Juice from Concentrate (or, finally, a post about work)

Here, faithful readers (er, Mom), is the long-awaited post about work.

My first two days went something like this:

Day 1
- 2 hours of filling out paperwork
- 1.5 hours of waiting and staring at ceiling for 1.5 hours
- "Induction" with HR person (rundown of the history and "organizational culture" of TERI)
- Lunch break
- 3.5 hours of checking my "mails" (as the secretary called email) because no 'seniors' from my department were in the office to talk to me or give me something to do

Day 2
- Met my seniors, who left the office again, and told I would be working primarily on concentrating solar power (CSP)
- Met my fellow juniors, one of them gave me 3 textbooks about CSP to read (one of which is called "Juice from Concentrate")
- Read one of said textbooks for remaining 7.5 hours of the day

Work has improved since then. I have started getting to know some of the guys in my research group, or “area” in TERI lingo, Renewable Energy Technology Applications (RETA). Anand from Mumbai works on solar thermal, William from Goa works on whatever project is randomly assigned to him, and Jay(achandra) from Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh focuses on photovoltaics, Alok is the wind energy guy, and Ishan concentrates on concentrating solar power (he’s the person I’m supposed to be working with). Rumor has it there is another person--a female!--in our group, but I have yet to see her. No one in our group is over 30 except our boss, so it’s pretty easy to talk to everyone. And almost all of them are IIT grads.

William and Anand mentioned to me that there is a new project on diversifying energy technology in Bhutan (because it’s only hydropower) starting in October if funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) comes through. My immediate reaction was, of course, I have to get on that project. During a birthday party for RETA’s secretary (named Rita, coincidentally), I sweet-talked RETA’s director about the Bhutan project, and he told me to talk to wind energy guy Alok, the Principal Investigator (PI). So the next day, since I had finished all my reading, I talked to Alok about my research and experience in Bhutan and asked to read the proposal and all relevant documents. I read everything and I came back to him with my thoughts (one part of the project was exactly my research question from last year) and some questions about the proposal. He was so excited about my enthusiasm that he said I could “definitely” work on this project. Now I hope the funding comes through!! Oh, and the project is in Eastern Bhutan, so hopefully I would be able to visit Lhuentse. SCORE!

(Bhutan-related tangent: Kencho told me a funny story. I had mailed gifts to the kids in my host family: an Asian doll for Yueden, soccer ball for Jigme, and Twister for Meto. Twister became so popular that the Dzongda paid Meto 1000 ngultrum (~US$20) to use Twister in the tsechu, the traditional festival with chaam (mask dancing) that takes place in the monastery part of the dzong. I’m pretty sure I only paid $7 for the game, so he rented it for more than twice the price!! Ridiculous. But what is even more ridiculous is that Lhuentse, one of the most traditional regions of Bhutan, had Twister at their tsechu. Just imagine you are a wide-eyed foreigner super-psyched about seeing one of the most traditional festivals in remote eastern Bhutan, and you see people playing Twister. …I think I single-handedly corrupted Lhuentse.)

While I’m waiting to hear about the ADB funding, I am working on Ishan’s project looking at financing a concentrating solar power plant in Barmer, Rajasthan (with a possible field visit?) for the HSBC bank. But since he's been on leave, I've been helping Anand with his report for the Norwegian government about the barriers to solar thermal power market growth (I would think Norway’s latitude is a pretty big barrier!).

I mostly hang out with William and Anand, who are closest in age to me (they are both 24). Jay found out that I’m into dosas, so as the resident South Indian he felt it his responsibility to take me to the best dosa place close to work, Hotel Madras, and Anand tagged along. Best dosa I’ve had in Delhi so far! And now Anand and I are on a mission to find some good pav bhaji (a Mumbai chaat). I need to ask William for some good Goan seafood places. …food is definitely one of the top reasons I love India. :)

Speaking of food, I better go buy some. I don’t have anything in my apartment yet.

Apartment: Check. Foreigner Registration: Check. I am legally a resident of India!

And I have a Residential Permit to prove it!

