team spectacle

this just in

2004-07-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

people read our blog??

2004-07-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

turns out that people actually read this e-jive! :-) this post is simply intended to buy us more time on the pictures. we will post the link in a few more days. +jss+

curtain call

2004-07-14T06:18:00.000-07:00

a couple wild days in london with the boys and we all went our separate ways. haven't seen them since saturday night (which truth be told was a bit of a blur) and am now suffering team spectacle withdrawl. a friend told us the finest asian (read: indian) ladies in the world are in england. my guess is that aman - the anglophile among us - probably got hitched to one. i'm in boston now, and mahad at least should be back in califas. and so that brings the blog to an end. unless the boys have some afterthoughts. we'll post pics soon. check back here for the url in a week or so.

Dubai = Do-Buy

2004-07-12T02:22:00.000-07:00

The best way i can describe Do-buy is that it is a cross between
Las Vegas and Los Angeles. While not a prefect description, there
is literally a shopping mall on every corner. Directions to and from
places are determined by Do-buy's landmarks - its shopping centers.
The concentration of wealth here may be the highest of anywhere in
the world. From just looking around, no other place compares.

Over 1 million people live in Dubai, of those much less than 100,000
people are citizens (non-Emirati's are not allowed citizenship).
These people are given handouts buy the government and in effect
don't have to work because of the amount of wealth generated from
oil and other ventures. 85% of the workforce are foreign ex-pats,
almost all the laborers are foreigners from India (70%), China,
Phillipines, Pakistan, etc. They have buses that take these laborers
out to a stop called the "labor camps". When I was having my shirt
tailored, the fabric salesman told me he earns 4 times what he would
in India, so he endures his 7 day work schedule for 2 full years.
After 2 years he gets 4 months paid leave to India, plus payment for
his ticket. This fellow earned about $400 a month and was paying $75/mo
to share one room with 3 other roomates. We were told that sometimes
upto 20 laborers will share a 12x12 room (which works bcs people work
various shifts). This sounds very much like a place we all know, albeit
a different population of migrant workers.

Do-buy has been described to us as the "wild west", it certainly is a
new frontier and a very fascinating place... One last random fact -
It hasn't rained here in over 4 years!!

One additional side note to the previous post by JSS is the website
for the world:
http://www.theworld.ae/theworld/theworld.html
AB

oasis

2004-07-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

dubai is growing fast. new high-rise and road construction is everywhere. but it's not just the scale of this work that is boggling our minds, it's the nature of it. a few examples ... palm island (already constructed) is an artificial island in the shape of a giant palm tree. this will be home to luxury villas for the very wealthy. in this same vein, a development named 'the world' will be a collection of islands in the image of the globe. 5km off the coast and 30km in diameter. david beckham has already bought england and they haven't even started dumping sand into the ocean yet. other curiosities include ... hydropolis, an underwater hotel; the world's largest hotel (on palm island) with 12,000 rooms; an indoor ski resort (remember it's 41 C, or 106 F, outside right now) complete with 5 hotels; dubai land, an amusement park that will stretch halfway from dubai to abu dhabi; and burj dubai, the world's tallest tower to be built (reported to be more than 2500 feet high). surreal is the best word to describe it. +jss+

more violence in sri lanka

2004-07-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

5th july - the day we left colombo - is celebrated as "black tiger day" by the ltte (liberation tigers of tamil eelam). this marks the anniversary of their first suicide attack, in 1987. on this black tiger day, unknown individuals attacked rebels in the eastern town of batticaloa, killing one and injuring three. two days later, a female suicide bomber attacked a police station near the prime minister's house in colombo killing five people. this is the first such attack since the truce signed more than two years ago (the ltte has not yet claimed responsibility).

