M & J's Travel Adventures

Vikrant dropped me off back at the hotel and I had a little down time before he came back to pick me up to go the concert.  It wasn’t long – I got changed and dropped in a chair in the lobby to wait for him.  He and Smriti were there before I knew it.  She’s as beautiful as always.  She just left PGS a few months ago.

The concert venue, Mahalakshmi Lawns, wasn’t far from the hotel, but – here’s a surprise – the traffic was BAD.  Vikrant is a really, REALLY good driver, though.  I didn’t scream once!  We went down a long gravel road to get to the parking area, then up to the ticket booth.  There were several levels of security, including showing my Iowa Drivers License to get a wrist band to buy a drink.  The guy checking the license looked pretty skeptical, but how many Iowa DLs does he see?  I certainly looked old enough to be legal!

In fact, I looked old enough to be most everyone’s mother and grandmother to a fair number of attendees.  Hands down, I was the oldest person there.  But no worries – music is the great equalizer.  The grounds were huge, encircled by a ring of tents with food vendors and strategically placed bars.  The fest was sponsored by Bacardi, so no beer – only Breezers, rum and Dewar’s Scotch (must be owned by the same parent company).  I was super impressed with the stretchy nylon fabric that covered the ENTIRE GROUND inside the circular vendor area.  It had to be 3-4 acres and every inch had been covered.  So nice – no dust or grass.

The stages were outside of the vendor circle.  We wandered to the big stage to see a band from Mumbai, Local Train.  They were really, REALLY good, particularly the bass guitarist.  I couldn’t understand a single word, of course, but lots of times I can’t understand the English lyrics, either.  We worked in to about 1/3 of the way of the crowd.  I learned from a master (Mark – he’s the best ever) how to continue to weave in to the front so I told Vikrant and Smriti to follow me.   When a small spot opened up, I just eased my way into it and they followed me.  Before long, we were pretty close – or at least closer.  It struck me later that we became HUMAN TRAFFIC!  Find a spot and ease into it!

When the band finished, we had to hold hands to wind our way out of the crowd and get another adult beverage.  There was a great photo spot (and I’d post the pic if I could figure this nonsense out), a chance to listen to some Pune Reggae, which has a WAY faster beat than Jamaican reggae.  We headed back to the main stage for Joe Satriani.  The crowd was huge – at least 20k people, but extremely well behaved.  We wove our way through the crowd again, but hit the wall.  You know , at some point it’s just obnoxious to continue to press forward.  Joe was amazing.  The crowd was totally digging it and did something I’ve never experienced before – sang the guitar part.  They knew his music!  We all danced and jammed and let his amazing guitar licks wash over us.  It was a night to remember and I’m so grateful to Vikrant for letting me have the experience.

I’m so far behind in my travel posts.  I’ve been kept busy from morning until late at night.  Seriously, I get back to the hotel between 10-11, shower and fall into a dead sleep.  Then up fairly early to FaceTime with Mark, get ready for work and it starts over again.  The weekend was jam packed without a minute to spare!  And now it appears that WordPress has made some major changes to style and function so I’m having trouble posting pictures.  I’ll get it sorted out and add them to the posts at some point (I might have to – gulp – become a paying member).  If we’re friends on FB, you’ve seen a lot of them anyhow.

I slept in a little on Saturday and woke in time to have a little down time, then get ready for Vikrant to pick me up to take me to lunch with some old friends.  We were meeting Chandresh, Neelesh and Nitin at a restaurant in Phoenix Mall, which is just down the road from the hotel.  Vikrant has a nice, new car, a Suzuki, that gets AMAZING mileage – calculated it to be around 50 mph in the stop and go traffic in Pune, better on the road.  We were early to the mall so took some time to look around and I bought a couple of things.  We met Nitin (he left PGS not long after I came home from the last trip) and Neelesh (still at PGS) and went to the restaurant to wait for Chandresh (left PGS a couple of years ago).  I was up for anything, so they chose ‘Autobahn’.  It’s a pretty unique concept.  There is a 10” wide track (about shoulder high when you’re sitting in a booth) that snakes its way out of the kitchen at the back and between rows of booths.  There is a tablet at the table that functions as the menu and the way to place your order.  After the food is ready, it’s placed in a shallow tray on a little cart and the track delivers it to your table.  There’s a light on either side – if it’s lit, it’s your food and not the food for the booth opposite of you.  You remove the food and push a little button and back it goes to the kitchen!  Fun!

