Today is going to be a bad day.

I set my alarm clock to wake me at 8:30 am, so that I could have a leisurely morning wandering the Leela galleria (shopping complex attached to the Leela Palace hotel) before heading into work this afternoon. At 6:30, I was awakened by the phone. In my fuzzy state, I thought I had slept through my alarm clock and that it was already 13:00. When I asked the desk clerk what time it was, he told me it was 6:30 and seemed surprised when I asked if it wasn’t early afternoon. Apparently, the driver misunderstood me and thought I wanted to be picked up at 6:30 am instead of 13:00! I’m not sure where the communications breakdown occurred. I know I confirmed with the driver that I didn’t require him until 13:00 at least 2x before getting out of the car and once after exiting. The front desk clerk informed me he will be advising the drive to come back at 13:00 and apologized for waking me. I’m having flashbacks to all the times people have told me I speak too softly and am difficult to hear. Unfortunately, to my ears I sound like I’m shouting and worry about raising my voice and offending someone.

Unfortunately, once I’m awake, I’m up for the day. I desperately tried to get back to sleep to no avail. I counted sheep, played tetris, tried reading in bed… nothing worked. So, I’m 2.5 hours short on sleep, groggy, and not functioning as well as I’d like to be considering all I have to do at work today.

I will have to confirm with Manish, Faisal and Yasho that there are no plans to go out this evening, because I know I won’t be awake enough later this evening to enjoy anything.

It was raining this morning when I woke up. Not a hard rain, but a steady one. I think I’ll need to bring my raincoat with me when I go outside. I looked out the window expecting to see the cows at their morning grazing ritual, but they aren’t anywhere in sight.

Since I’m so sluggish, I decide to put off visiting the leela galleria until tomorrow and read my morning newspaper.

Perhaps Yasho will be free to go shopping tomorrow.

The internet connection still isn’t functioning in the room, so I don’t have an opportunity to post my journal to my web site as of yet. Hopefully, that will be resolved by the time I arrive back at my room tonight. Other than a quick phone call to Faranak yesterday and a conference call with Deanna, I haven’t spoken to anyone from North America since I left. I miss Drew, the cats and even the dog.

The newspapers mention crones and lahks and I get the impression it’s a numerical value. Since I can’t look it up on the net, I’m going to ask someone at work what the value is. I don’t think it’s a million, since the numbers don’t match what I’ve already learned about population and industry.

I need to ask Manish and Faisal about food. Yesterday, they both recommended I stick with continental cuisine (such as pizza and spaghetti) for a few days before attempting any local fare. At the time, I didn’t think to mention that Drew and I frequently pick up East Indian take-away and that eating many of the dishes on the menu would not be new to me.

I think I’m going crazy. For the last few mornings, I could have sworn I heard the dulcet tones of Scottish bagpipes from my balcony. When I asked a concierge about it, he looked at me like I was completely bonkers!

I’ve decided that starting this journal was a very good idea. While some of this may be boring to a few of the readers, I know I’d be spending hours on the phone to Drew, Gin and my parents trying to describe India. As it is, my daily journal entries are a lot longer than I ever expected them to be.

– Break for work –

I discovered that I can’t upload files to my account when I’m accessing the ftp site from outside of the shaw network. Thanks to a fellow shaw user back home, the first batch of files were successfully uploaded this afternoon (IST) after I emailed them to his account. Lance, you’re the best!

Mission accomplished. I connected with Anand and have extra chocolate bars, malox, and business cards added to his ‘to do’ list before he arrives. Since I don’t have any CAD on hand, I’ve offered to pay him in Rupees 😉 I hope he accepts personal cheques for cdn funds.

Yasho, Faisal, and I will be going shopping on Sunday and she’s promised to teach me how to wear a saree. Faisal tells me that everyone looks beautiful in a saree and that it’s one of the most flattering pieces of clothing a person can wear. He thinks I should buy at least one very fancy and expensive saree to treat myself and I agree completely.

I learned something new today. Apparently, ‘Sheela’ (without the gh) is a very common Indian name. Yasho told me this afternoon when we were busy gabbing about our upcoming shopping session and travels. Yasho has been to Canada (Ontario and Quebec) and we had lots to talk about – busily sharing impressions of our two countries.

Despite Faisal’s nervousness, I survived eating a snack in the cafeteria today. The food was wonderful! Tomorrow we’re going to a famous Indian restaurant to sample more of the local fare.

Driving home, I noticed that all the cars and motorcycles have their high beams on. The roads have few street lights and everyone just flashes on their brights to see. It’s blinding, and when ppl are driving in opposite directions, they’re always flashing the lights from brights to off. I guess no one has heard of running lights… I don’t know why I didn’t notice this on the ride home yesterday. I guess I was so taken with looking at the temples and shops from the side window of the car that I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on ahead of me.

I’ve decided to act completely touristy and take pictures of the hotel lobby before I leave. It’s an immense marble room, and I doubt anyone will believe the size and beauty of it if I don’t have proof to back it up. While I’m at it, I’m going to take some pictures of the side and back gardens too. I think I’ll wait a few days before I do either though. I want to save my batteries for the site seeing / shopping on Sunday.

When I entered the hotel this evening, there was a string quartet playing chamber music in the lobby. The front entrance was lit up and it was absolutely beautiful. It gets dark here so quickly that it’s hard to take a good picture in the evening, but I’m definitely going to try.

Ok, don’t laugh. I did one completely touristy thing today. I took pictures of the hotel suite. The bathroom made me do it… honest! The marble floors and counters were calling to my camera and I fell victim to their cries.

The internet connection was working tonight, so I spent a long time on AIM talking to Drew, Manish, Faranak and Anand. Manish reviewed the site and corrected the error – it’s a Hindu temple, Hindi refers to the religion – so I fixed it on the pages stored on my hard drive. I won’t be able to sent the next upload until sometime early next week, so I informed him the site won’t be corrected for a few days.

During my AIM conversation with Manish, I learned many new things. Having an online journal is handy, since I got the answers to questions I forgot to ask at work today through AIM. Manish tells me that 50 Rupees is too much for a tip, and that most Indians would tip a concierge 10 – 20 Rupees. He also informed me that Indians on average have save 25% of their salaries. That’s much higher than the North American savings rate, which often tops out at 10%. Indians also don’t carry a high personal dept load like North Americans do. Credit cards are normally paid off each month, and less than 1% of the population rolls their credit card balance over to the next month.

I also learned that a crore is 10 million and a lahk is 100,000.

I must still be confused about the date / time. The first portion of the web site was uploaded on 09/26/03, but my revision date lists 09/27/03. I think everyone noticed that but me! I’ll make sure it’s correct on the next upload.

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