Saturday 12/09/09 Shopping!

I woke up to a warm sunny morning and prepared for breakfast. Breakfast now consists of a regular helping of 2 slices of brown toast with butter cheese slices then 2 fried eggs with Indian spices on them, all washed down with a few glasses of bottled orange juice. Then a coffee before the drive to the centre. The drive was its normal eventful self and I think the people have got used to me wishing them a good morning and waving whenever we slow down for corners. On one roundabout is a shack where all the locals and police have coffee, these are now referred to as "the morning coffee club", whenever we pass they now wave and smile back, Anglo-Indian relations still improving. After a few cows and the normal horn blowing we arrived at the centre. I have decided that 8 exams and one course are just simply not enough... So I booked 2 separate exams for Monday, this will be for a Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician. This is normally a 7-9 day course but as Id just come off the back of a more complex MP exam and I have a good deal of experience in XP I thought id give these 2 exams a go. I'm one book and some prep away from my next MCSE exam so this is going to be a tight few days (hence the late blogs). Study went well, one thing I have noticed is that I'm drinking an inordinate amount of coffee mind you the cups are espresso size, but in the UK I only normally have coffee after dinner. I'm going to come back with a huge coffee habit!!!!! But it helps keep u sharp and awake during not so exciting sections of printer drivers and printer spooling!!!

At about 10:30 (more coffee) I went for a walk outside to get fresh air and see "Coco".

Coco is a puppy. He and his dad have adopted the training centre. I know India has Rabies, Monkeys and Mad (sacred) Cows, but it also has Coco.

Coco... aweee how can you not think hes cute!
Cocos Mum and Dad went there separate ways, or Mum found her way in to a curry... Cocos Dad tends to drop him off at the Centre and go away for a bit of peace and quiet, Coco is playful and when Daddy is there is allover him play fighting. Coco especially likes milk and Samosas and its the centre of attention whenever possible.

Ok just one more picture.... He promises he doesn't have rabies.. But still I don't want fleas!

I left the centre at 5pm and Andy myself and Jason decided to go up the hill to look for shops and get out for a bit.


A view down the hill of the shops....

I was after an umbrella as when it rains boy does it rain. As we were walking along the row of shops a few seemed to sell brollys, I found a shop that had a good selection and engaged the vendor, he was immediately helpful and before I knew it I was surrounded with hundreds of open Umbrellas, it must have looked like the umbrella scene from Madame Butterfly. After I had managed to get him to put them away again I decided on a classic black self opening umbrella with a a curved handle and a silver lining, very dapper and quite appropriate for an English man in India. This was much to the amusement of my American friend Jason who insisted that we look for a bowler hat to match. The cost 0f this fine purchase was 190Rs (£1.80). We then set of in search of snacks, chocolate and crisps in particular. After a short walk from my Umbrella vendor we found a shop with a small opening but it had crisps outside so we ventured in. WELL, this was a real gold mine, a cornucopia of goods in one little stall. It also had a cold box with Mars bars Cadburys chocolate, including fruit and nut... I piled his counter high with biscuits, chocolate, crisps, fizzy drinks, and more chocolate. I asked for air freshener he then offered me about 5 different types of shampoo, I then had to explain and mime what "Air freshener was and after I had been offered insect spray, deodorant and insect repellent he got the message. "Electric or non electric?", "erm, electric please". A glade 60 day plugin!!!!!!! would you believe it? then I asked for candles (the room suffers from a little damp and I want to mask the smell), scented candles it was. I kid you not this shop has it all from snickers to Indian cookware and clothing this is the place to be! Happily he packed all the shopping away and totaled the cost, it was about 580Rs (£6 and worth every penny), I sad to keep the change but he was quite adamant and made me take it from him... After a few more visits to shops and looking around the taylors we headed back....

On the way we were scouted buy a monkey and expected a raiding party to follow and try to relieve us of our treasures, I pushed him away with my trusty Umbrella and he decided to go elsewhere.. These monkeys are fast critters and after seeing one disappear the other day with a jar of olives (obviously having a martini evening with the other primates), you have to keep an eye on them.

The opportunist thief? or scouting party?



A fine selection of goods!

Sat, Sun, Monday

Ok been a bit busy.... Promise I will fill these days in soon, Lots of info and pics to come...

