The Monkeys Are Back!!

Just to update you that the monkeys have returned to East Marredpally! This morning Andi and I went down to the car park and were met with the sight of around 15 monkeys scampering from our apartment block across the road as the watchman wielded a huge stick at them to scare them off. Many of the monkeys look as if they have been in some sort of fight and they were certainly getting the local dogs backs up.

Please keep Andi in your prayers as she has to spend the whole day at home wondering if one of the little (and not so little) flying furballs might pay a visit through the window!

New Link Added

Most of our posts highlight some of the more humorous or unusual aspects of life in India, but both Andi and I have really been impacted by the reality of the way a lot of people are forced to live here in India. Because of the caste system, those who are thought of as "Dalits" (meaning "The Untouchables") are not even considered as human beings by some of those higher in caste.

A man who we hugely respect here, Joseph D'Souza, runs (amongst other things) an organisation called the Dalit Freedom Network. The aim of this organisation is to free these "Untouchables" from the oppression that caste forces upon them.

We have added in the link on the right hand side of this page, please have a look to find out more about this issue - an issue that we see in reality every day.

Going For A Stroll...

Just thought we'd give you an idea of what it's like to go for a stroll in downtown Hyderabad

The Massage

One of the gifts Andi bought me for Christmas was a massage and I decided to make an appointment on my day off (I have a day's public holiday due to India Republic Day). The overall experience was great, if not a little painful - but there were a couple of moments that could only happen in India:

1. Two power cuts do not prove a stumbling block to my masseur - he just carries on, in the pitch dark and complete silence.

2. Someone decides to start drilling in the room next door, causing the mood to be temporarily disrupted.

3. The masseur said at one point "Sir, I have to go get some more oil, as your body is very hairy"..

I do feel relaxed though.

When Bollywood Met Superman

Look out for some incredible special effects...

Autos On Strike

Just when we thought the roads couldn't get any busier, the autos (auto rickshaws) have decided to go on strike! There are over 100,000 autos in Hyderabad and because the Government in Andhra Pradesh are forcing them to switch from mechanical to digital meters (to reduce the possibility of the meter being tampered with), they have decided to take their little three wheelers off the road in protest. As of today about 20% of the 100,000 have begun working again, but on Friday (Republic Day) there is to be a state-wide strike in support of the Hyderabad automen. The Government have put on an extra 500 buses as a result, but this has only served to cause even more congestion.

The strike has also meant that the autos who are operating, are charging through the roof even on small distances. Andi had to pay 4 times what it should cost to take her back from the World Vision office to home. (Actually on the way there she had to walk for a few miles and then managed to get the bus for the rest of the journey, which was another interesting experience!).

Tata Indi-gone

Our beloved car, the Tata Indigo, had an interesting experience of its own last week. Andi and I had decided to check out one of the new malls that are springing up across Hyderabad. We parked the car and went inside to do a little shopping. Once done, we went up to the top level and had ourselves a relaxing lunch in one of the restaurants there. Finishing our food we decided it was time to head back home, so got down to the ground level, walked outside and....the car was gone!

Mild to not-so-mild panic set in. Where was it? Did we park somewhere else? Had it been stolen? If it had been stolen, who do we speak to?

There was a security guard standing near where we were and we asked him if he had seen anything. Although his English was not great, we were able to decipher that indeed the police had been in the area and had picked up a car. We inquired as to whether that car was a Tata Indigo and he gave the affirmative. It sounded like our car had been towed.

We jumped in the nearest auto and asked the driver to take us to the traffic police (which is different to the regular police). The first policeman we spoke to said that the shopping centre was actually on a border of two different police jurisdictions, and that our car was not with him, but could be with another office. So we jumped back in the auto and headed off again.

Once we got there, we saw our poor little car abandoned with two other cars that looked like they had been there since biblical times.

Now, in the UK, if this sort of thing were to happen, there would not only be a mountain of paperwork/admin, but also a hefty fine...not so in India...I signed two different slips, paid Rs. 300 (about £3.50/$7) and we were given the keys. We weren't even told "don't do this again" or "be careful next time", we were simple given a "here are your keys" and "thank you"!

