Work update

Of course you know that the main purpose of this trip is for Rowan's sabbatical work to continue. By no means has this trip been all play for either of us (it's just WAY more fun to blog about the fun things we do and not our work :o) She has been doing a weekly seminar on statistics at the Eye Institute, continuing her work on the seven papers she is working on for publication, working via the Internet on her Associate Dean for Research duties at the IU Optometry school, conducting endless skype meetings with her lab and other colleagues around the world, exploring international grant opportunities with Shrikant for future collaborations between IU and the LV Prasad Eye Institute and starting to set up equipment in Shrikant's lab. The crate that was shipped from Indiana just arrived yesterday, so upon our return from Kerala next week, the next phase of testing will begin.

Shrikant with the men who helped unload the equipment yesterday.

Besides eating and blogging, Jenni has been monitoring the functions of her lab back at IU over the internet aswell. She attends lab meetings on Thursdays via skype to talk about study protocols and works on trying to keep the lab's grant account status healthy. It looks like there will be a few new human subject research projects ready to go by the time we get back. Good news in this financially strained environment.

Blah, blah, blah..............I know, this is really boring! :o)

More fun stuff coming soon.

Food Frenzy

I can’t believe I have actually posted 5 new blog entries in a row without mentioning food once! Don’t worry people; I will make up for it now.

Happy Birthday to Sumit

We have had all sorts of food adventures in the last few days. We celebrated Sumit’s birthday last Wednesday night at a really wonderful Chinese restaurant. We had a private room for the event and ordered our food about 10pm and didn’t leave the place until just after midnight. We started off with kim chi and then went to deep fried veggies. There was burnt garlic soup, creamy garlic cauliflower, potatoes and water chestnuts, crispy lamb in honey, soy and sesame, a squid dish and a seared fish dish. So many fabulous flavors all over again! And then they brought the birthday cake… I didn’t take pictures of the food, but you do get pictures of all of us.

Charanya & Shubha

Shrinkant ready to give us a beer bath!

More Food Confessions

OK, so now that we have our own kitchen, we went out to the Q Mart (the American/European grocery store) to get some back-home favorites. Now we can secretly eat some comfort food from home when one more spicy Indian curry dish is just one too many…. and Rowan can have real back-home British food too. I am still searching for that American hamburger! :o)

Oh, and don’t think you will find a barista pouring a Starbucks for you here. We have not seen one Starbucks. Hardly anyone drinks coffee during the day, although they do drink tea. It’s just too bloody HOT outside to want a cup of coffee. I treat myself to a luscious pot of Nescafe Gold freeze-dried coffee with 3% extra long life milk every morning. The milk comes in a box or a bag. It’s growing on me and I like it. Just like what I drink when we go to England to visit Rowan’s family.

Long Life Milk and the coffee

morning brew, in an instant!

Rowans Chappathi’s & Yogurt

Rowan had her first chappathi and yogurt making session on her own in the apartment the other day. She is very serious about learning how to make Indian breads and yogurt, and I totally support her. I SUCK at making bread (it always turns out like a rubber ball), so I am behind her on this one. It is important to have some kind of bread with most Indian food as it is used as a vehicle to pick up the food on your plate to get it to your mouth. Remember, we eat with our hands here. A short video of her very first chappathi at the apartment.

Rowan is totally into making the yogurt too. It is usually included with every Indian meal, so having it on had is important. Charanya gave us some live culture starter to get us going. Rowan heated some milk, added the culture and let the mixture sit in a bowl on the counter in the afternoon heat. By dinner time we had a DELICIOUS pot of homemade yogurt. We will definitely be doing this one at home too!

Food Coma #2

This gathering was all about fish. Shrikant and Sumit (the other two carnivores besides me and sometimes Rowan) have been talking about fish for days, so I told them if we got some I would cook it up for them. This got the ball rolling for us to have a dinner party for 8. Rowan and I said we wanted to get all of the ingredients for the dinner and cook it as a ‘thank you’ for all of the wonderful hospitality our friends have shown us. Sumit requested grilled Surmai fish (also known as King Fish or King Mackerel) so Shrikant took us to ‘THE’ fish market to pick up some Indian Ocean Surmai fish. We had it chopped into steaks and also picked up some beautiful giant prawns. The next thing on the agenda was to buy a grill to cook the fish. Rowan and I were already thinking we’d like to pick up a grill as a ‘thank you’ present for Shrikant & Charanya, so off we went. We spent a day collecting all of the ingredients for what was heading into our food coma #2 dinner party. I found what looks like a delicious recipe for a Pakistani Tava paste marinade for the fish. It will be fun to see how this works out.

Shrikant and Charanya opened up their house for the party. We put the grill together, took it to the roof-deck, got some cold beer, fired up the hookah and set off for another wonderful evening of good food and friends.

