An Interference of Thoughts.

So it’s one year ago that I first put my foot down on Indian turf. In some regards it feels like ages ago, while the overall feeling is that time flew by like a supersonic plane. Yes, the extremely hot summer days and nights felt never-ending, but in retrospect the whole working thing did shorten the perceived time.

So, in order for me to realise that I used my time properly, a list of statistics of things done in this one year.

I guess this should give a pretty decent account of what I have been up to. One could say that this year here has been a bit of a detox, even if I have been a lazy bum and gained weight moving away from the fit person I used to be. I do blame the weather and the lack of good sport facilities (no, a gym is not a sports facility) on that, besides of course my laziness. However, at the same time, this year has been transformative in many ways – especially spiritually and work experience wise. As long as these transformations are not complete it does not make sense for me to move, even if you’ll hear me complaining that “nothing’s happening” and things being boring. And, I have to admit that I never had expected to survive here for so long. One thing I definitely have learned being here in India: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

At this point I shall only still say dhanyavaad (thank you) to everybody who’s have been there for me facilitating this experience. Thanks for listening to my complaints, thanks for helping me to organise this or that, thanks for the time spent, the awesome food eaten and thanks for all the “envious comments” that kept reminding me that I am at a wicked place that so many people want to experience.

Thanks for mom for understanding and supporting! :) And thanks for the patience with my slow status updates. ;)

This post also appears on the official Opera India blog.

I’m taking a trip to Oslo between October 19th and November 1st.

Ever since David (my flatmate) left for Europe in spring, his goal was to get himself a motorbike license, so he could get himself a Royal Enfield of his own. For one, to drive it around in Chandigarh and then as well in the hope that we’d get to drive up North to the heights of Ladakh – not comparable with what these guys did, but still quite an adventure: 350km without petrol pump, driving in a height range between 3500 and 5359 metres (Tang-lang La, the world’s second highest motorable pass) above sea level and a cold desert. It used to be a real pioneer’s track, now it’s more touristy, but still enough to push one out of one’s comfort zone.

A rather frenzied search for a Bullet for him, we finally managed to find a suitable model (Standard 350, 2003 model) to join the ranks with my dear Dhanno (Standard 350, 1996 model). Literally at the last moment this was, as we also needed to get David some driving experience (he had already tons of co-driving experience) on Indian roads. The planned date for the eventual Leh-Ladakh expedition was set to be the weekend of September 4th.

One week before that we found his conveyance and I directly got him some mountain driving practice with Morni hills and Kalka/Kasauli, both in the vincinity of Chandigarh. Then, with little time left, we also completed the rest of the preparation, got the bikes checked multiple times, bought tools , spare parts and supplies. Finally, we had to postpone the start from Friday to Saturday in order to be able to get proper sleep and the bikes checked once again properly by a trustworthy mechanic, that we finally found. Then, Saturday, Sept. 5 at 07:00 we started from Chandigarh.

The route we had planned from Chandigarh:

1. Manali (via Ropnagar, Bilaspur, Mandi, Kullu)
2. Darcha (via Rohtang, Keylong)
3. Pang (via Sarchu, Bara-lacha La)
4. Leh (via Tang-lang La, Upshi)
5. And then back via Srinangar, Jammu in 3 days

So far so good. The problem with this plan was – as we should find out in Leh – the return drive. I had checked the map and was aware that the drive back is quite a bit longer, but I forgot, that all the way to Jammu the road would be hilly at best, often still mountainous. Additionally it should not be possible to stay just wherever. So, as a result, we had to leave Leh pretty soon (we spent one day for fixing bikes and trying to find interesting souvenirs) so that we would also have some buffer time for the way back. Pity but also a reason to return with more time. ;)

So, the revised and recommended minimum track from Chandigarh:

1. Patni Top (via Ropnagar, Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, Jammu or even Ropnagar, Mandi, McLeod Ganj, Pathankot, Jammu)
2. Dras (via Srinagar)
3. Leh (via Kargil)
4. Resting day, fix the bike out of Leh on the road to Upshi
5. Pang – route incorrect (Upshi, Tang-lang La)
6. Darcha (via Bara-lacha La, Sarchu)
7. Manali (via Jispa, Keylong and Rohtang)
8. Chandigarh (via Kullu, Mandi, Bilaspur, Ropnagar)

Of course this is only a guidance. We had good and dry weather, that allowed us to advance in decent speed. The places listed as leg goals all seemed to provide decent housing and have suitable distances in between. Also, if you want to see Nubra Valley (with Khardung La, the world’s highest motorable pass) or Pangong Tso, you should reserve yourself two and one extra days respectively.

