Maha Shivaratri

Catching up on my posts as the internet connection has been on and off recently, ever since we had a very bad hail storm on Thursday. The streets became rivers and in places we had up to 20 cm of ice along the roads, at which point in time part of the team were out at a Hindu temple... barefooted :o)

The hotel driveway 

Apparently the storm is seen as good omen since we were celebrating Maha Shivaratri on that day, which is the Great Night of Shiva. Funny thing is that on that day, next to the Hindu temples, you will find a whole bunch of food flavored crushed with marijuana , such as cookies, brownies, milkshakes, etc...

These pictures are not from that specific day, but they will give you an idea of what a Hindu temple looks like.

Ganesha

Hanuman

The inside court

I believe this is Krishna

Nice Surprise

Brought to my room this morning by the hotel staff !

Before

After

Half Full or Half Empty ?

We are now half way through our #ibmcsc india assignment, this is traditionally a good time to reflect on what we have done so far and look ahead at what remains to be done.

On paper our project at the PAU is a standard IT project, nothing out of the ordinary, what's more interesting is the context and the challenges was have been facing. First off, the timing for the project was not the best considering we started in between two semesters, and many members of the staff are not always available due to their administrative and teaching responsibilities, a better timing for the University would have been June. We have learnt not to have very specific expectations out of the meetings we schedule, and to make do with whatever we are given : we wont always get the information we were hoping for, but often we will learn new important elements which had not been mentioned before.

The lack of written documentation has been a serious challenge in trying to map out the present process, and propose a new automated one. Most of the data we have gathered has been from interviews, and in such situations new elements always keep popping up. If all goes well we will be able to finalize our proposed process flow by tomorrow and modify accordingly all the other documentation which stems from it. 

We have another process we need to start looking into, the salary/payslip process, for which we should be starting our interviews on Wednesday (crossing fingers...), leaving us only a very limited amount of time to actually work on it, especially considering most of our Friday this week will be taken up by a community service work at a Swabhimaan school where we will be organizing various events with the children.

PAU campus

La Grande Bouffe

Le mariage en Inde, c'est une affaire sérieuse... chez nous aussi, mais le plus souvent on fait la fête qu'une fois. Si j'ai bien compris, ici il y a environ six cérémonies différentes, avant pendant et après le mariage, donc six fois plus d'occasions de faire la fête et manger ! Car comme on me l'a expliqué hier soir, le rôle de l'invité dans ce genre de cérémonie, c'est de manger.

Quelques notes prises pendant la soirée :

1/ S’il y a moins de 300 personnes, c’est une « petite » cérémonie

2/ Si le père du marié ou de la mariée est retraité de l’armée, alors il y aura un bar avec de l’alcool (whisky, vodka ou bière… le vin est a priori complètement étranger à la culture indienne)

3/ En plus de l’alcool, il y aura une fanfare avec des joueurs de cornemuse

4/ Les messieurs autour du bar seront principalement des soldats ou des policiers (comme chez nous en fait)

5/ La musique est très très forte, et il y a beaucoup de basse (j’ai la même chose à l’hôtel, ici il y a une cérémonie de mariage presque tous les soirs depuis deux semaines)

6/ Quand tu as fini de goûter les trente six plats proposés, que tu as bu deux bières et un café léger au lait (oui, l’expresso est aussi un concept a priori étranger à la culture du nord de l’Inde), tu apprends que le diner va être servi !

7/ J’ai enfin goûté à la fameuse glace indienne, la kulfi (et c'est très bon)

J’ai pas vraiment pu prendre de photo, la situation ne s’y prêtait pas vraiment, par contre je n’ai pas pu résister en voyant le blouson de l’assistant du photographe

si quelqu'un reconnait le logo....

Walking Around Town

I'm spending the weekend alone in Ludhiana, I didn't feel like traveling this weekend. Three of my mates are traveling to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  Though it was tempting I kind of like the idea of being the only guy who goes to India and does NOT see the Taj Mahal... that gives me one more good reason to come back to India ! The rest of the team is up in Shimla, enjoying the fresh air and the cool weather.

