feng-shui-cafe

Monsoon Meeting: Working in a Tent in India

November 4th, 2006

Day 2 - the 3rd of June, 2006.

I had a difficult time getting to sleep last night.

I spoke with Allan (my husband) on Skype for a while. What a magnificent thing that piece of software is! He caught me up on his Dad’s condition in Scotland. It’s so hard to tell what is happening from day-to-day…

I finally got to sleep at about 2am….

I agreed to meet Cheryl in the lobby restaurant called 24/7 where we have ‘free’ breakfast. In the normal world, Cheryl NEVER eats breakfast, but she’s not very adventurous when it comes to food — and the breakfast is eggs & toast, something she can at least understand.

Cheryl is still moaning about wanting to go to McDonalds and the fact that she can’t find beef in this country. Yes, she knows she’s being……… American……. but she can’t help what she truly desires!

I couldn’t understand why Cheryl was a little antsy at breakfast as I casually ate.
We had 10 minutes before we had to catch the shuttle to the “Palace Grounds” and “The Tent.”

Cheryl corrected me that we were running 5 minutes BEHIND.

Impossible, I said! It’s just 8am and we don’t have to leave until 8:10.

Her watch said 8:15…

We asked the waiter. He had 8:20.

No one seemed to have the right time — but it was all nearer to Cheryl’s time than mine so we picked a time & scooted off quickly to the shuttle van.

I don’t know HOW I was 10-15 minutes off (how totally weird is that???). And I DON’T understand who makes up these weird time zone changes anyway.

India is 9.5 hours ahead of NY. What’s with the HALF hour? Couldn’t they have just chosen 9 or 10?

We shuttled over to the tent & I got my laptops set up in 15 minutes. I then had to sit for 9 hours & 45 minutes until my 10-hour day was up. I did nothing except go on-line (at least I had that).

Cheryl went to the secondary venue, an Auditorium about 45 minutes from the tent, where she will be working for the next few days.

She came back & let me know a) that she read an entire book and b) that the bathrooms weren’t quite as nice as the ones at the tent. Apparently, she’s got a hole in the ground to pee into. I think Cheryl will never come back to India!!!!!!!!

I may have to go over to Cheryl’s venue if it’s scheduled to rain the morning of our show. The meeting has been scheduled during monsoon season & the rains are UNBELIEVABLE. I tried to get some photos but justice just cannot be done to show the enormity of the rains… If it’s raining hard on the day of our event, it ISN’T that the tent will flood or break because of the rain — but rather that the NOISE the rain makes on the roof of the tent is SO LOUD that no one could hear the meeting take place. It’s really insane!

After work today (and after the heavy rain at 6pm), Cheryl & I met up for dinner in the Hotel at 24/7 and had a terrific buffet dinner.

We were, once again, pegged as dumb Americans.

Our waiter brought over a MAGICIAN (I cannot make this stuff up!) who started doing cheesy magic tricks. I kid you not when I say Cheryl was amazed & entertained.

I’m SUCH a New Yorker. I was like: “Whatever.”

But I tipped the guy a little something for all his trouble. He was all dressed up & quite sweet….

After our magician escapade, an older fellow at the table behind us asked us where we’re from.

Turned out he’s from DC & a …….. Republican (sorry Mom & Dad!).

Seriously, though,, once we got off of politics, he was quite an interesting guy & we learned he is from the DC area & works for the World Bank. He’s working on getting funding for the transport infrastructure here.

We wished him good luck & told him about our transit thoughts:

Perhaps they need to teach the drivers here to actually pay the SLIGHTEST bit of attention to red lights AND they need to learn that a horn is NOT to be used every 3 seconds.

The honking in Bangalore is OUT OF CONTROL (as I sit in my room writing, there are numerous horns sounding & we’re on a side street off the beaten track a little bit).

The man told us about other parts of India & we discussed how India is a very service-oriented country. And it really is.

Entry Filed under: India