AI for Mentoring

 

Like reflection, I find it hard to reach out for mentoring. 4 complaints quickly come to mind:

1.       Perhaps it is because I see so many activities that need to be done, I find it hard to take the time to get perspective from a mentor.

2.       Perhaps I find it challenging to make myself vulnerable in sharing my thought processes.

3.       Perhaps I believe that I see work processes so clearly, it is hard to feel like finding a mentor with the right experience will be worth the effort in obtaining it.

4.       Perhaps I have too much hubris in thinking what I see as the issue is in fact the root cause to be addressed.

The more I learn, the more I realize that my 4 complaints hold me back. Failing to discuss my situation with a coach or a mentor misses the many benefits building on others experiences. Bennett et al, deals with many of my issues in Chapter 13.

Extreme teaming and interdisciplinary work, consistently state that our individual experience is not the only truth. Different disciplines view problems through different lenses and solve with different frameworks. Additional perspectives and framing allow insight into an issue that a single perspective may leave obfuscated.

Beyond the text, there are many sources of mentorship guidance for my communities. Virginia Tech publishes a guide for developing a mentoring relationship with goal of developing as a member of a profession. The Navy offers programs in several commands in the local district. Each of them focus on a partnership built of trust, likely to allow for the psychological safety. Each calls for transparency of expectations, purposes, and respect, so as to ensure both parties can devote resources appropriately. Outside of my supervisors, I have found it hard to square my schedule with a regular meeting, even for coffee and discussion of our organization.

Interestingly, consulting an AI addresses my 4 complaints. Because AI is such a low threshold, I believe the technology will further supplant our relationships as sources for answers and mentoring. Why ask a friend when one can ask Google for a detail? Why setup a meeting when Claude, Cortana, and ChatGPT are ready to give advice without a search? In each case, the quality of the AI response remains unknown and changes without examination. The act of acquiring the mentor or coach, while taking time, develops because of confidence in their experience, decision-making, or coaching ability. While some would argue that the range of advice of available from multiple AI’s gives greater benefit than a mentor, the mentor relationship provides a connection and contribution beyond the answer.

Despite all of this, several of my coworkers have developed beneficial mentor relationships. I see time blocked in their schedules, usually in a junior / senior relationship, to build the awareness from the experience of others. Clearly, AI hasn’t supplanted this relationship yet. Knowing the value, NSF requires mentoring, but I wonder how much of it will be supplanted by AI.

Communication remains key

        From TraveLynn Family

Sometimes we ask ourselves if we are ready for a particular activity. Before I go on a trip, I consider what I will be doing, for how long, and how much room/time I have to pack. I consider with whom I will travel to help understand what unexpected matters I might face and need to resolve. When we setup a team for new activities, we should also be asking, what do we need to pack as resources for the team? 

Every team we build has successes and failures, but what do all teams have in common? They need to communicate with each other to achieve their goals. At the start of the development of a team, they need to pack all the items that will help them communicate. When a team agrees on ground rules that make that specific, then all people know what is packed for the team. As the saying goes, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. To that I will add, trips and teams are both easier when you pack the right things.

For any team, I would recommend we add specifics on the nature and style of communication. For each of these, I would want to answer, how should my team benefit? Some of my best thoughts arrive after my team meetings. When I don't understand a member of my team, should I ask in the meeting or after? When I disagree, how should I do it?

For decisions, several factors affect how hard it is to adapt to change, but our teams should be open to change. When an issue arrives in a meeting, we rarely need it to be resolved immediately. I might not be at my best when confronted with something outside my expectations (surprise! - UHF Clip) during my meeting. If we establish a rule allowing us to reflect and inquire further on most decisions in reasonable time, we prime the pump for the necessary adaptation of Senge The Fifth Discipline Chapter V, X.

For disagreement, lack of understanding, and misunderstanding, one of the root problems is ensuring that one’s mental model accurately understood the original statement. To respond, I recommend the Rapoport Rules (aka Dennett’s Rules) to avoids burning bridges: 1) restate clearly, 2) list agreements, 3) acknowledge what you learned, and then 4) express any significant difference in your opinion for the group. This helps the originator remain receptive to refining the idea. For research organizations, using disagreement to highlight assumptions through dialogue or discussion is key to aligning team members (Bennet et al Chapter 10).

Unfortunately, what I have learned is that it is quite challenging to switch from habits to agreed upon terms. Therefore, it becomes easier if the terms are commonly reused, making them part of the organization's routine (noted by Edmonson & Harvey). I recommend every organization provide a standard team charter, which an individual team can augment or vary. Often organizations do this for legal agreements, offering default positions, standard alternatives, and disallowed fallbacks, making negotiating much easier. Per many, available services, easier negotiation is desirable.

 

 

How do you build a useful team?

 While I was in India, I met many people, both at work and outside of it. Aides, mentors, grad students, and researchers from elsewhere in India or Europe. Although it has been many years, I barely integrated any into my research process. Why was that? I believe I failed to see how to engage them with my research (water rights for farmers) beyond whether it was tangential to what they were working on. Although I faced challenges, I rarely discussed my project for them to mitigate my problems from their experience.   

Now, I am in a much more senior position. I need to assign and form teams that don't fall prey to the many problems I had. In my department, teams are sized by importance and resources, not necessarily the extent of tasks. Many teams are built from people volunteered from their office, to serve the greater good, but also because these workers have bandwidth to support. This kind of team building doesn't use the strict business function representation criteria of many product teams (Trott, Chapter 15) or (Cooper, Chapter 3), representing knowledge on delivering a product. To make my teams more effective, I can address deficits found in both my old and current process with best practices from teaming research.

One deficit I had and still see was a lack of regular feedback, even self-examination. In Agile, the retrospective is core to development. In Stage-Gate, rapid spiral development helps build that feedback users need.  As the PI on my grant, I didn't work with my team in India to get that feedback, with a collaborative mindset (Garrett, Chapter 6). In government, the team leads rarely have formal process to give frequent feedback when leading assigned teams; this is oft undocumented and informal. This should be made explicit in charging the team with their task. Furthermore, the teams should ensure they have set aside time to review their teaming and not just produce.

