Blogs from Haryana, India, Asia - page 8

A colleague told me about this: Taj Mahal: The True Story. Apparently there is a theory that the Taj Mahal was not build by the Moghul ruler Shah Jahan at all but was a Hindu temple fetched and modified by the Muslim rulers. The evidence is all over it as the website claims, the building has Hindu decorations and there are secret rooms inside the 'tomb' that visitors are kept in the dark about. I just love conspiracy theories. Even though they're not true most of the time they still give me a strange mystical sensation. Just like X-Files :-).... read more

Today is Independence Day and India is celebrating 60 years of freedom from British rule! It's a national holiday and many celebrations are underway, including the "Freedom Blast" at my hotel. There's food, music (even louder than usual), and dancing. Very brief Indian history lesson: * The Indus Valley of India was well settled with a highly developed culture by 2500 BCE * Indo-European Aryans arrive from Central Asia around 1500 BCE * 4th century BCE to 13th century CE, Indian subcontinent united and ruled by a series of empires followed by the establishment by Turko-Afghan rulers of a Muslim sultantate in the north with Delhi as its capital * India invaded by the Monol leader Timur whose descendants founded the Mogul Empire - the Mogls are remembered for their art and architecture, including the world ... read more

I made my first trip to the malls of Gurgaon today. Gurgaon is known as the "Mall Capital of India" and already has about 20 malls open with new malls being built right and left, each larger than the last, and each claiming to be the best. There will eventually be 127 malls in total! I need a few essentails for my apartment, assuming I ever get one, so I decided to do a bit of shopping. I had no idea what to expect and asked people at work which mall was the best. Several people said the MGF Mega Mall so I set out for there. Mukesh, who's been driving me to work all week, agreed to drive me today as well. I told him the MGF Mega Mall and we set off. I'm not ... read more

Per multiple requests, here are some photos from Kendle and my hotel! Kendle has two offices in Gurgaon at the moment: Augusta Point and Sushant Towers. Within the next month, we will all be located in a new office in Cyber Park. I'm in the Sushant Tower office since my team is there. The entire office is not much larger than my last personal office and there are 9-12 of us working there! We have one printer/scanner/fax machine, but only one person can atually connect so we save files on jumps drives and then borrow his lap top when we need to print. We work on VPN all day which is better some days than others. There's not a lot of room and since I sit in front of the printer, people often use my desk ... read more

I'm safely here in India! My flight to Chicago was uneventful and I slept through about half of it. I had about three hours to wander O'Hare before boarding my flight to Delhi. I got on the plane and settled into my seat with my luggage safely stowed in the overhead bin. I had just started reading my book when a guy came and sat next to me. About five minutes later, his mother showed up and ordered me out of my seat! She told me to go sit in her seat about 10 rows up. It was still an aisle seat so I didn't argue, but I said I wasn't moving my bag since there was clearly way more luggage on the plane than was going to fit. She wasn't happy, but at least she ... read more