The Blizzard of 2010

On Sunday afternoon Dec 26 heavy snow started to fall with strong winds as well. that combination can be called a blizzard if the winds are strong enough. In some areas the winds probably were that strong. We ended up with about 18 inches of snow at our house. New York City got about 20 inches. This year we are paying someone to plow our driveway instead of Jim doing it. The plow guy came through once during the night and then again in late morning on the 27th after the snow stopped falling. We have a snowblower, so that allowed Jim to clear our sidewalks and front of the garage in a bit more than an hour along with some old fashioned shoveling. It was cold, but not too bad. It was difficult to tell how much snow we had because the wind blew so much around. In some large areas we had 3.5 feet piled in drifts while other areas were around 8 inches. However the neighboring town reported 17 inches and we usually get a little bit more. Our electricity stayed on the entire storm, but our cable connection was out for about 16 hours.
On Tuesday the 28th the roads were pretty clear and Jim drove to Cape Cod with Ziggy and Zoe going along. They are never too happy about making such trips, but after the trip from Bangalore to NY, they are seasoned travelers now!
The Eastern parts of Cape Cod did not get much snow- because it stands further out into the warmer ocean water, that area often gets rain instead of snow.
This was the first time Jim, Ziggy and Zoe have been to the cape since early Oct. 2008!
Just like our main home the one on the Cape needs some attention as well.

Zoe and snowy

Zoe is behaving more like her old self each day, so we think she'll be ok.
The temperatures in New York have been colder than what we think of as normal and certainly much colder than Bangalore! The low temperatures here have been around 15F at night while Bangalore has been about 58F. We had between 3 and 4 inches of snow earlier this week and it looks like it will stay around awhile since the temperatures have been low. We may get a little more in the next day or so.
We are expecting our sea shipment from India to arrive this week, which is unfortunate in one way because the snow on the ground may make it impossible to safely put some items in our basement. However, it should be a lot like Christmas to receive all the things we lived with in Bangalore again.

Thyroids and flurries

Zoe was released from her prison on Friday and came back home. Generally she seems OK, but is a little subdued compared to her usual self. This could be a natural result of the thyroid function reduction plus the stress she has endured. We will learn more about her situation over coming weeks.
On Saturday, Dec. 4 the Town of Rhinebeck, NY had it annual "Sinterklaus" parade and celebration. For a small town this drew quite a large crowd of onlookers who generally enjoyed to show. The parade was led by "Santa Claus" riding on a horse and followed by many puppets and people in costume. It was a fun thing to see for the half hour or so, but it was pretty cold out there too! Rhinebeck was settled by people from northern Europe in what is now Germany or The Netherlands and this celebration is supposed to resemble those from northern Europe.
Tonight (the 5th) we have had a slight accumulation of snow flurries- the first accumulation of the season though it is slight.

Thyroid issues

About 2 weeks ago Zoe was showing signs of a respiratory illness so Janet took her to the vet who did some tests. The forst result said that she might have FELV which is normally only transmitted from cat to cat, so we thought this very difficult to explain. However a second test was negative for that, but her thyroid function test was very high which could also explain her symptoms as well as some others that we had not taken too seriously- like occaissional vomitting. The treatments for high thyroid in cats are not very many. Our cat, Cary, who died at age 18 in 2004 was diagnosed as high thyroid at age 11 and we gave him daily doses of medication to keep it under control, but his was not a very bad case. It was difficult to always give his medication. Most cat owners know how hard it is to give pills. We found a vet and pharmact that would give the medication in a sort of paste that could be rubbed in his ear and then the medication was absorbed through his skin. It seemed to work pretty well, but was tedious.
Another alternative that was starting the gain favor back when Cary was diagnosed was radiation treatment- very much like in humans. We were a little wary of that at the time.
In Zoe's case, the thyroid function values is very high- indicating a more serious problem than Cary had so we decided to have the radiation treatment. She went to a vet on Tuesday the 22nd of Nov. to have a screening test done and then injection of radioactive iodine. She has to stay at the vet for at least a week until the radiation levels come down and then we have to keep her at a little distance for another 2 weeks or so after she comes home.
The vet has webcams set up so the owners can watch the cats from home and we have checked on here many times over the past 2 days. We are sure that she feels quite anxious being in a strange place without her family around, but hope that tshe will be much better for the long term after her treatment.

Sleet! ....and Snow!

We were not too happy to return to New York late in the year due to the colder weather and shorter days, but we have managed. However, today, we have gotten some sleet and a little snow! This is a little early in the season to get this, though the years are highly variable in this respect. It was pleasant to see a little snow- something we came to miss- just a little- in Bangalore. Having just a little is ok.

Ah! The Sunday Times!

One of our great pleasures in the past was to be home on Sunday morning with the NY Times. We got to re-live that experience today for the first time in 2 years. While the size of the newspaper has shrunk noticeably since we went to Bangalore in 2008, the experience still is pleasing!
In Bangalore we also enjoyed relaxing Sunday mornings by reading the newspapers and listening to "Sunday Baroque", but this is the real thing!
In other news, Jim picked up his new car yesterday- he has a Honda Accord now. The purchase of this was arranged through email from Bangalore and a few telephone calls and then one short visit to the bank! Is this a great country, or what?
Janet got a new Iphone, which is "intuitive" to use, but neither her intuition, nor Jim's seem to align with the device maker's intuition. Jim got a SIMM card for the phone he bought and used in India and is trying out the service in our area with it. In the past we found that the best coverage was from a company which used CDMA rather than GSM (or whatever) that most of the world uses, so we have to see how well this works.
We are all still feeling quite jet- lagged- with only slight improvements each day. We feel very tired by 8PM, wake up early in the morning and then go back to sleep for awhile.

First meal out and shopping

On Thursday we went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. They serve Mexican style food that is very good. In Bangalore we found one restaurant near our apartment which had reasonably good Mexican food. We also drove the car a few times on Thursday and it seemed quite natural though Jim had not driven in 2 years and Janet only for the few weeks she was home in April- May. Most of the rest of the day was spent unpacking our bags and sorting mail.
On Friday we went to three large stores to get lots of cat food, some repair items for the house and food for ourselves. This was all quite expensive compared to what we were used to paying in India, but we marveled at how we could find everything we needed in 3 stops and had choices too! Much of the rest of the day was spent sorting more mail and doing chores around the house that had not been done for awhile- like change water filters and clean the refrigerator underneath and inside.
Ziggy and Zoe seem to be adjusting to being home. They have jet lag too, but are seeming to be adjusting slowly.
We both sense it will be a few weeks before we feel close to normal.

Back Home!