A second deficit was determining the membership of my team. Although I have some knowledge of the skills of people on a team, my initial interviews with my research team in India did not provide that understanding. My cultural divisions, faultlines, were so large, I failed to recognize the diversity and utilize it (Garrett, Ibid). On the teams of volunteered people, we typically only know the role they are in and whatever team roles they may volunteer to fill. Research teams, like product teams, must understand their membership to address knowledge gaps related to tasks assigned. As I assign teams, I will ask them to both draft out the activities they expect or may need to take, list who has experience with each. I could encourage that they further share resumes or CVs help spread that awareness of unknown skillsets and experience.

In short, because of lack of process competency, I failed to utilize my team. Because of lack of experience, I failed to recognize the skills available to me on my team. I want future team to examine what they do and the diversity they have. The best way to do so, is to have the team draft out what they expect, who can assist, and to return to it regularly to inform their path forward. 

Improving project delivery through feedback and aligning expectations

Much of this blog reflects on my time overseas, particularly my work on water distribution and governance. Rivers naturally move water efficiently, but they also carry contaminants. While working on clean water initiatives in India, I saw firsthand how access to water challenged both farmers and industry. At the time, many areas relied on subsistence farming. Some Gram Panchayats (similar to county governments) tried to strengthen local farms by providing shared equipment or organizing cooperative programs.

 One major challenge for the government—though sometimes a political advantage—was information asymmetry. Information about policies, resource availability, and community needs did not flow efficiently. As a result, programs were often implemented from the top down, with limited input from those affected. This gap created space for patronage networks and political favoritism, which weakened overall government effectiveness despite program team efforts. In my own experience, I was encouraged to work with politically connected businesses and officials rather than subject-matter experts suited to my research needs. I don't know if this was the proximate cause for not meeting my research goals, but I believe it contributed.

 Government support for local farming involves many actors working toward the broad goal of increasing regional output and revenue. However, performance is often measured primarily by political voter support. This is a weak metric. It rarely aligns with stated development goals and can undermine good governance by shifting focus away from long-term outcomes and toward short-term political gain. Consequently, team members work with competing priorities, dividing effort and reducing commitment to the development goal, my case clear explanation of government problems for water distribution to farmers.

 Community feedback is essential for improving these programs. Since I left India in 2007, rural use of cellular service has expanded dramatically. This increased connectivity has improved awareness and created new channels for feedback. Panchayats can now track more meaningful, forward-looking metrics instead of relying on post-program political approval. This shift enables a more iterative, agile approach to planning and delivery, rather than a rigid, top-down “waterfall” model that depends heavily on political patronage. Ideally, stronger engagement with public stakeholders will lead to a clearer shared vision and more decentralized, locally responsive implementation.

 While some writers advocate for subsuming contributor individual desires to improve team delivery, most recognize the balance and strive for alignment. Similarly, a program team cannot ignore the needs of the sponsor panchayat or state, delivering to goals to their detriment. Consequently, in areas of existing patronage networks panchayats interested in wider polities need to message transition improve voters expectations for nondiscriminatory delivery. This would align with continuing calls from civil society to both highlight the misuse of power and detail the expected path to resolution. Ultimately, such panchayat programs would benefit from aligning charters and collaboration agreements that provide clear expectations.

 In the past, I have advocated for clearly defined roles and guidelines to help teams establish new programs. However, such structures only work when sponsors and stakeholders actively provide feedback and hold teams accountable. Patronage politics weakened that accountability and undermined the government’s ability to execute its stated vision effectively. Consultation networks from power sharing better support teaming and should be sought. However, the reality of economic fortunes tend to link the party in power more than their efficient delivery of planned programs. After all, why hold anyone accountable if one is winning? Because one won't always be winning, and I want to be winning.

Chi-town (August 08)

With my Nulwala guide (meaning plumber), I traipse about downtown Chicago. His sister lives a few blocks from Soldier Field, where I had wondered from my hotel. I had a goal of making it to the lakeshore before meeting my buddy. Conveniently, traffic incoming from Naperville sucked enough that I made it to the planetarium before Naeem caught up with me. It was good to have a native guide, but better yet to have someone who could city-hike. We didn't waste our time with public transit, other than the free tourist trolley. Naeem pointed out the significant buildings, including such great towers as those built to spite Trump's view of the lake. Other spots were significant due to their inclusion in the batman movies.

My favorite story was of the flooding of all the buildings on the Chicago River. Apparently, these buildings had tunnels to carry coal from the barges directly to the base of the buildings for heat. Eventually, the burners were no longer in use, and the tunnels were sealed. Unfortunately, the seals were not particularly strong. When construction workers broke through an outer tunnel, and the Chicago River flooded in, the walls sealing each building from the tunnels caved. Instant city disaster.

From downtown we haul ourselves past shopping crowds to Oak Street Beach. We chilled, ogled, and met another L&C'er Wendy Packard. Wendy walked with us down to the pier, and across to Millennium Park. The skygate or giant metal bean was particularly entertaining for me. Naeem was almost part of a fountain, the "faces of chicago", but his address was Naperville and ineligible.

We hitup happy hour in the financial district nearby. I love it when a buffet is the price of two drinks or free if you buy the two drinks. This buffet was designed to lock your stomach and let the alcohol hit you later: very greasy/oily/fatty. I loved it.

Between sleep, tour, beach, park, and happy hour, my 20 hours in Chicago were nearly up. I hustled but to make my train, which only left 30 minutes late. Next time I'm in Chicago, I'm bringing a bike.

Trains East

It is always a rush to get out of a house. I never think I am a procrastinator. This time I put most of my stuff into storage two weeks prior. I packed my bags two days before. Yet, I didn't pack everything into my carry-on backpack. More importantly, I expected to sell my bike beforehand. This time, it wasn't a rush to get out of the house. It was a rush to get my bike, bike to the train station, and get it packed without causing a problem. Conveniently, I got to chase my roommate carrying my luggage half-way across town on my bike. Then, as is usual with travel by public transit, I got to wait an hour until they put us on the train.

