Sunday we went to an amusement park called Mount Opera about 40 km from our apartment. They weren’t joking about the “Mount” part, it’s seriously on the side of a big hill, lot’s of climbing. Claire experienced her first ferris-wheel ride, wave pool, and water slide. She didn’t want to stop doing anything. Every time we got off of a ride or out of the water, she kept saying, “more, more” or “again, again.”

For the most part it was a typical amusement park only there was no waiting in lines for rides (yeah!) and the entrance fee was around $5 per person. The “Oasis Island” (the water park) was probably the most interesting part for us. Talk about us not fitting in with the crowd, wow. All of the women wore “costumes” in the water which are loosely fitted long sleeved shirts and pants. Ashley and I of course had our regular swimming suits on, which compared to Western standards are quite modest (ie not bikinis), but in this particular crowd I’m sure they thought we were really letting it all hang out. There was one moment when Claire, Ashley and I (in our swimming suits) were walking towards Clay who was standing next to 3 Muslim women covered from head to toe in black burkas. That would have been a great photo.

One other thing about this experience that I would like to share is that they had a segregated wave pool, one side for women and one side for men. There was a rope down the middle to keep the two groups from mixing. Because the “boys” couldn’t follow the rules, they also had 2-3 “security officials” standing guard, up to their chests in the water, pushing the boys back when they started to encroach on the women’s territory.

Tuesday Claire and Ashley went to “Snow World.” We are trying to prepare Claire for going to Nebraska in DecemberJ just kidding. It’s just a fun place for kids to play here and experience what it would be like in a snowy climate. It’s a big room filled with snow and slides, when you enter they make you put on a big “snow coat” and “snow boots.” Pictures soon on the photo site ( www.clubphoto.com search with claytman@excite.com ).

Wednesday we finalized our trip to the Taj Mahal. At the end of October we are going straight from Delhi to Agra and back, bypassing Jaipur. We are taking our house helper with us, which will provide us with a lot of freedom not to have to stay in the hotel with Claire during naps and early bed time. It will also be a great experience for Bhaagya. She’s never been out of the state, let alone on an airplane. We are excited.

Check out Thursday’s blog (http://ehlersindia.blogspot.com) for Clay’s “Autorickshaw Experience of the Week.”

Friday I interviewed a candidate for a new Competitive Researcher position that we are creating. I wanted to share with you the objective on his resume:
OBJECTIVE: To galvanize from every sprouting opportunity, by enduring conspicuous commitment and being abreast with the volatile trends in the capricious business turf and to beckon my intricating job errands with utmost testament.
………In case you were curious, I am not hiring him.

Claire Stuff:
Tuesday morning Bhaagya was asking me if Clay was home, and I said, “No.” Then Claire said, “dada no, o mama” meaning dad’s not here, only mom.

Here’s a Claire “The Manipulator” Ehlers move: I think Claire is the only child in the entire city (maybe even the country) that has horrible parents who make her ride in a car seat. So she often requests to be removed from the seat while we are driving by saying, “out, out” or “up, up.” If those efforts don’t work, she breaks out the “Diapa popo” move. She has learned that when she poops her pants in her car seat that we get her out to change her diaper, so even when she hasn’t pooped she tells us she has so that she can get out. Being the great detectives that we are, we can quickly do a sniff check and find out if it’s the truth or not.

New Words:
Ittle= Little
Beeg= Big
Ikker= Sticker

Miss you all!

Sincerely,Julianna EhlersKenexa

Ok to get here early in the morning (coming at about 7 am 3 days a week) I do not have my driver (we use him from 9 am to 9pm) so I hop on an autoriksaw and come in on that. Usually a pretty good experience, some of my best memories have been on the auto (you can read about some of them on earlier in this blogg.)

Today I got taken-ripped off-and frustrated.

An auto pulls up and say he will take me. Tells me his meter is broken (bullshit). I ask how much and he says 120 (would be 54.4 on the meter). I get out and tell him 50, or run the meter. He says 80. I say 50. he says 80. I walk to another auto that has people in it (you can split them for about 5 rupees and go half way to the office). They were headed in the other direction. First guy says 60. I say fine and get in.

