This has been one of the busier weeks that I have had since being on the ground in India. It has been full of good times and more challenges than I can really count. I am at the point of burnout from the long hours and the many people pulling on my time. I have fallen into the trap of dealing with things that can be better handled elsewhere or need to be turned down. As many of you know, I have a hard time saying 'NO' to any request that I think is important. During the course of the week, I spent some time with my manager discussing this. In all of my years of working, I had never let something drop that I was assigned to complete and now it has happened. I am wholly disappointed with myself because of this. With this in mind, I am going to take a couple of days off and recharge my batteries and reset my priorities straight again. I need to remember who sent me here and for what purpose and spend my time and energies to this goal.  So, if you do not hear from me on the blog for a while, that is what is happening.

On a positive note, Ruth has just sent me an email containing her itinerary for her trip to come see me. So if you fell a rumble around you, it is not an earthquake, it is just my jumping for joy!

Pride in your country

Indian can teach Americans one very important lesson. That is taking pride in your country and it's accomplishments. The newspapers here celebrate every achievement that its citizens accomplish. Everything from an Indian being awarded the Nobel peace prize to a American born Indian winning the governorship of Louisiana. While the papers also address the hard news of the day (such as poverty, the strike set by auto-rickshaw workers, and the nuclear deal with the U.S.), it also balances this bad news with the positive things that are happening in the world. It is quite refreshing to see, actually.

This is also reflected in the people themselves. When I have had a chance to talk to the locals about politics and the future, they are very excited about where India is heading and the future. When I have the same conversations with the Americans I have run into here, it is almost always negative.  It certainly makes me wonder if our press is not the cause of this doom and gloom because we do not celebrate our achievements.

Runway 9, cleared for takeoff.

On Friday, the company took all of it's associates to a local family-fun park, Runway-9. The park offers a number of different attractions ranging from an incredible go-kart track to archery, to air rifles, climbing walls, laser tag and more things than I can remember. It was great fun watching these 'kids' get out and blow off steam.

Part of the day was a team-building exercise where the associates had to take a couple of straws, three balloons, some string, some paper, and one egg and make an object that resembled a satellite. This was then to be dropped from about 10 feet to see if the egg would survive unbroken or un-cracked. It was fun listening to the cheers and jeers as each was dropped and shattered on the ground. Of the 10 dropped, 1 survived unbroken and 1 survived with minimal cracks.  Not a bad result for the 30 minutes they were given!

Pardon me sir, do you need a tour guide

This week also marked the arrival of the first associate from the states to do training for the staff I am here to support. Troy came to us from Jacksonville, Florida and fit right in like he has always lived here. I guess being former Navy helps with this. I was also able to take another gentleman with us on the tours who is over here on a 1 year ex-pat with a local airline. Harold is a former marine and has been here 9 months. Because of the nature of his job, he has not gotten around much. So, the weekends itinerary included Charminar (I Know, AGAIN?), the Qutb Shahi tombs, Golkonda fort, Hussian Sagar lake and Birla Mandir.  Each of these places I have done before and was able to share a little bit about what they were seeing. At which point, I was teased about becoming a tour guide in Hyderabad. I think I will turn this gig down after a talk with Kareem yesterday. Kareem has been working at Golkonda fort for 17 years and does not take a day off. His entire day is walking tourists up to the top of the hill and explaining all that they see. I asked him how many of these speeches he had given in his career and he responded in the thousands. I also asked how much he was paid by the park to conduct these tours and he said he had to pay the park for the privilege and that the fees paid by the tourists are split 25 ways at the end of the month. That does not sound like a lot of fun to me! 

