(She's going to kill me for bragging, but it's for a good cause...)

This weekend, Sonia is going to again prove her athletic prowess... by competing in her 2nd Wildflower Triathlon. This time, she's doing the olympic distance course: 1 mile swim, 25 mile bike ride, 6 mile run... in 65 degree water and 100 degree air. Above, you can see the elevation change during the ride. I fancy myself as being in good shape, but wow... I stand in admiration.

And speaking of admiration, my good friend Raj and his wife Sejal are also doing the tri this weekend, and up until two months ago, Raj was terrified of water and didn't know how to swim! They are part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training, raising funds for cancer research. They're almost at their goal of $2900 -- so, if you're inclined, I strongly endorse a small donation on their site here -- it's like sending a good luck wish to all of the participants!

Good luck, Sone! LYSSSSM

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Post-Race Update: Sonia kicked major tail -- finishing in 3:04, 73rd out of 339 in her age bracket!

I went to get my haircut yesterday. I may be inviting the ridicule of my friends, but this was a big deal for me, as I'm super picky about my hair. (Yes, I really do get my gel imported from Japan.) Anyway, I had a recommendation to go see the "stylish Burmese guy" at this salon called Spratt. So I called them up and wanted to see when I could make an appointment... "Pick anytime tomorrow," the receptionist said. Hmmm... ordinarily, I would be skeptical of any salon whose schedule seemed so empty, but I took the first morning slot anyway.

I showed up and was pretty impressed with the salon. I met Thundu, who turned out actually to be a Tibetan refugee, not Burmese. He also turned out to be a great hairstylist, and he was excited to cut my hair because he got to practice texturizing instead of the regular "formal cut" that he said all of the men usually requested. He lamented the fact that Bollywood stars were finally getting cool haircuts while the Kannadan film stars still only wanted "the poof." The reason this was troubling is because the film stars pave the fashion path for the population, and until they start getting more stylish, he'll be stuck doing the same old hairstyles.

After finishing, he recommended a spray wax, which I purchased. The total? 850 rupees. That's 550 for the wax and 300 for the cut. Only 300 bucks ($7) for a 45 minute haircut at Bangalore's best salon?! Wow.

Of course, the engineers back at the office almost laughed me out of the lunchroom, saying that they rarely paid more than 25 rupees ($.50!) for a haircut. But I figure you get what you pay for... here's the before and the after. :-)

Every now and again, I'm reminded just how many people live in this country. Of late, I've been noticing how many are employed doing the most inefficient things.

Take for instance, this Shell station. First, this thing was built in a matter of roughly 2.5 weeks, which is a testament to the manpower they could employ quickly. Second, you'll notice a ton of people at the station but only one car... that's because almost everyone else in this picture is an attendant! There are about 12 people on staff 24x7, including the guy to the lower left who motions cars in with his light-up wand as if they're taxiing aircraft, two guys who handle the fueling, and one guy who mans the little stop sign and tells you how far to pull forward. It's like an F1 pit crew!

Oh, and if you're wondering, gas is roughly 40 rupees per liter -- or $3.45 a gallon -- including taxes of 35%. Let me put this is perspective... PPP shows that this would be like Americans having to pay $13.27 a gallon. Think about that the next time you're griping at the pump!

Last week, we were called into a meeting by the Secretary of E-Governance for the Election Commission. When we arrived, we were shown to a couch & chairs in his office to wait for a while, as he was stuck in traffic on his way there. A few bits of hilarity ensued.

First, there was a full-blown committee meeting in progress in the other half of the same room. Ten people yelling and shouting and getting overly animated about some strange drawing on a whiteboard... it made it very hard to talk to prep for the meeting. As soon as the Secretary walked in, that group exited, and the room returned to its quiet state so that we could begin our meeting.

However, literally the minute the Secretary (a rather soft-spoken man) started talking, a protest started outside the window... there must have been a hundred people chanting and yelling in Kannada about who knows what. We were on the ground floor and couldn't close the windows because it was too hot -- it was maddness!

Then, he handed us all these glossy brochures his department had made about Bangalore's electronic goverment initiatives... I read the tagline and almost burst out laughing: "Bangalore on e." For anyone not part of Gen X or Y, the term "on e" is slang for "on ecstasy," the hallucinogenic drug. Hip hop stars use it in their songs, as in "trippin on e." Hilarious.