Chandresh joined us not long after we got there.  It was so good to see him.  He and Nitin hadn’t seen Neelesh or Vikrant since they left the company, so it was homecoming of sorts for all of us.  The conversation flowed between us so easily.  They’re all great guys and I was so incredibly honored that they took the time and made the effort to see me.  The food was good but the company was better.

I got a little teary again when we said goodbye (I KNOW!  I NEVER CRY!!).  I’ll probably never see these guys again.  I am lucky to call each of them friend.  My life is exponentially richer for having known them.

Friday night after the end of a long and short at the same time week, Priti, Pushkar (he’s a nerdy boy wonder!!), Shane and I left work around 6:30 to go to The Corinthian Club. It’s a gorgeous property with a brew pub, discotheque, hotel and meeting facilities on a hill overlooking Pune.  To get there, we went through Hadaspar at the height of rush hour.  The traffic (and street layout) there is twice as crazy as between the office and the hotel.  Mind boggling.  Our driver is amazing, not only for his skill but ability to find his way through the rabbit maze of unmarked streets.

We got a table on the patio with a view of the city lights spilled out in front of us like diamonds on black velvet.  Just inside the doors, the disco music bass beat thumped so loud you could feel it like a heartbeat in your chest, lighted dance floor and all.

We had a test flight of the microbrews and I fell in love with the cider.  It was very much like the hard cider I loved in the UK – crisp green apple flavor, tart and not too sweet, with tiny fizzy bubbles.  The food was amazing – the best we’ve had – salt and pepper chicken, garlic prawns and a phenomenal egg dish that I MUST get the recipe for before I leave.  Before we ate,  I stepped into the disco and took some video – the dance floor was packed!

Priti and I went into the discotheque to use the restroom and came face to face with more India magic.   Who is there (and I’d even captured him on video without knowing it) but my friend Vivek!  He’s not with PGS anymore but was there for a work party.  Running into him was a real gift!  I gave him a big hug (which I don’t think he really wanted but…oh well.  Age has its privileges) and we talked a bit.  He was the one person I was sure I wouldn’t get to see and yet, here he was.

 

Magic, I tell you.

 

I’ve been thinking about the friendships I’ve made with the amazing people in Pune.  I am proud to call all of them friend, but there are a few relationships that feel like I’ve known them forever.  I connected with them immediately, from the first minute.  One of these is a lovely woman at the office, Sheba.  Something about her just draws me to her.  We had tea last week and we could almost finish each other’s sentences.  We covered a lot of topics and it was obvious that we were, at the least, kindred spirits.

I’m beginning to think that I’ve known her, perhaps been her sister, in another life.  It doesn’t feel at all odd to say that.  I keep waiting to feel de ja vu, but I haven’t at all, either trip.  But this is an ancient, mystical place.  I feel it all to my very bones.

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When I first became involved with our partners in Pune, one of my first contacts was a young business analyst named Adiya Nagre. I got to know him quite well over the phone during our regular calls. He was bright and earnest and eager to learn the business of the business and not just the IT requirements for the project. When my trip to Pune was planned, I amused him daily with questions about the country and my lame attempts at learning a few words. I liked him so much and even though we hadn’t met in person, I knew that we would be fast friends.

And when we met? Just as I expected – friends from the first minute. He’s almost exactly the same age as Danny and he reminds me in some ways of him (like dipping cookies, two at a time, in his tea!). Aditya married in February of this year and Danny in June. And they both have beautiful and lovely wives.

Aditya invited me to his home Thursday night after work for dinner and to meet Roma. They live in a large society – what we would call an apartment complex – not too far from my hotel. Their apartment is a one bedroom, or what they call KHB – kitchen, hall (living area) and bath.

Roma is as beautiful as I imagined from their wedding pictures – beautiful dark hair and big almond shaped eyes. Aditya is tall and she is shorter and they’re a lovely couple (and will have beautiful babies someday!).