The Empire Builder is an interesting line. From the name, one would believe that this train is used to create the inland empire. To that end, the train drains the Northwest into the commodity city of Chicago. The reason I find this interesting, is the method Amtrak moves the Northwest. One train, by far the larger, leaves Seattle. A smaller train leaves Portland. A line between the two cities ferries passengers from in between. The Portland line, my line, follows the Columbia, only to curve off and head for Spokane. There it waits to meet the Seattle train. In the middle of the night, both separate parts of the Empire Builder join together before passing through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and so forth to Chicago.

My Empire Builder was different. Certainly, we leisured up the Columbia. We joined in Spokane. We chugged the night through Idaho.

Have you ever heard of Libby, Montana? I have heard of Libby, Montana. The town shares a free newspaper (10 pages!) with Troy, Montana. It takes a few minutes to walk the main strip of Libby. One can make it a whole 15 minute walk by turning at the center of town and heading toward the grocery stores on either edge of town. I walked the main strip three times. I went to the grocery. Some other passengers got t-shirts. They read " I got derailed in Libby, Montana".

Just east of Libby at 4something in the morning, a freight train derailed. At 5 in the morning, we stopped in Libby. We waited for them to clear the derailed train, only to find the track had been ripped up. One trainride later, here I am in Shelby, sitting across from some Amish.

One has noticed I was writing and has brought out pen and paper for notes. I will do my best to give a play-by-play of the Amish interaction. They like the free gatorade Amtrak provided. Their "Dutch/Deutsch/German" sounds funny. That is all. The Amish don't make for exciting play-by-play.

The coffee and hot water machine broke. I also found out that the train is backward, which is not too uncommon, with the long haul carriage at the front. The former does not make for a happy train. The latter makes it slightly harder to load and unload extra cars.

Personages of note on this trip - S - the son of two anthropologists who smuggled desks into a town in Equador in exchange for Guinea Pigs and David, a Russian Jew from Texas in attending schul NY interested in the Military. S said that growing up in a variety of cultures where he couldn't communicate has made him more self-sufficient. He is playing the Piano.

The star of my new trip has been my iPhone, feeding my internet addiction on the go. Even still, I have not been able to access a volunteer group's voicemail with either it or my regular phone. I blame AT&T.

A group of 4 well dressed 30-50 something ladies got on in Minnesota. They have a Christian conference in Indiana, near Michigan. Apparently, Amtrak works well to get them to a shuttlebus in Chicago. They would have taken the train all the way there, but we are seven hours late. I talk to them about religion, but they seem a bit too creationist to have an open discussion. I fail to mention I'm Jewish. I give the girls sitting next to them my origami to play with.

Originally I planned on having 4 hours in Chicago. Courtesy of a late train, I get a free hotel and 20 hours in Chicago. I call my recent roommate Naeem.

Planes, Trains, and Automobles - India 25

I seem to have missed a major method of transportation here in India: animal. At no point did I ride a palanquin atop an elephant, an arabian horse, or a donkey pulled cart. That being said, below is my analysis of the transportation system.

I rode every class of train at least overnight. For those who are unfamiliar, the trains come in 1st Class, 2nd class, 3rd class, and sleeper. In addition there are two classes for daytrips chair car and AC coach?. The numbered overnight classes all have AC but the sleeper does not. In first class, one has a private room, upholstered seats, and a servant on call 24-hours a day. This is comfortable, but like staying in one's hotel, this drasticly limits interaction. The price of first class is about the same as airfare for the same distance. 2nd class is the best place to expect interaction with Indians in English. While the AC is turned up full blast, each compartment's 6 beds are over 6'6" long and are separated from the hallway with a curtain. 3rd class increases the bunks to 8, drops the AC a bit, and reduces the width of the main bunks to slightly wider than a couch. The aisle bunks are reduced in length to below 6'. 3rd class does have one significant advantage over sleeper, the general public is excluded from the cabins. In sleeper, while the dimensions are the same as 3AC, during the day all sorts of people come in and out of the vehicle. Except unlike 2nd and 3rd, very few venders come in the train. The best part of sleeper is that even with the low price (a 24 hour trip costs about 100Rs) there are still some English speakers for conversation. The day trip AC cars are somewhat like a home theatre with the AC at full blast. Also in these day AC cars, there seems to be the largest variety of food vendors. I had some of the best friend plaintain then. For me, traveling by train would be a toss-up between 2AC and sleeper.

I took six flights within, to and from India, and I have to say that I enjoy the American/International plane luggage rules because I have trouble carrying more than my allowance. Within India flights drop the allowance from 25-35kg to 15kg. Nonetheless, being able to walk up to a counter and by a ticket for the plane departing in an hour for a price 500RS above a 2nd class train ticket is quite nice. I have nothing to complain about on all of my flights, and the international flights had some beautiful waiting rooms with open bars, free massages, or even massage chairs. The only drawback is that for most of these flights, one is going to sit down for several hours, so I prefer to walk the whole time. Also, one notes the price of food increases significantly each time one passes through a security checkpoint. Eventually, it becomes almost economical to eat in a waiting lounge, rather than from one of the venders.

Perhaps my favorite form of transportation were the compact auto, bike, and man-powered rickshaws. These were scaled to the size of the population and are truly stripped down to the bare minimum. I have heard that trafficked areas have deadly accidents when accidents occur, but these professional drivers seem quite adept at avoiding complications and traversing the distance quickly. In addition, many of the authorickshaws have switched over to liquefied/pressurized natural gas. The resulting reduced emissions in addition to their significant fuel efficiency is something any country could do well to emulate. I would love to import an autorickshaw to the US, but the lack of spare parts would be maddening.

Several times in Hyderabad and in Mumbai I rode in taxis. The Indian cabs are the same as in any other part of the world. I have little opinion other than they take more gas than is necessary for most trips, but they are safer than the autorickshaws. My favorites are the mini-taxis which combine a taxi front end with a rearfacing bench seat before the rearmost seat. 12 in such a vehicle is not uncommon.

Aside from traveling on mountain highways, the standard for safety in India must be the bus. While the standard Asian/African/South American/Eastern Europe rule of the largest vehicle controls the road applies, in the cities, more so than everything else, these vehicles slow to a crawl. While I wouldnt recommend riding the outside, decapatations from power lines or being smashed into nearby traffic are two possibilities, a crammed bus is occasionally so crammed that one need not worry about ones balance and could sleep standing up. Unless one has a multihour trip without a seat, I would recommend the buses. As with any crowd, watch your belongings.