mahad earlier commented on the photo exhibit we saw in colombo. this was the most powerful collection of images that i have seen in my life. they conveyed not only the gruesome realities of the war, but also the tension, anger, and despair on all sides. the most moving images related to the future hope for peace. it seems that this future may be in jeopardy given the recent events, and we are helpless to do anything about it. the sentiment we heard from all the sri lankans we met - whether buddhist, hindu, christian or muslim ... tamil, sinhalese or otherwise - was one of peace. we can only hope...

melting pot

2004-07-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

after some overnight travel we arrived in dubai monday morning. aman and i are staying with his cousin in bur dubai while mahad is staying with family in sharjah. some brief observations ... (1) it's hot. temperatures during the day hit the mid-40's with humidity at 60-70%. add to that the abundance of concrete and lack of shade and we understand why *everything* is air-conditioned ... (2) it is not conducive to the l.i.v.p. the cost of living here is high. yesterday aman and i spent several hours at the burjuman shopping centre. all we were able to afford was a timeout dubai magazine (dhs 10, or about $3) ... (3) everyone's here. at the airport direct flights were arriving from africa, asia, oceania, and europe. in dubai - aside from the emiratees - we've seen africans, indians, pakistanis, bangladeshis, filipinos, and russians, to name a few. from tamil construction workers to russian prostitutes, much of the labor is imported. +jss+

Peace prospects

2004-07-05T01:03:00.000-07:00

Sadly we departed Sri Lanka yesterday after a very brief holiday. We had the chance to see a photojournalism exhibit about the two decades of war and the new sense of hope brought on by the peace process. Unfortunately, this sense of hope seems perilously close to evaporating as the peace process languishes under the hands of two parties that do not seem to have a desire to stop squabbling, while all the people want is peace. In my humble opinion, Sri Lanka a country with a good standard of living has the potential to do much better if a real peace can be established. We departed on the commeration of the first operation by the Black Tigers, the suicide bomb squad of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers). While the day isn't over, so far all is quiet, but just being a visitor one could feel the tension in the capital. In particular, the area of our hotel the target of repeated bombings over the years. The article in the main daily, "Is Colombo Secure?" did nothing to ease this tension. Staying there reminds me of last year arriving in Casablanca not 48 hours after the triple bombing that claimed some 50+ lives. On that visit I stayed at a hotel directly across from the main target. In fact, my window looked out at the bombed out shell of the former five star hotel.

lockdown

2004-07-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

we arrived in colombo from bentota this afternoon. rumor has it that 150 black tigers have infiltrated colombo during the past week. our driver indicated that he didn't feel comfortable driving to colombo and was eager to drive back down the coast after dropping us off. our hotel is in the fort area (aka col 1). this part of town is on severe lockdown because of the tension in the current peace talks ... limited traffic, barracaded streets, heavily armed army troops. add to that the long weekend (today is a poya holiday, 4th july is american independence day, and 5th july is the most significant day to the ltte) and we have a tense situation. we're ok and will be very careful so no worries. more on this later. +jss+

nrsl

2004-07-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

it's official: mahad is an nrsl (non-resident sri lankan). multiple sri lankans have asked me if mahad is from the island. one waiter - after learning that he wasn't sri lankan - insisted that he must be tamil. i've even gotten the "are you sri lankan?" question a couple times. thus far this has provided us with no advantage in our daily bargaining struggles. +jss+

from leeches to beaches

2004-07-02T20:50:00.000-07:00

yesterday (thursday) was a another long one. 12 hours on the road with a driver who thought it was the trans-lanka grand prix. a bit of a rough ride, especially winding through tea country where the single lane road handles traffic in both directions. it was a bit like spending the day in a washing machine. after a brief pitstop near the sinharaja rainforest, aman found a leech feasting on his leg. we stopped the car and as we tried to remove the leech from his sock, we found a dozen amused schoolkids looking on. fortunately our driver took care of the situation (he then laughed about it for the next 2 hours). we made a brief stop for dinner in kitulgala (where they filmed "bridge on the river kwai") and arrived in bentota during the late evening. bentota was humid, very humid. within a minute of opening the door to our hotel room, the mirror fogged and the floor began to sweat. the rest of the bentota story relates to the l.i.v.p., but that's for another entry. +jss+