We drive about a quarter of the way to the office, and he pulls into the gas station to get petrol. He says he needs my 60, because he does not have any. I give it to him and start preparing myself for him to ask for more when we get to the office ---Nope, better than that.

We pull out of the gas station and go about 200 meters down the road and the auto stops, he starts fiddling with switches and pulling the start lever, gets out opens the hood (in the back) banging around on stuff. Comes back in and tries to start it again. More fiddling, more banging, more rambling to me in Telagoo. Takes out the sparkplug and starts rubbing it on his shirt.

I wait about 20 min, threaten the guy, ask for any money that he has (his English has gone from really bad to non-existent). Finally I get fed up and get in another auto, he runs the meter and it cost me about 40 more rupees.

100 rupees, 40 minutes, and a little adrenaline.

Not a bad trip.

It’s been a pretty slow week, but we were able to muster up a few thoughts/comments:

Sunday we found a produce market on wheels. For those of you who know Hyderabad, it was between Ameerpet and Yousufguda check post. It consists of several people walking down the street, each pushing a cart with 1-2 different types of fruit or vegetables. We bought okra, onions, potatoes, pomegranates (this was new for us), and bananas. The pomegranate is so cool, it's green/yellow on the outside, but you open it up and there are little transparent red corn shaped nuggets of fruity splendor inside. Yummy. Claire really liked it too.

Work has been really busy, lots of early mornings and late nights to get time with our US compadres. Clay actually drove to work on his own Thursday morning, for those of you who have experienced Hyderbadi traffic, you know that this is quite the accomplishment. He will be starting the Indian driver’s license application process next week. I have a feeling that as much as we complain about the service at the DMV in Nebraska, it will be on a whole different level here. I’m sure there will be lots of good stories to come on this subject.

Pitiful note about the Ehlers in India-
We order dinner from the apartment clubhouse almost every night. Partly because we are too tired to cook when we get home from work at 8:00/9:00 at night, and partly because we don’t know what to cook. There are no “dump it out of the can and eat” or “just add water” package options, so if you are going to cook, it is a commitment. The food from the clubhouse is great about 80% of the time. They have a “chicken club sandwich” that contains 1 fried egg with melted (or not melted, depending on the day) cheese, 3 (or 4, depending on the day) pieces of toasted (or not toasted, depending on the day) bread, and a slab of chicken salad sandwich spread. It’s quite the contraption. Our other favorites are Pizza Hut, Dominos, and Olive Garden (The Indian version, not the Italian version).

This weekend we are heading to another expatriate event at ICRISAT, picnic, soccer, swimming, etc. Should be fun, hopefully we’ll meet some new people. Sunday we are going to Mt. Opera which is a water park about 60 km outside of Hyderabad (weather permitting, of course).

We are still working on plans for a Taj Mahal visit at the end of October, it is turning out to be more difficult to book, more time consuming for the travel, and more expensive than I initially thought, but we are forging ahead. It’s that whole “once in a lifetime” experience that is motivating me at this point.

Claire Stuff:
-She learned "Ring around the pony, pocket full of..." but she falls down prematurely during the "Ashes, ashes" part.
-Anytime you get a camera out and point it at her she says, "Cheese."
-When we look at family pictures, every female (that isn’t mama) is “Ash” every male (that isn’t dada) is “Mark” (That’s right aunt Ashley and uncle Mark, you should be feeling pretty important right now)

New Claire Words:
Kik=Quick
Back=Piggy back ride
Brokey=Broken (she says this with a scrunched up face)
Cool

Quotes of the Week:
I keep forgetting to add this one to the weekly email, but every time I get on an airplane here I am reminded of it. As the flight attendant is finishing up final comments, s/he says, “We would like to fly you again.” That so cracks me up.

“The UPS failed because of heavy temperature” This is what is said every time we loose internet connection in the office (note that it is “heavy” not “high” temperature, also note that this happens a lot, both the occurrence and the statement). Side note-The power was out in our office for 4 hours today. Makes for a pretty productive work day.


Sincerely,Julianna Ehlers

Last weekend was really fun.

Friday night Ash and Clay went to the weekly expatriate get together and met some interesting individuals. People from every country have something in common when they are away from home. Then they went to Fusion 9 to listen to the jazz band.

