Forks

So tomorrow I fly to India.

When I get back Deb and Maria will be gone. We ate lunch together pretty much every day for five years.

I will be the last person left from the Graphics team when I get back. It's true that many of them are in other jobs with the company now, but what was once a good group that I was proud of will be completely gone and I will sit in a sea of empty cubes where they once were.

Last night we all met up for drinks and it was good. Some were moving on with the job search, some had found things, some were wondering what to do. But a lot of people showed up and we had a lot of laughs. People are the same and people are different but for a moment we were back together.

I'm really glad we did it. I think we needed something or someone to say goodbye to that part of our lives and recognize that it was good. Our department broke up slowly and we never had a good bye party or anything. This was it.

Maybe I'm over-doing the Wonder Years dialog here, but I was very sad to walk out of the building today because I knew when I came back it would be completely different. I learned a lot from my team mates there and as a vendor over the years. I'm grateful and sad and will miss them.

Deb and Maria, it's been a pleasure. We had a lot of laughs, worked hard and fought the wars. You're my comrades and I will miss you both.

Skills in Retrograde

Photography-wise, I feel I'm going backwards. I haven't shot a lot on the last few months, maybe I'm just rusty.
I've been playing chess lately (on-line at chess.com) so I thought I would break out the board and take a snap.
Now, the set has been out on my coffee table. I had it up to follow along with a match the first game I had on-line with a stranger. Of course, we make the first few moves in the Ruy Lopez and the dude goes on vacation. So I move the board into the kitchen and set up lights.
Here, I wanted to restrict the light to the board and blow the rest of the room to black. In my first quick shots i could see that the dark pieces were going tb troublesome as they suck up light. My basic setup was a flash with a RayFlash adaptor on a stand over the board. That was my main light. I wanted to see what the rayflash would do to the shiny, angular objects. On the side camera right I set another flash a few stops under to try and fill in the black pieces. Then I added some on-axis at lowest power to try and even out the shadows.
The first few shots I kept getting this big, specular ring over on the black king-side rook. I couldn't figure out what was causing it. Reflection from a nearby beer can? Open screen door bounce? I tried different things and different light levels until I realized it was the bounce angle from the main light. Moving the camera a little sort-of solved it. I thought about using the umbrella instead, but that was too big I thought.

Overall, I didn't get the light I really wanted, I kind of settled for a best-guess solution. Which, when I think about it, is a lot like my chess game. Good itentions to improve, but inclined to guess when presented with real problems. My chess game is moving backwards, too.
Ugh

Posted from my iPhone

Operation GOOM

Today started with a series of unsavory events.

A car tire had a flat due to a secret encounter with a nail. I had to call AAA. The inactivity of waiting took just long enough to have all my morning pep wear off.

Next a squirrel committed suicide under the car on the way to work. I thought his indecisive series of back-and-forth dashes in front of the car took forever. Then afterwards as I watched his death throes in the rear-view mirror I knew it had been quick. The dash was fast, the dying took a long time.

It was terrible.

I made to to work in time to go to a training on the new phone systems they are putting in. Ugh.

From there it was into phone meetings straight through lunch until 4:30.

Mid-way through the afternoon, though things took a great turn: My new nephew drew his first breaths! He's healthy and everyone is fine. New chapters start and things change. He's a cute little devil, long legged and full of red hair. I'm so happy for them.

I also found out today that we are 99% sure I'm going back to India.

In two weeks.

[insert sound of needle being picked off a record here]

So, here we go again: Operation GOOM (Get Out Of Massachusetts) round two.

New city, new mission, new team, new problems, new opportunity to kick butt and take names.

I'm trying to focus on that and not that I've barely gotten off the road from last year and that I'm going to miss my niece's high school graduation or that my chance to visit my new nephew will have to wait. I have to get my aspect up and rally.

I have to get out of Massachusetts.

In Between Days

I'm stuck in Chicago for a long time on the trip back. So I go to Chili's and sit down for a beer and burger.