In terms of gear I also want to give a small overview of the most crucial items that we had to carry for later reference. One has to keep in mind that we had good weather (no rain except some drops) and temperatures were around 30?C during the day (in plains and mountains) and 0?C at night in the mountains. And of course it is assumed that the bike has been checked thoroughly before departure so it is problem-free.

Motorbike gear:

• side carriers: 2
• spare plastic petrol canister filled with 10l
• foot pump, one spare tube, tube valve and key, tyre irons
• 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 24 plus adjustable wrench for Bullet
• spark plug and wrench
• crew driver set
• pliers, hammer
• spare front, back and indicator bulb
• spare accelerator, break and clutch wires
• oil and rust dissolving spray
• chain lock and maybe spare chain
• screws and some steel wire
• ropes and bungee ropes (there can never be enough of those)

Clothing:

• sturdy, waterproof riding boots plus one pair of shoes for crossing creeks and other wet parts
• two pairs of trousers, ideally additionally one rain and waterproof one
• three raiding shirts (kurtas) with long sleeves, one waterproof jacket
• long, functional underwear, normal underwear, warm socks
• comfy but good (leather) gloves, bandana and face cloth – Buff’s are perfect, take warm and thin
• helmet, sun glasses, cap for when not wearing helmet
• shawl or decently warm cloth for additional warmth and comfort
• shorts and t-shirt for comfort

Other items:

• frisbee disk to play
• first aid kit
• camping cooker and some fuel, matches or lighter
• headlamp to flashlight
• sleeping bag (maybe)
• maps
• toothbrush, soap, two towels, deodorant, sun block, lip balm, moisturiser, etc.
• some food for when you do not come across any place for a long time
• any other camping gear: knife, compass, GPS, etc.
• camera
• cell phone (with BSNL, Airtel postpaid)
• waterproof plastic bags (also, cannot have enough of those
• spare water
• passport, driver’s license, bike keys, etc.

Depending on your packing, you should have a decently small luggage to carry, fitting well on the side carriers. Remember to pack everything in a water- and dust-proof way. Big potato bags were very useful for us in this regard to keep the smaller plastic bags together. Also, remember to dress in layers and have the commonly used things easily accessible. Amongst others that will be sun block, lip balm, jacket, snickers and maybe the rain gear. But anyways, during the trip you will figure this out.

So, that’s all for now, David has already put up his pictures and I will be nicking some from him and put them on Flickr soon. Hope you enjoyed this report and are now eager as well to ride to Leh, across the Alps, the Sahara, the Pampa or the Rocky Mountains. Either way, ride safe in harmony with nature and fellow traffic. Be nice and enjoy being in the world! And treat your bike well, just like you would your dear horse.

Long time it has been since my last blog update… last time I was travelling. The same is the case this time – same region, similar stops but this time some more time and other modes of transport. Holiday. And I want to take advantage of some of the little time that can be found on holiday to give an update.

In terms of life not much news have happened. Chandigarh had become really hot and humid with temperatures up to 45ºC. Still, escapes to the hills have eased the sweat a little. During the time being also new people have moved in and out of the city – new interestring faces here and there. Friends have become married, engaged, started relationships and ended others. While it is clear that life has been rather eventful, I have been fairly stuck in the same work, eat and sleep rhythm. Work has brought new challenges with the responsibility of heading our development team of almost a dozen heads.

Maybe one of the most interesting experiences was to accept the challenge of a friend of mine to stay sugar (sucrose) free for the month of June. The idea behind the challenge was twofold: Improve your health and push your limits. On the first issue the benefits of limited sucrose intake are (according to my friend) a better sleep cycle, better skin and a calmer personality. If that’s not enough, I also wanted see how I can cope without the sweet bliss as I had suspected to be addicted to sugar for a long time now. So here I want to go through some of my observations related to that effort. But before that, a small overview on the rules. Natural sugar was allowed, most famous fructose (fruit) and lactose (milk), added sweetness and extra sugar was a no-no. As such, fruit juices or meals with sugar where it is not used for the sake of sweetness were allowed – most prominent would probably be bread or yoghurt. Also Coke Light and similar would have been allowed but I wanted to avoid that as well as to decrease my dependency on those drinks.

