odzer's blog

Well the media in India has been full of news about Chinese activities on the Indian frontiers. There is considerable consternation about what goes on there. So in the spirit of,  “curiosity killed the cat”. I have decided to investigate myself! I am just joking, the actual fact is that I got so very bored sitting at home baking cakes and writing this stupid blog that I needed some adventure and I just went for a 20 day holiday across 7 Indian states and 2 foreign countries (Well I am going to count 10 minutes that I was in the PRC as well) for some cheap thrills.

So back to the evil Chinese….

I was in the state of Arunachal Pradesh or what the Chinese refer to as “Southern Tibet” for a few days. I went to the city of Tawang just before the visit of HH The Dalai Lama who was due there to inaugurate the new multispecialty hospital in the city. The whole area was awash with rumours of the impending invasion of the Chinese, all the way from Tezpur, Assam to the last city i.e. Tawang in India. Well to be honest, these people have some rather bitter experiences from the 1962 war when Tawang fell under Chinese occupation/administration for a couple of days.

On the border proper, which is about 40 Kilometres away from the city of Tawang and about 500 Km away from the city of Lhasa in Tibet, there was an air of quiet except for the howling winds. I met a couple of Punjabi soldiers and we exchanged some pleasantries and they merrily let me cross the international border in to China without any problems for 10 minutes. Of course they were themselves standing on Chinese soil at that moment when I joined them. Apparently Chinese do not like to stand right on the border and they have built for themselves cosy little watch towers just around 10 kilometres away from the main border from where they can keep watch on the Indian long nosed devils.

What is very striking on the border is that there is no permanent structure on the Chinese side of the frontier. So whereas the Indians have built for themselves a permanent border post, the Chinese make do with tents. The reason that I could make out was that the Chinese do not really consider this to be a permanent “border”.  So they are waiting for some unfinished business to be “finished”.  The other thing that struck me a lot was the construction of roads right up to the Indian border. These roads are of good quality as compared with the solitary Indian road leading up to the border that requires 4X4 vehicles.

What is also remarkable is the attitude of the Indian soldiers posted on the border. On our way to Tawang from Tezpur we gave lift to a soldier of Indo Tibetan Border Police who was extremely nervous because he was late for reporting to his post. He had been posted on the border for the past 3-4 years and was quite aware of how bad the Indian defence situation is. He told me that at the place where he is posted, the Chinese can drive right up to them, whereas for them it means a 2-3 day trek depending on the situation that prevails.

So all in all, I would say this. There is something fishy going on at the border between India and China. Why do I say it? Well simply because there is a lot of army movement up there. There are a lot of rumours and there is a lot of heat about the border in the media. I hope that there are no wars but if in case there is one. I am sure that this visit to Tawang would make you all appreciate the kind of situations that the local people have to endure. I am going to do a number of posts about my latest adventures. I hope that you all enjoy them.

On the 13th we voted in Chandigarh, Usually for me its just a two minute walk to the polling station. On the way I stopped to have a chat with the father of a friend who was sitting at a political party’s tent. Inside the polling station I was surprised to see a line of people waiting to cast their vote because usually its just a walk in and walk out affair. After a wait of around ten minutes I could show my identity and proceed to vote.

As I had expected the congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal won by quite a margin. This election was special in Chandigarh because of two reasons. The first we had major parties trying to win the seat for the first time, in the past it was only a competition between the Congress and the BJP. Second voters turned out in huge numbers, in some parts of the city voting reached 85%, over all the city vote percentage was around 65%. On a sadder note the brother of the BJP candidate died after election results were declared due to a heart attack. When you are the richest city in the country you don’t usually expect such percentages. The people this time were determined to come and show their resolve to vote. It was very nice to see many first time voters and young people. The atmosphere in the polling center was polite and respectful. The guy who marked my finger even called me “Sir”. Something that I don’t really expect from an Indian public servant.

