Dez in India

After a 4+ hour delay due to fog, I finally arrived in Delhi yesterday. But when they said “fog,” I had no idea…

Fog made me think of that early morning fogginess that burns itself off as the sun rises. Nope. This is a whole ‘nother situation. This is days of persistent, unrelenting fog that never disappears but merely becomes less dense with the sun. When my flight finally landed, I was taken aback to see fog INSIDE the airport terminal buildings….. It’s like pea soup at night. All day it’s been foggy, despite a glow from the sun.

They say this is the moisture from the end of cyclone season arriving with air currents. Apparently it will just sit here until a good strong wind displaces it. No winds are predicted now. This could last several more days…. Hopefully impacts to my return flight will be minimal (dare to dream).

I’m not exaggerating — see this news report

PS This is legit fog, not to be confused with smog or smoke from burning rubbish.

Updated with photos from my hotel room that visit, showing varying degrees of fog

Check this out! Driving from the airport in Hyderabad, I spotted a giant Fish building.

Initially I was told it was the fish market headquarters… Having been to several Indian fish markets, I couldn’t imagine where they’d get the budget for such trophy construction. I suspected something was lost in translation. The internets tell me it’s actually the National Fisheries Development Board headquarters. Close!

For reasons that seem limited solely to my neighbours across the street, this was a night for fireworks. What the heck, any excuse for a party, right?!? So I watched from my balcony. Fun & unexpected!

(Yeah, these fireworks that shoot up 2 stories are perfectly legal. )

Seriously, this was today’s headline.

It seems more Rudyard Kipling novel than 2013 news, but so it is. I know there are coyotes in the Bronx, black bears in Jersey City… but they don’t seem to be looking to actually dine on humans (their focus seems to be merely our refuse and small pets). A man-eating tiger seems much more extreme to me. Frankly all the human/animal interactions here seem more extra — from Jumbos (elephants) to mozies (mosquitos). In fact forest preserver rangers were delayed in responding to the man-eating tiger because they had to drive a pack of wild jumbos from a farm on the other side of the preserve. (And I thought my job entitled triage…)

Getting back to the man-eating tiger. He seems to be from nearby Bandipur Forest Reserve, which I’ve visited briefly (see my earlier post). Although the authorities ordered him to be shot, a group of veterinarians formed a possee to find and tranquillize him. The doctor who tranquillized him, Dr Sanath, was riding a Jumbo named Kanthi to track the tiger. (Seriously, a posse of tiger shooting, elephant riding vets?!? I mean, of course, of course. I should have gone to vet school! It sounds so Indian Jones.) Good shot, Dr Sanath!

The tiger is a “huge” 12 yo male. Perhaps pushed to edge of the preserve by younger, stronger males. Reportedly, he has worn thru his lower role of teeth and that means that he would starve if left in the wild. Thus, he’ll be kept in a zoo. (Color me jaded, but he seems to be feeding himself quite well on his own. However, perhaps retirement in a zoo is better than being shot on sight… Which is what the local villagers were advocating. )

Lions and [man-eating] tigers and bears — oh my!

I spent Thanksgiving back in New York and it was great to see family, friends and my doggies. For the record, no one gives a more enthusiastic “welcome home” than doggies!

I was relieved — and humbled– to find life at home was going along swimmingly without me. But everyone was kind enough to say how much I was missed. Friends got married, retired, switched jobs, had birthdays and got new hair styles — all quite successfully and all without me. Of course, I didn’t expect things to come to a grinding halt without me. But at some point I realised that I secretly hoped (and was actively looking!) to find some tangible evidence that I was still needed. Nope. Guess I need to practice mindfulness and focus on the intangibles…

Highlights:
• My fave server (AND dear friend, AND true princess) at my fave local restaurant greeted me with flowers at brunch.
• Wood Fires in the fireplace (versus rubbish fires on the sidewalk).
• I had (almost) all my fave New York foods — fresh sushi, NY pizza, fresh apple cider, bagels, Italian on Arthur Ave, Spanish tapas at O lar, French from Alain’s. And Indian — which was still good even with my new wealth of Indian dining experiences against which to compare. And yes, those are all New York foods.
• We cracked open what we call our “wine cellar. ” See my earlier post about wine in India for context.

Mixed Bag:
• It was a joy to actually drive myself again. Although, when it came time to park or when stuck in traffic, I certainly missed having a driver.
• Snow. It was lovely to see falling and in the yard — but the super cold (relatively speaking). Clearly, my blood has thinned. And the hours of darkness vs daylight made me dread winter…

😦
• I missed those ubiquitous cows!
• Xmas ads galore –Radio, paper, internet, TV. Without that, ahem, smooth holiday build up starting around Halloween, the level of ads for Xmas and Black Friday is shocking & grotesque. I mean, even more so than when your slowly acclimated to it.
• Tappan Zee Bridge construction.
• Saying good bye to everyone again!

I spent a weekend in London with my sister, brother-in-law and [canine] nephew. Walks in the Common with the doggie, an immersive theatre production (Punch-drunk’s “The Drowned Man“), a stroll down Regent Street, a traditional Sunday roast, and, most importantly, quality sister-time — not bad for a quick trip.

The Common with H and my “nephew”, Otto:

After Sunday roast, with B & H:

There really isn’t much more to say here.
The whole quote, and context, are given in this article, so I leave it to you to make your own judgement…

The “proverb” at issue: if you can’t prevent rape, enjoy it.

PS Just a reminder, this is a global issue. See my earlier post here.

I walked this beach this morning, before the sun got harsh:

This maybe hard to figure out, but it’s a swimmer fully clad in her burka.

At the advice of a colleague, I took a few hours this afternoon for a bus tour of Dubai to see the sights.
Here’s the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa (for now – apparently the Saudis are building one that will top it):

This is the Old Souk (sadly, more Canal Street than souks of Marrakech…):

Lamp vendor:

The creek, “Dubai Creek”, is the oldest part of the city where its founding fathers (fishermen & pearl divers, according to the tour guide) originally settled:

(Note Burj Khalifa tower sparkling in the background)

This is the view from my home-away-from-home — without work in the foreground:

This is the skyline/office park view from where I worked (look at the sea in the background and you’ll see the white, sail boat-like Burj Al Arab –aka “the world’s most luxurious hotel”).

Last time I was here (2005), so much construction was underway, I really could not fathom what it would be like and whether all those buildings would be occupied. Well, I can report that now it’s a crazy big city full of skyscrapers; large, smooth roads; shiny new cars that drive on the right hand side esp SUVs (quite a shock to the system in both scale & direction after so much time in India); and bookstores that sell magnets and postcards with the ubiquitous catch phrase borrowed from the Brits and customised with [ahem] great wit and local humour to read: KEEP CALM, WE STILL HAVE OIL…

I haven’t yet been to the Burj Khalufia (aka the world’s tallest building) to get a good visual prospective on the Palm — the man-made island in the shape if a palm tree — but this is the Palm from the side from my hotel balcony:

If I can take a break from work to scale tall buildings, I’ll see about getting a bird’s eye view to share with you….

If you have to work over the weekend*, this isn’t such a bad place to be….

Although it sucks that I’ve been here since Wednesday and still haven’t gone swimming….
*I’m in Dubai where weekends are Friday-Saturdays.