Watching TV in India

Well, TV in India is lot like TV back home, a lot of channels but nothing on. I think I have about 100 channels in my hotel room but I swear there are some duplicates in there plus a few that are just static. Aside from that, there are plenty of movie channels to watch but some of them are in a language I don't understand so I usually just click on through. There are plenty of news channels to watch as well.

I am of the opinion that the people here love the news. Everyone is always reading the paper and like I said, it seems that every few channels is a news channel. The next kind of station that I see all the time is music video stations like MTV and VH1 (they have those as well). The difference is that there is actually music videos on their music channels.

And lastly, the sports channels. They have ESPN but it is not like ESPN back home. Most of the coverage is on Cricket and Soccer. When flipping through the channels, I can usually find and cricket match to watch so I don't mind. I only get frustrated when there is nothing on but soccer because, to me, soccer is just too boring to watch.

So, to end this post, I am going to link or embed some of my favorite commercials that I see on TV here. People that know me know I can't stand commercials but these crack me up for some reason. Especially the coke commercial with the guy driving the car. I love it when she screams and then he screams. That makes me bust a gut.




Well, I will keep looking because I am having trouble finding the commercials on youtube. Just keep checking back and maybe I will have added some of my other favorites. Oh yeah, they sell crap on the TV here just like back home.

Driving to Work

I said that I would get some video uploaded of the drive to work but that seems harder than I thought so I am posting a few pictures.

So the distance the office building is about 10 miles from my hotel but the drive can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an 1 hour and 15 minutes depending on the traffic we encounter. Luckily for me Lawrence, the driver, is great to talk to and he tells me all about Bangalore and India in general.

These pictures don't truly show how backed up the traffic can get. Sometimes the traffic is so far backed up that we just sit wait for about 10-15 minutes. Lawrence and I just chat and he asks a lot of questions about America. I in turn ask him a lot about India and what goes on. The guy is pretty amazing because he speaks about 5 languages. He definitely makes the time pass and I am glad to have him as a driver.


Of course, I have to the obligatory picture of a bull pulling a wagon and yes , there are plenty of cows on the street as well and they tend to back up the traffic.


Watching the people drive here is plain amazing because the roads are pure chaos. Motorcycles weave in and out and all of the cars are jockeying for position like a Nascar race. I laugh all of the time because it seems to me that the drivers are actually communicating with each other using their horns. At least here when someone honks their horn the other person will usually get out of their way.

A little taste

Finally! Thanks to Donn I was finally able to upload this small video of the drive to work.

I promised I would get some footage of the drive into work. The drive usually takes about 45 minutes to an hour for me to get to work but today traffic was light so I think it only took about 40 minutes. Here is a quick clip of the traffic. I will get some other clips when the traffic gets really backed up. Enjoy!

Cricket? Yeah, I am addicted

Okay, I am a cricket fan. The more I watch this game and learn about it the more I love it. Once I realized that I couldn't keep comparing the game to baseball I really started to understand what is going on. So here is small overview of the batter position for those of you who may want to learn a little about cricket.

Like baseball, the batter is trying to score runs but he is also trying to protect the stumps. The stumps? Yes, the stumps. The stumps are 3 vertical sticks behind the batter that have 2 bails, small pieces of wood, lying on top of the stumps that form the wicket. The bowler, or pitcher, is trying to hit the stumps and knock the bails off to get the batter out. The batter is actually trying to use the bat to keep the bowler from hitting the stumps.

And finally a quick update. Even though India lost on Sunday to Australia, they have chance to move on to the finals if they beat Sri Lanka today. As of now, Sri Lanka has finished batting and now India is due up. India's defense was outstanding they were able to get 10 wickets before 50 overs. If you want to know what that means I suggest doing a little reading and then try watching part of a game. I will try to keep adding some information about cricket as I continue to learn what is going on.

I am a Zombie

I am pretty much a zombie now. I don't know what the problem is but I cannot sleep at night. I might have slept a total of 6 hours over the past 2 nights and I think I might go insane. I try to go to sleep and all I do is lie there in the dark. When I finally fall asleep I pretty much toss and turn all night. The past 2 nights I have fallen asleep about midnight, slept on and off and then I am wide awake at 4:30am. This wouldn't be a problem if I could just get up and go to work but unfortunately, I don't go to work until 11am and leave work at 8pm. This makes for a long day. I am not one to take any type of sleeping pills so I guess I am just going to suffer through it.

Part of the problem might be the coffee here. The coffee is like rocket fuel with a boost of nitro.

Things I have learned about India

No pictures in the post, just an overview of some things that I learned about India. Feel free to ask questions in the comment section and I will try to answer them if I can. So here we go.

Cricket
Cricket is huge here. Cricket is loved here like we love baseball, football and basketball. Today was a big game for India. They were playing the Australians in the Quarter Finals and needed to win to move on. Unfortunately, India did not win but I did watch most of the game in the lounge while to talking to one of the employees of the hotel. I already spent some time reading about the game but he helped me understand it a little bit better. Cricket is like baseball where each side has a chance to bat but only once per side. So basically there is only one inning in Cricket even though the game goes on about the same length as a baseball game. I won't try to explain the game here because I don't fully understand it yet, I understand about 75% but I am sure I will have it down before I leave.

