Category: Travel

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In India: 07 May: Thank God it’s…. Tuesday?

Tuesday was an average day.  I worked on both projects, we made plans for tomorrow’s visit to the test lab.  We’ll be at the office Wednesday morning, then over to the lab for the afternoon.  We are planning to put together two systems that represent the setup of our best results so far, then test them as a baseline.  Then we’ll get the changes underway for the next generation of boards.  We’ll just assume that we can’t get there with these ones, and use our best information, knowledge and experience, to get close.

Today again I walked over to the Royal Minaksha Mall on my own, for lunch.  I wandered a bit, ended up at TGI Friday’s, was quite…  American.  Just what I needed.  My body’s on a bit of a revolt.  Not that Indian food is a problem, just that I need some – um – more “traditional fare”, at least traditional for me, some of the time.

On the way to the mall, I noticed a lot of styrofoam around on the back road I was taking.  I’d been down here several times, this time looked… ugly with all that styrofoam.

On the way back from the mall, I saw a woman carrying  a basket of goods on her head.  She was so graceful, it seemed effortless.  I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do that!


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In India: 06 May: The Boomtown Rats didn’t like Mondays, and now I kind of see why

On Saturday, we made big plans as to how we were going to get into the test lab and stomp this problem.  I had ideas and was confident that things would go well.  I had backup ideas in case those things didn’t work.  Srini and Somiyan had done their preparations, the units were ready, we were ready to deal with it and go back to the office.

Well, it didn’t go well.  It went from mediocre to bad to worse.  By the time the day was done, we were wondering what we could do to make it work better.  We tried some novel approaches and that didn’t work either.

We had planned to come back on Tuesday to do more testing, based on the assumption that we would make headway on Monday.   We decided instead to go to the office, ponder, and regroup on Tuesday, and do further testing on Wednesday.  Thankfully!

Lunch was again at the Hotel Nandhini, and was great as it was before.  Again I left with my lips burning  :-)   The sign of good Indian food, or a tenderfoot from North America eating it?





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In India: 04 May: Another working Saturday

Yes, another working Saturday.   There is a lot to do on each of these projects.  I’m working closely with the hardware engineer, Srinivasan, to make the necessary circuit changes in a hurry.

We’ve also got project management challenges.  The two projects are competing for some of the same resources, so it’s going to be tough to get everything done on time.

At lunch, I slipped away on my own to the Royal Minakshi Mall – I wanted to browse on my own.  I went up to the food court for lunch, but my choice, “US Pizza”, is closed and gone!  Oh well.  My next choice, “TGI Friday’s”, was closed due to the election.  I’m told that there was too much drunken brawling going on, so they close all liquor establishments from 5 PM on Friday through to 5 PM on Sunday, the voting day.


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In India: 02 and 03 May: Entranced by Sarees, One More Postcard

So, yes, I am entranced by sarees – the traditional garment that the Indian women wear.   On Thursday the 2nd, I asked a couple of the guys about them, and Darshan took me to the Royal Minakshi Mall for lunch, and we went to the Reliance store (big chain) to see some.

There are many different materials, colours, styles, and types.  Often they come with an extra yard or so of fabric, from which the wearer is to fashion their own blouse or whatever undergarment they wish under the sash.  Others have no extra material, so you are expected to just wear clothes you already have, or a ready-made blouse.

Some of the saree sashes are translucent, some are opaque.  Some are intended to wrap right around, cover he entire upper body, and some just literally as a sash.  It was quite interesting to see.

No, I didn’t buy a saree.  I didn’t see anything that would fit me :-)

I went back to the little post office again, last postcard in hand, already with stamps, and ready to go.  The fellow scanned it closely and cancelled the stamps with his hand cancelling stamp.  Sigh.  Like being transported back in time!

On Friday the 3rd, we were working away as usual, and decided to go up to the lunchroom for lunch.  We were going to take the elevator.  We waited for about 5 minutes as the elevator went up & down, passing our floor constantly, even though the button was pressed repeatedly and was lit, saying that it knew we were waiting.  What fun!

