It's amazing, so amazing, so amazing, so amazing…

The title of this week’s blontry came to Rae while we were coming back to Delhi from Rajasthan on Wednesday. Why this is an appropriate title will be clear (I hope) by the end of our narrative.

You are no doubt wondering, “I wonder what they were doing in Rajasthan?” I know that would be my reaction to such a statement. I was asked to be the Chief Guest at the graduation of Sagar School, a 4^th through 12^th private residential boarding school. In my professional networking, I had made the acquaintance of one of the school’s trustees. As we talked about the state of education in India he invited me to come, bring Rae, and visit the school. That quickly morphed to being invited to come visit during the graduation, which morphed to being the Chief Guest. “What is a Chief Guest?” you ask? Well, it’s a lot like being a guest but, you know, chiefier.

The Sagar School campus is in the middle of nowhere, near the border of Haryana and Rajasthan The two states next to Delhi. There are a few Muslim and Hindu villages around the outskirts of the campus but no cities within easy commute. It was remarkably isolated – a world unto itself. Student and staff are there 24/7 because there is nowhere else to go. Their driver picked us up at 6:45. We were supposed to be there between 9:30 and 10:00. For reasons that will be made clear we didn’t get there until 10:30. Then the fun began.

First they fed us breakfast and then squired us around the main part of the campus (altogether they have 164 acres, so we only walked a small part of it). Once we got to the auditorium, Rae and I were asked to participate in the “lighting of the lamp” an India welcoming ceremony that often initiates a public ceremony. A brass bowl with eight cotton wicks is on the top of a stand. The brass bowl is filled with either ghee (purified butter) or vegetable oil. The ceremony’s host leads key people through using a candle to light the wicks. The lamp is to remain lit throughout the ceremony.

This isn't actually our lamp lighting but it gives the flavor of the thing:

Our next official act was during the “felicitation.” During this each graduating senior was called onto the stage. For each person, a "brief" description was given of their accomplishments and unique contributions to the class and the school. Then, the school Director pinned them with a school pin, I gave them an engraved “trophy” which was a school seal in glass on which their name and graduation date was engraved. Rae gave them a copy of their yearbook, they shook hands with the Principle, and then had their picture taken with us. This was repeated 54 times, once for each graduate (it seemed like more, I must say).

After a tea break we reconvened. The Director spoke; the Principal spoke. Then I was presented with a gift from the school and then I spoke. I am sure the kids will remember it forever: a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down the pants. The final part of the graduation was my favorite: groups of underclass students did three dance numbers. This is clearly the influence of Bollywood, where all movies, even tragedies, have some embedded dance numbers!

A couple of the things that were most noteworthy was how all the graduating students were dressed. The young men were all in various forms of suits or tuxedos. All of the young women were wearing saris. They were a very bright, articulate, and attractive group. There was a level of familiarity that I am sure can only happen through living together in an isolated location for years. All you needed was capes, wands, and magic spells and it could have been the Rajasthani Hogwarts.

That is probably more information than you wanted but overall. It was a pretty amazing day. Here’s Rae to expand even more on that theme. I’ll just say we were grateful to make it home alive.

So, I’ll start by sharing the amazing adventure of getting there.  It was hazy as we headed out of Delhi, which isn’t unusual as Delhi is mostly hazy.  Usually as we travel away from Delhi the air and sky clear but this morning it got thicker and thicker.  The remainder of the drive was fog to heavy fog until just outside the school.  Most of the road there was an undivided two lane road.  We are in India so let’s keep in mind that one lane each way equals at the very least 2 lanes each way, that doesn’t take into account motorcycles, bicycles, animals, and people.  Just another quick reminder that the lines painted on roads in the US to designate lanes to be driven in have a different meaning here.  Here, they seem to mean center your car on it.  Now that you have those reminders in your mind maybe you can begin to picture the situation.  Oh, I almost forgot one other thing, so many of the trucks that travel the roads here often don’t have working lights.  Now add poor visibility from fog, no head lights or maybe only one working head light, cars wanting to pass the slow car in front of them and it equals scary.  Amazing scary.

There were several times that our driver would venture into the oncoming lane to pass the car in front of us only to have to hit the brakes and pull back into our side (I use that term “our side” loosely).  Somehow we managed to avoid a head on crash and got there, while late, in one piece.  There were at least 3 truck accidents that we passed that were not so lucky. All were head in collisions from apparently trying to pass while there was very limited visibility.  Amazingly crazy is what comes to my mind.  Here are a few pictures of the fog. 

