From the frying pan...

We have always been told to expect the real hot weather from March to May...

...well...

...it has begun...

...in February! The last few days have been in the low 90's and it's only expected to get hotter in the coming weeks and months. Of course, Andi and I have had the experience of tropical Scotland and Northern England to acclimatise ourselves, but I'm thinking that this may feel slightly different.

One of my colleagues told me that he thought he might be able to judge the temperature outside by the redness of my face!

On Our Travels

Well, it has been nice to be in Hyderabad for a prolonged period, but it all changes this week. Tomorrow Andi heads off to Thailand for a 10-day conference with World Vision Asia Pacific. She will be in Bangkok for meetings and final conf planning for the first few days and then off to Pattaya for the remainder of the time where she will be speaking at a few seminars and planning a disaster simulation in the field for the teams involved. She'll then have about two weeks back home in Hyderabad before heading off to another conference, this time in Chennai, India for just over a week.

On Thursday, I (Gareth) get the evening train to Bangalore (which takes 12 hours) to visit some of my colleagues and also attend a wedding, which is actually in another state called Kerala (I'll be going there by bus...6 hours), before heading back to Bangalore and then home to Hyderabad early next week. (At least this trip cuts down the number of nights I have to cook for myself!)

Living In Hyderabad - Part One: The Driving

Many of you have asked us, what is it like to live in India? Obviously it is difficult to put it into words, but we thought we might share a series of videos with you, starting today, on our day-to-day lives here in Hyderabad...and what better place to start, but with the driving. Andi is the driver and we are on our way to my work...

(by the way,if the video is stopping and starting, let it load completely and then play from the beginning, it should play smoothly once you have done this)

Scotch-Indian

News today that an Indian is ready to take over a Scottish drinks icon...(by the way he is the second alcoholic drinks magnate in India to also own an airline, Kingfisher being the other...it has never seemed a great combination to me, drink and flying!)

Indian eyes Scottish whisky giant
An Indian businessman could be the owner of one of the UK's most famous whisky firm within two weeks, according to press reports. Vijay Mallya has been linked with Glasgow-based Whyte & Mackay since last year but is set to clinch a deal, the Hindustan Times says. Mr Mallya's UB Group is reportedly scrutinising the firm's books ahead of a £550m takeover. Whyte & Mackay's brands include the Jura and Dalmore single malt whiskies. It also owns the Vladivar Vodka and Glayva liqueur and Kingfisher beer labels. Mr Mallya also owns an airline and a fashion label.

Whyte and Mackay said in October 2006 that it had received an unsolicited offer from UB Group. Now the Indian newspaper says a deal is believed to have been agreed and that "the formalities would be completed within a fortnight". P.A. Murali, chief financial officer of UB Spirits confirmed that the process of looking at Whyte and Mackay's books, known as due diligence, is underway. But he said it would be "speculative" to comment on when an agreement would be signed. UB Group dominates the Indian spirits market, which is the world's largest for whisky. But Scotch whisky has only a 1% foothold in the Indian market, because of the tariffs imposed by national and state governments there.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/6381339.stm
© BBC MMVII

Ramoji Comedy

A couple of moments that made me laugh during the trip with my colleagues to Ramoji Film City...check out that landing!

A Weekend Of Firsts

When you live in a place like India, you find that everyday you see something or experience something that you have never seen or experienced before. This weekend was definitely a weekend of firsts for me (Gareth), here's the list...