So the main strategy that worked for me was fresh fruits (water melon and mango), fruit juices and cheese. Cheese seemed to help me over most of the things because finding food without sugar is not easy in india, where even chips contain sugar. Same with drinks: As I already took a vow as not to drink alcohol, not having sugar essentially limited the choice onto water and lime soda (with or without salt). And water tastes very flavourful after drinking lime soda (observation #1). :D

Overall, the experience was that the abstinence was less hard than I thought – so no addiction there – but rather annoying as the amount of choices in restaurants was very limited. Yes, sometimes I would miss a kulfi (ice cream) in the evening and the cakes in the office (once almost accidentally licked my finger clean after cutting pieces for others…) but overall eating watermelons and mango did help a lot. The health effects for me seemed limited. I did not feel calmer – usually actually not even more tired – nor did I sleep shorter or get a better skin. But I observed mosquitos being less attracted by a probably less sweet smell.

The other main observation is how widely spread sugar is in our consumer goods. There is hardly any processed food available that has no sugar or artificial sweetener. I have no experience wit diabetes but I would imagine that it can become rather cumbersome to find things to eat and drink when even milk shakes are made with ice cream, bread use sugar for the yeast and potato chips have sugar for no obvious reason… Life without salt is known to be hard as we need the minerals when sweating, but life without sugar should be possible without more ado. Yes, north-indians are famous for their weet tooth, but is it really necessary to add sugar to mango shakes, orange juices and other sweet fruits. Juices made out of concentrate has always been a mystery to me. Well, I see the reason to make the concentrate in order to store it and transportation. But first removing all liquids to then stretch it afterwards with water again, what is the use in that? Why can most juice not be made straight from the fruits? Where is the problem that some packages taste different from others? Where is the problem if there are seasonal differences in the taste of packaged juices? Have we as humanity really reached a stage wehere we prefer the mass-produced, unified and quality-checked over the hand-made and natural?

Ok, enough ranting. What more was there to observe? Taste adapts. Yes, not really news for anybody. But interestingly different drinks now, after that experiment, work differently for me. I can still drink Gatorade or Sprite and other “artificial” drinks while I cannot drink juices like “Nimbooz” (7-Ups Indian lemonade) or Maaza (a mango drink). I suspect that my body is just used to certain drinks to taste artificially (the former ones) while expecting others to taste more natural (the latter ones) and then being disappointed when that is not the case. However, overall I could not observe my sense for flavour to change lastingly. Short-time changes however occurred list after drinking lime soda.

Finally, an observation about myself. Self-discipline seems just non-existent, which means that accomplishments happen due to external commitment and feeling for responsibility and pride. For years I have tried to get myself to try the early morning thing, or more sports or other changes like that. They never happen. However, I am sure if I make a bet that I’ll get up at 0600 every day for a month, I will be able to do that. Seems there is a hedonist wrapped in the peel of the feeling of pride – sounds like true Leo. :)

Happy summer everyone!

Travelling by plane always makes me ponder. It must be the bird’s perspective of things deep down there, one sees villages, roads, mountains, rivers and all the other things from a completely different perspective. It is beautiful, amazingly beautiful not only because it’s an unusual perspective. Our Earth IS MAGNIFICENT. And yes, from a distance all looks great and spotless, or at least many things.

The other thing that makes me think is the change of context. Yesterday I was sitting in a bus that was in a bad traffic jam in Delhi’s outskirts with the driver almost participating in a fist fight because of a minor metal kiss of the bus and a lorry. Tomorrow I’ll be Gothenburg preparing with my team for Europe’s biggest tournament in an unimportant (well, from a global perspective compared to famine, disease, etc. – still, I would argue more valuable than soccer, hehe) hippie sport called Ultimate Frisbee. Now I sit a few thousand metres up in the air with some layers of steel below me, many feet of air and the snowy Caspian Sea in visible distance. Before it was the mountains of Afghanistan and the hills of Pakistan, the lush fields of Northern India…

Thinking again of that remote city I changed the car ordered by the transportation company to a bus for the airport. On the way we would take small roads through Punjab passing by huge trucks, Sardars on motorbikes (yeah, that’s how it should be) and people biking home at late night. Many of those have never been in an airplane, many have only seen them from a distance of several thousand metres, some have relatives in another continent. Some not knowing what to eat tomorrow. How can such differences co-exist directly next to each other, separated only by a few centimetres of air. Like the electrician who came to change the broken fuse late in the evening and me… how different and still so close. And then the peacefulness, openness, genuine friendliness and the shining eyes. In contrast, the business guy in the seat next to me, sleek and business-oriented, and carrying an aura of seriousness, importance and fatigue. Those eyes that I miss in Europe or at least hardly ever see. It makes me sad when I sit here and think about it.