And she’s a great cook! They are both pure veg (not vegan, but no eggs). She made a delicious veg curry, in theory made mildly spicy for me but whoo boy!   It was still spicy and I like to think I have a fairly high tolerance for spicy. I may have coughed a few times before I cooled it down with some basmati rice. It had cauliflower, peas, tomatoes, onions and all kinds of spices. We had daal, which was sort of a thin, brothy yellow soup with lots of coriander (cilantro) and curry leaves. It’s not eaten with spoon but with a bit of chappati bread folded to make a little scoop. Curry leaves add a flavor I’ve never tasted, not even close and I love it.  Roma made the chappati right before we ate.  I even got to make a couple!   The dough is just wheat flour and water, but the flour must be incredibly high in gluten because the dough was gorgeous.  It was so smooth and elastic I though it was made with yeast.  I need to ask how long in advance the dough is made to let the gluten develop. To make one, you roll a little ball of the dough onto a metal plate, sort of like a cake plate with a small rolling pin, then brush it with ghee, fold it, roll it, ghee, fold roll ghee. Much like working butter into a croissant dough. Then it’s flash cooked on a smoking hot griddle until it puffs and gets just a little bit charred. So absolutely delicious.

While Roma was finishing supper, Aditya said that his mother wanted to speak to me! So he called her and I had a chance to talk with her – and tell her how proud I was of him and how lovely her daughter in law is. She agreed all around and we had a nice chat. I was very honored that she wanted to talk with me, or that she even knew who I was!

I brought gifts for them and they gave me gifts – WHICH THEY SHOULDN’T HAVE. But they did and I’ll cherish them. We had a wonderful evening. My biggest hope is that they come to Iowa someday and I can repay their hospitality.

Two of my favorite people…

I have a big long post started about the amazing, beautiful time I had with Aditya and Roma last night, but it’s going to have to wait until I can coordinate the pictures from my phone and iPad.

But! Here’s a funny…several weeks ago when I was talking with Priti about what I wanted to do for entertainment while I was there, I said – in jest – that I wanted to go clubbing.

Guess where we’re going tonight? Yup. Clubbing. To a discoteque with a lighted dance floor. Wish me luck.

Remember the random photos taken with random young men at their request when we were at the Peshwar Palace?

I found out why they wanted pictures.  Apparently, it’s a ‘thing’ to take and collect pictures of yourself with random westerners.  Pretty sure it’s not just with Americans.

So I’m not a rock star.  I’m more like a trading card.  Sigh…

The hospitality of these people is mind boggling.  It’s everything it was the first time I was here and more.  Tuesday night we went out to dinner to a seafood restaurant with Priti and Amit.  They’re such good company and the the food was delicious.  We talked and laughed and got to know each other.  Back to the hotel by 9:30 and of course, I fall right asleep.

And wake up at 1 am.  WIDE AWAKE.  I tossed and turned and fussed until I finally fell back to sleep around 4:30.  The alarm went off at 7:30 and I felt pretty rough.  But I roused myself, Facetimed with Mark and off we went – back to the office.

Somehow I ended up in the front seat on the trip in on Wednesday.  I screamed twice – and the boys mocked me.  We all marvel at the oozing flow of the traffic, the scooters with a girl in saree riding side saddle on the back without seeming to hold onto anything, the children squashed between two adults or the small child riding in front of the driver and tied to them with a sash of cloth.  And the horns – the incessant, bleating language of the horn.  But like everything in this magical place, it all seems to work.  Personal needs (at least on the road) are subordinate to the needs of the whole.  The van inches forward into a seemingly impenetrable wall of vehicles, a few meters of free space opens up and we ease into the flow in short order.

This would never work in the US.  Never, ever, ever.  The incidents of road rage would be too many to count.  The accidents would be everywhere.  It would never work.  But it does here.  Perhaps it’s because the culture is so ancient, they’ve had plenty of time to figure out how to live together.  Or because they have inherent tolerance for proximity because of the population density.  In any case, it works – even if I do scream a few times because I’m certain it ISN’T going to work in that moment.

