky, and he started mumbling in Hindi at us near the end. We checked into our hotel (which had an elaborate Diwali ceremony/shrine going on in the lobby) and caught our breath.

We talked to the hotel manager, got ourselves a pre-paid A/C cab and started our tours of the city. We first went to Birla Mandir – which was a pretty cool looking Hindu temple. We then proceeded to check out the Indian Parliament building and India Gate – the Indian version of Arlington/The Wall/Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier. It had the names of British/Indian soldiers who had died from WWI to Indian Independence. We then went over to Qutb Minar – a very old and ornate mosque/monument complex. Foreigners were supposed to pay 150 Rs, but we got “The Indian Price” of 10 Rs by flashing our FRRO papers. The guys behind the counter weren’t happy about it, but they saw “Government of Karnataka” and decided to give us the discount.

After touring Qutb Minar, we drove across town to the Baha’i House Of Prayer/Lotus Temple – it was an impressive structure that had beautiful grounds and was nice and quiet on the inside (silence was required). They had volunteers from all over the world helping out – which was kind of neat.

We ended the day by going to Mahatma Gandhi’s “samadhi”/memorial – Raj Ghat. Upon entering, we saw a guy hawking plastic toy AK-47s – it definitely didn’t seem like the place to be selling such items, considering his ideology of non-violence.

The memorial was very peaceful and beautiful – rolling grassy hills, famous quotes engraved into stone and an eternal flame.

We had finished off our first day of touring and had an hour or two left to kill. We figured we’d drive around some more – we were wrong. Our cab driver proceeded to take us to a handicrafts store (where he got a kickback for dragging stupid tourists to). We sternly refused – this made our cab driver less than pleased. I wanted to stop for a coffee, but he tried to say the coffee places were closed (never mind the fact that there were two places all lit up/with people in them within a 1/4 mile of each other). Our obstinacy had put him in a cranky mood – this theme would repeat itself throughout the trip. He didn’t even mutter a thank you when we paid him our balance.

We hit the hay pretty early, as we had an early morning train to catch to Agra. However, the neighbors had different ideas. During Diwali, people often light off cheap/loud firecrackers to celebrate. The people of Karol Bagh were no exception. The area outside our hotel sounded like downtown Sarajevo during the civil wars in the Balkans – it sounded like artillery shelling outside. We put in our ear plugs and finally went to bed.

To be continued…

Delhi/Agra Trip Part I – Early In The Morning, Rising To My Feet…

Finally, it is time to tell the tale of the eventful Diwali weekend trip to New Delhi and Agra, India. It all began after work last Thursday…

The beginning of a trip is usually the most uneventful, but this was not the case this time. Apparently there existed a communication gap between myself and the bus ticketing people – they told me I had a ticket on November 8th when I actually didn’t/they double booked my seat. That posed a problem, as they had 6 buses going to Bangalore/Hyderabad – all full. I had to put on my “boorish American” hat to get some results. Finally, I was able to start making the trek to Northern India.

When we got to Kempe Gowda Bus Station in Bangalore, I figured the bus driver would pull in and stop for a second – I figured wrong. It was basically a rolling stop, where I had to hop out of the bus and make my way through the throngs of travelers during the Diwali festival. After making my way through the crowds, I soon found myself in a place of solace – where things are simpler and more beautiful – that place was the local KFC. (Interesting side note – at Indian fast food places, the workers are usually all very presentable, with clean uniforms and a smile on their faces. The actual eateries are clean enough to perform surgery on. It’s like they actually care about their job or something – what’s up with that?)

I soon had to play telephone tag with my cab driver that was taking me to Infosys Bangalore, but after some initial confusion, I made it to Gate 6 of Infosys at Electronics City. I finally was able to get my room at the hostel complex and crash for a few hours.

At 2:15 AM, I got my wakeup call and had to get ready for our early, early flight. My travel partner, Jen and I met in the lobby and got in a Tata Motors Indica that took us to Bangalore/Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Airport to catch our flight on IndiGo Airlines to Delhi.

