An old trip to Asia Pacific.

 Note from Burns: I'm attempting to update the blog with other travel writing I have done.  This one was a business trip to Hong Kong, Seoul, and Singapore in 1999 with a stop off in Tokyo on my own.  About the only time I've EVER gotten to fly in Business Class! I was sent to meet some specific customers in Hong Kong and to attend DECUS (the user group for our product and others) in Seoul and Singapore. 

It happens I had already written this in Word, so I'll embed the PDF form in the blog.  You can (I think) hit a button on it so that it fills a page instead of being part of the kind of small blog size.  The pictures are kind of small, but remember they were also taken with a film camera back then and scanned.  Nonetheless, I can probably get them bigger if I spend the time at some point.

Fair to say that while I had traveled some before this, I had never to the Asia-Pacific are and never totally alone.  It shows in some of my written thoughts.

One more thing to add:  When I had business trips, I usually tried to go early and stay a bit late (or over weekends or whatever) so I could spend some time on my own.  That's how you often see many days of taking tours or walking around without much business mentioned most of the time. 😀

Set the Wayback Machine. A post from Rome in 1987

Sheraton Roma Hotel

Viale Del Pattinaggio

00144 Roma – Italia

My Trip To Rome

(Note from BF, December 2018.  I took this trip in 1987 only about 2 years after I had moved from Marlboro (MR3) to Nashua (ZK1) to work for VMS Engineering.  The trip was to attend the European DECUS Symposium, the Digital user society where my group had a big presence. I wrote very little about my work stuff in this, but mainly things that were interesting in my time off.  This was hand-written on Sheraton Roma paper, but I am transcribing it.  The handwriting is way better than what I would do now, but still requires some work to read. Occasional italics are my current-day comments.)

9/1987

Saturday-Got on Hudson Limo for the trip to Logan.  No problem—we got there in no time.  Nothing very exciting.  Checkin smooth.  Flew to NY in an L1011.  Waited in NY for a couple hours + finally boarded the 747 for Rome.  The upper deck is nice! Only 16 people up there. Lots of room, including big bins beside the seat. Not sure how I managed to get there. I was seldom able to fly business class!

My seatmate was an engineer-turned-salesman working for Fujitsu.  He was an American, but was European sales mgr or some such.  Going to a conference on Microwave equipment. We left 1hr late (“ground baggage handling equipment broke down”), but arrived in Rome only about 20 min late at 9:00AM.  At customs, I dutifully took the Red Line.  There was no one at the customs window, so I went into the office.  They almost laughed at me when I showed my slides and export documents.  Changed money at the cambio in the airport ($300 = ~L380000).  Found place to wait for the courtesy bus (I thought). Wrong—it was down the road a piece. Anyway, got to the hotel- they had a room waiting even though it was only 11:00AM.  Took a shower and a 1.5 hr nap (No problem for “jet lag” since it was early).  Got up and got a call from Dave Solomon.  We met and took a hotel courtesy bus to see our first glimpse of downtown Roma. 

Bus normally goes into the middle of town, but tonite there was a big marathon being run for some worldwide sport event and the center was all closed off, so they let us off in Piaza di S. Pita e S. Paola.  We walked along Viale Aventino, past Circus Maximus, M. Palatino, and finally to the Coliseum.

Coliseum is truly amazing. It would be a large undertaking now with modern tools and equipment, but in the time just after Nero?  The floor of the arena was raised so that things could be moved underneath it.  I am planning to go back again alone so I can explore better.

From there, I’m not quite sure where we went, expect that we went into the church which holds Michelangelo’s Moses.  Said church also had some chains claimed to be those of St. Peter.

We searched for some time for a restaurant “Ninoi”.  (So many things like this are easy to find now on the internet!!) We found the street, we thought, but no signs of the restaurant.  Finally we settled on a restaurant just around the corner from the Pantheon.  Very nice choice—not a word of English spoken, no tourists.  Good food.  I had antipasto, tortellini , saltimbocca ala romana (fried veal with ham + rosemary). Good, but not great.  Too salty for me.  The tortellini was fabulous.  BTW, the pasta seemed intended to be the thing that fills you up.  It is the 2^ndcourse (after antipasto). The meat course (3^rd) is generally lighter or at least there is not so much.  I like that setup.

Came back by subway. Got in ~ 11:30 and soaked in tub for a while + went to bed.  

Next AM, breakfast at 8 (orange croissants and coffee + juice.  Dave had something to do, so CW (Hobbs)and I went into town.  Took the hotel bus in to Piazza Venezia (Actually Via di Teatro Marcello 42, a small bar near P. Venezia).  Walked to the Pantheon.  Made as a tribute to the gods.  Very impressive building.   Of course the R.C.s (Roman Catholics)stuffed it full of statues of saints and virgins and what all, so there is little left of the original interior artifacts. However, the building itself is quite something.

We then went on to the Vatican, and St. Peter’s Square and Basilica.  I thought the plaza was very architecturally pleasing. Not so the inside of the church.  It is too complicated. You can’t take it in.  Of course, that may be the object.  Saw the place where Charlemagne was crowned (stood in it).  Saw relics of St. Peter, etc.  Michaelangelo’s Pieta—very crowded, glassed in, hard to see. (Then) a museum of papal relics—mitres, capes, etc.  Most labels in Italian only.  Not too helpful.  Went to the roof of the basilica by elevator and then up 333 steps to the cupola. Nice view, and interesting to see the constructions.  Steps very narrow and winding—goes right up under the skin of the dome—have to bend slightly to fit the curve.  Looking down over the dome, there appears to be candle holders to outline the portion of the dome visible from the square.  I would not want to be the poor priests who had to light them!  Went back down to the roof.   You could go into the balcony of the church, which we did.  Actually, I think we did that before climbing the stairs. Took some pix.  (Camera not allowed inside main church).  Wrote postcards and mailed them in a mailbox on the roof (with stamps bought in a souvenir shop on the roof run by nuns.)

Went back down and out. This was interesting and I would not have missed it, but it just does not compare with the Taj (Taj Mahal in India), which seemed nothing worse than a material, but artistic expression of an incredibly strong emotion.  St. Peters, on the other hand, did not convey emotion.  All I saw was the gaudiness.  It seemed to emphasize the contradictions between vows of poverty and the great wealth of the church.  Two sort of random thoughts—the Pope must be sort of a benign Reagonesque figure to me. I kept thinking to myself that he would not allow this if he saw it.  (Duh, he LIVES there!)  I also have visions of Jesus walking in + turning over the tables of the money lenders when I see how many things in there are sold!

Anyway, then we had a nice lunch at a nearby place.  I don’t have the name, but it was right on Via Della Conciliazone (I think) which leads straight away from the Vatican.  Can’t remember now what we had, but it was good. (I know—it was pizza. No choice of topping (ham olive, artichoke…).  Thin crust.) Very weird waiter.  Grabbed our cheeks, made fun of our moustaches, etc. Seemed to do it to everyone.  Did not bother me.  