Mathura - India 24

From Agra I decided to visit nearby Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna. I crossed 3-8 miles of town to the bus station in under 10 Rs to get there. It was an interesting jog because at times I kept up with the sparse rickshaws while carrying my pack. Here the roads were as wide as an American Highway, yet they were used by very little traffic. These are the new outlets for traffic that get bogged down in the main road, however they lack all the shops and housing that draws people to the main round. Consequently, the main road is still a traffic jam.

My bus traveled right through the center of this jam. City Agra was significantly more modern and looked similar to other Indian cities as compared to the tourist section of Agra. For some time I road the highway from Agra to Mathura. This highway seemed Western in standards: clean with marked lanes drivers followed. As we turned off for Mathura, I noticed a white temple at least as long as a townhouse/rowhouse block, which I thought could be to Krishna.

I got off my bus a bit and found this white temple was to Guru Deo, no relation to Ronnie James. This templ Two things about this surprised me, the temple was white polished stone filled with rope lights of all different colors, and the donations were only accepted from those who had not eaten meat in the last month.

When I finally reached Mathura, I found a big washing pit in the center of town. Six or seven stories from the top of the square was a pond. The water was full of reeds, but was also discolored a shade of red from runoff. I saw women washing their laundry there.

Outside Krishna's dwelling were throngs of pilgrims dressed in orange. Everyone was there for his birthday. I was ashamed to think that a temple as small as the one for Guru Deo could possibly be the dwelling of Lord Krishna. The place was immense. Conveniently outside was an airconditioned enclosed sweets shop that had expensive dainties at American prices. Between the outdoor washing and the indoor food, I am always reminded of the juxtaposition of economics in Indian society.

Before my return to Agra I followed a path down the train tracks to the bus station. I met a begger and offered him my water, which he greatfully drank without touching his mouth to the bottle or spilling a drop. The Indians have perfected this art. At the bus station I have four large vegetable samosas with hot pepper sauce for 20 Rs. Made by hand and fried by the vendor on the pan infront of me, these were delicious.

Back in Agra, my cheap hotel had a laundry service. I payed when I received my laundry but one piece remained dirty and only appeared pressed. When I discovered this and asked for my 3Rs in return, the guy at the front desk hemmed and hawed. The problem with losing small amounts of money is that over the course of a trip they build up. For me, it is the principal of the idea that I should never pay for work I didn't receive. As my time wasn't that crucial (how can it be with train timings up to a day off?) we had a nice 5 minute conversation in order for me to get any change. I recognize that the money ment more to him than it did to me, but charity is to be freely given, not used to excuse shoddy labor.

Agra ... Cheap! - India 23

I took a train to Agra Fort. Just about everybody got off at the main Agra train station, but I decided to wait, figuring that the Agra Fort station might be closer to the Red Fort. Granted the wait on the train was an extra half hour, but I guessed I would be bettter off for having less solicitors. When I got off the train, I found out this was for naught. There were still a crowd of auto and rickshaw drivers trying to get me to ride. Interestingly enough, the train station opened onto the rear of the fort. This included a large sign map, the first I had seen in India! As I set out by foot, I was offered directions from rickshaw-wallahs. I even was joined by a few friendly boys who had about as much English skills as I did. It seemed that the fort's wooded area between the crumbling exterior wall and the 6 story high main wall was their playground.
Walking around to the main entrance of the Red Fort I was surprised the backpack check and water were free. Considering at the other UNESCO site I had just been to, it cost a nickel to leave your shoes under guard. There were active archaelogical and historical sections in the process of restoration. Some it was fenced off, but other parts I was just able to wander into and see the workers standing on lashed bamboo scaffolding with a leg on the wall to help chimney the gap. A couple of kids (prolly theirs) were sitting in playing in the nearby shade.
A third section, the majority of the fort, was walled off because it was still military. I guess when a large section of area is walled off, there is little reason to convert it from original use. My guess is that the base was too big an area for the city to politically muscle out and redevelop into a housing/industrial/commercial area.

From the top of the red fort I saw the traditional UNESCO view of the Taj Mahal. That view is surrounded by further buildings situated back from the river. There were several swimmers floating down the river past the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal. It seemed like a good pastime for the hot weather. Damn the pollution.

From the Red Fort I decided to walk to the Taj. As per normal, the auto drivers were incredulous. I definitely learned that as a fool of European the best way to get a cheap fair anywhere is to start walking. After all, by foot gets one across town in under 10Rs. [Graphic with Want to travel across town for under 10 Rs? Start Walking!] The only problem is with directions. Many maps lack the necessary signals or landmarks and since most roads lack signs, this leaves other drivers as a source of directions. One simply never knows if a driver looking for a fare will give you the right directions. I have gotten bad ones several times. During this trip I start walking through a park and an Indian who has hired a rickshaw for his family admired the comfort unlike the method employed by me, "the fool of a European." He had hired a driver for a three-quarter mile shaded park lane.

The Taj is more than the view. It is place thick with monkeys (which stole the water bottle from a guy with whom I was talking), parrots (who are mostly dumb), and dragon flies (which dodge and dart above the fountains). In addition, this tomb is not in isolation, but has museums within the gates and is surrounded by the old city.

In the evening I wandered throughout the town. The tourist area teemed with internet cafes, restaurants, and gift shops with wares from the whole of India. The local part of town had walkways scarely wide enough for me to pass another along with an open sewer drain. I tried to buy curd, but the dairy seller wanted to sell it for a price 10x what I had seen elsewhere in town. When I rejected his price and walked away, a few teenagers started walking with me. They escorted a bit through town, but were as incredulous as the auto drivers when I didn't know the name of my hotel.

My wanderings took me another hour through town in order to find my hotel home. I did find some excellent milk: one ladle of cream plus three of milk, all hot, mixed with sugar into a small terra cotta pot. Just like "Guys and Dolls", this is an excellent way to get kids to drink their milk.