Steve

Friday 11/09/09 less rain...

Woke up at the normal time carried out abolusions and went to breakfast. Driver came early as usual and we set off. I took my camera in the hopes of seeing some road cows.....



The two worried looking guys at the side of the road have good reason to be nervious, the cows will not move for man nor over-laiden lorry. This is the main and busy road from Dehradun and trafic would rather swerve and hit them than bump into a cow!

We arrived at our training centre and the was spent wading through Active Directory domain, objects, NTFS, group policy and permissions, excersises and labs done book nearly finished. I will be ready for my next exam after the next book so Im looking at Tues/Weds for my next visit to the gas chamber.
Not a lot to cover today as there has been lots of extra study and I want to get these modules finsihed ontime as they are quite large.

On the way home the driver took us a scenic way home and showed another side to the comparitively rich Dehradun area.



The poorer areas of Dehradun hidden away in a valley away form the main drag. This area mostly holds the Tibbetten monks. There are a few asian looking people around and they stem from migrents from Tibett. They tend not to mix with the Indians so much.

The Tibetten Monistary, Ill have to make some time to visit and have a look around!


Monks coming back from a hard days enlightnment at the Monistary, On my visit Im going to see if I can get a set of red funky Pijamas too!

Lastly before more study here is a Royal Enfield Bullet, to Motor bike enthusiasts this is a vintage bike, but not here, they still make them exactly as they were made during the British occupation in 1950

Thursday 10/09/09 First Exam..

Today I awoke to what was real monsoon weather. The rain was coming down so hard that it looked like a solid blanket in front of you.

Our normal drive to the training centre, in the wet.


I'm going to take this opportunity to show some of the conflicts that India has. Take our IT park for example.

The latest in technological advancement next to a lean to shop at the side of the road.

Next what was probably a western design of a science park. The plan is very grand but as you will see the money isn't there to complete it so it kind of feels like one of those post apocalypse films where half the buildings have been bombed, there is radiation everywhere but people are still trying to survive.


Notice the immaculate and very western glass Call centre building, this is where you are diverted to when you want to pay your mobile phone bill!!

An Indian call center (sorry about the poor quality due to rain, will get a better pic when dry).

Half built abandoned skeletons of buildings line the complex awaiting more funds and symbolise the widrawl of money from Europe etc due to the recession and drop in economy.





This picture is our training centre, when built they allowed another story for expansion, looks a little under developed from the outside but is fully functional inside (Inside pics to follow).

Koenig solutions Dehradun.

Right, back to the course. After spending 3 days on the first book "Installing, configuring and administrating Microsoft Windows XP professional" exam 070-270 it was time to go for the Exam. I booked my exam yesterday as you have to give 24 hours notice. My exam was sheduled for 10:30 and there was an hour for some last minute revision. I skimmed through the book and went over areas I thought I wasn't so strong in. 10:30 cam and it was time to take the long walk down the corridor (well about 6M but its been years since I sat any type of exam, so a little apprehensive). I entered the office next to the gas chamber.... well prometric exam center. Microsoft takes its exams seriously and there is no way that any one else can sit your exams for you. When I entered the office I had to give 2 forms of picture ID (Passport and driving licence), then I had to give a finger print of my left thumb (yes a blue inky thumb all day!). Then you have to put any thing that's in your pockets into a locker, then you are ready to go in. The exam booths are behind a glass partition from the office and above every workstation is a webcam! This exam was 50 questions and 90 minutes to answer. It was multiple choice based and you were given a scenario and a question, one you have deciphered the question and what information they want you have to select from 1 to 5 possible answers, some questions required 3 correct selections. This all seemed daunting until you got part way through and it actually seemed fun (probably because Ive been using XP since beta and kinda know it). After the exam you can complete a digital survey and then your score is displayed with a pass or fail remark. I PASSED!! ;-).
Upon leaving the gas chamber the admin person has already got your results printed for you. Now these guys must see thousands pass but from the admin lady to all the trainers and management staff everyone was congratulatory and would shake your hand and it seemed like a really special occasion. (well I guess only a few million have passed :P) It felt really nice and made you feel like you had accomplished something, either that or they thought Id never pass!

As a special treat My trainer managed to secure some of the most amazing Samosas and we had a little party, when ever Samosas turn up everyone comes out!