Here is the menu:

Grilled Surmai and Giant Prawns

Grilled Vegetable, Paneer & Pineapple Skewers

Palak Paneer

Tomato Rice

Chippathis

Cold beer, beer and beer

Homemade Custard with Assorted Fruits

And, here are some photos:

The Pakistani Tava paste: Onion, garlic, ginger, curry leaves, red chili powder, black pepper, turmeric, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, salt. Blend in a spice blender. Rub paste on fish and let marinade in the fridge up to two hours. You won't be disappointed!

Rowan mastering the Palak Paneer and Tomato Rice

preparing the fruits for the grill and the custard dessert

Sumit helping Jenni to get the new grill going. He was very keen to learn how it all works so he can be the grill master after we leave. For some reason the Indian's have not embraced the grilling outdoors culture (must be the weather is too hot?). We found the grill at the American grocery.

The Surmai on the grill

This is our scary monster friend Shrikant bringing the Hookah pipe up to the roof. You can tell by his eyes he has already had some (or, maybe the dog Lali bit him and now he is going to bite us?) :o) Hookah is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) pipe for smoking tobacco in which the smoke is cooled and filtered by passing through water. Kind of like the bong in the US. Doing this with a group of friends is customary here.

Sumit is getting the pipe going by lighting a charcoal disk that is then put on top of the tobacco. The tobacco tonight will be flavored with Pan spices. We could call it organic toiletry tobacco! :o)

S & C grilling up the Paneer, vegies and pineapple

The Surmai steaks and prawns served on a bed of sliced cucumber and tomatos.

Extremely delicious!

Beer anyone?

Jenni trying the Hookah. I must say that I prefer to smoke my Pan . The organic toiletry is kinder and gentler this way.

Rowan, Shrikant, Shubha and Suresh

All us ladies. Shubha, Sandhya and her daughter Anusha, Charanya, Rowan and Jenni

The whole evening was just wonderful. We finally got to the custard with fruit dessert course just after 11:30pm. This was definitely a food coma #2 night! YUM!

Our Own Apartment

Monday, Feb. 15, 2010

Time to catch up on other things besides food and sightseeing. After being well trained in what to eat and how to prepare it, cultural dos and don’ts, and how to get around safely on the streets, last Monday, Rowan and I left the comfortable confines of The Mother Ship (Shrikant & Charanyas place) to step out to our own apartment. Our place is just a mile from S&C and only a mile from the Eye Institute, so we will be able to easily go on foot just about anywhere we need to go. Walking is always an adventure, so that is how we prefer to get from one place to the other when we can.

Our apartment is on Road No. 10 in Banjara Hills. The building has a sari shop on the bottom floor called Srishti, owned by Ravindra Rao, who also lives in and owns the building. He lives with his family on the top two floors of the building and we have the entire 3^rd floor. The place is very clean, well kept and most importantly has a kitchen so we can cook. There is also air conditioning :O) There are 3 bedrooms. We are also provided with three houseboys who clean the entire apartment every day. They do the floors (by hand!), change the linens, do the dishes, and will bring us whatever we need, plus shop for us if asked. They are just charming and extremely polite and shy. They call us 'madam' and always knock before they enter the apartment (I could get used to this!) We are having a fun time trying to communicate with them. Ramesh is the only one who knows just a little english, so finding a common way of understanding each other is comical at times. Somehow we always seem to get through it.

Here are some photos:

The stairway leading to the apartment

Our front porch

Entering the apartment. Notice the string of mango leaves above the door. You will find these above most doorways and entrances to buildings. They are hung there for good luck. The yellow painting on the threshold of the door is a turmeric based paint used as an insecticide to keep bugs out of the house.

Livingroom

Dining area

The master bedroom

Master bath vanity

Master bath includes tub and shower

on the way to the kitchen

Let the cooking begin!

Jenni with the houseboys. From left, Manju, Das and Ramesh

We have been in the apartment almost a week now and are really enjoying the place - especially the house staff and neighborhood.

Political Unrest

Real time report: Sunday Feb. 21, 2010

We don’t know if our US friends are getting any of the reports of the political unrest here in Hyderabad (don't worry mom, we are AOK!). Yesterday, there was a HUGE protest on the Osmania University campus in the heart of the city. Over 30,000 police were deployed for security in view of the students' threat to storm the Assembly (the state government headquarters). The police virtually took control of central Hyderabad. Luckily, we are staying a safe distance from this area. The protests have been happening for some months now with great regularity (especially when the Assembly meets) and can shut down movement in the city center completely. The protests are based on the future splitting-in-two of the state of Andra Pradesh. The Telangana region (the northwestern region of Andra Pradesh where Hydrerabad is) would be one state and the remainder another. Hyderabad being the financial and technical center and largest city in Andra Pradesh is being fought over. This latest round of protesting all started on Dec. 9, 2009 when the government of India announced the process for the formation of the Telangana state would be initiated upon introduction and passage of a separation statement by the state assembly of Andra Pradesh.