The trip back was fog free but also had its amazing moments.  Maybe they were amazing because we could actually see them.  There were two different times that our driver had to hit the brakes and pull as far off the shoulder of the road as we could get, so that we weren’t hit head on by trucks that were passing but couldn’t get back to “their side” in time.  There was watching the school buses in front of us, so loaded with students that they were sitting on the roof.  Watching the kids climb off the roof as the bus is still speeding down and road, and then watching the kids jump off the bus as it pulls slightly to the side and slows down a bit. Amazing.  There was trying to pass through an intersection with no stop signs, traffic lights or any other sort of way to regulate the flow of traffic.  It must have been rush hour in that village as trucks, tractors, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, carts, people, and you name it, all try to criss-cross each other and clear the intersection. Amazing.  There were the auto rickshaws that were so loaded with people, counting the ones on the roof, that I wondered how they managed to even move.  We saw several that had 12 to 14 people packed into/onto them. Amazing.  There were goat herds and cow herds being driven down the roads on the way to or from grazing. Amazing. There were the villages we passed through where people share their homes with their cattle, goats, pigs, or heaven only knows what else.  There were the piles upon piles of dried cow pies waiting to be someone’s home, the monkeys, the bare-bottomed or naked little children, the women carrying giant loads on their heads, and the list goes on. All amazing to me.  Even after two years (nearly) we can be totally amazed [Phil – “gob smacked” is an appropriate term].

  

  

One last amazing thing that I will talk about is the school.  It was like this beautiful calm. island in the middle of nowhere.  The school was lovely, well maintained, organized, well equipped, and such a contrast to any schools I've seen here in Delhi.  Here is a list of things they have there: a beautiful pool,  gymnasium with basketball, racquetball, squash, table tennis, rock climbing wall, tennis courts, football fields, track, horse riding, art complex, music and dance complex, hiking trails, play areas for the younger children, and an amazing observatory for studying astronomy.  I know I have forgot several things, but you get the idea.  It was…wait for it...amazing.  We didn’t take a lot of pictures because they told us they would be taking pictures.  We will include what we have but if we get some from them we’ll include those in a later blog.

It was a long, scary, beautiful, fun, special, and amazing day.  I was ready for bed when we finally reached home. 

Namaste  

Tell me what did you learn all these year? Tell me what are you gonna take away from here?

These lyrics (“In These Halls – the Graduation Song”) capture one of the highlights of this week – we had our annual graduation yesterday. For about four hours over 125 of our graduates, their families and friends, and representatives of 11 embassies had a raucous, joyous celebration of which the formal ceremony was probably the least important part. It is interesting to see how different the students and their families from different countries celebrate. It is close race between Indian and Korean families for which is more reserved. On the other end our African and Afghani students vie for the most boisterous. For all the joy and pride are obvious. I kinda experienced what it was like to be a celebrity with paparazzi camera flashes everywhere. Of course, the pictures weren’t for me – it was about the graduates. Having said that, I am sure I was asked well over a hundred times if I would be in a picture.  Usually when that happened, it would be first a shot with the graduate, then with his or her father, then mother, then if they could get someone to shoot it, the whole family. Despite all of the pictures that were taken, I don’t have any to show. :-( Sorry about that.

The balance of the day was spent in the meeting in which we formally presented all the analysis we have been doing and the proposed plans that flow from that work. This capped off a busy month and a crazy week. We had at least three pre-meetings with the Modi’s to review and change what we were presenting to the Joint Venture (JV) partners. We were making changes right up to a few minutes prior to the meeting. For the past week, I think the least amount of time I worked was 14 hours and I had a couple of twenty hour days. Overall, based on the outcome, I guess it was all worth it. The meeting went well and there was consensus reached on most of what we presented.

Today (Sunday) will be a brief breather before we have a couple more intense days with the JV partners from the US working on implementation plans and timelines. I haven’t seen much of Rae this week, or really since she got back to India, so I have been glad to have today just to relax and be with her. You haven’t heard from her in the blog for while – here she is.

I’m back.  I didn’t write for a few weeks because I didn’t think you needed to hear me sound tired and frustrated about things that were going on with the house and various projects that I was working on.  I left the US with some things accomplished and a few things still to be resolved, always fun to deal with from half way around the globe.  Some of these things are being moved forward with the help of our kids and some friends, so thanks to them. 

I was gone from 12-17-14 to 2-5-15, yes that’s about 7 weeks.  I was scheduled to return about 10 days earlier but when we found out that right after I got back Phil would be leaving for Dubai, we decided I should extend and continue to work on more projects.  Part of the plan was for me to actually have my final week to spend with family and friends and relax a bit.  Well, that didn’t so much happen and I found myself working on things right up until the night before I left.  There now, wasn’t that whinny enough?

It really was wonderful to be back and spend time with my kids, grand kids, and dear friends.  Those grandkids are growing and changing so much and it’s always hard to leave them and know I’ll be missing those changes.  I’m always grateful for the time I get to spend with them all.

Ever since I’ve been back, Phil has been SO busy that I feel I haven’t seen much of him.  I feel bad that he is stretched so thin  [Phil – stretched FAT would be more accurate].  There doesn’t seem to be much I can do about it other than not whine and grumble and make him feel guilty about it.  Wish there was a way to balance things out a bit. 

There was a project that was supposed to happen at our house here while we were in the US, but in true Indian fashion that didn’t happen, Surprise!  If the manager of this place is speaking there are a couple of things you can be certain of.  First, it’s a lie, and will never happen when he says, and second while he’s talking, air is being wasted.  You might gather from this comment that things never happen when they say it will and that’s the one thing you can be sure of.

