The Indian Negotiator

Apparently champagne looks a lot like sparkling apple cider in pretty cups.  That isn't something I had thought about until after my first sip of this pretty bubbly.  Sitting comfortably on the 747, Lufthansa flight, me and the rest of Business Class settling in for a cozy flight from Denver to Frankfurt.  Yuck!

With some embarrassment, I asked the questioning flight attendant for some apple juice instead.  With an understanding nod and a smirk she obliged.

This is how my February trip to India got started.

Chris (my coworker) and I started our journey to India.  After a long but relaxing journey we arrived in Bangalore.  We stayed in a hotel close to the office (the Ibis).  Unfortunately half of the hotel was still under construction.  Which you could hear during the day, including not only the weekends when you are trying to sleep off jet lag but also the weekday mornings.  Lovely.

Kevin arrived to join us about our 4th day in.  He is a coworker also (works for our client).  He missed the Ibis experience unfortunately (haha) but thoroughly enjoyed staying at the Leela.

Bathroom sign at work. Took me some time to figure it out.

The bathrooms in the hotel were large modular units which I assumed were placed  into the rooms by crane, one giant rounded sort of thing that sat in the corner.  Chris had trouble with the shower doors which are all glass and come together in the middle.  There were little round holes in the glass (to be used to pull them open) and narrow openings between the wall and the doors which allowed plenty of water onto the outside floor.  It was this "Motel 6"-like experience that eventually led us to the Leela where we spent the rest of our stay.  Oh, I love you, Leela Palace.

We worked hard during the week.  I spent a lot of time visiting with components of the larger team (which totals to almost 50 people) and discussing the health of our team and plans for the future with my leads.  Girish is my lead there, very talented and someone I respect immensely.  He is also a funny guy and good person at heart, which endears him to the rest of the team.

Chris and I went shopping during one of the first evenings there, walking to a small mall not far from the Ibis.  We found some whitening wash there that got us both laughing.  I guess some Indians feel a lighter complexion is desirable.  I shared this experience with my team and got a laugh. I wonder, if I used that product, would I disappear?



On Saturday we went shopping to a very touristy place, same place I've been to a number of times.  It's a government-owned shop that has local vendors inside that are regulated supposedly.  I bought Karen pashmina scarfs there and Kevin and Chris also bought some as well (they bought many more; I think I'm cheap).  We later learned you can buy them for about half what we paid through Amazon, but then again, they wouldn't have been from India.  On the way out there were street vendors hocking wares.  You know, the kind that rush up and offer you junk.   I bought a map of India for $11 that I thought I would put up in my office at work.
 
I also bought a little round chess set.  I told the guy I wasn't interested but he was insistent, following us all the way to the car.  I paid 700 rupies (about $15) for what had started as a 1400 rupee chess set.  A great deal, I thought!  Then minutes later Chris gets in the car.


"What did you buy?", I asked.
"One of those chess sets", he responded.
"How much did you pay?", I inquired.
Silence.
"How much did you pay?", I repeated.
"400 rupies.", he responded.

Aaargh!  So, it turns out he is a really good haggler.  Time after time he proved this, getting us some great deals.

While in India a van-like car was arranged to take us from place to place (work, hotel, shopping, etc.) but it is quite expensive and requires the driver to wait for us at each stop.  We decided to try our luck on a ricksha and Kevin asked the driver if we wanted to do this, what should we expect to pay for a ricksha ride from the Leela to the Forum mall.  "About 150 rupees", he said.  Apparently only Kevin and I heard this, because the next day when we walked out to the street and found the first ricksha, Chris (who by now I called "The Negotiator") began the haggle.  

Before getting in, he asked, "How much for a ride to the Forum mall?"
Before the guy could answer, Chris suggests, "How about 300?"

"OK!", the man says.

That was one of the sweetest moments of my trip.

So we went to the Forum mall, which is a nice 5 story mall for India.  Nothing compared to those in the U.S. but still nice.  They have McDonald's here but it doesn't serve beef.  They also have KFC and some other chains.  We ate at this really neat restaurant that has a long room designed like the old-time train cars and we ate in one of those booths.  The food was awesome.  I got this drink that was milky and had cardamom and other seasonings in it that I really liked.  The naan there was amazing.  Rotis are also good but more like a tortilla and not leavened. 

Indians eat almost everything with one hand and no silverware, which is pretty difficult since most of their food is like a stew with lots of gravy or sauce. They use one hand to tear off a piece of naan, then they pick up the food with that and eat it.