Maybe it’s the result of reading Milan Kundera’s “Immortality”, a gift of a friend, that I really really enjoyed. It’s been long time that I had not read a novel. And this proved me that between Dan Browne and the like, there is quality literature also in the 20th (and hopefully 21st) century. Still, next on my list is the Dhammaprada and Krishnamurti’s diary…

But back to the initial tought. Many things have been racing through my head in these few hours sitting here. One is that I want to re-work this blog. Yes, a mundane and continuous plan, but still, some nice ideas. I want to be able to put up songs here, share inspiration.

Sharing inspiration is the main topic here. Seeing the Earth far down as a rather small thing makes me remember that globalisation should not mean that we produce in China, assemble in Korea, ship via Singapore and consume in France. Globalisation should mean (in times of the World Economic Forum in Davos), that we must understand that we sit in one world. A stratified world, but one world with only a certain amount of resources, breathing the same air and drinking the same water. Yes, if some farmers in India’s countryside commit suicide because their life is unsustainable, it does not affect people in Austria, maybe not even people in Chandigarh. But on a personal level it does, and in a long term it does as well. While I can admit a general fascination for global communism and self-sufficent communities, I must say that working on closing the gaps worldwide must be our generation’s top priority. The gaps between rich and poor, between literate and illiterate, between people with healthcare and without, the gap between nationalists and globalists.

My father asked me how I can be out in the world while things at home are not too well. He did not mean the economic dip that everybody in the west talks about and still I think that our consciousness cannot end at our garden walls. Therefore I realised that what really interests me (as for now) is to connect people. And no, making web browsers for people to access Facebook is not enough. I am thinking of connecting and interchanging people. I had the privilege to visit many places in the last months and see many different cultures making it clear that humans are humans everywhere. Not only that, people on the countryside worldwide seem closer to each other (yes, they may use different tools) than people within a country. How can we make people understand that with a grass-root approach? Our politicians are busy putting up barriers for each other, it’s for us individuals to start working on removing barriers in a meaningful way. Any ideas and proposals?

Quite a few people asked about the meditation experience and here I should give a bit more detailled description on that and then raise a few questions.

Vipassana Meditation as taught by Mr. Goenka and his delegate teachers is the meditation technique developed by Buddha Siddartha Gautama and preserved in its original way for all the years in Burma until it started spreading again a few decades ago. It is based on observing the reality within ones body in equanimity. In the ten days seminar one is supposed to learn the basic technique and then one is set off to use it in everyday life and serious practitioners tend to return almost every year for another course.

Meditation Environment

The whole teaching is done through a non-profit organisation with only volunteers. Participation in courses is free of financial charge, the only precepts are that for ten days one is not to 1) steal 2) lie 3) kill any being 4) have sexual misconduct and 5) intoxicate oneself. This creates a very peaceful and positive environment, with the basic needs of the students taken care of. In our case it was one- or two-bed residences with own toilet and shower. The site of the Dhamma Thali is nice and calm at the end of a small valley outside of Jaipur. Peacocks and monkeys would roam around just like chip-monks living in between all the pittoresque residential quarters. Food is basic, healthy, vegetarian and subject to a monks gratefulness as it is the result of somebody else’s generosity. Day schedule rund from 04:30 to 21:00 with 10 hours of meditation.

Program

The first two and a half days are preparation, where the students learn to simply observe the breath flowing through the nostrils. By narrowing down the observed area the student is supposed to sharpen the mind to experience subtler sensations and observe them equanimously.

