One more year, Let's hold our breath, And give it just, One more year

The title of this week’s blontry refers to the fact we have renewed our visa. It’s probably the last time since they are good for one year and that’s when our contract ends. I honestly don’t see ourselves extending our contract beyond that, so I guess give it just one more year also applies to our stay here in India. Rae is going to talk about the visa renewal process I will talk about another highlight, the Bhoomi Puja for the K.K. Modi University that we are building.

As faithful readers of oldfartsinnewdelhi know, we are here so I can run a joint venture of Stratford University and the K. K. Modi Group. We essentially are a campus of an American university transplanted in India. It is not a twinning program because there is no Indian university involved. That has proven to be a limitation. Creation of the K. K. Modi University, which will be a proper Indian university will overcome that limitation. People have been working for over three years to get approval to build this university, so it is a huge event for everyone involved. Naming it after Mr. Modi, makes it also a memorial to him so the day also had huge personal significance for the family.

In the US, there would have been a ground breaking ceremony, with all the dignitaries turning over a shovel of dirt after the prerequisite speeches. In India there is a Bhoomi Puja. This is a Hindu religious ceremony in which the earth (Bhoomi) is blessed and thanked for her bounty and offerings are made to atone for the disruption of the earth and all the living things that were resident on the construction site.

Here are some pictures of the Bhoomi Puja:

Durg, where the new university will be is not particularly close or convenient. Durg is a city in the center of India in a state called Chhattisgarh. It is about an hour and a half flight and then about another hour drive. So to get there for the ceremony we had to leave early in the morning and it took until pretty late to get back. A long day.

Actually, the campus site is outside of Durg on former farm land. There is a dirt road that cuts across the property that leads through a small village and to a river. Pretty much a non-descript piece of property in the middle of nowhere. However, I think it will be a great site for the campus. All of Chhattisgarh is a major center for steel and cement production. There are major infrastructure companies also located in the state. However, the engineering colleges are not meeting the needs of these employers, so there is a major gap we hope to fill. Here are some pictures of the site:

Well that’s it for me. Here’s Rae!

As Phil mentioned earlier, I’ll share a bit about renewing our visas.  Last years’ renewal was remarkable because we discovered after the fact that our visas had already expired.  This is not good, and we were told it wouldn’t be an easy process and would be, at the very least, a 2 day process.  At that time we had a man, Ramdas, working at the campus who helped all the foreign students with their visas.  He was well respected at the FRRO (foreign resident registration office) and so he said he would help us get renewed.  He contacted the person at the FRRO office that he had a good working relationship with.  We showed up, met that man in his office and then went down to the process area.  I’m sure you’d love to hear all the tiny details of this process, but I’ll fast forward though that and tell you that one hour later we walked out with our visas all renewed for another year.  “What, you mean we’re all done, WOW!”  We did have to pay some fines, but that was expected. 

This year we didn’t let our visas expire and started the process in what we thought was a good amount of time to get it all accomplished.  Ramdas has left the campus but has stayed in touch with people there, Phil being one of those.  We asked him if he’d be able to help us again this year and he was gracious and said yes.  We got all the necessary documentation prepared, with the required three copies of everything, set our appointment and along with Ramdas went to the FRRO office to begin the process.  Shouldn’t be more than an hour and no fines to pay, Right?   We met the same man as last year only this time we didn’t go into his office, we waited outside his office on a couch while Ramdas went to his office alone; I’ll share the reason for this shortly. 

We then went down to the process area to begin our wait.  Turns out they did manage to find some further documentation they wanted.  Phil called his office and the needed documentation was emailed over.  Ramdas went to some other area, had the information printed out and helped us move forward in the process.  You may have noticed I use the word process a lot, that’s because things here usually are a “process”.   Two and a half hours and no fines later we walked out with our visas renewed.  Not quite as fast as last time, but still not bad. 