Well back to the next book "Managing a Microsoft Windows server 2003 environment". We have 3 days set aside for this book then another 2 for the next book and my second exam 070-291. This is mostly dealing with Domain permissions, Objects, Groups and Group Policy, this is the fun bit that I enjoy and later more Active Directory. Our driver game at 5pm and we left.

Andy passed the same exam and we celebrated with a few beers ;-)

Andy best mate on course, we are contemplating the formation of our new society "the Haywards 5000 club". I must thank Andy, I don't know how I would have coped without him, hes a real mate! Oh and the beer helps!

Wednesday 09/09/09 With added monkeys!

Today was an awesome day......

Woke up early and the weather was dry and warm. Headed over to breakfast and was the first there. I was hoping to finish the first book of my course today and sign up for the exam tomorrow, my trainer is very thorough and doesn't like skipping exercises or chapters.. no matter how many times I've TCP/IPed the world lol. Our driver turned up and we had the big 4x4 to take us to the centre (the last car was tiny and its comedy to fit 4 largish blokes in it). We always like to rotate so Jason got shotgun, me and Andy got back seats and Peter was in the seated boot area. as we set off we caught some monkeys having breakfast.

The monkeys enjoying "bin-cuisine"

Animals dining out

As is true of everything in India the pecking order from "bin-cuisine" has its class levels and hierarchy. In the morning the monkeys are first to dine, then mid morning/afternoon the dogs followed by the cows head out to the bins. The next bit you have to see to believe, a dog jumps in the bin and starts moving stuff about, things he tastes but dosent like he throws out, the cows that followed the dogs then eat the food that's been discarded from the bins. Then the cows like to sleep off lunch in the middle of the road and cause as much nuisance as possible. Each day without a big steak or beefburger bring me and the guys closer to committing religious sacrilege ;-)

Our driver saw someone who worked at the center by the side of the road and stopped to pick him up, he jumped in the back along with Pete, the back now looked pretty cramped., Andy and I grinned... We continued, again the driver toots and pulls over to pick someone else up, he also immediately opens the tail gate and joins Pete and his new friend, Andy and I now start laughing as when we set off Pete was smug about the amount of room he had in the back. We departed again and yes the driver tooted and stoped for another pickup, Pete said " well guys move over as hes coming in with you", the new traveler then proceeded to open the tailgate and cram himself in, Andy and I were in stitches....
I packed a camera today on the trip to take a picture of a cow in the road, but always when you try to capture a moment with wildlfe there were none.

Andy, Jason and I arrived at the centre relaxed and ready to study, Pete emerged shortly after unloading his new found close friends ;-)

The day went well and I finished the book I was on, at 12:30 I was called to a room, one of the trainers had just finished his Masters degree and had bough in Samosas for everyone! After a week of rice and meat? I was in need of some stodge and boy these were just the ticket. The Samosas were the best I have ever tasted and I finished 2 of them off quite quickly! My trainer said that they were made in a local shop.... tomorrow I think we need to place an order for delivery!!!!!
1pm was here and lunch was served, I decided on an order for McDonalds, I thought it wise to be safe and I just ordered nuggets and a large fries, The maccy D's was a very familiar taste, if not just a little cold..
The rest of the afternoon went well and I booked my exam for 10:30 tomorrow. Spent until 5PM sitting mock exams and revising. Our diver turned up and took us back Country house, along the way we bribed him to stop off at "the English wine shop" for a box of beer. you should have seen the smile on the shop/stall keepers face when he saw Andy and me again.... "Another box of beer sir?". we loaded the 4X4 and got back to the country house, we gave the driver 40Rs for his help (50p). He wouldn't take it but we made him. But then he wouldn't let us carry the box of beer and got out and insisted to open the gate and carry it as far as we wanted.... having had to previously carry a box back from up the hill taking turns with Andy to carry, we though this was a sterling investment of 50p and hoped it wouldn't upset the Indian economy. Andy and I shared a cold one while chatting over today's study and going on about the amazing Samosas more that two grown guys should!
Dinner was at 7, after the previous days food at the Country house I wasn't that excited about what we might be getting, I did speak with the course manager today as we ate Samosas and remarked that this was better than the food they cook for us. wasn't. But wow tonight the food was first class (for India) the rice was fried and was hot, we had chicken in breadcrumbs it too was hot and 99% white meat (haven't seen any chickens around here at all?). It transpired that the cook had been replaced and we had a new guy cooking from now on, bonus. We celebrated with a beer.