into thin air

2004-06-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

inspired by his recent reading of the book "into thin air", aman was determined to undertake a serious climb in sri lanka. our everest: sigiriya, a 1500 year old palace built upon a 350+ m rock. our challenges: no physical activity for the last 5 weeks and general laziness. true that our 49 year old guide had climbed the 1200 steps to the top more than 15,000 times ... in flip-flops. but he is superhuman. this climb posed serious challenges to us mortals. still, we braved the brutal winds with more courage than the crowd of schoolgirls we encountered. and we seemed to require less rest than the king did on his ascents in days past. photos from today - sigiriya and dambulla (buddhist temple near sigiriya) - coming in a week or two. +jss+

LIVP!

2004-06-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

I know all of you are wondering what is LIVP? Well its the Low Income Vacation Program. This is where five star hotels reserve space for poor students like ourselves at reduced rates. What are some ways to identify a participant in the LIVP.

Too broke to afford a watch so they call the front desk every five minutes to ask what time it is.

Too broke to pay for the hotel to wash their laundry so the head down to the river with all the locals to do it.

Too broke to afford lunch, so they hide all kinds of food from the complimentary breakfast to eat for lunch.

Beware of such individuals at hotel near you, one particular group has been seen roaming around Sri Lanka.

[MIB]

paradise found

2004-06-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

to mr. ibrahim's earlier contentions that emirates has the most beautiful flight attendants in the world, i humbly submit that sri lankan airlines is superior in this regard. this based on our experience flying from trichy to colombo. twenty-four hours after arriving, we realize why this is the case: sri lanka is a nation of incredibly beautiful women. we traveled to kandy late last night and plan to spend some days here at the higher elevations. unfortunately, we won't have the ability to post pictures for the next week. and the physical beauty of this place cannot be easily described. i'll pass that duty off to the other boys. +jss+

pandemonium, redux

2004-06-26T11:46:00.000-07:00

leaving madurai in 20 hours. same state we were in one month ago: pandemonium. +jss+

you say tomayto, i say tomawto

2004-06-24T21:12:00.000-07:00

after several weeks of frequenting abi's coffeeshop, we've found a new home: coffee day. a bit more expensive, but the food and drink are certainly a couple notches higher. we're especially fond of the frappes; however, we are in harmonious disagreement as to the pronunciation of the word "frappe". none evangelizes his own viewpoint, but neither is he willing to accept a competing pronunciation. i contend that new englanders have it right (rhymes with slap). meanwhile aman pronounces it FRAP-py (rhymes with happy) and mahad says frap-PAY (this doesn't really rhyme with anything). regardless of how we say it, they are most tasty. potentially the highest markup in india (aside from the shirts at kala niketan in mumbai and the mckinney & co. report we just bought) is on the whipped cream at coffee day. a frappe alone costs Rs. 40, but whipped cream adds Rs. 15 ($0.33). despite this - we are ashamed to admit - we've been ordering it. +jss+

management consulting jive

2004-06-24T03:12:00.000-07:00

we just purchased a report on healthcare in india from an undisclosed management consulting firm (unlike my earlier open criticisms of airtel i'm afraid of potential repercussions of any commentary on this firm or its publications). for our discussion, let's call this firm "mckinney & company". this 250 page mckinney publication - which purports to be a report - is no more than a picture book. at best, we might term it statistical clipart. 10 pages provide mildly interesting discussion, and the remainder is reserved for powerpoint slides. each slide contains 0-4 statistics. with many blank pages among the 250 total, we estimate the average cost of each statistic to be Rs. 12 ($0.27). i won't go so far as to say it's worthless, but it is certainly overpriced. and that information, my friends, is free. +jss+

Bobbleheads and "Tell me"

