We officially hit three months in India this week, which feels both significant and slightly amazing. A quarter of the year is already gone. The temperature, meanwhile, appears to have decided that the monsoon is over and it can get back to the serious business of being hot. The breeze at night has disappeared, the mornings are hazy, and Momi has started warning us about the cost of running the air conditioning. I appreciate her concern for our finances, but we also enjoy sleeping.
It was a very busy work week for me. I had a colleague visiting from Toronto, which meant a packed schedule of meetings, town halls and dinners. I haven't written much about work here and I'm going to keep it that way, mostly because nobody subscribed to this blog hoping for my thoughts on operational strategy. There was one work-related thing this week that I do want to talk about, though.
Sunday morning we held CIBC's first Run for the Cure in Hyderabad, timed to coincide with the Run happening across Canada. We partnered with the India Cancer Society and had about 80 people come out. I had pushed pretty hard for us to do it here because the Run has been such a big part of CIBC's culture in Canada, and I wanted our growing team in India to feel connected to it and, more importantly, to the cause behind it. I've known colleagues affected by breast cancer, including people we've lost, so this one matters to me personally. Seeing everyone in their CIBC shirts as the sun came up over Hyderabad was pretty awesome.
There was one fairly obvious logistical challenge.
We organized a run in a city with essentially no sidewalks.
Fortunately, we found a big open space and avoided turning CIBC's breast cancer fundraiser into a road-safety awareness campaign. It was a great morning, and I'm proud we did it. Hopefully this was the first of many.
Earlier in the week, Gen and I got in trouble from Guruji for skipping yoga while we were in Hampi. Apparently saying we'd been away wasn't enough. We had to show him photos from the trip as evidence. I'm unclear whether future absences will require a doctor's note, but we've now established that photographic documentation is acceptable.
Friday was Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday marking Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, so we took advantage of the day off and headed back into the old city around Charminar for a food tour. Gen and I went with my colleague who was visiting from Toronto. I've been down there several times now, but this was the first time we'd gone specifically to eat and learn about the food. Our guide's advice for street food safety was wonderfully simple: “If it's hot, it's okay.” We chose to believe her.
We ate from street vendors, wandered through the vegetable and rice markets, and learned considerably more about gourds than I had previously thought necessary. There seems to be a cucumber for every occasion. We also learned that tomatoes and chillies aren't native to India, which is hard to reconcile with the fact that Indian cuisine appears to have spent the intervening centuries making up for lost time.
The rice was more interesting than I expected. Good rice here is aged, sometimes for more than a year, and people can be very particular about it. Our guide explained that mothers will buy small amounts of three or four varieties, take them home, cook each one and then return to buy a huge sack of the winner. That huge sack lasts about a month. This may be the Indian equivalent of a wine tasting, except everyone leaves with 25 kilograms of basmati.
It was also a great place to take photos. I've been working on getting closer and paying more attention to the smaller scenes, so I spent a lot of time photographing enormous pots of curry, piles of spices and grains, hands holding ingredients, food being cooked and the general chaos of the market. There is something slightly ridiculous about carrying a camera through one of the busiest markets in Hyderabad while trying not to be hit by a motorcycle, but I'm getting better at both.
Gen had a more useful week. On Wednesday, she volunteered as one of four mock interviewers at SAFA, a Hyderabad nonprofit that works with women and marginalized communities through education, skills training and livelihoods. The students had spent several weeks learning computer skills, soft skills and interview preparation and were getting ready to apply for jobs. Gen wasn't sure how much a Canadian could contribute to preparing someone for the Indian job market, but a lot of interview advice turns out to travel pretty well. If your résumé says you like reading, you should probably be able to name the last book you read. If you say you speak English, expect someone to test the theory.
She came home pretty inspired by the women she met and how determined they were to find work. I suspect she'll be back.
Jack had his usual week of school, swimming and walks in the Botanical Gardens, although he and Vishal also received an unexpected tour of Hyderabad courtesy of a tuk-tuk driver. On the way home from basketball, the driver took them on a considerably longer route through the city and then demanded more money because the trip had taken longer due to traffic. This is a business model I may suggest at work: create the inefficiency yourself and then charge the client for it.
Gen has also been waging a small road-safety campaign with Momi and Vishal. Here, the person driving the motorbike wears the helmet, as required by law, while his wife and three toddlers can apparently take their chances. Gen keeps reminding them that they each have two arms, two legs and only one head, and this week she finally got them onto Amazon to buy helmets. They reluctantly participated, mostly by trying to find the cheapest ones available. Gen prevailed, they got the ones they actually wanted, and two helmets cost us about $40. Cheap peace of mind, although I suspect Gen is now one helmet purchase away from becoming Hyderabad’s Minister of Transportation.
Gen's adventures in Indian cooking also continued. Last week's mystery kohlrabi became a coconut curry that apparently tasted considerably better than it looked. Vishal said it was good, although Vishal says everything Gen cooks is good, so he has effectively disqualified himself from judging. She also ordered Szechuan noodles from the restaurant downstairs because she wanted something “a little spicy.”
She cried.
The air fryer restored order later in the week with another successful roast chicken, this time with stuffing. Meanwhile, the balcony farm has produced actual tomatoes despite another mealybug invasion. The plants grown from packets labelled chives and thyme continue to grow enthusiastically while displaying no apparent intention of becoming either chives or thyme. The basil and mint are doing well, so the agricultural experiment remains technically viable.
Harriet is also feeling much better and has resumed balcony patrol. Two pigeons somehow got trapped inside the netting this morning, and Gen managed to get them out before Harriet discovered them. A very successful morning for the pigeons. Less so for Harriet.
And that's three months.
We've got nine to go. At the current rate, that should be enough time for Guruji to improve my yoga attendance, Gen to become immune to Indian spice, and for us to figure out what the hell this weird gourd is that I bought at the market and how we're supposed to eat it.
World famous dosa shop…(Govind’s apparently a millionaire)…
CIBC Run for the Cure - First Ever In India…