Another Big Trip to India…

This is the amazing view from Adam and Jo's apartment window. The towering apartment blocks are part of Thane's incredible building surge, reflecting the money brought about by the rocketing Mumbai economy. It's not just money that builds these tower blocks though. Poorly paid labourers live in the slum houses you can see in the foreground. These workers risk their lives daily, working in dismal conditions to earn wages that will keep them in poverty in urban Mumbai, but far exceed what can be earned in rural India.

How many Indian cities can you visit in a week? It seems like four or five if you are on a business trip. I’m just back from my second work trip to India and I had the good fortune to visit four cities I hadn’t been to before:

Hyderabad sits right in the middle of India, towards the south, and is the old capital of the Mughal empire and home to India’s Shia muslim population.

My rather eccentric hotel in Bangalore had a golf course across the road and a gaggle of geese in the forecourt (see bottom of picture).

Bangalore is well known to Brits as the IT capital of India. When a UK-based company hits the headlines for transferring its IT operations to India, this is most likely where they end up (though Hyderabad and Chennai/Madras are also getting in on that action). Bangalore has a great history, though no other Indian city seems to have made quite such a headlong rush towards the twenty-first century. The city has a very modern feel to it, and – typically – development has brought problems as well as virtues: during my stay I was caught up in some of the worst traffic I’ve experienced in any city.

For all its modernity, Mumbai still retains much that is exotic about India. Here you can see goats' feet chopped and ready for sale.

Mumbai is perhaps India’s most vibrant, confronting and news-worthy city. Apartments in some parts of Mumbai cost as much as they do in the more affluent parts of London or New York. Poverty in Mumbai is as shocking as in any other urban location in India. The two things – extreme poverty and extreme wealth – can often be found literally within yards of each other in Mumbai, the electronics and media (ie 'Bollywood') capital of India.

Ahmadabad in North West India is the capital of Gujurat state and famous as the birthplace of Ghandi. In the general aesthetic of the place (the architecture, the people, the enivronment), Ahmadabad feels closest to neighbouring Pakistan, but I was still unable to get a Peshwari Naan in the hotel restaurant.

I had meetings, site visits and work to do in all of these cities, mostly related to the healthcare project that I’m working on for Opportunity. I learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work in India and I met a number of people that will be useful contacts in future. If that’s all that happens on one of these trips, it’s a success. In addition to that, I made good progress towards partnering with a couple of organisations to help provide healthcare to the poor – that’s a great bonus.

Another great bonus was the chance to meet up with Adam and Jo in Mumbai and see their home there. It was hard to believe that we hadn’t met up for nearly three years. Within 10 minutes Adam and I were getting along like friends that see each other every day. We had a great laugh buzzing round Mumbai on Adam’s motorbike, buying cheap electronic gadgets (a mobile charger for Rps120 – fantastic! – a hifi for my ipod – awsome! – a speaker system for my mobile phone – lovin’ it sick!), buying furry underwear and paper stamps (ahhhh, don’t ask). Friends like that are just beyond any value. It was also great to meet Freya for the first time – she is gorgeous – and Alastair seemed as loveable and cheeky as his dad. Looking forward to meeting up with them again when I’m back in the UK in 6 months time. (Hopefully I’ll even get the chance to whup Adam’s ass at pool.) They have just bought a great house in Blackburn, where they are moving to when their great three-year Indian adventure ends on 10th June. I really did make it out to see them in the nick of time.

Back in Australia, it has been great to see Graeme and Jill in the last few weeks too. Part of their 3-week holiday here coincided with my India trip, which meant I had to cancel a planned weekend with them in Brisbane. That was a bummer, but we had a good time in Sydney, hitting some restaurants and making the most of the Anzac holiday weekend. I was somewhat disturbed by Graeme and Dom’s shared love for the audio cassette. Though it has to be said that their taste in music was pretty, erm… divergent. And no Graeme, your encyclopedic knowledge of obscure Australian rock music is NOT something to be proud of.

This means that in the space of a week I’ve caught up with three of my best friends. This hasn’t happened for a long time.

Adam and I had a great laugh in India, not least shopping for 'quality' Mumbai souvenirs. Here I am, loving my 'stylish' Rp200 watch sick!!! (Picture of furry underwear to follow!)

