Matts Meanderings

Originally written 21/04/2004...

Just thought I'd write this one last email before I head back to good old Melbourne, especially seeing I'm coming back this Friday! Yay! I should be back in Melbourne on Saturday morning (the 24th). Definitely looking forward to it.

Anyway, this is just going to be a quick update on all the exciting stuff that’s been happening here, since way back when I wrote the last one, which has got to be about a month ago or so.
Once again, I have to stop and try and remember what I've been up to since the last one. Maybe I should keep notes or something… or not.

As of last update, I was heading back to Bangalore, for a few days, and then up to Pune. Spent about 2 and a half weeks there, in a 4 star hotel, which was pretty good actually. All in all, as a city, Pune doesn't really have much going for it. We didn't really get up to much there, other than getting overheated (both from the weather and the frustration levels ). One thing we did do was go and see a movie. Standard, plain, hollywood fare. It was quite strange - sitting in a theatre, watching the movie (a comedy - Duplex), people laughing at the movie - it felt like the most normal thing I'd done over here. I could easily have been sitting in a cinema in Melbourne. Well, except for the fact that the ticket cost about AUD$2, and the popcorn and drink were about $2 as well… Restored a bit of normalcy I think. Other than that, had quite a few dinners at subway - similar, but different to Aus. Why oh why, in a country where "meat" is mostly chicken, why does subway not have satay chicken? Its wrong, I tell you, wrong. Not happy about this. Best subway sub that exists, and they don’t serve it...

Two other victims volunteers came over while we were in Pune - James and Steven. Lucky boys. Good thing was that James bought over some vegemite for me… That was gooooood…. . James seems to be getting along alright, not letting anything get to him, but Steve, well… at last check, he was rollercoastering (sp?) between "its ok", and "arrrgggghhhh!!!"… hehehe…

While we were up there, Irma and I (and Kishore) went to Goa (my second time, Irma's first). Didn't stay in the 5 star hotel this time - instead, stayed in a pretty dodgy place, which was supposed to be right in the middle of the party scene in Goa. Only problem was, when I went to check out the local club, there wasn't even anything happening. Who knows. Getting my sleep was probably a better thing anyway. While we were there, we also had a go at the parasailing thing. One of the things I've been wanting to try for a long time, but never quite got around to it. All I can say is that its pretty much overrated - almost downright boring. First and last time for me. But, glad I did it. Next up, probably hang gliding…

Following weekend, Irma and I went on a pretty quick 4 day tour of Delhi (capital of India), Agra (Taj Mahal), and Jaipur (lots of palaces built by various Maharaja's). Fairly expensive, as travelling in India goes, but it included all the flights, and an air-conditioned taxi for 4 days, and a local guide at each place. Of it all, the place that I definitely enjoyed the most was the Taj Mahal. I'm not sure what it is about it, but its such a magnificent building, it just sits in a class of its own. And for what is effectively a very big tomb, well, it’s a nice one. The whole thing is symmetrical - well, the original bit was. The king who built it, built it for his wife, when she died (in childbirth, I think), and it has her tomb in dead centre (pun not intended). Then, the king/maharaja started to build a second Taj Mahal, this one entirely in black marble, just across the river, where he was going to be buried. Only thing was, his sun wasn't too happy that his dad was spending all his inheritance, so he put him in jail. After he died, his son buried him next to his wife, stuffing up the symmetry of the place. All that was built of the second Taj Mahal was a bit of the foundation, and a watch tower. It’s a shame, cos I'm thinking it would have been awesome to have the two Taj Mahals sitting there, looking across the river at each other, brooding. I think the world missed out on another of the great wonders.

Other than the Taj Mahal, in Delhi, we visited the biggest mosque in India - which was pretty imposing, but not terribly exciting. Also saw the government buildings (woohoo), and got to see the spot where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. Not sure why the spot he was cremated was important, but it’s a bit of a shrine, and I spose he's a fairly important person when you consider India's past. Sort of inspired me to get a book, and read a bit about him.

In Jaipur, we got to go for an elephant ride, up to the Amber Fort. Now, that was definitely a touristy thing - a waste of time and money. Not that comfortable, and all you could see was foreign tourists… At least I can say that i've done it now. Other than that, saw a few palaces, and a really old observatory, built quite a long time ago, by one of the Maharajas. Apparently its got the largest sundial in the world. This guy was fixated on knowing the right time. He must have been OCD or something . It also had all these instruments for using the sun to figure out what zodiac sign it was - I didn't actually realise that the zodiac was a big part of (came from?) Hinduism. Talking to some of the Indians here, and apparently it’s a big part of marriage here to - making sure that your star signs match and all. Odd.

