Growing a Beard

Finally back from my round trip in Rajasthan. Together with Joanne and Simon we traveled along the Golden Triangle visiting Alwar, Jaipur, Agra and finally Delhi. It has been a truly amazing trip, my first look of the rural Indian life, and I’ve seen numerous of unforgettable sights.
We started our trip on Saturday 6 o’clock in the morning in Delhi where we were picked up by a driver and we started driving south towards Alwar while the city was in the process of waking up. I had been busy at work and living in a 5+ star hotel during my five first days here so this was my first true look of India, and to be honest I was quite taken back. Driving along the shabby streets around the airport I couldn’t help but feeling uneasy and the huge lack of sleep didn’t make it easier. After 45 minutes of driving with an, for the moment, annoying sound of Punjabi music coming through the speakers we arrived to the first tourist holes along this trip. Outside this road side diner were two kids, the girl not more than 3 years wearing more makeup and fake jewellery than any other kid I’ve seen, trying to sing and dance and asking for money from the westerners, that is most of the people inside the place.
After approximately two hours of driving we were surrounded by beautiful landscape with farmers and children playing along the sides together with buffalos and camels and villagers getting ready for the celebration of Diwali and the approaching Eid Ul-Fitr. We all felt much better by now after our nap and were enjoying the music and the views and after another while we finally arrived at our first destination.

The Hill Fort Keseroli, outside Alwar, is one of the beautiful ‘non hotels’ in the Neemrana chain and is the oldest heritage accommodation site in India dated back to the 14th century. With breathtaking views, garden full of flowers, tastefully decorated rooms and the best Matar Paneer and dessert buffet I’ve tasted so far, I cannot say enough good things about this place, so please if you ever travel to India, make sure to stay in one of these forts since it will be a truly unforgettable experience.

The fort was lit up in the evening by candles and lights in the true Diwali fashion and there was a ceremony at sunset with the local priest singing chants and blessing the guests who were mostly Indians with the exception of the three of us and an American couple living in Dubai and working with promotion of different kind of arts to ‘bring some soul’ to this fairly young and modern city through their project ArtWorks. We were quite fascinated by their experiences, such as working as a costume designer on Broadway, and were listening with excitement to their stories about living in Hong Kong and Nigeria in the 60’s, or the last time they had Morgan Freeman over for dinner in Dubai…

Tonight I went to the preview of one of the most anticipated and hyped movies Don – The Chase Begins Again, a remake of the hit movie Don from 1978. I was a bit sceptic to the whole idea but with actors such as Priyanaka Chopra, Isha Koppikar and Kareena Kappor, on an IMAX screen, there wasn’t much room left for reconsideration. There was of course something for the ladies too and these lads go by the name of ShahRukh Khan and Arjun Rampal, aka the Indian honk.

The movie is of course in Hindi; however English sentences are usually used in the beginning and end of scenes. Let me demonstrate;

-scene- Doorbell rings, girl opens:
- Hi, it’s very nice to see you!
> Hello, I felt so lost without you!
- (Speaking Hindi for 15-20 minutes, sometimes accompanied by spontaneous song and dance)
- Never leave me again, oh..
-end of scene-

I really enjoyed the show and was laughing quite a lot, even though this is officially an action flick, and it turned out to be one of my best cinema experiences thanks to the many hundreds of devoted fans cheering every time The Don uttered something cheesy such as:

You must understand one simple fact… it is not difficult to catch Don, it is impossible!

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Last night I went out with my dear colleagues Sasi, Nikhil and Hari, who by the way shares the surname of the legendary sitar player who taught George Harrison how to play the instrument.

The ride to the centre of Hyderabad which is approximately 20 km from Hi-Tech city took us around 40 minutes and it was my first experience of real Indian traffic and driving. We went to a pub called 10 Downing Street which in the beginning was a surreal experience since the place looks just like any other English pub (but slightly over-AC’d) and after a couple of Kingfishers I almost forgot I was in India. The beer here is stronger then the stuff I normally drink in Dublin and drinking it at the same pace as back home makes you quite…happy! Very groovy with added special effects such as fear of collision/death together with constant honking as well as motorcycles, rickshaws, bikes and dogs swirling around the cab on the way back to the hotel.

At home, I went to bed with a smile.

-Hessam – Finally growing a beard

After finishing my breakfast which consisted of nearly everything available at the buffet, I finally finished the layout of this blog and later in the afternoon I went on a long walk to the Hi-Tech City where the Google office, among others, is located.

Because I landed yesterday at night, I wasn’t able to actually see anything of the surroundings, and boy I was up for a surprise. After leaving the hotel, where a short walk to the elevator includes at least five employees bowing and calling me Sir and most guests looking like diplomats (hence the bomb check of entering cars), the first shock wasn’t far away. Right over the road from the hotel lays a slum neighbourhood, and I’m talking about a real one with the whole package of naked children, stray dogs and accommodation made of whatever available. I must say stepping out of a luxury hotel, it’s a funny feeling to face the poverty and the real life of millions of people.

After walking for 15 minutes I felt like I’d walked the wrong way since I didn’t meet anyone, but two minutes later I realised the reason for the lack of people and traffic. The hotel is apparently surrounded by an extremely protected area where not everyone is permitted entrance (the slum is closed off by a fence). Twenty minutes later I passed the office and then went on to the village centre. All labourers have the day off on Sundays and that’s when they all go to the town centre for shopping for the coming week. Streets where full of people and everything was on sale, plastic shoes, meat, fruits and greens etc. It doesn’t take long to be surrounded by curious people when a camera comes out, as if being white and looking generally lost doesn’t attract enough attention. Everybody was looking at me with a curious but friendly look and they didn’t seem to mind being photographed and were happily posing.

On my way back I met the driver from last night, who drives me around whenever I need a ride for free, and he gave me a funny look when I told him I had walked into town.

“Why didn’t you call!?” he said. “Didn’t know we were goin’ out” I said.

He gave me a ride back to the hotel and now we have a date for tomorrow morning at 8:15, to the G office of course. Time for ordering some food, think i’ll go for Paneer Butter Masala….

After one hour of sleep on Friday night and check-in at 5 in the morning, I was sitting at the gate waiting to board the plane for Frankfurt to later continue to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. With a look and feel of a zombie, I boarded the plan and from there it got a bit blurry. I think I was gone the whole trip which took two hours and in Frankfurt I literally got of the plane and on to the next. Two hot meals and a Bloody Mary later and 3-4 hours of sleep, here I am 39 minutes from Hyderabad. On our way we have passed cities like Ankara, Tehran, Karachi and Mumbai. The temperature supposes to be +27 C and with the local time being 22:30, I would say it’s HOT!