Our flight left at around 6:30 AM and as we took off, I couldn’t help but think that Bangalore at dawn looked like so many strands of festive Diwali lights. I had the entire exit row to myself and actually sprawled out across 3 seats – it was glorious. We arrived in Delhi at Indira Gandhi International Airport at around 8:30 AM, got on a bus that took us literally 30 meters to the terminal, then proceeded to get a prepaid taxi to our hotel – this is where the real fun begins.

Mysore Back…

Well, I survived my adventure to Northern India, had some fabulous Chicken Tikka, visited some amazing places, got harassed by a lot of cab/auto rickshaw drivers, looked at some overpriced handicrafts and made it back here to Mysore in one piece. I took copious notes about my experiences, so look for a 3 part series detailing my experiences up in New Delhi and Agra coming soon.

I uploaded my raw images from the trip – will be post-processing them over the next few days, so they look a little rough around the edges.

Off To See One Of The Wonders Of The World…

Well, the time has finally arrived – I leave for Delhi early, early tomorrow morning to experience Indian culture outside of Karnataka. I’ll be checking out the sights in Delhi on Friday, then take an early train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal – one of India’s most enduring sights for centuries. I’m definitely looking forward to this trip – it was one of the “must see” places on my list. I’ll be sure to get plenty of awesome photos and video to share with y’all.

I’ll be unreachable until Monday evening (I get back into Mysore at 4:30 AM on Monday morning, then I have to go to work at 9 AM), but feel free to comment/call my voicemail/etc.

If you are looking for something interesting to read, check out the new blog that I’m launching – A Day Late, A Buck Short.
It is a blog with advice/articles and discussion regarding personal finance, frugality, personal development and technology – all from my own unique perspective. It’s still in its infancy, but I’ll be posting regularly to beef it up substantially – so be sure to subscribe via e-mail/RSS reader/bookmark. Let me know what you think of it.

It’s Haiku Time!

I got a little bored one day and started writing some humorous haiku poems about some of the everyday stuff I experience in India. They are just for fun – don’t try and hyper-analyze these things, as they are probably not “Haiku 1.1 Strict Compliant”. Without further ado, here are a few selected ones:

Head bobs sideways
OK, OK, No Problem
Answer is cloudy

Synthetic football
What is this he asks
It is a mystery

More chicken ham
Lamb pepperoni please
Where’s the beef?

As you can see, I’m not planning on quitting my day job to become a writer anytime soon. Let me know what you think of them and post your own haiku in the comments!

I’ll leave you with a bonus haiku about “trickle down economics” (Oh dear, what have I done?)

Another tax cut
Hey, it worked for Reagan
Trickle down like the rain

Happy Kannada Rajyotsava!

There are a lot of holidays on the Infosys India list of days off that are definitely not on too many US companies’ holiday list.  It sometimes can be like playing a game – “Figure out what the name of the holiday is/what it is and win a prize!”. Today was one such day – Kannada Rajyotsava.

Having obtained a fine liberal arts education in undergrad, I was interested to understand more about this holiday to broaden my horizons/find out what the occasion was to warrant a paid day off. Turns out that Karnataka (Kannada) Rajyotsava is a celebration of the creation of Karnataka – the state that I live in here in India – on November 1, 1956. It was on that fine day in 1956 that a lot of the Kannada (the regional language) speaking regions were combined together to form the state.

In any event, Kevin gets to sit around and relax/sleep – which is always a good thing. I leave for Delhi and Agra next Thursday night (Infosys gives us Friday off for Diwali/Deepvali), so I’m looking forward to that trip.

In other news, I did a redesign of my “vanity” domain name – http://www.kevinjeffreysmith.com  – XHTML 1.0 Strict Compliant with CSS. It’s pretty minimal, but that’s what I was going for.

FIRE IS RELIGION, FIRE IS CULTURE!

Around 3:30 PM, Infosys had a fire drill in the GEC. This was not your average fire drill, however. After convincing our instructors that we needed to leave, we headed outside and were herded over to the cricket ground on campus. Apparently they had brought in a speaker. However, this was not your average public speaker. They somehow found the most intense person I have heard in ages to do a talk on basic fire safety – like the kind of stuff you learn in elementary school in the US. He was literally yelling into the loudspeaker with the fervor of a Southern Baptist preacher at a tent revival, screaming about how smoke will kill you and how you need to stop, drop and roll.

It was completely surreal – but that’s how a lot of things are in my life these days.