At the Taj I decided to live it up backpacker style and grabbed a cheap room next to the Western gate; I still don't know the name of the hotel. This provided for a great view from the rooftop cafe of the Taj. The next morning I had breakfast with one Eric Levi, a Portlander from my neighborhood of Sellwood traveling through India. The red star on his chest reminded of one person and his demeaner of another, Joe Stalin and Eric Joseph Stofferahn [Stalin] respectively. Eric Levi's birght red star suggested his following of communism, although I believe him socialist from our conversation. In addition, he recognized that the Safeway on SE Powell and 39th in Portland has a nice big picture of Joseph Stalin in the window. Eric Levi's relaxed personality, and his detailed recollection of animal fueled insanity in Varanasi reminded me of the animal shelter Stofferahn's mother ran.

I enjoyed Agra, in addition to all of this, I was back in the land of 24 hour internet.

Bodh Gaya & Delhi - India 22

Bodh Gaya is a little village surviving entirely on tourist trade.
Delhi is a giant city currently under terrorist alert from the American government.

Despite their differences, they can share a post.

The river alongside Bodh Gaya is a beautiful sandy river. I expect an adventure travel group to offer return trips back to the Gaya railway station based on canoeing/kayaking/floating down river.
Delhi is dirty, and when it rains, Delhi is muddy. In Delhi the streets are paved, but several of the bazaars and neighborhoods cover the roads with a nice thick layer of dirt.

Bodh Gaya has a UNESCO World Heritage site a giant buddhist temple, many stupas, and a descendent of the original bodhi tree, under which Buddha gained enlightenment. The only search at the gate is where they ask you to remove your shoes and pay camera fees.
Delhi has a fresh clean metro railway where you are scanned, frisked, and your bags are thoroughly searched. This is even standard when there isn't a terrorist alert.

There are probably 8 or 10 Buddhist temples in Bodh Gaya, each with a different flavor of decoration. The Japanese Temple was as Spartan as their traditional homes and had little more than a statue of a Buddha. The Red China and White China temples both followed the same tradition: overwhelm in numbers. The Red China temple had dragon after dragon along with 3 buddhas and beautiful murals. The White China temple had 100's of 4-inch high buddhas lining the walls (add one for just 100Rs!) along with the 3 buddhas. Incidentally, the Japanese also donated an 80ft tall statue, which appears to be falling on the viewer.

I have yet to find a way to contrast Delhi. Suggestions are welcome.

Delhi did have an amazing number of kites for sale. As I walked through Chondni Chowk there must have been 100 stalls selling various kites. With all the power lines, one would have to be at a park or in a river to fly them.

I head to Agra, in observance of possible terror.

Calcutta, West Bengal - India 21

I am proud of myself today. I feel really good at my canny traveler abilities and my fraternity boy abilities. I spent the afternoon saving $36 dollars on shipping, and the evening getting a 16 year old Christian boy drunk- Quite entertaining. Not only that, following a large meal, I pulled my rickshaw-wallah to the train station.

Shipping fiasco: in a foreign country, always start with the largest post office in the city. I happened to be walking and arrived at a large post office. This may have neen a regional post office for the city, and it was used by businessmen. Notably, the PO was not the central post office in the international business district.

English was a problem. Two people in the office spoke English: the central overseer and one young guy, not involved with shipping. They didn't get the concept of book post, which India has, but they were willing to help me ship the books rather than send them air-mail. Even with filling out customs forms in triplicate, this seemed good enough for me.

I got the books wrapped in white cloth by a tailor across the street, and came back to post the item. Unfortunately, they also weren't able to help me ship something as a traveler, lacking an address in India. At this point, I realized I was talking to the wrong people.

One trip to the central post office later, I found that my 10kg of books had to be split into two 5kg packages, which then qualified for "Foreign Registered Book Post". For the address on my books, they suggested to use the post office's information and then list my hotel. There were no forms, and there was no hassle.
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While I was waiting for the books to be repackaged, this boy, Tom, came calling. We talked about what there was to see in the city, and he suggested a few places. I asked him if he were free to show me around, and he created an elaborate itinerary. Unfortunately, we only had time for 2 places:

A conglomerate park he had never been in was the first place. For 10Rs, I bought us both admission and he got to marvel at the kids of dates, and the families maybe even kissing! We also went on bumper cars, which he had never seen or tried before. The three connected parks had a good view of the riverfront, and Tom's reaction, fix my appearance so that we could pickup women, amused me, especially because the 16year-old wasn't interested in girls. As we left the park he suggested a whorehouse for our itinerary.

The second place was a bar, which Tom said was cheap and didn't charge the government required taxes. Tom had been there once before for a friend's birthday. The bar served boiled chickpeas and julienned ginger to go with the malt liquor (no beer available). I shared a 600ml bottle with Tom, and ordered a second on his intimation. After the 2nd bottle came, he said he wouldn't have any more and shortly thereafter he started to act drunk. When I was halfway finished with the second bottle and was ready to leave, he finished the bottle, just to make sure we weren't wasting good "beer".

As soon as we left the bar, he started going on about how his father would beat him and how he needed to start smoking. Score - Western Capitalist Corruption:1 Indian Puritanism:0
----
I ate dinner at a recommended restaurant, in which 26/30 patrons were Westerners. Nonetheless, the food was good, seemingly clean (they offered salad!), and not too expensive. After a college dining-hall buffet sized dinner, I grabbed my bags and left for the rail station.

Within seconds a rickshaw driver accosted me and told me to name my price. I told him 40Rs, nearly twice what the price should be, but then added the proviso: I pull. He laughed and said no. Half a block later, I was pulling the rickshaw, my luggage and Modul, the rickshaw-wallah. For the first 200m, at every obstacle he suggested that he pull.

I insisted that I pull and ran weaving through the market pulling the rickshaw driver. People pointed, laughed, shouted encouragement, and most importantly got out of my way. Stationary carts didn't do as well and I got stuck and had to back up 3times. Nonetheless, winding my way through the city, running and pulling a cart wasn't too hard work, but I think a bike-rickshaw would have been easier.

