...smooth as silk..

oh i almost forgot to tell you that we also went to see a silk weaving housing - where they are still weaving the traditional silk sari for women for their weddings. A sari is pretty much a long piece of unstitched cloth, that as you might know is worn by females here in India, the sari is somewhere between four to nine metres in length (the ones we saw was 9 meters long). The most common style is for the sari to be wrapped around the waist, with one end then rolled over the shoulder baring the midriff. The sari is normally worn with a blouse known as a "choli" or "ravika" - which is taking care of the upper part of the woman's front...Interesting enough the word sari is actually derived from Sanskrit and translated would mean something like 'strip of cloth". History seem to believe that the sari dates back some 2800 - 1800 BC in especially the western part of India.

so we entered a small little shed where a man was weaving a sari, as per the instructions of a older woman, and she fast started to explain us how the sari is made, and what it is made from, this specific sari the man was making actually had 1% pure gold in it .. - as it was a wedding sari - and it would take him up to 3 weeks to finish it, and cost of this sari was around 20.000 rupees (divide that we around 50 and you get the amount in USD) .. it was interesting to see how much detailed work was put into this weaving, the concentration, and precision.. and when i ask the lady - how long it took to become a great weaver, she smiled and said, "this man is a 3rd generation weaver - and he has been doing it now for 25 years.." - okay, respect for the craft!

(its actually gold string he is holding in his hand)

and then the funniest thing happen, up to my left i see something, i cant believe it - oh well yes its true, it is a long set of punch cards, (now you might not know what company i am working for, if you did - you would know what this is funny for me ..) we ask her about the punch cards, and she comes with a nice explanation of how it is integrated into the work he is doing, to keep track of all the strings, the patterns etc.. interesting, i never thought punch-cards could be used for weaving, i guess you live and you learn.. visit is over and i go back to the car, Bas and Susanne is invited into the Silk shop - and when they return, they are not empty handed - it was well-worth the trip for all parties involved.. what a saturday ...  

..temples, temples and some more temples..

As i promised to share with you a bit about my day today, here goes.. - today we went to Kanchipuram, which is a temple city, located near the Palar river, this place besides being famouse for the temples, is also well known for its silk sarees (hand made). Kanchipuram is actually called the city of the 1000 temples, and some of the bigger ones are (including both Vishnu Temples and Shiva Temples) Varadharaja Perumal Temple for Lord Vishnu and Ekambaranatha Temple which is the "earth abode" of Lord Siva and Chidambaram (Sky), Sri Kalahasti (air), Thiruvanaikaval (water) and Tiruvannamalai (fire), Kamakshi Amman Temple, Varadharaja Perumal Temple, Kumara Kottam, Kachapeshwarar Temple, and Kailasanathar Temple.

The fascinating thing about these temples is that some of them are dating back some 700 BC. imagine that - now that is a looong time ago. So i have to admit one thing - i like history, i like it a lot, and i like temples, churches and stuff like this, but to be honest - today i did feel a big different between what i have seen before, and this here... - what i saw and felt was the hundreds and hundreds of years of history, the stories the walls could have told me, the changes it has gone under, the wars it has survived, the sufferings of the people throughout it history, the blood spilled there, sacrifices made to keep it safe, the love to belief, the anger, the loss and much more, all of those emotions could almost be felt there..- as with any other Hindu temple you have to take off your sandals before entering the holy ground, so imagine walking on stone that is that old, just before we arrived, there had been a soft rain, so you could smell the stone, feel the warm rain water on your feet, when you would step into the pot-holes, it was truly a great feeling, as silly it might sound i did feel a bit more re-energized after walking around on those warm stones, and couldnt help feeling a bit childish, so i started seeking out the water pot-holes to walk through .. the silence there was breath taking - and i really did at one point feel i was taken back those hundreds and hundreds of years, back to when these temples were on their prime time, and now i can understand why India Jones loved and was soo passionate about his job - lucky one .. - i am jealous :-))

(who's the bigger bull?...)

..home, sweet home ..

..so we just arrived back to our hotel now, and what a trip, we set off right after breakfast at 8, from Chennai, our favourite Toyota came to pick us up, this time a new driver, we soon left a very loud and noise Chennai, i dont know what was happening today, traffic was worse today that ever before, the chaos was enormous, the noise level beyond anything we have ever experienced previously, it was humid, hot, and after 5 min in the car the AC went on full speed, singing a nice song of breeze directly out of the ventilator - almost whistling at us .. refreshing.. so today is was day of visiting temples - but what seemed to be a quiet day out, turned out to be a loooong day stuck in traffic..

so after visiting the temples (we come back to that in another post) we decided to get back to the hotel, we set out from the last temple at 16.00, with pouring rain hammering on our windows, i doubted an several occasions if our driver could actually see anything out the front window - or if he was simply guessing where we were going.. so all in all in terms of distant, we are talking about no more than 70 KM - which i guess could easily be done in some little over an hour .. however thanks to saturday traffic, stress and frustration levels grew to an all time high for yours truly when after 3 hours we were still not at our hotel, i was tired, grumpy, cold, wet and needed to use the toilet - i could feel sweet crawling on my forehead as time pasted and we werent moving a single meter... this has to be the longest short ride in my whole life - and not one i would recommend to anybody .. 70 KM taking more than 3 full hours ... insane! Now we are finally back in the hotel, and i hope that my boiler is working so i can finally have a hot shower - if you would have told me this before i was leaving to india, i would have laughed at you... but here it comes, believe it or not but .."i am sooo cold"! 