Oh, also got to see some camel carts, taking stuff from the country farms to the city - that was kind of odd. Pretty cool though. It was also very hot -  I think it got to 43 while we were in Jaipur - a lot hotter than I'd prefer. Another thing was it was strange going through the countryside - its not all that different to Australia. It is different of course, but there's lots the same. It sort of makes you realise that there aren't that many differences between different countries. I know this kind of obvious, but its not really something that you understand completely. (I think I'm rambling now…)

Last weekend, headed back down to Bangalore, on the Saturday morning, we met up with yet another "victim", Allison. She'd arrived the night before, and was sitting in her hotel room, feeling a bit apprehensive about heading out. So, we went and rescued her, and gave her the easy intro to life in India. So far, she's taking a little while to get into the swing of things, and get over the jet lag. She's also having an "interesting" time with the anti-malarial drugs. No purple elephants (yet), but definitely making her feel odd. In a way, its kind of amusing seeing someone else get acclimatised to this place. Watching someone see all the quirks of Indian life, the good and the bad, and see all these things for the first time. Funny seeing someone notice all the things that are now common place to me, with new eyes. Makes me think back to the first week I was here, when it was more than a bit daunting.

While I'm definitely looking forward to the flight home, I'm definitely glad I came. I think as time goes by, and I forget the things that were on the top of my (43 page long) annoyances list, and get back to 'normal life', it'll be better. Definitely learnt a lot out of it - about myself, about Australia, about India, about the world, about what I want in life. And, I've visited 9 cities in India, and pretty much had a long holiday - well, except for the work parts of it. I've also had all my laundry done for me, haven't had to cook a meal in 2 1/2 months - haven't had to make my bed in 2 1/2 months… Its gonna be strange getting back to real life...

Originally sent 25/03/2004...

Namaste!
(at least I think I mean 'Namaste'. I'm pretty sure it means hello.)
 
Been thinking for a few days that I've been pretty slack, and that its about time I got around to writing another email... So, surprisingly, this is it.
 
The only problem now is that I cant remember what I've been doing for the last three weeks. (...hold music while Matt tries to remember...)
 
Paul and I flew to Goa for one weekend - we had planned to take Friday afternoon off, and fly out just after lunch, and come back Sunday night, but our boss instead wanted Paul to go to another site for a few days, and come back on the saturday morning, so gave us the entire monday off instead. We didn't complain too much. Goa was very enjoyable. Its a small state, with only about a million people. There's lots of land there, but everyone seems to be jammed in towns - there's apartment buildings in tiny towns - towns that you'd can drive through in about 30 seconds...
 
Anyway, Goa is a coastal place, and is said to be the Bali of India. After seeing it, I must say that I agree. Its definitely a place that's easy to relax in. You could quite easily spend 4 or 5 days there doing absolutely nothing. One thing about Goa is that its full of tourists from England (I'll let you decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing  ). It was good to be able to talk with someone who spoke English as a first language though. On the Saturday night, we splurged a bit, and had one of the best meals I've had in a while. A nice Indian wine, and one of the best steaks I've ever had. Actually, I think that the whole weekend was a bit of a splurge - we stayed in a 5 star hotel. Definitely worth it.
 
On the Sunday morning, I went for a scuba dive, with the dive mob there. It was the most enjoyable dive I've ever done - not that I've done that many. The water was beautiful and warm, but a bit murky. We dived on a wreck just off one of the islands there, and it was surrounded by lots and lots of different species of fish. It was great. Enjoyed it heaps. Only problem was that on the way back, one of the Indians offered me a drink of water, and as I was swallowing it, realised that it was local tap water. So, spent the rest of the day feeling pretty crook. Wasn't much fun.
 
Before we left, we also checked out one of the 'famous' beaches - it was definitely a beach I could handle visiting again. Cheap, decent meals at shack on the beach, beautiful water - great. We also did a bit of sight-seeing as well - explored a very old Portuguese fort, which was quite interesting. I've got some photos, but I still haven't got around to uploading them to anywhere.
 
A couple of days after that, Paul left for Melbourne, leaving me all by my lonesome. To 'celebrate', we went out to dinner at the restaurant at the Taj West End (which is the most expensive, high quality hotel in Bangalore). A few drinks, a nice meal, and some excessive taxes later, we got the bill for 6000 rupees (about AU$200). It turns out that imported alcohol has a 70% tax on it. So, what was already an expensive drink (a very nice scotch), turned out to be unbelievably expensive. But, I think it was worth it. Think I'll go back there at some point, but I'll be a bit more careful about what I order .
 