One other interesting note in this entire chapter is that by the end of the weekend, I could not decide if I was a tour guide or a tourist attraction. Everywhere I went this weekend I was approached by folks asking if they could have their picture taken with me. After the photo was taken, I would spend some time to trying to get to know them by asking their name and where they were from. This caused quite a bit of humor as my American lips have trouble with some of the pronunciations of the names. One young lady spent a good 10 minutes with me trying to get me to pronounce here name correctly and then another 5 trying to get her to speak mine. During the entire sequence, her father was standing next to us just giggling. I guess it is a good thing that I am a bit of an extrovert!

Anyway, you did not come here to read my brain dump. You came to see the photos! So, without further ado, here they are!

Charminar

Qutb Shahi Tombs (Queens Tomb)

Golkonda Fort (Mike, Harold, Pratik, Troy)

Birla Mandir

An Auto-Rickshaw (You actually fit in that?)

And finally, just because I can, here is one of my favorite shots from the weekend.

Whew!!! What a couple of weeks it has been. I apologize now to any readers who think that I have fallen off the face of the earth. Many, many things have occurred in the last two weeks that I will endeavor to tell you about. But first, I have to go grab a diet coke and a snickers bar prior to starting this post. I expect it might be a long one!

So, now that I am back from that short commercial break, let's get into the stories.

Friday, 12 October

This day will live in infamy in my mind for some time. During the course of the week, we were informed that the company I work for had canceled all international travel. "That is no big deal!" you might be thinking. However, we were expecting a road show to appear to give a presentation to the local staff on what our division does and how we are aligned within the business. Because of the travel restriction, we were asked if we could pull this off by presenting the material.

While this does not sound like a big deal, those that know me know how much I hate public speaking. Added to this was the fact that I did not bring a suit or a sports jacket with me. So Friday night was spent making a quick run out to a local tailor and having a suit and dress shirt made and have it delivered Sunday night so I can travel to Gurgaon on Monday. (A nice side note here, I was able to have a custom tailored suit and dress shirt for about $200!)  So the final result is that smiling dude on the right in his new duds.

We also spent a fair amount of time Friday night going over the material provided and tweaking the presentation. The plan is to do 5 presentations in Gurgaon  and 1 in Hyderabad. We will be partnering with IBM and with Aperian Global to introduce the associates to our division and how to work in a global culture. While this placed a fair amount of stress on me, it ought to be fun!

Saturday, 13 October

Today was a fun day! Every day we are here something new happens or you meet very interesting people. Last night, Jason had dinner with a woman who had just arrived in Hyderabad. And to give you an idea of how international Hyderabad is becoming, Erin is a woman born in Jamaica, raised in Great Britain and is currently working in Saudi Arabia. She is in Hyderabad to meet her fiance who is a former US marine flying for a local airline.

With that background out of the way, we spent today shopping in  Secundurabad which is a sister city to Hyderabad similar to how Minneapolis and St. Paul are two cities but are really one. This area was initially built as military cantonment for the British army as they were in the area. It is now a major commerce center with a number of well known companies having outlets here. However, there is also another area that is a very small alley way lined with shops and carts that is truly amazing. It was to this area that we headed today. (A funny side note, Erin had never been to India before and this area simply floored her!)

Now, I have said before that I normally do not like shooting people. However, in this area, you simply cannot point the camera here anywhere without catching something interesting.

Another interesting phenomenon was that the number of kids that came up to me and asked to have their photo taken. You can see several of them above. This will become more interesting later in the story.

Sunday. 14 October

I took today as a preparation date for the upcoming trip. This meant spending time packing, heading over to the tailor to do the final fitting of the suit and just generally relaxing. The only interesting thing that happened today is when I headed to the City Center to pick up the suit, the jacket was ready, but the trousers and the shirt was not. I would look really funny giving my presentation in a pair of blue jeans, a polo shirt and a pin striped suit jacket! However, about an hour later, the tailor hand delivered the missing items to the hotel and did the final alterations!

Monday, 15 October

Well, here we go on our great adventure. There are so many things that can go wrong on this trip that it just does not do to dwell on them. It is time to rely on one of the saying that Doug Darr gave me many years ago as I started to travel internationally.... "Be Flexible" and today I will certainly need that.