After this warm-up one would learn to scan the whole body for any type of sensation. For this one is scanning each body part (skin first, later the whole body) from head to toe and vice versa. From this point on one is not supposed to change the posture while meditating and instead fully focus on the experiences. Observing the body then helps recognising the sensations as what they are and not the solidified reactions like pain, fury or craving. This makes meditation a bit easier even if then all former “sins” start bubbling up.

On the 9th day, the technique of loving compassion is taught and after that the taking ban is lifted. The silence is suddenly gone and suddenly there is chatter everywhere. After a few minutes this was too much at least for me and I started longing for the silence. But eventually one gets used to and the idea is as well to have the last day as a re-socialising day to prepare for the hustle and bustle. Yes, people start smiling and laughing – as far as I see as well because of the ability to speak the seriousness is gone.

Personal Experience

For me, many of the basic philosophical principles were already known from beginning. Instead it was the practice that was new and to be learned. Sitting motionless has always been my problem with meditation and the same was now. The sensations were not as much as the problem as the lack in variations thereof. After half an hour my mind would get bored with the ever-same sensations of the lower foot numb, the back with a bit of pressure and the rest of the body calmly present. Yes, this would change but only by nuances that were not really easy to spot. Yes, my mind is not subtle (I prefer spicy over blend, I prefer strong colours over pastel, etc…) and it was craving for something to happen no matter wether joy or pain. Just sitting was boring.

On the other hand, to be fair, I have to say that I went there to face my inner demons and that, I have done. So every now and then big questions would pop up, issues that I carry with me, that I never really resolved. The lack of distraction would bring them up and they would make my meditation impossible. So then I usually had to get out of the room and figure them out first, before sitting calmly was possible. That was the obvious demons, whereof some have been eradicated.

The other, bigger elephant demon is the restlessness of a non-sublte mind. The teachers said that a mind cannot be subtle if not balanced. I find my mind balanced but it never learned to be subtle, instead interests range from here to there, initial enthusiasm is high but soon becomes shallow. Long commitment is a tricky task for this brain, instead it aims for scalable solutions that you can push off and that then feed themselves (let’s see how that will work with kids, hehe). of course, the obvious answer is that practicing exactly this Vipassana method one hour in the morning and one at night would cure this, but getting the motivation to do this is the difficult part. And as the teachers said, one only has motivation when one sees the benefit. In my case certain crucial principles have already been present in my life, which make spotting benefits in daily life difficult. Instead, I guess I have to wait until another motivation crosses my path, one that motivates me to slow down, enjoy subtleness and the joy of tiny nuances in everyday life. ;)

Philosophical Discussion

This part for me, was the most disappointing in that programme as I personally cannot start practicing something without understanding and agreeing just on mere belief. Well, or just to a certain level and my threshold seems lower than the one of many people. Ironically, the teachers said the same thing of “believe not because of a guru or because of intellectual understand but only when you experience”. Supposedly the philosophy should be taught further down the Vipassana path, but that is too late for me and if anybody has a good recommendation on books on the philosophical underpinning, please let me know.

So, now a few concrete philosophical dilemmas:

• Sharpening your mind by focussing on your bodily experiences – where does reality end? One starts with observing the breath. At the gross level this is clear but the more subtle the sensations become, the bigger are the error margins in relation. Imagine drawing a dot on a piece of paper and then searching it. The smaller the tip of the pen, the less secure you can be about knowing where the dot is. Without an instrument, you cannot verify it at a certain point. Same here, breath is real, its sensation is real but when becoming subtle one cannot know if the sensation is real or an imagination. The reasons are manifold, like one’s wish to succeed in sharpening the mind or the mind’s unwillingness to be tamed, etc.
• Enlightenment comes after dissolving the ego and compassion for others. So far clear, but how does an enlightened person the relate to oneself? Let’s say an enlightened person and a stranger are thirsty when crossing the desert, they find an entities of water, with the amount enough for saving one person to come to the next oasis. What will the enlightened person do? Sacrifice him/herself for the non-enlightened one even though surviving longer he/she could probably help so many others to come closer to enlightenment still? What if there is another, second, poisonous entity of water, how would that change the situation?
• The good and the bad only exist because of each other. And love nothing specific and you will love everything. Both are recurring themes in many philosophies and beliefs. This means that I will enjoy plain water just like I enjoy salty water, sweet water or water with lime taste. Will that also mean that I will not prefer either anymore if given the option? or will I choose the right one to drink with a better understanding for the context? Yes, a very mundane problem as such and a un-enlightened question because I care for the taste of water instead of the essence of water (it keeps me alive). But as for me living is experiencing (the gross or subtle) it does matter to taste the different flavours of water. Sometimes it is sweet, sometimes it is salty. Sometimes one deems its taste “good” sometimes one deems it “bad”. Is that not how life should be? The bad also being good, just like the good is bad?
• Last, a more historical question on the method. They say the method initially spread quickly and many many people benefitted from it. Then it got modified and altered and lost its effectivity. Why was that? I mean I understand that modifying it the wrong way makes it useless. But why would a proficient person modify the method to become unusable? And why would a proficient teacher not be able to show the benefits compared to a charlatan with a fake method?