2004-06-24T01:54:00.000-07:00

We have noticed two very different mannerisms present in India. The first is ubiquitous and the kind of all-encompassing gesture we could all use -- Don't be surprised if you see Jaspal and I doing this at home. In America, we have definite gestures for "Yes" (head up and down) and "No" (Head Side to Side). Here these are included in one gesture the head bobble much like the bobblehead dolls found in a sports stadium. As far as I can tell the meaning of this gesture is all about the context. You would not believe how many discussion we have among ourselves after receiving one of the head bobbles. "Did he mean yes or no!" or "Okay I will do it, but I wish you yankees would get the hell out of here". The bobble is not a consistent gesture but can very in intensity and frequency depending on the individual. I love it, just the type of non-committal and non-confrontational gesture I need to add to my repertoire.

The other mannerisms involves answering the phone. I first experienced this with an Indian friend back in the USA. He would always answer the phone by identifying who it is, once that was done the quick retort of "Tell me!". For the longest time I thought this was his own unique way of answering the phone, but after having spent the last month in India this is not unique and is essentially another form of Hello. [MIB]

has anyone seen an elephant around here?

2004-06-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

seems we've gotten ourselves confused often during our trip. one of the more interesting episodes occurred this past sunday, when aman and i decided to visit yannai malai (elephant rock), about 8-10 km outside of madurai. upon describing our destination, we were instructed to take a local bus (cost Rs. 2 each) to yannaikal. though the name is very similar (yannai means elephant), the places are not. we ended up in the center of town, 4 km further away from our destination. eventually, we hired an auto rickshaw to take us to see the rock and several temples, including ladan temple, built in the 8th century. rest assured that all of the folks we work with were highly amused by this misadventure. +jss+

there's no place like home

2004-06-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

dorothy had the right idea, but for us madurai is beginning to feel like kansas. we've got 4 1/2 days left and are already starting to feel anxious about leaving. we've got our routine going, know the folks around us, and enjoy our work. in short, we're comfortable here. being in one place within tamilnadu has given us the opportunity to know it well and for that we are grateful. realizing that most of you have no idea what we do on a daily basis, mahad is still determined to film our daily experiences for your benefit. +jss+

best burfi EVER! (except mom's)

2004-06-22T07:14:00.000-07:00

word spreads fast here. seems most of the folks we work with have heard that i have a sweet tooth. so when we had dinner at dr. bala's house 2 nights ago, much of the discussion tended towards indian sweets. and then last night, mr. thulsi and the family stopped by to drop off some north indian sweets that visitors to the hospital had brought. we devoured the kashmiri burfi by lunchtime today. the only reason it took this long was because of zenlike restraint by all parties involved in said devouring. this burfi was DE-LIC-IOUS, perhaps the best ever. interestingly, it was from a sweet shop in jalandhar (in punjab). i gave aman some at lunch today - since he has been at times homesick for delhi - and am convinced it made him immediately better. +jss+

guide 2 mob fons n india (aka 'y i h8 airtel')

2004-06-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

the 3 of us have been using airtel prepaid mobile service since arriving in india, first with airtel-mumbai and later with airtel-tn. [it seems that
these airtel units operate largely independently, so much of this commentary is directed at the tamilnadu division.] the core telephony
services have actually been pretty good. clear connections, within tn, across india, and even international. and the rates are fixed by airtel, so
there are no worries about bargaining. coverage outside of cities is very poor (seems that bsnl has the best coverage around).

and the sms services have been less than ideal, particularly since airtel advertises these so prominently. airtel-to-airtel text has been ok, but
text to other providers has been sporadic (granted, the problem with interoperability could lie with the other providers, but read on for more gripes).

in testing one of their advertised services (convert a phrase to Tamil script), i received the following 2 messages:

From: 333
Date: 09.06.2004
Time: 7:48AM
Message: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80040e07' Syntax error converting the varchar value 'Manni' to a column of data type int. / results-airtell.asp

From: 333
Date: 09.06.2004
Time: 7:48AM
Message: , line 94

several sms-based services i've tried have simply ignored me and my phone. of the services that have been responsive, the quality has been less than ideal (eg - 'joke of the hour').