It is being reported here that yesterday, incensed students engaged the police in pitched battles including stone pelting. The police responded with tear gas and club swinging. A 19 year-old male student doused himself with kerosene and set fire to himself in protest. He died later last night. It is so sad he felt he had to go that far. It appears the reason the students are protesting so passionately, is that many many of them are from the side of Andra Pradesh that will be separated from Hyderabad, leaving their towns and communities without support from the money generated through Hyderabad for jobs, budget allocations, educational facilities.....and there are water issues too. The Telangana region also contributes about 76% of the state's revenue. It appears the fight for this separation has been going on since about 1969. Of course the pro-side and the con-side are both protesting. (Note to our Indian friends-please email me and let me know if I need to change any posted information that is not quite right. I am writing this from newspaper reports, conversations and my own understanding of the situation).

I am getting so engaged watching this entire thing going on. Being born and raised in Northern California and working for so many years at UC Berkeley, I certainly love to witness the passions and debates that drive a meaningful protest. I have taken some pictures from this morning's newspaper headlines in The Hindu to share with you.

You can see the big white Assembly building on the right in the left hand picture. We went to see a dance concert at a theatre just across the street from there (on the road that goes left) last Wednesday, Feb. 17. Notice how the police have completely cleared the road of traffic and people. Something you just can't imagine seeing when you witness the daily chaos of these roads! The photo on the right shows the very angry people who got caught on the other side of the road blocks.

Charred remains of a private bus that was set on fire during the protest.

Golkonda Fort

Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010

Shrikant took us out last Sunday to visit the Golkonda Fort located about 11 km west of the city of Hyderabad. It was a blistering hot day, about 92 degrees (and this is winter!), so we drenched ourselves in sunscreen, packed water, and drove west to the fort.

Our drive to the fort took us through more parts of town that we haven’t seen yet. We drove through our first shantytown on the way. It is just heart-wrenching to see how these people live. As we drove by one doorway, a young boy, not more than 7 years old, was standing there wearing a full three-piece suit. We were shocked! Where did he ever get that suit, we thought! One thing we did notice is that most of the people had clean clothes and the women had beautiful sari’s on. How they achieve this is a mystery, there is no sign of fresh running water, toilets, let alone plumbing. They barely have a roof over their heads. It is truly amazing how they survive. Thank goodness we weren’t walking through this place, as I would have had a REALLY hard time not trying to help these people in some way (given my assumptions that they feel that they need help!!). I didn’t think it was appropriate to take pictures, but I did get one photo on the road as we approached the area.

As our drive took us further west, we entered the primarily Muslim neighborhood where the fort sits. Here are a few photos of the neighborhood.

Muslim women wear the most elegant black outer clothing called Abaya with the head covering called Hejab (sometimes know together as Burqa). It seems they are almost floating when they walk by you. Notice that there is a family of five on the motorcycle in the photo! And, mom is riding sidesaddle!!!

Note on the Abaya, Hijab & Burqa: These are worn by muslim women for the purpose of cloaking the entire body when going outside the sanctuary of the household. They are worn over the usual daily clothing. The Hijab covers the entire head and the veil covers the entire face except for the eyes. Sometimes this is referred to as a Burqa when the eyes are completely covered by a mesh fabric so that nothing on the face is revealed.

We arrived at the fort and looked for a place to park the car. This absolutely adorable little boy in the most fabulous leopard-print shirt, who couldn’t have been more than 8 years old, came to the car and showed us where to park. He then proceeded to give us a ticket for the parking and asked us for 10 rupees. Shrikant gave him the 10 rupees (he said he had seen this boy before and he was legit) and then the boy asked me, in perfect English, if I wanted to have my picture taken with him. It was hilarious! He was quite the ‘mover and shaker’ and little businessman. Rowan said she bets he’s a fully-fledged entrepreneur by the time he’s 20 years old.

We got to the gate of the fort and again there were two separate lines, one for women, and one for men. Shrikant purchased our special-priced tickets (foreigners cost 150 rupees, $3 US, instead of 10, 20 cents US) and we entered.

A very short history of the fort:

In the 16^th century, Golkonda was the capital and fortress city of the Qutb Shahi kingdom, near Hyderabad. The city was home to one of the most powerful Muslim sultanates in the region and was the center of a flourishing diamond trade. The fort is built on a granite hill 120 meters high…. we felt every step in the heat!

Here are some photos from our walk around the fort:

couldn't resist taking a photo of these school boys

temple at the top of the fort

good thing you can't tell we are sweating like PIGS!

For some reason Jenni has become a boy magnet. She seems to attract all sorts of boys who want to have their pictures taken with her. This group of 15 year olds were so excited to have their photo snapped with the old lady. Don't you think she looks like Catherine Hepburn in that hat?