Cambodia, Bangkok and Beyond...

I, Andi had just over a week in Cambodia recently. This was my first time to the country and was there for an emergency communications conference where a group of us had been handpicked for training, plus it related to my role in Asia Pacific. This training means when a high level emergency happens we are asked to fly out within 24 hours to respond.

At the start of the week those of us who had arrived on the Sunday afternoon took the opportunity to explore Phnom Penh and understand more of the history of Cambodia. This included a trip to the Tuol Sleng Khmer Rouge museum, the actual HQ of the party, where many people were tortured or imprisoned.

The Khmer regime is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people, estimates range from 750,000 to 3 million, under its regime, through execution, starvation and forced labor. Although directly responsible for the death of a large amount of that number, the policies of the Khmer Rouge led many others to die from starvation and displacement. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled, it was one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century. After four years of the brutal rule, the Khmer Rouge regime was removed from power in 1979 as a result of an invasion by Vietnam.



It was very moving and a reminder that though this period has passed in Cambodia, around the world today there continues to be many more wars, injustices and human rights abuses taking place in countries like Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Sri Lanka and so on. Sadly it’s often the vulnerable that suffer the most, woman, children and the elderly and though it was sobering and tragic to see these pictures and read some of the stories - many of which involved brainwashed or coerced child soldiers. It was also a powerful tug to my heart as to why I do my job, even as a tiny cog in a much bigger wheel, I can do a little bit that adds to the much more and that inspires me.

The week’s training also included a day’s simulation. Dropped off in rural Cambodia we had been split into three teams and as leader of the third team my group had to respond to a fake Super Typhoon and some of this meant setting up satellite phones and connections to send out global reports, stories and photos plus take footage, conduct interviews and handle rebels who held guns to us while questioning our presence in the village. A first…

We had originally been driven into the area and then as the truck stopped unexpectedly, post crossing a bridge that was missing most of its wooden slats… We were left in the village to make the rest of our way carrying our gear to the spot where we would set up camp and respond to the situation. This included taking a boat, which had seen better days across to the other bank. Unfortunately one of the girls in our group couldn’t swim and this was definitely not a boat with lifejackets! However we arrived safely.

Overall we handled all this well and learnt a great deal during the week, while having the chance to meet some fantastic, talented and passionate people in the process and the course leaders James, Kevin and Steve were inspiring, experienced World Vision guys. I also had a chance to catch up with Chris a good friend of Gareth and I, who I also worked with at WVUK and hear all about the World Vision Challenge Anneka Tsunami Boxing Day project he was organising!


(Chris using the old charm with Anneka)

The final day culminated in a Friday night boat trip, which included the team letting its hair down to karaoke and having a good boogie to the most eclectic and at times seriously dodgy music, while sailing down the Maekong, not an easily forgettable memory!

I then went onto Bangkok for four days, which meant meeting as our mini regional comms team, James, Katie and myself. We had a productive few days, getting to know each other better, planning strategies, an upcoming conf and sharing work plans and progress. Then home to find my lovely husband waiting for me at the gate, though apart for two weeks, which neither of us was looking forward to, the minute we were back together it felt like minutes… What a slush puppy I am!

A Flying Bullet

A guy, named Mr Wadia (who is a well known industrialist in India), managed to fly from Mumbai to Dubai today with a gun and 30 live bullets in his luggage. It was only discovered when he tried to get through security after arriving at Dubai. He was promptly arrested - although was released later, as he said it was his servant who packed the bag and he himself was unaware of the gun and bullets being there. It goes to show again the inefficiencies of Air India - although, in an interesting twist, it turns out he is actually the Chairman of rival airline, Go Air - so could it have been a huge publicity stunt?

One of the main problems and reasons for the security breach is that for important, influential and powerful Indians - and no-one disputes that Mr Wadia falls into that category - security checks at airports are cursory.