Random Impressions

• Not communicating is a matter of attitude and not knowing anybody in the course does help. But in general, this should not be the most difficult thing.
• Ten days without communication is nice but also a strange feeling as outside the world might crumble and one will not find out.
• Take every step when you are ready. There is no point to be in a hurry. Doors open when one is ready to look careful enough.

Conclusions

I am glad I did it, I learned many new things even if I think that with the right preparation I could have taken far more from there. I mat well consider attending another programme but only when I feel ready for the next step and currently I do not. Until then I guess I will stick with what my friend Deepak did: 3 weeks hiking in Leh Ladakh (well, or some other place…). :)

Still, if you consider going, have questions, comments and opinions, please leave them in the comments or mail me. Happy discussing!

Long long time ago, I can still remember, music used to make me smile. It still does. So do many other things, such as the phone call that I just finished. Or people with their behaviour and quirks, or animals or the weather or things.

Long long time ago, I also posted something on this blog about my life in India. Since then, much water has gone down the Ganges and I have been busy as well. Always been, always will be I guess. And far too often not really specific things, such as writing mails to friends, meeting people, working of course and some other things. So let’s look a little at these other things:

Last time, I told you about my bike “Dhanno, which I had just acquired. By now I have been touring around on it for quite a bit and become used to it. Yes, it does not always the way it should, like an old horse is supposed to. Some things had to be fixed and a service is still missing. But it brought me well to Shimla and back on Indian roads. Yes, the driving here sometimes is crazy and uphill is far more fun than downhill, where busses and trucks drive dangerously for the incautious.

On this trip to Shimla quite some things went wrong, starting from not being allowed to access a point of great view over Chandigarh (military area and camera do not go well together). Then, almost not eating one full day and then arriving late trying to find a hotel in a cold mountain station without passport. Finally food was given to a hungry belly, which did not make it happy but instead resulted in Dehli Belly in Shimla. Three weeks late, but finally the overdose of spices and the exhausting days demanded their toll – for two weeks controlled but sudden rushes to the rest room were a daily reality. Most fun the image of driving back for a few hours in such a state without trouser back-up. The way back, however, went fine thanks to some medication. Only Dhanno got a flat rear tyre but that as well luckily outside a tyre workshop.

Then, quite some time before Christmas went into looking for an appartement, which I finally moved into a few days back. Furniture is partially provided, but certain things are still missing. Still, good to feel home. I share with a Czech couple, which is nice so I have a bit of life at home ase well. Friday will be the house warming party. I have a nice sounds system, now I just need to find a drum to start learning and then as well start courses in Hindi and Punjabi. The place is really nice – like a dream come true with a nice open kitchen, joined to a living room, balcony, two bath rooms and two and a half bedrooms, perfect for guests staying. Spent quite some money on utensils but luckily friends helped me out with lending certain things.

THen, maybe the biggest thing that happened since last posting is that I got engaged with that girl introduced by Navjot’s parents. Haha, no. Instead I travelled with friends to Delhi and from there to Jaipur to a 10 day Vipassana course, a meditation retreat lasting from just after Christmas into 2009. Ten days of silence and meditation did good. I shall write more about this in a separate posting on my private blog, as certain things made me think. In general, certain issues bubbled up, that were dug underneath a lot of disctraction and only a few days of lack of stimulus could free up. A great experience and something I shall repeat in this or other ways.