the final annoyance is spam. several days ago, i received no less than 12 text messages encouraging me to buy 'hot ringtones' or to get free roaming in chennai. and the 3 of us receive all this spam simultaneously. if you're on the street, you can hear everyone's phones ringing at once. madness. +jss+

pondy-licious (updated w/pics)

2004-06-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

i've just come back from a 2 day trip to pondicherry. the hospital is actually 7-8km outside pondy, near thavalakuppam, but i was able to make it into town both days. pondy is a world away from madurai. no better or worse, just very different. from all the french people (including indians holding french citizenship) to the throngs of pondicherrians on the seashore every evening, this was not the tamilnadu i've come to know. as for the work, the hospital campus and folks working there were very impressive. even had the good fortune of eating 3 meals at the guesthouse with dr. v yesterday. here are some more pics [1] from [2] pondy [3]. +jss+

Souped up Auto Rickshaw

2004-06-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

Aman and I had the opportunity to ride in the most souped up auto rickshaw in town. I don't know if many you are familiar with the three wheeled machines prevalent all over Asia, but these things are scary, unsafe, and uncomfortable machines driven by usually crazed drivers. This particular driver was nice and his rickshaw could outmaneuver and outrun anything else on the road. Not to mention the seats were comfortable and he quoted us a fair price from the beginning. I will add a picture of a auto rickshaw for the uninitiated in the future. peace [MIB]

The Shackles have been broken!

2004-06-18T05:15:00.000-07:00

It could just be the context of the Aravind Eye Hospital, but in many of our conversations I have sensed a growing national pride. A kind of awakening from the fog of an inferiority complex by the people here. The statement "The Shackles have been broken" is from an actual conversation I had with someone a few days ago concerning life here in India. In all our interviews people express the desire to meet "international standards", to measure themselves against "western" doctors, to increase our "self reliance", to "indigenize". This might be a local phenomenon, but I suspect it is greater movement in the view of Indians of a certain strata. If I get time I will write about this further... [MIB]

more from the amazing race

2004-06-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

we used text messaging during the amazing race to keep tabs on one another. mahad unfortunately didn't receive any of the messages until reaching the taj. the log follows.

JSS [13:35]: 30 sec penalty per rupee paid, tips excluded
MIB [13:38]: Yes
AB [13:40]: YeahOn
JSS [13:40]: Hey boys don't forget to shoot footage
AB [13:42]: Whr did u go
JSS [13:43]: Shortcut. :-)
AB [13:44]: Jackass
JSS [13:45]: Dont hate, lover.
AB [13:46]: $#!+ we r now off roading
JSS [13:48]: Hahaha!
JSS [13:51]: You still alive mahadraja?
JSS [13:57]: U pass rajasthani marble?
AB [13:57]: U there?
JSS [13:58]: Passed it.

the video (see previous post) has now been added. +jss+

cell phones while driving....

2004-06-14T04:22:00.000-07:00

Most people do not have cars here, but rely on some form of motorbike for transportation. Driving in India is not for the faint of heart, as one must dodge all forms of transportation and obstacles. I have some footage of life on the roads here. This being my second time in India I am less scared of the roads, but it is still a miracle in my view anyone makes it home alive. Today Aman and I witnessed the ultimate display of cell phone usage on the roads. While riding on a rickshaw on our way home, we saw a man riding his motorbike answer his mobile phone while driving in serious traffic. With his left hand he took the phone out of his pocket looked at it as if determining whether is was worth it to answer. This person lost out as they were deemed unworthy, but he kept the phone in his hand as he drove on. Previously I have seen people have conversations on their phones while on the road. Another interesting display I saw was several young men having a conversation on their motorbikes as they were driving down the road near our hangout "Abi's cafe". This baffles me as I require full concentration just to walk across the street here. [MIB]

The Amazing Race - Madurai Edition

2004-06-13T05:21:00.000-07:00

The Amazing race is perhaps my most favorite TV show of all time. It is the reality show where teams of two race around the world. My sister and I even flirted with idea of trying out for the program before we rightly realized that we would not make it through one country before a major blowup (though this might have made good TV).

