Apollo Hospital, Hyderabad

Today I had my first Hyderabad hospital experience. It was...an experience.

First, some context. I have been pretty ill the last three days but, thankfully, am feeling much more alive now that I have been 1) eating and 2) retaining said consumed food. Thank god for Cipro!

Feeling poorly this morning, I called up Ismail, my trusty Google transportation manager/emergency anything contact, and he told me he'd send a driver to take me to the hospital in the afternoon. Fast forward through the day and I'm feeling much more human as I warily made my way to eat Ritz crackers and some rice and dhal. Regardless, I'd rather have a doctor see me than not see me.

Driver comes and off we go to Jubilee Hills. Destination: Apollo Hospital.

Apollo Hospital, as my driver Saeed tells me, is very famous in India as one of the best hospitals. It even draws people from other parts of the world including the Middle East. He wasn't kidding; it's a massive hospital and clearly well kept. But India has a way of making even a well kept, modern hospital appear to be chaotic.

Why?

People everywhere!

First off, there's no reception desk. No little area where you wait behind the dotted line to say your name and sign some forms. No magazine rack full of infected month-old In Style magazines. Nope, just benches and some arbitrary way in which everyone knows where they are supposed to go. If not for Saeed, I may still be there now, lost in a haze of sarees.

Evidently this doctor I'm seeing knows Ismail and therefore can be called by cell when I arrive. I wait a bit and then meet the doctor who goes to find us a room. That's right finds me a room. Rooms are not allocated by doctor - oh no - they are instead just there and the only way to know if one is free is to open the door, pop your head in, and see. We clearly walked in on some folks before we found an empty room.

About 3 minutes of diagnosis in, I have a long list of things to take on a prescription pad and I am ushered out of the room. Off to the pharmacy! We jostle into place in the non-line, wait around, and then I get a little bundle of drugs to take home with me.

While it certainly wasn't a bad experience, it was interesting to see what a proper hospital looks like outside of the US. Definitely a first for me since I've had the good fortune of avoiding it everywhere else.

Best part? The whole thing - consultation, pharmacy - cost me a total of Rs. 520...that's $10.50.

Ridiculous.

Pictures from the road

Care for a camel ride to the Taj? According to the vendors "It's a very far walk."

It's 1 KM...

Your average bovine crossing the road

3 is normal. I've seen 5.

Blowing a horn is very en vogue. Everyone's doing it!

Sari + cycle = common

Agra: the Journey

In response to requests for updates, some updates. Apologies in advance for being brief to a fault. Slightly in a time crunch and need to prepare some trainings for work!

Vignettes from Delhi and Agra:

- An 11 hours drive in a seatbelt-less car

- Children hopping a ride on our cart in hopes of making a sale

- Diamonds juxtaposed with extreme poverty

- "Old Delhi is closed" say the scammers. (not true)

- People, people, people EVERYWHERE!

- Accepting the sweat because there is no other choice

- Indian fast food: aloo tikki and pani puri! mmmm....

- The smells of exhaust, spices, flowers, urine, and more

- Men getting shaved on the street

- Stray dogs, everywhere

And, of course...

The Taj Mahal

Beautiful.

Me and Samira

Everyday occurrences

Things that happen every day:

• Someone at work impresses me with their intellect, kindness, or knowledge
• I hear about yet another place in India I want to visit
• The power goes out
• The power comes back on
• I eat Indian food
• I sit in a car with a driver

Things that do not happen every day, but did when I was in San Francisco:

• I walked 2 miles a day
• I ate fresh vegetables and fruit
• I cleaned my room

Hyderabad Weekend

This past weekend, we went to see the gems of Hyderabad for a day - historic and otherwise. We began the day in true post-jetlagged fashion by sleeping in till 10 and then leaving for Charminar, the most famous of all architecture in Hyderabad. A 4-pillared building, Charminar was built (according to our guide) as an appeasement to the gods after they stopped the bubonic plague that was sweeping the country. It now sits a bit like the Arc de Triomphe as the center of a large traffic roundabout.

