From Banyans to Bosons

Trying to pick up where I left off in the last blog post for this trip to India is difficult, as I had a very early flight from Kolkata to Bangalore this morning, after a long bus ride from Dagrapur to Kolkata last night. I've taken lots of photos, and now that I'm at the SAP TechEd conference center, I can upload a few.

The first shot is from the roadside stop on the bus ride. It was dark (obviously) and this is a handheld, no flash shot. The image can't convey the atmosphere completely, as this is a far cry from typical rest stops in the U.S., sanitation-wise.



On the drive around Abesh's town, I took a few shots out the window while driving, so these motorcycle riders appear distorted as we moved in opposite directions.



Here's a traffic circle, or roundabout: go left, go left.



Another shot of traffic, this time with a slow moving bicyclist.



Some captive wildlife on the side of the road.



Abesh and Haimanti took me shopping, at a larger mall in the town. I'll spare everyone the shot of my pajama pants.



In the village near "the barrage", Abesh explained how the fuel is created from animal droppings and steel mill byproducts for cooking. It's being dried in the sun here.



This is on the road leading from the village back to the main road over the barrage.



It's the tie-die shirt seen elsewhere in the world.




Both Dipankar and Abesh, and all of their family members, were wonderful hosts. I wish I knew how to thank them properly.

A few of the above images have links to Picasa, with geo-locations that I think are correct. If not, they should be fixable.

Eat with your fingers, no spork needed

After months of planning and communicating, the time to get out of town arrived.



Minor hassle at the airport, with curbside checkin not possible for me. No problems with security or other travel hurdles, thank goodness.

I slept a bit on the plane from Atlanta to Paris, which like every other flight lately was full. In Paris, it was the next morning, though I didn't feel too groggy. Boarding the next flight was a little confusing, with no sections, and not much of a line. Once on the plane though, I had a little more sleep with little turbulence, landing in Delhi late Friday night. I noticed the majority of the plane was not Indian, but many French or other Europeans, with perhaps an odd American.

On Delhi, I found my backpack was not on the plane, meaning I needed to decide whether to continue on to Kolkata or wait for it there. After the travel agent helped get Abesh and Dipankar on the line, I decided to head for the hotel, then to Kolkata in the morning as planned.

some details glossed over

A side benefit of not having luggage to check was a lighter load, and less to deal with. After the 2 hour flight, I got to the baggage area but could not find Abesh. After several tweets, garbled phone calls, and standing around looking purposeful, I spotted him coming from the parking lot pictured above. We then traveled through the streets of Kolkata in a cab, eventually reaching Dipankar's apartment, where he was pacing nervously. I sat, we talked, and I was served food and drinks. A lot of attention and care is directed to guests here, where in the US someone might be more casually greeted or entertained.

Small logistics problem with not having my baggage check when we went out, as I was not thinking another trip to the airport was imminent, so we ended up takng extra time to get back. The city traffic was a new experience for me, with motor vehicles of all sizes competing with pedestrians and cyclists for road space, and horns being used constantly to announce either impending contact, or just warning the car was coming through.

Sunday morning we went to the AJC Bose Indian Botanic Gardens, which included a detour to get bus tickets for later, and waiting for the tour jitney to arrive. I have a lot of pictures from the lakes and trees in the Garden, which I can't easily post via the iPad. More later. I paid 10 times what the others paid for admission, which I had been warned about. It's a case of what the traffic will bear, I guess. And I didn't get to pay, either, because my hosts won't let me take care of anything.

In the afternoon I took a journey with Abesh to his home town, which is 180 kilometers or so from Kolkata, on an air-conditoned bus. Abesh warned me about a possible bottleneck during the trip, but what was unexpected was how aggressively the bus driver passed cars, motorcycles, trucks, and anything else on the road, constantly blowing his horn. Despite this, I was somehow able to get a little bit of sleep. We passed through Shaktigarh and Panagarh, the former being a short rest stop and the latter being the 2 lane bottleneck where speeds dropped dramatically. Fortunately we did not hit anything and arrived in Durgapur after dark.

Abesh got a " tuk-tuk" (3 wheeled cycle/cab) to his house, where I met his parents, and then after a short rest went to his in-laws where his wife and son were staying,

Abesh's father-in-law plays classical Indian music, and we talked about Ravi Shankar a bit. He said friends of his son had visited from Russia, but I was the first from America. He knows many neighbors who have gone to the US for school. The nicest thing he said was being honored by my visit.

sitting still for a time

Then it was back to Abesh's family home, where friends dropped by, and his mom served a lot of food (after me being asked would I like rice to eat). I figured out how to eat with my fingers, to the delight of the family. The worst thing I did was to try to pick up a few rice kernels that fell off my plate. Apparently guests can't do that. Besides the rice, there was lamb, fish, lentils, and chutney (I think) at the end. Abesh's mom hovered, paced, and worried whether I would like the food.

Ahir got a lot of attention, of course, and seemed to like me for short periods of time, I think my nickname will be "Jim-Uncle", according to Abesh.

Best Trip Evah

Tilman and his father sat next to the SAP Community Clue Train contingent, between Frankfurt and Berlin, on 09-Oct-2010. We six, or seven, or eight bloggers, mentors, and SAP code exchange stalwarts enjoyed ourselves with Mark Finnern's homemade Linzer Torte.

Craig Cmehil shared his "big boy" toys with young Tilman, letting him watch movies on the iPad and Touch to while away the hours on the train ride. I think the earphones also permitted us to share state secrets without the chance of Tilman overhearing.

I had asked my fellow riders for a quote about the trip; near the end our young friend pronounced this his "best trip ever!" I've used American vernacular for this post title, which I'm unsure how to translate into German (Deutsch) idiom. Perhaps a community member will fill me in?