Sometimes titles are hard. Posts are hard too.

All of the grass at the ICGEB died. Perhaps it was on purpose, perhaps the garden guys got lazy. Either way, the answer to dead grass was to re-grass then entire back lawn. This is a pic of the local garden crew cutting a rug on the lawn. Two days later all of this sod has turned brown - because there still isn't any water.
On Friday I went to the Hard Rock Cafe. again. Vahid loves that place so much. especially the smokers room.On Saturday I felt a compelling urge to go shopping. I had a lovely conversation with some Kashmeri salesmen. I bought their wares. Now I have to figure out how I'm going drag home two handmade silk Indian carpets. The woes I face in this country...
Nora, I wish you read this blog because our dorm room is going to rule.

a weekend that once was.

This past weekend was extremely uneventful - so now I will tell you about all the things that happened.

I have been told by coworkers that you can find any book you need in New Delhi. I didn't believe them, but I figured it was worth a try. I quested on Saturday for "Applied Calculus" a book that I need for a math class this coming semester.

A note on Indian capitalism. In the U.S. an individual who say wants to open a kitchen supply store would scout around for the location with the most need and the least competition. There are exceptions. There are no crafts stores and convenience stores are everywhere. It's not uncommon to see one intersection with a Walgreens, 7-11, Rite Aid and your choice for the fourth.
An Indian however will look at an area and see 3 grocery stores. He will think to himself: this looks like a great place for a grocery store!
So, when book shopping, I did not need to go many places because they have entire markets devoted to books. I've asked people why store owners think this is a good idea and the common answer is numbers. There are so many people in India and they all need everything, so a store location is better where people are already looking.

I started in Ber Sarai, the nearest book hangout and it was suggested I go to Rajiv Chowk - the main shopping center of New Delhi. I was doing pretty well - finding bookstores, but not my book - until a man approached me to help. I have this happen every once in a while, and it makes me bitter. Gary put it best when he said that these guys jam his thinking. They talk to you so much, it is hard for you to make your own decisions. I believe they honestly want to help you, but they also eventually want to divert you to their choice shopping area where they recieve commission for bringing customers. It is everyone's conviction that if a foreinger can just see their wares - can just look in their direction - that a sale will be made.

If I talked out loud, then the helpful man would give an answer. It seems very impolite to completely ignore him, so I answer every other question with varying degrees of truth. Gary and I once went back and forth with a guy trying to see who could lie more.
a 'helpful' guy : where are you from?
me : Holland.
guy: where in Holland?
Gary: Friezland.
guy: what is your name?
Gary: Hans.
me: Gretel.
guy: is she your woman?
Gary: ?
me: we're married.
Gary made it hard though, because every time he would say something, he would giggle uncontrollably.

My helper and I walked all over looking for a book. He was a good translator and I was able to ditch him by getting some lunch. In the end, India does not have my book. There is one more place in Delhi I could try, but I ordered "Applied Calculus" on Amazon this morning, so I don't think it will be necessary.

Sunday was extremely American. I went to church, saw Transformers: Revenge of the fallen, ate dinner at Subway (tuna sub), and was driven back from the mall in a luxury Toyota that belonged to a friend of Vahid's.

Auto Adjustment

Today I had the best auto ride of my life. It's never going to happen again. But, I know the majority of my nearly one dozen frequent viewers cannot begin to understand what I mean by "auto ride." Sure, you can look it up in the dictionary, read books and articles describing the experience, but it truly takes the bumpy, loud, bad tasting sensory explosion of a real life auto rickshaw ride to understand.
First, a few sweeping assumptions to help you understand a typical auto rickshaw driver. Auto drivers are interested in only one thing: getting as many Rupees out of you as possible. Most know some English - enough to discuss money, directions, and to argue about the fairness of a price. It is very easy for me to get an empty auto, one look at my skin complexion and a driver will ignore and drive around several waiting Indians to get to me.

All auto drivers, like the 99.9% of shop owners, are men. If I ever saw a woman auto driver I would run away because she would have to be the meanest, loudest woman I have ever encountered.

All auto rickshaws have meters in New Delhi, but it is a diamond in the rough finding one that not only works, but has a driver that agrees to use it. Some drivers break their meters and others are out dated. The ideal situation for them would be for you to ask to go somewhere, hop in, and go. This way they can ask for anything when you arrive and there is no way you can argue because the meter isn't working - you have no case. Instead, one must negotiate a price before stepping into the three-wheeler. If they do not drive away in disgust after you name where you want to go and then continue to stay after you name the price that you would like to pay, then you begin the age-old debate for a price on which both parties can agree.