There seemed to be a lot of power outages on Friday, not sure why.  It’s eerie seeing all the vehicles on the road with their headlights, but no streetlights, oodles of pedestrians, and the houses dark.
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In India: 01 May: May Day Holiday!!! …but not for us

It turns out that the first of May is the Labour Day holiday here in India.  Everybody gets the day off, but the product development crew is here because I’m here all the way from Canada, and we want to maximize the amount we get done while I am here.  Sorry about that, folks.

The air conditioning in the office is switched off at night to save power.  Security controls the switch, and generally turn it on at 9 AM.  On this day, security staff were there, but they didn’t turn on the switch on at 9 AM as they were supposed to.  The office was stifling hot… until we realized what was going on, and harangued them into flipping the switch :-)

I worked most of the day on my progress reports on both products, the F-PRO 2000 and F-PRO 3000.

There are three washroom facilities on our floor – men’s with stalls & urinals, ladies which I would assume has stalls, and a centre, larger one that is private and has a shower.  I decided to use the separate one, as it always seems to have toilet paper.  Well, on my way out, I went to the soap dispenser, a pump, put my hand under it, and pressed down on the pump, but instead of coming out the nozzle, it squirted sideways onto my shirt!  And ran down my shirt, ugh.  So, off with the shirt, rinsed it out in the sink.  Well, I was so sweaty that hardly anyone noticed… and I was nice and cool for a couple of hours.  It’s so hot here though that it dries out in record time, wow.  Soon my shirt was clean and dry (soap, wash, rinse, dry).

Mani ran out at lunchtime and brought back big bags of food for lunch – “veg” and “non-veg”.  There was a crew of about eight or ten of us, made our way up to the lunchroom, and we had a bit of a festive spread.  It was great!  The food was good too, although they keep giving me mystery foods and saying, “Try this.”  Then they say, “It’s hot.”  Well I still have to try it, and usually it’s wonderful, but my lips are always burning after I eat with these guys.  I’m starting to think that they get joy out of seeing me sweat!








Liquor Stores, Bars, Restaurants that Serve Alcohol are closed on the last 2 days up to an election

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In India: 29 and 30 April: Lab day 3 sliding backward, Meeting ERL management

Overnight on Sunday night, I had, um, gastro problems…  I was worried!  I started the Cipro that I brought from home.  Thankfully, the problems went away in about 24 hours or so, but finishing the sequence.

The boys from ERL picked me up shortly after 10 AM, and off to the lab we went.   We had had a great day on Friday, but just before the end of the day, we “went a bridge too far” and things got worse, but we couldn’t seem to backtrack and get success again.  So today, we were going to get back on track.

Alas, it was not to be.  We tried many, many things – lots of tests and experiments, but with little success.  We left at 6:20 PM after a long day.

The bright spot in the day was that we went to Gokul Krishna for lunch again.  Again, very good.


On Tuesday, we were doing strategy and planning for both the F-PRO 2000 EFT testing and F-PRO 3000 development.  I was called to a meeting with the top management of ERL where we discussed the work to be done, the progress (or lack thereof), and the schedule.  Now, for the most part, I declined comment the schedule, since I am not familiar with processes and outsource in India, and do not have deep knowledge of the resources available.  But certainly all eyes are on these two projects.

I had a couple of postcards to mail (nephews et al :-) ), and had tracked down a post office nearby the office – maybe 3/4 km away or so – 4 blocks east, 4 blocks north.  Late in the morning, then, I headed out to find this post office, using the GPS in my phone.

Well, I wandered a bit but I found it – literally a hole-in-the-wall with a metal frame wicket, behind which an elderly gentleman stood.  It appears to be a family operation, because when I put my postcards down, he didn’t know the postage to Canada, and bellowed to his wife to call head office and find out!