Saturday the 4 of us and Bargya went to the Waterfront restaurant next to the Hussein Sagar lake (there are some new pictures on the photo website of this). It's really a neat little area. There's a boardwalk type spot where they have a food court and a play area for kids with a merry go round, and lots of mechanical animals including a giraffe train (Claire noticed that one first). We also went and saw the 40' Ganesh that will be thrown into the lake on the 17th (new photos of this as well.)

Saturday night Clay and I ventured out on our own, yes completely on our own. Clay drove the 2 of us down the street to a place called Galazy/Elixir for a drink. We didn't go too far, but it was nice to get out without the driver. We think our driver is great, but coming from a life where we were completely independant, it gets a bit old waiting on people. All went well, and Clay felt like the king of the mountain, a mountain where people drive on the left side of the road.

Sunday we went to another dhaba called Dhola-Ri-Dhani, it is a little village for kids (also pictures of this adventure on the website). There is lots of fun stuff to do. We road a camel, ate on the floor, road on a train, played on play ground equipment, watched a magic show and much more. I do have to say that the camel ride was much bumpier than I was prepared for. Claire loved looking at the camel, but wasn't too excited about the ride.
The lunch was really interesting; I think the food was kind of iffy. Clay dug right in and Ash and I were a little more reserved. They did have a great dessert; I think each of us had 4-5 of them.
The magic show was amazing, he did all the normal stuff and I have no idea how. He was really good. The one thing that really threw us off was that he asked us each to think of a flower, so we did. Clay chose lotus and Ash and I chose rose. Then he asked us to rub our wrists together like we were rubbing perfume on and then smell our hands. They actually smelled like the flowers we chose! We have no idea how, the 3 of us were flabbergasted. He didn't touch any of us so we have no idea how this happened. If any of you know this trick, we would be interested in hearing about it.

Monday Ash got some great photos of Claire on her “bike” in the courtyard, be sure to check them out, they are hilarious. Note all of the facial expressions.

Best Email of the Week:
Sent Tuesday from the Director of Operations for Kenexa in India:
“We have opened the new facility in Aditya Trade Center on 12th September 2005. Initially Tarun and Harish with their respective teams have moved in to the new facility yesterday and the operation team heartily welcomes the teams. We could provide basic facilities only at ATC facility as on today and I wish that We could provide you everything that is desirable for the comfortable working of the people. I apologize to one and all at the ATC facility as we could not provide the 100% facility and putting in our best to soothe out the change over. I request one and all to help us provide you our best services.”

Note that he sent this email from our current office to people in the new office who can’t access their email.

Claire’s new words:
Mysis=Medicine
Ky=Sky
Weelow=Window
Dillo=Armadillo
Gilla=Gorilla
Raybow=Rainbow
Tar=Star
Heart
Tirt=Shirt
Pants

On Tuesday Claire told me, “arm cold” so we got a sweater. She is the grand communicator in our house.

Claire has been very excited about picking out clothes and wearing them. On Wednesday I asked Claire what she wanted to wear, she said “dress” so I pulled out one, she said, “no”, I pulled out another, she said, “no”, and she was pointing to another. I said, “Do you want this one?” she said “yes.” She’s quite the fashion queen. She was also quite adamant about the shoes I was to wear that day.

Side note-Those of you who haven’t already seen it, check out Clay’s blog about the auto rickshaw “high speed” chase he was in. You have to scroll down a bit the date was Thursday August 25th.


Sincerely,Julianna Ehlers

Don't forget to stop my and look at the lates photos.
Go to www.clubphoto.com and search with my personal email address claytman@excite.com .
We have pics of our trip the go carting, a couple of poojas, a few camel rides, a miniture train, a trip to Charminar, and of course a bunch of pics of Claire.

This was a pretty uneventful week. We had some interesting misunderstandings last weekend. It’s kind of a long story and I didn’t want to make you all read it in this email, so I posted it to the blog if you want more details… http://ehlersindia.blogspot.com/

Wednesday was Ganesh Chathurti day here. We posted more details about it on the blog, again, kind of a long story. So those of you really interested, head to the blog. We had a pooja in the office to celebrate from 3:00-4:00pm, at least that is when it was supposed to be. We hung around until 4:30, then left because they were still setting up and Claire needed a nap. They also had a pooja in the parking lot of our apartment. The whole town is lit up right now with big (I mean really big) Ganesh’s all over the place, it’s pretty cool to see at night. This festival lasts 9 days (I’ve heard different people tell me 9, 10, and 11 days), then on the last day everyone takes their Ganesh’s and throws them in the lake. They are made of clay so they dissolve in the water.

