Goodbye India!

Today I learned that there's actually not a word in Hindi for "goodbye." I suppose this is appropriate for this post, however, because I'd prefer to actually say something along the lines of "until next time" when I leave here.

Although there have certainly been some ups and downs to this trip, on the whole I've had a great time and have really enjoyed being in India. Given the opportunity, I would definitely come back. With a country this large and this diverse, I feel like I've only scratched the surface!

I couldn't have asked for a more fun group of people to work with while I was here. Googlers who are reading - if you ever have a chance to work more closely with this team, I highly recommend it! Today we gathered for a team picture, and they even got me a cake (pics below).

Since I leave the country tonight (at 1:00 AM - yikes jet lag!), this will be my last post. If you're interested in seeing more photos, I shall hopefully be uploading a full album to Facebook shortly upon returning home. Thanks for reading!

Food!

With a lack of any new and exciting updates at this point, I'll turn instead to a topic which I know will be of interest to many of my friends and family - food!

As you might imagine, the food here in India is quite different from the food we're accustomed to in the States. I'll try to break it down meal by meal.

Breakfast
To me, the strange thing about breakfast here is how similar it is to lunch. I'm sure to a more discerning eye to dishes served at each meal are quite different, but to me they're rather similar. Breakfast at the office consists of assorted bread-like products with sauces/gravies for dipping. The sauces are, of course, at least mildly spicy. I haven't really encountered anything sweet for breakfast - pretty much everything is savory. Here's a picture of my breakfast today:



Lunch
Lunch at the office consists of a variety of Indian dishes. Again, there are many of the sauce-like things (called curries apparently - not to be confused with the curry spice from back home, which is totally unheard of here) and carb-like products to eat them with (naan, rice, etc). I've really come to like naan, and might have to seek out one of the Indian restaurants at home just to have some more of it! Desserts here are also quite good. Most of them consist of some sort of carb soaked in sugar syrup. They're all incredibly sweet, and I think a lot of Americans would find them overly sweet. Luckily I have a huge sweet tooth, and have liked them all quite a bit. Some of my favorites are gulab jamun, double ka meetha, and badshah (note - these names may be wrong...I'll need to verify tomorrow with coworkers!). Here's a picture of lunch:



Chaat
Every afternoon in the office they have chaat, which is essentially a snack in the style of Indian street food. It's all quite tasty, although to be honest I'm not sure what most of it is. The one thing I did learn the name of is panipuri, which is a little fried cup filled with a mixture of water, spices, chickpeas, etc. Here's a picture of some chaat I had last week (including panipuri on the right):




Dinner
During the week, I mostly eat dinner at the guest house, where the chef prepares a variety of different cuisines. We've had Italian, Mexican, "Continental," etc - all good, but all with a bit of an Indian flair. When I've been traveling and eating out, I've mostly had Indian food. Paneer and biryani (a Hyderabad specialty) have become staples for me when I eat out.

Other Food-Related Tidbits
- Although not at the office, and often not at restaurants, people eat with their hands. I was surprised to witness this on our Kerala trip, but my co-workers informed me that it's actually quite common. People say the food tastes better when you eat it with your hands, as it allows you to really mix in the flavors (for instance when you're eating rice with a curry).

- As such, people wash their hands regularly after eating. We went out to lunch today, and after the meal they brought each of us a little bowl with warm water with which to wash our fingers and a piece of lime to cut the grease.

- Another thing they bring you after a meal is mouth refresher. This is usually brought along with the bill, similarly to how a waiter in the States might bring you mints. It's usually a mixture of sugar crystals and fennel. Here's an example:



Although I've gotten used to Indian food, and even come to enjoy a fair amount of it, I am looking forward to getting back to the food I'm used to at home!

The Beginning of the End (of my time in India)

My time in India is quickly coming to a close. I leave VERY early in the morning on Thursday, so I essentially only have three more days here.

In my waning days in India, I planned to be a tourist in my own (adopted) town. On Thursday night, I joined a big group of expats and went to a local pup frequented by expats and local Google and Facebook employees. The pub is called 10 Downing, and on Thursday nights they have karaoke. It was actually quite fun, and even more so than in bars in the States, everyone joins in the karaoke singing. The pub itself was quite similar to bars back home, and inside you really couldn't tell that you were in India. The one amusing thing is that whenever they played a song that was conducive to it, everyone started doing the Hustle in whatever small space they could find in the crowded bar.

On Friday after work, two of my co-workers took me to see one of the tourist attractions in Hyderabad - a giant Buddha in the middle of a lake. Most of you are probably imagining the Buddha like I was - sitting cross legged, big belly, etc. In fact, this Buddha was standing tall and was quite slim. Apparently the aforementioned Buddha is the "laughing Buddha," and belongs more to the Chinese. This Buddha was actually the Gautama Buddha, who is considered to be the founder of Buddhism. The statue itself is a monolith carved from white granite, and is apparently the largest single-stone carving of Buddha in the world. To get to the Buddha you have to take a boat, and I was vaguely reminded of visiting the Statue of Liberty (except it was a shorter boat ride, a smaller statue and there were no tacky souvenirs). Here's a picture:


From there we went out to dinner at this really neat restaurant called Tansen. It felt very classy, and the decor was really neat:


On Saturday, one of my teammates and I were planning on going to Golkanda Fort, another famous Hyderabad landmark. She met me at my apartment, and no sooner had we gotten in the car when we learned about some disturbances on the other side of town, near the fort. I'm not entirely clear on the details (you can try to decipher them here if you're interested), but from what I understand a legislator was stabbed several times, and when his supporters came to defend him, several shots were fired. The part of town where this happened is heavily Muslim, and apparently there are periodically conflicts there between the Muslims and the Hindus. Because of the turmoil, shops in the area were forced to close and people were advised not to venture there. As such, we changed our plans and went to the mall instead.

Unfortunately the unrest also disrupted our plans for today, which originally included checking out more of the Old City. Instead, I ended up treating myself to brunch and some time by the pool at Novatel, a fancy hotel in the city. It was a relaxing afternoon, although the heat and sun were pretty intense. The temperature this afternoon was around 95 degrees, and the sun was exceedingly strong. As such, I sat by the pool for about an hour then called it quits since the heat was making me lightheaded.