First first: I had a toddy.
In Scotland, to have a toddy is to have a whiskey. In India, it is something a little different. On Saturday I was heading to Ramoji Film City (a bit like Universal Studios in the USA) with some work colleagues and we had stopped to have some breakfast by the side of the road. As we were standing there a guy arrives on his motorbike dressed in his underwear and a unkempt shirt...and a rope around him (picture the Indian Indiana Jones). He proceeds to drive passed us to a nearby tree. At the top of the tree there were four or fives items hanging - which I thought were coconuts, but it turns out they were pots. The pots collect the dew from the palm trees, this guy climbs the tree to collect whatever dew has been caught in the pots overnight and he sells the juice either direct (which is diluted with water) or to a local toddy shop, who add some sort of chemical to the juice and make it into alcohol. Now, 8am is a little early for an alcoholic beverage, but we decided to buy some of the pure juice from him (literally just collected from the tree) and actually it was quite refreshing! See the video below where the guy is collecting the juice from the pots (sorry about the camera angle, I wasn't really thinking when I was filming!)



Second First: I ate a chilly
Indian food is spicy - of that there is no doubt. However, Andi and I have definitely begun to acclimatise to the local cuisine and can handle a great deal more spice than when we first arrived. During my visit to Ramoji on Saturday, we had a snack time. The snacks were the usual, samosa, french fries, sandwich. However, there was also a green chilly on each plate. I was holding it in my hand and told by my colleagues (who I thought were to be trusted) that this particular chilly was not actually that hot. After a few moments of quiet consideration, I decided to take a bite. I knew at once (partly due to the surprise and gleeful delight in the faces of those around me) that this indeed was a rather hot chilly. Stinging my mouth first, the sensation then worked it's way to my nose, then eyes, then throat. I coughed, spluttered, and began to cry (like a real man, of course) and water bottles were flung at me from all directions. That may be the last chilly I eat for a long time.


Third first: The Road-side Coconut
We have always been warned not to eat too much from the side of the streets - especially that which has already been cut or opened. However, I have often seen the vendors at the side of the road selling coconuts that they cut open, insert a straw and sell to drink the coconut milk directly. This is something I have been wanting to do, so on Saturday evening as I passed one vendor, I stopped and purchased my first coconut for Rs. 5. I took one sip and decided it may not be wise to use the straw they had given, so drove all the way home with one hand holding the coconut and the other holding the wheel (not easy reverse parking when holding a coconut, don't say I didn't warn you!). It turned out that once I had poured the juice into a glass and had a drink, I didn't really like it, but I am glad I tried it.

My first birthday... in India

I (Andi) had a really lovely birthday this year, a surprise weekend planned by Gareth started early on the Saturday morning when we visited parts of the city we had not had a chance to get to yet. This included the Qutub Shahi Tombs, that are a stunning display of blended architecture including Persian, Hindu and Pathan, plus explains some of Hyderabad’s history. Amidst beautifully laid out gardens of Ibrahim Bagh there are seven tombs, erected in memory of the departed kings of Golconda. Kings and Queens have lain buried here for over 500 years, around the time the city was forged and you can see Golconda Fort (the old city) in the distance perched on the hill.


Gareth had planned a number of things, which incorporated all the places or activities he knew I had wanted to visit. One was having a massage, which was very relaxing after a long/busy week at work. Thankfully unlike Gareth’s comment from the masseur, I was not told I was too hairy! In fact it was the opposite, as many Indian women do not shave their legs but often their arms, which are more visible.. They are intrigued as to why Western women do and she enquired as to where my hair had gone?!

Later we had a lovely and romantic dinner at the beautiful Marriott Hotel in Hyderabad, where we also stayed for the night. It was such a treat and a few friends who work there had helped Gareth make it even more special. The picture below shows the view from our bedroom window.


Then Sunday my actual birthday, we were woken with an early morning phone call from Australia with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and nephews singing, ‘Happy Birthday’ in beautiful harmony and high volume! We had a quick swim in the pool, breakfast and then went round one of the famous museums in Hyderabad (Salar Jung), which again was a good way of understanding more of the history of Hyderabad, its heritage and rulers over the years.

After a relaxing lunch we popped over to share some birthday cake with Ben, Libby and Shane (3 days old at that point!) and then home to collapse and relax, including taking a few phone calls from family and good friends from the UK, was nice to hear their voices and hear their news.

