In the last week I've been zooming about for work to a couple of cities in India, visiting college campuses. Last Friday I went to Hyderabad, which is about 6 hours' drive from Bangalore, or an hour on the plane (which was my mode of transport). It was a really long day, getting up at 5am and not getting home till 1am, but interesting to go to a new town and to visit the business school campus which was very new and smart. What I saw of Hyderabad seemed pretty nice - good roads and interesting rocky scenery - and although it's not that far from Bangalore it seemed a lot more northern India, with the houses looking a lot more middle eastern, more mosques, and signs in Urdu as well as English and Hindi.
After a weekend of recovery, I went to another business school on Monday, this time in Lucknow, which is near New Dehli. This meant a 2 1/2 hour flight to Delhi, and another hour to Lucknow. Although it's the capital of Uttar Pradesh it did seem a lot more shambolic than Bangalore, although we drove past some pretty impressive buildings and parks. The roads were a lot more crumbly, the traffic was much less car-based (lots of horses, oxen, bike rickshaws etc) and lots of roadsite tents. The college campus was older than the one in Hyderabad, but in a nice big estate - all very green, and I saw a couple of peacocks wandering around. The main problem was that it was really cold and foggy, only about 15C, and there wasn't much heating in the rooms, so a rather shivery day. Long days too - leaving the house at 7am Monday, working and interviewing till 11:30 that night, starting again at 8am Tuesday and not getting home till about 1am Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of either place, but I did stop at a market in Lucknow to get a couple of shirts for Emma, and tried some delicious food from a tiny hole-in-the-wall cafe on the way to the airport.
The main challenge of the trips were the way people behave on the planes here. The pushing and shoving in the airports is insane, in every line. It's a battle to get through security, and the security guards really frisk you - it's rather over-personal. Lucknow airport is pretty rough and ready, kind of like Bangalore's used to be, with loads of mosquitos and disgusting toilets. It's sort of an adventure but also kind of gross. Also as soon as the plane lands loads of people undo their seatbelts, which seems crazy to me - even when the plane is taxiing you can have sudden stops, and surely it's not too uncomfortable to wear a belt for a few minutes till the plane has stopped? And when the plane does stop everyone jumps up and starts getting their bags down much more aggressively than plane travelers in the US do, to the extent that a guy hit me in the head with his elbow and his bag, and I almost punched him back. I should be used to the fact that there's not much personal space here, but it was a tad over-crowded.
After a weekend of recovery, I went to another business school on Monday, this time in Lucknow, which is near New Dehli. This meant a 2 1/2 hour flight to Delhi, and another hour to Lucknow. Although it's the capital of Uttar Pradesh it did seem a lot more shambolic than Bangalore, although we drove past some pretty impressive buildings and parks. The roads were a lot more crumbly, the traffic was much less car-based (lots of horses, oxen, bike rickshaws etc) and lots of roadsite tents. The college campus was older than the one in Hyderabad, but in a nice big estate - all very green, and I saw a couple of peacocks wandering around. The main problem was that it was really cold and foggy, only about 15C, and there wasn't much heating in the rooms, so a rather shivery day. Long days too - leaving the house at 7am Monday, working and interviewing till 11:30 that night, starting again at 8am Tuesday and not getting home till about 1am Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of either place, but I did stop at a market in Lucknow to get a couple of shirts for Emma, and tried some delicious food from a tiny hole-in-the-wall cafe on the way to the airport.
The main challenge of the trips were the way people behave on the planes here. The pushing and shoving in the airports is insane, in every line. It's a battle to get through security, and the security guards really frisk you - it's rather over-personal. Lucknow airport is pretty rough and ready, kind of like Bangalore's used to be, with loads of mosquitos and disgusting toilets. It's sort of an adventure but also kind of gross. Also as soon as the plane lands loads of people undo their seatbelts, which seems crazy to me - even when the plane is taxiing you can have sudden stops, and surely it's not too uncomfortable to wear a belt for a few minutes till the plane has stopped? And when the plane does stop everyone jumps up and starts getting their bags down much more aggressively than plane travelers in the US do, to the extent that a guy hit me in the head with his elbow and his bag, and I almost punched him back. I should be used to the fact that there's not much personal space here, but it was a tad over-crowded.
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