Next went through the Vatican museums on the shortest route to the Sistine Chapel.  Sorry, but I was still not blown away.  Very nice paintings on the ceilings and all but I guess I don’t appreciate it as much as some.  (2018 comment:  I think they were in the middle of restoring it then.  I’ve not seen it in person since, but appreciate reproductions of God reaching down to Adam more now than I did then).  Maybe it was the crowds.  Anyway, we came “home” by the Metro, registered for the symposium + ate in the hotel.  Have to remember not to do that again!  Very expensive and not that good.  And this was the cheap restaurant.

Tuesday, I was busy all day with work.  In the evening, I accepted an invitation from some of the folks I had met, and we went into Rome for dinner again, this time at Toreina Trilussa at Via del Politeana 23 in the Trastevere district.  We had what I thought was a very good waiter.  He put up with our Italian + answered in Italian usually.  It made us feel good.  However, he slipped a couple times and answered English questions in OK English.  I had Antipasto Russtica—nice things including red peppers, eggplant, etc. with breading + garlic.  For pasta, I had the house special-I did not catch the name, but it was a squash pasta with cream sauce and peas. Very nice.  For meat, I had another veal dish-veal wrapped around sausage and served with pieces of bread + sauce, all of which had been baked together.  Had a strolling musician-and old guy playing the guitar and singing.  We went in by Taxi (#&# marketeers).  When the time came to return, it was 23:30—no metro.  Malcolm and I finally found a taxi.  The rest decided to wait for a bus.  Malcolm said the busses did not run all the way to the hotel at night.

9/13  I later found out that the rest of them had also taken a taxi.  Stu (not my current friend Stu) and Colleen showed up Wednesday afternoon during by booth duty.  Turns out his passport had expired.  He did not notice till he tried to leave Friday.  No getting it fixed till Tuesday because of Labor Day.  How embarrassing!  Wed nite was the “social event” which consisted of the hotel putting on this bizarre “Roman Celebration”.  Must be a standard thing they do.  Wheeled out big “marble” columns on dollies, had “centurions” “welcoming” the guests and (I kid you not) one cow and one calf, alive in a little stockade (dare I say manger?) on one side.  Buffet food (not too bad for mass produced, but not great) and a 4-piece band.

Thursday-Work again, including the VMS Q&A session from 8:00 to ??? at night.  Europeans usually don’t seem to be big on questions, so CW and I (and Jay and his friend whose name I don’t remember) decided to wait till after to have a good meal rather than rushing thru a hotel meal before. They asked questions forever! Finally done at 11PM!  CW had the concierge call ahead to Ristorante Picar at Lumeur park in EUR (kind of a nearby amusement park--Google it!).  When we got there, they were empty and the door locked.  We went to the back door of Lumeur and told them the Sheraton had called for us.  They let us in, gave us the menu, and went away.  After we decided what wonderful things we would have, they came back to tell us the kitchen was closed and all they could give us was pizza!  Better than nothing.  At least they still had an antipasto buffer out, and the wine cellar was not locked.

Finally the exhibition closed early (at 12) cancelling my 12:30-2 booth duty.  Unfortunately, I had already eaten the DECUS lunch. Still went to Picar with CW and ??  Had tortellini in brodo.

Then went with CW to downtown.  First stopped at St. Paul Without the Walls cathedral.  A big contrast w/St. Peter’s for me.  Still vast, maybe even gaudy, but not so ‘smack in the face’.  Had mosaic plaques of  all the popes from Peter to J.P.II along with the years, months, and days of their reign.  No mention of dates.  I suppose that could be embarrassing when they try to show the continuity (it worked!)

Spent most of the afternoon in the Palatine.  I was really starting to get a good idea of what a place Rome must have been (if you were a priv. class, of course).  We wnatered about the emporer’s bedrooms, the forum (meeting place for senators et al) Finally got kicked out at 6:15 or so. Met Stu and Colleen for dinner (Ristorante La Campona—can’t remember what I had but it was great).

Saturday, I went into town all alone (finally).  Three purposes: 1. Wanted to see the coliseum and absorb it better.  2. Wanted to buy some presents + 3. Wanted to “own” the city—be able to get around, read map, find things myself.  I spent the AM at the coll.  Then went to McDonalds at P. di Spagna for lunch.  Not much different  except they had beer and a salad bar with pasta.  Turns out I planned wrong.  Should have gone shopping in the AM since things close down 1-4.  Got some stuff for E+Kids, however.

I apparently never wrote up my trip to Pompeii.  I booked a day bus trip from Rome.  It was absolutely fascinating.  As I recall we also stopped kind of briefly in Florence (Fiorenza) but I remember pretty much nothing about that. 

The Trip I Thought I Would Never Make

I retired in 2012 and thought that I would never again go on a business trip to India (although I did not rule out a personal visit).  But you never know what the future will bring.  In August, I started working part-time for a startup company (VSI) which intends to continue development of the product (VMS) that I worked on for most of my 30+ years at the previous company.   And one of my first jobs?  Go to India to work with my friends and former colleagues to make the transition.

As usual, I will not talk much about the actual work...more about my experiences outside of work.

Sunday Aug 17 2014

I started off to India with Doug, a former VMS engineer who was laid off several years ago, but has now been rehired by VSI, my new company.  Doug and I have been in India before (in 2006 I think…he is probably mentioned in my blog).  We got a ride to Logan from Doug’s wife Katie and proceeded to go through security and hang around and eat dinner near the gate.  This time we were traveling on Air France through Paris.  The big advantage to AF (besides it being cheapest at the time of booking) is that there is only 1 hour layover at CDG so that means the whole trip takes “only” 17 hours rather than the normal 25.  The timing is also good in that we arrive in India around midnight which means we go to bed at the normal time.  Bingo…no jet lag.

I decided to upgrade my ticket to Business Class.  It was surprisingly cheap compared to buying b-class to begin with, but somehow they only offered it on the BOS-CDG leg, not CDG-BLR.  Anyway, I was seated in B-class beside a huge (tall) black man dressed in exercise clothes with basketball logos who walked in at the last minute.  I kind of figured him for a basketball player, but did not want to make any assumptions.  It seems that the AF stewards had no problems making assumptions.  No sooner had he sat down than they came by, paused, spoken in French to each other for a bit, and then asked him for his boarding pass to verify his seat.  We looked at each other; I said, “Are they giving you a better seat?”  He asked me if I spoke French.  I told him only a little…not well enough to translate a conversation.  He told me he was fluent, but they did not know and he was not going to tell them.  Seems that the stewards were saying to each other “I wonder if they put him in b-class because he is so big”.  I rolled my eyes.  He gave me a big grin, and we started talking.  It seems he is from Gabon, a former French colony, so French is actually his native language.  He came to the US to go to UMass Amherst on a full scholarship. He met his wife there, they now live in Marlboro.  He is a pro basketball player, but not in the US.  Apparently he gets one-year contracts all over the place.  This year he is going to Turkey to play.  He also has played some for the Gabon national team.  I said “Olympics?”  He said that was his dream, but he was getting old (32 or something!) so he probably had only one more chance.