We arrived back home about 4:30PM NY time On Wed. Oct. 27 about 26 hours after picking up the Z's at our Apartment in Bangalore and dropping off the key with the landlord. There were still a few unfinished tasks there- like a number of bags of cat related items to be donated to the local animal cruelty prevention society. Our driver- Joseph is supposed to help take care of that, but the landlord may help too.
The ride to the airport was uneventful. The Z's were not happy, but they never are happy about traveling away from their home. At check-in we were very surprised when they told us that any carry-on bag had to weight less than 8 kg (17.6lbs) and they had us weigh them. Both had to be that heavy or more and they insisted that Janet's had to be made lighter even though Jim's probably weighed more- very strange. They also said it was ok to have more than 2 carry on items but they each had to weigh less than 8kg- also this seemed odd. In any case, we got through that and ended up transferring items to Jim's already heavy bag in case of any future checks- which, never occurred. Going through immigration was easier than expected. Our wait for boarding was not bad. Ziggy and Zoe were relatively peaceful. Once on the plane we dreaded the possibility that Zoe, especially would be loudly vocal, which she can be when unhappy. She did keep up a low level of noise, but not enough to be too disturbing to anyone except Janet- since Zoe was at her feet. We did try to give her a tranquilizer pill at one point, but are not convinced she got it. Anyone who has tried to "pill" a cat knows that the probability of success is not nearly as high as we wish!
We arrived in Frankfurt where they never seem to be prepared for the plane arriving from Bangalore, and had to get off the plane is surprisingly chilly temps. and walk to a bus that was already full, so we took the second one. In the terminal we asked for a porter to help with the bags and cats and they said there are none around and their phone was not being answered. They sent us to a place where they give assistance to passengers, but they said they only have wheel chairs and not enough people to handle those! So we went back and started the long walk to the other terminal. They told us we "might" find a luggage cart along the way. The advantages of cheap labor- like in India became clear here. There would have been a few people around hoping to help us with our bags in India. (we had 2 at check-in, but it is true that once inside the secure area it was harder to find people).
At Frankfurt we had to go through security again, which was equally painful as in Bangalore. We had to take Ziggy and Zoe out of their carriers and everyone loved seeing them! They were the stars of the show! We wanted to go to the business lounge and give the Z's some water and a little food, but they had no room we could use for this. It seems silly that they would allow pets in the cabin but have no place to take them in such an event. We found a baby changing room and thought we might use this, and got a little water and foof in them before some cleaning women threatened to have us arrested! She may have been right that this not the best idea, but we had not thought to much about germs, though the cats are probably cleaner than most babies and the room itself.
We tried to give the Z's a tranquilizer pill for the trip to JFK and may have succeeded. They were quite will behaved. As this flight is in daylight Jim stayed awake most of the time and watched bad movies most of the time. Janet read and slept and gave the Z's more water.
On arrival at JFK we were surprised to come through immigration , baggage pick up and customs rather quickly. Since Jim has been away 2 years and Janet the same except for her trip home in April there was little for them to check. They did not ask for the health certificates for the cats even though we went to great pains to get them in place.
The driver was fairly good, but for some reason the car company had scheduled him to do another job too soon after ours so he was in a hurry and he was not as helpful as we'd have liked. He unloaded our bags onto the ground - in the rain- but would help us take them inside.
As we drove home, all looked familiar. Janet commented that it was a "typical fall day"- overcast and rainy- dreary- in other words! Quite the contrast to bright sunny days in Bangalore at this time of year.
Ziggy and Zoe got good food and water as soon as we got in the house and were quite ravenous! We worried that they might vomit after eating so fast. However, they seem OK and they recognized they were home again after a long and exciting journey!

Last ride on the ring road

On Monday Oct. 25 Jim had several tasks to complete at the office. These included turning in cards for "The Club" where we had corporate memberships for the past year, returning the car we had used for the past 2 years, returning Jim's India ID badge, shreddng some of the endless stacks of papers and saying good bye to some people. The ride back to our hotel was provided by a co-worker who stays very close by, The Trip was marred by the drive during the height of rush hour, The Ring road traffic was jammed worse that usual and this made it a little easier to leave- the prospect of not having to think about the traffic again for awhile! The rest of the ride to the hotel was unpleasant as well.
However we met friends for dinner Monday evening and this was a nice end of the day.
Tuesday was rather more busy than expected because of the number to trips back to the apartment for various reasons. One trip was to complete the transfer of the apartment, but we left Ziggy and Zoe there to be comfortable, but they seemed bored with no furniture to play on or around. Our last trip to the apartment was at 10PM when we picked up Ziggy and Zoe and left for the airport to return home.

moving out

In the past 3 days we were very busy with our move. The packers packed all day Friday and Saturday and then took everything away on Sunday. Of course we had lots of decisions to make on what to put in the air shipment, what to put in the sea, what to carry with us, what to give away and what to throw away. A few more things were sold at very low prices as well.
There were lots of papers to sort through and that took lots of time too. We don't want to lose any that might be important or useful later , but we also don't want the weight.
Because everything was pretty much packed up on Saturday we moved to a hotel- really serviced apartment. We chose it because we were thinking that Ziggy and Zoe would come with us and it also has some good restaurants very close by. The latter is important because we don't have our car available now and have to walk or arrange for an expensive car and driver. We did get a car and driver on Saturday because Janet has been sick and decided she should go to the doctor, but we also needed it to take us and our luggage from the apartment to the hotel.
On Sunday Jim walked to the apartment carrying a heavy bag of clothes and other small items to have the movers take with our sea shipment. This was hard on the back!
We also had a large plant that did not sell and Janet decided she wanted to keep the nice pot it was in, so we managed to find someone in the building to empty the pot and clean it out. The movers had mistakenly packed up the vacuum cleaner, even though the maid told them she thought she needed it. So, they had to unpack that and it was no problem for them to pack the other things that we had found the previous night and decided to ship by sea.
The Apartment is on the 4th floor (3rd floor in Indo- European naming) and the movers had to carry all the boxes down the stairs. They appeared to do this efficiently, but it was hard to keep an eye on them. They seemed good, but the only way we really know is when we receive the stuff on the other end and see what broke or is missing.
There are a number of tasks to do on Monday and Tuesday before we leave- hopefully they will go smoothly and Janet will feel better as well.
As for Ziggy and Zoe, we decided to leave them in the apartment rather than take them to the hotel. We think that fewer transitions will be less stressful for them. So, we will go there Tuesday evening, get them and go to the airport, where we also hope all the paperwork is satisfactory.
Before we left the US we did a lot of research on what was required to take the cats to India. In at least one place they said that having microchips inserted in them was required. We tend not to like this, but thought that it might be valuable if they were to get separated from us or lost. However, we have not seen any evidence that there are microchip readers here. At least none of the vets have mentioned them. We shall see.

Zeno's paradox in India

Zeno's Paradox goes something like this: suppose there is a frog placed in one corner of a room. Each time the frog jumps it goes exactly half of the remaining distance to the opposite corner of the room. The paradox is that the frog never seems to reach the opposite corner even though it continues to move.
In India it seems that many tasks are like the Frog's situation- there appears to be movement, but the task never seems to complete. At least it feels that way sometimes.
We had to switch our phone plan to one where we don't have to pay a monthly bill- prepaid- so we don't need to think about it any more. It took several phone calls with people saying "oh you just go to the phone company office". Of course it was not that simple. Jim had to go twice and stay about 45 minutes each time plus gather many documents to present, then the phone shut off and we had to wait for them to come back on and then call the office again (and again) to finally get them working. Some of this is driven by security concerns after the Mumbai attack almost 2 years ago, but mostly it is typical silliness.
On another front we got Ziggy and Zoe to the Vet yesterday evening to get them checked before departure- they tell us it is to be done no more than 7 days before departure. The inspection was quick but the guy spent 45 minutes typing out the forms and printing them. This was free. they charged about $2.75 for some deworming pills and tranquilizers in case they (or we) need them on the flight. The next for them is to get the government vet to see the cats and sign off on their departure. We thought we might might get this done, but could not due to the phones not working and that the gov't vets office closing earlier than we thought possible. So, it is another case of things appearing to move, but not quite reaching the finish.
However, things do, usually, reach completion- one just has to be VERY patient. Some jobs like construction or fabrication of something by tradesmen may never actually reach completion- for those, it is more a case of the owner/purchaser getting tired of having things done over again and again- you just reach the point of saying "it seems good enough".
Last Saturday Jim made a short trip to "Tipu's Palace" and the remains of the fort that once covered a large areas of old Bangalore. In the 2 year we have been here he never had time to go. Tipu Sultan was the Muslim ruler of this area in the late 1700's. He is reputed to have been a very wise ruler and well respected by the people. However, the British and he did not agree on much. He was finally killed on an assault on his capitol of Srirangapatna in 1799. We visited there in Dec. 2008 and wrote about that back then. Tipu had a number of palaces around his domain and the one in Bangalore is not large, but it is worth the short visit to see the architecture and a few relics. The area is now surrounded by Bangalore city that is not so pretty. It took about 20-30 minutes to walk around.
A short drive away is the old fort or cantonment. We are told that it was not well kept until a couple years ago. it is interesting as well, but again, only 20 minutes or so to walk around seemed enough. It is free to visit the fort while the palace is about 10 cents for Indians and $2 for foreigners. Jim did not have the energy to argue with them over paying the Indian rate- since we pay taxes in India we are supposed to be able to get the Indian rate, but more than half the places claim that is not true or that our documents are not valid because "they might be forgeries- there are a lot of forgeries around".
Movers come tomorrow to start packing up our stuff.