The next evening, Irma arrived down from Pune (for those who don't know, Irma is another person who was sent over from Melbourne for this project). So, I didn't have to worry too much about getting lonely . I was able to take her out and show her some of the 'sights' of Bangalore. Didn't get much opportunity to see much, as 3 days later, we both left to go to Mysore, which is about 3.5 hours drive south east of Bangalore. It was in a taxi, which was alright, but still painful.
 
At Mysore, we met up with a workmate from Bangalore who'd come down for the weekend, and we went and saw the sights. Mysore used to be the capital of one of the old kingdoms - the richest king in India. I think I'd believe them, cos the palace there is definitely impressive. There's a flag on top of the building, which is made out of 7kg of pure gold. There's also an impressive museum inside.The building is covered with light bulbs (about 100,000 of them), and they light it up on Sunday nights. It looks amazing. I've got some pretty good photos of it (which I will get around to sharing at some point). We also went and visited Chowmundi hill, which had a pretty big, historical Hindu temple on it. It was alright, but after you've seen 3 or 4 temples, they're all the same. The thing that made it worthwhile for me was the fact that I got to see a snake charmer! It was pretty cool . Also got to see a huge sculpture of a bull, which was carved out of stone, which is also sort of a temple. Also got to see lots of monkeys - including a monkey family, with a cute little baby monkey.
 
Oh, and in between all these trips and stuff, I was occasionally doing some work. No, really, I was.
 
The following weekend, we went to Ooty, which is a 'Hill station'. Personally, I'd just call it a town in the hills, but never mind. We caught the bus there - took 5.5 hours, which was pretty painful. We had a bit of a look around the place, visited some (very) dodgy restaurants, nearly got attacked by monkeys, saw lots of tea plants, visited a tea plantation, visited the botanical gardens, wandered around town, and generally did the sight seeing thing. It was a typical Indian town - dirty, crowded, hectic, but the mountains around it were beautiful. Almost as good as Australian mountains .  Irma and I went with some guys that we met at Infosys Mysore, who sort of adopted us, and looked after us while we were there. Meeting these guys was quite interesting - we had lots of discussions about Indian culture, and about Australian culture, and all sorts of things. I learnt quite a bit about Indian culture there, but I also learnt a bit about Australian culture - something that I wasn't quite expecting, but it was good. They looked after us well - made sure that we enjoyed our stay there. Oh, the other thing we did while at Mysore was go to the gym a few times. Wasn't too bad, but wasn't too good either... Just being able to get some exercise was good. That said, I didn't really need to get more exercise there, as the campus is huge - it took about 15 minutes to walk from the guest house to the office. They have bikes there so people can get around the campus. Scary.
 
The weather is definitely getting warmer. I don't think I'd like to be here in the middle of summer (about May/June). But, while the heat is rising, so is the breeze, which is good, though its still warmer than I prefer. Going to Ooty, which is at about 3000 metres above sea level, the weather was great - just like a great spring day in Melbourne. Coming back to Mysore was a bit of a shock to the system. I wonder what coming back to Melbourne is going to be like - my body is not going to know what's going on... Leaving an extremely hot summer, and coming back to late autumn...
 
I'm currently typing this sitting in the back of the taxi on the way from Mysore to Bangalore (Irma is fast asleep). We're both heading back there for a few days to do some (more) knowledge transfer, then heading up to Pune. I think we managed to get enough done in our short time at Mysore - at the very least, we taught our two 'volunteers" lots and lots of stuff, so they should be able to know where to start now (either that, or we just completely confused them). We supposed to stay in Pune for at least a few weeks. The accommodation there is supposed to be pretty good, and its onsite, so no hassles with traffic. There's also a gym there, so I'll have to make an effort to get there a bit.
 
All  in all, I think I'm ready to come home. I've been describing things to a few people who may be sent over here at some point soon, and I've scared them a bit I think. But, I have recommended to them that they take the opportunity, as its definitely something I'm glad I did. I don't know if I'd call it an entirely good experience, but I think overall, its taught me a lot. Definitely worthwhile. If I could go back and have an opportunity to decide whether to come to India, I would still come, but probably only for a month or so. I think that's about a good length of time. The other thing is that I don't have all that much work here to do (for various reasons), so that makes it a bit frustrating. The good thing is that my boss in Melbourne (Tanya) has said that there's some stuff that needs doing back home that I'm the best person to be doing, so she's trying to get me back early. I'm definitely not complaining.
 