I would encourage everyone to vote in the next elections whenever they get a chance. Not because your vote will or not make a difference but because you can vote. Although I am opposed to compulsory voting I think when people get the encouragement they will come out. As for the mark on my finger now I am curious how many months it will take to vanish, however the one good thing about this is that I can now be amazed at how fast finger nails grow.

Some days ago I wrote a post about Indian love with Milk. India is also a country that loves its sweets. One of the most interesting aspects of Indian culture is the “Goli” or the “Mithi Goli”. Perhaps as with everything I write on it is only confined to the part of the country where I live but nevertheless for the sake of convenience I will address it as a uniquely Indian characteristic. A “Goli” usually in Indian parlance refers to a candy. However it also has another sweet meaning, it is something that can be vaguely described as behaviour or words that are used to escape from an undesirable act or situation. The easiest way to understand the Goli is to perhaps to give an example in its most western equivalent, the classic “Your check is in the mail.” Or “Don’t call us, we will call you.”

However Indians take this art to a new high. You can come across it almost on an every day basis. Companies use it, people use it and even the government seems to pass a Mithi Goli now and then. When my Dutch business partner and I started working together to set up an outsourcing business in India we came across the goli so much that soon even my Dutch partner started to recogonise this term. We made deals with many IT companies who promised us efficient, time bound delivery. Nothing of course ever came out of such deals. Every time they had a new excuse for not delivering on time and wanted more time. Some lied to us at the beginning that they were equipped to handle the work but later we discovered that they had no such capabilities. Slowly we learned the ropes after opening an office for which we had employees, which managed to slip us some golis as well. At the end I have perfected a system in which is nearly goli-proof.
However in my personal life things are not always that perfect. I am still golied at times. Take for example this huge Indian bank who wanted me to set up an account with them. They called me up and made an appointment. I waited and waited and no one showed up. The next day they called and pretended as if nothing had happened the previous day and again sought an appointment. I again gave them the time and this time I get a call around the time when their person was supposed to visit me and the woman on the phone says :

“Sorry our executive is a bit late”
I reply, “I do not want to do anything with your bank anymore, If I can not even trust you with an appointment. How can I trust you with my money?’’
End of conversation….

A while later the phone rings again and its her again and she has the nerve to tell me that they were only a little late! However this is just a small instance. In the month of December I purchased a new air conditioner. The guys sent by the store where I purchased it installed the air conditioner. When I tried to use it a few weeks ago it did not work. I called the people who installed it and they passed me to the store. The guy at the store passed me on to the company in question who manufactured the product. The company shrugged me off saying they did not install it. So I was tired of all this wrangling and decided to get my neighbour to send me their air conditioning people. They arrived and did another shoddy job. Now I had no option but to keep chasing these people and so I began calling them. Every time they answered and told me they would be at my place in ten minutes but no one ever showed up. I must have called close to 100 times in 4-5 days. Sometimes there would be no answer. Finally they got the message that I would not give up and demanded more money to fix something that they should have taken care of in the first instance and I was so aghast at their attitude I wanted to throw them out but I had no option but to use them because I wanted to hold them accountable. So I used them and paid them a bit more.
Now I am not saying that people do not lie, cheat or loot people in other countries by any means. What I am saying very clearly is that in India it happens more often than anywhere else that I can think of. I have never been cheated and lied to so much anywhere other than here. So the next time someone here assures you that it would be done, think twice. Although you will have no choice but to take their word, do not be completely sure that they will ever deliver because the art of Goli my friends is perfected here. This is the reason that India will never be a developed country — ever! Do not be taken by any propaganda that you may hear otherwise. If people do not stick to deadlines or if they do not deliver as they promise how can you ever trust them? Sure they are cheap but ultimately the charm of cheap wears off.

Chail is the former Summer capital of the erstwhile Kingdom of Patiala. It is located in the Himachal Pradesh and is near the town of Solan. I had never been to this place even though it is only a few hours drive up hill from Chandigarh. Interestingly this weekend came about because it was the anniversary of some of my friends Royal Enfield Motorcycle Club. So some of us poor non-biking sorts could tag along as well. Obviously I did not go on a motorcycle but in a rather comfortable car. If you ever travel with a large group of people, the one thing that is quite apparent and clear is that you will never leave on time.

