My photography

International commerce for dummies

"How many countries have you been to, outside India?"
"One", I said.

"How about you man?"
"26"

How do you travel around the world without spending a lot of money?

I am sure a lot of adventurers around the world would have thought about this and come up with their own ingenious ideas. Shoestring budget travel and the lot. The one I like the most is the one which was explained to me by my new friend J.

J is from Switzerland and had shown early symptoms of being different from others. He put in what ever money he had and bought a second hand '96 volkswagen for an equivalent of 20k in Indian monies. He took this no frills workhorse all around Europe, driving through different countries and sleeping in the back with the seats taken out for the night. This was after his other costlier volkswagen was almost broken into in Romania at night. So when they'd be bored they'd hit the road and go to the beaches in France. Makes me wonder where I would go if I were bored. Vizag?

Then came the more difficult part. He developed a predeliction towards India. Now, you could drive all the way to India in a couple of weeks. IF. If it weren't for those looters in Baluchistan, says J. Two of his friends who attempted the same were left in the middle of the desert in their undies, just like in the movies.

So what do you do? Summer jobs pay well enough for the tickets. I can make upto the equivalent of a lakh INR by doing summer jobs says J. Good enough to come to India and splurge. And how do you make the trip more worthwhile with some intelligent commerce? Now what is Switzerland famous for? Banks ofcourse, but you can't pay for your Indian adventure with a Swiss bank. So you do the next best thing. You pay for it with a Swiss watch.

You buy a Swiss watch in Switzerland for say, INR 500. You come over to India with the money you made working summers and sell the watch for say INR 5000. Pays for a 3 day trip to Pondy it does. So what do you take from India that would help you get back a little more of your investment? We Indians would have certainly underestimated the value of a few of our very precious products.

J was kind enough to break it down for me. The Swiss were bad at bargaining and would prefer to throw out stuff which they don't need anymore rather than try to sell it second hand and make additional money like Indians. So they would throw out old bikes/mattress/all sort of junk (to them). This junk will be picked up by the junk truck and be taken off to be disposed. But, not if you are the ingenuious traveller trying to make most of what each culture has to offer. You get there first, making a round of all the neighbourhoods and checking out their driveways for junk. Say you see a few bikes (as in cycles) which were thrown off because they were old, or had minor problem like a bent wheel. You pick them all up and take them home.

So what do you get from India which would help you in Swiss commercial endeavors? You get the rubber mud guards with those bright tamil company logos (Murugan Cycles). Or you get the cover for your frame, which you see on all the local bicycles. Green, blue, red and what not. Who can forget those bells and peepees (don't know what else to call them!). Now you put in a little work and fix all of this onto the cycles you picked up and voila.. you have an Indian bike, which you can sell for say.. INR 8000. Your investment - a drive around the neighbourhood + 1 Re. for the mud guard + 10 Rs. for the cover + little effort in putting all this together. The swiss being very fond of cycling will buy it all up for the fashion statement he can make with his Indian bike while out for his morning cycling round. Now explain that to the puzzled customs officer in India with the raised eyebrow.

What else does India offer for the swiss. Who could forget ayurveda? You buy a bag full of Chandrika soap for Rs. 8 each and sell them for astronomical amounts. What? Its ayurveda. It can cure everything. If you have a problem in your stomach it will seep in through your skin and cure it. Never underestimate Chandrika ever again. I never would again.

Note: J has made about 8 trips to India selling stuff out of India to make up for a major share of his travel expenses. Then he went a step further. He took a job in India teaching French. I just wish J had a picture of himself selling Indian paraphernalia off the back for his VW golf which I could have put here.

Shapping..

"Hello"
"Helleeeeeeeeeooooooowwwwwwwweeee"

"Where are you..? Libra bar"
"No .. we are sh'a'pping..."
"Oh so you are drunk now aye?"

"No we are sitting on the road, waiting for them to come. Then we will start."

It always amazes me, how all my buddies back home get drunk in anticipation of getting drunk.