The following evening we had arranged a dinner with some of our friends here after work. Though it was officially planned for my birthday, it was as much to catch up properly with people, eat great food and enjoy good conversation. There were around 16 of us, a mixture of Indians and expats, with a couple of friends including our neighbours Chitra and Rahul meeting others for the first time, meant it was fairly mixed group of people but we all had a lovely evening.


Overall I can safely say this was a truly special birthday in India and one I won’t forget!

Flower Power

It is wedding season here in Hyderabad - February considered an 'auspicious' month for Hindu's to get married - and nothing says "I love you" more, than a little bit of flower power! We passed this car as it waited for the bridal party to emerge and thought we had to share it with you all. The amount of flowers used means there's certainly no need for air freshener (however it may not be so easy to see out of the windscreen)!

New arrival...

We would like to announce a new addition to our family. Wait, before you get excited or start questioning why we didn’t tell you, look below…..

That’s right we are now proud owners of our first ever air con unit. Isn’t it beautiful - the rough hardboard in wood chip colouring, the perfect whiteness of its shiny new buttons, we even have a remote! In all seriousness as the weather starts to go up into the 40’s over the next few months this is going to be essential. Not wanting to spend money on installing air con in the whole house we just have the one, but most importantly it's in our bedroom so we can sleep at night. But we've been assured that the cool air should creep into the rest of the apartment.

On a more exciting and important note we want to say a huge congrats to a number of friends who’ve had babies recently, one set of friends in Hyderabad gave birth literally this morning! Ben and Libby we cannot believe that after having dinner with you the night before we might have triggered the early birth of Shane! We are so happy for you both and cannot wait to spend time with him. Lib maybe when he’s older we can introduce him to the delights of swimming in our local pool!


Also a massive congrats again to Dave& Ro, Fi & Pete and Alistair & Catherine on the birth of their sons. We are really excited about the new additions to your family and hope that in the not too distant future, as we are scattered across the world we might get to spend time with you all.

It's A Small World

We thought it might be interesting for you to see the breadth of countries represented by people visiting our blog in the last 24 hours. We've still got a bit of work to do on South America and Africa (come on Spearsy!)

(as with all our photos, you can click on the image below to see a larger version)

A Cold Snap?

It sounds like many of you (especially in the UK and USA) are experiencing some bitterly cold weather at the moment, so we thought we'd add a weather outlook to the webpage....(has anyone any spare sun tan lotion?)

Do you still want to be our friends?

The Joy Of Playing

Last weekend when we played cricket, there was a little Dalit boy playing cricket with his grandmother next to us. As we have previously mentioned, Dalits are the "untouchables" of Indian society - some upper castes do not even recognise them as human. Despite this, it was so great to see this kid enjoying himself, the same way any kid in the world does when they are playing. Here is a short video of him...

What are you listening to?

Recommendations for some of the music we’re listening to, books we’re reading and DVD’s we’ve watched… What are yours…?

Music

- Once Again, John Legend
- The Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
- Continuum, John Mayer
- Standing In The Way Of Control, The Gossip
- World Through Your Eyes, Reuben Morgan
- Marga Darshan, Aradhna


Books

- Searching For God Knows What, Donald Miller
- The Sound of Laughter, Peter Kay’s autobiography
- Empire, Niall Ferguson
- News From No Man’s Land, John Simpson (Thanks Nik & Tim for the loan!)
- Lead Like Jesus, Ken Blanchard


DVD’s

- Season 7 of The West Wing... we have an addiction!
- The World’s Fastest Indian, starring Anthony Hopkins
- Still Game Series 5
- Water, by Eric Seema, Raghubir Yadav, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and Dolly Ahluwalia Tewari

Christmas in February...

Our watchman Srinivas and his wife have a little boy called Chintu. He is possibly one of the cutest little boys you will meet and incredibly shy. Whenever I (Andi) see him I always say hi or ‘Namaste’ and try and use a little Hindi - generally establishing a friendship with him. The other week I gave him a balloon animal I was given while leaving a restaurant after lunch with a friend - his face was a picture, as he had never seen anything like it. Glancing up at me he gently smiled his thanks.