..finally back in the office..

So a sign of how independent susanne and i are becoming is that for the first time since we have been here in chennai, we traveled to office in a local rickshaw as Kumar (our driver) decided to extend his Diwali holiday a bit further to spend some quality time with his family - i cant really blame him, and this gave me and susanne a great opportunity to stand on our "own legs" if you will .. and if i may be so bold and say that we managed it perfectly - okay might not sound like a big thing, but for those of you that have been to india, and have every needed to negotiate with a rickshaw driver to be taken some 30 - 40 min ride, that gets to be a long conversation .. in the end we managed to get a price that didnt make us look to much as "silly foreigners" i am sure we could have pushed it another 10 - 15 % down, but after 5 min of discussing and waiting i just want to be on my way.. - as you can see waiting is not / or at least was not my strongest side .. (i have definitely been challenged on this one ever since my arrival to india - and i feel i am getting better at controlling myself)  So after taking a lot of short-cuts, we finally arrive to the office, as Diwali was just a couple a days ago, a lot of people are still not back from their families - but still there is a lot of talks going, a lot of discussions, people on the desktops - and then i am reminded of the fact that this NGO is hosting a youth convention for around 800 people on sunday, and as it looks like right now, there is apparently a lot of things that are still not ready .. - but seeing how these people here are working, i feel every very confident that all will be ready for sunday.. we get our invitations as well (writing beautifully in Tamil) and a translation of the program, i have to admit, it seems to be an interesting day, a mixture of fun and laughter (which i like) and of course as well some official activities .. (which i have no comments about ..)

We move to our base camp - a small little 2 meters x 2 meters with two desktops and 5 chairs (a bit compacted - but by now i am use to it) today's objectives are to review the  agenda for the whole of next week, go through the collected feedback from the session last friday, discuss some points regarding splitting of the groups, review some of the presentation material, see an alternative to our first site, and print some material ... - As some many times before susanne and i with out further conversation or preparation just gets going, and we work through our prepared agenda, and it seems like it was a good idea to have prepared this agenda because approximately 1 hour into the conversation with the team, we end up looking at pictures from one of the team members wedding, my God .. for her wedding there was 1300 guests on one day and 800 guests on the other day .. imagine a wedding in Europe with that amount - WOW, she shows us the dress she was wearing, the ceremony, the food, the traditions and it is very interesting, but unfortunately work doesnt get done by itself, so we refocus and move down the list .. and then its lunch time, rice and chicken.. and then off to see the alternative site - and we meet with the local team there, that by now have heard stories, rumour and gossip about me and susanne, so a lot of whispering is happening when we enter, we fast recognize some of the women that was on our session last friday, they seem to be very excited about next weeks trainings, and that there ladies and gentlemen is my motivation to perform to my maximum.. we return back to the office, to do one last review - say or greetings for a nice saturday and see them all on sunday.. after what feels like 5 min, has actually been 6 hours, and we find ourselves once again negotiating the price of taking us to 5th Cross street..  its soo good to have been back in office .. and i cant wait for next week to come, this is what we have been working for - this is what we came to do... - hhmm still saturday and a sunday, but then it is lights, camera and ACTION...

...and the list goes on ..

So lately i have been have working on getting me list updated with another set of things to do while in India.. so on a sunny friday here it comes.. another 10 things to do while in India..:


11) have your photo taken with a "spritual guy"
12) have some "caj" at the local stand with some friendly Indians
13) Learn to do the "whopple"
14) get use to the music and dance to it
15) see a hospital from the inside
16) Celebrate at least one public holiday
17) Learn the India greetings
18) get my future told by a parakeet
19) hand out candy to a group of kids
20) experience the monsoon rain

Keep coming around for the next set of 10 things to do while in India .. - and once again, if you have any recommendations, you know where to find me ..

..introducing the team ..

so here is the team in chenna, reading left to right: 

Rajesh - the rigeous one 

Fernan - the favorable one 

Quynh - the queen essential one 

Jana - the joyful one 

Susanne - the saviour 

Mike - the marvellous 

Bas - the brave one 

Dilminder "tony" - the delighted one 

Christian - the courteous one 

Fred - the friendly one 

Joel - the jolly one 

Arnaud - the awsome one 

and yours truly - Martin the magnificant :-))

(missing Ralph the reliable one and Espen the Enlighten one..)

