I’m going to bullet-point this entry. Lots of small tidbits. But first, a sunset.

• MEAT! I gave into my craving. I haven’t had meat in almost two months. So I ordered a “boneless butter chicken” and “garlic naan” delivered to my door for $10 from the fancy place. So worth it!
• At least it is in English… My housing society is having some sort of election for various teams that take care of maintenance, repairs, improvements, etc. to the complex. I’ve gotten several sheets slid under my door where candidates have advertised their qualities or given information about the goals of the teams. The longest one, however, was a smear campaign, calling the way one of the leaders runs the organization a “dictatorship” and saying another member blocked the stairwells and let his dog poo wherever he wanted. I’ve gotten about eight sheets total now, the latest saying “paper is important!” It’s entertaining if nothing else.
• Can-opener blues For the first time since I’ve been here, I found myself in need of a can opener. Those Del Monte brand pineapple slices in a can only sometimes come with a pull-tab lid, apparently. So I asked my neighbor for one. She did not have one! Not a staple for India households I guess. Luckily, I was able to purchase one at Needs. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to work it (it involved much sharper edges) but I was eventually successful and enjoyed a slice of pineapple.

Indian can opener
• No more wake-up calls I put a note on my doorbell to please not ring it before 9am. And it worked! The “doods” stopped bugging me on Sunday morning. So did the garbage people but I’ve made a point of leaving my trash out Saturday night since the people on Sunday morning really seem to want it. (Either that, or I just haven’t been home to hear the weekday people make the request.)
• Pipe burst? My maid pointed out that it looks like I have some pretty bad water damage in the wall next to the window. Embarrassingly, I can’t remember what the wall looked like before. I definitely remember it looking damaged already, but it has been behind a curtain since. But if my maid has to be the one to point it out, it’s probably bad! I told the owner and called maintenance. Maintenance hasn’t come yet, though. Not sure they understood my request since they randomly switched to Hindi in the middle of the conversation.

Hmmm…
• New state! India will soon have a 29th state, Telangana, which will share the capital Hyderabad (another tech-heavy city) with Andhra Pradesh. Times of India headline today: “India may have 50 states if all demands for new states are met.”
• Very long… I bought a pen at Needs for journaling. It amused me. Actors here sell really mundane household items like light bulbs and batteries. But it was mostly the slogan that made me giggle.

• My Kindle works! It finally happened, I ran out of fiction. I had brought a pile of fiction and non-fiction books with me to India to read, but I guess I’m cruising through the former faster than expected. Then I remembered that I have my Kindle! And it works in India! Yay! Several new books are now mine.
• One annoying ringtone down… I finally worked up the nerve to ask the guy with the Hotel California ringtone in the next row to maybe change it up a bit since I don’t really need the Eagles stuck in my head every afternoon. I was super friendly about it, I thought. (He joked that he’d come up with a new classic hit every week.) I haven’t heard his ring since.
• Team Bonding We did some fun team activities last Friday afternoon. My favorite game was “goat herder” where they split us up into two teams and each elected a captain. Everyone else was blindfolded. And the captains, with prearranged verbal signals (quickly determined in the five minutes before) for turning and directions, had to guide all their “goats” into a line.
• Walnut bummer Although I have hardly seen any bugs lately, the few bugs I have seen were in my walnuts. Sad, ’cause I love having walnuts in my cereal or oatmeal. There was even a little moth in there. No idea how it got in an *air-tight* container, but anyway, decided not to buy them anymore. They are shockingly expensive anyway ($10 for a bag 1/3 of the size as the ones back home in the baking aisle).
• Not confidence inspiring Not for the first time, I’ve seen massive amounts of smoke coming out of various places in the apartment complex (as if someone blasted all the dust out of all the basements ever). It smells nasty and would make me nervous except no one else seems to mind it. But I decided to take the stairs anyway. I wonder if they are smoking out bugs? Or…?
• Summer vacation I’m doing it! I’m actually doing it! Friday, I’m going to subject myself to a dearth of oxygen voluntarily for two weeks and head up to the Himalayas! I’ve already bought my diamox.

Epic Road Trip!

Epic road trip commences…

…now.

Delhi – Leh – Srinagar

See you on the flip side.

Epic road trip complete!

It was indescribably amazing. But I will try to describe it anyhow.

Check back on my main travel page where the full trip journal will appear hopefully before the end of September.