The Local Paper
Anyone who knows me knows that I have stay up with current events. Since I got the morning paper in my room I decided to read it front to back. This is what I learned.

Large Numbers
In India, large numbers aren't written out like we write them out and they don't use millions or billions. When describing large numbers, Indians use the word Lakh. A Lakh is basically 100,000 so when they are talking about 3 million they would say 30 Lakhs. When written out, which I understand is not common, it would be written as 30,00,000 instead of 3,000,000. You can read more about this here.

Celebrities
Celebrity news is just as big here is it is at home. Not only is there plenty of news about the celebrities here, the newspapers thoroughly cover the Oscars. I even spotted a small article in the paper about Brittney Spears being able to visit her children. That is all I have to say on that.

Drinking and Driving
Drinking is not big here in India, at least people here don't partake in it like a lot of us do back in the US but India still has its problems with it. I have read a few articles about people being killed in drunk driving accidents and the Government is even trying to rollback the "Last Call" time from 11:30pm to 10pm. Of course the hotels are pushing for a "Last Call" time of 12:30am. I can't even imagine getting behind the wheel of a car drunk and trying to drive in the traffic here. That in itself deserves a big fat label of "STUPID". I will get some video footage and post it within the week.

Yoga
I spotted daily yoga tips in the paper and I am not ashamed to admit that I tried a couple of the exercises. I am not sure if I got much benefit but I am here for awhile so I will report back on that.

Corruption in the Government
Yup, across all levels just like home.

Strikes
India has those too. Right now the Lorry (Truck) drivers and cab drivers are on strike. From my understanding and from I can gather this has to do with putting speed governors on the cabs and trucks. One driver told me that they wanted to govern the speed of cabs to 36 mph and the speed of trucks to 50 mph. I am not sure how true that is but I am sure that all of our cab drivers and truck drivers would probably strike too.

Funnies (Comic Strips)
They got 'em in the paper too. The same ones we read at home plus some local flavor.

Cell Phones
I thought we Americans overused cell phones. Guess what? We can't touch the itizens of India on the use of cell phones. You can SMS (text message) for just about anything here. SMS is advertised everywhere and for everything; I even think that one could open a bank account with a cell phone, just kidding. It does seem that everyone has a cell phone here. I asked a person how much cell phones cost and monthly plan rates so here it is, get ready to be jealous. From what I got one could purchase a cell phone for about Rs 1000 ($25). From there, per minute use for outgoing calls is Rs 1, yes that is 1 rupee and too small to convert to dollars. Every month after that the cell phone is recharged for about Rs 300 ($7.50). We pay a lot more at home and use the phone far less.

That is it for now. Feel free to ask me questions and I will try and find the answer. Until then, I am attempting to learn how to speak the local language, Kannada, from the nice gentleman, Lawrence, that takes me to work everyday.

Rickshaw Rollin'

I was advised by a couple of people who already traveled to India not to do this but I don't listen very well and decided I would take a 1 hour spin in a rickshaw. I was standing outside of my hotel deciding which way down the street I was going to walk when I was approached by about 3 different rickshaw drivers. I had no intention of going on a rickshaw ride but the 3rd rickshaw driver I met, Mr. VinayKumar, convinced me to go for a ride with him. I decided to go with him because he didn't really pressure me and we BS'd for about 20 minutes. I figured he was a nice enough guy so we hopped in his rickshaw and got to rollin.


If you have never been in a rickshaw just imagine it as a really small 3 wheel car that is driven using handle bars like a motorcycle instead of a steering wheel. Mr. Vinay let me know that traffic would not be too bad today since it was Sunday and the ride should be relaxing. Had it been a weekday he said he would have to swerve in out of traffic to get us to our destinations. He stilled swerved in and out but there was really no cause for concern. Things do get a bit scary when a bus is passing on the left and starting to merge, if you can call it that, into your lane at the same time. I didn't really worry about it because I figured he knew what he was doing. The first thing one must get used to is the constant honking of horns; drivers are constantly honking their horns.



Our first stop was the Court House. Mr. Vinay informed me that this Court House is were people challenged the rulings of lower courts. Kind of like our Circuit Courts I guess. He also told me that there is a higher court than this Dehli and I am guessing that works like our Supreme Court but don't quote on me on that. The picture I took is not so great but the building is pretty amazing and huge.


From here we made a u-turn, of course we did not wait for the traffic to allow this u-turn, to see the Government Building across the street from the Court House. Mr. Vinay informed me that the statue is of the first Prime Minister of India after India's independence from the British Empire. He then went on to explain to me the meaning of the flag of India. The saffron or orange color symbolizes the purity of a flame, the white symbolizes peace and the green symbolizes the Indian peoples relation to the soil. The wheel in the middle represents the law of dharma. More can be read about the flag of India here.
After all of this, Mr. Vinay took me through the back streets of old Bangalore. I didn't take any pictures at this time but I was surprised when we came out of the back streets and there was a huge hotel right next to it. The back streets were really tiny, not even enough room for a car to drive down. Little shops sat along both sides of the streets and people wondered along the roads. I plan on going out with Mr. Vinay again when I have more time and I plan taking some video footage so you can all see what driving is like in India.