Home sweet home.

It has been about 9 months since I've set foot in Kerala and it would have been more if it had not been for Daisy Kutty*. Before going to bring Daisy Kutty, I had been there after recuperating from my Chicken pox bout in the hot April of '08. I still remember the sweat drenched nights and the buzz of those bloody mosquioes never letting me sleep while the power had gone off in the middle of the night. I had wowed never to return to Trivandrum in summer. Or never to return unless I had enough money to get my room back home airconditioned.

Daisy kutty has dashed all those hopes of going home after that June. She has caused me to stay back in Hyderabad longer, even after return from phoren land. Even though she is one hell of a sly lady when it comes to draining my pocket, I have to admit life is really much better since she has been around. Though lately she has been giving me continuous back pain.

Anyway, not digressing any longer, back to the point at hand. I had finally requested for leave, surprising my manager, who had made up his mind that I had run away from home after committing fraud of some kind and could never go back home. I had never asked for leave since he had taken office, while P had asked atleast 3-4 times in the same period. There is nothing happening in office anyway, with the team being overstaffed and no maintenance issues. Client is reasonably happy and our TM never wants anything more.

What I am going to really miss is the show which is coming up at Steps. We had been practicing quite fervently over that last few weeks on both the beginner and advanced salsa routines. There were too many hip-hop routines for me to follow, so I never gave much thought to that, and with so many people in hip-hop attention would anyway be on others. V and A would remember all the routines from the last century and I could always learn it from them later on. But suddenly the show was postponed and it clashed with my trip back home. I did not want to piss of P, but finally went and told him that I would not be there for the show. He took it surprisingly well, and went on business as usual. Later I came to understand why. I would again be digressing if I were to follow that story here.

People are surprised that I am leaving on a monday instead of Friday. But I cannot miss two weekends here. Last few weekends have been memorable, with Super Pondy trip and the drive to Basar. Holi was two days ago and it turned out to be one helluva Holi to start off my Holi playing days with. We 3 newbies ended up having a lot of fun with the other three experienced players. We then topped the day off with the worst movie ever - 13B.


Some pics to cover the whole story...

Silent Beach - Pondicherry

Me and Anuhya practising our pose!

As Sidharth was saying - This reminds us that our country needs a long way to go and money needs to trickle down to the lower levels. (From Basar trip)

Shows that even though I dont have a D60 (I have an S3IS), I can still take some kick ass photos if I am lucky enough. (From Basar trip)

Holi '09

*Daisy Kutty- My Esteem Di. High maintenance. So miss sunflower decided she is a girl and named her Daisy. Undakkanni came in one day and added a dash of malayalee'ness by attaching the kutty at the end.

Late night trysts..

Being back from the US I would have expected to have some moolah atleast to keep my nerves steady, even if it were not enough to go out partying every weekend or so. But not too surprisingly what ever money I saved from the US has gone down the drain on my car which is giving me a string of unending problems, or again on the welcome back partying and new year partying. But have got to admit it though; the new year party was a party to remember. It was certainly the wildest party I have been too. Shiva was a newbie party boy and he sure was not at all disappointed with this tryst with the clubbing crowd. Unlimited drinks (considering that couples and stags had to shell out 6k, it was not a bargain) and an eager crowd along with seasoned party goers. Even I am getting quite good at enjoying myself at parties, getting drunk and holding a few drinks down. And ofcourse I love the lasers.

I have never been a big drinker, and have started seriously drinking only recently in the last few months of partying. Here too I tend to stick to vodka based drinks or a long Island Ice Tea, trusting it to kick in fast and leave me fast enough to drive back afterwards. Vodka with redbull is perfect for me since it gets me drunk enough, without making me sleepy and giving a hell lot of energy to freak out for two hours straight and more if it weren't for the Hyderabad 12 midnight curfew. And I have found perfect partners for drinking and dancing too. I just wish A would be a little more free to come out dancing that would make two awesome dance partners.... lets see
Sutra in Atlanta.. fun place... different crowds different days. This particular day was for ABCDs. Explains why I had to get drunk alone (1 beer, 2 l-Iced teas, 2-vodka red bulls, 1 vodka brandy) and had to be practically carried out by the bouncers.