What's happening here?

Ziggy and Zoe righting again! We have not seen so much we wanted to right about for awhile and our human companion animals have been keeping the computer closed up and away from us a lot. Lately we sense something is going on here and we are not sure we like it! Yesterday someone came and took away our favorite perch! That came all the way from our previous home and now its gone! Then today we were pushed outside where we watch the birds and little human-like creatures while a bunch of people moved around inside. When we were finally allowed inside a whole lot of our other places to sleep were gone! They have some explaining to do!
Yes, the cat condo was sold yesterday and taken away and then today a guy and his extended family came to take away a number of pieces of furniture that we had to sell to get our load reduced in volume. We were somewhat lucky that one person bought most of what we had to sell and he could wait until nearer our departure to take it away. "Sundar" and his wife "Geetha" and son "Vishnu" will move into a new apartment in about 2 months. It looks like a very modern place and our furniture should go well there. They seem like very nice people- as most Indians are when you have a chance to talk to them. They had us come to their current apartment last night for dinner. It was very nice. Sundar plays the Harmonium, so he played for us and told us about the instrument too. The food was very good and they were good company.as well.
The Z's are a little perturbed, but they were also romping around in the new found open spaces. However, we also have some suitcases out, so they know that usually means we are going somewhere. Little do they know that they will go too!
We are expecting movers to come Friday the 22nd and spend 2 days packing up our stuff and one day loading a truck. they are supposed to be good. They brought us some boxes so we could separate things going by air from things going by sea. Then we have to keep the stuff we will carry separate too. Lots of decisions to make!
Jim has been packing some boxes himself while sorting into the main categories.
We expect the apartment to be unlivable by Saturday night the 23rd, so we will move to a hotel nearby but leave the Z's in the apartment until we take them to the airport.
The Z's have to see a local vet this week and then they have to see a government vet no more than 48 hours before we depart. We are not looking forward to that. Any interaction with the government people is usually time wasted- except when they give the needed forms or stamps or whatever.
We went through the process of getting our visas renewed nearly 3 weeks ago- while it was quicker in some respects from the past, it was still a pain. Evidently, since the Indian economy is growing so well, there are lots of people who want to come here and stay without proper papers.
Jim employer has a number of people who are supposed to help in the process of getting everything done to get us out of the country. However, they have not been especially helpful and the contractors who are paid to help as well have a tendency to do part of their job, but then leave it to us to bug them to finish the job or to provide more than just suggestions.
One thing we need to do is cancel our DSL service just before we leave the apartment. The provider also sent the last bill by email with a password protection, but without any clue as to what the password is! We mentioned what we wanted to one of the helpers. The outcome is that we now have 2 login ID's to the provider's website with 2 different ID's and passwords and the document we got was only opened after we also received a paper copy in the mail and all we got toward closing our DSL service was a phone number to call. Jim told the helpers they did not seem to be helping much and then he got a call from the DSl provider who gave the password for the bill that we also got in the mail and we were told to call closer to the time we want to cancel the service rather than arrange it ahead of time. of course, we were trying to arrange early so we would not have to deal with it at the last minute, but that is not the way it works here.
Our car belongs to the company, and we were told that normal wear and tear would be handled by them at no cost to us, but they would not say what is "normal" and when Jim asked to have them look at the car and tell us if anything is "abnormal" so we could get it fixed- they simply said that they would get it fixed after we return the car and send us the bill! Now, for the company that Jim is used to working for this could very well mean they would never send a bill. However, the company has changed and gotten much more cost conscious- really to the point of absurdity in some respects. So, he does not really trust them - especially here in India where everyone warns us not to be too trusting! We had our driver get an estimate to fix all the scratches and dents to our car and then he had the dealer give an estimate too and it was almost 4x more expensive- even when we assume our driver asked his people for a commission the dealer came out 4x more! Thus we are afraid the company will have work done at such a place and ask us to pay for it! We are going to try to have things fixed the day before the car is returned.
The helpers at the office also sent Jim a list of things to be done before we leave. Among the things on the list is one about "signing the PF forms". He had asked what the is a week earlier and got no reply and just got another note saying this has to be done. Jim finally figured out that they are talking about the Provident Fund- its much like social security in the US. The employer puts money in, but they get the money back when we return to the US- provided that Jim fills out all the forms properly! A bit of a sore point is that the money goes to Jim's India bank account, which several people said we should try to close before we leave India, but the company says we can't until they get the PF money. This word coming 2 weeks before we leave even though they earlier found that Jim could sign a form and have the money sent directly to the company instead of his account. So there will be loose ends to tie up later.
The coming 2 weeks are likely to be very hectic, so we may or may not add more as we go along.

Chicken Burgers

There are many good restaurants in Bangalore and they cover a fairly broad range of food from all over the world. There is one restaurant we have gone to quite a few times because it is not too far away and it is generally good and relatively simple western European/North American style food. One item Jim likes is their chicken burger. It comes with a bread roll, tomato, lettuce, mayonaise, onion and a little spicing to make it less bland. Jim has order this about 6 times over a period of about 6 months. Each time he has asked them if they can add some cheese on top of the chicken. For some reason this seems to baffle the staff. The first time they said they could not put cheese on it, but it had cheese inside. It did not. The second time they said they just could not do it. (He did not press them too hard on why this seemed to be a problem because they clearly seemed uncomfortable.) The next time, they brought it with some cheese on the chicken, so that was proof that it could be done. In the 3 most recent visits they brought it with cheese then the next time (with the very same waiter) said they could not put cheese on and the next time they brought one with cheese on it! This is very mysterious... one of the many mysteries of living in India. We know that the waiters do not like to say they are out of supply for something and they generally don't use the words "no you can not have that", but these experiences are really more odd than usual.