With a population over 1 billion it is safe to assume that their are about three auto rickshaws per capita in Delhi.

Since this is such a great consumer's market, I find it all right to be picky. I will go through up to 10 autos before I am too worn out with arguing and settle for a slightly unreasonable price.

I usually take an auto twice a day - going to and coming from the ICGEB. By meter the price of a ride is 35 Rs. The ICGEB's location is in the middle of nowhere. This bittersweet arrangement means that a savvy driver is not going to take me to the ICGEB for 35 - he will want enough to pay for a trip to the nearest market for a new fare. Also, most auto drivers have been conditioned to expect more money from foreigners. Many a driver would rather transport an Indian for 50 Rs. than a foreigner for 70. So, in the morning I pay 50 Rs. to go to work. In the evening I try not to pay more than 40 Rs. since the place I live is very busy and full of customers.

I say to myself that no auto ride is complete until your seat has left the seat. Roads in Delhi are worn and pot-holey. Also, random speed bumps are put in everywhere to slow people down. There hardly any rules and no enforcement when it comes to driving, so the best enforcement is to take away the surface on which people speed.

The interior of an auto can vary widely. I have sat on all sorts of upholstery surfaces, from spotlessly new to foam poking out of slashed holes. The passenger seat can comfortable fit two, squish in three, and someone is in your lap with four. I have seen up to six people in an auto in addition to the driver, but one was a child. Past three, many a man will sit on the sliver of space next to the driver.

Now that you know a bit about the Indian taxi, let me tell you about my crazy sweet drive to work today:
I had a wad of 10 Rs.s in my pocket so that I was prepared for any price and price variation thrown my way. I walked out to the main road and waited for an empty auto to drive by. An auto pulled up, dropped off his previous fare and came up to me.
"Aruna Asaf Ali Marg"
"?" (i get this a lot)
"Go down Africa Ave." *wild gesturing in the general southery direction*
"Ah! Ber Sarai." now, many drivers know of Ber Sarai, it is a local market area. the problem i most often run into is that they don't want to go past Ber Sarai because they know that there is nothing out there except for fare-less science institutes. So I say, with limited success:
"South of Ber Sarai, 2 km south. Du kilometer SOUTH"
he understood the first time I said it, then he head gestured for me to get in the back.
I held up 4 fingers. "40 Rs."
He, without outrage or confusion, gestured again to get in the back.
I hopped in and noticed how clean and new the interior was. He didn't have stickers of Hindu gods all over the top part of his windshield. There was no rust where the yellow top met the green bottom of the cab. The seat and floor were clean and in a whole piece. The rickshaw sped down the street at a comperitively fast 40 kph; most autos top out at 30. He went past Ber Sarai without a glance and continued to the ICGEB until I asked him to take a right - which he did!
When we stopped, I pulled out 40 Rs, and walked away. He took the money and left without being upset or confused about how he's getting cheated. It is a rare morning if I have not argued with anyone about anything - and those mornings are because Vahid is there to negotiate a ride. My only regret is that I did not ask him to come back to pick me up every day for the rest of the summer.

So, that's an ideal auto ride. I hope that all of you can someday experience their majesty.

Celebrating my Independence

After registering for the U.S. embassy, I was sent an invitation to the 4th of July celebration.
I've been talking about this event to people at work - giving them the whole history about why fireworks are really important. When I arrived, the gates to the embassy ball park looked like a movie premiere. There was a red carpet, people lining up and tons of security. Unlike all of the security I have been through in India, this was actual security - working metal detectors and I had to turn on all of my electronic equipment.

