Two Nuns Walk onto a Plane...

Traveled home to NC for the Christmas holiday over the weekend. Took a new route through Frankfurt, which was a good travel experience. I have visited Germany a few times in the past, and really enjoyed it, including hearing the fascinating language pronunciations (how long a single word can be!), of course the history, the countryside views of beautiful "chateaus", and the cars. The pretzels are cooked a little bit darker, and every sentence contains a word that sounds like "fluffenhagen". It is such a neat place at Christmas, with all of the nutcrackers and different wooden ornaments on display. Too bad I was only inside the airport this time and unable to get outside for a few hours. I flew on 3 planes on this trip, and 2 were Lufthansa, with full German crews. It was so funny to me, as during one delay, I heard 8 or 10 sentences in German, (that I can't understand with the exception of willkomen, danke and achtung) and thought "I can't wait to hear the translation of these 8 sentences!" Then, I simply heard, "Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to inform you that flight 407 will be delayed." End of message. I tried to study all of the German's faces to see if anyone was concerned over the mention of Achtung! Haha

When you travel internationally, you go through full security checks at each airport, and that is where I learned the most today. I personally can understand the stress that comes with missing a connection when you NEED to get somewhere, and how it could produce a reaction. Well, today, with Christmas already being a high volume travel period, I am sure there were a lot of people that missed flights due to late connections. It is times like this when you see how different people process and react to stressful situations. So....I was in line with a good number of people who were about to miss flights (and probably did, as they would say to me, and other people in line, things like, "Take-off time was 10 minutes ago"), and yet they were just plodding forward as fast as the lines would allow, and were still able to laugh with their travel companions. The most stress I witnessed overall were heavy sighs. You have to admire this calm type of reaction to stress. Then.....there was the woman and her family. We all heard her coming, with the "event" starting shortly before she reached the actual security line. The security line is the LAST PLACE you want to lose your temper, and as we watched her yell at the guy on the phone to personally escort her through the line, we wondered for a second, "Are these German security guards going to escort her to her plane and just bypass the entire process?" The guy she initially yelled at was indeed in a work conversation, and could not give her full attention, and yet was able to point to the front of the line. She was able to go to the front, which of course we were all relieved. We all wanted this woman to make her plane. And then....we hear more loud voices. Maybe things are not proceeding as fast as needed? Of course other bags WERE in the x-ray machine when she arrived, which were being checked. Then....we see her touch one of the workers' faces (in a desperate plea, not necessarily anger). It almost looked like a "please help me" plea. It was, at this moment of actual physical contact, that I, and everyone of us watching this unfold, knew that this was not going to end well. Other senior security officers emerged out of nowhere, and there was a huddle. There were tears, and I truthfully felt bad for her and all involved, yet, in security, these guys are trained to not allow people to move through these lines willy-nilly, especially if you start yelling at them, as it could be a diversion, mental issue, and a threat to everyone else (not to mention inequitable). Well, I hope she was allowed to board another plane and not "taken to the basement" for questioning!

Finally, on my last flight home, I was sitting in my aisle seat (a smaller plane with 2 seats on each side). The plane is almost full, and I look up and see 2 nuns coming my way. I think to myself "Awesome", as seeing people like this in public is so different from a regular day. These nuns seem to be giggling and I secretly hope they sit near me so I can hear "what nuns talk about". Well, they stop and one sits across the aisle, and the other tells me I am sitting in her seat, 19D. I think "I have taken a nun's seat! Dear Lord, how did this happen!" Well, I have only looked at my ticket about 15 times today, and I personally KNOW I am in the right seat, however, there is NO WAY I am going to argue with a nun. If she tells me to jump onto the wing, I would certainly have at least considered it. I say, "Oh, no problem, let me move over!". At that time, the other nun immediately sees what is going on and tells her "(Oh, fellow nun) You are supposed to be on this side with me!" She looks at her ticket and realized she is on the wrong side. She begins to laugh and apologize over and over, and I am of course fine, but just disappointed that she is not my neighbor. I already had some things planned to ask her about. Of course, I was, on the flip side, a bit relieved, as I had taken that awesome blanket off the Lufthansa plane, and the books in my purse included True Crime novels, a choice of "Body Count", or "Evil Beside Her". While true crime novels are interesting to me, I am not sure she would have approved of these books. While I am not Catholic, I feel as if I may have launched into a quick confession session had she stayed.

So, I am back in NC for the holidays, and am wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Happy Holidays to everyone.

Karnataka "Wild" Life

When you visit a new country, you obviously see new and different types of animals. In examining my photos so far....these “chickens” (very unique) have been my most interesting wildlife encounter while in India. I have been trying to determine what kind of chickens they are, tied to the location in the state of Karnataka where I took these photos, and so far have only come up with comments from others who have photographed them in the same location.

The comments include:
“unique birds”
“saw them for the first time in India”
“exotic chickens”

I can say that I agree with all of the above!