In addition to the previous post...

Driving Me Crazy

Just a quick summary of my (Gareth's) journey into work yesterday...

8:35am
I nearly hit a father and son on a motorbike because they went before their light went green and caused me to skid the car (big noise and everything) as my light was at green. (of course I got the usual initial look of disgust, followed swiftly by intrigue as he realised I was a whitie).

8:38am
Actually hit an auto rickshaw after it sandwiched me between itself and a bus (I just kept going as it really is not worth the hassle).

8:50am
Nearly got hit by another bus as the driver was looking behind him back into the bus, whilst at the same time pulling out in front of me across oncoming traffic.

8:55am
At least I got to work on time

Monkey Business

***THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED, SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS***

It seems that over the past couple days some new residents have moved into the local area...a family of monkeys!!

On Monday night, most people were out on their rooftops flying their kites in celebration of the Sankranti festival (everyone goes onto their roofs, flies their kites, and uses the wire - not string - that they are flying their kite with, to try and cut down everyone flying in the same vicinity as them). All was fine, until on one of the rooftops below us, about 8 monkeys sprang out of nowhere and caused the 10 or so people who were up there to scamper. Not that funny for them, but a little humourous for us on-lookers. They did see the funny side however, and laughing was heard for a good hour afterwards. The monkeys stayed, however, and have done ever since. Last night they were running amok with some of the local dogs and making a lot of noise in the process - not a nice noise, a monkey screaming.

We'll keep you updated with any more Monkey activity as it progresses...

***UPDATE***
I (Gareth) had to walk through a street lined with monkeys this evening with the shopping bag tight in hand. After one of them jumped out in front of me, I must have looked scared enough for the old man walking towards me to, first of all snigger (stupid whities), then offer some advice on whereabouts I should walk and how I should hold the groceries! The number of monkeys is about 12 now. One method the local children are using to get rid of them is to throw rocks. I can't imagine this will be the most effective of strategies. All for now.

Britain and India

an interesting article from the BBC...

Sea-change in UK-India relations

Gordon Brown, who is widely expected to be the next UK prime minister, begins his first trip to India on Wednesday. The BBC's India correspondent, Sanjoy Majumder, reflects on the changing times between London and Delhi.

"While we hold on to India, we are a first-rate power. If we lose India, we will decline to a third-rate power. This is the value of India."

The words of Lord Curzon at the turn of the 20th Century may well find a strange echo in the 21st century and as India enters its 60th year of independence.

India continues to captivate Britain, especially in the popular imagination.

So, Shilpa Shetty makes more news on Big Brother than she does in her own film industry, Bangladeshi-owned Indian restaurants have elbowed fish and chips shops off the high street, and hopes of an Ashes revival were pinned on a turbaned Sikh.

But the relations between India and Britain are grounded in a reality that goes beyond culture, curry and cricket.

'Brand Brown'

India is now the third largest investor in the UK, with more than 500 Indian companies opening offices there.

More importantly, nearly 1.5 million people of Indian origin live in Britain and that more than anything else is fuelling the relationship.

The British Asian community is steadily rising in prominence and is easily the most influential among the minority groups in the UK

Now, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who is widely expected to succeed Tony Blair as prime minister later this year, is arriving in India.

Amazingly, it is his first official visit to the country - a fact not unnoticed back home with many political opponents suggesting that he had missed the boat.

For Mr Brown it is an important visit, a chance to build brand Brown and demonstrate that he possesses the qualities of an international statesman.

But for India, it is Mr Brown's record as chancellor that can provide Delhi a glimpse of his approach and an outline of his vision for the future of the relationship.

For the past two years, Mr Brown has publicly warned about the growing economic clout of India and China, in particular the more than four million skilled graduates that both countries produce each year.

'Sea-change'

These are the people who are quietly making up the numbers in the UK workforce and, increasingly, calling the shots.

Britain faces tough choices in the era of globalisation, particularly because of low-cost production centres in India and China.

