Archive for January, 2007
Diet is one of big adjustments I had to make, but here’s another one. I cannot really take shower in India. There is a machine to boil water in bathroom, but it’s not big enough to boil enough water to take shower. My guess is that this is due to lack of electricity; since there is not enough electricity provided to each house and flat (apartment), the machine is designed to boil a relatively small amount of water and no more than that. (This is just my guess.) So, I have to use hot water differently. I have to keep hot water in a bucket and use it to take bath. Oh, there is no bathtub, either; since there is not enough hot water, there is probably no point of having a big bathtub. I’ve got used to this, taking bath using a big bucket and keep hot water there, by now, but I felt very confused at the beginning. I had to wonder how I could take bath (shower).
India | 31.01.2007 11:28 | No Comments
I had to make adjustments as I moved to India recently, and one of major adjustments I had to make was diet. I knew that cows were considered to be holly and as a result, Indian people did not eat any beef, but I did not know how seriously Indian people took this. From what I hear, there is actually a shop or two selling beef (in Delhi whose population is roughly 14 million), but it seems that it’s virtually impossible to get any beef in India. Another thing is that eating beef is almost like eating human flesh, and people just don’t want to get near you if they find out that you cooked and ate beef at home. I have a friend, and he’s a very educated person; he’s not a village peasant. He has a Master degree and he runs a couple of businesses;he’s traveled to over 25 countries including number of European countries, US and a couple of countries in Africa. He has some perspective and he understands what’s happening around the world. However, even he tells me that he would not eat in my flat (apartment) if I ever cook and eat beef there, so this is a very serious matter. I can get chicken and mutton, but not all markets have a shop selling them. Also vegetables are much cheaper than meat (while vegetables are much more expensive than meat in US). So, I have been eating vegetables mostly. For example, tonight’s dinner was green pea and carrot croquettes and rice.
India | 31.01.2007 11:06 | No Comments
ICICI is India’s largest bank, and the bank’s last year’s growth was nothing short of spectacular. However, it took me two weeks to open a bank account with ICICI. It’s a long story and I will write about it in detail in the coming days, but it was a bit ridiculous to be honest. I happened to meet the branch manager of the branch that I opened the account at and I actually met him quite a few times, but that did not help much. India has so much to offer as a country, but there are also many problems, and some of problems essentially made this happen.
India, Business (India) | 31.01.2007 10:28 | 1 Comment