So, with some relief, a more uptodate addition to the website. It’s a pity the photos aren’t better though – I just seem to keep forgetting to take pics. I didn’t get a single one off Adam, Jo and the kids. Well, here’s a link to Adam’s site to make up for that:
http://www.clanblack.co.uk/

Ok, time to sleep off the jetlag. I had another flight on the A380 superjumbo this morning, but its hard to appreciate when you're arriving into Sydney at 7am, without having caught a minute's sleep...

Autumn!

Well… this is a record! And not a good one. Apologies to anyone who has been checking the website regularly (or even irregularly), you will not have seen anything new on this site for some weeks.

In fact, it was only when I checked this morning that I realised it had been more than a month since I’d last put anything on here. And given my commitment to update the website weekly, I am feeling guilty, chaste… in short I deserve a wee ‘boot up the erse’!

At least, after such a long absence, I have plenty to write about. And to keep this manageable, I’ll stick to the interesting stuff.

Top of recent ‘achievements’ was discovering Jervis Bay a few weeks ago… and Canberra . On paper, a trip to Canberra was long overdue – it’s the nation’s capital after all, and only a few hours from Sydney .

It took an art exhibition to attract me there in the end. The Turner to Monet Landscapes Exhibition has been advertised heavily over here, and it turned out to be worth the visit. From European masters including Constable and Friedrich to great aussie artists like Glover and Streeton, there was plenty to see at the exhibition. Canberra itself seemed much less impressive. Dom and I didn’t stay long enough to really do the place justice. I did get an overwhelming impression of a sleepy green, white and blue country town, spread over a huge area of modern town planning. Everything is roundabouts and bypasses, without there being much to bypass or go round about…

Who’s Dom you ask? Dom is a very sweet aussie girl that I met at the Playground Weekender music festival in April. After a few strange – and admittedly slightly drunken – dance routines in the dance tent, Dom and I quickly discovered a compatibility in our music tastes that bordered on the supernatural. Normally, when I tell people I love The Cinematic Orchestra, Yo La Tengo, Beck’s Guerolito and the DJ Shadow remix album, they go duh…. whahhh??? Dom not only knows all these peculiarities but loves them too.

A couple of weeks ago we went to see Air together at the Opera House. The gig was sold out but I was lucky enough to get two seats for row D (!!) and what a gig. Yes, its lounge-fi, yes they wear cotton slacks and have bad hair-dos (they are french), but boy can they do an amazing live gig.

Incidentally, the Playground Weekender was a top weekend, with Ian Brown, Maximo Park and Kruder & Dorfmeister, not to mention my mates Willy, Smithy and co, doing a bit of DJ-ing on a great site on the banks of the Hawksbury River a couple of hours north of Sydney.

Otherwise, weekends have been taken up with horse-racing (watching/gambling, not riding), barbeques on the beach (some of which have been washed out!), and of course painting Keith’s house. Like the opera house, Keith’s renovations are over-budget and over-schedule. Ed and I are hoping that we will eventually finish the job by 2009. Even sooner if Keith gives us a hand. Only kidding Keith – you know we love to wind you up!

Easter weekend is well worth a mention too. Had a fabulous weekend north of Sydney with friends Jude and Nicola. Nicola's folks have a holiday home up there. It's a particularly beatiful part of New South Wales, with beaches scattered everywhere and gorgeous forest walks. Dom and I joined Chris, Caroline and James, and Dave, Virginia and family. Much Polish vodka was drunk and there was some pretty healthy swimming and running too.

Work has been pretty eventful too in the last month or so. Both of the projects I’ve been working on have progressed nicely recently and I’m looking forward to making further progress when I’m back in the field (ie India ) in the next few weeks.

Progress with the projects means that there’s a good rationale for me staying on for the long term. After some thought, I’ve decided I’d like to stay on here beyond November. Therefore, the plan is to make a trip back to Scotland to see the family for xmas.

So that’s a whistle stop tour through the last few weeks. And now I’m off to India again…

That’ll be the adventure side of the next few weeks. Less exhilirating is the need to find a new flat before my lease runs out in May. I’ve had a very pleasant 5 months staying with Dave and Dave but as the guys are moving on, it’s time to find somewhere new. I’ve decided on a one-bedroom apartment. And I want to live somewhere with a rooftop view like this…

…it’s not impossible, but with rent going through the roof in Sydney , it could be an exhausting search!