It turns out that it costs Rs15 (15 rupees) to send a postcard to Canada.  At Rs50 to the Canadian dollar, that’s about 30 cents.  What a deal!  I hope they get to their destination, and don’t end up in a dead letter office because of insufficient postage.

They put the stamps on my postcards – Rs10, Rs4, and Rs1, and cancelled them right there with a little hand cancellation stamp.  How cute!

At the last minute, I realized that I had one more to send, so I bought an extra set of stamps.

Prabhu and Srinivasan are good friends.
Bangalore Palace
Prabhu and I in front of the State Legislature
The Central building of the State Legislature

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In India: 28 April: Off to see palaces in Mysore, and getting there was half the fun!

The morning came early, but we met Lokesh and Karthik at 6:30 AM in the hotel lobby.  They are two young ERL engineers who had been pressed into being our tour guides.  Our van arrived and at 7 AM we were off to Mysore.

Even that early on a Sunday morning, the streets were fairly busy.  There were cricket pitches with people out playing on them, a market garden filled with people, and the traffic was, well, not crazy, but busy.

I put on sunscreen but then immediately started to sweat and washed some into my eye, very painful.  I tried to wash it out with tears for over an hour, but finally, two stops at restaurants along the road, and rinsing it out, it gave me some peace.

The drive was… interesting.  So many different things on the road.  Motorbikes with 1, 2, 3, and 4 people on them (more to say on that later), auto rickshaws, cars, trucks, overcrowded buses, trucks with boxes filled with people, trucks filled to overflowing (hay for instance) so they were twice their normal width, bicycles, pedestrians – you name it.  A new one for me were truck frames with engine, a hood, a seat and steering wheel, and a young man driving it – no windshield, no cab top – we saw 3 of those.  I learned later that they were going from the frame plant to the body plant… fair enough, but in Canada, they would be on a flatdeck.  Not so here :-)







Despite it being  four lane highway all the way, our speed was uneven, and generally slow.  People were entering and exiting the highway all over the place, pedestrians crossing. vehicles weaving in and out.  It is crazy trying to drive here, I’m sure.

We got to Dariya Daulat Bagh, where the last Muslim king of Mysore had his palace, at about 10:30.  There was a nice long formal garden with a palace building.  We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the palace, but it was full of murals, paintings, and photographs of the life and times of the Muslim king, his conquests, his victory over the English (he is revered because he’s the only one that stung the English in this manner), then subsequent defeat.  Very interesting.
That’s either my thumb, or the helmet of a motorbike rider.  I’m thinking “thumb”.  Sorry.
There’s the Hulimavu Post Office.  Expand the image and zoom in and you will see the wicket.

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In India: 27 April: A working Saturday, a late movie, and an auto rickshaw!


The Product Development staff at Easun Reyrolle work Saturdays.  That means we work Saturdays too, while we are here.  It was a very busy day, with meetings about both projects and with the Managing Director, Premnath.  A lot of discussion about how to ensure that the products get completed and into the market on time.  That’s difficult, because there are certainly issues that I see that need to be addressed before the products go to market.  It’s a tough message for everyone to handle, because they thought they were very close… but things have been dragging on.  Not that all of the delays have been related to the issues that we see, but certainly these need to be addressed, in order to ensure that the product is successful.

We wandered to the Royal Minakshi Mall for lunch.  Right outside the office, we saw some mangy dogs.  One separate, obviously wary of the other several dogs watching it closely.  As it trotted away, it turned once in a while and growled.  None of the dogs looked happy.  They didn’t look very prosperous :-(




Norbert spotted two monkeys in a tree, about 20 yards away.  Nobody else even noticed them, but it’s a bit of an unusual sight for us.

Looking back at the entranceway
Looking along the formal garden to the palace
Aside to the left to beautiful lawns framed by trees sculpted into columns
The palace itself

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In India: 26 April: Progress in the Lab! Later, not so much :-(

Norbert went to the office, the boys (a reduced crew) picked me up and we went to the lab.  Unlike Monday, things really clicked.  We got very methodical, with Manikandan entering results directly into a spreadsheet, me dictating which test was next, and focussing on only one test, leaving the rest for later.