After I covered 2/3rds of the distance, I had dinner again, at which point I allowed the driver to pull me. This was good because we entered into some rather jammed truck/bus/animal traffic I don't think I would have navigated without jamming the wheels against something. At the station I gave my driver 100Rs (obviously making his day), got his name and told him he made my day. If I go back to Calcutta, I will have to take up rickshaw-wallah pulling for exercise.

Farewell Parties - India 20

Two of my good friends have left this weekend. In their honor, we setup a rather elaborate party. This was rather funny, because the price of having a party catered would be relatively inexpensive, but we wanted to hold this in a the privacy of the dorm common areas.

For Phillip the German, we attempted a complex menu for a large turn out. Cooking together is one of my favorite things to do. In the dorms, the challenge was finding enough pots and plates. Our dinner came together with: Sausages, cooked carrot cabbage bell pepper salad, pasta, potatoes, beer, Caipiroshka's (vodka Caipirinha), and juice.

We had music, the wicker furniture of 3 veranda areas, more music, and partying until 3am. The curious thing was that the party followed conservative cultural lines, almost complete separation of the sexes. I felt like I was at a middle school dance.

Two days later, Amu had a smaller get-together. After the sumptuous endeavor of the previous party, we had leftovers in a single pot: carrots, potatoes, and onions with a bit of cheese and juice. A tidy meal for someone leaving with so much; Amu shipped a bed-sized box home.

Teaching English Abroad - India 19

It seems like a good way to travel, meet the locals, and throw something on the resume would be teach English in a foreign country. In addition, if one were teaching in a city, one could make and create contacts with influential economic types. My brother did something like this in Vietnam.

I met 4 teachers in the KFC the other day. I may have already mentioned that this is where everyone goes to meet Westerners. All of the 4 teachers were girls from the British Isles and were on their tail end of teaching in southern Andhra. They had gotten quite used to the subcontinent and looked more native than JP, our Frenchman-gone-local at ICRISAT.

When I was in Kerala I encountered 3 more teachers newly from England enjoying a day at the beach. I had heard rumors of British girls showing too much skin, and while I understand that they were on the way to the beach, sphaghetti straps and short shorts were out of the question in that part of India. It is nice to be comfortable ignoring the local cultural standards in order to follow ones own. I don't think this helps one teach though.

One of my friends recently came back from teaching in Japan. Another friend,  JP, went to visit an acquaintance working in Japan. If nothing else, this seems to be one of the harder places to teach English. While Japanese give wide respect, the pay is low and the cultural differences are great. I would love to spend an extended time there, but I think teaching English may be the wrong track. Perhaps teaching in a more urban environment would work best.

I hear the situation for teachers is similar in much of Africa.

Kerala - India 18

Calicut was my first stop in Kerala. The city was much like any city, except it had a beach area for people in the evening. I ate some fish, parboiled rice, and a red banana almost as big as my head and took a stroll around town.

On a hill near an observatory I found an allyway with a drainage ditch running down it. It was picturesque and lightly dusted with brilliant green most. On the wall of this alleyway was one of the smallest advertisements I had seen: a bumper sticker size metal placard reading "Sign World ->". This seems like a well thought-out method of advertising for their business.

Around the corner from the hole-in-the-wall sign shop I found a canal running between light industry and poor housing. I followed the canal past 3 football (soccer) games, at each I was invited to play, several thatch huts, each for a family although about the size of a bedroom, and a series of lumber mills, each with a small logjam of waiting material slowly collescing in the canal.

Kerala, a former Portuguese colony, is a soccer state. While cricket is still popular, the main sport is football. Even little kids stay up late with their parents to watch the World Cup. Like most of India, parts are also very poor: maybe one of three footballs was an adidas style black and white hexagon ball. The others were a white volleyball styled Gaelic football and a brown ball harkening back from before 1970.

I continued leisurely down the canal, intending to reach the ocean, until I came across a group of puppies lying on the bank. As I came near, they all went trotting off. A few steps past their resting place, the path was fringed with tall grass. Just as I came to the fringe a copper colored snake as thick as my fist slithered off. At this point I decided to backtrack and take a log and plank footbridge (one log wide) across the canal to the road.

Cochin is a tourist town. While the traditional island still has fishing industry, the main focus of the area seems to be the tourist trade. Consequently, fruit and everything else one can negotiate for are quite expensive. I stopped by the Jewish cemetary, the old, still in use, Synagogue, and a nice cathedral. Outside each, particularly in Jewtown, were shops with all sorts of products from other parts of India for sale. One shop sold Jewish religious items, and had the temerity to price them higher than in the U.S. Even if I had bargained, the quality wasn't worth the price.

In Cochin and its sister city, Ernakulum, there are a fair number of luxury/middle class hotels for $20-80. I stopped in a couple to see if they could recommend an ayurvedic massage. Again, I ran into the problem of being in a tourist town. The sticker shock of American prices, even from possible medical specialists was just too much. I relaxed with a Bollywood movie instead.

I relaxed into a 9pm showing, which, surprisingly, was full of kids. Apparently the 6pm showing runs against the normal eating time of families and is filled with teenagers. By 9pm parents can have everyone fed and bring the little ones to the theater. I had a lovely talk explaining my day to a young one who knew just enough English.

When I came back to my Rs70/night hotel I was locked out and the proprietor was asleep in a bednet on the couch. I had to bang on the wall for 10min to wake him up and let me in. I love übercheap hotels (In this one, my room was not entirely enclosed with walls but had wire mesh for the upper portion).

On the way to the trainstation I stopped at a cool bar. About every 4th or 5th shop here had fruit, an ice chest, and a juice machine. For Rs12-15 I could get a glass of fresh orange, pineapple, grape or other juice. These shops also sold snacks and candies. The rent must be cheap, because the competition was extremely numerous.

Goa 2 - India 17

In South Anjuna I lunched at the first restaurant on the south end of the beach, an open thatch covered 50 person beach shack named Curly's. Curly's piped in Goan trance music, cooked a wide variety of food and drinks, and generally catered to the European crowd at a dazzling 30 ft from surf.

During the season, this part of the beach is covered with European tourists, gange smoking hippies, and ill-mannered drugged up Israelis, decompressing from their military service. Consequently, the Israelis are not know for their polite manners.