Remember I mentioned sitting on the couch outside the man’s office, well, it seems he needed to tell Ramdas that he might need a little incentive or gift (better known as a bribe) to help move the process along.  Three thousand rupees would be good ($ 48.24).  Phil gave Ramdas the money during our waiting time but it turns out that the man didn’t want to take the money at the FRRO office, there are cameras everywhere, so he came to the campus later that day to pick up his “incentive or gift”.  Of course, why would we even think that a bribe wouldn’t be in order?  It’s the name of the game in India.  I don’t sound bitter do I?

We have visas until March 12, 2016.  Thanks Ramdas for all your help. 

    

 Namaste.  

Gucci, Fendi et Prada. Valentino, Armani too. Merde I love them Jimmy Choo….

 Lady Gaga’s song “Fashion” provides the title of this week’s blontry. There were three major events this week at the campus. The final of the three was a student fashion and talent show. So based on the primacy/latency principle it became the focus for the title. This week’s line up is strategic planning with a guru; a published app; and the aforementioned fashion/talent show.

Dr. Ram Charan is one of the world’s premier management consultants. He works with leading companies all over the world. For some time he has been a consultant to the K.K. Modi Group (the Indian partner in our Joint Venture). More recently he has agreed to be on the Advisory Board for the Indian university we are starting in Chhattisgarh. Along with that he has been providing guidance and feedback about our joint venture and how we can improve it. He led us through a series of activities to help us know how to best find out what our customers (employers, people who pay for the education) as well as the users (the students themselves) want and need. The day was fine, very good even, but I wondered,” is this guy really worth what he gets paid?” Then, during the last hour and half of the day, BAM. He started “riffing” and brilliance came out. It was amazing to listen to his insights. I’d say he is an intuitive genius. I understand how he commands the fees he does.

Item two for your consideration. One of our students published an app this week. This is a huge step for him and for our program as well. It is exciting to see a student excel; to take what he is learning and run –sprint really – with it. His success has led a lot of discussion with other students and faculty about the creation of a technology/business incubator. It’s not clear what form that will take exactly but it seems to be responsive to what a lot of our students want (see above paragraph). For whatever reason, we seem to attract a fair grundle of students with an entrepreneurial bent.

Finally (yes there are some pictures) was the fashion/talent show on Friday afternoon. It was a loud, raucous, joyous, fun couple of hours. Singing and dancing took the lead in the talent show, although the MC was displaying some skills of his own. The centrepiece of the program was the fashion show: guys and girls in native outfits; what passes for “formal wear, and casual. It was great listening to the students both supporting and teasing each other. A lot of fun; the still photos below don’t really do it justice.

Now with her thoughts on the week, here’s Rae.

Saturday we went to the mall and discovered that there is now another place for a burger, I’m talking beef.  Turns out that Johnny Rocket has just opened up.  Burger King is also here now, but they don’t serve beef, following in McDonald's footsteps.  Burger in the US to me means beef, but burger here pretty much means anything on a bun.  Anyway, here’s a photo of me having a BURGER.   

Last week I received a new calling.  I was released from the District young women while I was in the US.  So, I now serve in the primary presidency.  Our primary is pretty small, 0-7 kids and they range from 3-12.  Because there are so few kids and their numbers vary so much we usually just meet as one group.  Last night about 9, the primary president sent me a text asking me to cover primary as her little girl was sick.  Phil said he would come and be my helper, even if he was asked to sub for another class, which happens often.  We ended up having 6 kids, only one that was actually in our branch.  Three visitors who are expat kids from another branch and two were children of investigators.  It was quite a balancing act keeping all ages and knowledge levels engaged.  The three expat kids were extremely versed in the gospel, and had all the answers, and two basically knew nothing.  It was quite an experience, and I kind of wanted a nap when I got home.  Just because I wanted one, doesn’t mean I got one.   

