Gotta Go Back in Time

Wednesday I flew back to the US. The flight was pretty good. I watched some movies, finished my book (The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer) and slept most of the time. I think the flight going to India was easier than the return. Going there, I was really excited so that helped. This direction, I was tired and had the normal end of trip letdown. Also going to India, you land in the evening so you can immediately go to bed to try and adjust to the time change (9.5 hours ahead). On the return, you land in the daytime (11am) so you have to be up and moving for a while before you can crash. It was rough. I am definitely feeling fatigued.

I did have my two lovely ladies waiting for me at BWI baggage claim though so that made me happy.

With everything said and done, I think the trip turned out well. The work went smoothly and I got to see and experience some of India, so all in all, I think the trip was a success. I am not sure I'd rush to go back to Pune but I definitely think I'll try to get back to India and to Mumbai again.

Lazy Tuesday

Since I finished working Monday night, I didn't have to do any work on Tuesday. Unfortunately, since I had finished too late in the evening, I had to delay my flight back to the States until Wednesday.

I didn't really have anything to do and from what I could tell, I have seen everything there is to see in Pune. I wanted to keep it a pretty low key day so I slept in, lounged by the hotel pool, took a nap, had a quick lunch and headed out to the airport.

This gave me some a chance to reflect on my time in India.

On the city of Pune:
I didn't really like Pune. It wasn't very nice and there weren't a lot of places to go/sights to see. I realize this may get me in trouble with many of the folks in the Sebald family, but Pune was very much like Baltimore to me. Baltimore has a few cool spots (Inner Harbor/Camden Yards, Fells Point), but if you're somewhere else, there is nothing t0 do. New York, Chicago, Atlanta... these are cities I am excited to visit. Its hard to get excited about visiting Baltimore. Pune is the same.

On Indian Food:
I tried to be open minded about the food. It was just hard because I am not a fan of spicy food. Even when I asked for non-spicy, I often got something that was at or over my limit. I tried everything that was offered to me though. A few of the things I had were Jhinga Maharaja (prawns in a brownish tomato gravy), Chooza Masala (which was fun to say... I chooza some of this... chicken with chili peppers and tomato sauce) and Gosht Hara Masala (mutton in a curry sauce with mint, cilantro, chili peppers and other spices). Indians feel that no meal is complete until you have some rice so everything is served with rice. Also, you often get an achar on your plate. This is a pickle but instead being pickled with vinegar, which they do in the US, these are pickled in oil. They look pretty much the same but the taste was odd and they are strangely squishy. The one bright spot were the mangos. May and June are the height of mango season and so they were everywhere. My favorite mango dish was mango ice cream with fresh mangos on top. Simply delicious.

On the Autorickshaw:

This is the main form of transportation in and around Pune. These are basically mopeds with a backseat. Autorickshaw drivers are crazy, weaving in and out of traffic. They are really cheap though. We went about 5 miles for 40 Rupees (which is like about $1.20).

Working... Finally

Akshay picked me up at 7am to make the trip from Pune back to the Mumbai airport. Traffic was bad so we didn't arrive until 11:30am.

Upon arrival, I went right to Customs. With all the delays, I was expecting this to take a long time. I was pleasantly surprised. I waited for only about 10 minutes to talk to a Customs officer. He took me to their storage room where I was able to claim my equipment. After signing 9 forms, I was allowed to take my case. I still had to get it through the Customs checkpoint.

As I walked up, I noticed that the officer I was going to have to talk to was the one who shook me down for $83 on Friday. He recognized me as well. I was hesitant because I didn't have another $83 to give him. I had already changed all my dollars to Rupees.

The officer says to me, "You are the one with too many laptops." I say that I am. He chuckles, then just stamps my form and let me through. Apparently, $83 goes a long way in India.

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Akshay and I then made the 3 hour drive back to Pune.

We arrived at the first client site about 3:30pm. The work went so smoothly that we decided to push onto the other location instead of delaying this until the morning. I successfully finished at the second site around 9pm. Its just a shame it took me 2.5 days to get to this point.

Oh well, at least the work went well.

Damn You Delta!

Well, Delta screwed me again. It's more Customs fault than Delta's but I am blaming Delta because I couldn't get in touch with anyone.