OH WELL! I ABSOLUTELY DESPAIR! I don't mean to make excuses (here we go!) but blogger is a real pain for me these days. I've been a fan since the start, but it really is time they improved their service. The last week of delay has been because the site never works properly. I've decided to publish this post even though i couldnt see which of my pictures were which. so annoying. but better to post something than nothing!

Antelope Park - Revisited!!

I have so much to catch up on! Music Festivals, salsa nights, some nice aussie weather...

But I have a big strategy meeting with the CEO of Opportunity tomorrow (exciting stuff) so no time for all of that. I’ll just have to be content with posting this amazing article. This all happened in Antelope Park, one of the absolute highlights of my trip:
http://calumsbigtrip.blogspot.com/2007/07/incredible-zimbabwe-2-antelope-park.html

Amazing picture of the moment a British teacher was attacked by a 400lb lion
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=511673&in_page_id=1811&in_page_id=1811&expand=true

Excuses, Birthday Celebrations and Getting Back on Top of Things

So like wow. when did i last update this site?

I'm finding it so difficult at the moment. I kind of feel i've got two choices. I usually like to take some time and think about what I'm going to put on here (yeah, i know you wouldn't think so, reading this). But I'm just too bunged these days. I've gone for option A recently - just hope for a gap and a bit of time to update, but now i'm going for option B - quick updates, just throwing on whatever i can at the time.

After all, my typical week at the moment is: Monday - solid day at work, then swimming in the evening then the Old Fitzroy pub for a Laksa dish (spicey seafood soup/noodles) and then i do my washing and ironing and catch an episode of the sopranos. Tuesday is usually meetings and then i have a salsa class after work, which sometimes goes on to Equilibrium - a bar in town. Wednesday is a good night for skyping home and catching up with email and facebook, though i sometimes go to a friend's for dinner. Thursday is mental - busy at work, always meet a friend for lunch, then biathlon after work, then the Thursday Night Grumpy Old Men's Drinking Session, which sometimes (but as rarely as i can get away with) ends up in Loaded at World Bar until 2am... and beyond... Friday is quieter at work. After work i sometimes catch a drink and sometimes go to squad swimming at Bondi. Occassionally Friday night is a night out (tomorrow night is a karaoke night) and then Saturday morning is always swimming at Bondi. Saturday i like to go into town and do something different and there's usually something on at night. Sunday is sometimes recovery time, and catching up. Recently Sunday morning has been swimming competitions. Sunday night is always salsa night - starts early and goes on late. And then before i know it, i'm getting up for Monday morning again.

So that's been life since India. And that's my excuse for not updating the website. Having gone on about that for length i feel i never need another excuse! Back to the blog...

Is there a link between jetlag and age? Having just reached the grand old age of 29 (for the sixth time), I’m inclined to say that yes, there is. It took me a good week to recover from the jetlag and fatigue of the India trip and another week to really get back into top gear. My sleeping patterns were all over the place, I felt unsettled in Sydney (a first!) and was struggling to do anything constructive other than work (updating the website didn’t get a look in). But by the 10th of February I was back to my usually cheery ‘life in Sydney is awesome’ self. And I had a pretty good birthday. The ‘main event’ was my first ocean swim. After turning down a good few swims through bad weather, unfortunate clashes with spectacular evenings-out, and sheer terror at the thought of swimming out into the sea, I eventually committed to doing the North Bondi classic on the morning of the 10th. I took my preparation seriously. By which, I don’t mean I did a lot of swimming – though I did a fair bit. More crucially I curtailed my alcohol intake (no, really) at the Reid family barbecue on the Saturday. Chris’ folks, and his sister Natalie are over from Ireland/London for a few weeks and Chris had a bit of a gathering on the Saturday night. It was interesting to see people getting drunker and drunker as I restricted myself to half-a-dozen beers and an early trip home. And that ‘training’ paid-off. I actually found the swim to be ok. I took it easy at the start and paced myself the whole way, to finish the 2km distance in 48:03 with some energy left in the tank, as is hopefully evident from the following picture:[link] I was 498th out of 697, in other words almost 200 people finished slower than me, so I was delighted. Being very competitive I’m also driven to go faster and further the next time. I’ve since taken a couple of swimming classes and have started pounding up and down the pool after work. I think all the exercise helped get over the India fatigue too.

