The Office

Hello everyone, indeed it has been a little bit since my last internet blabbling, but I’m still alive!

I am still in Jaipur, and there are still no English cinemas, but life goes on. Over the past weekend, I had a chance to do more touristy stuff. YAY. Sarcastic YAY. Naeem (the friendly face) offered to take me around the city to see some stuffs, I thought, yeah what the heck it’ll pass some time. I started the day a place called ‘City Palace’. Monstrously huge, but nothing too appealing. The only part of it that I was interested in going to see was the upstairs part, but I wasn’t allowed to go unless I shell over 2,500 INr (70 bucks!). I said I’d pass, instead I’ll imagine what it looks like on the inside for free. So this is what I picture: rooms with beds, washrooms that are really big, colours that, in all likelihood, don’t match and a kitchen. I probably shouldn’t trivialize it but c’mon, nothing u walk around to look at for less than an hour should cost $70. It did however, have an awesome display of weapons and arms that were used during the Mughal Emporer’s time, that part was free to look at and it was pretty sweet. On the whole though, it was almost as boring as what you just read.



After City Palace was over things started to get interesting when none other than Goon Goon herself showed up in the flesh. Well she didn’t just show up, I invited her. Life is always more exciting with Goon Goon in the house! We called Naeem and he drove us to the next destination; ‘Jantar Mantar’(its a place to look at stuff) which means “instrument calculation”. After JM, was supposed to be a historical fort or two, but those plans were nixed by Goon Goon...thank you G-Dubbs...why would I ever want to go the top of a mountain to a historical fort in which there is such rich history and where the view is immaculate? I didn’t want to waste Naeem’s time so I told him I would see him tomorrow for work. Anyways, the “instrument calculation” was actually incredible, we got a guide, so he explained everything we looked at and its’ history. Jantar Mantar is home to the world’s largest sundial, accurate to two seconds. It is pretty much a big place of clocks, astrology and astronomy. It was built in the 17th and 18th centuries, so you could imagine the geniusness behind all of it despite not having high-tech equipment to work with.



After, we went to the market where we went in and out of stores so she could match her Indian outfit to another piece called a Dupata. That took a solid 2 hours........................all of which I was enthralled with joy. Things got a little more exciting when we went to eat; I ate “aloo tikhi” which is a potato in the middle of a bowl swimming in a pool of hot sauce. It actually was amazing, no sarcasm! Finally the day came to end and I headed back to my sanctuary. Away from the street madness and shop vendors!

The work week began very informal, casual and unproductive, but that’s what happens when the internet is down for three straight days! The internet is my life, metaphorically, you can think of it as someone that is so very thirsty and there isn’t a tap for hundreds of miles until they finally find one and then when they go to turn it on nothing comes out. You could imagine the frustration for three straight days! But hey, India happens.

My supervisor came back on the Wednesday I was finally assigned some work, so it has kept me busy for the past couple of days. Since I was assigned work, I decided to pull myself away from my old seat to a new one in the organisations’ library. I figured it would be distraction free.
When I came down stairs, all the lights were off so I couldn’t see much until all of a sudden the lights flickered on. The ‘librarian’ guy was sleeping! It is a pretty sweet office, I have a big table to myself a nice fan, access to books etc etc. I also have a love-hate relationship with library man. I’m pretty sure he hates me because I am down here and he can’t sleep and...well...actually its just a one way hate relationship...he hates me and neither of us love each other, but we don’t reaaaaally understand each other, he speaks a different dialect of Hindi called “MumbleSomethingVeryFastLikeYouJustWokeUpAllTheTime – Hindi” and I don’t really speak at all. Sometimes though, when I am working, he chills out behind my chair just staring at my screen, in English I say “What up Dawg?” and then he says something in
“MumbleSomethingVeryFastLikeYouJustWokeUpAllTheTime” then walks away.



I like it down here though because I met two other interns from India, they are software engineers and one of them even has the same birthday as me! Subhash is his name and his buddy, another intern, but I forget his name, we’re all the same age so it’s pretty cool to talk to them. We exchanged some movies and TV shows from our computers. They’re both brilliant dudes and great cricket bowlers.

I am almost leaving for my final destination; Jodhpur. I was supposed to be there today, but that was moved to tomorrow, which was then moved to Saturday, followed by the Sunday midnight train. That is what I call great logistics! I’m glad I stayed though, because today was a staff members birthday and we celebrated with ice cream, which turned into a milkshake after about 10 minutes of leaving it out in 30+ weather!

Peeeeeeeeeeeeace! (“Peace” in English)

Dictionary: Drip Drip = IV