So, can someone remind me what we are celebrating? This guy confused me a bit.
Once inside I was a little grossed out at the volume of red white and blue assaulting my eyes. After the initial shock, I got right to business buying expensive food and being ignored by those around me. It was very homey. Eventually some college-aged kids sat next to me and I got to know that they were from California, had been living in New Delhi for 7 weeks and were Christians taking classes and working with an orphanage. They were very friendly and I am going to church this evening at a place called Kingdom International.
On the evening's schedule was food, fireworks, presentation of the color guard, music and fun. I couldn't quite figure out what they meant by scheduled 'fun.' But I soon found out it was a tug-of-war, watermelon and pie eating contests and a raffle.
One of the girls in the California group won the raffle. The prize was a free Continental Air ticket back to the states. I don't know what to think if the nicest thing that can be given to you in In

shim shim shi-shimla

Once on the mountain, it feels like a different country. The British Raj built their summer home hear to escape the heat of Delhi. They chose well. To help them feel at home a beautiful, super expensive palace/castle was built for everyone to relax. It was also the first Indian president's home. Pakistan/Kashmere peace talks went down in one of the rooms. And Ghandi stopped by! Now it is an institute for learnin'

Christ's Church was the 2nd church built in India and sits in the city center Scandal point.

The real highlight was another monkey temple. We quested up a mountainside to the land of irate apes. All along the way a person is cautioned: don't look them in the eye, don't smile, carry a stick to beat down monkeys that try to attack. I wasn't particularly concerned, but as soon as we sat down an older monkey snatched Gary's specs. The monkeys were scary smart. It did not relinquish his spectacular prize until an entire bag of 'monkey food' was thrown into its hands. The monkey caught it like a football, saluted and ran away. We headed back last night via overnight bus. At last I returned to the ICGEB for a day of science.

The train that took forever - BRIDGES!

In the morning we were hounded by shoe shine men and Gary relinquished his beaten down boots to see what would happen. The results couldn't have been better. They reglued the toe of his shoe sole, sewed the holes together and smeared on a cleaner that looked like snot. For $1, that's a good deal!

The trip between Chandighar and Shimla was a historic trek into the mountains on a train built in 1903. The British put the train there so that they could access their summer home in Shimla. The trip was a feat in civil engineering with 800 bridges and 100 tunnels in 96 km. The train was supposed to arrive at 5 pm, but instead took until 7:30 due to long stops waiting for other trains to pass by. The views and company made the toy train well worth the journey.

We arrived at Shimla in the evening in time to catch a pic of all the lights. Hurray electricity!

Chandigar - Paddles and Rocks

So, the story of Chandighar is that American designers laid out the city. Sidewalks, houses set back on the property, space between buildings! it hardly felt like India.

Chandighar did however have a lake. I jumped on a paddle boat right away to get a better view of this rare chunk of water. I learned something on that lake: Gary hates paddle boats. For 26 minutes I heard non-stop complaining about the whole experience. He was convinced that we were slowing down - that our paddle boat was defective. It turns out he was right. As soon as we returned to the dock we saw a 30 ft net dragging behind us. It was quite a bit of exercise.

A pic of Gary complaining and doing nothing while I paddled.
I mention this instance so thouroughly because this is the only time the whole 7 day trip that Gary complained. Believe me, 7 days with me and he has earned the right.

Next we went to the Chandighar rock gardens. They were huge and sprawling and full of waterfalls. The rock gardens also contained hundreds of statues made of recylced anything you can think of. These ladies are made of bangles I think.

Jaipur Dos

Our second day in Jaipur was even more scenic. For a small bus fare Gary and I rode out north of Jaipur and checked out the super defensible Amber Fort and Jaindighar. We looked around for elephants, but it appeared that the midday summer kept them in hiding.

After walking all over Jaipur, Gary and I ended the day with a tricked out ice cream sunday - we have ice cream at least once a day. Just as we were heading to the rail station for our last overnight train trip I caught sight of this guy.

Jaipur day UNO

This morning we arrived in Jaipur, the capitol of Rajasthan in India. It reminds me of Atlanta.


We are never without people following us, asking where we are from (the overwhelming guess is Holland), if we will buy something, if we will give something, and if we will take a "poto." When they say photo correctly we usually agree to a pic. Usually Indians are more interested in me, but these guys only had eyes for Gary.After a 1 km hike up a mountain we came to the Tiger Fort Palace. It was built in the past 200 years, so the building is in great condition. I used my internet because it was there.
On top of the Sun God Golden Temple. It is not golden and most easily goes by the name Monkey Temple. There are monkeys all over, but they pale in comparison to cobra lady.Coming soon: elephants.

India + Gary + Rupees = Adventure!

So Gary and I started our whirlwind India adventure on the 23rd. We first went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. It is much bigger than I had imagined. This picture taken by a local is the only thing I got for free.