Spicy Hot, and also....On Fire

There is a restaurant in Bangalore that I “absolutely” love to visit: Absolute Barbecue. I went tonight, on a Tuesday, and it was fully packed by 7PM, with people waiting. It is on the 3rd floor of a building with a small-ish elevator that takes you to the entrance, and most people want to take the elevator rather than the stairs. Being in crowded Bangalore, you can be the first person to reach an elevator and still somehow “miss getting on” if you hang back from the crowd. There are just so many people.

They have a musician, apparently almost every night of the week, and tonight it was “Henry”. If I had kept my back to him the entire time, after he announced his name, and heard his sound, I would never have thought “that is an Indian singer”. He sang Eagles songs like he was a member of the original band.

What it is so interesting and amazing to me about “AB” is that there is an actual charcoal grill built into every single table, where your food is placed and grilled. I could be wrong, but I do not think this was an electric set-up. The foyer/hallway which leads in is filled with neat colorful “Weber grills”, and grilling utensils. A whole Barbecuing motif. After your meal, when you leave, your clothes smell like you have been grilling in the backyard on a windy day; you smell like a charcoal briquette.

They bring so much delicious food, you simply cannot imagine: Veg or non-veg, whatever you like. From pineapple, to chicken, to big chunks of cheese, to mushroom caps. The wait staff are truly interested if you are enjoying the food, and want to bring you items you like. The place is semi-big, but the wait staff are really on top of things and offer more, more, more food……. You can get the spiciest of food here, which is very tasty after being grilled.

The 2 things that really keep your attention at this establishment, outside of the delicious food, and wondering about the carbon monoxide situation, are: The waiters are racing around with sharply pointed metal skewers. They are moving fast, tossing them around, and you get used to this situation quickly. A dinner could suddenly turn into a drama at a moment’s notice. And, the back kitchen, where chefs are doing the pre-grilling and other cooking, as seen through a glass, always appears to be completely “on fire”. Quite a mesmerizing view from your “grill table”. I took some pictures (all taken inside), which are not good, as there was so much movement in this busy restaurant, but it does illustrate the views from within this fun (absolutely exciting) restaurant.

Bangalore vehicles: Top priority is a working horn!

Went out to a few places today...Sunday...a slow day for Bangalore traffic and crowds. In looking at the first 2 pictures above, this represents “a slow day” (999K people on this side street versus the usual million). I walked a lot outside with a Bangalore local; the weather is truly great right now. It is considered “winter” season in India (a 2 month period referred to as “Hemant”) and so the “high” got all the way down to a chilly wintery 82 degrees. Haha. I went out on a limb and crossed the street (where there was a Starbucks AND a Krispy Kreme) to go to a coffee shop called Matteo, and it was awesome. Really enjoyed the coffee flavor, variety and presentation—a fancy place to get a shot of caffeine.

Also, we rode the Bangalore metro which is a set of rails high above the city that basically cross about 8-10 kilometers. You pay 17 INRs each way and can ride this metro and see the city from above. I had my camera around my neck, and while standing on the deck awaiting the metro, I took the 2 pictures you see posted here. The guard/security guy was standing beside me watching me intently, and he let me take these photos before saying “No cameras allowed ma’am”. As he had watched me take it out, and focus and get the shots, it was quite nice that he allowed me to move ahead with breaking the law a couple of times before he told me to put it away. The metro is an awesome ride that allows you to see so many views of Bangalore "from the top". They have a system for this metro where you purchase a token, and it is black and plastic. You place it on top of the computerized “gate” (which is quite fancy and electronic) to get inside the metro area to ride. At the end, you have to pull it out again and drop it in to a coin slot before the computerized gate opens and you can get out. I have no idea what happens if you lose that token along the way!

Finally, I toured the inside of a church, as they were preparing for the evening service. It was very beautiful inside, yet none of my pictures processed well enough to post. There is only one here, of the gold plaque that hangs on the wall, where the Hymns that are planned for the service are displayed. Exquisite gold design with obviously a lot of planning and preparation for each service, as they sing quite a few hymns, I noticed!

On the way home I took an Uber and, well, there is always excitement on the road. The basic paved roads of Bangalore are fine. Like any other city. Well, there are shortcut roads that connect these paved ones that can be harrowing. My cabbie tonight decided he would take a shortcut. It is his car, and if he wants to drive through the potholes, I am fine with this, as a shortcut in Bangalore can save 30 minutes. Well, this particular road was very narrow, of course dirt, with deep trenches on each side. I kept saying to him (as he swerved to avoid the potholes and headed directly towards this trench), “Be careful of this ditch” and he of course did not understand English, and would say “We take shortcut, ma’am”. There were motorcycles all over this road, and truthfully, with the hilly terrain on this road, they probably get higher jumps than you see on TV in some of the professional motorcross events. At one point, 2 motorcycles flew out of a side road in front of us and of course, we blew the horn. We blew it long, and we blew it hard. The guys on the bikes did not seem to appreciate this. They stopped. They stared, and there was yelling. One guy banged on the hood of cabbie’s car, and I thought to myself “This is like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome out here!”. I waved and smiled to these bikers (as in “We are soooo sorry”, with full apologetic "Namaste-style" hand gestures), and they drove off. I feel like I probably kept this cabbie from getting “into it” with these bikers!