The Setup

So here I am, I finally made it to Bangalore after some long flights. I left Phoenix, AZ at 12:32pm on Thursday February 21st and arrived in Bangalore around 2am Saturday February 23rd. Overall, the flights were smooth, uneventful and on time. Here is a quick overview of each leg:

Phoenix to Chicago


Distance: 1440 miles
Flight Time: About 3:30 hours

I don't have a lot to say about this flight except that I had to sit in the middle, no isle or window seat available. I got over it pretty quick because I knew I was sitting in business class during the next two flights. All I did was have some water, watch part of the movie Spun and read some of my book. We landed in Chicago, I made the long walk from my arrival gate to departure gate. I found a place to have a sandwich and then I called my lovely wife.

Chicago to Frankfurt


Distance: 4343 miles
Flight Time: About 7:30 hours

So I talked to Michelle for awhile and then it was time to board the flight. We started boarding about 45 minutes before take off. I got to my seat and I was happy to see how much room I had and that I would not have any difficulty getting up to go the bathroom even though I was sitting next to the window. All my happiness started to fade away as we waited, and waited, and waited to take off. We finally took off about an hour after our scheduled departure time. The pilot said all would be well and that we should still land on time in Frankfurt.

Once we were in the air it was time to get comfortable. The chairs on this flight were pretty comfortable since I could recline and kick my feet up. Again, I read a lot on this flight and watched the movie Michael Clayton. The movie was pretty good but the video monitor was terrible and sometimes I had trouble seeing the screen. I got about 3 hours of sleep on this flight and ate a lot of food. I can't tell you what I ate because I can't remember but I felt like the flight attendants were bringing food or drinks every 10 minutes.

Once we got over Frankfurt Airport the pilot told us we were being held in a holding pattern because of too much airport traffic. We circled for awhile and finally landed about an hour late. This was a little cause for concern for me because I had never been to this airport and I had no idea where my departure gate was.

Frankfurt to Bangalore


Distance: 4614 miles
Flight Time: About 8 hours

When I got off the plane in Frankfurt I was happy knowing that I only had one more leg to go and then I did not have to be on a plane for 2 weeks. I was pretty much already sick of flying at this time but I couldn't really call it quits and hang out in Frankfurt so I went to find my gate for my next departure. Frankfurt airport is a little confusing but the signs are in English so getting is to the next gate is not that hard just a bit frustrating. I actually felt like the signs were tricking me and taking me in the wrong direction. At one point I came into the main part of the airport where all of the restaurants and shopping were. I got concerned and wondered if I went past the security check points. All was well and I made it my gate.

Boarding works a little different at Frankfurt airport then it does at most US airports. At most US airports you can sit in the waiting area and when it is time to board you give your boarding pass to the agent waiting at the door. At Frankfurt the boarding area is gated off and you wait until the agents are ready to let you in. When they let you in, they scan your boarding pass and then you wait. When it is time to board you just walk onto the plane. I don't know which way is better but they are definitely different.

The airline for this flight was Lufthansa and I have to say that their business class seating is pretty awesome. I posted a small picture of my seat with the TV. Everything is done using a small remote control next to your seat. If you want to lie down then you press a button, if you want the sit to recline, just press a button. There was a fair amount of programming to watch and since I couldn't sleep anymore I decided to watch 3:10 to Yuma and Gone Baby Gone. Again, I felt like I was getting food every 10 minutes but no complaints here. I had a pretty good dish that was prawns, curry sauce and rice.

The bad part of the flight is I could monitor where the plane was, how fast the plane was going and how much time we had left. That is not a good thing for someone like me who checks there watch every 5 minutes because I kept checking how much time I had left. I did get a pretty nice picture from the window of the plane. I think we were over Iran or somewhere around there when I took this.

Bangalore
We landed at Bangalore International Airport around 1:30am and got off the plane pretty quick. Getting through immigration was not a big deal but it took forever for the bags to come out. I was a little concerned while I was waiting at the airport because I was told by our coordinator that the cab drivers were going on strike so I was not sure how was going to get to my hotel. My bags came out, I went through customs and luckily someone was waiting from the hotel I was staying at.

The drive to the hotel was about 5 minutes and only took me about 10 minutes to check in. I got up to my room, called Michelle and talked to her for awhile, took a shower and fell asleep for a long time. I think I went to bed at about 3am in the morning and I woke up about 3pm in the afternoon. Even though I am awake now I feel like I could go right back to sleep. I need to stay awake so I can adjusted to the time change before I go to work on Monday.

For now, I am going to unpack, take another shower and find something to eat. I hope to be able to get out and about on Sunday and see what is going on around Bangalore. So for now here are some shots from my room and I will update as soon as I get a chance.