..Information overload...

right so it is time for me to go back a bit in time, approximately 4 months ago when i found out that i was going to india, i shared this information with a woman that i respect a great deal, and i just happened to know that she has travelled to india many times, so i started talking to her about her experience in india, she travelled, Delhi, Mumbai and the likes, it was a great conversation, and i remember walking out of the meeting room i was sitting in that my head was full of ideas and thoughts - but there was one interesting thing that stayed in my mind - and that was "information overload", this part i just didnt understand full, after some time it move more and more to the back of my mind, and to be honest i havent thought about it since, till today .. So i think i understand it today, i think i finally get what she meant, for the last 2 weeks, my brain has been bombarded with a ton of new people, enormous amounts of conversations, lights, colours, places, food, work, different weather, language, culture, mentality and noise, needless to say i have been taken totally out of my comfort zone (i was joking with some of the guys last night, that i forgot to check-in my comfort zone when i was leaving Vienna airport..) but it is more than that, my mind is a bit tired today, i think my brain is telling me to take a time-out so it can get a bit of time to re-set, get organized and prepare for the next two weeks.. soo i will try and turn of my brain now, so if i add some silly posts, well friends you know its because i didnt turn my brain back on again...

- oh and did you see the picture of the day - today, it seems like we have some cleaning going on outside on the streets today ..

...the day after..

i'm sitting in my room, working on some recommendations for the NGO that we work for, how do i feel? i am tired, sleepy, feeling a bit depressed (it has started raining again), but most of all "hungry" to get back to work, monday we will start to deliver trainings again, am i super excited about that. So why am i tired, well needless to say that i did NOT manage to get to much sleep, the last fireworks needed to fired off so it finally died down at around 4 in the morning - and then the rain started talking over, and the noise level was intensified, as pleasant it is for me to fall asleep to rain back home, here it is a different story (i might mentioned that back home our windows are double layer glass - here it is almost half layer glass, they are paper-thin..) .. so i managed to miss yoga (again!) and i managed to miss breakfast .. however that will not be the biggest issues with all the rice we had for dinner last night... So today will be a slow down at the hotel - working on the material and presentations, so i will for sure add another post later .. so Diwali is behind us what a wonderful day it was, interesting, different, noisy, and fun, and as i say these words - guess what happens, another round of fireworks goes off - i am not sure i want to know how much more they have stored away .. oh well back into the war-zone.. 

....Ladies and gentlemen... as promised ..

So i told you i would get dressed up for Diwali, and i told you i would get a picture taken, and as i am a man of my word - here you go... - i know it will not be the best in the world (i hope Quyhn has a better one i can "borrow" from her..)

Anyways we are still having a lot of fireworks in the background, and as we were walking back to the hotel, i must admit i kinda felt like i was in a war-zone ... - there was high fog all over the place, explosions, rockets and more .. it was some experience - and yes it is very similar to our new years - just with much more firework.. One thing that i have in the back of my mind, who will do the cleaning of the streets, as you will typically see litter and trash on the streets without even anybody noticing, this time around it is much more dirty, but i doubt that anybody will do something about it ... - i guess another "moral headache" that will not be solved, but rather ignored ... - conclusion, Diwali is really a blast, i more than just one way .. 

..Happy Diwali to everybody ...

... okay before you start to get worried about why i haven't posted anything today, it is for the simple reason - i was out sightseeing.. :-) So we went to see Saint Thomas Church, he was one of the few - if not the only apostle that actually left the Roman Empire to preach belief, it was throughout this journey he ended up in Chennai - and actually Chennai is one out of three official burial places for the apostles .. - and it is believe that underneath the church the body of Thomas the Apostle should be resting .. - interesting story .. After this visit we moved of to the beach, and by now it is hitting 35 - 37 on the scale - it is "ttooo hot", a bit of playing with water, sand (God i miss that feeling of having water and sand between my toes - is there anything better than that) - and the water was as well "ttooo hot" ... we then get back on the bus, off to a "shopping" street near the high court of Chennai, close by the harbour, so we get to walk a bit around here, talk and greet to the locals, see some fireworks and take a ton of pictures (will make sure to upload them later on) and by now it starts to rain, Mike and i ended up talking to this older man, that went to England to study and is now teaching here, we might go and meet with him later this week, he seemed t be very interested in what we are doing and what we might be able to learn from each other ... - no harm in talking i guess, and funny about how the conversation came around, Mike and i, were taking some photos, and people came up to shake hands and say "hi", and ask us where we are from, and so did this guy, he just came up, shook my hand, asked me where i am from, how long i am in india for, what i am doing, and suddenly we are talking about child labour, financial instability in india, economical changes, and it goes on and on and on .. walking back to the bus - it doesnt rain, it starts pouring down - and we enter the bus soaked from top till toe.. we take off and leave chennai behind, and we are off to see a "Croc Bank" .. actually it is a small crocodile farm, with around some 8 - 900 crocodiles (they might even have had more).. to be honest i have never seen a crocodile that up close and person - you can almost feel him / her / it ..the are anywhere from a 60 kg to 600 kg big - and to frank here, i am impressed - and a bit in awe.. Respect Mike "Crocodile" Dundee for your work ... after it being a bit sunny, it once again starts pouring down, and once again we enter the bus soaking wet .. - and we are about to head towards Chennai for a late lunch and then back to the hotel, the lunch gets served in a small restaurant near the highway - where the ratio of staff and guest comes out in favour of the staff .. - the lunch was good, and we are on our way back to chennai ... - and now if you will excuse me, i need to go and dress up its...... DIWALI time ... 

