Tara

From America.......

Tara

Tara hates her pictures and does not want to appear on the blog. But she is so lovely, so I put a huge picture on the blog today.

Link

A nice couple has moved to Hyderabad and the wife, Ann, keeps up a blog. Here's the link.

I believe he is Australian (don't know him that well yet) and his wife Ann, of the blog, is from Kuala Lumpur originally.

Just to add some variety to the blogosphere!

Today

^ The drive out to ICRISAT was interesting, as always. Check out this guy, transporting corn via a bike. Akbar (driver) said he believes the guy would probably be going about fifteen miles like that.

If you click on the enlargement, you'll see a political poster across the streets.





^ Then we went to the pool. They had sprinklers on and egrets congregated in the spray. They are amazing birds.



^ Our van has a DVD player, so the usual suspects of drivers watched movies through the back of the van during the afternoon. I think Akbar hits them up for a few rupees. ;-)



^ Liam's school.








^ Then I walked down a street on the ICRISAT property. It was an interesting neighborhood, mostly inhabited by scientists who are there to help with crop research. Notice that on the white vehicle that the license plate is a "UN" plate. Hmmm.... Didn't know they had a jurisdiction.

Some of the homes had fantastic plant life, as well. I really liked the creeping vines on the one house, check them out.

Just a nice day out at the farm.....

Pics from my 40th

A mixture of folks from back in the US that were making their annual trip to India, a bunch of our friends in the expat community, and a friend from work with his wife.

A good time, a unique setting, an eclectic crowd. I really enjoyed it.

A plea

Alright everyone, a plea - if we have not heard from you, write us an e.mail soon! We enjoy hearing from everyone.

Patrick W. and Sarah H., you guys are exempt, thanks for the nice notes recently, glad all is well with y'all.

Big Tower

India's ability to imagine a beautiful world is incredible. In so many ways there are glimpses of the India that people wish existed - the India in the television commercials, the films, the pictures, the websites. It is a markedly cleaner, more orderly and shiny India than the one we all live in.

Evidence of this tendency is the picture above. It was found on a website I saw that depicted Hyderabad after the May blast (Mecca Masjid, not the park blasts from when we got here).

Although this yet-to-be-built tower is talked about in conversations, I have not really read anything about it officially. It is reputed to be the future "highest tower in Asia", right here in Hyderabad. Currently, that distinction is solely for the Patronas Towers in KLuala Lumpur.

I find it interesting that this skyline view of our city (a view that cannot be found) was put into a website news story about how communal harmony (essentially, Hindu/Muslim relations) are taking a turn for the worse in the city. As if this glistening place would harbor the ill will of anyone....... How could "Cyberabad", a nifty nickname for Hyderabad which emphasizes its tech boom, be the source of anything bad?

In reality, the only major lake in the city is so toxic that there is an official advisory that tells people not to sit on the benches around the perimeter for too long due to health risks. Not that this stops people from bathing in it, dumping bodies in it, bathing water buffaloes next to swimming children, or chucking trash in it.

Now, check out below the building standards from a prior post on this blog. I have rarely seen things vastly better than this, although here in HITEC there are some significantly better building efforts underway. I show this to illustrate that I am skeptical of any building effort that says "the highest tower in Asia" will be built in Hyderabad.

Remember, a bridge collapsed here during a heavy rain in September.



I guess I have a bit of frustration because I both want to see the India that is depicted in this picture and I don't want to see the India that is depicted in this picture. It's a confusing set of impulses.

Anyway, there you are - confusing, no? I love the Hindi movies and yet get frustrated by the irrational optimism in the culture that makes those movies so great.

Maybe I am learning to feel like an Indian, finally.......