I also had a pan (or paan?) which is a type of breath freshener.  Aromatic seeds wrapped in a butter nut leaf coated with real silver foil.  You eat the whole thing in one bite including the silver.  It was sweet and good.  I know I've grown accustomed to the food whereas before I was not.  I distinctly remember eating one of those pan's on my 2006 trip at a place called the Samarkand.  It was so nasty, but now that I've had it I enjoyed it.

I had fresh Watermelon and Guava juice while in India, both are delicious.

The Bangalore climate is beautiful.  It is cool weather here with a light breeze and birds singing.  Outside temperature in the morning is perfect for breakfast.  Each day we had breakfast outside, enjoying the birds and weather and good food.

One evening we were taken out to a resort where we were treated to a Bollywood fashion show put on by one of the teams.  They did a wonderful job.  I tried to imagine a U.S. team doing something like this and couldn't quite pull it off.  This is distinctly Indian.  Chris, Kevin and I were the "distinguished guests of honor".  They asked us to come up and dance at the end on the stage.  The three of us felt very silly but had fun.  After this then we had appetizers and drinks and by then my head was hurting quite a bit, but I hung in there.  They had some loud music and sucked us into dancing again, and I was horrible but it was fun... except my head was getting worse.  By 10 I was totally done and growing sick.  Kevin and I left early and we barely made it back to the hotel.  I kept praying to just let me make it to my room before getting sick.  I never threw up and was grateful, but I had a full-on migraine and my stomach was in knots.  I slept fitfully through the night.

The trip home was smooth until Denver, at which point it became rather painful.  It appears our flight arrive a bit late and our departing plane left on time.  Without us.  What was to be a very short 1 hour layover turned into a 6 hour layover.  After a trip that long, a Friday evening in the Denver airport was not on my list of fun ways to spend the weekend.

Chris and I got to know each other on this journey, and that was honestly the best part of the trip.   Our time together showed me that he is a funny, well-balanced man who I respect tremendously.

p.s. Incidentally, this is the trip the caused me to miss Valentine's Day and the Super Bowl.  (My job later cost me most of Mother's Day in flight to Florida, a bad move all around considering I missed two chances to express my love to my Love this year...)  For all of you traveling guys out there, I recommend against this.

Superbad. Superdad.

I went to India in December, 2010. 

While this is somewhat of a retrospective post I want to share a few things about the traveling part of this trip.

The people of India are awesome and I had a great visit getting to know the team.  The client joined me in India during my second week and it was a great visit.  My team of 30 (at that time) showcased some cool stuff and what our team has been doing.  I love my team!  But for this post I am not focusing on work.

I discovered bitter lemon.  This is not a fruit but is actually a delicious drink made of quinine and the lemon pith.  Yes, it's rather bitter.  I read that quinine can help treat malaria (how convenient that I was on my way to India) but in large doses can cause Cinchonism.. sounds pretty nasty.  So while the ingredients might remind you of terrible illnesses or might read like an assassin's cocktail, this is in fact the best drink ever made.

Then is also when I discovered Business and First Class flight.  ("So THAT'S what they do up there!")  Having made several flights to India, I was looking forward to this class and it was awesome.  In Business class I had my own "pod" with a tv and lots of space, and more importantly a seat that folded nearly flat and horizontal, giving me a chance for some good shut-eye.

First Class (which I took from Germany to the U.S. on one leg) on the 747's is in an exclusive 2nd floor section.  It is a notch cooler in that you also are given free jammies and lots of coddling, and   When we landed, for example, I was slow to pull my things together and the non-First Class people were disembarking already. As I was then escorted down the ladder the flow of people was stopped for my sake so that I could make my royal exit in luxurious peace.  I learned later that first class involved lots of caviar and champagne, but apparently I slept through the caviar, and I was not fated to meet the champagne until my February 2012 trip (future blog).

While I was on the return flight I was perusing the available movie choices and having a hard time finding a movie that was appropriate for a clean-cut Mormon man.  German culture (Lufthansa) tends to disregard movie ratings which makes identifying a clean movie option even harder.  So where I could normally disregard rated R movies and yellow flag the PG-13's, I was somewhat in the dark here.  Eventually I found my way to the Family Movies section and selected a movie I had not seen and that I knew was clean....

Despicable Me!

While most are drinking their wines and watching their grown-up whatevers, picture if you will a (nearly) 40-year-old man, sitting in Business Class, eating his pasta, sipping a citrus-y lemon drink, headphones on, laughing out loud at a wonderfully funny Disney film.  Yeah, I got strange looks.  Even from the flight attendants.

But I didn't care.