...so whats the story about Diwali..

So here is a bit more background on why "Diwali" or "Devali" as it is also call, and why it is such a special day for especial Hindus, Diwali is known as the "festival of Light" and is typically celebrated as a family activity where there are different activities on the program, which could be lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil, people normally dress up in their new cloth (hence my shopping earlier today) and they would be sharing sweets and snacks with each other. For Hindus Diwali is the marking of the return Rama (the seventh avatar of Vishnu and the king of Ayodhya, and old ancient city in India, that is now considered a holy city - and suppose to have been living 5000 years BC) after having been banished for 14 years. Rama is for many hindus considered as the perfect human and for the sake of his father's honour, Rama decided to abandon his claim to Kosala's throne to serve an exile in the forest. So the wife and brother of Rama cant live without him and decides to join him in exile together. While being in exile Sita (wife of Rama) is kidnapped by Ravana (a very negatively loaded person). After a long search and loads of test of personal strength and virtue, Rama finally ends up battling Ravana - needless to say that it includes power and a ton of magic, and other destructive stuff, Rama finally win the battle and frees his wife. Rama returns to be crown king of Ayodhya and in the end becomes emperor - and is believe to have ruled his land with happiness, peace, prosperity and justice - a period known as Rama Rajya... So here is one disclaimer - this story is for Hindus, and i just went and check it with "Tony" and as he told me, Diwali means something completely different for Sikhs - he is a sikh and he will for sure know .. so i will take the story from a Hindu side .. hope it was useful, and should you ever end up in India for Diwali - remember, new cloth, snacks and sweets - share and be nice .... oh i almost forgot - and loads of fireworks .... 

...Shopping - and some more shopping, and then some more shopping..

As it looks that my lunch has been moved to a day where it will not be raining (i wonder when that will be in the month of the monsoon..) we head out to the centre of Chennai - the mission, cloth shopping for Diwali, i have decided to go all out for tomorrows celebration, so we grab a rickshaw and are off to the FABINDIA - which is a upper-class show, known for its fantastic colour of cloth, and fantastic material, it is still raining on and off - so light dressed, i step out of the rickshaw, and of to the shop.. and let me tell you what a sight, wow - those colour combinations are absolutely fantastic, the material is wow, and all the accessory is so beautiful, once again i have to share with you that do not know me that well - that shopping is not my favourite cup of tea, i tend to get stressed very fast while shopping, but here it is absolutely different, we enter and are greeted with smiles, and fast a young lady comes up to help me, as i am sure see can see i have no idea what i am shopping for... After talking for 1 or 2 min. it seems that i have attracted the attention of the shop manager - and all of a sudden i feel like the male version of Julie Roberts in "pretty Woman" ... the service, the support, the advices and the client care, it is absolutely AMAZING ... they know exactly what goes with what, the colours, i have to admit at this point i am getting all excited .. - i guess i kinda understand why shopping can be fun, when you have service like this..after spending some 40 - 50 min trying on different outfits, i can conclude i have everything.. and honestly, i think i look pretty good - at least the shop manager looks very satisfied with my selection of colours, the combination, and i did notice that i got a couple of long looks from the female staff there, a bit of shy smiling - all in all i take that as "martin you are good to go"! .. So as i am about to pay i see why the shop manager was so helpful, it was a bit more than i expected, but i also did manage to get some presents for some friends.. oh well how often do i get to experience Diwali in India ? how often do i get to share this moment with 14 other colleagues from different countries ? was it and is it worth money - ABSOLUTELY .. and i am sure i will make some friends happy as well - and that is priceless ... Diwali watch out - Martin is prepared .. 

..preparing for a long week of training...

Rain is pouring down, there has been a maybe 30 min break during the late morning, and now it continues, so what do you spend your time on, when you are in India and it is pouring down.. here is what you do, you get together with your team member(s) on the 2nd floor of the hotel (where breakfast is served ..), and you turn that in to an office, notebooks, coffee, tea, music, notes, discussions, and of course a group of people, each group working on their projects.. - so here is whats going on right now - we are preparing sessions for: Time management, project management, decision making, feedback, and communication..these presentation we will be delivering next week (and as Diwali is coming tomorrow we are tight on the schedule), then we have to train their trainers in our material (so they can carry out the trainings in the different communities - feels good to be able to leave a legacy behind and know that you are making a difference..) and then we are about to finish our project here, so right now conversations are ping ponging back and forth - ideas, thoughts, approaches, changes, adjustments, typing, some more adjustments, changes, adding new stuff, this is dynamite .. and in the background you have Queen with good old Freddie Mercury singing "another one fights the dust" as we start to tick of the presentations we are sign-in off - yes Freddy another one indeed fights the dust!! .. I feel comfortable with us delivering high level of add-value, there is really some good stuff here.. and again i have to compliment my partner in crime Susanne, working with her, is just so much fun, and it really is very dynamic... so Susanne "takker og bukker" ... 