Now, I ordered the meal knowing that it might go badly. I have eaten only spicy food for two months- would American cusine seem bland and boring? Big and bloating? Or better than best?
Well, actually it seemed kind of blah blah blah. Not quite familiar enough to overcome it's taste to become satisfying.
Not that I would prefer chicken korma right now, it's just that my tastes, my sense of time, my day to day routine, my sleep schedule, what seems normal, everything is in transition at the moment. I'm in between. I'm stuck in that Indian half hour delay.
Perhaps I'm being dramatic. All I know is; I feel weird, I miss my friends and family and don't want to get so comfortable at home that I forget that.
Somebody asked me if I had "picked up" Hinduism while there. Not really. But I thought about Shiva a little on the trip. That dude isn't afraid to clean house to get the new stuff in. I think that that's good for me to focus on. Set your sights on change and make it happen.
-----
Meanwhile: my metaphoric state has become quite real. I am stranded between home and the road. Stuck in Chicago. The person that booked our travel only allowed an hour for me to get my bags, clear customs and catch my next flight. Well, Air India 127 taxied into O'Hare at the time my connecting flight was leaving. Hurm.
So, I go to American and the lady is a total jerkface and sends me back to Air India. After 45 mins there the guy sends me back to American. Now during that time he told me that there was no flights and I would have to stay over and take the 9am flight. Okfine, but then they somehow find me one and I go back to American get booked, and settle in for the 6-plus hour wait.
Cue the Mother Nature drama as we learn that after the long wait my flight and three others are all cancelled due to wind.
I could have been sleeping at the hotel and booked for the morning, but now I'm in a giant crush of people trying to get re-booked. After an hour or so of listening to the Worlds Most Annoying Spring Break Teens I get booked and then it's several hours of waiting for my bags as three planeloads of luggage is disgorged into baggage area 5. My two carry-on bags are heavy and I'm already tired, so when I finally get the rest of my luggage, I'm a dead man. Now I have a huge walk to the hotel shuttle.
Because my problem is now due to weather, and not Air India's tardiness, the best AA will do is give me a discount at the Holiday Inn. Whatever, I just want to sleep. Cue the A Billion Dudes With The Same Problem problem. After waiting in the freezing cold for twenty minutes, the Holiday Inn guy tells me there is No Vacancy. Ha ha. Of course not. There is a Hilton across the street fron the shuttle waiting area so I drag my butt over there feeling about like Napoleon's army retreating from Russia.
Happy happy, the rooms are only $239! I'm too tired to argue. I take one and fall down dead.
Except that my sleep schedule as I mentioned earlier is a mess, so I wake up at 4 hours later. Have I complained enough? The one good news so far is that they originally had me booked out today at 9:45pm. So I went from free hotel and 9am flight to expensive hotel and 9pm flight. Since checkout is at noon that would make for a long day in the airport. But at 4am I called re-booking and they found me a one-stopper that leaves at 2:45. Gets into Boston around 10. Still a god-awful day, but less so.
Fun sidebar. One of the things we were looking forward to in returning to the US was the language familiarity. It gets tiring working to understand the Indian accent. But since I've been in Chicago, most everyone I've dealt with has their own dialect. Armenian baggage claim, Eastern Euro ticket lady, Japanese waitress. I really am in-between. Shiva destroys things. Maybe he brought the wind to teach me something more. I dunno. I hope my lesson is over soon, though.

Posted from my iPhone

Namaste

The beginning of the Good-Byes started tonight. We're going to leave a little early tomorrow, which is our last day. Now, by "a little early" I mean we're working closer to 8 hours and less like 12.
Mikey realized that that meant he was bidding adieu to the 3rd shifters today. He's splashed water on his face to trick the easily dupe-able Beth into thinking he had been crying (she fell for it of course) but there are some real mixed emotions there in the play tears.
We've been through some hard work with sleeves rolled up next to these good people for two months. We're happy, sad, reticent, concerned, uncertain, satisfied, amazed, overjoyed, hungry, tired, proud, and pulverized. I know I'm not quite the same.
So, we waved the late-night kids onward and hit the trail.
This is some of them by the way:
Dang, I love the high sign. Even super-serious Eranna (center) busts out the grin when I make them do the move.

And this is Sasi, Sham and Ram. You likely know Sasi and Sham. I've worked closely with them this trip. With Sham dating back to last year and the start of this blog.

I wanted to give special props to Sasi, though. He's took me to Republic Day, he came to get me on Cricket Day and has been considerate and gracious throughout. I really appreciate what he's done for me this trip. Thanks, Sasi. Now grow your hair back.