The apartment hunt was pretty stressful and complicated, but it ended with a nice 2-bedroom apartment and a possible roommate who is coming to Delhi in October (well, hopefully. She’s having employment visa issues… sound familiar?).

I started looking on Yuni-Net and DelhiNet, two mostly expat forums, but I got few good responses. I managed to visit two studios in Defence Colony, but they were pretty small and felt like dorm rooms (basically only a bed and desk). I tried Craigslist and emailed some people who had posted they were looking for roommates, but they never responded. Then I checked out some Classifieds websites, 99acres.com, magicbricks.com, and indiaproperty.com, as well as the Classified sections of the Hindustan Times and Times of India. I visited some of these apartments, but they were awful. Indian squat toilets, no showerhead, a glass wall between the apartment and a family’s home so that the family could see and hear everything, no windows, etc. Really, it wasn’t that I was being overly picky; these are legitimate complaints.

Ultimately, I had to do what everyone, both expat and Indian, warned me against: I called a broker. I started with TERI’s broker, but he was terrible. He wasn’t even listening to me. He showed me places that were double my budget, in locations I didn’t want, etc. So I searched on IndiaMike.com to find a recommended broker, and here I am in my new apartment! The broker was pretty annoying and I had to pay a broker fee, but at least I found a place to live (after seeing over 20 apartments). Phew!

My apartment is on the third floor (Indian counting; fourth floor American counting). Basically, you keep walking up stairs until there are no more stairs. I live in Jangpura, which is north of Lajpat Nagar (great shopping) and east of Defence Colony (great restaurants). It is a nice quiet neighborhood with a bunch of parks. I thought I was within walking distance of a movie theater (so my amazing 250-page Delhi map book tells me), but when I walked over there I found it is closed for renovations. But I’m pretty sure there is a theater in Lajpat, so I will easily get my fill of Bollywood.

If you want to send me mail, my address is:

G-9, Third Floor
Jangpura Extension
New Delhi 110014
India

Come visit me!!

I live on the same street as “Dr. P.P. Singh (Urologist).” I’m not even kidding, there is actually a sign that says that. One day soon I will walk around my neighborhood with a camera and take a picture of that sign.

After I got my apartment and signed a lease, I had all my documents in order to go to the FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office). The FRRO is supposed to be a really awful experience and a lot of foreigners have to go back multiple times, but it went pretty smoothly for me. Basically you wait in line for hours, a guy checks out your documents and gives you a number, and when your number is called you go up to a counter with a guy who registers you.

Before I continue the story, it is important to share with you that I had not had a drink of water since lunchtime the day before. I had moved into my apartment the night before and did not yet have any cups, even though I did have a water filter. And I had sweat profusely while lugging my bags up four flights of stairs. I would also like to note that taking autorickshaws really dries out my throat and gives me cottonmouth (all that polluted, dusty air). So I was feeling pretty damn thirsty and dehydrated.

After standing on my feet for two and a half hours in a sweaty, not-air-conditioned hallway, the number-giver told me my lease was not notarized and therefore not a valid proof of address for registration. At first he refused to give me a number, but I yelled at him with my gross cottonmouth voice until he gave me a number, and I ran as fast as I could out of there to find a notary. I saw an autorickshaw and yelled “Mujhe notarization chahiye! Mujhe mere lease par stamp chahiye!” (I need notarization! I need a stamp on my lease!) at him. To my surprise, he knew exactly what I meant and where to go. Well, he was waiting outside the FRRO, so maybe this is a common problem he knows about.

When we arrived at the complex with the notary, I dashed out of the rickshaw and up a few flights of stairs to the notary. I didn’t have the original lease with me since I only needed to submit a copy, and at first the notary guy wouldn’t stamp it. After some convincing, he gave me the stamps. Then I ran to a copy place so the registration guy would never know the notarization was not on the original. (But I will get the original notarized soon.)