One of the things that went wrong immediately on arranging this trip was that the companies travel agent booked our flight for us. On Friday, I got a phone call from them stating that the tickets Jason and I think we have do not exist. This is because of some new laws that have been passed that prevent Indian airlines from taking foreign credit cards for bookings. After a quick call back with them, they book another ticket to be held and paid for at the airport. We were told that we would have to pay for the tickets with cash because of the above restriction. The good news is that the ticket agent took our credit cards without question and the cost was actually less than what was quoted.  Whew, that was good news.

Once in the airport, the other saying that Doug told me came into the forefront. This comment "it is not wrong, just different" certainly applied here. Things are run quite a bit different in this airport than most I have flown into or out of. To get into the building, you have to show a security guard your ticket and he will let you in. The next step is taking your checked baggage to the screening station where it is x-rayed and then sealed with a nylon strap.  You then proceed over to the counter where you check into your flight and receive a seating assignment. After that, you wait in the lobby area until they announce your flight. At this point, you go through another security check to wait in the boarding area. Once your flight is called, you walk across the tarmac to catch the bus to your flight. Again, just a different way to do things.

Arriving in Delhi, we were met by the driver to take us to the hotel. This is where things got really interesting.  Jason had a room for the three days we were going to be there. I had a room for 1 night and then the hotel was booked solid. (Long story here. This was caused by the cancel in the travel mentioned above. I was supposed to arrive on Saturday initially but had changed my arrival to Monday. This, apparently, was not communicated to the hotel. So when I did not show on Saturday, they canceled the room.)

Fortunately, the hotel had a two room suite available for about the same cost as two separate rooms. Jason and I took the suite and a crisis was averted.

Tuesday & Wednesday, 16-17 October

These two days are a blur of speaking and listening to others speak. I had the honor of Emceeing the event and that was fun! I will say of the five presentation that we gave, the first one was a disaster. Because we did not have a lot of time to prepare or rehearse the material, it just did not flow right. Fortunately, we had about 3 hours between this presentation and the next one. There was an incredible difference in how it flowed and how it was received. All in all, the days spent in Gurgaon were a success, but tiring.

Thursday, 18 October

Not a lot going on today but a trip back from Gurgaon to Hyderabad. So I will not bore you with the details After arriving back in the city, we took a quick ride back to the hotel and then headed back out to the Novatel to check on the setup for the day and then back to the hotel for a well deserved crash.

Friday, 19 October

Well, we finally got the last day of the presentations and I am glad it is over! Today was by far the biggest of the events we had spoken at. There were more than 80 associates in attendance and I knew most of them! This event was also longer than the ones in Gurgaon running three hours instead of two. 

However, at the end of the week, although I was tired, I was proud of the effort that we put into the event and the success it achieved. It also showed me that I am continuing to be stretched professionally here as well as personally. And for this alone, I am glad I agreed to do this event. The only down side of the entire event was that the presentation in Hyderabad showed what it could of been if we were able to have the executives come over and present it.

The last thing today was heading over to the Taj Krishna about midnight to meet a new associate coming in from the states to perform training. So, welcome to Hyderabad Troy!

Saturday, 20 October

I can give you three guesses where we went today. Charminar, yet again. I have to admit, the more often I visit this area, the more I fall in love with it. Although many feel this is the most dangerous area of the city, I find it absolutely charming. The people, the shops, the sights and the smells make this area the heart of the city. I have said before., you can always tell what the city is feeling or up to by the crowds and reactions. Today was no different. From what I saw today, all is right with the world!

The final story of the day. While I was waiting for the folks with me to purchase their pearls, I was approached by a young man asking if I would take his picture (that is him above).  He was a very polite young man and had quite the personality. After taking his picture, I was approached by a couple of more young men asking for me to take their photo. By the time I was done, there were about 25 kids all asking for the same thing. Once I would take the photo, the kids would rush over to see what the photo looked like. I spent a very enjoyable 20 minutes or so with these kids and just had a great time!