Here is a preview of what you might see:

Me standing next to signs

Mountain scenery

Low altitude snacks in high altitudes

More mountain scenery

Motorcycle group I traveled with

Can’t get enough mountain scenery

High altitude traffic jams

…and a yak

Hmmm. So now is probably not the best time to send money home. But it would be a good time to cash some of those travelers checks…

Rupee hits record low, posts biggest fall in nearly 18 years
-Headline in Times of India today

Here is a photo I took from Chhatarpur metro station. Looks like lots of cool stuff is around here! I will have to check it out in more detail when I’m not going to the mall to go bowling.

India is apparently a Giant Pink Statue Paradise

Yep, I went bowling. I went with a bunch of international ladies from an Internations group. Incidentally, bowling in India is pretty much exactly like bowling in the US. Music, silly animations on the fancy score displays, bowling shoes that don’t quite fit right, alcoholic beverages available. Also, someone who never bowled before beat my score. Where are the gutter guards when you need them? (Actually, the kids having a birthday party in the next lanes over were using them.)

Yep, bowling.

Incidentally, Chhatarpur is a kind of annoying metro station to get to because every other subway car halts at Qutab Minar (the popular stop before it, with the one major attraction I have yet to see in Delhi) and turns around. I was wondering why several men had suddenly entered the ladies car: it was no longer the ladies car (which is the frontmost car) since it was now headed in the opposite direction.

Also, discovered Best Supermarket Ever. It’s called Le Marche. O. M. G. Went a little crazy in the wide-aisled paradise. They had cheddar cheese! Mini Haagen Dazs! Pancake mix! BACON!!! On second thought, it is probably a good thing I don’t live anywhere remotely near any of the locations…

Quote from the Le Marche website:
“The complete range of premium fresh, frozen and marinated meats, poultry, seafood and delicatessen, are packaged and displayed in ultra clean, hygienic conditions. ”

Tomorrow is Lord Krishna’s birthday! It is a floating holiday that I could take off work, but feel vaguely guilty for taking off as I just took off two weeks. And I forgot to ask for it anyway. Will probably just work. Here is a description of this day stolen from this site:
“The birthday of Hinduism’s favorite deity – Lord Krishna is a special occasion for Hindus. The great exponent of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is the ninth and the most powerful incarnation of Vishnu, the Godhead of the Hindu Trinity of deities.”

I did not end up taking off work yesterday for Krishna’s birthday, but a co-worker very kindly brought me to a temple in Vaishali after work to see the festivities. (My taxi driver also kindly drove us the ten minutes extra, which was sporting of him.) Every Hindu temple I saw today was decorated with lights and yellow flowers. On the way, we passed children dressed up as Krishna and Radha (not his wife, his lover.) and going through the streets in a wagon.

We had to take off our shoes before even entering the gate to the temple. Once inside, there were a lot of women (lots with their scarves covering their heads, but I couldn’t tell if that is because we were with the older-conservative-lady late afternoon crowd or if it was a thing to do in the temple) and chanting, then going up in a sort-of line and pulling on a rope, getting a red dot, then walking around in a general clockwise fashion.

The more I learn about Hindu deities, the more I realize how little I know. But for my reference: Krishna is the one who plays the flute in a relaxed position. Often with cows. And sometimes has blue skin for some reason.

My co-worker took me to a street market near Vaishali metro station where she picked out a kurti (a long shirt, essentially) for me. Even though there was no place to try it on, it ended up fitting well! It cost just under $5, which I guess is inexpensive, just not as much so as I would have expected. (I think clothing is one of the things you can get in the U.S. far too cheaply.) And it matches my jeans, double bonus.

She then let me try some special sweets which are only served on Krishna’s birthday called panjiri. She also made dinner, even though she was on her Thursday fast. Many women, and some men, often pick a day of the week (each day has a different meaning) to fast. Fasting in this case can mean not eating or drinking at all or it can mean only having certain things (like fruit) during the day. Maybe something I will try someday as I’ve never done a fast. (It also pays to check on these things before you plan an office pizza party…)

“Panjiri”

India is the land of “special sweets”. Either for certain days or in certain regions, it seems there is a treat to commemorate it.

The pigeons on my balcony are at it again. Thanks to Google, I now know for sure the weird dance / beak-kiss / sitting on top of each other thing was indeed mating. (I mean I was pretty sure, but I never thought about bird sex in a lot of detail before. It’s a lot faster than mammal sex.)

Pigeon Foreplay

And the new guy in charge of maintenance in the housing society is extremely awesome and is helping me replace the a/c pipe (which is apparently causing the leakage and maybe caused the damage) and fixing the wall, even though the former of those does not necessarily fall under the maintenance schedule. While they were checking it out, he recognized Ladakh from one sideways photo of a building on my laptop and I discovered he hails from Jammu & Kashmir. His mother is from Ladakh and his father from Kashmir, he said. Funny coincidence.