.. When it rains, it pours...

I am done with me chatting to friends, i am done with e-mailing and i am done with posting for tonight, i am off to sleep - i get under the blanket, the AC is still on, so is the fan, and then suddenly it starts, slowly at first, the more and more wild, i get out of bed, pushes the curtains to the side, opens the window - i cant believe my own eyes, this is the most insane amount of rain i have every seen.. it is amazing the amount of water that is pouring down in a matter of minutes, the streets are easily flooded with water, the water tanks are starting to take in a lot of water, people are soaked on the street, traffic is slowing down to almost a stand-still .. you can here the sound of rain drops playing music on the tin roofs here, first it is nice and relaxing, but then once the intensity increases it because a noise level that is almost unbearable - good luck getting sleep in that weather (if you dont know this about me, i am a pretty light sleeper), i twist and turn for a bit of time, before flicking on the TV, i eventually manage to fall asleep, only to wake up to the voice of my yoga instructor on the other side of the door - already in full session with the team, i overslept, and it is still pouring down, now more than ever, i eventually manage to climb out of bed, move myself up to 2nd floor and get a bit of breakfast - or the sad left overs.. - and here it comes, i am reminded that Suanne and i, are invited for lunch in the slum, with a meeting with a local community afterwards, in this weather .. - how do i do that, do i cancel, i really cant so no to a person spending time on preparing food for us, and i kinda dont want to get stuck in the hotel just because of the rain - then i recall the advice that i got last night from my Indian colleague, and i know exactly how to solve the issues .... "dress light" ... i think i can manage that... lunch as far as i am interested is 100% on!! 

..a bit of soft rain..

it is 19.00 in the evening, and we are leaving the office, there are still some left in the office, i guess they are doing support work for Europe or US, but we are off.. i have to admit i dont remember the last time a day in the office went that fast, we arrived, worked, had lunch and worked some more.. and now on the way home. So i actually managed to be very productive, i mean i feel that i am kinda productive back in slovakia as well, but i managed to "chat" with some of my friends from back home, check a couple of mails, i didnt reply to any still - as i am out of office, remember - and i trust my management team 100 % i know they will do a great job, so i dont want to interfere with them, they are running the shop - and they didnt call me, nor did my manager, so i take it that all is okay.. so team - great job, well done, i am proud of working with you.. now susanne and i leave the office, and to tell you the truth this could have been one of our offices anywhere in the world, up until we step out of the building and the honking starts, traffic has increased exponentiation since lunch, i guess everybody wants to get home..and there is light rain, not really rain like rain, but just a soft rain, as it hits my skin i realize just how warm the drops are .. - it feels very nice, very refreshing .. and then its starts - the fireworks, the noise, i can see and feel that Diwali is definitely coming closer.. and i am getting more and more excited to see what is coming, i really dont know what to expect .. - i guess i will have to be ready for everything .. so i need to run as my noddles are waiting for me .. - till then enjoy your afternoon, and stay cool..

...the clouds are getting darker..

so we are just back from lunch, a fast one (it only took us 60 min or so to get our food and then pay..), and now back to the office, today it seems that the clouds are getting darker and closer, monsoon week might be over us finally .. we cant continue to be this lucky, we only had a bit of rain (although it was pouring for 45 min nonstop..) in pondicherry, i met a Indian colleague outside the office, and ask him about the weather, he looks at me, and smiles, and tells me - the weather is going to be against us, the rain is coming, so get ready for 4 or 5 days of rain... - i think he was trying to make a bit of fun with me, 4 - 5 days of rain non-stop, what will i be doing inside i think to myself, and ask him, "do you go to work when the monsoon is over you", he smiles at me, and says "sure but we dress light" and starts to laugh ... seems like a bit of monsoon is not going to take his good mood away, i myself am a bit more concerned with this - rain for a whole week, and what about Diwali ... - i am looking so much forward to all the fireworks .. being outside .. so here is the deal, either it rains before Diwali or after Diwali .. not during .. 

..back in my "usual" environment..