The last humorous event of the day was when I entered to the pearl shop to see how the shopping was going, Jason asked the salesman if he remembered us. The salesman said "I remember HIM! He has a big personality!  I dang near fell over in laughter because the same thing happens in the states when I am with Ruth.

Anyway, thank you for sticking through this and many apologies for not writing sooner.

Well, it finally happened. I celebrated a personal holiday in India without Ruth. The sad part was is that I forgot what day it was until I checked my email that morning. Ruth, my dear wife, had managed to let our friends back home what was going on and my inbox was filled with congratulatory notes. What a wonderful day to start the day! Thank you to Ruth and all of those who sent emails, they were much appreciated.

Later in the day, I got a note from a former co-worker also wishing me happy birthday. Little did I know that she had also let the secret out to the team. As I was leaving for the day, my new team in Hyderabad lined up to wish me a happy day.

Lastly, as I arrived at the hotel to share a drink with my new friends that are here with me, I found a birthday cake in my room (see picture at the left). As we went down to dinner at the hotel, I was presented with another cake that I shared with the diners around me followed by a round of happy birthday from the singers from the bar.

Although it would not of been my first choice on how to celebrate a birthday, it was a wonderful day. Many thank you's to all of you who made the day special!

Today is Columbus day in the United States. So you may ask yourself, what did Mike do on this U.S. federal holiday in India? Well, let me tell you, I took it off! This is one of the shared holidays between the company at home at it's subsidiary here. I do not want to give you the impression that it is a holiday in India, just one that my company here takes off.

So with this extra day to play, what did we do?  Well, first, let's step back into the "way back machine" and dial the clock back about 12 hours to dinner last evening.   ooo weee oooo weee (sorry, bad attempt at a sci-fi sound effect)..

A fusion of flavor

This evening, we went to a new restaurant for us called "Fusion 9". This is a place that specializes in blending continental foods with an Indian twist.  As we entered the place, the first thing I noticed was a very large banner advertising October-fest! They even had a specialized menu with some adaptations on German food. Needless to say, I had to try it. So I ordered a buffalo steak in a mushroom and onion reduction that was served over red cabbage and potatoes. Jason ordered a chicken calzone.

So let me see here, I travel to India to order German food at a continental restaurant at the same time that Jason orders Italian food that is eaten by Americans! What a world we live in!

A funny thing about this entire experience. As I mentioned this place to Ruth her first comment was "Did you order the curried bratwurst"?  I dang near choked on my laughter! The entire situation was so ludicrous to be funny and Ruth's comment just summed it up nicely.

A little time in the bar

Adding to the international flavor of the evening, Jason and I spent a little time in the bar at the hotel. There were a couple of friends of Jason that were singing and he asked me to come down to listen to them. In the spirit of the rest of the evening, the music was provided by a couple of cousins from the Philippines singing American pop tunes from the late 70's and early 80's.  During the course of the evening, we were joined by a gentleman from India and one from Australia as well as a friend of Jimbo and Shelia (photo at the right) who joined in the singing. All I can say about the evening is that it was a truly world wide experience.

Monday in Hyderabad

This morning was a day of general laziness. I slept in a little and talked to Ruth this morning. After a nap, I worked on the movie that is embedded below (boy, has it changed) and generally tried to get over the stress of last week. About 3 o'clock, Jason called and asked if I wanted to spend the afternoon with him, Jimbo and Shelia by heading to a local garden. As I was starting to go stir crazy, I decided to ride along. Jimbo wanted to go to a local garden spot called the NTR gardens. The gardens are known for it's topiary and a couple of other surprises mixed in, such as the giant pineapple and the garden of antique cars that are set as picnic tables! An interesting issue arouse when I was trying to enter the park, I had a pocket full of camera accessories (surprise, surprise) and the guards did not want to let me in with the extra batteries. What I did not understand at the time is that they wanted me to replace the battery in the camera and take a picture with each of the spares. As I did not understand, they eventually let me in. As I have stated before, security is really tight around the city right now. But, now for the fun things. Below are a number of photos I took during our time there.  The tree house mixed in there is a water slide where you sit on a raft and ride down. It caused quite a bit of amusement for me and others as Jason and Jimbo rode down it together. I had not heard yelling that loud in a long time.