Well that's it for today, some more revising and a good nights sleep is in order.....

First day at school ;-)

I awoke at 7:30, hit the snooze button then remembered I had to turn on the geaser for hot water and a nice hot shower, did that and went back to bed. Alarm went off again and I decided I had to get up, emptied all the stuff from my back pack, packed the laptop and anyhting I thought I might need that day. Had a nice hot shower (not a power shower by any means). my co student friend Andy knocked on my door and we went to breakfast.

The dining roon is located in the garden next to bananna trees and lime trees. We were told on the information pack to look out for "snakes and scorpio" when in the garden and walking into town, I must ask my fellow students here (Andy, Jason and Peter) what their star signs are....

I seem to have fed some mosquitos last night and I hope they enjoyed the deet 50/50 flavoured white meat...
Breakfast was a choice of cereals with hot milk?, toast, eggs, butter, cheese and jams.
The transport for the training centre arrived at 8:30 (they always seem to be early) it was 15 mins ahead of time. but luckily we had finished and we headed out for the centre. It was nice and cool at 8am compared to Delhi. I definately made the right choice in choosing Dehradun rather than Delhi.
We arrived at the training centre after swerving past a few cows that just like to lie in the middle of the road. The training centre looks half built, well thats because it kind of is.... But the parts that are fully constructes are serviceable and there is aircon throughout. There is a gym in the basement (not a brand new techno gym but would do), the kitchen and dining rooms and the Yoga room. On the ground floor are the classrooms and corridoors. The one to one room are smaller and have 3 workstations, the normal classrooms are bigger. Now its interesting to point out that one to one training is obviously better but also costs more, Andy started the course on the same day as I did and he paid for one to one training. I was also the only person to start the MCSE 2003 this week so I will also recieve one to one training for the duration of my course (thanks Andy, Ill buy you a beer mate). Jobs at Konig are very sought after, recently they advertised for an IT trainer, they had over 5000 applicants and some people had 8 interviews. You might think that this means its a cushy job, but far from it they work these people to the bone. The accomadation manager at the Guest house works 6 days a week and is onside 24/7 he gest one day off a month! My trainer who for the life of me I cant rememebr ore pronounce her name was told to come to Dehradun from Shimila yesterday at mid day, this trip for her involved traveling on 4 street class busses (like the prison train but over the very rural road surfaces), and a traveling a total time of 14 hours, she arrived at the training centre at 4am the day she was to start to train me. This she says is a very good job and she is used to the travel. She was undistanably tired and was in agony from the poor bus seating and road conditions, I gave her some of my industial supply of drugs..... I recieved my first two books today dealing with XP, we spend the day going through half of the first book, only stopping for lunch. Lunch was decided in the morning and the home made pizza looked the safe bet until I saw what else there was, looks like pizza again tomorrow ;-). My trainer was very thourough and she could andswer any questions I had. the course today was covering RIS installations of XP, drives, images and the basics, pretty straight forward stuff, but things needed to cover to get the "Microsoft terminology to pass the exams".
The taxi cam to pick us up at 5pm and we headed back to the Guest house avoiding lazy cows as we went.
Now andy and I had noticed 2 of our co-students partaking of a beer and enquired where we might purchase said beer. 15 minutes later and a walk up a mountain path past lots of Indian universities being built we found "the English wine shop" RESULT!! they had all kinds of vodkas including smirnoff and absolute and a few scotches, we though lets take it easy so decided to buy a box of Indian super strong beer. This shop was tiny but we loved it. (pics coming next time we go as i didnt take a camera, also saw more monkeys). The beer bottles were just over a pint abd cost less then a pound each. Walking bacl down the hill past the military accadamy with the armed guards (who all smiled and waved) we notice that we were getting lots of attention, it seemed like they have never seen two white Englishmen carrying a case of beer down the hill?
At one point 2 young lads on a bike passed us and said "yo dude", we smiled and kept going, on the second pass they "hi-fived us" and carried on. We couldnt remember which turning on the right our dirt track was but I seemed to remember it was right at the cow in the middlw of the road..... After carrying the beer down the hill in the heat we decided to chill out in my room with aircon and fans on full sampling our goods from the trip. We also went over course work and did some study. It was now time for dinner, the "western choice" was chicken tika masala so we all had that. Chicken seend very scarce here and we have never seen any around, lots of cows that we cant eat though! And as such it seemed that all our group can find are chicken legs LOL. served in a really tasty sauce with chapaties. Too much bone and not enough meat, but hey this is as the locals eat... now wheres that pizza hut menu? Another beer some study and another beer lead me and Andy watching Bruno on my laptop, I think the combination of Indian 8% beer and Bruno had us in stiches and ive never laughed so much in ages. After the film we decided it best to get some sleep and not empty the fridge of our beer ;-)
Im now taking this opportunity to finish up some bloggs... Hope you enjoyed it and I promise to try take some pictures of the training centre, the Country house and the gardens tomorrow.....