One solution, and one that is endorsed by the prime minister-in-waiting, is - if you cannot beat them, join them.

So nearly four centuries after an intrepid naval commander arrived in Surat to seek permission to trade with India, the saga continues. Except that the world of Captain William Hawkins is vastly different from that of today.

Perhaps the best illustration of the sea-change in trade relations is in the battle over India's mobile phone industry.

'Hardnosed reality'

UK telecom giant Vodafone is rolling up its sleeves in what promises to be a bruising takeover bid for Hutchinson Essar valued at nearly $20bn (£10bn).

Among its international rivals over the bid are the controversial UK-based billionaire Hinduja brothers. And pitching up for Vodafone is its Indian-born CEO, Arun Sarin.

So, a British company is competing with another British company for an Indian telecom firm - or, to put it another way, several Indians are slugging it out in the middle. So what if they have different coloured passports.

Perhaps it is a hardnosed reality or a maturity brought about by aged ties.

But the frosty sensitivity of the past, when a comment by Robin Cook on Kashmir raised hackles in India or a perceived slight to Queen Elizabeth II drew sharp comments from the British media, is clearly history.

Instead, it is the Clinton-campaign slogan of 1992 that appears to hold pride of place - it's the economy stupid. And the future of Britain is even more closely tied up with its former colony.

British Asians

But there is also politics.

The British Asian community is steadily rising in prominence and is easily the most influential among the minority groups in the UK.

And it is not just their votes that count.

Steel billionaire Lakshmi Mittal has pledged £2m ($4m) to the cash-strapped Labour party, almost certainly bailing it out of financial crisis. The party's deficit last-year amounted to nearly £27m ($53m).

This is perhaps the one major element in the Indo-Britain equation that India has perhaps underplayed, the British-Asian community and the value they bring to the relationship.

In a Britain that is embracing multiculturalism, the Asians appear to have pride of place.

If the first wave of Asians helped revive the retail shops on Britain's high streets, their children are now making their mark on the financial and business world.

British Asian influence has now crept into the arts, culture and music.

The sounds of the Asian Underground is more than a record label - it is a new genre of music.

And sporting icons Amir Khan and Monty Panesar may just mean that the next generation of Asians may well pass the Tebbit test - coined infamously in 1990 by the Conservative MP Norman Tebbit who suggested that people from ethnic minorities should not be considered truly British until they supported the England cricket team.

Politically influential and economically powerful, the British Asian community is a significant factor that will govern Indo-British relations and shape them in the decades to come.

Final twist

There is a delicious irony in this.

British colonialist Thomas Macaulay once famously aspired to create in India "a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste".

In modern, multicultural Britain, that has been turned on its head.

And there is a final twist in the tale.

The impact of British colonialism was felt most in India's cities - in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.

But the Asians of Britain today are largely drawn from small town Asia - from Surat and Navsari, Jalandhar and Ludhiana, Mirpur and Sylhet.

This is the constituency that will in many ways define British policy towards India.

Call it the revenge of the proletariat.

The Greatest Musical Collaboration Ever?

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Happy 2007!

Happy New Year! We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and want to wish you every blessing for 2007.

We had our first Christmas as a married couple in India and it was a really special day. We spent the morning together and shared a glass of champagne as we opened the various pressies from under the tree, then in the afternoon we had lunch in the Marriott hotel with some of our good friends in Hyderabad and enjoyed turkey, salmon, and some good old Christmas pudding (all imported of course!)

The next day we left for Melbourne and apart from the passport scenario (detailed below) we had such a lovely time with the family. It was really special to meet our two-week old niece for the first time and also to spend time with Nikki, Tim, Sam, Jo and of course Debs, Dorothy and David who were also in Melbourne. We helped organise with Nik, Tim and Debs an Aussie version with friends and family for Mum and Dad's 40th wedding anniversary celebrations, which after their UK event meant a relaxed 'do' in the lovely garden of Nik and Tim's home. This included speeches from the sons-in-law, a yummy ice cream cake and song from Andi (requested by Mum!), plus lots of relaxed conversation and sunshine.