He never usually speaks or initiates conversation, however he is always curious to see what we ‘whities’ do, or when his father brings up post etc he stands at the door staring into our apartment. So imagine my surprise the other day when waiting for the lift to arrive, Chintu runs towards me and opens his mouth to say, and bear in mind this is now February, “Happy Christmas ma” - I had made a break through!

At Christmas, Gareth and I gave his family and others working in the block, a gift in an envelope marked "Happy Christmas", plus he must have remembered us wishing people ‘Happy Christmas’, as so many times in the past they have wished us ‘Happy Diwali’ or whatever weekly Hindu festival is taking place! So now my friend Chintu can’t stop speaking to me, generally in Telugu the local language, which I don’t really understand. But again the other day he came rushing after me saying, “car, car” as I had left one door open, he had noticed and wanted to warn me.

I love these moments here. They may not seem that amazing or even interesting, but to me it was very special and as I see so many kids scrabbling in bins, working on the streets, begging for money, it is good for the heart to see my little buddy smile. As my birthday approaches and I look forward to celebrating with my husband and friends over dinner, I decided to say to those who were asking me what I would like for a gift this year, to consider instead donating that money or whatever they chose… to the Dalit Freedom Network, which we highlighted in a previous blog.

It sounds so pious I know and I cringe at that, but I do have so much and it’s a small way for me to reconcile some of the poverty we see every day, as close as the next street or the garbage skip up the road. So thank you to my in-laws Gillian, Linda and the family for their generosity and to other friends who may do this. And hey I’m no angel, Gareth still had to buy me a gift to open on the day!

Caste clouds India's high hopes

Indians want to see their country punch its weight around the world - but are worried the caste system is holding it back, a BBC poll suggests.

Almost two-thirds of respondents in the World Service poll said India being an economic superpower was important.

But 55% thought caste issues were still a "barrier to social harmony".

Visitors to BBC websites chose questions for the survey. A nationally representative sample of 1,616 Indians was interviewed in December.

The poll found that a majority (71%) are proud to be an Indian.

Most also thought it was important that India should be a political (60%) and military (60%) superpower.

A majority were optimistic about many aspects of the modern Indian state - more than half (55%) think the Indian justice system treats rich and poor people fairly, a statistic which some may find surprising given perceived failures in the police and courts.

Nearly as many (52%) think being a woman is no barrier to success any more.

And the survey found that twice as many people (48%) would rather work for a private company than for the government (22%).

But on other topics respondents were less positive.

Forty-seven percent agreed that "corruption is a fact of life which we should accept as the price of doing business in today's world", although younger people were less tolerant of corruption than older people.

And if Indians are agreed on the need for India to be an economic superpower, they are less sure they are seeing the fruits of recent economic growth.

Asked whether India's economic growth over the past 10 years had benefited them and their families directly, exactly the same proportion (45%) said that it had, as disagreed.

One in two (50%) felt that "people in India don't take their religion seriously enough", while two in five (40%) believed that "young people have lost touch with their heritage and traditions".

In total 1,616 citizens in India were interviewed between 5-15 December 2006.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/6320413.stm

Published: 2007/02/05 00:03:10 GMT

© BBC MMVII

A Sporting Chance

Well, it was almost inevitable, but finally I (Gareth) have succumbed to the call of India's unofficial national game...cricket! Yes, on Saturday morning I donned the whites and headed off on the back of a teammates motorbike (which was great fun in itself) to bat, bowl, field, and sunbathe.

...and it was a huge success. We were playing a team made up of colleagues from another company and we beat them handsomely by 6 wickets (they were 138 all out and we were 139-4). It was a really great way to spend a Saturday morning, and although I didn't get a chance to bat (because our top order batsmen were too good and finished it off early), I really enjoyed the match. It is actually a great way to get to know people and as the team was made of my colleagues from work, it meant getting to know them a lot better.