Civil Disobedience

When we were young in the U.S., Martin Luther King was alive and leading the struggle to attain equal rights for African- Americans by using "Civil disobedience" as a primary technique to bring about change. We learned that he took the concepts used by Mohandas K. Gandhi in India as the basis for what he did in the U.S. The idea seems pretty straightforward - you get a large number of people to disobey an unjust law to bring attention to it and hope that enough other people recognize the correctness of the stand and bring about change. With large numbers of people you get attention and the police forces have a difficult time enforcing the offending law, because there are so many people to deal with. Of course there were violent reactions too- many people in India were killed or injured and this was true in the U.S. too. However, on the whole the moral courage and correctness of the views of the protesters can be seen to have won out through their attempts to remain non-violent in their own actions.
Gandhi's birthday is approaching on Oct. 2 and it is celebrated as a national Holiday in India.
We were reflecting on his concept of civil disobedience and how remarkable his accomplishment was to win the independence of what is now well over 1 billion people. We became amused by the idea that the people had to be encouraged to violate some of the British laws, because we find it more common that the natural behavior of the people is to ignore most laws! So, In some sense it seems that what was really accomplished was to ORGANIZE all of this "civil disobedience" rather than to create it for unjust laws. Of course, that organization was quite a big accomplishment in any case.
The place where most people see the blatant disregard for laws is in the traffic- this is a topic of discussion among nearly all foreigners as well as most old- time Bangaloreans who also dread driving in the traffic of today. They might also have ignored the laws in the past, but there were a lot fewer people, so it was of less consequence and stress then. Undoubtedly, there are many other examples.

Preparation for departure- Part 2

It was a hectic week in general, but we made progress toward our return. We concluded that we can't get all our furniture back home at a reasonable cost, so we have to sell a number of items. We had planned to sell a few things, but we have to sell some more. there are a few that we'd like to keep, but are not sure where they would go, so they seem expendable. The process of selling these things is somewhat eased Janet's membership in a group of ex-pats. they have a website and emails go out when a member lists something for sale. This has gotten a lot of calls which she has, at times, had difficulty handling. A number of people expressed interest, but never called back and never came to see things (we managed to upload pictures too), but one large item went quickly. Someone else said he and his wife are moving to an apartment, and need a lot. They came and looked then made a low ball offer despite our saying we were not lowering the price much. After a day of back and forth he said they will take most of what we are selling. However, he seems like a dealer or operator of some sort and we are a little skeptical that he will not try to pull some sort of move at the last minute like claim that he does not have the rest of the money and needs a lower price as a result. That could leave us stuck with the furniture. However, we have friends here, so we think if we got desperate we could leave the remains with them to sell and get the money later. We shall see!

bad weather and bad vibes

Friday evening we went to a movie. While there it rained very hard, but we didn't realize how much. In the morning paper they say we got about 4inches of rain in 1.5 hours! It was still raining after the movie, but we sat and talked to a friend while eating a bit until the showers subsided some. They then gave us a ride home and we were quite surprised to find about 3 inches of water on the floor of the garage/basement! Fortunately not enough to cause serious harm. We also found a little water on the floor in the apartment by all the windows that face south- even though they were closed! The newspaper has many pictures of buses and cars sitting in deep water, so it was much worse in other areas. When such downpours occur there is no real way for the water to be handled unless the entire system was built to handle it, but that much rain in such a short time is apparently fairly rare. They say this was the 4th largest amount in that sort of time since they have kept records, which is not a long period, but long enough to say its not so common. Still, every year, there are more localized downpours that cause havoc in smaller areas.
This past week also witnessed the possibility of significant social unrest in the form of sectarian violence. In 1992 there was a rather sad case where a mosque was destroyed by people who felt the site belonged to an earlier Hindu temple. The case has been in the courts for 18 years while they try to sort out who it belongs to- Hindus or Muslims. People say that one side is likely to be unhappy - whichever way the decision goes. In addition the judge is due to retire in less than a week and if the case is not decided now, the case will probably go one for a long time more than it already has. The whole country was put on some sort of alert on Friday and Saturday, but then the verdict was delayed until this coming Tuesday and who knows what will happen then?

Prepartions to return home - part 1

We probably would have started on this about Sept. 1, but because we were planning to be away the week we were up north, we started discussion the last full week of August. There is a lot to do, but we have a lot of help too- though they often seem like inhibitors at times.
We were not happy with having the Ziggy and Zoe shipped over, so we have spent a lot of time looking into how to bring them with us in the plane cabin. After many calls and emails it loks like this is possible but only on 1 or 2 airlines. We will try to settle that soon, then other things will become more clear.
We had the moving people come and assess our shipments. We did not come with a lot- mainly 3 beds, a chair, a lot of cat stuff, some kitchen items and a few electronic items and a lot of odds and ends. However, we have furnished a 3 bedroom apartment very nicely in nearly 2 years.
It looks like we will need to leave a number of items behind or else pay fairly large shipping costs. Jim has been pressuring the movers and coordinators to look at it more carefully as they appear to be over estimating the costs based on information we have gotten from others who have been through similar experiences.
In any case we have a number of items we will sell so that is part of what we need to arrange quickly.
So, settling the cats move, selling items and sorting out how to ship various things appears to be the top priorities. However we are also going through Visa renewal and he have a number of other tasks to handle as well. The next 5 weeks look to be very hectic!