I've spent some time this morning walking around town, which in itself is not as simple as it sounds: barely no sidewalks, cars, trucks, buses, bicycles and rickshaws going every which way, puddles of mud everywhere due to the heavy rain from last night, and no street names ! I only got lost twice, but I'm pretty sure Google Maps is not 100% accurate (they don't have Street View for this city, that must be a sign).

Really ? Pizza Hut Road !

Google must make these names up when there isn't any available.

On the way I did some serious shopping, and ended up having lunch at the mall. It's strange how malls all look the same all over the world, even the teenagers hanging around in malls look almost the same. Entering a mall is like stepping inside a warp in the space time continuum: you aren't in India or any other country anymore, you enter Mall Nation, governed by corporations like Gap, Subway, KFC and Guess Jeans !

Later tonight Jaspreet is taking me out to his best friend's brother's wedding, an Indian wedding, that's going to be something really special ! I just hope I don't stand out too much, especially since I left my best suit at home, I wasn't really planning on going to a wedding :o)

Sunny Sunday (part 2) or Bollywood at the Border

The road to the border cuts straight across green and yellow (mustard) fields, the land around is extremely flat and as we get closer we notice various military installations. Then comes the numerous trucks waiting for their authorization to cross into Pakistan. We notice many drivers camping along the road, so the wait must be quite long. We leave the bus behind and walk the last kilometer amid many little stands selling food, toys and all sorts of goodies with the Indian flag on them.

The Wagah border closing ceremony seems to have become quite an attraction in the past years, I had even seen a documentary on it back in France before coming here. Apparently there is always an important crowd here every evening, even on week days.

The road to Pakistan

We are told that this is one of the most sensitive borders, and we certainly notice all the security measures. Apparently they also jam mobile phones for the duration of the ceremony, maybe to avoid remote control explosive devices ?

As foreigners, we are invited to the VIP bleachers which are closer to the border, the real VIPs are actually sitting in chairs along the road.

View of Pakistan - the official ceremony is still not started

Both sides play music extremely loud to cover the other side's music. On our side the music sounds more traditional while from Pakistan we hear pop rock music. While we wait for the official ceremony to start, kids and women gather along the road and run back and forth with big India flags while everyone is cheering. Then comes the Bollywood style music and many young ladies dance on the road, everyone is cheering even louder.

Getting ready !

The patriotic chants mark the beginning of the soldiers' act, with that very distinctive walk which made me think of Monty Python's ministry of silly walks ! There is also a sort of competition between the guards from both side to find out who can scream really loud (into a mic) the longest.

But I have to admit it's really impressive, the crowd is wild and the you end up screaming "Hindustan Zindabad" with everyone else.

View of the crowd in Pakistan

Entry into India

We left with the setting sun in our back, had some sleep in the bus before stopping for dinner at Haveli Heritage, a  traditional themed Punjabi restaurant. Unfortunately there wasn't any room inside, so we had a quick snack outside by the brazier with hot chai to keep us warm.

Arrêt aux Stands

Aujourd'hui en rentrant de l'université on a cassé le câble d'embrayage du rickshaw. On a fait la moitié du parcours en première sans pouvoir débrayer… pas très pratique dans les embouteillages.

Le chauffeur s’est arrêté dans un petit garage de bord de route, et pendant que nous prenions un chai un mécanicien a changé le câble en un quart d’heure, sans rendez-vous, le tout pour moins 100 roupies !

Notre rickshaw, probablement le plus bruyant de la ville

Jasbir notre chauffeur

Chai time

Un autre mécanicien s'active sur un rickshaw de la marque indienne KAL - ce garage semblait spécialisé dans les marques indiennes, mais sinon il y a aussi beaucoup de Piaggio Ape sur les routes