Kent has landed in Rochester. It's good to be home.

I like the live TV on JetBlue. I don't like the 35 min ground delay at JFK.

I'm at JFK. Heading to Customs and baggage claim. Kent

Short layover in Dubai

Well, I'm at the end of a very short (less than 2-hour) layover in
Dubai. It's 7:50 AM, and my flight to JFK leaves at 8:30. That's
12:30 AM in New York. The flight is about 14 hours. I hope they have
some great movies on the flight. I already slept about 3 hours on the
flight here. I'll probably we awake for a while.

I'll write again from JFK.

Kent

Packing for home

I'm back at my hotel.  Everything but the laptop is packed.  My bags are very heavy.  I don't want to know how much they weigh.  I just hope they put them on the plane.  I may need help just getting them to the lobby.  Clearly, I packed too many clothes.  Add that to the fact that I purchased more clothes here in India, and you get stuffed bags.

It's too early to summarize my trip.  Too much swirling in my mind.

Time to get my last things together and checkout.

Kent

Cyclone Laila

I've experienced a lot of things on this trip.  Lots of hot sun.  Today, it's a cyclone.  Cyclone Laila is moving towards us from the Bay of Bengal.  We just had some intense rain and thunderstorms this afternoon.

It's nice when the police read the paper

I can tell things in Hyderabad are calmer now.  The police at the checkpoint have had fewer weapons in view; no automatic rifles in days.  Today, at the main checkpoint I pass, no firearms at all, and the boss was reading the paper.

It makes me feel calmer.

Kent

Clever names for companies

I went to Subway for lunch last week next door at the mall.  The name of the business as it appears in my web banking?  See below:

05/07/2010

HANGOVER BEVERAGES ANDHYDERABAD

-$8.14

That's a clever name for a beverage company.

Kent

Obligatory picture of a cow and calf

Those who know me well, know I grew up on a dairy farm.  Still interested in all things related to farming, I wanted to see cows here in India.  This is a country where domestic cattle are revered, and you can see them walking down the street in the city.  You'd never see that in America.  I think cows were banned in cities after that Irish woman's cow started the Great Chicago Fire.

Here a calf is milking the cow so that the cow will let down here milk.  Then the farmer can milk her by hand.

I did not take the photos, but rather they were taken for me by a coworker.

Kent

Cold stones in India

The technique of mixing customized ice cream on a super cold stone made famous in the U.S. by places like MaggieMoos and Cold Stone Creamery has come to India.  There's a cold stone counter at the Novotel that I've seen in use during Saturday night dinners and Sunday brunches.  They called it ice cream sushi.  It started with chocolate poured on the the stone, then ice cream spread on top, choice of toppings, finally rolled like a small sushi roll and cut in two.

Today at the mall, I noticed a new place in the food court that was clearly a take on the cold stone concept.

Add a Starbucks, and InOrbit Mall will really feel like America.

Let's go to the mall

Let's go to the mall.

There's a mall next to the office here in Hyderabad.  I'd say it's a rather American-like mall.  Multiple floors of shops, large and small, and a food court.  The theaters are still under construction.  It seems like a very pleasant place to shop.  Many shops are western brands including Puma and Barbie.  Soon it will have a Chili's restaurant and a Sunglass Hut.

My typical day in Hyderabad

My typical day is getting up at 9am at the hotel, packing up dirty laundry from the day before and dropping them at the front desk on my way to breakfast buffet at the hotel restaurant.  For breakfast I always have coffee, bacon, and a croissant.  Sometimes I eat fresh pineapple, maybe scrambled eggs.  When I'm really daring I'll get a glass of juice, but only fresh pineapple because it's not from concentrate and has a thick skin that bad water can't penetrate.  Hard fruits safe, soft fruits not.

After breakfast I go to the hotel's Deli and get a sandwich and a can of Pepsi to go for lunch.  I pack lunch in a Wegmans thermal shopping bad to stay cool.

I go back to my room and pack my laptop into my backpack for the office.  Then I get ready, shower, shave, and dress from about 10:25 to 10:50.  I take my malaria pill about this time, and lock valuables in the my hotel room safe.

My driver usually arrives by 10:45.  I walk down to the lobby between 10:45 and 11:00 for the ride to work.  My driver, Hussain, is a quiet man in his 40s.  His hair is slightly redish, and he always wears a white dress shirt.  (Incidentally, most Indian men seem to dress in western dress shirts for the office.  It's the women who dress either native, western, or some combination.)  Hussain drives me in a white Toyota Innova.  It's a minivan smaller than the Toyota Sienna available in the U.S.  The Innova is air conditioned, thank God.  It's in the 90s by 11am.

Traffic is nothing like back home.  Intersections are "fluid." You just drive into them slowly and make your move when there's a space.  The car horns are used a lot to get smaller vehicles to move over and be aware that you are there.  The road is crawling with a combination of cars, vans, motorcycles, scooters, and auto rickshaws.  There are lines painted on the roadways, but lanes are relative.  Traffic laws seem to be more suggestions than rules here.  We seem to often drive down the middle of the road, scooters to the left of me, auto rickshaws to the right.  I'm one passenger is a nice, large vehicle with a great view.  Around me are auto rickshaws packed like clown cars and scooters with two, three, four(?), or five(?!?!) aboard.

Along the ride I pass roadside shack stores, tents, and general poverty that is way of life for many here.  Closer to work, I come upon large, glass-covered office buildings.  Oracle, Dell, Deloitte, to name a few, all have offices here.

I work at the office from about 11am to 9:30pm.  The sun goes down around 6:30pm, so the return to the hotel is in the dark.  Once again, cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, and auto rickshaws jockey for position.

There's a large KFC restaurant on my route home.  KFC appears popular in India.  I'll have my driver stop there some night on my way home.

I usually get back to my hotel by 10pm.  Then I relax for a while before dinner.  I usually go to bed between 2 and 3am.  Then I start again.

Kent

"Contains Peanuts"

Once again I'm shocked to see obvious package warnings, even in India.  A bag of spiced coated fried peanuts has the disclaimer "CONTAINS PEANUTS" on the bag.  No kidding. 

I can't escape disclaimers.

Kent

Birthday tradition in India: Frosting

A moment ago at the office, a young man entered the bathroom with what at first looked like shaving cream covering his face.  Another employee wished him a happy birthday.  It was white frosting all over his face.  I'd heard of this from an American at another firm here in Hyderabad.  Apparently, frosting is smeared all over the face of the birthday boy or girl.  I missed the actual smearing, and only caught the result.

Two thoughts:
1.  I don't want to bring this tradition back with me to the U.S.  I can see it going very badly in an American office setting.
2.  I wonder if this is at all related to what some Americans do with wedding cake frosting?

Kent

Ben and Jerry's in India

I wasn't looking for it; but I found Ben and Jerry's ice cream here in India.

"Three Up"

I recall the term for riding with a passenger in motorcycling is "two up."  So I shall call this photo of two women and a child on a scooter "Three Up."  I could only see the adults as I readied my camera.  I was riding in my car as we passed.  Only then did I see the kid.  Made the photo even more shocking.

Kent

La Cantina at night

Of all the places to find a Mexican restaurant, there's one at my Novotel here in Hyderabad.  They call it La Cantina.  I've only eaten there once so far.  I sat outside on the lower level.  Next time I will try to sit in the roof dining area.  Food was decent, but I miss Moe's and Chipotle back in Rochester.

Photo of Emirates Lounge JFK

This is the Emirates Lounge at JFK that I tried to post on April 22.  Beautiful facility.