Happy Diwali!!

Here in India, we are now celebrating Diwali - the festival of lights. It really reminds a lot of Christmas back home, have lots of bright decorations and "Christmas lights" on all the buildings around and people give each other presents. Many also take the whole week off; two days (yesterday and today) have been public holidays for me and my colleagues. On Monday, we had a Diwali celebration at work with games, fireworks and a catwalk for all of us wearing traditional Indian wear. Great fun! The Indians really knows how to have fun and celebrate :)
 

Colleagues enjoying a snack. Funny how at Indian parties always all the men end up at one side and women on the other..

 

Some of my colleagues in their beautiful saris

 

Fireworks at our rooftop terrace at work






















Yesterday, I went to a friend's place for a little Diwali celebration, we enjoyed some good food and wine while watching the fireworks. Oh, my god, the fireworks have been full on here the last couple of days and yesterday it was just crazy! They really do not have the same security measures here as back home...Firework is shooting out everywhere in all directions, on people's balconies inside garages etc.! But, hey we are having fun J  


Happy Diwali and Hindu New Near!!

 

So today I was supposed to go to a mall and do some necessary shopping… (Yes, all shopping is necessary and when I say I need another pair of shoes, I do!) But, however, my driver called in sick…Hmm…Not a 100% sure I believe he actually was sick…Maybe just celebrated Diwali and the new year a bit too much yesterday…
But as a bonus, the maid came today! She was supposed to come yesterday…. But , man this is India, you cannot always get it to work your way so just roll with it the best you can…

Just a little update from Mumbai where it is all bling-bling and boom-boom celebrations at the moment! Have definetely learned that festivals in India are LOUD and FUN :)

 

View from the office

 

My bulding decorated for Diwali



Fantastic India

The last weeks have really comprised of the differences this beautiful country has to offer. It started off with some interesting and enjoyable social events in connection with some maritime and oil events happening here. The Norwegian embassy invited Norwegian companies working within the sector here in India to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel for a formal night with meeting and greeting which was great fun! Met many of our clients as well as other Norwegians who were here for the exibition. Innovation Norway also had an advertising video playing in the background which almost made me miss home... The next day was an informal gathering which we also attended, met some of the same people here and it was also fun! But we had to leave early from the event as we were flying to Goa the next day after half day in the office and had yet not even started packing because of all these great events that took up our time ;) In Goa we actually had another event to attend that evening, dinner and entertainment at the Oil Spill Conference also arranged by the Norwegian Embassy.... So 3 days in a row with meeting and greeting events within the business sector I work within was just such a great experience! Though also a bit tiring.. But hey, we were now at Goa, which is like paradise :)


Taj Holiday Village Goa = paradise!!



Which to have for lunch?




Wonderful loooong beaches...



So we stayed in Goa as I was to attend a management meeting at the Taj Holiday Village, fantastic place to stay as it was more of a small village feel with many smaller cottages... Really enjoyed it! After some days at the Taj in the North of Goa, we moved to the South and checked into another hotel. Also this was a nice location with a fantastic beach. Just loved Goa, going from Mumbai to Goa is like two different worlds! Just amazing to relax, sunbath, be able to wear "short" dresses again and just chill by the pool....

We stopped at one of the local beach shacks and asked for a beer, which apparently was the ONLY thing they had there so lucky with that one ;)

Ice-cream bicycle man, what a life :)

Ahh, life is good at Goa

After Goa, we went back to Mumbai to work for a short week, before heading up to the far north Jammu-Kashmir and Ladakh. Again this is something totally different then Mumbai, and Goa for that matter...The season there ends in September so we were a bit late, but this would be our only chance to travel there as it is not season again before May/June. The region has a very interesting history and only became a part of India as late as in 1947. The population is very much influenced by tibetians and actually the local language, Ladakhi, is based on tibetian. It is very much a strategic area for India, boarding both to Pakistan and China and there is quite heavy military activity there.

In Ladakh we ended up staying at a homestay kind of accommodation as the hotels were actually closed for the winter. We stayed at a so-called 4 star A-hotel, but it really ended up being a room at the end of the hotel the family stayed, eating the same food as them and getting served our meals in their living area. We really got to experience it the way locals live. It was however a bit cold up there in the North, around 10 degrees...Outside AND inside... People keep saying that as a Norwegain they guess i am used to the cold...Well, when we are outside we wear proper warm clothing and inside we actually have heating...