And wow, it really paid off. Just a week later, I did my second ocean swim. This was also preceeded by a big barbeque, this time at my place! Even so, i managed a great swim, totally demolishing my previous time. This time I managed 37:10 and I was in the top half for my age group. My competitive streak isn't getting any weaker... So, my birthday itself was fairly tame - though there was a visit to the pub on the Sunday evening too. But only because the big event was planned for the following Saturday. Since having a memorable day out at Randwick Racecourse on boxing day, I'd been looking for an excuse to go back. Handily enough there was a race-meeting just a few days (or so) after my birthday. It was a great day-out and a fair crowd of us enjoyed open-air beers/cocktails, and the opportunity to lose a few bucks on a couple of attractive fillies. Actually, the winning rate amongst us was pretty low. We might have been better advised to check out the childrens entertainment as its difficult to lose much money with Barney the Dinosaur (though I’ve heard he has a real mean poker face).

The rest of February has been pretty good. I'm always trying to strike a balance between work (which I care deeply about, and what to do as well in as I have the capability to), socialising (never usually difficult to get motivated for!), keeping fit and healthy and fitting in all my hobbies and relaxing (always difficult to fit in!). I seem to have at last managed to strike that balance. But sometimes it feels like juggling clubs. Clubs with blades on the end. And the blades are on fire. And someone keeps throwing an extra one in, now and again. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Trip to India Week 2: Best Week at Work Ever???

With apologies for the long delay, I should really finish off the story of the India trip. The story picks up from the middle weekend when Stephen came down with the lurgy.

As our trip to Hyderabad was cancelled we had a bit more time to hang around Lucknow – well I had more time to hang around Lucknow, while Stephen – poor soul – was confined to bed.

I had an interesting wander around town on India’s national holiday, and it was clear to me after just a couple of hours looking around, that Lucknow isn’t a particularly prosperous Indian city. That said, even in Lucknow there is a notable split between the haves and the have-nots. We were staying in the best hotel in town – a huge colonial style building on three floors, with large landscaped gardens and a huge pool in the grounds. Perfect for a wedding. In fact there were three pretty impressive wedding receptions at the hotel when I was there.

The photo at the top of this entry is of an Indian pipeband that I bumped into on our third night. Now there is some dispute as to where the bagpipes were invented. Scottish people will tell you that, like most good things… the television, the pneumatic tyre, the Presbyterian denomination, the bagpipes were invented in Scotland. But I’ve also heard from a less biased source that the bagpipes were played in India more than a thousand years ago. Though the guys playing at the wedding reception didn’t speak any English - and I couldn’t say much in Hindi - just by impersonating a piper I was able to make them laugh. It tickled me anway.

And if those guys like overly well wrapped up for India, they were certainly better equipped for the weather than I was. The last time I had been in Delhi was as a tourist in June last year when it was 37C, and after that experience I associated Delhi with the heat. I just kinda assumed it was pretty warm all year round. So I packed one small suitcase with my Sydney summer clothes in it. Which meant that I had a large number of short-sleeved shirts, a couple of long-sleeved shirts, no jumpers, no jacket. And then we walked out of the airport and there were local guys with gloves and balaclavas on…

The other good thing about being stuck in the hotel in Lucknow was that it did give us time to practise a bit of Hindi. Stephen and I found that our most popular phrases were Moo jay yay sum a jee na hee aye (I don’t understand), Deerie deerie (slowly slowly) and Sa hie ta kee-jee-yi! (help!).

My absolute favourite expression was Gulab Jamun. This is a very sweet doughy dessert which is fried and served in a warm syrupy sugar sauce. It doesn’t look like much in the picture below (!!) but if you have a sweet tooth they are awesome.

I’ll finish this account of the Indian adventure with one of the stories from the Ashram, which is just incredible. One of the cheeriest guys we met there was a guy called Sarin. He had spinal TB – a really serious condition – and had been on his back at the Ashram, unable to walk for 10 months. The photo below is one that Stephen took of Sarin when we were there on the 21st of February. This is Sarin getting some fresh air, with a puppy that he seemed to have adopted.

A few days after Stephen and I got back to Australia, we were sent the following photo from Kaye, one of the two leaders of the Ashram. This is Sarin on his feet for the first time in 10 months. Just incredible. If it wasn’t for the Ashram, these things wouldn’t be happening.

I joined Opportunity because I believe microfinance is the best hope of providing a sustainable solution to helping the poor.

But I don’t think it’s the only solution.

Where something works, I think it should be supported. And it’s been great to be involved in the Ashram project. Even better to be involved with this sort of thing having seen the country, the poverty and the people first-hand.