Another thing that amazed me during the walk through the park was that Shelia ran into a person she had met once and they immediately fell into together as if they had been lifelong friends. It is rather amazing hanging around people who have never met a stranger. And I have run into several of them here from Gulshan, to Jason to Divium to Shelia.  It has been quite a ride so far.

Birla Mandir Temple

Moving on from gardens, we headed towards the Birla Mandir temple. I had read about this place in a little guidebook that the Taj hotel provides it's guests. The description sounded interesting and it was close to the gardens that we had just visited. Driving to the entrance proved to be somewhat challenging as it appeared to be quite hidden. Eventually, the driver located the entrance and we were let off at the beginning of a small alleyway. It was somewhat interesting to see if we even wanted to enter, but being the intrepid explorers we are, we headed in. This alleyway was a charming little area of small shops and street stands. The stands on the streets sold coconuts and strung flowers and I made my first friend of the day when I asked one of the vendors if I could take her picture. At first she demurred, but when I said thank you and started to walk away, she changed her mind. If you look to the right, you will see this young lady and her wares.

Moving on from the alley way, we came upon a gated entrance to the temple complex. This was a slight incline up the hill to the plaza where we were greeted by a nice statue to the right of the entryway.

As I understand it, this statue is made of granite and the surrounding structure is made of white marble. This makes a very impressive structure and quite a difficult photograph to take (there is nothing worse for a photographer than a black and white subject. The camera simply cannot capture the details in both the black and the white at the same time. So you make a choice and expose for one or the other. As you can see on the left, I exposed for the black.)

Moving on from the plaza, we approached the temple area itself. Once we got to the entrance, there was a room to the right where you took your shoes off and stored them as you got ready to climb the stairs. This led to my first disappointment of the day as cameras were not going to be allowed within the complex. Oh well, I guess I can understand it, but it was still disappointing. If you look below, you will see a couple of photos that really do not do the area justice. At some point, I will come back to tour the temple but leave the camera at the hotel.

The last thing of the day that absolutely made my weekend was that as we were leaving we spotted a field on the side of the parking lot where a bunch of pre-teen boys were playing cricket. As I passed, one of the young me attempted to engage me in a conversation oabout the game. I informed him that I only understood a very little about the game, but that I knew that India and Australia were involved in a match and that I wished India well in their attempt. This was met with a huge cheer from him that drew his friends next to him who then began to chant "India, India!". As I smiled and said goodbye, they asked if I would take their picture. So without further ado, I present the future of Indian cricket!

So, while not on of my busier weekends, it was a nice break from the week and a good chance to relax. The more I get around the city and interact with the people, the more I have come to love this place. The people are warm and friendly and are more than willing to spend a little time chatting with a stranger. You can see by their smiles that they really enjoy life and getting to know those around them.

On a side note though, I am ready to get out of the city of Hyderabad. I have been here for more than two months and I have seen about all that this city has to offer. I am ready to head to a new place and meet new people. Next week I will be travelling to Delhi on a business trip. When I get back from that, I want to travel to Bangalore and Mysore. Then maybe one other trip to the North prior to Ruth's visit. I think I will save the trip to the Taj for when Ruth is here and we can share tha majesty of the place together.

It has been a while since I have posted last and a lot has happened in that time. I finally got over the Delhi-Belly on Friday and was able to make it back into work. I did not last the entire day as I was extremely weak from not eating for three days. However, I was able to get a fair amount done, just not to my normal level of productivity. So, with the health update out of the way, on to the things you were hoping to read about.