A quick joke: An American, Russian, Chinese and Israeli are all talking. An Indian approaches and asks them "Excuse me, can you explain to me about democracy, communism and free markets?" The American says, "What's 'communism'?" The Russian says, "What's a 'free market'?" The Chinese says, "What's 'democracy'?" The Israeli says, "What's 'excuse me'?"

As I sat there, I watched 4 smaller dogs playing on the beach and two toddlers running around. One of them was watched over by a tie-dyed, bearded, Italian looking fellow, who turned out to be a Californian Jewish writer named Greg. Greg had married a West Bengalese lady 5 years ago and their daughter Dunya had grown up surrounded by party-going hippies.

After lunch, Greg invited me over to his house and we sat on his porch talking about India, America, and his Henry Miller (Re:Tropic of Cancer) inspired book. Greg, although regretfully lacking toiled paper, was quite content with his spacious yard and house. Interestingly, while the family had two scootters, there was no car access to his house, the front entry was pinched between the stone retaining walls of two other houses. In addition, Greg had 9,000L of tanks and a pump hooked into the water line to capture supply during the few hours of service on alternating days.

Greg had internet access through two different networks, each over a cell phone connected to his computer. Because of network outages, he and his wife have different service plans, so one of them can always get through.

That evening I dined in Calangute at that Mecca of convenience, the 24 hour restaurant. While burgers and fries were offered, more importantly this place also served the full variety, and then some, of Indian food. I had a Mexican Dosa, an Indian, thin, egg pancake with Mexican topping, cheese and onions. In addition, the 24-hour joint was also a bar, had an Indian playing electric guitar with a beat-box for entertainment (I was dedicated California Dreamin'), and was waited on by Indians from the opposite side of the country.

A bit south of there off the beach lies a rotting hulk of a ship, the River Princess. While significantly larger than the African Queen, this ship is mired even more heavily, as it ran aground on a sand bar just where the waves start to break toward the beach. What so big a ship was doing so close to a beach, I will never know. However, now this death trap creates strange undertows and swirling eddies, which have killed several swimmers. The reason the ship hasn't moved is the shipping company and the government are fighting over who is to blame and should move the ship. Considering the hazardous nature of the boat, I am amazed the government hasn't moved it and liquidated the assets of all those involved with the company in order to pay.

Incidentally, the off season in this beach paradise meant that I was exposed to about 20 min of rain during the day. While Greg had told me they had earlier had 3 days of continuous rain, 20 minutes is a small price to pay for a lovely beach all to oneself. Between the cost of living and the beauty of the place, I am not surprised that Greg raises his daughter and works as a writer in Goa.

Goa - India 16

I rather enjoyed my late July vacation to Goa and Kerala. The itinerary was rather vague: Fly into Goa airport Tuesday and catch a return train on Monday, from 1000km south in Cochin, Kerala. This itinerary was acceptable, but would have benefited from a bit more intermediate organization.

The Goan airport, a two baggage train operation, would have been comfortable in rural Virginia. The minor exceptions were armed military standing on the side of the runway, the oversized military airplane hangers, and what appeared to be fighter jets and C-130s with their noses covered in cotton cloth. Might this be the Indian equivalent to car solar shades, keeping the cockpit shaded and cool?

A prepayed taxi, costing $11 for 15 miles brought me to the old city of Panjim. This tourist stop brought me in contact with non-researcher Westerners for the first time in days. I had gotten into the habit in Hyderabad of waving to Westerners, as I so rarely saw any. Now, every 20th person being a tourist made me rethink my modus operandi.

Fontainhas is tiny. About three or four city blocks cover the whole area. Here every 4th shop sells knickknacks. Presiding over the town at the top of a hill is a whitewashed church. All the trimming is in blue. The outdoor stairs approaching are nice and even included a single chillum/marijuana vender/beggar.

After wandering a bit about town, I found a tiffins (snacks) restaurant that had reasonable prices. While enjoying my freshly juiced pomegranates another traveler came in. I motioned for this Asian girl to join my table, and was surprised to find the Korean girl could barely speak English. In fact, her travelers English was about equivalent to my Spanish- able to ask for the toilet, a room, and a meal but explaining complex ideas was quite difficult.

After 30 minutes of talking over a jelly sandwich, we determined she came on a aid mission similar to Habitat for Humanity and was now taking 2 weeks to see a bit of India. I thought it rather bully of her to both help and travel in a nation where she could barely communicate. I was also thankful for her perspective, because my lack of Hindi didn't place me that far off from her.

---quick interlude---
Unfortunately, work continued to rear its ugly head with every time I checked my email. Nonetheless, when your boss is on vacation, you are on vacation, and a third person at another location is helping you organize a conference, work will rear its head. At this point we have about 10 people coming to join us in Hyderabad to talk about the local water situation. Everyone is from within our institute.
---end interlude---

Goa had two new options for getting around; in addition to the normal taxis, autos and buses were motorcycle taxis and scooter rental. Since I didn't know where I was going, I opted mainly for the buses, which were quite relaxing.

The buses are smaller than in Hyderabad or Delhi and have just 12 rows and usually one entrance/exit. As normal, the drivers of the bus were listening to local pop radio. Only in Goa, pop radio is a cross between dance club style house music, Goan style heavy trance techno, and then Bollywood style Indian (Konkani) lyrics.

I took a bus to the end of one beach area. As we passed through the 1km of town, I noticed that most of the stores were closed. I was hoping that my hotel, at the secluded end, would still be open. As I got off the bus and walked along a creek, looking for a bridge to this other area, I encountered an American and a German who were there for months. They shepherded me to a 4 room hotel that had better off season rates and was guarded by two large friendly dogs. Both of these oversized Cujo's escorted me to my room and wanted to come inside to play.

I took a short walk across a beautiful fisherman's rocky bluffs of ocean front to a secluded palm filled beach. After a relaxing stop I continued on to South Anjuna Beach.

Medical Fun - India 15

Medical care in India is rather nice. I believe I mentioned in another post about a friend whose sole purpose in India was cheaper treatment. The standards here are also rather high with the costs about 1/3-1/20 of Western countries, due to the abundance of doctors and cheaper standard of living.