I wake up after a long and hard night - dreaming i was out cruising the streets of chennai, feeling free and relaxed, only to turn around and stare into a white screen on my blackberry, it seems like my "BB" finally gave up - and went to the eternal place for Mobil devices, "farewell my supporter - you will NOT be missed!" (being available 24/7 once in a while is a bit to much, i would like to be surprised in the morning in terms of how many mails i have get or dont get .. - okay so truth be told, i will miss that little bugger), i fast change sim cards, load my iphone and off for breakfast, where susanne and i fast agree with ralph and mike to go over to work from our local sales office, here in chennai, it is a 10 min walk.. so i fast eat my breakfast, omelet and some bread (this i missed when i had breakfast in Pondicherry - i really missed the breakfast from our hotel) breakfast is done .. i drop downstairs to pick up my laundry that i left Saturday morning, i manage to find i believe 70 % of my socks - (team if you are missing some socks i am in room 2..), small note here, please note that i am using the laundry service not because i cant do it myself, nor because i am lazy, i am actually doing all of this at home, i am using the laundry service because it is faster :-) i save time with laundry i can blog more :-)) so after picking up my laundry, fast back in my room, pack and then we are off to the office, we show our badges, give our employee number, we get a temporary card, and we enter 1st floor, and have funny is this - it totally remains me of home, i bet you wouldnt have thought that would you .. - well to tell the truth i kinda did, and i am sure you did as well, so i am sitting in my cubical and i guess i will be sitting here for a bit more - hang on, nope i am of with the team to have a cup of coffee, oh well i guess work will still be here when i come back as well.. so coffee / caj here i come.. talk to you all in a bit ..

..Feeling like a local...

So we arrive back to Chennai - it is around 17 local time, and so i need to buy a couple of things for next week, soft drinks, a bit of snacks for the evening, a bit of noodles just in case i come home late - so we are off to the shop, so 10 min from where we live, the shopping is done relatively fast, we find a short-cut on our way back. When we come back to the hotel we meet the rest of the group there, and there is the first surprise, it seems like the hotel staff wants to give us a bit of a taste for what is waiting for us on Wednesday for diwali - so there are fireworks...- it is really nice... and when i am just about to go inside, i see Rajesh turning a corner, on a motorbike, and i fast "imagine", i am off i go to see if i can get a ride, and here i have to mention, that i have never been on the back of a motorbike before, i have never ever been on the back of a motorbike without a helmet (well done Martin - did you leave your sanity in Slovakia ??), and i have never been on the back of a motorbike in INDIA - where traffic is insane!! So Rajesh sets of, and there we go, like a normal set of friends on a motorbike, in and out in traffic, accelerate, decelerate, left, right, we get honked at a lot of time - but we are still enjoying the "freedom" of sliding through the traffic, the wind is blowing in my face, and i really feel like a local, a local that is just having a good time, oh and it is actually rather fresh and better than this air-condition i have had the last couple of hours in the car.. - we come back to the hotel, i get to my room - and i recall the advertisement i saw about India some time ago... "incredible India" - and i can only agree with that - the ministry of tourism in India hit is spot-on with that slogan, India you are indeed incredible... 

..A sight for s(h)ore eyes..

after some almost 2 hours drive we finally reach Mahabalipuram .. - now how do i describe this in a way that gives it full justice..- WOW, so we pull in on the parking lot and walk for maybe 2 min. to the ticket office to get our tickets to enter the site, so a bit of background so for those of you, like myself didnt know this about Mahabalipuram..As i understand from my reading the town of Mahabalipuram was a 7th century port city of the South Indian dynasty, located around 60 km south from Chennai, and apparently the name Mamallapuram is somehow believed to have been given  after the Pallava king Narasimhavarman I, he took on the epithet Maha-malla (great wrestler). Now the whole of Mahabalipuram is super-famous for its monumnets these monuments are mostly rock-cut and monolithic, and supposely constitute from the early stages of Dravidian architecture, where Buddhist elements of design are very visible. They are constituted by cave temples, monolithic rathas (chariots), sculpted reliefs and structural temples... Soo imagine this, withall said and done, you enter a court yard where there is a 4 meter sculpure of an elephant that is 100s of years old and small temples - it is fantastic, it really is taking you back in time.. we get to walk around a bit, take pictures and then we slowly more down to the temple near the sea shore - as we walk towards the templete we get closer to the sea, and yet again the Bengal sea shows its true beauty, the wonderful smell of ocean, and a light and much needed breeze hits us (by now i guess the temparetur is reaching around 40 degrees) this is truly a wonderful feeling, and as we get closer to the shore temple i cant hel but yet again being taken back into the past of India, imagining how it must have been, what it would have looked like, smelled like, i stand for a bit, i guess day-dreaming a bit - till the hot sun of India makes me seek shelter in the shadows of the temple, and at one point i find myself looking direct at a statue of Vishnu, and the shrine dedicated to Vishnu - i feel humble, as i recall some of the stories about vishnu, and when you look at how Hindus preceives Vishnu i guess you must feel a bit humbel,  after all he is perceived to be the "All-Pervading essence of all beings, the master of—and beyond—the past, present and future, one who supports, sustains and governs the Universe and originates and develops all elements within. Vishnu governs the aspect of preservation and sustenance of the universe, so he is called 'Preserver of the universe"

After having walked around for a good hour or so - it is time that we start to head home to Chennai, so this time around, i am opted to the Toyota, and while sitting in the car being driven back to chennai - i cant help reflecting over this weekend, and i must admit, that it was a blast, it was amazing, it was fun, it was great, it was insightful, it was an eye-opener, a team building trip, and much more for me to write about, what a pity it is already over ... tomorrow back to work - oh wait, i still have 2 weekends left in chennai so i am sure i will explore some more ... - and when i said "what a pity" the weekend was over, i couldnt have been more wrong - that was one more thing waiting for me ...