Anyway, I think that's enough for now. No, that's more than enough for now. I'm not even sure that anyone will keep reading this up to this point... Hello? Anyone there?
 
That'll do. That last bit sort of showed how tired I am I think...

Original sent 02/03/2004...

Thought I should finally get around to writing a big long letter about what I've been up to here in sunny old India… Especially seeing that I've been here for about 3 weeks now :)

I've now pretty much settled in, and I'm used to this place, but I think I much prefer my good old Melbourne… 

Paul and I arrived here late one Tuesday night, just after midnight local time, after travelling about 14 hours. Walking out of that airport was a bit of a shock to the system - hectic, smelly, and… different. We managed to find the taxi driver that was taking us to our destination - a destination we hadn't been told about prior to boarding the plane. We found ourselves at the Bangalore International Hotel - a hotel that sounds a lot more impressive than it is… :)

The next day we got a taxi to the Infosys campus, and that was an experience… Traffic here is unbelievable. There's lines on the road, but no-one actually pays attention to them. If there's a gap between cars, people will try and squeez into it - none of this nice driving in lanes like in Australia. I think at one point, I saw 5 vehicles side by side on a two lane road. There's a lot of motorbikes here, and also autorickshaws - a small three wheel taxi with no doors… Here, owning a car is a status symbol, even though the traffic would drive anyone insane. Petrol here is more expensive than in Aus, so it’s a bit wierd - owning a car is very expensive. Drivers use horns a lot - so much so that many trucks have 'sound horn ok' painted on the back of them (don’t ask me, I don’t know either :)) The thing is, the horns are hardly used in anger. If it was in Australia - there would road rage cases every day. If I was driving - I would definitely go insane.  Driving with the windows open is a bad idea - you get smog, pollution and dirt in your eyes and nose. Not a nice feeling. So, we've been catching air conditioned taxi's all the time - our boss wasn't too impressed about that. So, we're just going to continue, but pay for them ourselves, and (hopefully) get reimbursed when we got home. They wanted us to catch the Infosys bus, which is pretty cheap - about AU$3 per month, but we've been told (by some other Melbournians) that the dirt and the smog and pollution get in the bus and swirl around in your face, so I think we'll pass.

Generally, India is very dirty and polluted. I think this is what makes the Infosys Campus such a serene place - its clean, new, beautifully landscaped, and so calm, compared to the outside world. Step out the gate, and it’s a whole new world. Its very strange. There's a big (electrified) fence around the place, and there's guards at every gate - armed guards. Just a little bit scary. You have to get your bag searched when you enter and leave, and I have to sign my laptop in and out every day. If you think about it, its not that surprising that they want to make sure that no one walks out with a laptop - it'd be worth quite a few months wages to someone here. There's a section of the grounds where they've got quite a few trees planted, each with its own little plaque in front of it. It turns out that they're all planted by famous people… There's a Bill Gates tree (its very small, and pretty ugly ) A Tony Blair tree, and quite a few other famous people as well (I just cant think of any of the others at the moment…)

The working environment is pretty similar to Australia - its probably a little more cramped together, but it’s all fairly similar. The people at work aren't all that different from home, they just speak a funny language . However, I must say they are doing better than I am, as they are all pretty fluent in English, as well as their native tongue, whereas I only know one language. You do realise that you take some things for granted though - for example - a fast net connection, or non spicy food . As for the work I'm doing, its still very disorganised - they don’t know what they are doing - sometimes I wonder if its worthwhile me being here at all.

As for food, I'm not finding it too bad at all. Every now and then, I would kill for a steak, or a nice burger, or plain old meat and 3 veg. Nearly everything is spicy, and just plain old strange. Now, I don’t mind a good curry, but its something I'd eat once every now and then, not every day. There's a domino's pizza shop at work, so I have that sometimes, and occasionally go looking for the most non-Indian food I can find. I got a little sick one night - woke up with stomach cramps at about 2 am, but some tablets soon fixed that, and I was right as rain the next day. So, it hasn't been too bad at all. The strange thing is that we've been eating out pretty much all the time. We've checked out quite a few of the restaurants around here, found a few nice ones. Its going to be strange going back to Melbourne, were I have to cook and clean up...

The weather here is strange. Its between 29 and 31 every day. Perfect blue skies, and nary a cloud to be seen. Its odd, but its getting to me, I'd definitely prefer to have a cold day every now and then. We complain about Melbourne weather, but I for one am missing it.