Salsa Havana, where I saw some pro Salsa dancing.

Take Hold Ballroom Academy.. some of the best Salsa I have seen yet. A guy there turned so fast that I heard the swishing sound. And I met a very cute girl too.. Danced with her a lot. :D

Tongue and Groove.. Wednesday Salsa night.. With Lourdes and Dee.



Now thats another wild party. 10 d the place to be!!!.. and look who joined in at the end!!!!

Firangi pani.. Now thats where I saw Hip Hop in India

The rest places were nothing great.. and we did not get great group pictures... shame..! I had really loved the chicks in the new year party!!!

Fly High

Its been two years in the making and finally the day is here. I am quite tensed up. The flight to Atlanta is at 0400 tomorrow. I have to check in a couple of hour earlier meaning I have to leave home tonight.

Hopefully the travel will give ample oppurtunity for blogging.

1000 Turn adventure

The thousand pillar temple turned out to be thousand u-turn temple, with us around in circles trying to find the way to the supposed kakatiya marvel. Finally after going back and forth on the same road a few times, we managed to get the right directions and turned into the lane leading to this architectural wonder. Wonder it might have been, if we actually saw a thousand pillars. Actually a few pillars would have been impressive, but we could identify only a couple from among all the scaffolding erected to restore the place. The whole structure was probably 20m X 20m, which was a massive let down after temples like Suchindra and Madurai Meenakshi. We ended up taking pictures of a few stray puppies and pondering over their lineage, imagining up german ancestors for them.

The 1000 pillar temple

The German Lineage

We decided to hit Ramappa temple next. This time around I had gotten a better hang of the place and all the poring over the google maps came to our aid. We found the Mulug highway with resonable east, which led to the Ramappa temple and started out on the well maintained road with all the gaiety we could muster. Munching on a packet of chips we drove about 50 kms through moderately interesting terrain, passing a few toddy workers, lots of fields and lots of cattle on the roads. By this time, a bullock cart minus the bullocks was spotted by my travel partner and she promptly expressed her interest in filling in for the absent animal. I obliged and we took a few pictures of the 'feeling in the bullocks shoes' (or heels or whatever) scene, and even joined in towards the end to get a taste of all the shoe feeling that was going around. Rumbling and murmuring from the nearby bushes from the not so amused owner of the cart send us back to the car and we again got back on the road.

A little while later we encountered a few bulls (docile ones if anyone's wondering) feeding lavishly on the side of the road. Again my ever enthusiastic travel partner wanted to be a part of the country 'naatinpuram' landscape and we ended up taking a few pics with them eyeing each other suspiciously. The bull thankfully did not act upon its suspicions and the story ended happily with us getting back to munching on our chips and the bull back to its hay and all the by standers laughing their asses off looking at the little white devil with the scared face posing with the bull as if for a facebook best friends display picture. Next stop was at a similar spot, when we felt the need to get in touch with nature on seeing the picteresque paddy fields glowing in the sun. So again a photosession ensued and we drew quizzical glances from passerbys which we neutralized by clicking away at them. That seemed to appease them all. Everybody wants to be a model.


The joyride was sadly cut short when I stupidly drove into a diversion and ended up scraping the bottom of my car. This led us back to Warangal, with a moaning car, leaking some unknown fluid, for rest of the uneventful ride back to Warangal, partly because I was worried about the car, and partly because of some random remarks from miss smarty pants. All the worrying turned out to be for nothing as the car was fixed for a hundred bucks at a maruti service center which was luckily open and we ended up hitting another temple and driving back home to Hyderabad in really high spirits..

The next trip ought to be much more fun since RTR is coming back soon and Naved has already booked tickets for the 19th..