..And so the trip continues..

After a great evening in Pondicherry I'm rushed back into reality, once again the hotel is able to "impress" all of us, this time with a breakfast that, well let me quote on of my team members "if you could possibly find anything delicious at the breakfast, please let me know" so I leave this for your own imagination - I will however say this, the bed was good, and it was nice with a bit of hot water (still it didn't get that hot) for showering.. So we get checked out, which seems to be a much faster process as they know that no more rupees are being paid here. The driver drops us in the centre of Pondicherry for a fast shopping trip, and I manager to find a very (at least in my eyes) nice india short sleeve shirt, fine cotton - which is obviously the big thing here, I manage to buy yet another present for a friend, and I'm starting to thing if I can when I will finally pack my stuff to go home, fit all of my stuff in my bag.. :-)) After a bit of water, we get back in the bus, and now the trip goes to Mahabaliburam ..

..A silent but interesting walk..

Bus comes to pick us up at around 16 to take us to the historical centre of pondicherry, its a short but loud ride, people are excited, full of energy after lunch (everybody except ralph that stay at the hotel sick..)  We park the bus and is fast made aware of a totally different "age", it is quiet althoug full of people, we are taken to one of the more "commercialized" temples, where you pay for both "parking" your sandals and for the prayers.. It is very nice but I have to admit I did expect a lot more, the temple we saw in chennai was much more impressive..I have to admit one thing though and that is the fact that I did feel like a child again, at least for 5 min. There was a full-blown elephant on the street that would collect money from the people and give the blessings and of course I wanted to try that, so out with my coins and received my blessing.. It was so fun.. After this fun we moved on to the "aurobindo ashram" what an impressive place.. As any other ashram you need to take of your sandals, and specific for this place is that everything is done in complete silence, this is due to the many people that come here to meditate, I have to admit that this place is vibrating with emotions, passion, concentration and peace - I am taken by the this total sourrending your mind and soul to finding your highest purpose, this level of mind over body, not to feel stressed, not to feel tired, not to feel confused, but to have an absolute clear mind, I now start to see and feel the strong power of yoga, not only is it about "working out" and breathing, stretchhing and so on, more important it is to find that state of mind where everything just flows like a pure stream of energy, and with this feeling inside of myself, I have to admit I do feel a bit more happy...I feel a bit more happy because the dots are finally coming together, the mentality of people, their understand and behaviour, their take on life, on relationships, and what really happiness is.. Wow what an impression this ashram has made on me, and I hope on the whole team...

So leaving the main street we walk some 5 min down to the beach, wonderfulto smell the see from the the Bengal ocean, and it streches as a long as the eye can see - the sky is amazing, the variety of blue and grey makes this moment incredible, I wish I could share this with all m friends and family - this is a must see if you ever go to pondicherry..truly amazing..we get some pictures taken of the team and then it happens again, people comes to take photos of us, by now I'm use to it so I put on my "gameface" and smile for the camera..we walk a bit and then all of a sudden a couple of drops of rain, then a bit more, and then india shows its rain-season side, for 45 min its pouring down, like really pouring..we seek shelter at a shop, that fast gets full of people, funny enoug people are starting conversations with each, a street seller is talk to us about life, work and other interesting stuff, the time passes fast, and then its over..

Okay before I go on, I need share one thing, there are a lot of sellers on the street here selling wooden things, bongo etc, now if you like to buy great - remember to negotiate, if your like me that doesn't want to buy, the worse thing you can say to a person try to sell you something is "no" because means maybe, maybe after sometime means yes, here is what I have learned, ask what material it is made out of, they will say "coconut three" then tell them "I need out of palme three" that will keep them things what to say, and off you go.. The same thing with bongos -they are everywhere, so instead of answering "no" I tell them I play the flute...and - they leave me, now some of the guys (thanks Mike and Fred) actually surprised me a bit - by.....yes you guessed it, buying me a flute.. - it was sooo funny...