And, thank you, blog reader. It's been a great lifeline for me to see your responses. It's helped tie me to home when I had few touchstones. And I know and appreciate the lurkers out there. According to statcounter, this blog has been hit over 3,0o0 times this yeat by several hundred users. That's nice and well appreciated. I wrote this for my family and friends to share in this trip a little. I'm greatful to hear your responses and know that you are out there, even if you aren't posting. Thank you.

I've had fun, felt just about everything possible, seen some crazy stuff, tried new things and come out better than I went in. I'm closing in on the end and am not sure if I will post again from in-country. So thank you, blog, thank you India.

Namaste.

Ninjas!

Ok, they're not ninjas, but I have been fascinated by the Muslim ladies around here. We all catch them in the crowd and want to see what cool things they are doing. This is probably bad, but one day we were in a shopping area and this young ninja slid by me. She was very petite and her burka was less drapey than others if you acquire my drift. As we crossed she flipped her big, Egyptian-style eyes back at me and gave me a look.

Pow. My heart went pitta-pat. So mysterious! Such pretty eyes. It was a nice moment.
I have to admit that it's easy to think of Muslims as alien, as Other. Even as a total stranger in this ancient culture, full of differing races, religions, creeds and castes, I somehow see Muslims as even more separate and different than the others when really, they fit in and I'm the alien. As I write this I feel like what I'm describing is my own racism. I guess I'll have to work on that.

Still. I'm not entirely comfortable with some of the treatment of the ladies that goes on.

Which takes me to Women's Day.

They had a holiday to celebrate women here recently. It was coinciding with a vote in government to create a quota of 33% women in legislative bodies. This created a tumult that has been all over the news. In congress some dudes went up to the speaker and expressed their anti-Lady-Law outrage by throwing papers and grabbing the microphone. It made calling Obama a liar seem like genteel behavior. The bill passed but there is more hubbub about it today. It's hard to follow the politics of it in the newspaper because they abbreviate everything. Typica headline:

"RJD, SP MPs Sully RS!"

For the most part, women in business are treated well. Indians generally assume that if a woman got to a position of authority that she is probably pretty capable. That's a great attitude that contrasts starkly with a common American assumption about how some women get to power. There is still a lot of chauvanism and macho negativity going on here though. I don't think a typical Indian woman has as many options as an American one. I'm not going to go into the uglier side of women's issues and crime here, but some tough stuff goes on and we see can read that in the paper without abbreviations.

Sigh. I guess I'm not sure I have a clear point here. I'm not trying to make broad comments about a culture, especially one I know so little about. Let me be clear: in two months, the most I've learned is that I have a lot to learn. I don't really understand anything. I guess I just feel like maybe the ninjas under their burkas are a typical part of Indian culture as well. And all that that represents.

One Block Over

We needed to do a little more shopping today, so we went back to Commercial street. The tuk-tuk drivers dropped us off a block down from where they usually do though. No problem, we'll just go down one street and then hang a left, we'd be right back in familiar territory. Except that there was no left one block down. We had to go deeper and farther off the block thaan we usually do. This put us into some slummier territory.
By now no one was phased in the least that we were walking through weird neighborhoods with cows and cow poop garbage and men peeing on corner walls. We navigated through the mix without a thought, stepping between cars like it was nothing.
That section of town tends to be organized by shop types. So all the shoe stores are in one place for example. This section had more temples. You can see my man Hanuman above. He was on the roof of a small temple. Maybe he was 12' tall.
Here's another temple. Behind Beth a random cow is eating garbage. People would walk up and toss more garbage into the pile, perhaps to feed the hungry cow. A crow or some other black bird hopped up and down on the cow's back, jumping between him and the sign. In the midst of all this sensory input, it was the sculpture by the door that got Beth's attention.
This to me pointed out how far we had come.

We saw a side of Commercial street that was new and unvarnished. Even those of us with germ issues walked through it as though it was a great new thing.

Here we saw men gambling. They had scratched a hopscotch-style grid into the street and were marking squares with twigs. The game was played with small shells that thew shook and flipped with the back of their hand. The wager was a rupee. The were happy to show us the game, although it made no sense at all.

Next to them, women assembled garlands and chatted lightly. These were the workers behind the commerce and it was cool to see.

It was a great view and a nice walk. At the end of it, we looped back onto one of the streets we new and found just the shop we were looking for. I got everything I wanted, including something for me at last. Nice walk.