So after we left we pretty much broke away from the bikers and did our own thing. Most of the mountains at this time of the year are dry. It is thus a season when there are a lot of ‘forest fires’. When it has rained the mountains are full of greenery but at this time they can be just quite brown and golden in colour. After a rather bumpy, dusty and exhausting drive we reached Chail.

I must say it is not a place that can be termed as ‘tourist paradise’. There is precious little to see but there is a lot of nature about. It can be interesting to just walk around and look at various small things. However since we stayed in a ‘resort’ and we were around 40 people along with another group of doctors that were present in the same resort for some sort of conference on diabetes. It was quite crowded. So I just hung around a small group of my friends. We hit the arcade. I learnt how to play pool. We played a bit of basketball. We overate at the buffet meals and tried to play some board games.We tried to sit in my hotel room balcony though but a monkey had that for himself and would not let us outside. However I think a one day trip with all of such activities packed in it can be quite exhausting. So we just drove back the other day after it was all ‘over’. In fact I guess the trip back to Chandigarh was sort of more interesting.

I guess if I had to go to Chail again I might do it. I will skip the resort bit though.

I wake up fairly late but I was moved out of my bed yesterday by the loud shrill voice of my neighbours wife. She sounded like a rabid cat. As I could not help my morbid curiosity and she was screaming at the bin men who had come to collect the payment for their services I eavesdropped. It seems that our local ’safai karamchari’s’ or bin men have decided to work independently from the association that runs this area. Now some days ago I had received a letter from this association which is mostly a silver haired club warning me about the dangers of paying the garbage men who had dared to step out of their domain.

Interestingly this letter does not mention anything significant about garbage collection except the fact that if the association loses control of the garbage collection then the prices for such services are sure to shoot up. They are also worried about the fact that the garbage collection guys will take many days off. So what are the conditions in which these guys have to work? Garbage in India is just a mess, literally. People seldom use bin liners or bags and its collected in cycle carts and it smells. These guys handle this noxious stuff with their bare hands. Probably they get paid a pittance and I can imagine they are sick and tired of these old fuddy-duddies telling them what to do all the time. So I say yeah let the garbage guys run the garbage. I am sure they can do a better job and for once let them tell people how they want their garbage laid out for them. It is time that the grossly spoiled people of this country learn how to manage their trash.

As for the price at the moment we are paying around 150 Rupees or around US$ 4 for garbage collection services. This has to be paid every third month. I think it is a ridiculous price per house for such services. It should be this much at least per month! People do not mind paying for useless things here so why not pay to have a cleaner environment around them? Remember the plastic ban? Which has failed by the way since plastic bags without handles are now used by everyone. When I said in my previous posts that garbage was the main issue I was not that wrong. This post basically proves it. I am glad the bin men have gone on the war path. Basically we are all in a mess.

This morning I received a package from Hong Kong. It was something that I had ordered online from e-Bay. It is something that I do occasionally when I cannot find what I need in the local markets. I often receive other packages that are mostly gifts from my friends abroad. When I went to take the package from the postman he told me that in the future I should avoid ordering things online. I was shocked! I asked him the reason and he said “Well I can not be held responsible if something goes missing!” He also claimed that it was customs that pilfer things from the packages and if they steal things then I might blame him for it.

I could barely believe my ears. Here was someone whose job it is to deliver post safely and securely telling me that he could not guarantee its safety! This is the country that claims to be the leader in Internet technology and in fact one of my businesses is selling e-commerce websites. If the largest delivery organisation in this country cannot guarantee delivery what future does my business have then? I am just happy that I do not have any Indian clients then because they should never use such a horrid service provider.