A Trip to Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kolkata- part 2

Here are a couple pictures taken along the trip to Darjeeling. The rivers are muddier than normal due to the monsoon rains and water levels higher too. Some of the rivers and streams looked pretty dangerous.
The first night near Darjeeling was at a tea estate "Glenburn". This was a little painful to get to, but once there it seemed a bit like heaven. The owners are a wealthy family who took it over some years ago and decided to use part of it as an inn or resort. They have done a very nice job of providing luxurious spaces for the guests and the views are fabulous. We got a tour of the tea factory in the afternoon of our arrival. There were about 6 or 8 other guests. Since this is monsoon, they were not full, but by October they will generally be full until March.
The tour of the tea processing factory was interesting. As suspected, tea is a highly manual business, though they have several machines to do processing once the leaves are picked.
We learned that they have two basic plants- one from China and one from Assam- another Indian state to the east. The plants grow fast so they pluck the leaves 4 times a year to make different kinds of teas. Plants from lower altitudes are different from higher and the weather makes a difference too. So when you buy "Darjeeling tea" it may be a mix of the two types of plants plus a broad mix from plants in different areas, then there are the seasonal differences too. A little too much to know about shriveled up leaves. There are about 80 teas estates around Darjeeling too. Apparently, the samples are sent to Kolkata for evaluation and grading and then sold. The next morning we awoke to find a view of some snow covered mountains to the north- one of them is "K.....", which we will just refer to as the highest peak in India. We got different numbers for its height. One place said 28,000 ft another 26,500 ft. It kept appearing and disappearing behind the clouds. We enjoyed our day of luxury amongst the tea plants and then moved on the Darjeeling town for 2 nights. We could see the town at the top of the neighboring mountain- it was almost always in the clouds. Unfortunately, Janet picked up an infection that affected her joints and intestinal track for the next few days.
Darjeeling has gotten crowded and a bit over run with tourists. The roads and traffic were a nuisance too. The hotel here was reasonably nice, but not luxurious. It was damp, rainy, cloudy and a little chilly here during this part of monsoon season. It rained every day with moderate to light showers- but not all day long. During the heaviest rain we visited the zoo and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute which is mostly about Everest with much about Tenzing Norgay who lived in Darjeeling for many years. The zoo was a little sad, but we saw a snow leopard there and a pretty impressive Tiger who seemed to like the way we looked- he kept starring at us. We were to go to "Tiger Hill" about 4:30 AM to see the sunrise if they thought the sky would be clear- you can see Mt. Everest from there even though its pretty far away. However we decided that since the weather was very iffy, we did not want to get up that early and Janet did not feel well either. Jim road The DHR for about 2 hours while Janet rested. This is the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway which was built up the mountain around 1890 and continues on with its little steam engines. It was designated a world heritage site around 10 years ago because they have maintained it pretty much the way it was for a long time. Today you can take some short trips to see it operate and see some views. Of course, the views were of clouds this day! It was amusing at least. Since we did not get to ride the train at Ooty, this was a good substitute. The cost of the "joy ride" is about 240Rs each which is very expensive considering that a one way ticket on the normal train to the same destination appeared to be about 2Rs (5 cents).
We found a good bookshop in Darjeeling and a couple good crafts shops. We also visited a Tibetan self help center where refugees live and work. They are known for their wool rugs, but we did not like the designs too much.
Overall, Darjeeling was a bit too crowded for our tastes, but interesting to see.
We left for Bagdogra on Friday the 10th. The ride was rough again. We made the short flight to Kolkata but were quite tired by the time we got to our hotel near the center of the city so we did not go out until the next morning. Of course, as mentioned in the earlier post- or car was stopped once near Bagdogra by guys collecting for "Puja", but this time (maybe it was twice), the guide explained that they should not be stopping tourist vehicles for this and they let us pass without damage.
Janet did not feel well and decided to have a doctor visit while Jim went to see the railway museum, but it was closed. We think this day was the end of Ramadan, so it was a holiday for many businesses as well as for Muslims. The doc said Janet was pretty much over a viral infection. One thing we have noticed is that many things are designated as "viral", but then they prescribe antibiotics for them anyway.
In the afternoon we visited the Victoria Memorial. This is a massive white marble building dedicated to Queen Victoria. It is quite pleasing to look at, but considering that she was the foreign Empress of India, it seems a little inappropriate. Still it and the grounds are nice. Calcutta was the capitol of British India for quite a long time until New Delhi was built. The city has many British influences and a number of pleasant neighborhoods. It is also hot and humid most of the year. We visited some textile shops in the late afternoon, but the shops were packed (literally) with others trying to buy. There is no way we could compete with the Indians for the attention of the shop staff- except that they know we will bargain less hard.
It started to rain that evening and Janet returned to the hotel while Jim went off to a building complex housing many craft shops from all over India. This was fun and interesting, but also tiring.
Our last day was spent at the hotel and going back to the shops found by Jim the previous evening as well as visiting another textile shop found by Janet. We were tired and did not stay too long. We headed to the airport and got there to find huge lines of people going through security screening- it was the worst we've seen in India. We just got to the gate as our plane was boarding. The flight was full and because we got there a bit late we could not get seats with more legroom, but we did get aisle seats. Our driver awaited us when we arrived in Bangalore and Ziggy and Zoe were fine and did not seem to miss us all that much.
This was probably our last trip while in India as we are to return to the US in October.

A Trip to Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kolkata- part 1

We made a trip north- departing Bangalore on Sept. 4 and returning Sept. 12. We arranged most of it through a travel agent in Bangalore who has been pretty good.
We flew from Bangalore to Kolkata (still called "Calcutta" by many people) where we did not actually have to enter the terminal. They had people on our second flight wait on the plane and then they took us by bus to our connecting flight. This was a little confusing, but saved us the hassles of dealing with the terminal. The ongoing flight to Bagdogra was only about 45 min., so even the middle seat was not so bad. We were able to get seats with more leg room. At Bagdogra we were met by our guide and driver for the next 5-6 days and we drove off toward Gangtok in Sikkim.
The guide said the trip normally takes about 4 hours, but since this was late in the monsoon season there were many landslides that made the road rough and more difficult to navigate. It took about 5 hours for the trip.
As we left Bagdogra toward Siliguri, the driver and guide decided to take a smaller side road because the main road is in terrible condition and would take longer to driver over. They were probably right about the road, but soon after entering the side road our car was accosted by a group of young men who were "collecting money for Puja". Pujas seem to be anything from a prayer to a ceremony to a festival. In this case they were simply extorting money from passing vehicles in a Puja season, most certainly just to get money. The driver and guide told them they should leave tourist vehicles (which are usually not hard to make out) alone. They still hit the car and threw things which was a bit scary, though we did not think we were in serious danger.
This happened three times on this small road and the driver paid twice. Later we saw some other guys near Gangtok in Sikkim and the guide said he thought they were legitimate collectors for a Puja. On our return to Bagdogra we encountered a group again and we had one such attempted collection near Darjeeling for a total of 6 times. This was our first encounter with this sort of thing in India. In 4 of the cases they seemed a bit threatening in one they seemed legitimate and in one they seemed harmless kids looking for money.
The Drive into the mountains or hills of West Bengal toward Sikkim was pretty at times, but rather harrowing at times. The road was generally rough with many potholes, which made it uncomfortable, but in the numerous places where there had been landslides the road was only wide enough for one vehicle to pass. Sometimes, barely wide enough. It was clear that people had been working on keeping the road open and in some places there were heavy machines to help move the boulders. We wondered when the next slide might occur while we drove along!
Foreigners need permits to enter Sikkim, but it seems that this is mostly just a formality. We had to stop at the border of the state and fill out some paperwork. They record passport and India Visa information and take a one of the passport size photos you have to bring. They told us to bring 4 such photos, but they only took 1. The proximity to China is one reason for the security, but they are also trying to protect the natives from too much foreign influence.
The last 45 minutes of the trip was in the dark AND with moderately heavy rain too. In some ways it was better because we could not see the danger! However, the driver was good and our car had higher ground clearance than many others making the trip, so we thought we were less likely to have trouble. We arrived safely at our hotel- tired from the rough ride and settled in for dinner and a restful night. Except, there was loud music with a thumping bass sound a little too late into the evening. We were able to move rooms for the other 2 nights. The hotel is supposed to be the best near Gangtok and it is new. It was pleasant in many ways, but a little to artificial in is decor. The management seemed anxious to get feedback to improve the place. Because this was monsoon season, rates were lower and the place had few quests- except the party using the ballroom, which we think was a wedding party for 2 nights of our 3. Food was good, but not great.
Our itinerary had us going to a Buddhist Monastery that was some distance away, but when we learned the roads were rough we decided we could forgo that trip. We had originally planned 4 days in Sikkim, but changed the 4th day to be near Darjeeling when the hotel was not able to confirm room availability. We were going to go to a well known lake with mountain views, but when we inquired about this the guide said that the road was closed due to slides, but might open the next day. He also said that his last visitor there was from the UK who wrote in his notes "this is the most dangerous road in the world". Since it is a rough road and there had been recent slides we decided against doing that as well! We took a drive around the valley to a monastery on the opposite hill from Gangtok. Rumtek monastery is quite nice but not spectacular. There is a long story associated with it about the disputed successor to the "crown" or whatever one might call it- some leadership position at least- and the presence of a large hoard of gold. They make all foreigners register before going in and the army guards the place. Somewhere, we also read about some leader who has been prevented from taking his throne by the Indian government because he is from Tibet and that might irritate the Chinese. In any case, it was a pleasant visit, but lots of uphill and downhill walking as well as driving. We then visited a small village and took pictures of some nice views before going on to a waterfall and stream that has been made into an "energy park". This was a nice place, but similar to many such places in India, the maintenance has not been as good as it could be. We then returned to our hotel.
Our next day started with a visit to the Institute of Tibetology (or something like that). There is a nice little museum with decorative and religious items from Tibet- mostly related to Tibetan Buddhism. Janet's knees were hurting, so she had more difficulty on the hill climbs. We decided we wanted to visit some crafts shops. The guidebook mentioned a government shop, but this was quite disappointing- good for cheap gifts, but not quality items. Our guide did not seem to know much about crafts or craft shops, but said that there were more on the main street- MG Road. So, here in Gangtok, Sikkim- the main road is "Mahatma Gandhi Road". They have done a nice job with the road by turning much of it into a pedestrian mall rather than a road where you are in constant danger of being run down! However, the craft shops seemed few. We did find a couple that had nicer items and we bought a couple Thanka paintings. These are Buddhist themes and, supposedly, come from Tibet. We spent awhile looking at these and finally returned to the hotel for the night.
One thing that continually amazes us is the types of work that people do manually in India. This is really true in most of the world where labor costs are low, but we had not seen so much of it first hand before. We saw many examples of men carrying all manner of things up the steep hills of Gangtok and Darjeeling. We took a few pictures, but some of the most amazing things we missed. In one picture you see a guy carrying a metal wardrobe with mirror on it! We later saw two guys each carrying a similar item made of wood- those must be heavy! The strain on their joints must be awful, yet they do this every day for a small amount of money- very small!
It rained each night and was cloudy- foggy each morning and much of the day. We left the next morning for a tea estate near Darjeeling.
Here are a couple pictures of some of the land slides along the road, though they are not the best indicators of what we saw.
The drive toward Darjeeling was also mostly on rough roads that are narrow and down or up mountain sides. there were some pretty views, but they were a little hard to enjoy.