Thursday I went back to Chennai for a sales meeting. Quick trip, in and out in one day. I forgot how nice it is to travel by plane without luggage, haven’t done that in a while. Chennai was the same as I left it 1 month ago, hot and humid.

Clay, Ash and I are trying to make some plans for some trips in the next couple of months. We are thinking the Taj Mahal and Goa. We’ll keep you posted. Hopefully we can make some decisions this weekend.

Claire Stuff:
Funny stories:
-Claire calls yogurt “icone” (I think I mentioned that in a previous email) so Bargya was unloading groceries the other day and put all of her yogurts in the freezer thinking they were ice cream.
-The other day Claire was throwing a tantrum because Clay didn’t want her to move the water bottles. So she was standing in the middle of the room screaming, then all of the sudden the ceiling fan caught her attention and she stopped abruptly and said, “hi” to the fan and waved at it. She was fine after that.

Other stuff:
She’s been into play dough and coloring lately, but isn’t very good at telling us colors yet. So far everything is “blue.”

New Words:
Boff (Sloth)-She got a new animal book

Jules:
Saturday-
Ash and I woke up to a day of pampering. Padma came to the house for our weekly massage ($5 each, not bad). We decided to go to Bubbles (a local salon) to get pedicures and manicures, and maybe I would get my hair cut. We have been debating on whether or not to cut Claire's hair...here's how the experience went:
We pulled up to the building; it said Bubbles at the top. So Ash, Claire and I pile out of the car and head in. I thought things were a bit odd when there were only men stylists in the room, but oh well. So a guy walks up and says "Hi Claire" so I could tell that this is indeed the Bubbles my mom had visited with Claire when she was here. I said, "We are hear for pedicures, and manicures" and he said, "Hair cut." I thought, well ok, I did want a hair cut anyway, it didn't matter the order we did it in. So I said, "Yes" he automatically grabbed the booster seat for kids and put it on the chair. So I went with it thinking we were contemplating getting her hair cut, and this guy wants to do it, so ok. So we put Claire in the chair and he said, "Short or trim" I said, "trim." So I'm down at eye level with Claire entertaining her and I noticed that he had cut all of the length off the back. Once he cut the first chunk, there was no going back. Ash and I are looking at each other like, "didn't we say trim?" Any way, Claire sat there the whole time really well behaved. He finished and we paid our 80 rupees ($2). Then I said, "we would like our manicures and pedicures now", he said, "ladies side." At this point Ash and I looked at each other and said, "ahhh." That sure explained a lot. That's why when we said we wanted a hair cut, he automatically assumed it was Claire (remember I mentioned the gender recognition difference?) even though she had a pink jumper on, it was assumed that she was a boy. This also explains why when I said pedicure and manicure, he said, "hair cut." So there is a men’s and ladies section. Ahhh...no one told us that. Now we have a very pretty little boy.
The story continues...We go over to the ladies side and again ask for a pedicure and manicure. They say ok, and show us to 2 chairs next to each other. Another lady comes in and asks if we want coffee or tea, I say coffee, Ash says she doesn't want anything. They bring us both coffees. They bring out a tub for my feet to start the pedicure, a guy was doing this part, then the manicurist comes out. I'm thinking that they must not have the resources to do two of us at the same time. So I asked if they could do Ashley's hands while they do my feet, then we could switch. They say, "Together" I say, "yes" and they continue to only do mine. So i just assume they have a certain way they like to do things and they don't have more people to start on Ash. That wasn't the case, another lady walked in 20 minutes later and they started doing her nails. Interesting. Anyway, while we were there Claire managed to drool red lollipop all over her cloths, grab bubbles from my pedicure tub and rub them in her hair, then sit in my pedicure tub and get her whole outfit wet.
Anyway, 3 hours later we both got our manicures and pedicures. They were very well done and we only spent $10 each, all together. Nice! (As Claire would say)