What does this mean?

One of the things that came up on Friday was the title of this post '5 Minutes, sir'.  As I was asking to get some photocopies done, the attendant said it would be "5 minutes, sir". It has taken some time for me to understand that this statement means "I will take care of it when I can." This means it could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 days to accomplish. While this used to frustrate me, it occurred to me that it is no different than when I hear the statement "I'll take care of it".  The difference is one has an implied time limit and the other one does not. So both statements have the same meaning to their appropriate culture. What I came to understand was that my frustration was because of the implied time limit. This caused my internal clock to start ticking, leading to my frustration. As I started my life of international travel, a wise man told me two things. One was "Be flexible", meaning that things will go wrong and not be what you expect. Just flex with it. The second was "it is not wrong, just different". Because of these, I kept looking for the hidden meaning in the statement until I was able to find it. So, when I get back home, if I say "It will be 5 minutes", please understand what I am saying! :D

Saturday 06 October.

Yesterday, Jason and I did not do much. A little bit of shopping around the city and then to dinner. I did manage to stock up the mini fridge again as well as buy a couple of items I have been searching for. The biggest thing was finding a product similar to Crystal Light to add to the water bottles. While it is bottled water, there is still an aftertaste to it. Being sick last week and having nothing but the water, I wanted something different. Finding the powdered additive for the water was quite the god send. So instead of drinking plain water now, I have flavored water in Fruit Punch, Orange and Lemon. Yummy!

Dinner last night was also special. We went to a local restaurant called "Mainland China" that has the best Chinese food in the area. Upon arriving, we found the restaurant closed and the waiter said it would be 5 minutes. :)  Of course, this turned into 25, but hey, it s worth the wait. The meal was also much cheaper than in the hotel. Jason and I both ordered our own meal and then shared what was ordered. Again, it was a great meal.

Sunday 07 October

Today started with a couple of things that really touched me off. We found out yesterday that the company has canceled all fourth quarter international travel. This will add a bit of work onto our schedule that we were not expecting. In the next two weeks, we were expecting to meet with a number of executives to help perform an introduction to our division. With the travel freeze, it looks as if Jason, Gulshan and I will have to figure out how to pull it off ourselves. This could be very interesting.

The other thing the travel freeze did is make me reconsider the travel for Ruth to come visit. Part of my agreement when taking this assignment was a furlough trip home. I had asked (and was granted) permission to bring Ruth here instead. With the freeze, Ruth and I may just pay for the cost ourselves and save the hassle of getting senior management approval. Either way, I am looking forward to seeing Ruth again as soon as we can arrange it (Christmas, maybe?)

Charminar Again?

Jason and I once again braved the Charminar area. This time is was just a chance to get out of the hotel room and get into the heart of the city. The more I visit this area, the more I come to adore it. While some may see it as a dangerous place and others see it as an area that is much overcrowded, I see it as a charming place filled with wonderful, warm people and personalities. A story that exemplifies this is as I was walking down the street, I had two small boys chase after me simply to walk beside me and ask me where I was from (Thule, Greenland if you want to know). The boys simply wanted to talk to a walking giant (their words) and had no other agenda. I have gotten quite used to being stared at as I wander around the Charminar markets. Also, for one of the first times since I have been here, I actually did some shopping whilst there (psst, don't tell Ruth, it was for her!) and purchased a couple of pearl and coral necklaces.

I also had a major change in my photography focus since I had been here last. In my last post, I referred to Mark Walters and the photos he had taken of the faces and people he had seen since he had been in India. Although I do not enjoy people photography, I tried my hand at it today and below are the results. I hope you like them.