Although b-class seats are roomy, somewhere in the process, we spilled a drink of his on my side.  I did not get wet, but my Kindle did.  I think this may be its last trip.  I also brought my iPad on which I can read, but most of my books were not loaded, so I only had a small choice.

At CDG, we found out why a 1-hour layover is not ideal.  It was a LONG walk in from the incoming gate, then through a huge terminal trying to follow the “transfers” sign in French, and then through ANOTHER security check and finally walking back out to the gate.  When I got there it already said “Final Call”, although there was really plenty of time.

The CDG->BLR leg in economy was predictably miserable, made better by the fact that Doug was my seat mate, and it was only two wide, but much worse by the fact that the couple in front put their seats back full.  It was REALLY DIFFICULT even to get out of the seat, say nothing of impossible to put my head down on the tray table or nearly anything else.  I did ask her after dinner to wait until my tray had been taken before she put her seat back.  After it was taken, I told her it was gone, but she did not take any possible hint, and just put it back full again.  Ah well.  I’ve decided to be more annoyed at the airline for making such a miserable arrangement possible than at the person, who is doing what is allowed.

My quick “I’m ok” message home said “everything went smoothly”.  But everything is relative.  The long story:  At the BLR airport, all the immigration desks were open, so while there was a longish line, it moved reasonably fast.  There was (as I was promised but still worried about) no problem at all having my valid visa in an expired passport (and of course an unexpired passport as well).  Then into another line to have hand baggage x-rayed (presumably for import violations???) and then to the baggage claim.  I waited 10 minutes feeling more and more dismayed at not having a bag arrive until I realized I was at the wrong carousel.  Then going to the correct one (invisible from where I was) another 10 minutes before Doug noticed that my suitcase had been removed by someone and was just sitting on the floor. .  Then out to the curb to look for someone from the hotel with our names.  Nope.  No such thing.  Tried to call the hotel on my India mobile phone.  No…”not a valid number” no matter how many combos of digits I used.  Finally someone asked Doug what we were looking for.  This guy turned out to be a Zuri Hotel rep.  He had to call the hotel and do a lot of talking before he told us to follow him.  Oddly, he hailed (well chose from a line) a cab and put us in it.  (“The hotel is paying, right?”   “Right!”—we did not yet have much money).  It was a bit unnerving that the taxi driver did not seem to know where the hotel was; the hotel rep had to explain a number of times.  Luckily, I felt that I could probably find it if I needed to, but even more luckily, I did not have to.  The trip back was probably another hour (45 min?) but we finally arrived.  I checked again at the desk to be sure they were paying the driver.  We did not want to stiff him!

At the desk they apologized; apparently because the flight was arriving so close to midnight, and also because they were unsure of the flight (it was a codeshare, and they were given the Delta number) they did not have one of their own drivers there.  Thus the long conversation with the rep about what to do.

Today so far we have eaten and rested and walked to the ATM (quite an experience too; the neighborhood does not look like the standard place to put a Citibank office).  I also figured out why I was unable to call the hotel.  There is a “0” required before the number when calling from a mobile to a landline.  Before you scoff think about the US phone system that requires a leading “1” under some arcane circumstances.

Small transition added in November 2014

During the week I spent every day at the offices (of my previous company) that I knew so well from previous trips, even though the group had moved to a different section of the building (I guess big companies are the same everywhere).  As usual it was wonderful to see my friends and former co-workers.   However it was very strange to be a "visitor" rather than an "employee".  We had to wait to be escorted in from the lobby; we did not have the run of the building since we nominally were supposed to be escorted.  Rather than an office in the middle of everything, they put us in a conference room (since we are not employees, they need to use care to avoid us overhearing inappropriate things).  All very strange.  

We spend some enjoyable non-work moments during the days and evenings:  We went out to lunch with colleagues several times, as well as eating in the company cafeteria (at my usual haunt getting cheese sandwiches).  We often ate dinner at the Zuri hotel where we were staying.  But one afternoon we were invited to watch an intramural cricket match on the tennis court outside the office.  That was a lot of fun!

We were also invited to visit Clarete, Alol, and their new baby Lianne...I think that was on Saturday evening.  They sent a cab to pick us up and take us to their location.  See the comment below about getting places and taxis.  We had an enjoyable evening, and also met Clarete's Mom who is staying with them to help with the baby!  Clarete and Alol are mentioned prominently in my previous post about Sandeep's wedding, but in August, neither of them were working for my former company.

Sunday August 24

I'm writing only two posts this time.  One from last Sunday and one from this Sunday.  Unfortunately this was a very short trip.  Doug is staying another week, but I had to get home for a previous commitment.

This is the day I am leaving for home.  It’s a long trip with THREE flights; Bangalore to Mumbai, then Mumbai to Amsterdam, and finally Amsterdam to Boston.  That means instead of the normal “Leave Bangalore at 1AM or 5AM” drill, it is “Leave Bangalore at 7PM and wait in Mumbai for a few hours and leave at 1AM.”

But first a few more friends to meet:  I had told former co-worker Vaishalli (whom you last heard from giving me a ride ‘home’ from Sandeep’s wedding reception) that I would be in town, but because of my ‘visitor’ status at the company, I was not able to wander around to see her (as well as others).  She called to say that she would come over to the hotel to visit, and that she did.  We had coffee in the hotel “coffee shop” (actually big buffet that also serves coffee) and just caught up.  She is no longer working in the same group, which is why I had not seen her during the week.  I’m so pleased that she went out of her way to see me!

I had earlier sent an email to an acquaintence, Mani, who is ham radio operator and a member of AMSAT-India.  I know him almost entirely through his postings on the AMSAT bulletin board, and a couple of mail exchanges, but I thought it was be really cool to meet him; he was involved in one of the most successful ham radio satellites, “Hamsat-1” also known as VO-52 or OSCAR 52.  I say “was” because unfortunately, the satellite died just a few weeks ago, after something like 9 years of service.  In any case, I got an email toward the end of the week suggesting that I meet with him and another AMSAT-India guy, Nitin (also known via the AMSAT BB) and proposing that I stop by on the way to the airport since it is right on the way. I was a bit unclear about how this would work, so I checked with the hotel.  Oh, yes, their driver could stop there and wait for me.  They would just have to charge me for the wait time (normally airport transfers are part of the package).  I was very happy about that because while I’m not “afraid” of stepping out of the well-worn path, I have to constantly remember that my expectations as an American are not always the same expectations that someone from another culture has.  So going into a situation that is new to me I like to have a way out.  Usually the way out is that I can always phone the hotel or a friend.  In this case, my phone had run out of prepaid rupees and I did not have time to recharge it. So the hotel driver was my way out.

As an aside, directions are an interesting phenomenon in India (and many other places in the world!).  The common way of giving directions is to say “It’s in Indrinagar [a section of Bangalore] .  Call me when you get near.” And then the taxi driver calls and gets more specific directions based on where he says he is.  That happened both today and last night when Doug and I visited Clarete and Alol.