Sad how history becomes so intertwined with some of the less positive points of urban living.

Regardless, we braved the streets for my first-ever Indian street crossing (Madeline:1, India:1/2 - almost nicked by a rickshaw) and explored the Iranian architecture. We braved a slightly daunting staircase of steep stairs to make it to the first floor and look out on Hyderabad. We saw the Makkha Masjid mosque as well as the bustling traffic below. We also saw people taking pictures of us.

Interesting side-note: If you are blonde in India, expect people to want to take pictures with you. Laura, our intrepid teammate, humored a few people and now I'm sure her picture is being shared with many others.

After Charminar, we resisted our driver, Naim's, urgings to shop and went on to the Salarjung Museum (no pics since no cameras allowed). It is a large museum full of Indian and East Asian art. The Indian art was pretty interesting but the Japanese/Chinese sections were a bit lacking. Most of the East Asian art came from the 19th and 20th centuries. As Samira aptly put it, "give it a few more centuries; then call me."

Then it was onward to Golconda Fort!

A fort built as a defensive mechanism for Hyderabad, the fort was a massive structure with pretty advanced technology. First, there were acoustic "radios" throughout the fort. For instance, from a particular point on the base you could clap and be heard at the top of the fort (about 400 stairs up). In addition, some chambers in the royal guesthouse had accoustics built such that the king above could hear their conversation. Finally there was an escape tunnel from the fort all the way to Charminar (same architect built both). Really cool stuff but the day was hot, the guide walked fast, and there were 700+stairs to take in total up and down. Fun but we were glad to get back to the A/C in the car.

After resting at Jayabheri Guest House for awhile, we convened for an "American" dinner in honor of the 4th of July. A few bowls of pasta and a few beers later, we head out to meet the other expats to blow off some fireworks.

And, man, were there a lot of fireworks!!

I came in with this naive perspective that I'd have the US-grade fireworks (sparklers). Instead we got the highly-illegal-contraband (at least in the US) of high flying, multi-explosion fireworks. A movie is in progress but it was spectacular. I set one off after Ismail (fabulous transportation coordinator) assured me it was "100% no danger."

A happy 4th indeed!

The next day was a day of expat traditions: brunch at the Novotel hotel in Hyderabad, lounging by their pool, and massages at the Latitudes Spa at the fine Google-only rate of Rs. 220 (about $4.00). A day of indulgence, good food, and happiness!

Expat life, you sure are fun.

Sad things and happy things

I tried Pandora and Hulu and found that they don't stream in India.

Until I tried Pandora again. Now it works! I don't know how...

...but I'll take it.

The beginning

Sweet, sweet bed

After approximately 2 hours of sleep, I woke up to realize that 1) I was in India and 2) I had no idea how to get to the office. This was a problem.

Frantic emails later, I ended up gchatting my teammate, Namita, who came to my rescue and walked all the way to my flat to help me get to the office. By "all the way" I mean approximately a city block if a city block didn't have a sidewalk and did have cars, motorcycles, and rickshaws spinning wildly around without lanes. Not death-defying, but also not a typical stroll through Nob Hill.

For a day where I was pretty zonked out, I have to say I accomplished a lot. I met the whole Google BIM India team (extremely nice folks), I discussed and refined parts of my project plan, and I learned how to get around the office. And..

AND...

I took a mid-afternoon shopping trip with Samira, Namita, and Abhi to the street market 1 KM away from the office. The team has started a new tradition of "Traditional Dress Fridays" and Samira and I did not remember to include our traditional India dress in our packing preparations. With some expert haggling ala Namita and Abhi, we left there with two gorgeous kurtas at bargain prices.

To sum it, the day in numbers:

• Puzzles worked on: 1
• Desks moved (if you work @Goog, you know this is a very common event): 1
• Power outages: 2
• Indian foods tried: 8
• Kurtas purchased: 1
• Rupees spent: 500
• Microkitchen chocolate tried: 1 (attempting to taste them all without getting huge)

And the quote of the day: "I thought you were taller. You look much taller over VC." Poornima.