At noon when my bag hadn't been delivered yet, I called Delta Baggage Services to find out what had happened. According to the recorded message, they were closed. They work East Coast hours (7am to 12am) even though they are located in the same city that I am physically in. I tried Mumbai Airport's Baggage office but the number they gave me goes to a fax machine. There is absolutely nothing more frustrating than that!

Except maybe this:

I just called them and it seems Delta cannot deliver my bag because its being held by Customs. I need to pick it up myself. Here's the rub... since its Sunday, the Customs office closes at 6:30pm, meaning that at 5:30pm local (7am East coast), I found out that I have one hour to go get my bag which is a 3 hour drive away. Had I known, I would have gone and got my equipment today. Now I have to wait until tomorrow morning to get my bag. Again, damn you Delta!

Day 2

Update on my bag: My bag hasn't been delivered yet. Hopefully it will be here soon.


Since it seems I am not working again today, I hired a car to take me around the city. It cost 1,050 Rupes for 4 hours (about $30). Can't beat that.

The first stop is the Aga Khan Palace. This is the Gandhi National Memorial. Built in 1892, this is where Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned for 2 years after he delivered his 'Quit India' Resolution. Gandhi's ashes are here as well.

After this, I had the driver take me to the Shindyanchi Chhatri. This is the memorial to Mahadji Shinde, the commander-in-chief of the Maratha army.

I also went to the Pataleshwar Cave. It is an 8th century temple.

Saturday

An update on my bag: apparently, my bag missed my connecting flight at JFK and that's why it did not arrive. They believe it was placed on the flight that left last night and should be here tonight at 11:30pm. Once here, they'll deliver it to the hotel in the morning. Its a good thing I padded this trip with a few extra days.

I called the US 800 number for Delta's Baggage Services. The rep I spoke to welcomes me to India and then asks where I am. I tell him that I am in Pune. He says that he is also in Pune, about 15 kilometers away from me. It took about 40 minutes to find out my bags' status, possibly making this the most expensive call to someone only 9 miles away!

Since I am not working today, Akshay took me to see the Shaniwar Wada. This former palace of the Peshwa rulers was built in 1736 and burned down in 1827.

After that, Akshay drove me around the old part of the city. Very interesting architecture.

Also, I told Akshay about the Delta rep being in Pune. He had the driver take us to a part of the city the locals call 'Cyber City.' This is where all the call centers in India are. The campus has 25 fifteen story builds. According to Akshay, this did not exist 5 years ago.

Delta Is Not My Friend

Delta lost my equipment case. I got my first bag (clothes) fairly quickly but then had to wait for 2 hours for all the bags to come off the belt to find out that my other one, and the only one I really needed, wasn't there. Not good.

Getting through Customs was interesting. I would have had to pay a duty (tee hee hee) on my 3rd laptop, as you only can get 2 in for free. The duty was 12,000 Rupees which is about $350. As I didn't have that, I asked if I could pay using a credit card. The Customs Officer then dropped the duty to $200 if I paid in USD and didn't want a receipt. I said no to that. I told him that I didn't mind paying the 12,000 Rupees. Its not my money, Huron will reimburse me. We go back and forth and it becomes clear to me that he doesn't want to get the credit card machine. He just wants cash and he isn't going to let me through until I gave it to him. After about 10 mins of this, I finally just gave him the $83 in USD that I had in my pocket and he stamped my card and let my through. Just ridiculous.

Once though, I met up with Akshay, from the company and my guide for this trip, and we began the 2.5 hour drive from Mumbia to Pune (leaving the airport at 2:30am).

Our driver was pushing our Fiat to the absolutely limit. I thought the Neon shook, this was unbelievable. He was speeding and weaving through traffic (lots of buses and trucks on the road which seemed odd to me for that hour).

We arrived at the Hotel Pride at about 5:30am local time. Ouch.

On a Jet Plane!

My previous longest flight was from Munich, Germany to Dulles Airport in VA (8+ hours) returning from some work for PwC and heading to Bren and Kelly's wedding. JFK to Mumbai is a 16 hour flight. Yikes!

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In the end, the trip was fine. I had dinner right away, watched a movie (Breach), slept for 8 hours (Yeah Sominex!), watched some more movies and TV (Casino Royal, 2 Entourages, a Ray Romano Comedy Special, Wild Hogs (yes, this was as bad as it looked) and read some of my book. It actually went by faster than I thought it would. I bet the folks in Coach would disagree. (Again, Yeah Business Class!)