Fantastic landscape of Ladakh...You can see the road we drive on along the mountain side.

 The landscape of Ladakh was amazing...Kind of moonlike...Leh, which is the main city and where we stayed has an altitude of 3500 meters. And the highest we travelled was to Khardung La Pass, which is the worlds highest motorable road at 5359 meters altitude. We were trying to drink as much water as possible as well as avoiding alcohol and coffee in order to prevent altitude sickness. Our guide also got us some tablets that were suppose to help. And I was pleasantly surprised over my body actually coping ok with the altitude :) Off course, I got short of breath quite fast when walking up stairs and such, but did not otherwise feel sick at all! Thank you my body for that ;)



Lunch the local way in the living room





Khardung La Pass: we reached the top!!! By car ;)

  

Other things we experienced in Ladakh was lots of fantastic budist monestries as well as the Pangong Lake, which lies in the boarder between India and China. I find it difficult to describe by words or pictures the beauty of this part of the world, it is just too great. I think the only way to really grasp it is to see it for yourself. 

Lake Pangong at 5 475 meters above sea level. Behind the mountain to the far left is China



Attending the munk's morning prayer. We even got offered butter tea, which is what they were having: amazing experience!



Thiksey Gompa: a fantastic buddhist temple



Local kids having some fun!

A jet set weekend in Mumbai!

Last weekend was filled with fun and great experiences. (Am a bit delayed in posting the blog so this happened 2 weeks ago...) It all started on Friday when we attended our neighbor Karsten’s moving in/moving out party (also knew the ones moving out of the apartment so a fun combination, though would prefer if they also continued staying here). Espen had his first business trip in India to Hyderabad that same day, and he arrived back a bit later than planned (was nothing more serious than a little bomb search at the airport after some luggage left unattended… Well suppose they are on a bit high alert here now as there has been reports that someone might try a similar 9/11 attack here in India by hijacking a smaller airplane). Well, anyways being India it didn’t really matter that much that we arrived the party a bit late as that’s what most people do.

We had so much fun at the party! Many interesting people from all over the world J Ended up staying until 4 in the morning, which is quite late for me as I usually falls asleep around midnight! Luckily we only had to walk across the road to get to our flat so too easy! We also met a singer, Carlyta Mouhini who invited us to a gallery for a concert she was having the next day. Fun J

So Saturday we did not get up until… Well, let’s just say quite late and it was PM ;) But in time to go to the concert/culture walk we were invited to. We had booked our driver for the evening so that made things easier getting around as the event was a bit away from where we live. I must definitely say I enjoyed my input of culture at the gallery… Very interesting and different from what I usually do. And they even took our photo and we met a lot of quite interesting (and important?) people so who knows, maybe we’ll end up in a magazine or something ;)

After this cultural event, it was time to go to the Swedish crayfish party we had signed up for. It was arranged by the Swedish chamber of commerce and was my first ever crayfish party! Quite something, coming from Norway and experiencing my first crayfish party in Mumbai… We had soooo much fun!! J With matching hats and bibs and of course lots of Swedish vodka and even some smuggled aquavit! They had actually imported the crayfish from Sweden and it had arrived at 13:30 that very same day! Talk about being lucky, would most likely not been the same having a crayfish party without crayfish!

And when ABBA came out of the speakers the success was a fact! Dancing, eating, drinking and having fun – fantastic way to spend a Saturday evening J And so many interesting people, mostly Scandinavians, always fun talking with them about their experiences in India, also many of them lived in New Delhi, Pune and other places in India, really enjoyed networking with them. And when we were ready to go home, it was just to call the driver and he took us home.

Must admit that the Sunday was spent relaxing, watching films from bed. And enjoying a culinary pizza from Dominos together with a coke. But that was just totally ok after such enjoyable days!   

My first visit to an Indian customer...

 This week I went on my first official visit to a customer here in India. I was quite excited about experiencing this as it is one of India’s largest companies within its segment. We went there by car, and as it was not that far away in distance this seems like no problem, though being in Mumbai it is. Traffic can be quite bad and the roads are of variable standard, well mostly bad standard… So it took us 1,5 hours one way… But I am still enjoying the scenery of Mumbai and having my Indian colleagues sitting next to me in the car providing interesting facts about the areas we pass by and generally about Mumbai made the trip even more fun J We passed Dharavi, which is Asia’s largest slum. And actually a large production area for goods exported and sold in the Western world. It is estimated that the turnover is around 500 million USD a year! They produce a lot of different goods from leather clothing and belts to plastic wheels for suitcases. Amazing that all this goes on in this slum area of the city.