India Musical Instruments

We have become familiar with a number of classical Indian musical instruments. We have not seen a large number of different instrument, but we have seen that there are large variations among the basic ones we have seen. We have purchased several- including Tabla (small sort of drum), Sarode. Veena and Tambora (these are string instruments which are plucked) as well as a larger decorative drum and a number of small instruments which would be considered percussion instruments. We have no idea how to play these, but they look rather nice and make interesting sounds. We also have no idea how they are to be tuned, so we probably won't be masters of them any time soon.
There are many music shops around Bangalore. they mostly sell modern western instruments. Guitar is very popular as are electronic keyboards, but you can still find the classical instruments too. The classical ones are all hand made and each is unique. Many of them look very similar in size and color, but then sound quite different. The ones we have, mainly look nice, since we can not judge the sound well, but some dealers will play them and let you hear the difference and generally we agree when they say one is higher quality than another- based on the sound.
We visited one shop which has about 3/4 western instruments and 1/4 classical India ones. and found a technician working on a Veena outside. This is almost certainly a new Veena and he appears to be completing it. We think the basic instruments are made elsewhere and then shipped to other cities. This fellow apparently repairs the instruments as well. The Veena we bought, looks nice, but needs some repairs and strings added as well, so we hope this fellow will fix it up for us.

Ganesha Festival

Ganesha is one of the better known Hindu Gods outside of India. He is the elephant headed god with 4 arms on a human like body. This may not be quite an accurate story, but our understanding is that while Shiva (one of the 3 primary gods- Brahma and Vishnu being the other two) was away his wife Parvati gave birth to a son. When Shiva returned he found this stranger around his home and cut off his head thinking he was an intruder. Once he learned of his error he put the head of an elephant on the body of his son and, thus, Ganesha was born, or created.
Ganesha is considered to bring good luck and is the "remover of obstacles", so he is very popular. We like him too.
Around this time of year there are a number of festivals centered around Ganesha. We do not understand what they are all for, but at the end of those festivals a statue of Ganesha is usually submerged in water. So there are thousands of Ganesha Statues made in the time leading up to this and they are used in the festivals and then taken to lakes or rivers where they are submerged. Some of these statues are BIG. Today we drove past and area where the statues are being made and painted all sorts of pretty colors- there were hundreds! They ranged in size from about 2 feet tall to about 12 feet tall! (check back- we'll try to add a picture or two)
Unfortunately, every year a number of people drown in the process of taking Ganesha statues into the water. We think we mentioned this last year about this time too. So, it is a festive time, but it also has a number of tragedies associated with it too.

Banking

It seems that banks, pretty much everywhere, are primitive institutions with strict rules to be followed whether they make a lot of sense or not. In Bangalore this seems to be true- perhaps more than at home.
We we arrived almost 2 years ago Jim's company recommended 3 or 4 banks with which to do business. We assumed they had made some arrangements for better service because of the large number of employees potentially being customers. We picked one well known international bank after we found one of the Indian banks to be an unpleasant place to visit.
We opened a checking account only and got an ATM card. The account is mainly for handling local expense re-embursements from the company. Jim's salary is paid into his US account as always. There is some Indian government regulation which prevents us from taking money out of the country once it is in the country, so paying bills would be impossible. (This seems bizarre, but things work fine as is.)
When the checking account was opened it had both our names on the account, but only Jim's actually appeared on the checks- which annoys Janet and seems a little odd too. They have since changed their practice and have put both names on the checks.
When the account was opened we had to write our names about 6 or 7 times so they could get a variety. then they had us sign another form stating that our signatures vary from time to time. We think this is so they could claim it was our fault if they allowed a check to clear that was forged. We have not written many checks, so for more than 18 months the few written were signed with Jim's full name- which appears on the check. Suddenly about 2 months or so ago, the bank stopped honoring the checks. Jim called them to ask why and they said it was because they were not signed with the correct name! When Jim pointed out that he had signed the same way for more than 18 months, they said it did not matter and he should go change the records at the bank if he wanted to sign with his full name. This was finally straightened out.
Jim recently went to the bank to close the account of a colleague who left India a long time ago. He had several forms that were all signed and dated. However, the person at the bank said that one of them was not signed, but it did not matter since there was no money in the account. In this case they only needed a letter signed by both the names on the account and it could be closed.
Jim received the letter in only a week's time and took it to the bank. This time a different person said that the account had a negative balance so he could not close it until that was paid. He said this was because the min. balance had not been maintained in the account. Jim got the person to speak to a manager and they agreed to waive the balance due and "try" to close the account. he said that they do not do this at their office- it had to go to another office and they would probably close it.
This kind of experience is apparently pretty common. We have not seen it much, but it consists of someone telling you one thing, but not telling you about the other 3 things you need to actually accomplish your goal. It is a big waste of time. It is apparently pretty common in dealing with government agencies. Their may be 3, 5, or 10 forms you need to fill out and get various signatures, but they will only tell you about form 2 after form 1 has already been submitted. Similarly, for forms 3, 4, 5 etc.
In general, the banks seem like they were in the US 30 or 40 years ago- except for the ATM's- there are lots of them around the bigger cities.

