4 November: Drones and Dancing

Bigger drone

Smaller drone

Drones are used in some areas of agricultural research - some people expect them to become more popular, while others think that they will remain a specialised niche option, particularly for the many, many farming families who have not yet achieved food security.  I had never seen one before; a couple of days ago I saw two in action!








Each drone has four propellers.  The larger, which looks like a mechanical dog from below, weighs around 5kg; the smaller around 2kg.  When in the air they sound like hoarse lawnmowers.

We stood well back from the drones...just in case they dropped from the sky!

The bigger drone flies up to 100m (the legal limit in India) but here it's about 60m up

The smaller drone flies to about 30m...it's eerie enough to have been a good prop for Hallowe'en!

Icarus drone moment

The station is growing basmati rice, largely for research purposes: basmati grows well (with a strong aroma) in other areas of the Punjab, and further south in some parts of Haryana, but not around Ludhiana.  I'm looking forward to seeing it in the field in Haryana - apparently the aroma is noticeable.

Basmati

The workshop dinner was a traditional Indian celebration - we started around 6.30pm with drinks and lots of snacks.  After an hour or so of chatting the dancing began.  I have never seen so many men, of all ages and abilities, enjoying themselves dancing before.  My colleagues threw themselves onto the dance floor - one of the workshop coordinators explained, "When you are dancing there are no rules.  At work you have people above and below you and there are rules about how you interact with them.  On the dance floor you can do whatever you want!"  The most common dancing moves seemed to be big arm sweeps - a combination of it-was-this-big and I'm-an-aeroplane plus drumming involving the whole arms and shoulders.  There was also plenty of fancy footwork and the occasional twirl.  

The sense of joie de vivre was palpable - and not (only) fuelled by alcohol: most of my Sikh and Muslim colleagues don't drink, and they threw themselves into dancing as or more enthusiastically than anyone else.  Some of the workshop participants were very shy and didn't dance much (though no one could escape without at least one dance - it would have been rude!) but one Afghani colleague in particular clearly thoroughly relished the opportunity to dance.  He said it had been 13 years since his last dance.

Around 9 we had dinner - a buffet of curries, some vegetables, rice, curd and breads.  I am getting good (to the sadness of my colleague B who was behind me in the line) at ignoring the standard naan and picking out the tasty besan (chickpea) flour breads instead!

After dinner the dancing recommended.  A few of us went back to the hotel early but the party continued into the small hours.

Today we are up early for two treats: Amritsar and Wagah.  

3 November: Punjabi dancing

Today's blog entry has been delayed by last night's workshop dinner, which was absolutely the most fun I have seen any group of people have at a work event, and which surpassed in enjoyment many social events as well.

I left at 10, when the party was just getting started.  I think there'll be some very tired people this morning!

2 November 2015: Delhi to Ludhiana

Chips with my lunchtime sandwich: talk about portion control!!

I worked in the hotel yesterday morning, and in the afternoon headed to Ludhiana.  The hotel driver, who took me to the train station, and I remembered each other from my last visit; to celebrate he added an extra degree of excitement to the drive by showing me photos of his wife on his phone.

At the train station there were X-ray machines, where people were feeding their bags through.  It's very common to have to have things X-rayed, so I (thinking I was assimilating beautifully) dutifully fed mine through and went round to the other side of the machine to discover that  (very unusually!) there was no one approving the bags - and, in fact, plenty of people weren't getting their bags X-rayed at all.  Just when I think I'm figuring out India...  Then I went up an escalator to the platform overpass (displeasing a porter when I undercut his "cheap price" by pointing out if I carried my own bag I'd save even more money!) and hiked down some stairs to find myself on the platform very near to where I'd started on the escalator.  Perhaps Delhi railway station is better signed in Hindi than it is in English.

Laing's Law of Railway Platforms states that you will always walk to at least one, and possibly both, ends of the platform before you find where your carriage will arrive.  A corollary to LLRP is that this is an excellent way to stretch the legs and railway platforms are generally very interesting - and flat, which makes the people-watching more fun when hauling a suitcase.

If your reference point for arriving anywhere by train is Patna at 10pm then everything else (outside Delhi, Mumbai, etc I assume) seems quiet.  My Punjabi colleague, B, (who studied in Ludhiana) thought the station was heaving; I thought it was Sunday-night quiet.  I'm looking forward to seeing something of the city with B over the next couple of days!

Corridor of mirrors on the left to the hallway; mirrored bathroom on the right.  Shiny!

The hotel is very pleasant, and they clearly got a good deal on mirrors - it's all grey walls, grey mirrors and grey marble in the rooms.  It's a bit offputting to see so many Alixons but the upside is it's easy to do my hair, put on makeup, etc.  No hiking to the tiny mirror dangling over the lavatory here!  There are no mirrors on the ceiling though - it's Not That Sort Of A Hotel ;-)

Strangely fascinating...

I crashed last night and skipped dinner.  Unwinding in my room I discovered yesterday's sport was the NY marathon live on TV.  It made surprisingly riveting television to watch very fast people run 42 km as I lay on the bed.

One of India's finest gifts to the world is the tikka masala corn chip!  I have only just discovered them; they should be a global phenomenon.

How's that for an unexpectedly arty shot!  Ludhiana at dawn from the top floor gym

No walking outside for me this morning, and apparently sunrise is later here than in Delhi (we are further north).  I found the gym on the top floor of the hotel, and the exercise machines facing out. I was looking forward to watching Ludhiana wake up but was too early - only got a glimpse at the end.  I'll just have to sleep in tomorrow and try later!

Ludhiana waking up...

1 November 2015: Delhi

For some reason at Delhi airport there are baggage-men, who reorganise all the luggage on the carousels.  They start out by re-aligning bags so the handles are (marginally) easier to reach, and tossing around (but not actually removing) those plastic bins rucksacks and prams travel in.  After the first rush of luggage has eased they move onto clustering bags together (holding one bag steady for a short while until a line of bags groups behind it).  I'm not really sure either activity really helps facilitate luggage reclamation but they always seem to be there.  It's really annoying when they grab my bag to use as the cluster-forming bag, though; particularly when I was 30 seconds away from leaving the airport!

That bag in the orange-shirted man's hands is MINE!  So close...

The best way to get over a couple of long flights that I have found to date is to kick back on a large comfy bed with lots of pillows (bonus hotel upgrade recommended!), and enjoy masala chai while watching your footy team give the world a masterclass in how to play rugby retain the world cup.

Footy and chai J

This morning was pretty hazy - there was lots of Atmosphere in Lodhi Gardens.  It was a lovely cool morning for a walk.

It's noticeably wetter and damper than it was in early September, but the die-hard yoga people are still doing their open air classes, now with tarpaulins under their yoga mats.

One of the official Yoga Stations in Lodhi Gardens

There was also a laughter club: they do a few minutes' physical exercise (usually moving arms, torso, neck and head) and then roar with laughter for a few minutes, then repeat.  Even knowing there's no joke it is very cheering to be walking past people laughing so loudly.  It sounds very happy.

The man in the front is doing his own yoga.  In the background is the laughter club