At this point I started getting light-headed and realized I was probably about to pass out, probably because I hadn’t had any water in 24 hours and in those 24 hours I had perspired a lot more than usual (moving luggage down and up several flights of stairs, all the running in Indian heat in Western work clothes, etc). I asked the copy boy, “pani kahan hai?” (Where is water?) because I couldn’t think straight enough to say “where can I buy water?” (which would be “main kahan pani kharid sakti hoon?”) Instead of telling me where to go, he said “you don’t look so good” and ran out to get me water. He came back with what I’m pretty sure was not clean water, but I felt so awful I just grabbed it and drank the whole thing.

Feeling reenergized from the sketchy water, I ran back to the auto and back to the FRRO. When I entered the room, my number was on the board. I went up to the counter and asked how long my number had been up there, and luckily it had just popped up. Just in the nick of time! And I got my resident’s permit without any more issues.

…yes, that is considered going smoothly.

Lesson learned: I now have cups and I bring a bottle of water (I keep all the bottles I buy and fill them up with filtered water) to work every day.

Wow, that was a long post. That’s what happens when you don’t update in a while. Oh, and I swear, a post about work really is coming soon.

BAGELS IN DELHI!!

Complete with Philadelphia cream cheese: http://www.redmoonbakery.net/bagels.html

AND they deliver!!

My life is complete.

Better than (Bhutanese?) rice

Kencho is visiting Delhi!! (For those of you who don't know: Kencho was my host sister and translator in Bhutan.) I haven't seen her since I left Bhutan a year ago, so it's been really fun to hang out with her again.

Kencho works for the Rajasthan-based NGO Barefoot College now, and her job is to recruit Bhutanese village women--most of whom had never even been to Thimphu, Bhutan's capital and only real town--to come to India for some sort of training (I think small women's business groups or something). So far she has led one team of 34 women, and she is going to bring another group over in early October. They will spend 3 days in Delhi and then head to Barefoot's main campus in Rajasthan. She also makes trips to Delhi without the groups to meet with Barefoot, so hopefully I'll be seeing her somewhat regularly!

She told me some kind of funny, yet sort of sad, stories about these women's visit to India. Everything we take for granted was completely new and terrifying to them. They had never been in an airplane before, and when the plane took off, the women started shrieking and crying out of fear. In Delhi they stayed at the Oberoi, one of the fanciest hotels in India (no NGO would have wasted funds on this; the Indian government paid for it). The women had never seen a Western toilet before. They stood on the toilet seat and squatted, and then couldn't figure out how to flush it. They complained to Kencho that no bucket was provided (they usually throw water down their holes to "flush"). They had never seen a showerhead either and could not figure out how to bathe. They couldn't operate the elevators and kept locking themselves out because they didn't understand the card key. At the super-fancy hotel restaurant, they ate with their hands because they did not know how to use the silverware. Furthermore, Delhi's pollution was too much for women used to pure mountain air, and many of them got sick (I can't really blame them. I can actually feel the particulate matter coating the back of my throat and am on the hunt for a carbon-filter/pollution mask). Not to mention how shocking the sheer numbers of people and vehicles must have been--they come from villages of about 20 households and no roads, and Thimphu doesn't even have enough traffic for a traffic light. Delhi must have been a completely alien world, like landing on another planet, for these village women.

On a related note, I gave Kencho some new Americanish experiences these past few days. Two nights ago we went to Cocoberry, a trendy frozen yogurt place like Pinkberry, Fraiche, Red Mango, etc popping up all over the US, in Defence Colony. Kencho had never eaten frozen yogurt before! She couldn't really grasp that it wasn't the same as ice cream, and she had never seen a machine dispense "ice cream" that way before. The concept of toppings was totally confusing to her (and the whole point of these places is the toppings). She was a bit overwhelmed and just ended up ordering the same thing as me. The Cocoberry employees were pretty amused by her awe.

Kencho enjoying her first cup of frozen yogurt


Post-yogurt smiles

Tonight we were walking down Janpath in Connaught Place (CP) when we passed a Pizza Hut. We were actually in search of a Tibetan restaurant, but I casually asked Kencho if she liked pizza. To my surprise, she responded that she had never eaten pizza before!! I then realized that Bhutan doesn't have pizza, but I guess I had assumed she would have had pizza at some point in her life, maybe when she was abroad in India (she went to college in Chandigarh), Nepal (worked for an NGO there), or Thailand (free ticket on Druk Air from her flight attendant brother). So we changed our plans from Tibetan to Pizza Hut. The girl needed to try pizza!