Also, in Delhi, I managed to see a bit more of “real India”. CHD is famous for being rather clean and non-chaotic and looking at Delhi and Jaipur I can only agree. I cannot say that i liked Delhi as everything just seemed too big – I liked the Metro however. But Jaipur, the Pink City, was amazing. Great character and spirit in that town with nice old buildings, hustle and bustle on the streets and friendly people. The fact that camels pull carts in the streets might also have had a bit of an impact. But actually, the experience made me think if it is the “middle eastern influence” clearly visible everywhere, that charmed me. One day I shall find out, maybe not a summer day tho, as those are supposed to be really really really warm.

Coming back I also made the experience of an Indian Second Class Sleeper train. In general it was no problem as I had nice travel companions that provided with a good time even if they hardly spoke any English and I spoke even far less Hindi. Still, warme and nice people. The biggest problem was however the train, which seems to have its hull more to prevent people to fall off (or cling on on the outside?) than to keep the wind out. Sitting in this chilly wind channel was a test wether I had learned to observe experiences within myself objectively and understanding their changing nature – the Vipassana Method. Finally and much later I then arrived in Ambala, where I had to switch to a bus.

One very valuable gadget on that trip was my new mobile phone, the Sony Ericsson T700, which features access to Google Maps via triangulation. The most important moment was on the train, where at night no stations are announced and due to delay it is almost impossible to recognise which station is the current one. Also, it features a radio and a simple camera, which makes snapshots on the street far easier. Very happy with this.

Ok, enough storytelling, let’s look a little at some observations:
• Indian Stretchable Time (IST) is commonly known, just the same way it sometimes just is amazing how things get postponed again and a again due to bad planning of things required to get a job done.
• “An ATM with legs” is how many people see white in poorer countries. A very good perspective a man shared with me on the street. I have to keep this in mind as a good metaphor.
• Curiosity is nonetheless a very common thing. many looks here and there, some people are even brave enough to attempt to talk and already soon it will be all smiles. Also, “get the white guy dancing” seems to be a hobby of Punjabis. ;)
• Related to the conversation problems a good solution for when you do not understand the other say “Thank You”. This is the local strategy. Personally I prefer to say “Hmmmmm…” as it fits any situation.

Yes, there are many more but I shall get some sleep before tomorrow. Good night.

For more tidbits, look at my Jaiku stream. This post shall also appear on Opera’s Bridge the World blog.

After the first 10 days I think I owe everybody a short recap of how things go and what’s happening here in Chandigarh, India. I shall start with pointing out that the views in my postings are my own and private ones and may or may not be shared by any of my affiliations (i.e. Opera). So, complaints to me please.

It’s always difficult to put down impressions when moving to a new place as there are many of them and many are small things such as traffic, the personal hygiene, the interaction with people or resourcefulness. Then there are the underlying differences in society, history and background that create these different symptoms. I hope to dig deeper into the latter issues over time, so please excuse me if I initially state a lot of “obvious” things. ;)

Landing in Delhi at 5 o’clock in the morning (23:30 GMT) after a six hours flight, Vivek, a friend from the India office, who was in Oslo for 3 months who arrived an hour earlier, was already waiting in the arrivals to get to the taxi that was kindly organised by Sagar, the country manager. Prior to that, spending some time at Heathrow, trying to sleep but instead watching movies on the plane, getting the luggage, running through immigration and customs was no problem. Stepping out of the airport provided the typical image that probably everybody expects when landing in India: many, many, many, many people waiting for others, getting taxis and moving to busses and so on. Most striking, the air that was a mixture of fog and smog. Visibility was still decent – I’d estimate like 2km – but I could smell the typical smell of dust, pollution and warm weather, while Vivek seemed to be used to it claiming not to notice anything.
So, all luggage into the car, and we were on our 4-6 hours way to Chandigarh. Traffic was still low and the air was supposed to be clean as people were jogging, only one child asking for sweets. First he asked for sweets, then, seeing a white guy, he changed into brr-it’s-really-cold-please-please-please-give-me-money-for-food-and-clothes mode. Some time thne I fell asleep only to wake up, when Vivek asked wether we should have breakfast at McDonald’s. True to my principle that a day started with breakfast at McD is a bad day, we went to the other side of the street, what our drivers preferred: food for locals. The drivers sitting at their own table I slowly started to realise the distance of people. They would look but, for some reason, be shy to speak with me. Vivek said something about self-confidence, but I guess it is also often a matter of social norms as I could observe similar patterns more often since then. Time to learn some more Hindi and Punjabi if that might help bridging the gap.