It sounds like we may be playing the same team again in a month's time, so I am looking forward to that.

On Sunday, I had my second opportunity to have a round of golf at one of the local courses - and although the fairways are not perfect flowing lawns (due to the intense heat), it actually is a pretty good course. I also won the golf, so am feeling pretty good about myself at the moment, although I know I need to keep my feet on the ground and understand there is still a long way before I can compete with Tiger.

(the only problem with the course is that they charge Rs. 1000 (approx £12) for foreigners and Rs. 150 (approx £2) for locals - a bit hard to take, but you do get a knowledgeable caddy who helps with club selection and other tidbits, so I can stomach the higher fee for the moment)

Tata - An Integral Part Of Indian Life

Before reading this article, you should be aware that we drive a Tata Car, drink Tata (Tetley) Tea, and watch Tata Sky Television. It is another indication of how fast the Indian economy continues to grow. (thanks to Adam for pointing out this article)
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"We also make steel."

This was the triumphant punch line of a happy Tata Steel television commercial not very long ago.

The commercial wasn't wide of the mark.

If you wake up in India, you are likely to sip Tata tea, make early morning calls on your Tata mobile phone and take a Tata sedan to work. There is a good chance that you will be wearing a Tata watch or shoes sold by Tata as well. Back home, you may be leaving your wife and children surfing more than 100 channels on the local direct-to-home television system launched by Tata along with Star.

Your children may work in any of the Tata companies which already employ nearly 250,000 people or opt for higher studies at a science or social sciences school run by the Tatas. If you fall ill, you might head to the nearest Tata hospital.

If you are growing up in India, the smoke-belching Tata buses and trucks are among the first vehicles you will ever see in the cities and countryside. Two years ago, the oil-epic Syriana starring George Clooney opened with a shot of oil workers struggling to get into an overloaded Tata bus.

There is no other Indian business conglomerate which quite dominates the lives of middle-class Indians the way Tata Group does with its 96 companies, seven business divisions. Its turnover of $21.9bn, unsurprisingly, equals nearly 3% of India's gross domestic product (GDP).

There is also no other Indian company which straddles the new and old economy with equal ease - the group owns the country's largest integrated steel company with a 100-year-old flagship plant, and Asia's largest software company, which is also one of the biggest employers in the country.

Now that Tata Steel has won a tense takeover battle for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus, with a bid of £5.75bn ($11.3bn), the group seems finally ready to flex its considerable muscles on the international stage.

In recent years, under Ratan Tata, the Tatas have become hungrier.

Last year the group set up a new drug discovery centre, signed deals to launch hotels in Qatar and build a new undersea submarine cable linking India, the Middle East and Western Europe. It also entered China with its software company in collaboration with the Chinese government and Microsoft.

The group bought a stake, too, in an international vitamin water company, sold its four-millionth vehicle in India, bought hotels in Boston, plotted a coffee plant in Uganda and entered the promising direct-to-home television market in India.

For the moment few companies in India or Asia can match Tata for the range of goods and services it offers.

Aradhna

On Tuesday night, we had a real treat as we attended our first live music concert in Hyderabad. The band were called Aradhna (which means "worship") and the venue was one of the local Hindu temples. Despite the fact the band were Christian, it was refreshing to see how the Hindu and Christian community worked closely together to put this event on. The band is made up of two Americans (who were both born in India), a Brit and an Indian. It was an amazing concert and something we will both remember for a long time.

The level of musicianship was also outstanding with one of the American guys Christopher mostly singing in Hindi while playing the sitar, the atmosphere in the venue was really unique. We got a chance to speak with the musicians afterwards and congratulate them on a great performance, plus pick up a CD so we can listen to the songs at home. Hopefully this will be the first of many such events that we get a chance to experience during our time in India.

If you want to find out more about the band or check out some of their unique sound, log onto www.aradhnamusic.com.