We have just recreated our own version of the Amazing Race. Who can get from the Aravind guesthouse (our current residence) to the Taj Garden Hotel (the former colonial retreat cum 5 star hotel in the hills above Madurai) first.

Aman jumped to an early lead after slyly noticing the auto rickshaw across the street as Jaspal and I were sprinting to the main street and the normal auto rickshaw stand. Jaspal took off second when he rudely pushed me out of the way and stole the rickshaw I flagged (these facts are in dispute because he claims we both flagged him down). This leaves me trailing a distant third as the driver of the rickshaw I found was fast asleep and would not wake up! Finally I locate arickshaw, but it takes me several minutes to explain where I want to go! Ah the beauty of language barriers. I finally depart a full 5-10 minutes after Jaspal and Aman, but my cool demeanor under pressure allowed me to narrow the gap.

Aman in his haste informs his driver of the race, so they decide to take a "shortcut", or "they went offroading" as Aman described it. I am sure all the ladies in the house know what happens when a man says he is going to take a "shortcut".

Fast forward. I arrive at the hill quite dejected as I am positive the other two are now sitting like the colonial administrators of yore on the porch drinking a Mango Lassi.

As I round the final turn I see another rickshaw struggling up the hill. All of a sudden out jumps Aman who begins a mad dash to the top of the hill. I was certain he had made his move to early, as it looked like my rickshaw would over take him. But, he made it ahead of me and Jaspal was already there laughing at Aman (look at the video ... note: large file, almost 9 MB).

Remember the tortoise and the hare. I am the victor of this race because I paid a full 50 rupees less than Aman and Jaspal earning them a 30 second penalty for each rupee over what I paid. [MIB]

The Conversation Nazi

2004-06-13T05:07:00.000-07:00

It is official. We are boring! This is the proclamation of our dear colleague Jaspal who is tired of our group having the same conversations time after time. According to his scientific sampling (he is an engineer) we have exactly 8 topics for our conversations. We keep recycling old topics after forgetting the previous conversation. Jaspal has taken it upon himself to police our conversations. We are sternly warned by the Conversation Nazi that "this conversation has occurred before. please choose another topic." I am waiting for him to use this in one of our research interviews.

***Public Service Annoucement***

Please be warned that the "Conversation Nazi" will be confined to South Asia for only another three weeks, after which time you might find your conversations in peril. [MIB]

saturday morning in madurai

2004-06-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

based on recent requests for more content (much love to our concerned fans in rio, los angeles & ann arbor), we present ... more content.

we've had the good fortune of meeting some distinguished folks at the guest house this week, including a WHO doctor and a former supreme court justice. we also discovered that we had rooftop access at the guesthouse a couple days ago. last evening, we went up there and took this panormaic photograph (aman to left, mahad to right).

the other two boys are at a community outreach camp about 20km outside of madurai this morning. i'm staying in town to attend a hearing camp. to all of aman's friends that may be reading this, he tells us that he is boycotting the blog. i'm not sure what he is protesting, but mahad and i are convinced he is just being lazy. in any case, we apologize for his rudeness and will do our best to keep you informed on his behalf. +jss+

blogspot

2004-06-10T20:31:00.000-07:00

blog moved to blogspot to make it easier for everyone to add content, particularly those (aman) who have not yet contributed. +jss+

paranoid and paranoider

2004-06-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

now many days behind on the blog, so here's a recovery attempt. we've been in madurai, tamilnadu for more than a week now, spending most of our waking hours working. despite the best efforts of paranoid (mahad) and paranoider (aman), we've all suffered at least minor stomach ills. one of the more amusing episodes was the appearance of the keychain-size bottle of purell in a mumbai restaurant. once in madurai, aman was the first man down, perhaps because of some funky water. [note: the folks here have been fantastic in attending to him medically and otherwise.] i woke up around 6am one morning and went to check on aman during his illness. when i walked into his room, i found him playing games on his new nokia (for the record, he didn't think a mobile phone was necessary for our work). mahad meanwhile was halfway through "lord of the rings" in his room. we've continued to keep the strange (for us) hours, sleeping from 9pm until 5am most days. despite a 9am appointment this morning, the boys were at home watching the nba finals until 850am. +jss+