We went down to Melbourne's city centre for the fireworks display, which was beautiful and sampled a fantastic atmosphere with the local crowds.


New Year's Eve (or Hogmany) in Melbourne...

We also spent a couple of days in Sydney where I (Gareth) had some work to do and Andi managed to go for a swim in the sea near her old home in Bronte. We were also able to meet up with Ali B (a good friend from the UK) and catch up on what has been happening at home. Ali also had a spare ticket for the Ashes, so I saw the last few hours of day two in Sydney, which was great.

We then flew on to Singapore and spent the first day exploring the city and stocking up on some of the essentials not available in India. Day two was Andi's Christmas pressie from me - a day at a spa. We both had a few treatments and definitely felt the better for it before our long flight home (again, details below). That night we visited the world famous Raffles Hotel and both enjoyed the signature Singapore Sling. It was a fun experience and we also had a great meal at the hotel's steakhouse (I have had to eat as many steaks as possible during the trip to get my red meat fix before flying back).

Andi with a Singapore Sling


It is great to be back home and we are both looking forward to getting back into work and catching up with our friends and life here. At this point there is no more travel planned until March when Andi has a work conference in Cambodia, so we at least have a chance to stay put a while.

A little difficulty...

It all began when the travel wallet carrying our passports, visas, air tickets, and ashes tickets went missing in transit. The holiday was fantastic, a great time in Melbourne with the family and meeting our beautiful new niece, then two days in Sydney and onto Singapore. In Melbourne, we were able to replace the passports, the Indian visas, and I even got to go to the Ashes in Sydney. All the airline tickets, except the Air India tickets, we were able to replace easily as they were e-tickets. We had tried all week to contact the Air India office, to no avail, so decided to arrive at the airport earlier to make sure we made the flight. However, this is where the wheels began to come off a little.

The Air India ground staff told us they did not accept e-tickets or even the receipt we had with us, which had both our reservation numbers and booking details, and that we had to go back into Singapore city and cancel the missing tickets and buy new paper ones. This would have meant an extra two-night stay in Singapore as the next day was Sunday and the office was closed. Obviously this was far from ideal. However, after much negotiation and many “can I speak to your manager” comments, we finally came to the solution that we could buy two new tickets and get them delivered to the airport asap by a 24-hour travel agent, then apply for a refund on our return. So this is what we did.

This then enabled us to get through to the departure gate to our 9.20pm flight on time - plus as there were a few gifts we had promised to bring back to India, we were able to do a super quick trolley dash including my saying the phrase “keep the change” to a toy store employee – something she hadn’t heard much I’m sure.

Once we got to the gate, there were still passengers going through security and, in fact, we ended up waiting a little while before boarding. Once boarded, we eventually took off around 15 minutes late. However, all did not seem right. The cruising altitude seemed very low and the plane continued to turn from left to right on a regular basis. An hour into the flight we noticed that the seatbelt sign had not yet been turned off, the captain then announced that the radar was not working and the plane would have to return back to Singapore. By the time we landed in Singapore, it was around four hours since the original take off time. The organisation on our return to resolve the situation and establish the next course of action for each passenger was was slightly chaotic and a little reminder of our new home, India! No queue. No order. No chance.

However to be fair, an hour or so later we had managed to get our revised tickets onto an alternative flight, this time with Indian Airlines the following morning and were on our way to find somewhere to lay down for the seven hours we had until our new flight was due to take off. At this short notice the airport transit hotel was fully booked, so where did we end up…. That’s right a massage table in the Rainforest Spa with a blanket and pillow each! Air India covered the cost for this ‘bed’ and a shower and we did get a couple of hours sleep, despite the lights being near full beam, the Spanish guitar music still pumping through the speakers, and a man with the longest and possible loudest snore sleeping within 10 yards of our makeshift beds.

We had gone past tiredness at this point, but thankful we were safe and had a flight back home to Hyderabad, which meant we were both able to be at work the following morning.


Our makeshift beds...