When we reached the right location, Nitin was on the curb waiting, and suddenly no more worries.  It was as though we had known each other for years.  On top of everything else, Nitin had googled me and had seen my previous blog entries.  (Hi Nitin! You are probably reading this!)  But mainly ham radio is a world-wide fraternity; we immediately have something in common.  (Darned English; I’m not sure there is a gender-neutral word for Fraternity and Sorority.  There ARE women ham radio operators!)  In any case, Nitin had invited Mani as well as several other AMSAT-India folks over so we could meet.  Nitin’s son Arjun was also there a lot of the time.  We talked about Fox-1 (the satellite project I am on) as well as Hamsat-1, some of their future plans, what we each have for “rigs” (that is radio setups).  It is disappointing that I had to be very careful about what I said about Fox-1.  Because of US law, no one is allowed to talk about satellite technology with a non-US-citizen unless what they are saying has been published in the open literature.  So I had to be sure I was only talking about things that had been published.  It was lucky that Nitin had found a paper I wrote for the AMSAT-NA symposium a couple years ago.  That was certainly published, so we talked some about that as well as other stuff that I was very well aware had been published in the AMSAT Space Symposium journal.

Nitin had originally proposed that I stay till 5.  The taxi driver wanted to leave at 4.  I decided I would “start leaving” around 4:15.  I’ve left BLR plenty of times in the middle of the night on international flights, but that was a while ago, and this is a domestic flight.  So I figured I’d better play it safe being a bit unfamiliar with how things worked.  Nitin wanted to show me his antenna farm on the roof of his apartment building, and they also were nice enough to present me with an AMSAT-India coffee much.  Many pictures were taken, and I took my leave around 4:30 or 4:45 after a great time meeting some fellow hams and fellow space enthusiasts.

It was a good thing I left early.  For the first of many times I got bollixed up in my paperwork.  This is very unusual for me...I’ve never had so much trouble before!  I guess I was getting two casual about it.   You need to show your boarding pass to even get into the airport.  I walked up to the door, handed my pass to the soldier guarding the door.  Oops!  Sorry, sir this is your boarding pass for Mumbai to Amsterdam.  You need a Bangaluru boarding pass.  .  Well, I had it electrically, but my phone would not make a connection at the airport  And the hotel had printed it, but either they did not print both pages (and I did not notice) or I had somehow lost it.  So they sent me to a little outside office for my airline, Jet Airways.  Except there were a zillion such offices for different airlines.  The Jet Airways one did not stand out, and I made several passes back and forth before finding it.  They got me the proper docs and finally I got in.  Then to the baggage checkin.  Oh, we have to give you a new boarding pass, but we can only give it to you for BLR->BOM (Mumbai) and BOM->AMS (Amsterdam), not AMS->BOS (Boston).  You’ll have to get that from Delta in Mumbai.

Then through security.  Drat!  I once again forgot (reference previous blog article; I should have!) that you need the little name tag that you are proffered at checkin even though you already have one.  (The security check people put a stamp on it).  Luckily the guy at the desk came running to me with it when I left it behind; I still did not remember, though.  I stuffed it in my pocket.  Luckily I found it for the security guy.  BTW, I think I gave security the wrong boarding pass too.  I really don’t know why I was having so much trouble with this, except that I was rushing since it had taken all that time to get into the airport.

In the end I had 45 minutes or so to wait.  I don’t think anything else untoward happened unless I gave the gate people the wrong boarding pass.  I don’t remember.  There was plenty of excitement to come, it turns out.

In Mumbai, I had plenty of time (OOOOOHHHHH, did I, it turns out), so I was not really rushing around.  But I did know that there is a separate international terminal.  Not like LGA and JFK; it is still BOM; just you have to get to this place 4km away.  Well there was a big line with a sign for “international passengers”.  Sounds good.  I got in the relatively slow-moving line.  At some point a woman in official airport uniform came along and took people from the end of the line and said “do you want to join the coach to international terminal?  No security”  Uh.  Well, ok.  It looked like everyone was doing it, so I followed her.  Well, she sort of disappeared, but the crowd of 40 or so kept moving.  Hmm.  I followed the crowd out through the in door, past guards and other security people and barriers onto a bus.  The bus took off into the streets of Mumbai.  Now it seems to me that the last time I was feeling quite so lost on the streets of Mumbai was in 1985, when I was riding on the back of a motor scooter with the driver being a guide I only sort of knew.  It wasn’t that bad.  But I still wondered whether I was really going to the international terminal; we meandered through various and sundry streets that did not especially look like parts of an airport.  But eventually we did pull up to what was clearly a brand new, very beautiful, international terminal.  But no security?  Show boarding pass to get in.  (Did I have the right one?  Hmm…I don’t remember).  Then despite having no baggage (it was checked through from BLR) I got in the Delta line.  Here I got the bad news:  The flight is delayed by something like 3 hours!  They were not even checking in very fast.  Eventually I did get to the podium, and they knew exactly what I needed, took the old BPs gave me new ones (and a ticket to the business class lounge!) and sent me on my way.  Through security.

So let’s see; I was supposed to have a 4 hour wait.  But the flight is 3 hours late.  So I guess I must have hung around the lounge for 6 hours and then went out to the gate.  OH WAIT!  We have to go through another security.  This one requires shoes removed but no belt.  Then on to the plane.  OH WAIT!  The surprise security check had me less organized than normal.  I had THE WRONG BOARDING PASS to give the impatient armed guard.  Ok, I found it….

Delta is all apologetic but obviously nothing the crew can do about being late.  (It turns out I found later that the issue was crew rest...there are regulations about how much a crew person can fly in an a 24-hour period.  Of course there are not that many Delta crew people in Mumbai, so we had to wait for the crew that was available to be legal.  Delta also added something like 20K miles to my frequent flier account to compensate...not bad!). And they claim I’ll still make my flight in to Boston.  But then there is a delay pushing back.  20 or 30 minutes later, we are finally in the air.  Amazingly, I slept 4+ hours and probably dozed even more. No jet lag here!

As we approach AMS, I figure out the local time and the time of my next flight.  Ooch.  1/2 hour to spare.  When we landed and they let us turn on our devices, I check the outgoing flight.  YES!  It’s late.  But then the taxi-ing took forever.  I got in line to leave first, but the first person to come aboard was a local Delta person who announced “everyone with a flight leaving before noon (mine was 11:10 or something) has been rebooked.”    “Except people on the flight to Boston.  We are holding that plane for you.” YAY! “Go to gate E8”.  No, it’s not close.  Yes, we had to hurry.  I got there, and they are trying to rush the latecomers on, but guess what?  A SPECIAL SECURITY CHECK after you show your boarding pass.  This one you leave your shoes on but take your belt off.  And then rush the jetway and show your boarding pass again!  You guessed it.  I couldn’t find it.  The helpful armed guard suggested I look with my passport, and there it was.  You show those to the gate agent together, and apparently many people put them back together quickly when they have to suddenly prepare for another security check.