Meanwhile at home Clay is battling with the plumber to come put our sink back together. They cam by 7 days earlier telling us there was a leak. They tear things apart and leave. So a week later Clay starts calling to see if we can get someone to come finish the job. They say 15 minutes. 1 hour later no one was there. So he calls back they say 15 minutes, Clay says, "No, now." They guys says, "Now?" So evidently he thought Clay kept calling for a plumber visit the next day...

jle

Here is and email that I got from the HR lady in the HYD office, Shuba Menon:

Myths & Beliefs of Ganesh Chaturthi
Why does Lord Ganesha have a half-broken tusk?
When he came up with the idea to Mahabharatha, Sage Ved Vyasa looked around for someone who would write down the words even as he recited them. He approached Lord Ganesha and asked him if he would do so. Lord Ganesha readily agreed.
Ved Vyasa said "I will narrate the story and you must take it down as fast as I say it and should not interrupt or stop anywhere in between" and Lord Ganesha too said that "I will do so and if you halt or hesitate, I will stop writing and your epic will never be written". Ved Vyasa agreed with his final condition "So I agree but you must also agree to fully comprehend the meaning of the poems as you write and not just blindly write them as I say".
The elephant headed God gave his consent and they started writing the epic Mahabharata. To write this Lord Ganesha broke a bit off his tusk and used it as a pen.
As they continued with the writing, Ved Vyasa found that Ganesha was very fast and he didn't even have any time to breathe in air! His face slowly turned blue and he wondered how will he go on without pausing to draw his breath also. Then he came up with the solution and narrated a difficult stanza. Ganesha, who was writing at a furious pace, stopped for a second to get the meaning of the stanza and Ved Vyasa thankfully used the split second gap to gulp deep lungful of air. But Ganesha carried on immediately and they went on. And so, whenever Ved Vyasa needed a break, he would tell a difficult phrase and used the time Ganesha took to comprehend the meaning. Thus the original Mahabharata contains many difficult stanzas placed at intervals throughout the length of the epic.


Why people don't look at the Moon on that day?
There is very popular legend regarding this context. Lord Ganesha was very fond of sweet pudding or Ladoos. On one of His birthdays, He was going around house to house accepting the offerings of sweet puddings.
Having eaten a good number of these, He set out moving on his mouse at night. Suddenly the mouse stumbled as it had seen a snake and became frightened with the result of that Lord Ganesha fell down.
His stomach burst open and all the sweet puddings came out. But Lord Ganesha stuffed them back into his stomach and, caught hold of the snake and tied it around his belly.
Seeing all this, the moon in the sky had a hearty laugh. This unseemly behaviour of the moon annoyed Lord Ganesha immensely and so he pulled out one of his tusks and hurled it against the moon, and cursed that no one should look at the moon on the Ganesh Chaturthi day. If anyone does, he will surely earn bad luck.

Beliefs
In India, Lord Ganesha is worshipped first on all auspicious occasions, whether it is a marriage or a religious function. Lord Ganesha is the foremost god of the Hindu Pantheon. Any new project or venture that a Hindu family undertakes starts with his name, the housewife utters his name before even starting a small chore as he is the remover of all obstacles and is an extremely benevolent god, fulfilling the wishes of those who pray to him sincerely.
Lord Ganesha also has long been associated with commerce, and merchants still pay homage to him. In households, it's common for small offerings of money, flowers and food to be placed before one of the family's effigies of Lord Ganesha . These tokens please him and he therefore brings more beauty, money and food to the family.
It is also a firm belief of every religious Hindu that he / she must pray to Lord Ganesha before undertaking any job. Once, Lord Siva set off in his chariot to wage war against a demon. Soon after He set off, one of the wheels broke. Then He realised that He had forgotten to pray to Lord Ganesha. So, He went back home, prayed to His own son, and successfully defeated the demon!

OK, today is the kick off of a big festival for Ganesh. I will update this with some more info on Genesh, but here are a few little pics and stuff that I have recived so far:

I have a much more positive email for you this week.