After an overnight train ride, we arrived in Udaipur - the Venice of India! It is supposed to be a lake city. Unfortunately, like everywhere else in northern India, drought wins and the lake is nearly dry. That actually made getting around easier since we did not need to hire a boat. (in the photo) We walked across the grassy lake from the right above my pierced ear all the way out of the left side of the picture. We then found a gondola type ride up to the top of the ridge we are standing on. Today we are in Jaipur, the pink city.

Swine Flu

So, for some reason I thought this whole swine flu problem had blown over a month ago. Turns out, not true.
87 people have died in the U.S. and 180 worldwide. There are 1,000 new cases in the U.S. every day.

Yesterday, the PI I work for asked me to look up the new cases and deaths caused by swine flu in the U.S. and Mexico on the W.H.O. website. He was hoping to see a rise and then decline in numbers - showing that the worst is over. That scenario seemed to be true for Mexico - but not the U.S. Also, because the U.S. has so many cases and so many people travel through it, that there are about 88 countries with swine flu cases.
This graph shows a trend that Mexican flu deaths are leveling off, but U.S. deaths are starting to pick up speed.

Today there was a relatively uninformative panel discussion at the ICGEB. Dr. Jameel called up all of his governmental big-shot friends and scientists, social workers and journalists answered questions from the scientific community. Though they did not say anything I was not already aware of, the concept that I got to be a part of that discussion was pretty neat. Dr. Jameel gave an intro/background for the Influenza (2009) H1N1 virus, a.k.a. swine flu. Guess what showed up? My graphs! I have broken into the science world of crunching numbers and retelling known data.
If you would like to look at the current case numbers, they are reported daily here:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/updates/en/index.html

Since there have been 44 cases in New Delhi in the past week, I'm starting to think a bit more about this - which is safer India or U.S.? I know the answer that some of you will give.

Anyway, my thinly veiled point is that everyone should wear facemasks. Go on. Do it.

Movement

Hellloooooo!
I have moved. First I'll mention where I was so that you know how excited I am to have a new place.
Since I arrived in India, I have stayed at the ISCCR (don't ask what that stands for) guest house. The room I stayed in was a hotel room: a nice bed and a nice bathroom. This is great for a short visit, but I was desperate to have an actual abode.
Also, $35 a night stacks up pretty quickly!

I have been talking to whoever I encounter at the ICGEB if they have any ideas. Since I don't really know the area, I have had to rely on others to do the grunt work of searching for me. Three days ago, a man who works in the same lab told me that he has a place and a space. His brother had been there, but moved out and left a vacancy that I could fill.

Two days ago I moved in and have been living the good life in a tiny room with a tiny bed and my very own attached bathroom. He has cable that gets CNN and BBC and ESPN as well as a kitchen. I will now pay $150 a month.

Woot! I can finally settle in India.

Sightseeing

Over the weekend, I saw some India. Neha and Kostav had a friend in town, Salman, and the four of us traveled around being touristy. Many sights that we visited would require an entry payment. 10 rupees for Indians and 300 or 250 for foreigners.
Friday evening we went to India gate. It is now a memorial for WWII soldiers. All of the Indians who died have their names carved on the gate.


On Saturday, we stopped at the presidents palace to snap some shots. There are monkeys running around the front yard. This building as well as the parliament buildings are kept in unsurprisingly immaculate condition. It is contrasted by the surrounding city.
Old Delhi! So old, electricity hardly knows what to do with itself their. Despite the street being the width of a driveway, rickshaws, motorcyles and cars will drive up and down it both ways.Jami Masjid. The largest mosque in India. It was quite large. This is a shot from outside - I liked the clouds, it had just rained.

Qutb Minar, the tallest freestanding tower in the world. It is a historic landmark and is used iconically on the metro tokens!
Jantar Mantar is an observatory built in 1724. The structures can do all sorts of astrological measurements like tell time, moon phases, earths axis, height of the sun. Also, sitting on that thing was like sitting on the sun. See, astrological.
Dilli Haat. An extremely pleasant shopping area. With the help of my native compadres, I got some good deals.

Rooftop

Today I continued to do science. Also, I followed Madeeha around all day and discussed Indian culture.

i cannot get over how cool this building's architecture is

A pano of the back of ICGEB from the second floorevening sun from the rooftop. the weather was extremely pleasant. i just hung out there for a while.

part of the long driveway from the gate to the building
this is what i see when i use the facilities.