Coming back to my experiences with India Post, it is a terrible organisation. The staff at their post offices are rude. They lose packages and post. They do not sell any packaging at their post offices. Their stamps are ugly and so badly manufactured that most of them do not even stick to envelopes. They seem to do everything at the post office from selling insurance to gold but deliver post! It also seems that they are ready to overcharge you because if you go to two different post offices with the same package or letter you get two different rates!

As for me I do not intend to stop ordering things online but perhaps I should pay a bit extra and get insurance for my post. Since the postman will not take any responsibility if he can’t deliver post. This is what I mean when I say there is no professionalism among Indian people. India Post is the image of India abroad, I should say someone should fix it.

After looking through the garden I had this extreme need to use the toilet but I could not find one in the garden anywhere so I went to this area and to my surprise I found a Bonsai garden titled “National Bonsai Park”. The miniature trees in the park were well done and they also had a Japanese sand garden. The only disappointment was that both these gardens were extremely unkempt. The sand garden which is supposed to be clean was full of fallen leaves and other debris. The bonsai’s were shaped properly but they were put in just ordinary pots thus destroying most of their beauty. I joked with my friend that the only reason the bonsai garden had a wheelchair access was because Japanese people must faint when they see this garden and have to be taken out on a wheelchair.

So after making some enquiries about where the toilet was which happens to be just outside the exit we made our way out but not before we met a peacock roaming around happily. I must say that the toilet outside the Lodhi Gardens is one of the best I have seen among public toilets in India. They even had an aquarium inside. I wonder why they can not just build more nice things like that and maintain them too. Just next doors is the Lodhi Garden Restaurant. An open air quite posh mostly used by expats type place. We had our lunch there and I could even eat a steak, something that is quite forbidden in Chandigarh owing to the ban on beef. I throughly enjoyed a variation after almost an year. I kept wondering if I should hang around so many white people though considering the risk of being shot these days. Oh well a good meal is worth being shot. The food there was quite alright and I must say not that expensive either. The service was good. My only complaint is that they need to have more variety in non alcoholic drinks. I am not the kind of man who usually drinks in the afternoon in an alien city.

At the beginning of this month I had the chance to travel to Delhi on a really nice foggy and cold morning. So I gathered my courage took myself out of the layers of blankets at 4 am and caught the 6:50 Am train to Delhi. The friend that I was meeting there decided to take me to the Lodhi gardens for a shpotzir. Now even though I have been out and about Delhi a couple of times I have never been to this particular garden.

I must say that I was not very impressed by the way it is kept but the buildings in the garden are very nice. Time has taken a heavy toll on these tombs and structures but I can imagine that because they have been standing here since the 15th Century. The gardens themselves were created by the British administration in India in 1936. It was personally landscaped by Lady Willingdon the wife of the Governor-General of India.I found many types of trees and plants in the garden but one of my main complaints is that the garden like most gardens in India is so spread out and full of grass that it does not focus much on individual plants. I also find the lack of proper signs on the plants quite distressing. If one is not a skilled botanist it is almost impossible to make out which plants are what.

As I mentioned there are some historical buildings of interest in the garden. Most of them pretain to the Lodhi and the Sayyid dynasties that ruled North-India a long time ago. One of the buildings there is called the Bada Gumbad or literally the Big Dome while the other is called the Sheesh Gumbad or the Mirror Dome. A lot of graves are unknown in these complexes and there is also a mosque. What struck me was the brilliant colours that must have covered these buildings at one point of time and also the construction of the structures themselves. You can see a mix of Hindu and Muslim architecture though I may not be completely right in this respect. A lot of windows and doors to me appear like they came right out of a Hindu temple where as the rest of the building seems rather Islamic.

I found many families and some school groups enjoying the garden and one person even playing golf in this garden. Delhi’s municipal corporation is far more lax with gardens than ours is. Apparently you can even walk your dog in the garden and as I described also play sport! We can not even play a friendly game of football in our neighbourhood park here! Chandigarh seems to be fast running out of places to play neighbourhood sports. Anyway I guess Delhi needs to keep the dogs out of the parks and we need to allow some small parks to be used as playgrounds. I hope you enjoy the pictures a lot of them are hazy, well due to the HAZE!