Pizza Hut was more overwhelming than Cocoberry. If you thought choosing frozen yogurt toppings were difficult, imagine trying to choose pizza toppings! Especially when you add Indian choices like paneer tikka and masala pepperoni (yes, there are quite a few Indian varieties of pizza). As intrigued as I was by the paneer tikka pizza, I decided it would be best to start her off with the basics and ordered a cheese pizza. After her first bite, she exclaimed, "Oh my God! This is better than RICE!!" I immediately burst into laughter so loud that the entire restaurant turned around to stare at us. It was amazing. Plus our waiter Ajay was awesome. He was hilarious and had a lot of fun introducing Kencho to pizza.

Kencho's first-ever bite of pizza!

Kencho is too into her pizza to look at the camera. Seriously, I couldn't get her to pay attention.

When we came back from CP, I met the Bhutanese couple Kencho is staying with (by coincidence Kencho and I are on the same street, within a 5-minute walk of each other. In a city of 16 million people. Amazing). Kencho is staying with Karma's sister (Karma is Kencho's cousin and the mother of Meto, Jigme, and Yueden). I told her that I stayed in her family's house in Gangzur, and she laughed that she knew all about it. She and her husband have lived in Delhi for 6 years and offered to help me out if I ever needed anything, because, in their words, I'm like extended family. I love Bhutanese people.

I will probably see Kencho again tomorrow, and I can't wait to introduce her to something else new! I wonder what it will be...

In other news, the apartment hunt continues, thus far unsuccessfully. For now I am crashing at a fellow TERI foreigner's apartment. And I will post about work later.

(PS: As you may have noticed in these pictures, I have reverted to putting my hair up everyday. It's just way too hot and humid to wear it down.)

I feel like an infant again.

I need to learn how to talk. English is definitely not sufficient. I need to step up my Hindi.

I need to learn how to walk. One eye on the ground (jagged sidewalks, potholes, dung, paan, etc), one eye on the street (people, animal, and vehicle traffic).

I need to learn how to cross the street due to aforementioned traffic. Plus people/animals/vehicles don't exactly follow traffic laws here.

I need nap time due to jet lag. Good night!

नमस्ते भारत! (Hello India!)

I'm finally in India! I arrived last night, and I'm staying with Sareeta, the other PiA fellow, in CR Park. I've been here less than 24 hours, and already my nose is tingling from the polluted air (my snot is probably black) and I can feel the dust seeping into my pores.

The plane ride was long but I got to sleep and watch Wolverine and a few episodes of The Office. Boarding was hilarious. The Continental agent called boarding and all of a sudden all the Indians started pushing to get in line. People were sort of violent and paying no attention to the fact that we were boarding by rows. There was a group of American high-school-age kids (maybe there is a high school study abroad program?) and they all looked terrified. The Continental agent even threatened not to allow boarding at all if people didn't stop shoving and wait their turn. I felt like I was in India already!

I remembered that the first time I landed in India, I was immediately slapped in the face by the heat/humidity and the smell. I couldn't remember which came first, so I paid special attention this time. Well, the smell definitely hit me first! And the heat followed almost instantly. Welcome to India!

Aaahh, the smell of India. So hard to describe, and so unpleasant. Fortunately--or unfortunately?--I will get used to it. I would say the smell is some combination of exhaust/air pollution, fecal matter, paan (betel nut), spices, a lot of dust, and animals.

Speaking of animals, I am very relieved to say that I have not seen any menacing monkeys yet.

...yet.

चलो चलो भारत! (Chalo Chalo Bhaarat!/Let's go to India!)

I bought my ticket! I leave from Newark on Sunday night and arrive in Delhi on Monday night. I'm so excited!

I even got the perfect fortune cookie last night:


Hopefully that fortune will come true. :)

Yes!

...is the answer to the previous question. Today I got an email from Travisa Outsourcing saying my visa was issued and in the mail. It took 5 weeks, but I'm finally going to India!! :)