A trip to Ooty

Ootacamund is a "hill station". There are a number of such towns and cities around India that were popular with the British because they are cooler places to lie than most of India year round. Ooty, as nearly everyone calls it, is probably the best known in south India and it have gotten to be a bit large and overrun with people. It is in the Nilgiri Hills which is also know for its tea and probably a number of other things as well.
We had been thinking of going there for the past 18 months, but never found the time, We almost went a month ago, but Janet's Dengue fever kept us from going. This time Jim to one day of vacation on Friday and our driver took us on the 6.5 hour drive. We stopped 3 times on the way at Cafe Coffee Day or Barrista- two chains of coffee and food shops which are good and modern. We also stopped to take a few pictures here and there. The drive was mostly on good roads, but we went through a section in Bandipur National Park and Mudamalai Tiger Reserve and in the hills where the roads are a bit narrow and in less good condition. The winding roads in the hills are an adventure because people tend to drive a bit fast.
We arrived in Ooty in the afternoon and visited a book shop and a chocolate shop before heading of to our hotel in a nearby town- Conoor. We heard the hotel here had better service and was quieter than a similar one in Ooty. The drive on the winding road was slow and a bit stressful.
On the edge of town is the train station. India has 3 trains that have some historic significance. The one between Conoor and Metapalyam is a steam train dating from about 1890. This section has some steep parts for which the locomotive and tracks are specially designed. We did not get to ride the trai- there were no spaces available for this visit, so we only happened to be at the station when the train was there waiting to leave. They keep the old steam locomotives running because there are no modern replacements- and now it is a tourist attraction as well. The section from Conoor to Ooty is less steep so a diesel locomotive handle that section.
We checked into the hotel, which they said is about 150 years old and was once a friary attached to the large church nearby. It was pleasant enough - and cool! We actually felt a little chilled in the evening! The Indians were wearing heavy sweaters.
We asked the hotel staff where we could walk without any traffic and they told us a way down the hill side to an area where tea is grown and there is a cemetery. The instructions were not so very clear, but we found our way there. There was no one else on the path that went through the tea garden. It was getting near dark when we headed back to the hotel. These towns are very hilly- with buildings all over the sides of the hills.
This in Monsoon in India, which means you can have very heavy rain at any time, though Bangalore does not get so much. Because of the rains, it is considered "off season". It did rain every day, but did not cause us much difficulty.
On Saturday, we went to the Botanical Garden in Ooty. It was overcast, so that dulled the colors, but it is a nice garden. It is probably the nicest we have seen in India. Ooty was built up by the British and this place was certainly part of their efforts. After the garden we walked to a Coffee Day and then to another chocolate shop. We were told that Ooty is also famous for its chocolate shops. We think that chocolate does OK here because it does not get so hot as in the rest of India. We then went to have lunch.
After lunch we were going to walk around Ooty Lake which is man made and built around 1824, but it looked unpleasant, so we went to a shop we heard about so we could see what handicrafts are available. The shop was a little disappointing until they said they have another one next door. That one was also a little disappointing until we spotted a couple interesting things hidden amongst the junk. As we looked at those things the guy said that they have more and we should return in 30 min. It turned out they had a whole warehouse in a building out back that was much more interesting! We can only attribute this case and being either a) typically Indian or b) off-season. They just didn't expect tourists to be interested because its off season, or as we have frequently seen, they don't show their best things UNTIL you ask to see them. We bought a wood box and some picture frames. We were going to walk some more at the tea place near our hotel, but we were both tired by the time we got back. Besides, we decided to take a long walk on Sunday at a lake on our way home.
On Sunday we left a little after 10AM and stopped in Ooty to get more chocolates and tea and then headed off to Lake Pykara which we were told had good walking trails. It rained along the way so everything was wet. After a delay due to a small accident along the road- made worse by the driver's propensity to try to go around the blocking vehicles and then jamming the traffic once it clears up some.
We arrived at the lake, which is man made, to find cars partly blocking the road, so we walked the rest of the way and found one trail partly blocked by a fallen tree. We walked about 200 feet and found the trail further blocked and clearly not maintained. Because it was wet and we know leaches to be a problem, we turned back and walked along the road for awhile to go out of the park and along the main road which was not bad. Our drier caught up after about a 30 minute walk. The drive to Gudalur was ok, but winding steep roads. As soon as we reached that city the rains came pouring down. All the people and goats too, were standing under the overhang of the buildings until the rains slowed. The streets were flowing in places with red water from all the red mud in the water. However, we got through and continued our long drive back to Bangalore.
We drove through the Parks and saw some deer and a peacock in the wild and one wild elephant and two "working elephants"- one of whom broke loose from his or her chains and was wandering about. No tigers.

Independence day

Today- Aug. 15 is Independence Day in India. It is not so heavily celebrated, but many people have their national and state flags on display. Jim went for a walk to a book store and saw a small parade of about 20 motorbikes with young guys waving flags. That was the most extravagant display we saw.
Janet is still weak from her dengue fever but not in any danger and continues to get better.
Jim still has remnants of the cold he had 3 weeks ago and is starting to think he should have it checked by a doctor.
Ziggy and Zoe are generally well. Zoe sometimes gets into spells where she eats her food too quickly and then vomits. The only remedy we have for this is to feed her small quantities several times instead of all at once.
The prospect of returning to the US is now seeming more imminent. While it is more than 2 months away, we are starting to decide what things we will either give away or sell before we leave and what we will take with us. We are also starting to make an inventory od all the things we have. This will be required for the move and insurance coverage and it may also help us figure out what to get rid of.
One of the things we have come to learn about ex-pat life is that other expats you meet may not be around all that long and those that are around awhile are missed when they do leave. Another couple we know just left and should be back in the US now.

Five Badge locks

In June Jim reported that a new badge lock was added where none had been before in his office building- so to go from outside to his office on the first floor above ground level he has to swipe his employee badge 4 times. At 3 of those places there are also human security guards who either glance at the badge picture or observe that you actually swipe the badge to get in rather than follow someone else.
About a week ago he went to a meeting in another building and found that where there had been 4 badge locks before, there are now 5! So, to go from outside to a meeting room on the first floor above ground level, you need to swipe your badge 5 times! Of course there are also security people at 2 or 3 of those locations as well.
The effect of this is mainly to slow everyone down, This is, perhaps, a guiding principle. It makes everything take longer.

Catastrophes Update 2

Janet had here blood tested again on Tuesday and got the result on Wednesday that the platelet count is now in the low end of the "normal" range. She feels less joint pain and generally better, so it seems likely she has passed the danger point. Secondary infections are often a problem, so she hopes to avoid getting any!
Jim's flu was bad on Monday, and early Tuesday, but by late Tuesday afternoon he felt close to normal. he has a cough now and then, but is generally OK.
Janet's trip to the hospital on Tuesday was much less pleasant than Sat- Sun. There were MANY more people there waiting to be seen by the doctors and lab people, so the wait was much longer and they seemed disorganized. It was unclear what the system was at times. We think they have one, but it seemed more haphazard that you might not find the right person to deal with quickly.
Her bills for the doctor consultations and lab tests- 3 times at this hospital cost about $75.

Catastrophes Update

Janet's blood platelet level was checked again today and is slightly higher than yesterday, so she does not have to stay in the hospital. She also felt slightly better today, so this is good. They say that the illness weakens people so much that they are very prone to pick up other illnesses, so she should stay away from other people as much as possible for a couple weeks.
Meanwhile, Jim's respiratory illness appears to be flu- hopefully Janet won't get it!
The side affect of all this is that we had planned to be away for a long weekend right now, but had to cancel- undoubtedly incurring some fees. We had planned to take a trip to the south- 2 nights at a national park where we might see a tiger or leopard, but certainly, some elephants and 2 nights in "Ooty". That name is a much shortened one from the India name that is difficult enough to pronounce that even Indians just call it "Ooty".