I’m writing this on the plane to Boston (110V AC, USB connector, very nice!)  I don’t think there will be any more security checks or showing of my boarding pass.  Thank goodness!  And for US citizens, no customers declaration.  They say that you use the electronic kiosk.  We’ll see how that goes, but I can’t imagine there is any real issue.  If there is no more written in this blog, assume that all went well!

Clarete and Alol picked me up Sunday late afternoon and off we went to dinner with Rishi and his wife Neha. A few others too: I think Neha's brother and his wife, and maybe Rishi's brother and his girl friend. (I may not have this completely right). Rishi and Neha live alone; I believe Rishi's parents are in Delhi. They have a nice apartment on the top floor of an apartment building. The roof is right above them, and they can go out there to cool off, or take in the view, or whatever. The apartment that we saw had a kitchen, a dining room (with a table set up as a buffet) and the living room where we sat and talked and ate.

We had a lot of interesting conversations; one of the men was a marketing guy who (I think I have this right) sells space in airports for companies who want to have stores there. I expect this business has increased a lot since the new Bangalore airport opened a couple years ago. The old one barely had space for passengers, say nothing of retail spaces. It was pretty interesting. We also talked about real estate. As I think I said last year, it reminded me of people in the US who had utter faith that real estate would keep going up forever. Owning a house has treated us well, but I think it was luck. We did not happen to be at the wrong place when the market crashed a couple years ago. I hope it works out for my friends in India as well.

We stayed a while, then people started leaving and so did we. Alol and Clarete took me back to the hotel. Now it is time to think seriously about packing. Well, maybe I'll sleep on it. Actually, I think I did some organizing and packing of some things I knew I would not need again. Monday, I went into work and had a whole bunch of meetings. A couple with people from my new work group whom I was meeting for the first time; several from my old group trying to help with some problems or just generally talk about the product, work, life, the universe, and everything. I think I ended up staying until 6:30 working on a problem, but finally decided I needed to call it quits, get back, eat dinner, finish packing, sleep a bit and get ready to head out. Narayan was again nice enough to take me back to the hotel.

One slightly embarrassing thing that I found out at the last minute. How long have I been coming to India? 6 years? And when did I discover that the outlets at the office (and in the hotel at least this time) actually accept US-style plugs? The final day of my last trip. Unbelievable! So all this time I have had plugs hanging in poorly-fitting adapters, when in fact they would plug right in.

I ate at the hotel, finished packing, set the alarm for and tried to sleep a bit. I got up before the alarm, dressed, and was ready to head down when the string holding the reading glasses around my neck broke! (Actually the little rubber do-dad that you hook the string to the glasses with). The desk clerk and the bellhop and a zillion others actually managed to repair it with some tape somehow…well enough that it is still holding together…and off we went to the airport. As Rafiq had predicted to me earlier, I was there WAY early and sat around by the gate for an hour or 2. That's ok…better bored than panic-stricken.

Again, the flight from Bangalore to London was not completely full, and was very comfortable. I had an aisle seat, but there was no one beside me; I took over both seats so I could look out the window. The flight again went between Iran and Iraq and across some of Azerbaijan and/or Armenia and/or Georgia before crossing the Black Sea. The mountains below (Caucusus?) were absolutely stunning! Just snow as far as you could see with a single road connecting a few communities which must have been dozens of miles apart. I can just imagine being on the road…just white all around. The flight from the UK to the US was not quite as nice. Very full and on a 777 which seemed not as big as the 747 that the other flights had used…at least it appeared that there was less space. The overhead bins were full, so my stuff was actually in a different cabin. A rather un-talkative seat-mate. Oh well…it's short and I'm coming home!

In Boston, I just missed the Flightline van, so I had to wait 20 or 30 minutes for the next one. The driver did not exactly inspire confidence with her knowledge of the Nashua area, but hey…we got to the Park and Ride ("I don't know where it is, but they ALWAYS have signs"). Got to the P&R, and there was my wife waiting! Yay! Home, to bed at 11PM, and woke up the next morning with no jet lag and ready to work! The end of another adventure. (Well, ok, I got sleepy a couple hours early for a couple days…but that's ALL I'm admitting to)

That's all for now...I may end up coming back and embellishing this with some pictures. Or you can start with burnsfisher.com and follow the links to find pictures online.

The Reception, and lunch with Bhavani

I'm now back home and pretty much back into the normal routine. It seems strange to think that just one week ago I was on the other side of the earth and that my life temporarily so different. I guess this is one reason that I love occasional travel so much…to keep me actively remembering that there is a whole big world outside of my petty (and even not-so-petty) concerns, to keep my mind active and avoid getting TOO entrenched in my normal ways of thinking, and above all to keep reminding myself that there are many ways to live and to accomplish things and that these other ways work too.

But back to the narrative: In the end, I did not go swimming in the pool. The water seemed pretty cold, and that times I may have wanted to, there was no one there. That seemed like a bad idea. I did go out on the deck where the pool was (2nd floor I think) and sit and read in the sun. That was really pleasant, although it probably helped me get even more acclimated to the time zone just as I was about to leave. Oh well. I'm not sure I have mentioned this, but the weather was absolutely beautiful. In the evening, just a little cool. In the heat of the day, maybe 80 or 85, but not very humid. Fabulous!

For the wedding reception, I decided to get dress up with a jacket and tie, so I spent a while fussing with this. My jacket had gotten kind of messed up on the suitcase (my wife had folded it very nicely at home and it made the trip to Bangalore very well…but then I re-packed the suitcase coming back from Mangalore…oops). I had hung it up in the bathroom while taking showers a few times and that really helped a lot. It ended up ok.

I went with Narayan and his wife and daughter; they came to pick me up at the hotel.  I'm now a little sorry that I chose this hotel; it is close to work but reasonably far from most of my friends and acquaintances (but not all).  So Narayan had to drive out of his way.  I was going to take the hotel taxi, but he texted me around 3 to say he was coming...certainly it is more enjoyable to be with a friend on the long trip.  And believe me, it was long.  Over an hour.  The place is near Lal Bagh, the botanical garden where I have been several times, and it would have been close to my old downtown apartments, but oh well.
 
The hall where the function took place is really neat...absolutely sparking up and down and all around; bright lights outside, a flowered sign proclaiming Sandeep and Sahana on the outside.  Parking was a problem, so Narayan left the rest of us in front of the place and drove off to park.  At the entrance we were greeted by Sandeep's uncle.  The reception was on the second floor.  There was a crowd around the elevator, so we took the stairs.  We came out into a beautifully-decorated hall with a stage up front.  Once again Sandeep and Sahana were there and there was a queue to go up and greet them.  I got in line, but Clarete suggested that I wait and all the VMS people go up en masse.
 
Indeed, more and more people that I knew were showing up, including Hemashree and Vijay.  One strange moment:  A number of people have come to VMS since V&H left.  Narayan happened along as I was talking to them, so I ended up introducing them.  Seemed kind of funny.  But it was nice to see a number of people who have left VMS or HP either recently or some time ago.
 