Well, after some time in the car and some new sights of Mumbai, we arrived at the customer’s office area. Driving through the gate I was asked to show my passport and they looked for my employment visa… I was quite amazed by this! Apparently, if one is here only on a tourist visa, the larger companies won’t let you into their premises… Well, my passport and visa was approved (almost felt like I was entering another country..) and we continued towards the main building. Upon entry here, we were met by some security guards and led to a room where I had to again give them my passport and register in order to be allowed in to the building… The others did not have to do anything as they were all local Indians.

So after all this we went for the meeting. I was (as so many other times here) the only female. But am getting used to it now. Though, what surprised me a bit was that when greeting and shaking hands, I was standing on one side of the room with two of my male colleagues, while the other male colleague was on the other side of the room, the representatives from the customer still greeted all the men first before me. Totally ignoring me before he had greeted my male colleagues! I assume this shows how India still has quite some way to go before men and women are considered equal. But other than this experience, I felt like I was treated with respect.

They actually also took a photo of me and together with me to publish in their internal news as they clearly was happy about having visitor from the head office of our company coming there J

After the meeting we were invited to join them for lunch and finally I got to try Indian canteen food J And as all Indian food it was goooood!! Though served in these prison-like plates in metal as you can see in the photo.  
 

Indian canteen food, tastes much better than it looks!



Well this was just a short summary of my first visit to a local company. I have not mentioned how the meeting itself was (some quite interesting observations here to) but believe this kind of information I should keep to myself. But it was very interesting to participate in such a meeting and I hope there are several more to come so I get to experience more of Indian business culture.

Ganesh immersion ceremony – part 1

For days now I have heard people in the streets playing drums, singing and being in festival mood. Yesterday I joined in together with Karsten to experience the celebration and immersion ceremony of Ganesh. We walked to Lake Powai through our local neighborhood where they were out in the streets dancing and having fun. It started raining quite heavily, but it is still rainy season here so that was not too big of a surprise. Arriving the area by the lake, there was a stage set up and a nice crowd of people in festival mood. Also there were line ups for immersing the smaller of the idols. The bigger ones that kept arriving with trucks got to skip the line and do the immersion once they arrived. There was a floating raft that transported the people and their idol a bit further out in the lake where a couple of the people jumped into the lake and drowned the Ganesh idol.

Large Ganesha on its way out to be drowned....

Happy, happy people dancing in the streets!

We were actually quite popular there also, being the only non-Indians that were there and the locals wanted to take photos of us with their Ganesh, came over and greeted us and posed for us to take their picture. And they were all just in such a happy mood J We were also offered local sweets and off course we accepted (was a bit unsure about how my tummy would deal with it considering how many people had actually touched it before I consumed it… But I am totally fine today so no worries).

I named this post Ganesh immersion ceremony - part 1 as I plan on attending several immersion ceremony throughout the next days in different areas of Mumbai...

Loving the festival season!






Off they go to immerse the Ganesh




People by the lake in festival mood :)



Visit to Lal Baug

Yesterday we went on a mission to visit THE Ganesha idol at Lal Baug in the centre of Mumbai. Equiped with passports and confidence we headed off towards down town Mumbai. We were first to pick up a work colleague of Karsten to join us in this adventure. Upon arrival to her apartment building, we got invited in to meet her father and brothers. They are so friendly here towards guests; just loving it J We got served lots of snacks and got to enjoy the beautiful view from their apartment over the city skyline. We even got a good sight of the house of India’s richest man worth 6,3 billion NOK (around 1,1 billion USD). This house is 27 storeys high and is the home of a family of five. Really an example of the enormous inequalities here in India.

Driving here was crazy, people everywhere!