The research has begun

2004-06-03T00:33:00.000-07:00

No less than one hour after reaching Madurai did our adventure begin. We met the director and division manager for Aurolab (the object of our study). I cannot express how cooperative everyone in this organization has been to our research. It is above and beyond my wildest expectations. Unfortunately, our first traveling causality has occurred. Aman has been stricken by an unknown stomach ailment that has put him out of commission for the past two days. Again Aravind has provided a doctor who has checked on Aman 4 times in the last day. We have begun conducting interviews and visiting the various facilities, more on this at a later date. Aman and Jaspal have had the chance to explore the city, but I have not. It is more relaxed where we are located then Bombay, but not as much social opportunities. [MIB]

delirium (the longest day, part v)

2004-05-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

we inquired at the hotel about a mobile phone store and in our naivete ended up at a clothing store instead. we browsed the men's shirts, and after running some other errands returned late in the day, with grand ideas of collective bargaining. despite not actually having the idea of clothing shopping at the beginning of the day, we spent 3 hours trying on different shirts. after selecting the shirts we wanted the bargaining began. or really it didn't. we started by offering a price that was 50% of the asking price. the salesman replied quite seriously, "dont push me." as aman says, "at that point, it turned into a bollywood movie." to make a long story short, our negotiation skills failed. we - well, aman - left with a single shirt at the MSRP. we were marginally more successful bargaining down taxi rides from 800% of the local rate to 500%.

there are miscellaneous odds and ends from this longest day. they amuse us, but probably not you. (1) the only substantial activities we partook in during this longest day were eating and talking about what to put in the blog. (2) nobody on the streets of mumbai wants to speak to aman. (3) everyone in mumbai thinks mahad is indian and speaks to him in hindi. especially amusing when he is sitting in the front seat with the taxi driver. (4) we have taken to using top dog as our currency, for all wagers (eg - how young *was* that girl in the pharmacy?). this has increasingly gotten out of hand. mahad: "as if we weren't fat enough already." (5) mahad has been dubbed the tamil voltron. (6) ask aman about sonali from the mumbai hotel and how giddy he got around her. this longest day of delirium ended monday night at 230am (we had to wake up at 6am for our flight) with: aman tearing an entire section out of the yellow pages and saying "i'm taking this home"; and mahad suggesting, "let's tell everyone here we're an american cricket team." +spec+

Dubai Airport (the longest day, part iv)

2004-05-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

After more than 30 hours in transit my brain and body are mush. All I can think about is the possibility of sleep and fresh air. I have always been excited to visit Dubai, if you believe half of what people tell you the city is earth's version of heaven. I must admit the airport disappointed me. First, it took us 20 minutes to figure out how to get out of the passenger area into the actual airport, but this might have been due to our state of mind after hours upon hours without sleep. Once in the airport I was deeply disappointed to discover that the only apparent food options were Mickey D's, Round Table Pizza, and some sketchy lebanese joint, but on the bottom floor you could buy any mobile phone imaginable, any liquor, cigarette, soccer jersey, etc. I felt like wandering around the airport because the last thing I wanted to do was sit down after having been on a plane for about 17 cumulative hours, but with each step I felt the urge to sleep but every available comfortable seat was occupied by the multitude of Asians and Africans that populated the airport on this particular day. About a half hour before we are to depart on the final leg of our journey Aman discovers that we can get free food from a special Emirates Airlines restaurant. I did not believe him, but sure enough your boarding pass gives you access to a much better meal than what is available in the food court. Jaspal and I head over to get something to drink and a dessert. I grab a table but when I get back some Persian dude took my seat. We grab another table, but on our wait that Persian glares at Jaspal as if we had done something wrong. He was lucky the first time because the waitress got us another seat, but he shouldn't push his luck. Never know what a sleep deprived individual will do. peace [MIB]