The train....Sunday

OK I wasn’t relishing the idea of a 6 hour train ride from Delhi to Dehradun , and especially the wakeup call at 5am.
Last night I passed out rather than slept and woke surprisingly rested, the room was lovely and cool due to the aircon.
Carried out normal ablutions and packed ready for my lift at 5:45. What I didn’t expect was the heat at 5am, it’s a little cooler than the mid day sun but at 5am still a shock.
I still can’t get used to being called sir by everyone and not being allowed to carry my own bags…. The ride to the station was short and the AC in the car worked well.
Approaching the rail station was an experience, people laid out on the floor sleeping in blankets and then my worst fears came to life, a train pulled up with no glass in the windows just bars, it was absolutely packed, it looked like a prison car.

This train was long, I mean long, it was over a minute before it stopped passing us and I recon was about halfway along the run of carriages.

I then noticed glass windows in some carriages but these were also rammed but not quite as bad as the “prison train”. Then at the top of the train were the lovely words “executive car” it was next to the “Pantry car” quite quintessential English I thought.

Left side of the platform.

Right side of the platform.. prettly big huh?

Huge seats, laptop power points and soft Indian traditional music. It felt like it had a little aircon but also had turbine fans above the seats (these things are speedy and work well).

My driver insisted again on carrying my bags and seemed a little hurt when I offered to help. He showed me to my seat, loaded the baggage above me and gave me a bottle of water; he wished me well and headed off. The carriage had a trickle of people all very well dresses and looked to be the elite of India.
Allocated seating is important and is strictly adhered to. Despite the empty seats a well dressed gentleman sat next to me (after asking if it was ok for him to do so). He was very polite and we sat and waited for the train to depart. After the train had departed the aircon kicked in and I had to turn my turbine fan off as it was too cold.

The turbine fans....

A member of staff with a tray of picked, de-thorned and individually wraped roses appeared. He offered me a rose before anyone else, I thought this might be a pub weekend “rose for the mrs mate” scam and had I accepted he would be holding out a hand out for money. I declined the rose, he then gave them away to every passenger of the carriage for no cost, I thought this was a nice gesture. 15 mins after the train had left the station a member of staff bought round a catering trolley. I was in a carriage surrounded by locals but I was again served first, this did make me feel slightly uncomfortable and I was expecting disapproving looks from the locals, but they were all genuinely friendly. Morning tea consisted of a “tea kit” in a paper envelope, powdered milk and some biscuits. So far so good. The gentleman next to me in very good English asked where I was from, I explained and we soon started to chat, it turns out he was a senior military government official on his way to some highbrow UN and India meeting. He was very well educated in politics and Indian and Anglo-Indian culture, we spent hours chatting about the multi-tiered economic and cultural difficulties that face India and I began to get a real understanding about this county. India still has a very obvious tie to its heritage of British occupation, there are 20+ dialects in India and the one language that joins them all is English. Next came the newspapers, one was in Hindi and 4 were in English, I chose the daily mail (Indian paper in English) and the Hindustani times (Indian broad sheet newspaper in English) it struck me that India still has the legacy of the broad sheet times where we now have a comic book Times. The papers were in perfect of not a little Victorian English.
My co-traveler explained cultural legacies that still remain from the days of occupation and along the way showed me English built buildings and structures still in place. Now some history; interesting, but might be boring if you came here for a quick read.