Indian-Italian and Auto-Rickshaws

Travelled across town to the most fabulous Italian restaurant here in Bangalore this evening. Very fancy place with live (low-key) music, and delicious food. As mentioned in previous blogs, Bangalore is filled with more awesome restaurants than any city in which I have ever lived. I had not been to an Italian one here yet, and this was a great experience. In the US, the best Italian restaurants are run by…well….a family with some kind of Italian background, whether 1st or 4th generation. They must have “Italian blood” to create such a tasty marinara. So when I began eating this excellent food, I immediately blurted out “Are there Indians back there in the kitchen cooking this Italian food?”. Kudos to the Indian chef cooking this excellent food at Toscano’s in Bangalore! Unforgettable pasta.

We travelled there by auto-rickshaw, which is always a fun experience. On the streets of India, there are buses, recycling trucks, cars, motorcycles, pedestrians and a LOT of AUTO RICKSHAWS. Being in a rickshaw is like riding in the back of a super fast golf cart. With no golf clubs, and a meter is running. You talk to the driver before you ever step in and agree on a price. The current state of auto-rickshaws in Bangalore is shaken up a bit by the influx of Uber cabs. Lots of competition on the roads for your business. Therefore a rickshaw for a 25 minute ride can cost the same as an Uber cab. Rickshaw drivers seem to have a kinmanship, and wherever 2 or 3 are gathered, they are always talking, and “seem to know each other”, though as Bangalore is so huge, they could very well have just met. If there are 2 or 3 lined up (outside a hotel or restaurant) and you haggle a price for a ride without an agreement, you can walk to the next one, to try to get a better deal. However, they seem to be “banded together with an unspoken agreement” or bond that they are not going to undercut each other. I have only witnessed this a few times, so my perception could be completely “off” here. As with the current state of competition, how could this be working? Also, most interestingly, rickshaw drivers are the most sought out group in Bangalore for “asking directions”, and in the 5 minutes we stopped and paid, a car drove up and asked for some directions. Also, last week, while out with colleagues, we also stopped to seek out a rickshaw driver for directions. (Bangalore is huge and no one (except rickshaw drivers) know where anything is. Haha)

I took some pics (just with my phone, quickly) inside the restaurant, above, and also while riding in the rickshaw, below. We are super close to a white car if you cannot tell (inches). I simply do not know how these drivers get so close, and do not hit each other constantly, and yet remain so laid back at the same time. There is a bar which the passengers in the back can grip. It was probably added so the passengers do not grab onto the rickshaw drivers!

Another exciting night out in Bangalore, which I thoroughly enjoyed!

Shopping versus Six Sigma Training

With the US being the only country celebrating Thanksgiving (other than some news I have read today on the British enjoying the turkeys!), if you are in any other country, it is basically work as usual. So, I worked, and had an awesome lunch in the company canteen, joined by 6 colleagues from my dept, and was able to watch them laugh over “neighboring states in India” and “their take on opinions and state of affairs”, and therefore laughed in return! (Some people......you can just see their facial expressions and laugh, and I was lucky enough to celebrate my thanksgiving with these 6 guys, however short on both time and turkey!)

So, normally I would be spending the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, simply shopping. Shopping for Christmas for family and friends, shopping for myself, shopping without remorse! This year, while in Bangalore, I can say I am “thankful” that I was invited to attend a Six Sigma training, which will begin tomorrow. My organization hires amazing talent, and I get to be a part of “expanding my knowledge” tomorrow. The six sigma training, as you probably know, crosses various industries, and through “a broad sense” of eliminating defects in processes, results in business outcomes such as “reducing process cycle time, reducing costs, therefore increasing customer satisfaction, and increasing profits”. It provides process improvement tools and techniques that enable all of this.

I can justify that in simply showing up, and attending this class tomorrow, during the period of “Black Friday in US” when I would have spent a few hundred dollars, I have already “reduced costs” for which I will be “thankful” when my credit card bill posts in December.

The Bangalore Palace

Posted here are pictures taken at the Bangalore Palace, constructed between 1862 and 1944, with renovations in recent years. If you read local news stories over the last 2 decades, you will discover a “legal tangle of ownership” between the Mysore Royal Family, and disputes with the government and Supreme Court involvement. I am sure that Bangalore locals could explain this a lot better than me!

The Palace is absolutely beautiful and covers 450 acres, with the interior covering 45,000 sq ft (4200 m²). It includes 35 rooms, "mostly bedrooms". The architecture, preservation of pictures and paintings, the grounds, and history, etc. provided for an interesting tour. What I remembered, that piqued my interest the most, as I walked through this Palace and listened to the headphone audio, was that this had been a fairly recent venue for some big concert names, including the “Rolling Stones”. As I googled it, The Hindu news reported that the Rolling Stones had played here on April 4, 2003, with quite a few other big name bands also playing here through 2011, that I could find in the news. Quite an unexpected and interesting fact, for sure, about The Bangalore Palace.

It is open for daily tours for a basic fee, and there is a guard with a gun, who I photographed, who maintains the entrance. Everyone remarks, casually, that his gun “is not loaded”. However, that will remain a mystery, that is only known by him and his closest counterparts!