After some nice, Indian hospitality we went off to see the idol of Ganesha. Once we arrived there we were trapped in a total chaos! Really, I think you must just experience it in order to get the feel of how crazy it really is… They sell everything from bread, sweets, flowers to give to the Ganesh, masala chai ++ and there are just sooo many people, and cars, and scooters and noise. This place, Lal Baug is the number one place to go to for Hindus during the Ganesh festival. The site used to be a fish market, but it was forced to shut down as it was planned to build high-rises on the plot. The fishermen then prayed to the Ganesha that the market should not be closed down. The prayers were heard and the fishermen got their market back and established the Ganesh idol. Since that day in 1934, Lord Ganesha has become popular as it fulfills wishes.



The line up, people selling everything!



To get in and actually see the Lord Ganesh, people line up for a very long time. To just walk pass and see the idol, you would have to line up for around 18 hours, and to get to the stage and be able to touch it you would spend 36 hours waiting in queue! We did not plan on waiting this long and had our cover all planned up: we were from Norway, writing about Mumbai…Which was not that far from the truth, as we are from Norway and do write blogs about life in Mumbai…






Posing in front of Ganesha



So we got in J I mean just being outside experiencing this lively area of town was a special experience, but getting in and walking towards the idol was amazing considering that people actually line up for 18 hours to see this meaning it must be something very special for many people. Though we were only able to see the Ganesha idol for about 2 minutes once we were in, so I am amazed that people wait in line for so long in order to experience something so short. But I am very happy to have been there and seen it.



The Ganesha Idol



Our locals with at the lovely restaurant

After this, we went to a Gujarati restaurant called Soam, which is supposed to be the best in Mumbai. And having two locals with us, they decided on the menu for our lunch and it was just lovely! I really enjoy Indian food and this was no exception! All vegetarian food, but I actually prefer veg food here in India as that is what they make the best.

Ganesh Chaturthi

 

My little Ganesha



Here in India we are now celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi. Ganesha is one of the most widely known Hindu Gods, easily recognizable with its elephant head. The festival starts with people bringing a clay idol of Ganesha to their home or community. This first day you see people driving around town with their Ganesha, some larger than others. Families that can afford it have their own Ganesha, while others share one with their society. They even have one in the “slum area” across the road from my apartment. Yesterday they were singing and playing as well as praying to Ganesha all evening, so much fun to listen to and also very lively.  

This Ganesha is prayed to for some days before the ritual is to immerse it into a lake/river/sea. This can either happen at the 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th or 11^th day. The lake Powai, very close to my apartment has already set up a stage and everything for this happening so I am very much looking forward to it!

 I have also invested in a Ganesha, though this one is apparently one of those you keep throughout the year and don’t drown…So guess I will just leave it in my apartment.

Me and the Indian family's Ganesha

The first day of Ganesha, I was lucky enough to visit an Indian family and see their Ganesha and receive his blessings. This was amazing to experience! We said our prayers and got Ganeshas blessings together with the family (I have a photo of their Ganesha posted here). Afterwards we also got served traditional Indian dinner and colorful festival sweets, mmm. Just fantastic! I love my Indian food and sweets J



Mmm, Indian home cooking



After the visit to his family’s home, Ashutosh showed us the large Ganesha they had in his street, amazing! He also took us to see another Ganesha, which was inside an enormous fake built up cave. We walked in this narrow walkway inside the cave and suddenly these brightly lit larger rooms opened up to us and showed different Gods, the last one being Ganesha. This was really nice J Felt a bit claustrophobic inside the cave at times (thinking that if this was average Indian quality, it might not be very stable), but the fantastic views that met us when we entered the rooms where the God’s were made me forget all about it!  

Large Ganesha



 

Beautiful Ganesha in the cave



  

  

Tomorrow, I think the plan is to visit Lalbaug, which is the centre for the festival here in Mumbai and also has the largest Ganesha! Looking forward to that J  







Singapore

View from the Singapore Flyer

As I was attending a course in Singapore, we figured this was a good opportunity to see the city. Though the days were mostly booked up for meetings and course for me and work for Espen who actually here had an office to go to, we managed to find some time to also enjoy Singapore. Landing in Singapore was a totally different world…It was CLEAN and ORGANISED!!  I suppose in that prospect Singapore is the total opposite of Mumbai! We stayed at a really nice hotel in Clarke Quai, which is a really nice and lively area with a lot of restaurants, loved it J

We arrived Singapore Saturday morning after a night flight from Mumbai (flew Air India, not recommended as among other things my seat would not recline leading to little sleep)  and after a little nap at the hotel we hopped on one of those city buses to get a guided tour of the city. We chose the bus stopping closest to our hotel (which also happened to be the cheapest) which was maybe not the best one… But anyways we got to see the city J

Me and my burger!