Lunch was at the Hotel Nandhini, known for its food from the Andhrea region of northern India, apparently acknowledged as being the most spicy in all of India.  Yikes!  Non vegetarian.  Yes, it was hot & spicy, but it was also very tasty, excellent!  I couldn’t understand what Manikandan told the waiter, I think maybe they toned it down for me.  Nonetheless, I am really enjoying this Indian food.

In the afternoon, we had victory after victory, pushing the performance of the unit up and up.  In the last hour or so though, we fell flat on our face – even when we “undid” recent changes, we couldn’t get back to where we were in the afternoon.  It was appropriate to break at that point.

So, in India, they like their tea.  They break for tea in the morning, and in the afternoon.  Each day, when the others had their tea, I would fuss about, sometimes reading, sometimes pondering the challenge at hand.  Well, they needled me enough, that I decided to have some tea – black only, of course.  What do you know, it was great!  So from then on, I drink black tea with the guys, each time.  Hard to believe, huh?  Those of you who know me, know that I don’t drink coffee or tea, as a rule.  Well, it’s true!  Here’s photographic evidence:




The ERL management team took Norbert and I out to dinner at an interesting restaurant – The Barbeque Nation.  Here, there are large square holes in the centre of the table, where the waiters carefully set in open grilles full of hot coals.  You can feel the heat as they lower it into the hole with big hot pad mitts on.  Then they bring pre-cooked skewers of different foods and set them into slots on the open grilles.  You can eat as much as you want, they keep filling it up.  We ate, drank, and were merry, but when we were full, our fearless leader advised us that this was only the appetizer round, and that the buffet was next!  Oof, again.  I had a polite, small sampler of several of the dishes, and pushed back from the table.  Overall, a good time was had by all.  We also consumed no small quantity of red wine.  Generally, this is a noisy restaurant, and I think I know why.  No screams of pain from burns though, and that is impressive :-)

Needless to say, when I got back to the hotel, I could do little more than crash.

We knew that we had to work on Saturday!  Yikes.

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In India: 25 April: We find the shopping centre… or do we?

We were back at the ERL office on Thursday, working & planning the next day’s EFT testing at the lab.

For lunch, we made our way back to The Royal Minakshi Mall, but this time up to the food court.  Norbert and I had U.S. Pizza, which was fine.  No beef :-)

After dinner, Norbert and I went for a walk in the direction where I had failed to find that shopping centre.  We went a block further than I went, and – voila!  There it was!  But… it wasn’t a shopping centre like we know it.  It was an old building with a few small shops in its storefront, then dozens and dozens of small stands inside (reminded me of the flea markets of Mississauga, although not quite as crowded), selling all kinds of stuff – jewelry, food, picture frames, toys, small appliances, flowers, trinkets, furniture – you name it.  Then, outside, there was a street market full of fresh vegetables and chickens.

Norbert purchased nice silk scarves, bracelets, and a bit of jewelry for his girls.  He was pleased with himself.

We wandered a bit more, saw some more back lanes filled with small, brightly lit shops, selling designer clothes, jewelry, electronics, and food.  This truly is a city of entrepreneurs.  At least in some areas.
Cute, Yes, but I’ve been warned to stay away.  They will steal fruit if you are carrying it,they can get aggressive, and sometimes carry rabies
A couple of cows eating garbage by the side of the road.  Well, it’s more like a stony trail in the middle of the city.  Note the “ruins” in the background.  With construction all around, there are many such abandoned buildings.  Wonder why?
The Royal Minakshi Mall
We enjoy Chinese Food, Indian style.  From left: me, Srinivasan, Manikandan.  Missing: Norbert, who is taking the picture.
Norbert juggles three oranges to win a tetrapak box of orange drink (tasted like Beep apparently)
An auto rickshaw (photo borrowed from a tourist web site)