Buffet lunches in the belly, we headed off to CCIE to take pictures of rings for some co-workers back home. My camera isn’t as good as Bills’ and the pictures are a bit fuzzier than I’d like. Apparently, this isn’t that strange of a request, since the clerks didn’t even blink when Anand explained the plan to them. However, they did warn us that it was very difficult to get a good picture of the rings due to lighting and shine of the gold.

Pictures taken, we hopped into the car and allowed the driver to determine where we went next. He took us to a small craft emporium close to the CCIE on Cunningham Road. The place was beautiful, but contained few things we haven’t already seen or purchased. They did have a great selection of silver jewelry and we spent some time perusing the bracelets and bangles before heading to work.

The week is flying by…

At work, they have opened an outdoor cafeteria on the rooftop and I now know why the elevator is always headed to the fourth floor. The view of the city from the roof is amazing – especially in the evening – and the chanting from the mosque next door is amazing. Bill would absolutely love sitting on the roof at 5pm each evening.

Faisal has mentioned that there are plans to build a starbucks style coffee shop on the rooftop as well, which will likely make the outdoor cafeteria more popular than the crowded air conditioned room on the lower floors.

While most of the building resembles any other office building in the world, the elevators are another story. They are often slow to open, and I’ve been stick in them a few times. Luckily, I’ve been rescued after a few minutes. Shortly after I arrived in India, a woman was stuck in an elevator at work for over an hour. Once she got out, she proceeded to get into a different elevator and found herself stuck once again. Needless to say, many people often take the stairs when going from one floor to another.

Despite the many downfalls of living in a developing country, India has incorporated many technological advances in its buildings that I’ve rarely seen implemented back home. Power supplies are often low and brownouts or power failures are frequent. In order to combat this, many buildings have installed motion sensors that operate the lighting systems. If there is no one in an area, the lights will turn off after a short period of time. Once someone walks into a room, light will once again illuminate the area.

The other major difference between this office and one of its North American counterparts is in its bathrooms. Each bathroom in the office has a cleaner who stays in the room for their entire shift. They continuously mop up spilled water and clean the area. It’s very strange to walk into a bathroom and it occupied by cleaning staff all of the time and takes some getting used to. The up side of this is that the bathrooms are never closed for cleaning as they are in the North American centres and you don’t have to run from one end of the building to another in order to visit the little girls’ room.

We’ve learned that our driver has been in a car accident and will not be returning for the remainder of our trip. While he wasn’t injured, a large amount of damage was done to the front end of the car and he is now spending his days in the garage while the car is repaired.

This afternoon before work, Anand and I met up with Bindu to go shopping. Anand is interested in purchasing a mens gold bracelet, while I was looking for some earrings and possibly a finger ring. I’ve also developed a taste for the silver anklets with bells on them – the jingling sound when walking is surprisingly soothing – and finally found a set of anklets that are big enough to wrap around my ankles while being small enough to suit my taste.

Since arriving in India, I’ve begun wearing earrings more often. Unfortunately, I seem to be allergic to the nickel in the every day ‘junk jewelry’ type of earrings I purchased at Shopper’s Stop a few weeks ago. On a whim, I decided to try and find a set of small gold earrings to wear instead. The backs of most earrings in jewelry stores are different than the ones we’re used to in North America. The backs of the earrings are cylindrical and screw on to the posts. Bindu warned me that I may have difficulty getting earrings to fit due to the with of the posts and screw backs, so I limited my purchases to small studs often worn by children.

After work today, I tried putting on the new earrings and spent a good 45 minutes trying to get them to fit. Once they were in, I was surprised by how comfortable they were. The backs are flat and sit against the ear. They are so unobtrusive that I can sleep with the earrings in and even talk on the phone without having to take an earring off. There is sharp post end to stick into the top of your jaw. The only downside of this style of backing is that larger, heavier earrings tend to have thicker posts and cylinder backs. Anyone who doesn’t normally wear earrings or has smaller earring holes would definitely have difficulty getting these heavier earrings on! After learning this, I know not to purchase any of the bigger style earrings for anyone back home. Otherwise, they’d spend a few hours trying to get the earrings on – or worse yet, not be able to wear them at all.

Chatting with Drew last night has set off a major bout of homesickness. With less than 2 weeks remaining, the separation is starting to wear on me.

It’s the beginning of that awkward stage where you don’t want to leave, but you want to be home as well… Most of my homesickness stems from the anticipation of seeing Drew again soon. When I had 4-5 weeks left before returning to Canada, I didn’t mind the absence. Now that my departure draws near, I am looking forward to going home.

Sleep – shop – argh!

Our driver has taken a few days off to spend with his family. He arranged for another driver from the cab company to ferry us around for the duration. The new driver has advised us that he will be taking us around until Tuesday, when Mr. Kumar returns to work.

We returned to Commercial Street in the early evening and I purchased a replacement suitcase. Anand assures me it will survive the trip (it’s Samsonite with a 3 year warranty and I’ve already warned him that if it breaks on the way home, I’m holding him responsible) and despite being the same size (30 inches) as the suitcase I originally arrived with, it seems to be deeper. In the store – far away from my hotel room and the broken suitcase – it definitely looks like it will hold more than its’ predecessor. This is a very good thing, since I’m leaving with more things than I had when I arrived. The sarees alone account for over 13 meters of fabric that I now need to pack! I’m so worried about not having enough space in my luggage that I decide to pick up a cabin bag as well. Since I flew out with a laptop bag only, I’m allowed another piece of carry on and fully intend to use it. In the spirit of Diwali, the store offers a discount rate from the ticketed prices and offers to hold the bags at the store while we continue our shopping.

Luggage secured, we wandered in and out of a number of shops before Anand found what he was looking for. Unfortunately, the embroidered Kurties he was interested in didn’t come in the shorter length and he had difficulty deciding if which of the Kurties he wanted to purchase – if any. After some colossal waffling, Anand decided on three great Kurties. However, he didn’t want to wear the pajama bottoms and wanted the Kurties cut down so that they would appear more like North American clothing. *Sigh* I’m sooooo disappointed in him. After much haggling with the clerk, he finally agreed to keep one of the Kurties exactly as it should be (pants and all) and had the remaining 2 altered. We’ll be heading back to Commercial Street sometime next week to pick them up.

After tossing around a few ideas – Chinese, Tandoori, etc. – we decided to try a Tandoori restaurant that Manish had mentioned to me a few weeks ago. When we arrived at the restaurant, it was closed for Diwali and we were back to square one. We then considered going to the Royal Afghan in the Sheraton, since the tandoori was wonderful at that restaurant, but the new driver wasn’t familiar with it’s location and we didn’t know the exact address. In the end, we gave up and headed back to the hotel for dinner.

After dinner, I attempted to pack most of my things in the new bags to ensure I had enough space to fit everything. Surprisingly enough, I have room to spare in all of my bags now. Granted, I haven’t tried to pack my monster makeup and toiletries bag yet, so that could soon change.

I logged into the internet to chat with Drew and Virginia and flipped channels on the TV (this is only the second time I’ve turned on the TV since I arrived) while I was waiting. After 4-5 hours of chatting with friends from home, I toddled off to bed.