Great service, cake, and a Nigerian Marxist/Capitalist (the longest day, part iii)

2004-05-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

Emirates Airlines is the best airline I have ever flown on. Aman had is birthday about midway during the second leg of our tortuous journey. Thanks to Jaspal and Emirates we were able to give him a proper birthday on the plane complete with cake and candles, but unfortunately no song as it was the middle of the night. But before we could have the party, we needed to extricate Aman from his marathon discussion with the Nigerian Marxist/Capitalist "Ike". Being an American outside America forces you to be defensive as every Tom, Dick, and Ike will express their contempt for America, and expect you as an American to fix this overnight. Aman had the luck of sitting next to one of these chaps. Ike a Brit of Nigerian descent felt that the good old USA was on the verge of full on civil war because of our less than adequate social infrastructure. I must this man was incredibly articulate and intelligent, but I had a tough time listening to his power to the people speech when he volunteered that he lives in a million pound house and drives a hundred thousand pound car. You would think that a person of his views would donate all that money to charity rather than his own bling bling lifestyle. But wait it gets better, when Aman asked Ike about things to do in Dubai, Ike could only direct us to a whorehouse -- apparently the only place him and his friends have visited in the bustling town of Dubai. Poor Aman three and half hours of heated debate with this character. [MIB]

Not Again! (the longest day, part ii)

2004-05-30T03:18:00.000-07:00

Despite Aman's earlier misadventures with his passport and ticket lightning almost struck twice. As we are checking in for our flight to Dubai the clerk asks for our baggage tags so that they can be moved to our flight. Jaspal and I give him our claim check, but Aman does not have his claim check because he left it at his cousin's house. I couldn't help but exclaim, " Oh my god, This is deja vu". In Aman's defense, Nobody ever remembers to keep their claim check. This story has a happy ending as the clerk was able to locate Aman's bags and get them transferred to our onward flight. [MIB]

crossing the pond (the longest day, part i)

2004-05-29T03:17:00.000-07:00

from the time we left home in california until our arrival in mumbai, 48 hours elapsed. when we meet aman friday morning, he had vitovif oral typhoid vaccine (read: live salmonella) preserved in a grocery bag full of ice. there were initial plans to preserve these pills for two days so he could properly finish the 8-day course. mercifully, he sacrificed the last dose to the garbage can. minutes later, as we were checking in, aman realized that he left his passport and tickets in the car. despite a dangerously low mobile phone battery on the receiving end, we were able to reach my dad, who made a round-trip return from san mateo with the tickets. the highlight of the flight to london was mahad briefing us on the "maxim guide to older women". in london, where we had a 17 hour layover, we tubed to hounslow to visit aman's cousin ricky. prior to reaching his house, we stopped at a pharmacy. mahad was inquiring about some medicine at the counter, i was wandering around the store, and aman was by the door with his luggage. the 20 year-old indian girl at the counter asked where we were from and - before mahad could reply - aman zoomed to the counter, leaving a bag full of electronics at the door as a donation to passersby. after several minutes of moderately successful flirting, aman returned to his post. after we left, it took us almost an hour to reach ricky's house, a daunting 1/2 mile away. we blame the locals, who pointed us in every direction but the right one. we eventually made it into town with ricky for a reunion with old friends. on the return tube ride, ricky was trying his level best to persuade us to visit the seedier parts of hounslow. unfortunately for him, we were all borderline comatose from sleep deprivation. +jss+

pandemonium

2004-05-27T03:11:00.000-07:00

leaving in 20 hours. pandemonium. +jss+