Catastrophes Great and Small

This evening (it is evening in Bangalore) we learned that Janet has Dengue Fever. We don't know just when she was bitten, but it is transmitted by mosquitoes. Last Sunday night she said she had something, then Monday it got worse so she saw a doctor on Tuesday afternoon. He thought it might be "Chikun Gunya" (look it up) as it has similar symptoms. She submitted samples for test which came back negative on Thursday, so he said it is most likely "Viral Fever"- which also has similar symptoms. (We suspect that viral fever might be a name for something when they don't know what it is.) He thought it would clear up in a few more days. However, Janet felt worse Friday so we went to one of the new private hospitals that she has visited before - for an intestinal bug- and they were quite quick and efficient and she was seen and some blood tests were ordered quickly. They said the results would be back in about 4 hours, so we called to get them. They told us they could be sent by email. This is where the hospital lost a little of its luster. After about 4 calls the test results appeared in email, but were incomplete. Two more calls resulted in the same results being sent again. After two calls to the Doctor the results of the Dengue test were in. Dengue fever can be dangerous, so Janet will have more blood tests Sunday morning to monitor the situation. There is no real treatment which will cure the illness.
Meanwhile Jim has some respiratory infection, but it seems minor so far.
Another minor catastrophe struck at the office on Wednesday. Just as Jim was about to enter the building in the morning, several people were coming out and saying there was a fire, yet the security guards were still letting people enter! Also NO alarms were going off! As it turned out, it was a small fire in an electrical closet and because it was early in the work day few people were in the office yet, so everyone got out safely. There were a couple ambulances around, so some firemen might have inhaled too much smoke. The fire was on the floor where Jim works, which is a low floor of the building. It quickly became clear that no one would be returning to the building soon, so Jim called our driver and went home and worked from there. On Thursday everything was normal- no smell of smoke or sign of the fire. On Friday they were testing the alarms. Hopefully they work when they need to. We suspect that because this was an electrical fire, someone, shut off the main power- it may have been automatic, but the alarms should be part of a backup system too and still have power.
Another small catastrophe may be that we will get some new noisy neighbors in the building. Our friend Linn left about 3 weeks ago, and another neighbor left about a month before that. In addition, another neighbor moved out in early June while someone else moved in about a month ago. For a building with only 7 apartments, that is a lot of action- especially when you consider that 2 apartments are empty and have never been occupied! The owner of our Apt. live on the ground floor and they own the three apartments directly above as well. The other side of the building has 3 apartments, but the owners of the ground and top floors have not lived there yet. In fact, both are renovating their brand new apartments before they have ever been completed. The 3rd apartment was rented for about 6 months, but the noise of the renovations above and below, drove them to leave, so that is why ne people moved in about a month ago. Of course, we are supposed to leave as well, in about 3 months. However, we hear voices and noises in the apartments - like people looking or moving in. We how they are good.

5 minutes to thaw a piece of bread

Jim stayed home from work on Tuesday due another intestinal bug. Fortunately, those normally are not too serious and he feels better the next day. This one was similar. He did feel better today and went to the office, though he felt very tired all day.
While home yesterday he went to thaw a small loaf of bread in the microwave oven by setting it on defrost for about 90 seconds. It took about 5 minutes to actually complete because the electricity kept going off and on, off and on, off and on for that long. This is, unfortunately, not a rare occurrence in Bangalore. The power goes of almost every day for periods of a few seconds to a several hours. The newer buildings and almost all offices and stores have backup generators to keep lights and essential things running. Our apartment has a diesel generator which comes on about 30 seconds after the power goes off, so its pretty handy. Of course, the landlord is not happy because he pays for the diesel fuel. The problem is that any electronics- like our modem and wireless router and VOIP phone take awhile to come back up again each time the power glitches. So, we bought two UPS' to keep those running when the power glitches come- they have been very valuable in keeping us "on-line". With those extras- backup generators and UPS' it seems almost like home most of the time.
However, those periods like yesterday when the power was going off and on multiple times in an hour or so period can be very annoying. One has to think that the appliances do not last as long when they are subjected to such frequent power glitches. It seems like most of the appliances have mechanical timers rather than electronic so that they can still function with frequent power cuts.
The bread Jim thawed is from one of a few bakeries on the city. This one specializes in European and American breads and desserts and is quite good. However, breads tend to get moldy quickly here- no more than 2 days or 3 from the date of purchase, so we have to eat fast or freeze it. Since we have backup power, the refrigerator - freezer here works pretty well. (Except for the times when the circuit breaker for the kitchen goes off when the generator comes on!) So, we have pretty good bread available. there are also a few places that make very good pastries and other dessert items. Like many other places, Indians also like sweet desserts, so there is a good market here.

Brezel

Janet went to a photography class in the morning with a friend and Jim walked to a street that has some used book shops while Janet was in class.
After the class we went to a very good cafe run by a couple of Frenchmen. Janet, Jim, Janet's friend and the husband of the friend joined up to go to the lunch. Janet ordered duck l'orange with "brezel" and mashed potatoes. Actually, she asked for rice instead of potatoes, but as often happens, the substitution was just too complicated for the waiter and staff to handle. Jim ordered a chicken burger but asked for cheese on top, and the cheese was also too much for them to deal with, but it was good anyway.
After Janet's food came we wondered what "brezel" is. As she was eating the eggplant we realized that it is "eggplant" or "aubergine" or "brindel" - the last being the way we often see it named here- they are usually smaller than eggplant but similar in color and taste and texture. We finally realized that the French owners and the Indian staff had a difficult time communicating and it ended up being written as "brezel". A little adventure in French and Indian English!
Our friends noted a couple other oddities on the menu, which was good entertainment. Finally, they mentioned to the owner that the special soup was not not really described. It had a French name, but no translation- except that it came with almond slices. Our friends are from France and Belgium, so they knew what it was. The owner simply said that they left it that way because they assumed people would ask if interested. We thought people were more likely just to not bother. They probably could not think of the English name. (It was a pumpkin or squash soup.)
The weather was very nice lately- high temps about 80F with some breezes. There have been showers or heavy rain for short periods almost every day, but the rains tend to be fairly localized- heavy in some areas and nothing elsewhere- or light.
Or Friend Linn left India in the middle of the week and should be back in the US after a few stops about now. We will miss her and so will Ziggy and Zoe as she kept them company sometimes when we were away.
Ziggy and Zoe seem generally healthy and happy. They really like watching the birds outside!

Well, a "bandh" is...

a) a lot of gangs of people roaming the streets causing lots of property damage and injuries?
b) a quiet day at home because everyone assumed it would be "a)"?

Seems that in Bangalore the answer is b).

Apparently these things often have some of a), so in order to be safe most people stay home. Of course, one has to wonder whether it is really a case of nerves or just that everyone wanted a longer weekend. Jim's company decided that only essential people should be at the offices and they made provisions for people to come the night before and stay overnight.
We got up on Monday morning wondering what we would hear and it turned out to be pretty much nothing! It was wonderful! We have NEVER heard it so quiet here in the 20 months we have been here now. No, noisy auto rickshaws, no horns blaring away, no construction noise- just general quiet! In addition, it was a nice day with high temps of about 79F and a little breeze- just great!
Jim worked, but it was a quiet day since it was a holiday in the US, not much had accumulated over the weekend and during the day.
In the evening, our friend Linn stopped by with her car and driver (the bandh ended at 6PM) and took us to a bookstore where we picked up a few things and then returned home. We got some pizza at a nearby hotel for dinner.
So, it seems that a bandh can be a very pleasant experience...
However, we read that there was some violence in some other parts of the country. It seems to have occurred in areas dominated by the ruling political party. Bangalore and the state of Karnataka are run by the major opposition party and it seems there was little or no violence here. The bandh was organized by this major opposition party. We suspect that the local people were under orders to be orderly in any protests so the party would not look bad, but it may be that in other areas people just felt more strongly about the whole thing.