How India was taken over by the British for 1 pound.

In the 1500s India had become rich by the sales of spices and herbs to Europe, then in 1592 India decided to put the price up of its spices by 1 pound a pound. This back in the day represented an enormous hike in costs for the English spice fans. So the monarchy of the day decided to send someone over and see if we could transport our own spices to England . Hence the east India trading company came into existence. Meerton is the centre of the produce rich areas of India and became the first British occupation are. To safe guard the valuable spices, cotton and monies involved in trading we sent over troops. Soon we sent more to different camp areas, then soon we recruited from the local Indian population then the occupation was in full swing. Well in a nut shell that’s the conquest discussed. My other interesting face was previously referred to in an earlier post, Gin & Tonic the national drink of England… English troops in India were required to take one quinine tablet a day to help combat malaria sometimes they forgot, so the mess came up with an ingenious solution. When the soldiers were getting there one shot of gin a day they would often take it with water. The mess started serving water with the malaria tablet already added. So the solider if he had forgotten that day to take his malaria tablet could do so at the mess. As the water with the malaria tablet was seen as a medicine it was referred to as tonic so he was offered Gin and water or Gin and Tonic… Today tonic water still contains quinine to aid flavor but in very little quantities to be of medical effect, interesting eh?
Next came breakfast, which not surprisingly was corn flakes, served dry with a sachet of sugar and a cup. Milk was soon followed but was served piping hot. After that more tea followed…and you thought the English drank a lot of tea.
An hour later and more tea, another hour and fresh fruit, an hour later and freshly squeezed juice. I can’t believe how well looked after you are on the “executive car”. I chatted with my co-traveler further about India and politics etc… I found this fascinating and makes me want to re-visit India and spend some more time seeing this remarkable county. Not one to normally be interested in politics but India has to cater for people who live in shacks and make less than a dollar a day to millionaires that drive the poor streets in spanking new mercs.. It’s a very fine balance between tolerance and “controlled chaos”, any European government could just not deal with the diversity that is India. This diversity is what makes it such an interesting country. I am especially interested in the cultural legacies that the British occupation has left and in reading my Hindustani Times it makes me feel a little warm inside.
It’s now 10:30am and just another 2 hours of the journey left, I have definitely noticed the countryside getting greener and the sheer number of mango plantations.
I’ve not started my IT course yet but feel I have had a real eye opener to this very misunderstood country; I feel that this is no longer a classroom 15 hours away from home. I’d definitely like to share this experience with my girlfriend Lou x Everyone has been very polite and welcoming, on one hand it’s like a museum and a step back to the good old days of Blighty and occupation but on another it’s a developing country that struggles with its extremes, culturally and economically, but ha great support from its loyal people. India is a very determined country with pride and a forward thinking tolerant government.

With the train ride over and a short drive in the car they sent for me I was taken to the "County house" this was going to be my accomodation for a month. The bedroom was large and very clean and tidy, the bathroom was again large and clean and tidy, there was and airconditioning unit and a celing fan... result!

Bedroom.

Bathroom.

The room had a balcony outside and gave antastic views of the foothills of the Himalayas.

View to the left of the balcony.

View from the centre of the balcony.

View to the right of the balcony.

I also saw my first wild monkey but when i went to get the camera the critter disapeared..
I was going to walk up the road to investigate with a co-student friend of mine, we had both just arrived so decided to freshen up first..... After 30 minutes the heavens opened and rain came down like ive not seen before. I think its was a good idea to put off the walk ;-) Instead we got the center manager to call pizza hut and get them to deliver (what a descovery) pizza hut in India is a little different, as you might expect. They have a massive offering of vegaetable pizzas and a few chicken pizzas, but wait they also had pepperoni.. well that was a must!! we ordered 2 large pizzas 2 portions of garlic bread one with chillies, olives and curry flavour, 2 600ml pepsi and 2 7up. The cost of this was about £8 so not a bad meal for 2 and lunch the next day!

After the Pizza I decided to chill out a bit and see if I could get any sleep back.... I spoke briefly to my lovely girlfriend who I miss loads at home and then went to bed, ready for my first day at the training centre......

PS. I know im like a day behind but time flies here......