We finally "queued up" and Clarete insisted that I go to the front of the line to "lead the VMS delegation".  All the time since entering, I was holding the gift-wrapped present, and this was the time to give it.  Some others had flowers and packages too.  We got up to the front, and half of the "delegation" filed past greeting them and handing presents.  Then we stood on either side and had the obligatory picture.  (All professional photographers this time, I think.  I hope I get to see it).  Then we filed off (with the other half of the delegation greeting as they went past).  As we got down, we saw more VMS people going up and Clarete whispered to me "I wanted you up front with us engineers, not with the managers" :-)  Whispered is not really right.  It was pretty loud there...
 
Then off to dinner in a different room.  A glass of juice on entry to the room, and then on two sides of the room there were "buffet" tables.  Buffet in the sense that you walked by them with your plate.  But there was a server behind each one.  Naturally it was vegetarian food, but considerably different from the wedding.  We had china plates and a spoon for one thing, but it was also more multi-ethnic (as in north/south India).  For example, there were some dishes that went with chapatis (more North India) and some that went with rice (more South).  Dal, various curries...yum!  Also lots of nice morsels like onion bhajis, fried vegetables etc.    The other side of the room had dessert; the prominent feature was butterscotch ice cream (a slab), but there was also a couple other things including gulab jamon.  (This is the sort of fried ball in rosewater-flavored sweet sauce that I may have mentioned before.) As I think about it, I wonder if it was gulab jamon or rasgula. They fall into the same category in my brain and I find it hard to remember which is which (one is cheese and one is dough I think…)
 
There were some chairs in the room, and I sat down to eat, but mostly it was a standard party...people walking around taking, laughing, enjoying each other's company.  I went around taking pictures of a lot of people, particularly people that I thought some of my US friends would like to see.  Sandeep and Sahana never appeared in the dinner room.  In fact I never saw them again during the evening.
 
After a while, Narayan approached me to ask if I would mind going back with Vaishali.  Vaishali is a relatively new colleague that I probably have not mentioned much, but it turns out that she lives almost within batting distance of my hotel.  I wish I had known!  When she was ready to go, we went off.  But she had had an even harder time parking than Narayan.  She thought she had walked a kilometer or so to get to the hall!  She had some landmarks, but was not all that familiar with the area (and it was late-ish) so Rafiq gave us a ride to her car (good thing...it took a bit of searching, although I suspect she could have found it a lot more easily on foot; landmarks look a lot different in a moving car).
 
I have never had much of a chance to talk with Vaishali other than professionally, so the ride home was nice...we talked about what we like to read (she is also a big Harry Potter fan), travelling (she lived for 6 months in Shenzhen China, and has travelled around Europe with her brother), etc.
 
Then back to the hotel...it was surprisingly un-late.  Maybe 11:30.  That was kind of nice to go to bed at a reasonable time.

The next day, I had a lunch date with Bhavani (who had arranged Tom's and my audience with the Maharajah of Jaipur a few years ago…look back to previous blog entries) and dinner with Rishi (who had taken me to a cricket game the same year). Bhavani came to pick me up with his brother. He called me to say he was nearly there and asked for directions to the hotel. (I'm an old hand at giving directions to my hotel…see the blog from last year :-) But then I went down to wait and wait and wait. About 30 or 40 minutes later, B. called to say they were outside and would I please come. I've learned not to worry too much about details like time…the traffic is so bad that it is very difficult to predict when you will arrive anywhere. But this time, B. told me that they were so late because they had had a traffic accident! I'm always amazed that I see so few accidents given the incredibly dense conditions and the (to me) risky things that are done, but sure enough…B., his brother, and the driver were rear ended in an apparent chain-reaction collsion when someone up ahead stopped too quickly. No major damage or injury, but they had to sort it out with the police etc.

It turns out that it was B's birthday, so I was a bit surprised that he would take me to lunch. I asked him about birthday celebration customs; he does commonly celebrate, but this time, some of his relatives were not able to come for a week or two, so it was delayed. We went to "Jalsa" on Outer Ring Road. This is a pretty neat-looking restaurant with concrete onion-domes to start the experience. As you go in, you see the wait-staff all in mugul-style turbans. There is a central eating area, but also private areas around the outside with bead curtains and mugal-arch entrances. I have been here before, and we have gone by it several times; Clarete happened to mention that she had heard that the quality had gone down a bit. It seemed fine to me! Bhavani and his brother ordered (with some consultation to see if I liked various things…answer generally yes) so I don't recall exactly what we had; it is not a veg place; I certainly had some meat dishes. Lots of wonderful bread (flatbread cooked in a tandoor [clay oven] I think), lots of wonderful sauces and soup. And (not exactly in keeping with the Mugul theme) Kingfisher beer :-)

As I probably said in the blog several years ago, Bhavani is from Jaipur and is a member (not direct line) of the royal family. He explained a bit more (and I hope I get this right…Bhavani, if you read this please correct me!) Currently Jaipur is a city (the capital in fact) within the Indian state of Rajahastan. However, in the past, Jaipur was a state. The Maharajah rules the entire area. Within the state there are other levels "sub-ruler" who are related to the Maharajah. Bhavani's father was one of these. In any case, the royal family owned a lot of land, but in the time since independence from Britain, the central government has been trying to take some of this land back from all the Maharajahs. (I don't really understand the politics here…just reporting). This happened relatively recently to the Jaipur Maharajah's family which forced a lot of family members "out into the world" to make a living. Bhavani and his brother are among these. Bhavani went into software. His brother went into manufacturing of henna (the same as used here…that kind of non-permanent dye). Henna in India is very popular for skin decorations in women; application of wonderful henna art to the women is part of the wedding tradition for one thing. Apparently Bhavani's brother found a real niche and has done well.

We returned to the hotel, and again I tried to decide whether to go swimming or not, and again I decided not to. Oh well. Dinner tonight is with Rishi and his wife who have also invited Clarete and Alol. More later...