We went on a autorickshaw tour the first weekend we were here, and took in all the sights of Bangalore. Its definitely a business city, not a tourist city, but we managed to find a few things to look at. I think we managed to see most of the sights within the metro area, and visited way to many emporiums -- the autorickshaw drivers get a commission if they take you there, so they all want to take you. Oh, and yes, the prices they charge get hiked up to cover that commission too. This is definitely a place where the prices are variable, and you have to bargain to get a reasonable price. That said, everything is extremely cheap here, so sometimes you feel cheap haggling them down, especially when its only a dollar or two that you are saving. Oh, and emporium is a gift shop/craft shop, hand carved things out of wood and stone, and silks and carpets and stuff.

Just last weekend we flew up to Mumbai (used to be called Bombay). It’s a much nicer city, much more enjoyable than Bangalore, easier to enjoy and relax in. Its also much more of a tourist place than Bangalore is, so we felt a little more at home. The only problem was, all the beggars knew that it was a tourist place as well, so they are everywhere. Its hard to figure out how to deal with them. We found Tendulkar's restaurant (Sachin Tendulkar - the cricketer), which was one of the best restaurants we've found. If you're ever in Mumbai - check it out. Oh, and walking down through the street market, I was talent scouted! I was asked if I wanted to play a British officer in a Bollywood film! They took one look at me, and saw the talent, the ability… Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) I didn't have the time to go there. Oh, and we found Macca's there, so we had to try it out, but there wasn't any beef burgers. I wasn't impressed. A cheeseburger would have gone down well, but all they had was chicken and fish. Not happy.

Oh, this weekend we are planning on another weekend away, this time up to Goa, a place on the west coast, that's is supposedly a lot like Bali. The diving there is pretty good, so hopefully I'll get some of that in while I'm there. It'll be good to sit down on the beach and just relax. Looking forward to it. Our 'boss' here has given us Monday off, so we get a 3 day weekend - yay!

Still currently in the hotel; they tried to get us to move to the Infosys accomodation, but they wanted to jam the two of us in a small room together with another two strangers in the other room. We politely declined - I'm not going to share a room with someone for 3 months - I like my space. So, we're just hanging out in our hotel until we get told to do otherwise by HR in Melbourne.

I think that I've just about covered everything that’s happened - I'm sure there's lots of other stuff, but I think I've written enough for now. I've taken lots of photos - about 388 to be precise. I'll get round to uploading them to the web at some point - when I've got about a week to spare .

Been meaning for a while to post the emails that I sent while I was in India early last year... They weren't really written as blog entries, so they may be a bit strange.

But anyway, I'll be posting them here - enjoy!

Talking to a friend the other day - she's piloting an project at the company where she's consulting, based on personality types...

As part of it, she asked me what personality type I was (based on the myers-briggs personality test). Turns out, based on a couple of tests I did, they all come back that I'm an ISFJ:

Ok. You are sympathetic, loyal, considerate, and conscientious. You will go to any amount of trouble, when it makes sense to you, to help those in need. You are responsible and enjoy being needed. You are down-to-earth and realistic and like others who are quiet and unassuming. You absorb and enjoy using a large number of facts.

You like situations where the rules are well defined and where traditions are to be upheld. You focus on providing practical help and services for others and for the organizations you serve. You have a strong work ethic.

You can be painstakingly accurate and systematic in handling tasks...you're conservative with traditional values...quiet and modest...tactful and supportive of friends and family...

You are often self-effacing in getting the job done, and are willing to make necessary sacrifices, especially for your family. You are at your best quietly providing assistance and making sure things are in order.

You have a few close friends, don't like disharmony, and try to keep cooperation at all costs...you'll stay close friends with that tight circle for a LONG time...worry a lot...

You need to have things organized in a way you think works.. you cannot work when things are out of order...when things are in disarray, you have to reorganize 'em immediately....you get involved with leisure ONLY after all the work is done...

You have a tendency to put off relaxing because there's too much work to be done...you enjoy time with your family...you fall in love hard when you fall. You place a high value on marriage and family...you seek out a partner and feel unfulfilled without one. you most likely are a good student because you diligently follow through in your work to please your teachers.....you learn best by DOING...

You tend not to be the center of attention...often appear serious...others like trying to get a laugh or a smile out of you...you get angry or bitter when scorned...but you keep it inside...

Possible blindspots: because you are SOOOO in the present, you have a hard time seeing possibilities or consequences of your actions...can become mired in the daily grind...don't forget to express your bottled-up feelings...you can be taken advantage of....could be pessimistic about the future because it's unknown and you rely on past experiences.....you want to plan too much.

Is this me? I'm thinking its pretty close - not entirely accurate, but pretty close...

You agree? Disagree? Which parts do you think are me, and which aren't???