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful for me as I slept again, seemingly missing all the Indian-road-action. Arrived at the office to meet some of the known faces again and getting introduced to the new people. The first days, staying at Sagar’s place (where I hope to move from soon – negotiations are on) I was tagging along with him the first days. Looked at some appartements, got introduced to Opera’s friends at Cue Blocks and Navjot’s family. The weekend was pretty un-happening (”My longest weekend ever”) as I was home by 01:00 every evening. I hope to change this over time, but night-life here seems rather limited.
Spent the week working with a movie (Dostana) and dinner as a project celebration and then traditional Thursday movie night at the office.

Further, Sagar was kind enough to lend me his motorbike, so I had been touring around on my own since the last weekend. The bigger change was to ride a motorbike again – the first time since 7 years. The traffic was far less of a problem, using the right (left) side of the road is fine and at least here in CDH the traffic is decent. Yes, sometimes more chaotic but as speeds are rather low (max 60 kph) it is manageable. Same organic pattern as moving in a group of people.
Yesterday then, with the help of Anil, I managed to buy my own bike, a Royal Enfield Bullet 350 from 1996. A nice and heavy bike that should be exactly right for young wannabe-heavyweights like me. :D A popular bike as it is durable and has more of a cruising feeling. I guess it’s the two-wheeled pendant of the Ambassador car. A few things need to be fixed, but the first ride was promising and had a good feeling to it. Next up is to get an apartment of my own.

Ok, enough trivialities, a few observations for the end – thanks to the generous donors of “Culture Shock, India” that helps understanding some things:

• Office peons: So there is somebody to take care of food and other practicalities at work. Until now, I never knew that one can be over-hydrated.
• Food: Spice levels were fine so far, but I think I overdid it a little yesterday. Either all the spicy food or the sugar cane juice from the motorbike market did upset my stomach for a bit. So far it’s manageable however.
• Money: So the biggest common piece of money is 500 INR (around 8 EUR), which makes paying big amounts (like 20 000 INR for a bike) an interesting experience as one runs around with a stash of money. Otherwise these 500 INR enable a very very good living on daily basis.
• Language: I admit that I am not used to not being able to understand a thing of people talk to each other. Here this is the case and that often makes me feel like a sitting duck. Especially if others are negotiating for me. It’s not that they interpret for me, they take care of all my business. Thanks there to all the office (and the others) here, who all were very very very helpful. Just not used to it yet.
• Security: Without wanting to dive too much into the political minefield I should say that it is a shame that terrorism seems to become a pretty normal phenomenon for people here in India. Somebody told me it is ranking at number four in the world in terms of terrorist attacks. And while many many people messaged me and asked if I was fine, I did hardly notice any differences here in Chandigarh. Yes, some TV stations were broadcasting live 24/7 (whether that is a smart thing to do is discussable…) and talking to people showed that some were deeply affected. Otherwise, this is still a very safe place, I have not once felt unsafe so far – people are warm and care for each other.

Ok, that’s all so far. More impressions on the next post. Also, pictures, will hopefully come soon. :)

For more tidbits, look at my Jaiku stream. This post shall also appear on Opera’s Bridge the World blog.

Sorry for neglecting you all for such a long time, but you know, many things to do, write, prepare and so on and work load was high enough to make me not want to spend my spare time in front of the computer. Even if I had quite some things to write about.

So, theerfore a small update:
1) I will be heading to India from end of November to early May. I will be glad to skip the Oslo “winter” of grey, dark and rainy weather. I also hope that as soon as I will be in Chandigarh, I will have some time to blog again. Essentially I will do the same as I do now, but with our (new) people in the Chandigarh, Office.
2) I picked up photography again a bit thanks to my close friend Nav, who got a new camera and dragged me out to shoot. I hope to keep it up if I manage to scale down on post-processing effort.
3) Emotionally it has been a bit of a rollercoaster thanks to certain individuals and the thoughts they have triggered in me. Nothing really new, a lot of old things refreshed with new angles, higehr stakes and so on.

Ok, thanks for now, sorry for the huge gap and write you soon!

It’s been ages that I had been virtually cut off all contact over the internet. Busy days that left me with little time (and sometimes energy) to connect online and write mails.

So today I managed to do that and to call some people and it just felt so nice. Thanks to you all, my friends. I love you guys.

Just had to say that. :)