And finally, as Jason and I were making our way back to the hotel, we ran into this little girl who was playing around the mall, she has a smile that can melt any persons heart and a child's exuberance for life that was irresistible. The unfortunate part of the episode is that she was at the mall with her mother and they were both obviously destitute. Mom was teaching the little girl how to panhandle from those in the area. For once, I could not resist and Jason and I both gave her some Rupee coins. I hope you enjoy her pictures!

And on a final note, you may ask when I will be posting again. All I can say is in "5 Minutes, sir!".

Well, it is hard to believe I have been in India for 2 months now! How time flies.  As I have been down ill for the last couple of days, I decided to do a quick run through the photo archives and put together a quick little video. You will recognize many of these photos from the site here, but there are some new ones as well!

Hope you enjoy!

Mark Walters Photography

During the course of last week I got to know a gentleman at the bank whose passion for photography is similar to mine. He has quite the eye for faces and places. To the left is an example of his work. If you wish to see more of his remarkable photographs from his gallery titled "Faces of India", follow this link.  http://mwalters.smugmug.com/gallery/3560005#201766954 As those of you who know me understand, one of my least favorite things in photography is shooting people. I just do not seem to have the eye for it. Mark certainly does!

One another note, until I came to India, the burkha was not something I considered in anyway attractive. However since arriving in India and being exposed to them constantly you start to notice a couple of things. First is how quickly it draws attention to the wearers eyes. It is amazing how they just explode at you. The second thing you notice is that not all burkha's are created equal. There is a vast array of bead work and accents that can be included in them making them each unique in their own way.

A Weight Loss Program not Recommended

Well, after almost two months in country, I have finally succumbed to the dreaded Delhi-Belly. I am not quite sure how I caught it, but it has had the most interesting side effects. Trying to stay hydrated just causes more of the same. Anyway, I do not want to delve into the disgusting, but I do not recommend using this as a weight loss program. The after affects are not worth the loss! 

The Taj Deccan Fire Brigade

As I was sitting in the hotel today trying to stay out of the bathroom, I happened to look out of the window and caught this.  I have to admit that in all of the time I have been in Hyderabad, the one thing that I have not seen is a fire truck or a fire station. Apparently, the hotel trains it staff in using the fire hoses on a weekly basis. This particular instruction was for the new employees coming into the hotel. It was quite humorous watching these two gentlemen trying to fight the power of the hose. Once they got it down though, there was no stopping them.  It was also funny watching the response of the folks in the background. I do not think they expected quite that much power from a water hose!

Random Thoughts

I knew Cricket was a big sport in India (I am actually starting to understand it!), but I did not know how big until last week. India and Pakistan met in the world championship of something called twenty20. The entire building compressed themselves into the cafeteria to watch the match which lasted just over three hours. You could tell what was happening by the sound emanating from there. For those interested, India won in a close finish!

I am beginning to understand that Charminar is the heart of Hyderabad. On any given weekend, you can judge the mood of the city by strolling it's streets. If it is packed with locals and tourists, all is right with the world.

I have a three day weekend coming up this week and did not plan to do anything. I wonder what other mischief I can find to get into this week. Now that we have a larger vehicle, I might have to take a look at what else we can drive to.

I am really looking forward to the rainy season ending. I have been in country over 7 weeks and we have had three days of sun in that time. My understanding is that October is the start of the sunny season. I hope I don't start missing the cool rainy days once the sun starts shining.

Hyderabad seems to be trying to decide on how to redefine itself. There is an incredible amount of growth going on. There are malls popping up everywhere and very large office buildings. But the thing I still see the most is the roadside markets that pop up on the weekends. TO me, this is what adds to the charm of the area.

During the course of the week, I was asked by one of my stateside team mates who was visiting "If you knew everything you know now, would you still volunteer to come?"  What an incredibly difficult question. At the time, I answered in the affirmative. This did cause me to spend a fair amount of time thinking about it more that evening. The biggest challenge I have had since being here is missing my wife and friends. In retrospect, I would of given more consideration to bringing Ruth along.

Well, enough nonsense for now.