Friday night we went to a dhaba called Sony International. A dhaba is an open air restaurant/park/rest area on the highway with different sections for different activities, one for drinking only, one for families. We were, of course, in the family section. In this section they had a play ground with all sorts of play equipment, and live animals, ducks, turkeys, chickens, and rabbits. By the way, they had these live animals on the menu if you are interested.
Claire was a happy girl. Oh yeah, and she rode on a “mackel” (camel for those of you who don’t speak Claire). We didn’t have our camera, so we will make sure to go on another camel ride in the future to capture the moment. (Camel wasn’t on the menu)

Saturday we went to an outdoor go-kart racing facility. Ash and Clay had a great time. Ash is a real speed racer! They felt pretty good, because they beat 8 little 12 year olds on the track. I think she will choose to wear pants instead of a skirt next time. She went around the track, one hand on the wheel, one hand holding her skirt down and still beat the boys! Clay might have weighed about 4 times what the 12 year olds did, but he had them in experience! It was pretty hot, so we didn’t stay long. Claire had 2 dishes of “icone” (ice cream). Saturday night Ash and I went to see a band from South Africa with our friend Devesh.

Sunday we went to the Salar Jung Museum. This is a museum with a collection from one royal family over the years. It’s quite amazing. One day is not enough time to see everything. Sunday night Clay and Ash went to see a jazz band.

Monday night we went to the one Mexican restaurant in town, yummy.

Tuesday night we went to a co-workers house for his birthday party. He used to own a restaurant, so it was really yummy food, lots of good seafood. Claire did a funny thing while we were there. She wanted to leave because it was getting late, so she brought me my shoes and said, “on” then went to the door and said “home.” She’s becoming quite the communicator.
Claire is doing much MUCH better. Funny story, Tuesday morning I went in to get her after she woke up, she looked at me and said, “Popo, diapa, peeze” gesturing at her poopy diaper (Translates to: mom I have crap in my pants, please get me a new diaper). When I took the diaper off she said “Thank you.” Funny girl.

Wednesday wasn’t very eventful, but our maid asked for more laundry detergent. We buy laundry detergent at least once a week; we think she might be eating it. Just kidding, we are not sure where the tide is going, but our cloths are clean so we are happy.

Thursday we opened a new Kenexa office here in town. It’s in an area called Ameerpet. At 9:00am we had a pooja to bless the office. 9:00 am was the Mahurat (see new words below for explanation), it actually started around 9:20. It was quite interesting and we took a lot of pictures. Hopefully we’ll get some loaded to the site this weekend. I will give you a play by play, but I’m not sure what a lot of it meant. They started outside of the door with lighting candles on a big squash, then breaking it and putting one half on the left side of the door and one half on the right side. Then they put 2 incense sticks in each one and sprinkled some flowers and turmeric powder on them. Then we all went through the door and there was a little place set up on the floor for praying and some offerings. They offered a lot, fruits, flowers, coconuts, sweets, etc. There was one really funny part. The priest had a cell phone on his skirt and during the ceremony he was doing his Sanskrit chanting and all of the sudden his phone rang. Instead of ignoring it, he stopped and answered it. The whole ceremony stopped while he took his call, then he hung up and started chanting again. Remind me when I get home, I do a great rendition of this situation. After the ceremony was over they gave everyone sweets and fruit to eat.

New Claire words:
Icone=Doubles for both ice cream and yogurt
Mackel=Camel
Waziwhat?=What is this?
Dada wuk=Dad is at work

New words for us:
Mahurat- This is the auspicious time when you do something.
Auspicious- According to the moon and stars this is a “lucky” or “good” time

Thought as Husker Season approaches:
It’s funny how when you are at home an Iowa State student (or any other student from a big 12 school) can be a rival, but when you both are thousands of miles away from home he is your best bud.
When we first arrived in India, we met a student from Iowa State at an expatriate event and we felt an immediate connection since we are both from the US, then even more because we are from the Midwest. I’ve been reflecting on that more now that Clay and I prepare to watch our first Husker game over the internet at 4:30am this Sunday.
We recently learned that there is another apartment in our building that is owned by a guy from India that lives or has lived in Oklahoma. We have yet to see it, but hear that he has a coffee table where the base is a cowboy laying on his back with one knee up holding a piece of glass. I’m sure no matter how hideous the coffee table, we will feel a certain connection with him as well!