Wednesday night was free.  Shane and I ate in the Italian (I know!  Italian!) restaurant in the hotel and had some great discussions, much about how the trip is altering.  It changes how you feel about the people and the partnership we have with them.  It also makes you hyper aware of the expectations we have of them that they don’t have of us – namely work schedule.  I would say that no one experiences Pune without being changed.

At least you are if you do it right, with an open mind and an open heart.

Here we are with the teams.  Priti is between Shane and I and Aditya is to his right.

Lovely, lovely people.

No, not Michael Scott-Jim Halpert-Pam Beasley-Dunder Mifflin office.  Priti Munshi-Aditya Nagre-Vikrant Vashisthi-Margarpatta City office!  The driver was there to pick us up at 9:45 and off we went for our first day.  The drivers this time take a decidedly different route to the office (to ‘miss the traffic’, I’m told.  HA!) which routes us through residential areas and impossibly narrow alleys.  I screamed several times both coming and going, but not at the top of my lungs, more like under my breath.  I’m learning!

It was a breeze getting into the building and a breeze getting into the office.  Much has changed – no more checking in your laptop every day or special tags on back packs and purses.  Just a badge to get into the complex and my PFG badge to get me into the work area.  The desk set up is really compressed.  It makes our neighborhoods at the home office look and feel palatial!

Priti was there to meet us and get us settled at our desks.  I’m displacing a nice guy for the duration and feel badly about that.  Priti is right across the low wall from me, so I’m not missing meetings or getting lost!  And meetings there are – I feel like a rock star.  It feels like everyone wants to meet with me!

Speaking of feeling like a rock star, I forgot to mention that while at the Peshwa palace on Sunday, we were approached by several young men that wanted their picture taken with me.  I was happy to pose, but after a few, Aditya brushed them off and said no more.  I couldn’t figure out why they wanted their picture with an old American woman, but he said it was because I’m American (no mention of the old part).  How funny is that?

So I’m making new friends and renewing friendships and even more importantly, the dream of my magnum opus (great work – I got that from Charlotte’s Web!), a complete data mart that will live beyond my time at PFG, is actually going to come true.

The trip back to the hotel was long – nearly an hour because of the TRAFFIC! – and the boys (Shane, Mark and Dick) were all silent.  I’m not entirely sure they weren’t asleep!  I had a quick supper at the Italian restaurant (sea bass-yum) and went to my room.  I fell asleep around 8, then woke up at 1 and couldn’t get back to sleep for a few hours.  I woke again at 7:30, just in time to Face Time with Mark.  Right as we were talking, the electricity went off!  So glad I wasn’t in the elevator!  It was off for about 15 minutes, then came back on.  Up and out for another day in the office!   I’m looking forward to supper with Priti and Amit tonight.  Aditya has invited me to his home for supper on Thursday!  Harsh and I connected and will be getting together on Sunday.  Sure hope I can see Chandresh while I’m here, too.  And excited for the festival with Vikrant and Smriti on Saturday!  The time is already flying by.

Aditya came with the van and driver to get us a Sunday morning.  We met Deepti and her beautiful daughter – her complexion was amazing – at our first stop.  We started the day at the ruins of Shaniwar Wada, an enormous Peshawa palace.  It was built in the early 1700s (where did they quarry the stone?  How did they get it to the site?  How was it built so precisely?) and the seat of power of the Maratha empire until the early 1800s when it fell to guess who?  Yup.  The British.  Grrr.  Very, very cool place and rumored to be haunted.

Laxmi Road was crazy busy early on a Sunday.  I actually put my hand out and touched the vehicle next to us to show myself how close it was!  I was on a quest for something to wear on Wednesday, which is to be a traditional clothing day.  As much as I like the saree, I wanted something I could wear at home, too.  Pretty sure I could never learn how to wrap one!  I found a great yellow raw silk kurti with dark blue scarf.  That I can figure out!

We had a fabulous early supper at a restaurant in a hotel…somewhere.  It was delicious and had the absolutely very best naan you can imagine.  By the time we finished discussing American politics and 100 other subjects, both Shane and I were about to hit the wall.  Deepti and daughter headed for home and we went on our way.  It was a great day.  And tomorrow – the office!