The rain has stopped and I got a flute and now of to the "le club" which is really not my favoured type of restaurant, sure it is nice, sure the food was great, and sure it was a nice evening, but to be honest I didn't travel 6000 km or more to have french food, so I end up with Tony and Rajesh to order indian food - which was ok, not the best I have had, and if you ask me about value for money it was not very good..(Maybe it is only me, but I want to see the "real" india while I'm here and upper-class hotels and fancy restaurants just isn't what I'm looking for..) So after dinner a couple of us decide to go for a couple of beers (kingfisher of course, my prefered choice by now) we end up in, what will be the surprise of the day, a bar where the ratio of men and women are 97 to 3 and friends not in my favour, in the whole bar there are maybe 4 girls, the rest are men dancing with men, at first I think I went to the wrong place but then I get it - this is a normal saturday evening out, we have a couple of drinks and then we get some "fist pumps" by a young india that introduces himself as a "hip hop" artist that just came back from Hollywood where he just made some films, and he asks us we're from and he finds out we stay in chennai all of a sudden he's from chennai, but when Mike asks him about bars in chennai, its because obvious that this guy is full of it, and maybe that is the final signal to go to the hotel - call it a night and sleep, tomorrow is
another day...

All in all a great day with the tradional highs and lows, oh forgot to mention, I did my first souvenir shopping - its not a strong side of mine, but I believe I have been successful..

..A not so fast check-in

Somehow we managed to get a "recommendation" to stay over at the hotel Ginger (a modern and international hotel) - and I am seriously concerned with who would do such a bad thing to us, okay I know I'm in india, I know it is not the same as in europe, but come on after almost 2 hours of paperwork, waiting, arguing, explaining we (a group of 15 people) are almost done with check in, the staff here seems to have "zero" overview or idea of how to coordinate each other, one checks the other all the time.. - great idea..okay here another good one for you, they just asked one in our group to tell them who has paid and who hasn't paid yet (needless to stay but if I was a bit harsh and direct I could imagine this not being a audit-able process!!) So is it all bad, well I get to share rooms with fred (he has the same humour as me so I'm sure that will be fun) oh yes they have what is called a give'n'take which allowed me to re-charge my blackberry..so out of 5 stars, for blackberry charger that gets some points, overall however this is terrible - oh this by the way is considered a very upper-class hotel, I would say the staff at our hotel in chennai, is much better and nicer - half the price, but not at all as visual and fancy as this one.. Okay I'm out of here - off for lunch, need something positive after this experience, Pondicherry here I come..

..Back to the 60s..

So your just pulling out of auroville, the bus is curving on the road like a snake, this driver has talent, okay so how is my impression of auroville, hhmm I guess if you look at it from a pure visual perspective it is very nice, the centre with the "golden sphere" is amazing (and took more than 20 years to build) the garden is beautiful, its truly well taken care of. Now what my concern is, is the philosophy behind it - I heard some hard sentences that made me on one hand surprise on the other a bit worried. No I don't want to discuss religion here, if it exist or not, but building society - because that is or was what "the mother" was trying to do, on the principles of getting rid of religion, to focus on the true meaning of life which according to them is to reach the highest level of concentration - which I would say can be discussed, whether or not it really is the meaning of life..I think some of the ideas are great, but are following common sense I think, respect for each other. As we are leaving auroville I can't help thinking that after all people are free to believe in what they want to, and who they want to - but it all seems to me a bit to similar to our old hippies, with peace, love and happiness, which is just fine as well - but don't include me into that, the search for me and my personal highest level of happiness goes on..

..Who said a bumpy ride..

It is 7.30 and its saturday, on this trip to india there is no time to waste, we are staying busy, staying active,  maximizing every hour of your here, a fast breakfast (this time a portion of coco-rings with milk,serves as a nice change..) And we are off. We are sitting in a minibus the whole team (I'm with jana, dilminder, ralph,joel, bas, christian,fred and quynh the others has uped for a bit more luxurious transport, a  toyota..) We are of to the former french capital city of "puducherry" which was founded in 1674 by the director of the french east india company - Francois martin, and it is like chennai locate on the coast line of the bengal sea.. There are a ton of things to see there, good that we are able to get some advices from the many travelers books, the team had brought, so I guess I will want to see "church of our lady of the angels" build in 1865, the status of mahatma gandhi, the government square, "raj nivas", "aurobindo ashram", the "manakula vinayakar temple", the church of the sacred heart of Jesus and of course get a glance of the sea front from "goubert salai" the boulevard, oh and these things are only things to see in Puducherry - not to mention all of surrounding wonders..one interesting thing to mention is that Puducherri or Pondicherry, is that this for a long time was the homeplace of Sri Aurobindo Ghose, a famous bengali poet - philosopher, that took refugee there as he was trying to escape the british impire (he had so pretty strong views and was fighting for the freedom of india in the 1900s) in puducherri he became very drawn into the "spiritual" realms, and he became a schoolar of and popularized the principles of yoga. one of his disciple "Mirra alfassa" was later known as the "the mother". She was so taken by aurobindo that she after a brief visit with her husband during I world war, decide to move to puducherri, she was a woman of mystic, paint and music and she later became the cornerstone in the establishment of aurobindo ashram (which as mentioned we will go and see) - even today this "serene" ashram will host meditation sessions as done in the past.. (I might just go and participate..) Okay, enough writing I'll leave you for a minute or so to see us leave chennai behind and enter of what looks to be a very interesting and exciting weekend trip... I will keep you updated.. First stop auroville..