Priyha

Today I worked independently. Rahul, my postdoc friend has gone off on vacation for a few days. I did not do anything too crazy - it was just nice to work and figure things out.
The people who work nearest to me: Madeeha (Ph.D. student) and her underlings Neha and Costab (post-masters students) helped me figure out where things are and gave advice when I could not remember some basic procedural stuff.
After work, we went to the local hopping hang out Priya. This is a shopping area that has everything one could need. Grocery store, Reebok, McDonalds, movie theatre - lots of clothing and food.Costab had a friend coming to town, so he bought him a shirt. That sounds like a cool culture if you get a shirt when you visit your friend. One thing that everyone took into consideration was what color would look best with a given shade of brown. In the case of Costab's friend, he looks really good in white.
Anyway, it was good to go and look around and be protected from beggars and children by my lab com padres. India is a very pleasant place when beggars do not grab you. The stores are very compact and if they do not have much to sell, like and electronics store or a bank, then the store may only be three or four people deep. About 6 ft from the door to the back wall.
Neha ran into a friend who was visiting India. Her friend was a grad student at SouthernCAL. While at an 'authentic' italian barista her friend gave her a 1$ bill. Everyone was so intrigued by it. I fished in my backpack and gave everyone a quarter, dime, and penny. I had forgotten grabbed a bunch of change on my way out the door to the airport in case anyone in India wanted that instead of rupees. They really liked it.
I told them all about the great american hero george washington. They all knew Lincoln. No one seemed to know about FDR. Oh well, I guess that's why he gets the tiniest of coins.
I plan on bringing back lots of coin rupees - so be prepared if I say I got you a souvenir.

First Impressions

I have been hear for almost 6 days, and now I have internet. So far, I have used the ICGEB servers, but now I have my very own access to facebooks, email, and now blogs.

Let me say what I am doing, in case anyone finds this blog and wants to know:
I applied to the '54 scholarship at VT honors. I proposed to go to India and work with a research scientist named Dr. Shahid Jameel. His research subjects include HIV, hepatitus E, and SARS. He is a head researcher at the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB). I did not win the scholarship, but the money I did recieve was more than enough to pay for my whole trip.

I arrived around midnight and Dr. Jameel picked me up and dropped me off at a guest house near the ICGEB. I cannot stay at the ICGEB guest house because the U.S. is not an affiliate county with the institute. Just about everyone else is - it is U.N. funded - but the U.S. must not want to cure infectious diseases. The guest house is for all purposes a hotel. I am continuing to search for a better place to stay.

In the morning I lock up my bag, stow all of my electronics in my backpack and walk to the ICGEB. It is safe to assume that it is over 100 degrees F all of the time, but it is so dry, I am fairly comfortable walking around. I have to sign in at the gate with the guards, walk for a few minutes down a shaded drive, and sign in at the front desk with the guards. Once inside, the labs look like every other lab I have encountered. It's kind of homey.

I am very slowly learning everyone's name. Many of them are hard to remember, but I can get it after I see it written down. So far: Rahul, Vivek, Miraj, Moin, Manjusha, Manjula, Dr. Druba, Sef, Abdul, Niha, Sika... getting there. There are 30 people in Dr. Jameel's virology group and many more besides who I have met, heard the name, and quickly forgotten.

Rahul is a post doc with whom I am working. I am getting aquainted with the lab and doing basic science thingys. Also, lots of reading.

I can see a broken New Delhi skyline from the lab. It makes me want to go out and wander this country in the heat of the day. I will try to spend my weekends seeing the local area.

a beginning

Internet in airports is a harsh import. My ride to Detroit was uneventful. The flight to Amsterdam that immediately followed was far too happenin'. I had a center aisle center seat. There was a Swiss man two seats over, a gap, and a Dutch dude to my right. The Swiss guy was really nice and had traveled India several times. I watched the entirely too depressing movie "The Reader." And then the babies started.
There were about 4 babies who took turns crying throughout the flight. They all joined together for the descent and the pressure change hurt their ears.
Night lasted about 4 hours. It was kind of cool to think about how fast we were rocketing around the globe. Unfortunately it is 3:14 EST, but my day has just begun. I feel rumpled.
I never even thought about how exciting it would be to go to Europe. If only for a couple of hours.