Because of this, I decided to look into eye surgery. Most of you remember I wear glasses, and many of you have seen me with contacts, but as a general rule, I become allergic to my contact fluid over time, and I understand that poor optical hygiene has begun showing up in national health statistics. Consequently, I decided I was a good candidate for eye surgery.

I talked with several people. A man on a bus worked at a national chain of hospitals, which had state of the art equipment for eye surgery. I talked with the campus doctor who recommended the practice of an accomplished surgeon who had years of experience with eye surgery. I consulted a nursing student in Kentuckiana (thanks Angie), and of course I looked at the internet.

I found this out in order. $40 of testing will perform every measurement possible on your eye, give you a blood test for HIV and a few other diseases (I'm negative) and will prepare you for the newest eye-surgery available from Bausch and Lomb. $40 will not provide this surgery ($1,200 for both eyes -$1k-3k cheaper than US), nor will it indicate that 2004's surgeries show a ~5% rate of people requiring follow-up surgery over the next year for one eye. Nor will it tell you that skipping these 3 month and 1 year checkups would be bad idea for that decision.

Only slightly surprising to me in that these Indian doctors didn't fully brief all the risks. Of course, the cost of surgery 50k Rs., is about the amount of money I would need in order to live here for a year.

In other news, I do enjoy self-medicating, even with schedule H drugs, which supposedly "require a prescription." Even if I decided to abuse them, the sheer number of pharmacies (like doctors) ensures I can get my fix. It would certainly be nice to have a license in the US, which allows and taxes recreational drug use but prohibits driving. In my Indian case, I have been medicating only for intestinal and ear trouble according to FDA specifications.

I pose the question, what motivates someone to become a pharmacist? It seems to me to have less glamour than either accountant or lawyer, which are usually not very glamorous jobs.

Milk and More - India 14

I have complained several times about the US being more advanced than India; however, I admit that Indians do a good job with their milk. Cows, while sacred and not officially eaten in any state are nonetheless raised for milk or even used like oxen as beasts of burden. I have tried a variety of milk from the supermarket and at frash stands. Typically in the city I can get a refreshing draught of coconut or almond milk, and a few juice stands sell cow's milk. I have yet to see goat's milk. However, here in my room I have three kinds of homogenized milk: skim milk, only sold here by Nestlé, low fat, at 1.5% fat, and normal milk, at a whopping 4.5% fat. Thats a full 1.25% extra fat above the states' good ole' Vitamin D Milk.

I started reading my travel guide for information on Goa and Kerala and found myself laughing. Several the articles and tips were almost pulled direct from Molvanîa or Phaic Tan. Kind of makes it hard to take seriously when the writing is so easily parodied that one could write the commentary without even experiencing the culture. Especially when the by-line for the publisher is "For the Undiscerning Traveler".

Not In Bombay, Hyderabad on Alert

Let me start off with this. I was not in Bombay (Mumbai) during the attacks and spent all day on campus yesterday. Today I will be staying on campus, because I expect the government buildings will be more challenging than normal to get in. Traffic will also be slow. I will wait an extra day to avoid security issues.

I am sure it is quite awful for those still in Bombay. Even if the commuter trains just crashed there would be a huge delay. The mumbai transportation system is a mess, and the public transit is one of the main lifelines for the area. Unlike Hong Kong, there aren't enough water taxis to relieve transit pressure.

More Tourist Stuff - India 13

Another greeting commonly used in India is "Where are you from?", "Of what country?" or my personal favorite "Of Where?". These were all heard one Saturday in late June, when Amu, my South African friend, and I decided to wander around Patancheru, the nearest town to ICRISAT.

As many of us know, this often involves seeing parts of a country we wouldn't otherwise notice. In this case we ran across both the standard greetings and the unusual offer of a free pomeranian dog. Apparently the Indian was not particularly happy with his pet. In addition, the slum area we walked through had several rubble or rubbish piles, which made fine homes for puppies and piglets.

As we left the slum for some fields we passed a dining table sized enclosed Hindu shrine, pack of school children (on Saturday!), several of which were dwarfed by the messenger bag backpacks they carried. These totes are typical school bags for tiny tots to teenagers. We also wandered behind some welding and paint industries, which had turned a pond behind them blue.

One of the workers came out and asked me (ignoring the dark skinned Amu) where I was from. He also indicated that 7 km south was a nice place to walk, a resort. Neither Amu nor I were sure we heard him correctly and thought he might have meant our research center. We quickly circled the industries and came out on the highway.

After walking along the highway, we noticed a sign for Lahori Resort and realized that this was what the man had meant. So we turned down the road and decided to get an auto on this side road, rather than the main road. 15 minutes later we gave up, and decided even hitchiking into one of the many trucks passing by would be acceptible.

Surprisingly, a car stopped for us. However they knew no English, and we knew neither Telugu nor Hindi. So we hopped in and rode 6 km to the entrance gate of Lahori. Bowing in thanks, we started to walk down the entry road. After 15 minutes, we came to 5 thatch and tarp shanties stealing electricity. Another 10 minutes brought us to a rock quarry full of men covered in bathing suds jumping into the quarry lake. Finally, 10 minutes of walking later we made it to the real entrance gate to the resort. This was probably 12km from where a sign had advertised 7km.

The Resort was rather interesting: There was a lazy river, some water slides, two pools, a hotel, three restaurants and four unfinished buidlings. The grounds were littered with workers installing walkways, turf, arches and walls. While the hotel, one pool, and water slides were open, going from one to another was quite hazardous as one needed to dodge construction equipment, open pits, and exposed wires. Nonetheless the maître d' was happy to tell me that they had rooms available, a lovely café and a Phillippino band for evening entertainment. While it didn't surprise me to have an unfinished resort open for business, as I have seen associated hotels do this to help recover costs/train employees, it did surprise me that this was suggested as a place to enjoy a nice stroll.

Nonetheless, we finally found the bigscreen TV people wanted for watching the worldcup. The café had a lovely LG 60-70inch on the wall. All we would have to do is hire a driver for the evening, as the 30 minute walk back to the main road was rather much. [As I edit this post 1 month later we have yet to go back]