First meal in Singapore just had to be…. A big, fat, American beef burger! Mmm, so missed my meat… I mean, you can get meat also in Mumbai, but the quality is not quite there and since they do not eat it themselves they do not prepare it in the best way either… So a good burger was just heaven!



Espen enjoying his Starbucks



One more thing we have missed (which we don’t have in Norway either, but we love) is Starbucks! They just have the best coffee and chai latte (I know, India probably has the best chai latte, but have not tasted much of it here though, want to get my tummy used to India before trying too much street food/drinks). So when we realized that there was a Starbucks just across the road from our hotel we were in heaven! No need to say that we visited this one frequently during our stay ;) I even went over there in during the breaks in my course to load up on coffee and chai latte (yes, both at the same time, too hard to decide on just one of them…)



Can see the Skybar in the background, is on top of that building!



View from Skybar




Champagne at Skybar



We also went to Marina Bay Sands and their Skybar, what an amazing view!! We started off having a cocktail…But then decided that this view deserves some good French champagne, so we got a bottle ;) We agree that we would rather book the dead-cheap hotel in the Red Light district of Singapore for our last night, prioritizes you know… ;) Having the champagne up at the rooftop bar/lounge at the 57^th floor was just amazing!

On the way to the skybar we also stumbled by Marina Bay shopping mall, an enormous mall with a canal inside where you can go on a gondola ride!

Another indulgence we enjoyed on this trip was good wine and food (in that order).  We frequently attended the beef restaurants and enjoyed good meat with nice red wine J I love Indian food also, but when having the option to eat beef, pork and potatoes I enjoy this! We also found a wine bar, which was just lovely as wine is not something India is very good at… You can get some good Indian wine, but also lots of bad… So seeing all the European and South African wines we are used to from back home was really nice and we consumed a few bottles during our stay ;)



Mmm, beef....



Inside the mall

I also planned on doing quite a bit of shopping…But ended up only buying a pair of high heels.. Think it was a bit overwhelming with all the nice, clean shops so that I did not really manage to actually buy anything… But just looking was nice too…And so much cheaper! ;)

Getting my drip...

As I said previously, the area we stayed in was very lively in the evenings and had heaps of bars and restaurants, some more special than others… This one place Clinic bar was quite something different…It was set up as an actual clinic, having wheelchairs as chairs, hospital beds as couches and you could buy drinks either in syringes , test tubes or drip. We chose the latter one, which was quite interesting… Funny concept and had to be tried, though off course overpriced.

I do however notice that I have gotten used to the price level here in India as I found everything in Singapore to be very expensive.   

The festival season has begun!

The festival season has started here. India is a great country in the way that they recognize the holidays of several religions including Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Jain, Parsee, Sikh and Hinduism in addition to the three national holidays they have here. Only thing though is that this leads to quite many days off during the year, which is not very productive.  productive. Many companies respond to this by having a set amount of public holidays.

First group didn't quite make it

First out this autumn festival season was Krishna Janmashtami, a hindi festival celebrating the birth of Krishna. The date for the festival follows the Hindi calendar and falls within mid-August to mid-September. This year it was on the 22^nd of August. My office did not recognise this as one of the public holidays to get off, but we still managed to participate in it during the evening. In the state we live it is common to celebrate by having competitions where teams of men/boys are making a human pyramid aiming to reach a pot of buttermilk placed high up. The team building the highest pyramid and manage to break the pot of buttermilk is the winner! This does however involve the risk of hospitals around town filling up with men/boys with bone fractures…



There is the pot of buttermilk far up there..



We walked into town just in time to see the winning team in our local area. It might not look like it, but the pyramids get quite tall and they strategically put the smallest boy on the top, which turns out is a little kid looking quite padded up (though not really sure how much this would help if he actually fell down from the top there..) After reaching the buttermilk pot and manage to break it, they were all dancing and playing in the street –it was fun being a part of this J

They made it!! :)

Starting from a solid base...

Well, this was a short blog about our first experience with the many Indian festivals to come. I will keep you updated on those coming (Indians love festivals) as well as other things happening here.