Anyway, I give the Indian government major props for pouring so much money into e-governance initiatives. The nice thing about not having a lot of technology to begin with is that they can more quickly adopt the state-of-the-art stuff that's out now. The US, by contrast, has a lot of path dependence on very old infrastructure that needs to be junked and replaced, but there's too much valuable data to do that. Most records here are still in paper (or don't exist, in the case of black-money land ownership), so the transition will be much easier.

Illustrating my below point, check out this stainless steel bowl I picked up for about $20; that's very expensive for India, but about half of what I'd expect it to fetch in the US. It's made by this company called Magppie (yes, that's two P's), which was started by two young brothers in India from their family's steel business. I thought I had the first scoop on a huge export market opportunity, but it turns out that they already have Karim Rashid designing for them!

But my favorite part about the company is the small tagline they put on their box...

Brilliant.

I will never be the same... being in India has changed me.

Before you get carried away thinking about the profundity of that statement, let me clarify. Specifically, I mean that I will never again be able to shop in the US without thinking I'm totally getting ripped off. :-)

Browsing a design site the other day, I came across these pillows. $89! Are you kidding me?! I can go to a designer home furnishings store here and pick up amazingly beautiful embroidered and beaded silk casings for around $7! I could name a hundred other instances of amazing stuff you can get on the cheap here: great shirts, furniture, cards, custom woodworking, candles, curtains, etc. If you wanted to outfit a new home, I bet the entire plane fare (roundtrip from SFO: $1200) could easily be made up in the price differences.

On one hand, I know that I'm going to be disappointed when I go back to paying US prices. On the other, an experience like this puts the concept of "willingness to pay" in perspective, and I'll be a more thoughtful consumer because of it.

I have to admit that I had a secret agenda in coming to India... to be discovered as the next Bollywood star! At the very least, I wanted an item number or the chance to be a recognizable extra. Little did I know that my name, at least, had already surpassed superstardom!

"Josh," pronounced jōsh, is acutally a Hindi word meaning inner strength, determination, or chutzpah. Regardless, I have to admit that it's pretty cool to see the equivalent of my name in Hindi in giant flaming letters on the screen.

What's more is that it stars Aishwarya Rai -- hands-down Bollywoods most popular actress -- who was recently declared the most beautiful woman in the world! (I would actually beg to differ, but there's no accounting for taste.) The male lead, Shahrukh Khan, is kinda cheesy, but I'm seeing that's a theme in Bollywood: beautiful women and their machismo/mustachioed counterparts.

While the plot might be a little predictable, the dancing rivals that of N*Sync in their heyday (and I do have a fascination for boy bands :-) And Mumbai Central says, "Josh is Definitely worth seeing." So if you anticipate a free Saturday night, throw this on your Amazon wishlist (Blockbuster and Netflix have yet to get with the times.)

P.S. I have now taken to pronouncing my name with a long-O. No autographs, please.

Hey kids! It's raves & rants time! Just a quick one each:

RAVE:
No guns! I haven't read a single story that I can recall about someone getting shot here. Most of the police don't even carry guns. Senior officers can carry pistols, and the night officers who stroll the neighborhood streets carry these single-load old school rifles, but that's about it. Everyone else speaks softly and carries a big wooden baton called a lathi. I have read a couple of articles where the police have had to subdue large crowds, so they do this maneuver called a "lathicharge" where they make a line and rush forward thumping everything in sight. Sounds harsh, but it works pretty well. And worst case, even a broken arm is better than a hole in the head.

RANT:
No change! This one I still can't understand... The exchange rate is ~44 rupees to the US dollar. That means that having a 100 rupee note is about the same as $2. Most ATMs spit out Rs. 500 & 100 notes -- completely reasonable denominations. What's maddening is the number of times that I've had to go around to strangers and ask them to break my 100 rupee note because the register doesn't have enough change!