I think I’ve talked about people who carry all manner of things on their heads.  About three buildings down from our church there is a building under construction.  As we drove past that building on our way to church there were four or five women loading bricks on their heads to be carried to the construction site, Ugh.  As Phil and I discussed this, we think that each woman had at least a dozen bricks on her head.  Another example of human labor being cheaper than any kind of vehicle or machinery.  It’s interesting to see all the things people will do for a few rupees.  We didn’t stop to get a picture, sorry.

Namaste.  

Well this is life in color (color), Today feels like no other (other)….

Friday of this past week was Holi, undoubtedly the Indian holiday that is best known in the West; at least there is a general idea that people throw colored powders or liquids on each other or rub them on each other’s faces. That, plus gathering with families and friends is pretty much the outward manifestation of the festival. Of all the Indian festivals, for most people Holi seems to just exist to have fun. There are four or more traditions associated with the origins of Holi that I have heard. It seems to vary depending on the part of India from which people come. But as noted, “playing colors” is consistent so that is what we’ll focus on. Here are some pictures of friends of ours who have experienced Holi in all its glory.

A few weeks ago a couple in our Branch got married. We have been so busy that we haven’t talked about it or posted any pictures. They are going to the Hong Kong Temple to be sealed on the 16^th. We are very happy for Mumta and Prudhvi. They are a great young couple and I am sure they’ll be a force for good in the community and Church.

That’s it for this week. A little short but that makes up for last week’s marathon blontry.

Namaste  

Mumbai She's your guiding star, She shines the light on you, She makes you who you are…

As the title for this week’s blontry implies, a trip to Mumbai was the big news this week. We are delayed, in part, because we didn’t get home until fairly late Sunday evening and neither of us were interested in staying up longer to write. We have had a guest staying with us while she sorts out a visa issue so we didn’t get it done Monday either. Truth is, given how late it is, we probably won’t finish tonight either. In fact there is a better than fair chance that this week’s blog is going to do a Vulcan mind meld (shout out to Mr. Spock) or at least a Vulcan blog meld and have one blontry to cover two weeks.

Anyhoo. I had to be in Mumbai on business, so I asked Rae to go with me. It seemed like the perfect time: the weather is still pretty good and our Indian parent company has a guest house so for the cost of a plane ticket and what we’d spend while there our costs are covered. Rae was still somewhat hesitant I think she was afraid she would end up spending the whole time in the room while I worked. I convinced her I would only be a couple of hours (ended up being only five hours so, yeah, for me that was pretty close) so she agreed to come. Yay!

By the time we got into Mumbai, got settled in the guest house and took a taxi downtown, it was almost dusk. About all the time we had was to see the Gateway of India and the outside of the Taj Hotel. (This is the hotel where the Pakistani terrorists held and killed 164 hostages back in 2008.) Oh yeah, and say no to about a thousand people who wanted to take our pictures, for a fee, or sell us some fabulous souvenir. As usual, we didn’t say no to the people who just wanted a picture with us; still trying to understand that, it’s just weird.  The weather was perfect and despite the hawkers we had a very pleasant evening. 

Later we were joined by a couple of others from the campus and we all went to one of the beaches. Yes, by now it was completely dark. There were a few lights strung along the section of beach where we were. Which was nice because it allowed you to better see the trash strewn everywhere and avoid stepping in the worst of it.  The dark did not deter the hawkers who were drawn to Rae’s blonde hair like moths to a flame. At least the most persistent had a sense of humor. We didn’t buy anything from her but at least there was some entertainment value in the interaction.  [Rae here, adding a comment.  The lady who kept wanting me to buy some stamps for applying mehndi to my hands told me she was giving me a good deal at 450 rupees.  She kept talking to Parul, the woman from the campus who was with us.  Turns out she kept telling Parul to go away because Parul told her she should only charge me 20 rupees.  She didn’t want me to know the fair market price.  I thought to myself that I might offer her 100 rupees and feel that was a pretty good deal.  I didn’t know about their conversation until after we left, without any stamps.]    