Phil mentioned in an earlier blog that our friends, the Slocombes had finished their mission here and returned to Canada.  It was sad to come back and know they are gone.  I miss them already.  Jean used to give piano lessons to a couple of young women and a group lesson to some adults.  She asked me if I thought I could carry on with the 2 young women.  I’m going to try, so this should be interesting.  I’m sure I’ll be sharing more about that in the future.  Wish me luck, or better yet, wish those 2 girls good luck.

It’s good to be back and see the people that I've come to love.  That’s what balances some of the other things that can be irritating.   

Here’s to a good week for us all!

Namaste  

Now you're in Dubai, you've got to love the mentality, turn dreams to reality…

I have been to Dubai airport before but I have never spent any time in the city before. As you probably guessed from the title of this blontry, that changed this week. I was there with our Vice President for Marketing for a conference of educational agents from Africa and the Middle East.

So what does such a conference look like you wonder? Well picture a great hall filled with tables each with four chairs, two on each side. At each of these tables sat representatives of a college, university, or educational service provider (passport assistance, student loans, relocation services, etc.). When the conference started, representatives of one agency would meet with representatives of one university (or other provider). In 25 minutes a voice would come over the loud speaker that five minutes remained and then at the hour or half hour an alarm would sound and people would change their seats. It was kind of like speed dating except the agents didn’t just move over one table. They would have to go to wherever in the hall their next appointment’s table was located.

For all of that, things were well organized. Prior to the conference we were able to indicate the agents with whom we wanted to meet. Likewise, the agents could indicate the colleges, universities, and providers with whom they wanted to meet. The organizers processed all of that and arranged the half hour appointments over two days. In the entire conference we only had one no show. We also had two of three agents with whom we did not have appointments who came to talk with us. Some of the contacts seem especially interesting. We won’t know until we go through the process of getting them brought online and see how they actually work. We want this year to expand our network of agents in Africa and, to a lesser extent, the Middle East. We think there is the opportunity to get many more students from both areas if we can remove some barriers and get the right representatives.

We were kept busy from 8:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night. I didn’t have much time to see Dubai but we did have a couple of hours the afternoon before the plane left (I got back home at 5:30 in the morning :-(. A long day for sure. In any case, here are a few pictures I took of Dubai from my hotel room, from a dinner we had one night as part of the conference, or during the couple hours of driving around.

Room with a view:

Dubai at night:

Burj Khalifa - The world's tallest building:

Jumeirah Mosque:

Burj Al Arab Hotel (can't really tell from this angle; it looks like a billowing sail):

Dubai skyline at dusk:

Dubai is a stunning place. We also had wonderful weather while we were there. I am afraid that in the summer, it would be a different situation!

The other major event of the week happened Thursday night. Rae got home! Yay! By next week perhaps she will be over her jet lag.

Namaste  

Hands in the air, Presidents, prime ministers, They said that we didn't care…

Last week I wrote about Republic Day. A little follow up this week, and then I won’t write about it again until next year.

I didn’t go to the Parade this year. I just didn’t want to go by myself. I’ve travelled alone enough that I can go to a restaurant by myself but I just didn’t see myself going to a Parade alone. So I watched it on TV. It was interesting and I expect I could see some things better on TV than I could have in person. For instance, I mentioned last week that each State has a float that represents some important aspect of that State. Well, that’s mostly true. Some states sent dance troops rather than floats. When they reached the VIP stand, they performed for them. So, if I had just been at the parade, I would have seen troops of people in “effective but alarming costumes” (Reference? Anyone? Anyone, Bueller? A hint below) but I would not have seen their performances.

Monday evening, I had a fairly unique experience. I was invited to a business summit at which President Obama and Prime Minister Modi both spoke. There was happy talk by both of them and promises for joint activities. I am not confident that it will lead to much. I am sure the real advances are made between members of the two staff before the official summit actually happens. More political theater. Still, I was glad to be there. Kind of out of focus pictures below.

Most of the rest of the week, including yesterday was taken up with strategic planning activities. Consequently, not too much else to write about. I could include the descriptions I have written about various target groups of students we serve. But no. I will spare you that. Really the only thing that differed from working on the strategic planning activities, talking with Rae, and a few hours’ sleep was a meeting yesterday with the President of the Indo=American Chamber of Commerce. I am trying to branch out and get more involved in the professional community. I have been so intensely focused on internal operational issues that I haven’t done what I enjoy, I am pretty good at, and will help the campus: networking. Anyhoo, so I had the meeting. This guy is also the head of the Indian Bar Association. We had a very interesting conversation. It turns out he is also on the board of a private K-12 school that is one of the most prestigious in India. He has invited Rae and me to visit the school (it is about a couple of hours from here) when she gets back.

Well that’s it for this week. Not to give too much away, but next week will see another country checked off my list and even better…THE RETURN OF RAE!

Namaste