Example 1: I buy a cold coffee from Barista (the Indian Starbucks) for Rs. 60 and hand them a 100... sorry, not enough change. Example 2: I take a rickshaw for Rs. 20 and give him a 50... he's not carrying *any* change, so I have to go ask the watermelon cart for change. Example 3: I was at a very nice restaurant/bar last night and wanted to take a rickshaw home, so I go to the bar to get change for my 100, knowing the rickshaw driver won't have change. What?! Even the bar of this upscale establishment doesn't keep enough change on hand! Example 4: I'm starving at work the other night, so I consider ordering a pizza. I continue starving because all I have is a 500 rupee note, the pizza only costs 250, and there's no way the delivery guy is carrying any change.

Does everyone have metathesiophobia? (Fear of change -- bad pun :-)

A helpful hint for future visitors: if you get currency converted in the airport, make sure they give you small denominations too!

Adding to the list of birthdays, Google Bangalore turned 1.0 yesterday! We celebrated by going bowling, which was "too good." And forget the jackets... we need sateen bowling kurtas!

My mom -- Miss Fire Prevention 1962

People say that I look a lot like my mom. As you can see, I consider it quite a compliment. :-) I can only hope that they also see her character and kindness in me...

As boys get older, we get distracted by other girls and eventually find the One... but none of these other women can ever take the place of our moms. My mom is my confidant, my advisor, my rock, and she will always be #1 in my book.

I love you, Mom! Happy birthday!

Ever seen a tanker just 50 meters off shore? Neither had the good people of Goa until about five years ago, when a huge storm embedded the 266 meter River Pricess in about nine feet of sand. You can see it quite well in all of my beach pics -- remember that this is right off the beach of all of Goa's most luxurious resorts!

The original owners got in a huge legal battle with the Goan state government, and the state passed a law which allowed them to assume ownership of the vessel. Then they did nothing for a few years except infight about what to do. But now they've reached a resolution that should have the ship out within 30 days.

CrossChem (a salvage company) will pay the state government Rs 85.41 lakh (USD $20k) for the vessel whose scrap value is estimate at Rs 3 crore (USD $685k -- after removal costs).

And while I'm on the topic of earning my stripes toward the full Indian experience, I have another I can now check off my list: my first cricket match! And not just any match, either -- India vs. Pakistan in the last day of the third test match (kinda like the playoffs)!

So what are my first impressions? Well, the first two hours in the morning were fun and lively, but come on -- 8 hours a day for five days for just one match?! You've got to be kidding me. India's target score for the day (what they needed to win) was 383 runs. Even this guy had trouble keeping up his steam for the whole day. But if there's one thing that the people here have, it's patience.

Also, I noticed that I was the only person around with a beer (and I bought that because I thought it would be part of the experience). Turns out that they usually don't sell alcohol within the premises, but Vijay Mallya (owner of United Breweries, the world's second largest beverage company based in Bangalore) had strong-armed the govt. into allowing it.

I was also surprised to see that there were no vendors selling anything within the regular part of the stadium -- no tzotchkes, no memorabilia, no food, nothing. Our section was like the upper deck in baseball, so we had a catered lunch and the one Kingfisher stand, but that’s it. So much for my Sachin Tendulkar jersey.

Speaking of Sachin, the game was especially noteworthy because he became India’s highest run-scorer in Test cricket after scoring run number 10,123, which I got on video! Hmmmm. I was there when Barry Bonds hit his 72nd & 73rd homeruns in the same season (he’s at 703 for a career total) but they seem to sort of pale in comparison to numbers that cross the 10,000 mark :-)

Apologies for being remiss in my blogging, but I'm just now getting back in the saddle after trips to Hyderabad, Goa, and a 36 hour bout with a brutal case of Delhi Belly.

Yup -- I feel like I've earned my stripes as an expat in India now. After two months here without issue, I was beginning to feel like I was missing out on a crucial part of the prototypical experience. I should learn to be careful what I wish for... within an hour and a half of eating Thursday's dinner (Chicken Murg Masala from a reputable nearby hotel restaurant), I was doubled over on my bathroom floor -- the place where I would spend the majority of the next day and a half.

One more testament to the kindness of people here -- our driver, security guard at the guesthouse, and housekeeper all were very concerned with my health and kept offering to take me to the hospital or call for the doctor. All's well that ends well, though, and I'm almost back to feeling "fully good" or "100%," as folks here like to say. :-)