The other outcome of the evening was making connection with a guide for Saturday afternoon. We had planned to just get a car and driver so getting a guide for not much more seemed like a good deal. So after my meetings, Rae and I took off to see the sites of Mumbai. In the rain. Actually the rain was a blessing and a curse. It was nice because it kept down the crowds. The downside is that our pictures are not great. Our guide took us to and explained about Gandhi’s residence, a Jain temple, the “hanging gardens” that don’t hang, the place where Parsi cast their dead, Victoria Station, the world’s largest laundry, and a fishing village. Whew. It makes me tired just writing the list! The 411 for each follows.

Gandhi’s house: Gandhi is, of course, the iconic figure of modern India. He was one of the two or three central figures in India’s independence and clearly the best known outside of India. In the process of birthing a nation, he moved and lived all over India.   It’s a little like the places on the east coast of the United States that advertise, “George Washington slept here.” Well there aren’t that many of them; I exaggerate to make the point. Anyway, a friend of Gandhi’s gave him this house to use whenever he was in Mumbai. They have now turned it into a library and museum. Floor after floor there were pictures of Gandhi; letters he has written or received (including in the same frame a letter to President Roosevelt and one to Hitler he wrote trying to prevent World War II); paintings; and sculptures of him. One room showed his living and working condition: a mat on the floor and a few belongings. I don’t know if that is really how he lived when he was in the house but it certainly fits the image that has been crafted of him.

Jain Temple: The Jain Temple was quite interesting. Jainism is a very old Indian religion. It is similar, in some respects, to Hinduism, but not really an offshoot. It’s more likely, at least as I understand it, that they might have shared a common origin lost in prehistory. The tenants of Jainism in day to day life focus on nonviolence and a pure form of veganism wherein even potatoes, carrots, etc. that grow below ground are not eaten.

Hanging Gardens: While it’s called the hanging gardens, that is a misnomer. There is nothing hanging about them. On the top of Malabar Hill, which overlooks south Mumbai, there was a natural cistern that was enlarged, fortified, and made into the primary water supply for the area. This cistern is fed by natural springs, augmented by a pipeline that brings water in. This cistern has been used for years but as noted, has been expanded and reinforced but it was always an open tank. This hasn’t particularly been a problem but the tank is right next to where the Parsi cast their dead (see more about at that below) and there began to be concerns about contamination. So after they did what, I assume, will be the last expansion of the cistern, they covered it with a concrete slab. They have now created a beautiful walking garden on top of the slab. There are tiers from the main garden area that lead to a great view of south Mumbai.

Parsi “burial” grounds: I am not sure what to call this. “Burial” is not the right word as the Parsi do not bury their dead. Neither do they use cremation. Rather, they have a raised area where they leave the bodies of their dead to decompose and to be eaten by scavenger birds. Once there is nothing left but perfectly cleaned bones, the skeletons are thrown off the platform down into a gully. So you see why ossuary is also not the right word. You can also kinda see why people were a little squeamish about having this right next to their water supply.

You might be thinking, why don’t they just move the Parsi burial ground? Well first of all it is very old, (over 950 years). Second, being relatively respectful of different religions (at least officially) it is hard to take action against a religious site. Finally, it turns out that over a hundred years ago, the British signed a contract with the Parsi that made this area their dedicated burial area for the grand sum of 72 rupees a year. Anyhoo, this is not actually a tourist site and only Parsi can get into it. Our guide pointed out the grounds as we passed but there was not anything we could capture in a photo. 

From one tourist attraction you can’t enter to another tourist attraction you can’t enter. We next went to Victoria Station, the central train station in Mumbai. I said you can’t enter it, but that is only mostly true. Due to security concerns, you can’t go in unless you are a ticketed customer but there are offices, ticket counters etc. that are accessible. I believe this is one of the few UNESCO World Heritage Sites for which there is such limited access. Anyway here are some pictures from the outside and of the Mumbai Public Works building built at the same time and which is just across the road from the station.