The trip back, and the work week

One thing that I forgot to mention earlier. When I was checking into the Goldfinch, there was a flurry of activity at the door, and in swept a famous "music directory" named Gurukiran (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurukiran). He is quite distinctive, and later on we saw posters advertising a concert that he was giving. The hotel staff seemed pretty good; they did not all rush to fawn over him, although I'm sure he was treated well. Continuing the story: After visiting the happy couple on stage, we all headed back. Shyam had rented a hotel room in Upupi for the day, so many of us went back to change. Clarete, beautiful as she was in her Sari, was especially happy to be able to walk normally again. I was happy to be back in a T-shirt, etc. I feel like I wrote this somewhere, but it turns out that it would be faster to go south to Mangalore, then east through the ghats than to try to cut off the two sides of a triangle. I'm not sure if the alternative would have gone through the ghats in a different way, but if so I can see why...we took "the good road" and C&A were pleased at what good shape it was in. WHen they had last come (Christmas, I think) long stretches had not been paved, and it was terribly bumpy. Now it was mostly paved, but with seemingly 100Km of switchbacks, not to mention the usual long-distance travel issues, it was still pretty tedious. We did stop in Mangalore to get some famous Mangalore ice cream at Alol's favorite place. I had a "slab" of coffee ice cream and it really was delicious. So back we went, this time with Shyam. Alol got a phone call at one point and turned the driving over to Shyam, who drove all the way up the ghats to Hassan and beyond. We stopped for dinner at some point along the route (at Hassan? I don't remember) and then continued on. We eventually got into Bangalore and to my hotel at around 1AM. It was awfully nice of them to drop me off first; I have no idea if it was really first in a logical route of if they went out of their way. In any case, I had not trouble at all checking in, went to my room and dropped off. The hotel is very nice. Probably the nicest I have been in in Bangalore (not that any have been horrible, IMO). Actually my first trip for my company in 2005 was a last-minute deal where they put us up at the Leila Palace. That is not nice; that is decadent! Not to mention wildly expensive. In any case, the Zuri is very nice. Everything works fine; there are several restaurants on the premises, the bed is reasonably comfortable, and they have a tub with abundant hot water. What more can I ask for. Oh, yes, a swimming pool. Have not tried that yet. I decided not to go to the office right away, but rather hang around working in the room, eat lunch here, and then go in for the afternoon. Lots of nice reunions when I went in, including a few people who did not know I was coming. (Since the company did not sponsor it, there was no need for lots of people to approve it!) I got a spot to sit near the pantry (where I get coffee!). I'm not sure if I have mentioned it on this blog, but I no longer work for the group that I used to visit in Bangalore, so I have no official reason at all to be there. However, I am working (for my new group) and being in an office is generally nice (people, coffee, direct network connection, etc). I figured there would be a place for me to sit (using Sandeep's office if nothing else) and sure enough. So I met a lot of people from my old project (and even was able to contribute to a couple issues they were having). I also have so far met two people that are either working on my new project, or have been recently. I got names from someone in my new job and sent them mail. They seemed pleased to meet me, and I am always happy to make connections like this. On Wednesday, I think, within the space of 15 minutes, a lot of people invited me to dinner. It was very nice...but the big surprise was Sandeep calling. He and Sahana are back from Udupi to their home in Bangalore and invited me to dinner for Thursday. Let me copy my description of this event from an email: Last night I was invited to eat with Sandeep and Sahana. I was rather shocked when my phone rang and it was Sandeep. I somehow imagined a honeymoon. Apparently not. Sandeep said they stayed in Mangalore on the night after the wedding (and must have been there during the day also) and took the overnight train from M to Bangalore. 12 hours! Well ok, so they are back here to prepare for the reception and set up housekeeping. Nope. Duh, I should have realized: Sandeep's parents moved to Bangalore 10+ years ago, and naturally they live together. And naturally when Sahana joined the family, she joined them. So I had dinner with Sandeep, his father, and his brother. His mother and Sahana follow the old tradition of serving the men and eating later. Although I was not shocked, it does seem very strange to be served like that. S's mother cooked the meal... Sahana had come with Sandeep to pick me up at the hotel. What a long trip! I think it must have been 90 minutes due to the usual horrible traffic. The traffic is made worse by the fact that they are trying to improve it. They are building "flyovers", that is an express section to the roadway which is elevated above the local roads, so no lights and interscections. I wonder if they will allow rickshaws etc on it. Dinner: Delicious! We had Marsala Dosa, chapati with another kind of vegetable sauce (probably called curry, but not with the tastes that we expect of curry), onion Pakora (also called Bhajis, I think), and best of all: Mango curry. Wow, was that good! The mangos are special "cooking magnos" not the normal "eating mangoes" that we usually see. They appear to be lime-sized. There were 1 or 2 in the sauce, but I think mostly for show. The sauce was smooth and creaming, and eaten over rice (with fingers). Sandeep and his father were very nice telling me how to mix up the rice and curry. We laughed together when it was to hot for my fingers. We laughted together when I dropped things. Etc. I have actually almost gotten the hang of tearing off bits of chapati and other bread with one hand. (Hold the close end with thumb and ring finger; push with index and middle fingers). In any case, I again refused a spoon; just like eating with chopsticks at a Chinese restaurant, the food just somehow seems more real when you eat it the intended way. (To be clear, the intended way is with fingers...) We sat around for a while after that (and the women ate and then joined us). I did find out in the conversations that 1) They use Ramavana as a family name very much as we do. The entire family has that name, and someone marrying can optionally take that name. (Government paperwork like passports favor husband and wife having the same name I was told.) 2) Sandeep's father worked in a bank until he retired a couple years ago. I asked if he had used computers (both Sandeep and Sahana are in hi-tech; not sure about his brother). Mr. R said that most of his career, things were done by hand. Only in the last few years were computers coming into the area where he worked. (He has been retired around 2 years). 3) Sahana's henna was still evident, but starting to fade and/or run a bit. She said it goes away over a few weeks and months. After a while, Sandeep took me back alone...he says when he drives he usually waits until this late, so the long drive at 9+PM was no problem. I think he is probably being nice. He made an extra round trip that day, one of them in horrible traffic (but at least with Sahana). Last night (Friday) I ate with one of my longest acquaintences in India, Nil. He is now married and has a son about the same age as my grandson, but he came over to the hotel alone (he lives nearby) and we ate at the in-hotel Italian restaurant. I thought it was ok but nothing special (I had some pasta and tomato sause with basil); he had pizza. I've had the pizza here at the hotel, and it is very good, IMO. And finally today, I'm just mostly hanging around the hotel. Doing some work. Doing some reading. Maybe I'll go swimming. The reception is tonight...

