Anand and I woke up early and met in the lobby for breakfast. It’s the first time I’ve sampled the breakfast buffet that is part of the room rate, and Drew would be envious. The grill section has a selection of common Indian and North American breakfast items to choose from and there’s 6 different juices, cereals, muffins, and sweetbreads to choose from. Add to that some salad, fruit and cheeses, and you’ve got a meal that would make Drew drool.

After breakfast, I attempted to figure out how to wear the Saree. Since I’m pickup up the blouses from the tailor’s on the way to work, I decided I better try on the rest of the outfit a few times before I need to change into it. I’ve learned a few things about Saree’s in my attempts.

If you’ve never worn one before, and don’t have someone to teach you how to properly drape the Saree, it can take over ½ and hour to put one on. After some practice, it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to drape.

Trying to drape a Saree based on instructions on a printed page looks a lot easier than it actually is.

Wrapping yourself in 6.5 meters of starched silk is hard work and while the outfit looks like it would keep you nice and cool, you become very hot when wearing it.

Safety pins are a godsend. The girls recommended using them and I’m very glad I picked some up when out shopping with Bindu last weekend.

You can’t hide a tattoo on your lower back if you’re wearing a Saree.

If you don’t want to fall while walking, you need tuck the material in a little higher than is traditional. Until you’ve mastered walking in a Saree, draping it so that the tips of your shoes show is a fashion sacrifice worth making.

They’re surprisingly comfortable to wear once you’ve managed to get one draped correctly.

We had to leave the hotel early in order to pick up the blouses from the tailors. They’re made to measure and match the fabric of the Saree exactly. Many Sarees, like my orange one, come with an extra section of fabric at the end of it – known as a blouse piece – that is used to make the blouses. Blouses in hand, we headed off to work, where I changed into the Saree.

If you’re curious to see what I looked like in a Saree, I’ve added some pictures of us in traditional dress to the photo gallery.

Monday, everyone at work will be wearing the same shirts (Manish gave them out today) except me. I’m under ‘orders’ to wear my other Saree so Linda can see me in one before she returns to the US. Of course, we have an ulterior motive – the plan is to get Linda outfitted in a Saree and wearing one to work before she leaves India!

Today I had a chance to sleep in a bit before heading out to the shops. Anand is in need of some traditional Indian clothing to wear on Friday and we’re going to Shopper’s stop and Fabindia before heading to work so he can select something to wear. In Shopper’s Stop, I pointed out the silk suit I’d like to pick up for Drew and he liked it so much that he’s considering purchasing one for himself!

See Drew – I do have good taste in mens clothing ;P

It must be something in the male genes, because Anand shops like Drew. In, wander around, back out – browsing completed in less than 5 minutes!

While I’m not much of a big shopper back home, I have been honing up my window shopping skills here in India. Things are so interesting to see and touch that it’s hard to walk away from the shops without taking a few minutes to wander around in most of them.

Somewhere along the way from the shops to work, we developed a flat tire. Anand and I piled out of the car and our driver got busy pulling out and setting up the spare. While he was changing the tire, we wandered the sidewalk and took a peek into the local stores. Directly in front of where we stopped was a small hut where hand made sandals were being stitched together. It was too hot to consider trying on footware, so I’ve made a mental note to go shoe shopping another day.

Anand received an early wake up call this morning from the front desk. Apparently, the same person who was arranging my transportation must have been assigned to Anand. A car had been sent ridiculously early in the morning to take him to work. Since he’s not due to arrive at work for another 6 hours – he’s sent the driver away. We’ve agreed to share the car/driver assigned to me to keep costs down. Also, it only makes sense to share, since we’re working the same shift, staying in the same hotel, and likely to be running around the city playing tourist together.

Lucky Anand, he’ll have a smaller expense report to file at the end of his journey, since the car receipts are all in my name!

I decided to surprise everyone and wear the Kurta pajama outfit I purchased at Fabindia to work today. I’ve received a number of rave reviews on the new wardrobe and I must say the clothing is very comfortable compared to many of the things in my closet back home.

Before work today, I headed off to Mysore Saree to pick up my new clothes. On Friday, I’ll be headed off to the tailor to pick up the blouses. The girls have suggested I practice getting dressed in my free time for the next few days – so that everything goes smoothly on Friday.

I haven’t been very successful at playing tourist in the mornings. For the last few days, I’ve been arriving at work for 2pm and by the time I get back to the hotel and head off to sleep, it’s already 3 or 4 in the morning. Getting up before 10 am is a huge struggle, but I’m sure I’ll get used to the schedule soon.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to work I go…

Anand arrived today and Mada left to meet him at the airport. After arriving back at the hotel, I obtained his # from the front desk and called down to say hi and make arrangements for heading into work tomorrow. We ended up spending over 2 hours chatting about flights, India, work, and food before heading off to sleep. Of course, at the time it didn’t strike either of us how odd it was to spend 2+ hours on the phone when we could have headed down to the restaurant and chatted over coffee or tea. Now, in hindsight, it seems to have been a completely silly thing to do.

A giant thank you goes out to Carolyn and Alex – who helped me track down Drew and resolve the bank account mystery!

Back to work today. On the bright side, I’m no longer working a morning shift, so I hope to have some time to get around and see some sights before I head into work.

I wore my Salwar to work today and everyone was very surprised at how quickly I’ve adopted local clothing. It’s very comfortable and I’m slowly getting used to the stole that’s worn around the neck. All I need now is a set of traditional Indian shoes to complete my outfit.

Divya has invited me to have lunch in her home on Sunday. She was hoping to have me over during festival, but wasn’t able to until the upcoming weekend. It will definitely be interesting and I’m looking forward to it.

It was a very long day at work today and I don’t have much non work related information to share. Anand is arriving at midnight tomorrow and everyone is very excited. I think I may be the most excited of all, since it will be very nice to have someone from home to talk to about familiar friends and places. That, and since I’ve run out of chocolate, I could use the additional chocolate bars he’s got stored in his suitcases to share at work!

I’ve been working with Anand for slightly over 4 years and know he’s going to impress everyone with his dedication and work ethic when he arrives. While I’ve worked with him for a while, I’ve learned more about his cultural and family background in Bangalore than in Winnipeg. I guess family is one of those things co-workers don’t really talk about much in Canada. Back home, unless you are close friends, you don’t tend to discuss family or cultural origins in too much detail. Instead, we tend to focus on a persons work ethic and their demonstrated abilities.

In India, family and strong family relations appears to be prized above all other things, so I’ve learned much about Anand’s background over the last few weeks. Anand’s mother is from Chennai (Madras) and his father is Malaysian. He was raised in Brunei and moved to Canada 8 years ago. This is his first trip back to India since he was 14 and he’s looking forward to meeting some of his relatives in Chennai before he returns home.

The strong familial relationship is something that is taken for granted in India. Parents provide for their children for many years, and will be provided for by their children as they age. It’s common for many generations to live together, eat together, and pray together. The North American phenomenon of ‘picking’ your family – adopting friends as second mothers, sisters, brothers, aunts, etc. – isn’t something you see in India. While we tend to replace existing family that we are separated from due to distance with close friends, in India there is no need as many people live with or very close to their family members and it’s common for those who are separated to make a trip via train, bus or plane to visit family over weekends.