Marine Drive: Yes, I know this wasn't on the list. So sue me. Or don't look at it. Or think of it as an unexpected bonus. South Mumbai is on a peninsula with the Arabian Sea on one side and a port on the other. Nearly the entire Arabian Sea side has a road (Marine Drive) with a walkway between the road and the sea. This is a picture from the retaining wall showing the vast length of huge steel bracing units (like giant jacks) that have been put in place to keep the boundary wall in place.

Laundry: The Dhobi Ghat district in south Mumbai has been officially recognized as the largest outdoor laundry in the world. It is really more than a laundry. As the word district implies it is actually a neighborhood of 30,000 some families all of whom live and make their living in a network of connected, independent but interdependent outdoor laundries. These family laundries have stations around Mumbai where people drop off their laundry. The laundry is gathered, shipped to this central laundry area, cleaned, and returned. There is rarely a lost or damaged item. They have their unique coding system wherein each garment is marked in such a way as to distinguish the family who is doing the laundry, the name of the person or company that sent the laundry, what the item is, and when it was dropped off. Drop off by a certain time, and it will be delivered back the next day.

Initially clothes are scrubbed, pounded, scrapped and otherwise naturally pre-treated in an area of concrete pits, tubs, and basins. The laundry is then transferred to huge washing machines, rinsed, spun, and dried all in machines primarily made by the people on site. All of the laundry is then hand ironed, folded and returned. This was an amazing site and we were there at the end of the day on a Saturday. I can only imagine what the place is like when it is really hopin’!

Fishing Village: Our final stop for the day was a fishing village. This small village is a self-contained little community. Of course supplies (other than fish) have to be brought in, so families have little need to leave. There are little shops for food and other necessities along with barber shops, and a temple to the primary god of the village. Men go out and fish all night; the women maintain their homes and run the little shops.

Sunday was our last day. After sleeping in a little, we got up, got ready, and went to the Mumbai Branch. Finding it was an adventure in and of itself. We had the address but still the driver had to do increasingly smaller concentric circles around the site until we finally found it. The Branch has more ex-pats than we do; more like some of the other Branches in Delhi. The Branch President is an ex-pat and in talking with his wife we uncovered a real life version of the story about the man who cried because he had no shoes until he found a man who had no feet. The Branch President works for a huge Indian conglomerate, Reliance. His employment contract is for TEN YEARS. That’s right; I didn’t stutter. Wow. Just. Wow.

After Church we didn’t really want to go back down to south Mumbai, an hour or more away. However, we couldn’t really find much to do in the area we were either. Finally we found out about the Mahakali Caves, which were only about five miles away. These caves date back to the first century BC or perhaps longer. The caves are carved out of a basalt hill. They were mostly little grottos in which the monks lived, however there were also larger areas for worship. This area is not really currently being maintained, and also was a bit of a challenge to find. The gates were broken up with a log laying across the entrance to keep vehicles out. Otherwise anyone and anything, that could find it, had free range. Given that, the lack of graffiti and other types of defacing was remarkable. There was one sign that provided some information but we found out more from the ever faithful google machine than we did on the site.

Rae here again. I’ll simply say that I’m certainly glad I made the trip and glad to have seen the sites that Phil has done such a good job describing.  It was interesting to me that one of the people that went with us clearly seemed to prefer Mumbai over Delhi while another one was the complete opposite.  I felt like Mumbai was cleaner than Delhi.  The air was certainly better. There were less dogs, cows, bikes, rickshaws, and other miscellaneous stuff traveling on the roads. The auto-rickshaws there all seemed to be newer and in much better condition than so many of the ones in Delhi that always look dirty, old and barely “hanging in there”. It was a good experience and one I’m happy I didn’t miss.

Well, we’ve have rambled on too long. We probably should have divided the sites between me and Rae but she’s added her thoughts and impressions of the week.

Namaste