Today is Lohri a popular festival in Punjab. It is a festival that is sort of like the Guy Fawkes night in the UK. People make bonfires eat peanuts, pop corn and other sweet snacks. One of the particular favourite sweets for me on this festival is ‘ ਗਜਕ‘ or Gajak. It is sort of like a crispy treat loaded with peanuts and raw indian brown sugar called Jaggery. There are also varients made with normal white sugar and sesame seeds.

A grand Lohri is celebrated if there is a newly wedded couple in a house and many people are invited or if a male child is born in the house. Today I was invited to one of my friend’s home who lives in Mohali a city famous for its cricket stadium. He had a lot of  guests over and had already made the bonfire. We sat around the fire for a while and as is the tradition we put some stuff in to the bonfire. Usual tradition is to toss in a handful of black sesame seeds and say the phrase ” ਇਸਵਰ ਅਾ ਦਲਿਦੱਰ ਜਾ” which translates roughly in to “The Devil go away and god come this way”. It is said that Lohri is celebrated in the honour of a bandit called Dulla Bhatti who ran around during the time of Emperor Akbar. He was a muslim but saved many hindu women from whiteslavery.

So at the party they also had a tandoor and I witnessed first hand a guy making Paneer Tikka. Paneer is a kind of soft Indian cheese made quite simply by curdling fresh milk. I sat around the guy and saw he worked and had a couple of vodka’s to keep the cold away. I am sure Dulla Bhatti would have approved! After the cocktails and the snacks the women sat around and played the dhol. A drum like instrument. They also sang some folk songs. Some of them sang rather well especially my friend’s mother in law. We had dinner afterwards and then I came home. Over all it was a nice pleasant day and it was not so cold either so we enjoyed immensely.  I have taken some photos but I had no camera on me so these are all mobile phone photos.

Every year around this time the Municipal Corporation blooms in to action and organises a chrysanthemum show. This time it was held between December 12-14 at the Terraced Garden in Sector 33. As with all the flower shows that they organise this one is the same. It is self congratulatory, ill-organised, botanically irrelevant and full of bored wives of Chandigarh’s bureaucrats. The prize winning flowers are mostly always from the Administration itself.

Having said that I must say that at least it is a chance to see some flowers even though if they are basically destroyed by the thousands upon thousands of visiting public with their ill-mannered loud children. I just happened to be there at this years show after many years of skipping it consciously. Of course I had not expected any change, they had the same tired looking displays of marigold stuffed animals. The same old pots put in a circular fashion etc etc. I managed to take some pictures of some chrysanthemums which I particularly happened to like and we purchased some “Ber” which is a sort of an Indian fruit. In Chandigarh you can find the red variety of these things all around the city and poor people usually gather them and sell them up for some profit.

I have often thought about this but flower arrangement is not one of the strongest of traits among Indo-European people. It seems there is a sense of beauty that is missing from our genes. Most of the arrangements that I have seen in India seem to have no ’style’ at all. It is just basically some flowers that have been put there. However we seem to be a bit better at planning geometerical gardens. I think one should stick to what one does the best. Would it not have been just wonderful if they had just used the whole garden as a display? They could have grown the chrysanthemums in the garden itself and opened the garden to the public. There is no need to have this vulgar stage and put sofa’s for the benefit of the so called VIPs. I am sure the VIPs could enjoy a stroll around the garden as well. There is no need for camel rides! What do camels have to do with a flower show! It seems that all they can do is just put a jumble of things together to attract a “crowd”. Flower shows should be for the benefit of the people that like flowers, there are plenty of events that you can do which can be transformed in to a fair. I guess it is again our Chandigarh Administration who thinks that it knows the best for everyone. I am basically irked at these bureaucratic types who think that they are doing such a good job at running this city. Well I have some news for you guys, you are not.