Mangalore, Udupi, and the Wedding

On Sunday, A&C picked me up at 10 to go tourist-ing. We first went to see the St. Aloysious chapel where they were married. This is on the grounds of the St. Aloysious college (which is actually a high school. I think Alol told me that high school is grades n through 10 and 11 and 12 are called 'college' or 'early college' or something similar. In any case, Alol went there, and his father is/was a professor there, so they got to have their wedding in the chappel. We had to wait for a mass to finish, and then we went in. It is really beautiful...there are murals all over...it appears that around the side the pictures portray Bible stories about Jesus, some of which I recognized immediately, and the paintings on the ceiling represent the life of Saint. A. I was really glad to see it, not only because of its significance to my friends, and its beauty, but also because it is part of a connection; Catholics and to some extent Protestents from around the world would feel comfortable here and understand the significance. (I'm sure that is true of mosques, temples, etc too. This just happens to be more familiar to me, who grew up Protestent). We then decided to go to St. Mary's Island which, it turns out, is off the coast of Udupi. So we headed north. We ran into enormous traffic jams; the road was being repaired/rebuilt (4-laned) and there was a very narrow one-lane stretch. We also stopped for lunch and at the port to looke around, and generally enjoyed ourselves on the trip. We got to the ferry dock at probably 2:30? Then we had to wait until there were enough passengers...that took an hour or more. Finally we got on the boat and off we went. You might remember from my blog a few years ago my discussion of the cricket stadium where the seating was what I would have called plastic stacking lawn chairs? The seating on the boat was the same; these plastic chairs out on the rear deck. Unfortunately, these chairs are a lot more stable when the force they are resisting is going straight down. So besides the boat bounce around (a bit...probably 1 foot seas) the chairs added their own little wiggle. Alol's chair nearly tipped him out at one point. As we approached the island, it was clear we were really heading for another boat...it was a tender to take us in to the island. Ok. We climbed down the ladder into the tender and it took off. It was then I noticed that there was no dock and people were milling around in the water. Yes, we all took our shoes off, rolled up our pant legs, and jumped into a couple feet of water (ladder down almost to the surface). Great...my feet are usually not great for barefoot operation, but when in Rome. Besides there was no real choice. So I get onto the shore, a nice sandy beach, and we head inland. The island is essentially completely undeveloped, but there are some really interesting rock formations. I think maybe they are igneous intrusions, but geology was long ago and far away. In any case, the formations seems to be in the form of tubular hexagons of rock all packed together. (Somehow crystalline to form the hexagons?) It looked for the world like it was human made, but there was far too much, and no signs of anything else human (other than graffiti). Anyway, after walking out of the sand, I really needed to put my shoes and socks on. I was pretty please that contrary to my usual "issues" I was able to brush the sand off my feet (it had dried as I walked through the beach) and get shod. Anyway, I have some pictures of these formations. Sometimes there are dolphins to be seen here, but not today. But that's ok. We did not have much time because the last return boat was at 4:30. We went back the exact reverse way...through the water, pull up onto the ladder to the tender, put on shoes and socks, a short ride and another transfer to the main boat, and back we went. It was all quite a fun adventure. We had both lunch and dinner at restaurants with good Indian food. As I recall, I let A&C suggest/order for me so I don't have to much memory of exactly what I had except for this: Mangalore is a seaport (as you could tell), and the residents eat a lot of fish. Alol is very proud of Mangalore (as well he should be) and of the fish available there. So we did have a lot of fish dishes. I remember that we had Tandoori Prawn at one of the restaurants which was absolutely delicious. Other kinds of fish also...kingfish I think is one...in various curries and with sauces. All wonderful! The next morning (Monday) was the wedding. A&C picked me up as usual. I had been planning to wear ao suit (or to be specific, a jacket and tie) but Clarete discouraged me from doing that. Instead, I wore dress pants and a "kurta". Well, I think it is not REALLY a kurta but it served as one. This is a shirt that my Pune friends gave me last year when I visited them. A kurta is long, square, and split at the sides. It is worn outside the pants. This was not split at the sides, and was not completely square, but Clarete told me I should wear it out. Great...it turns out that I truly did fit right in. Now I'll copy from some mail I sent edited slightly since you will not all have context that I am referring to. Also understand that I am describing from my perspective. When I say the bride and groom sat around all morning, I'm sure that things were going on some of the time that I just could not perceive. The wedding was both fun and fascinating. First, when we arrived at the "wedding hall" I met Bhadresh and Shyam (whom I have seen as recently as last year) and Ram, who was away doing PhD study in the US for several years. Ironically, I have not seen him since he came to the US. But it was great to see them all! I had been told that there is a lot of milling around at Hindu weddings. Exactly right. It seems that the bride and groom were up on a stage most of the morning. Occasionally something would "happen", but most of the time, they were just there. At first they were separated by a cloth that people were holding up. Then at some point, they were both lifted up so they could see each other and exchanged "something". After that they sat in lotus position for while. I wandered up to the front of the hall (remember everyone was milling around, talking, laughing etc anyway) and started to take some pictures. Sandeep caught my eye and motioned me up on the stage. I noticed later than lots of random people were doing that as well. Mainly it required dodging the photographers. Anyway, I went up and took some closer pictures. Some ok, some not so good. You see there was also some sort of wood fire going so it was pretty smoky. Some of the pictures look "foggy". I did learn (maybe) a little of the symbolism. For example, Sandeep spent most of the morning holding a long stick. People joked that it was the last time that he would get to hold the stick in the family, but I was told that it is a walking stick. At some point during the day, he says that he is not going through with the wedding and starts off with the walking stick. The bride's family implore him to come back and marry their daughter and eventually he gives in. However, he keeps the stick just in case. (He gives up the stick after the ceremony :-) All the time there was a "band" playing, pretty much the same song the entire time (i.e. for hours). The band consisted of, get this, about 4 tenor saxophones, two drummers, and an electronic "shurti box" that just makes a sitar-y sound all the time. Think of the drone pipes on a bagpipe. I have some recorded. Eventually the big moment came (signalled by excited drumming and a general heightening of activity and loudness). Sandeep put a necklace on Sahana, she may have on him, and they walked round and round (the fire?) 7 times. Suddenly, the hall emptied out (except for the happy couple and random relatives, priests, etc on stage). We followed along to the meal. Another cool experience. Banana leaves in front of us, and "waiters" in a costume which is more or less a big wrap around the bottom, maybe a piece coming up over the shoulder, but otherwise naked from waist up.

Perhaps some Indian reader can tell me the name of what they are wearing? The priests also wore them, and I think Sandeep's father. The waiters bustled along the aisles, putting dobs of things on our leaves. Including an enormous scoop of rice. Not surprisingly the sauces were poured onto the rice about a few tablespoons per each. But there were dozens, if not scores of courses. It would not surprise me if there were 50 or 75 different items that we got little dollops of. And no silverware. We ate south Indian style with our hand (right hand), using fingers to form up a ball of rice and sauce. Unlike chopsticks, the trick is not the mechanical manipulation. It is getting the right consistency of rice and sauce. I tended to get either no sauce (and I could ball up the rice ok) or too much sauce (which was like picking up mush).  I was offered a spoon

but I turned it down. I wanted the full experience! After the meal, we went to the hand-wash place (thankfully...I was a worse mess than most on my right hand) and then back in to troop up to the stage to give our best to the bride and groom. The photographers made us greet them in groups of 6 or so and then arrayed us on either side and took a picture. Turns out that Bhadresh had a camera too and prevailed on one of the photographers to take one with that also, so I have a copy which I will eventually post somewhere (FB probably). Then back to a small hotel where Shyam had rented a couple rooms for men and women to change in and into the car. It is faster to drive to Mangalore and then across to Bangalore than to try a "short cut", so we went back through M. again with 5 people stuffed into the car (A&C, Shyam, and a friend of Alol's who needed a ride to Mangalore). Stopped for some famous Mangalore ice cream (yes, it was good) and then headed cross country with only 4. (Shyam had come from a different place by train or bus and going back to Bangalore with us had apparently been pre-arranged). So back across the same roads, arriving in Blr at maybe 12:30 or 1. They were nice enough to take me to my hotel first, where I checked in and dropped off. I heard later that A&C did not get in until quite a lot later after after taking Shyam home and getting to their own.