Night market

There is a night market in Panchkula organized every Tuesday from approximately 5 to 10 pm. It is very close to the trainee flat, just a 5-minute walk, therefore most of trainees go there regularly. The market is held on a slam-like area between other houses - it is usually empty during the entire week (I pass by every day on my way to work, and there are usually just couple of Indians and few cows chilling on the ground), so you wouldn't really guess that the whole area gets overcrowded with stalls and hundreds of people on Tuesday afternoon.

Night market area at 8:30 am.

Night market area at 7:30 pm.

Night market area at 9 pm.

The choice is wide. And prices more or less fixed. You can buy generally any kind of fruits, vegetables, rice, spices, and even shirts and some street food. I've been there 4 times so far and have always discovered a new kind or variety of fruit. However, I'm still rather conservative and usually stick to my routine shopping: 1kg of tomatoes (10-20 INR, ca. 5 CZK), 1 kg of cucumbers (10 INR), and 0,5kg of lichi, or plums, or peaches (50 INR), or combination of all. It is enough for an upcoming week.

Local fruits.

Different segments of the market: rice & cucumbers.
Arrangement of stalls is fairly illogical - the neighbouring stalls usually offer the same goods (for the same prices), which doesn't boost competitive atmosphere much.

Even though it may not seem to be special in any way, I really like the market for its atmosphere and order (let's call it structure) that prevails at the place.

Samosa, a favorite Indian snack/dinner, often available as a streetfood.

Czech corner
Jedina vada na krase je, ze tu nikdo nemluvi anglicky - nejenze nemluvi, ale ani netusi, ani nijak adekvatne nereaguje (= zeptam se anglicky, prodavac odpovi v hindi a zcela seriozne ceka na moji reakci). Takze vzdy musim vychytat, kdy je u stanku nekdo alespon ze stredni tridy, aby mi anglicky rekl cenu (ja zatim umim jen "10 rupii", coz je fraze kterou pouzivam nekolikrat denne pri preprave). Cena je zpravidla u kazdeho stanku za fixni pro kazdou komoditu a nesetkal jsem se s zadnymi pokusy cenu navysovat, nebo uctovat dvojim metrem.
Jsou tu jinak dostupne i pro Indii relativne exoticke druhy ovoce jako jablka, svestky, merunky ci tresne - za adekvatne vyssi ceny a primerene dotcenou vizualni stranku (tresne jsou zpravidla bilo-ruzove, merunky zluto-zelene apod.).

Drinks & Beer

Taking the outside air temperatures (27°C at 8am, up to 50°C during the day, 35°C at 11pm) into consideration, it is obvious that drinking, buying drinks, going to refrigerator etc. are very common daily activities. As most of you probably know (unlike one of the recently arrived trainees), tap water in India is not drinkable on any condition. Therefore every trainee needs to buy bottled water on their own. It's hard to estimate my daily water supply, but it definitely is more than 4 litres per day, approx. 2,5l of bottled water + 1l of juice at the trainee house, 1l of filtered water at work (one is not so thirsty in the air conditioned office) and something for lunch. So generally even more than 4 l. BTW although safety of unsealed bottled water is believed to be in question, you can hardly find seals on the bottles any longer.

2-day shopping for 1 person.

Beer
Of course, the main reason for writing this post was to have a look on local beer menu. The leading brand is undoubtedly Kingfisher. The company is actually running quite a versatile business - they brew beer and operate domestic Indian flights ("Kingfisher, India' only five star airline"; website).
There are 2 main types of Kingfisher: Premium and Strong. Premium is something like Czech 10° beer, Strong is comparable to 12° beer, containing almost 6% of alcohol. Both are good, Strong is really delicious! Also, I checked their website and found Kingfisher Bohemia... probably a Czech recipe:)
Good news is that in Punjab they have the cheapest beer (and alcohol in general) in whole India. 0,6l of local beer cost ca. 1 USD here. You would pay 2USD in Prague. And around 8USD in Amsterdam:) Seriously.

Kingfisher. In a high-end bar in the centre of Chandigarh.
BTW the owner of Kingfisher is referred to as the King of good times.

Another good local brand is Thunderbolt. However, Kingfisher is King(fisher) and that's it. One more to mention: Haywards. Something like Gambrinus in taste.
They also have a wide range of international beers available: Dutch Heineken and Mexiacan Corona are probably the most spread ones. Honestly, Corona with soya sauce is not my cup of tea.
I haven't found any Budweiser or Pilsner yet.

Liquor shops
You cannot buy beer or any other alcohol in normal shops - you need to find a "beer, wine, liquor" shop/stall, which has a licence to sell it. Besides, restaurants and hotels need the licence, too. So sometimes it happens that you go to a restaurant, or even 4-star hotel, to enjoy a chilling pint of beer, just to find out they do not offer it at all. This weekend we went to a billiard sport club (what a place to drink a beer, right?), but they only had lassi (yogurt based kind of fruit shake, a little sour by default) and soda. Cultural difference. Apart from the licence thing, you also cannot drink alcohol in public, which is a common practice in many Europeans countries anyway.

Inside the freezer in the trainee house.

Fresh lime soda
Although it is basically just an ordinary lemonade, I got obsessed with it. They do it sweet, salty, or mixed. Sweet is the best. 250ml glass costs from 5INR (2CZK!!) on the street to 20INR in nice fast food joints, to 80INR in clubs or posh restaurants. In either case, it is a reasonable choice!

Me and Georg having fresh lime soda (among others).

Hard stuff
The taste of local youngsters is different from the Czech appetite. Whereas it is more about fruit flavoured vodka, herbs drinks (vivat Fernet:)), wine, and mixed drinks in the Czech Republic, these guys seem to prefer rum and whiskey. When they do not feel like getting down fast, they mix with Coke, or go for Breezer.

Trust me, this guy has had enough.

Czech corner
Ani si to clovek neuvedomi, ale cele se to tu dost toci okolo piti - neprijemnost je, zejmena kdyz vecer dojde a neni kde koupit nove. Tak jenom par vet k tematu:
Celkove musim rict, ze co se tyce piti, tak mi tu nic nechybi. Snad jen mineralky, ktere tu nejsou k mani... ale pivo je skutecne vytecne a osvezujici, takze mineralky se mohou prominout.
Prestoze to v prepoctu patrne bude "v norme", a prestoze jsem jeste nedelal detailni analyzu, je nepochybne, ze v pomeru k prijmum naklady na piti oproti CR vyrazne stouply. Zejmena v obdobi zaludecnich potizi a horecek byly ovocne dzusy jedinou zachranou - a zrovna ty jsou na mistni pomery spise drazsi, resp. srovnatelne s evropskymi cenami.

My job, my company

I'm on an internship, therefore the job, the company, and the colleagues play very important role. After being actively involved in facilitating AIESEC exchange for many years, my expectations towards the internship were rather general, ie. it's always better to be positively surprised, than other way round, right?:) However, already during the matching procedures, I started to feel the internship is going to have a higher ambition - to provide a unique chance to learn and contribute at the same time, while gaining insight into an Indian way of doing business.

The main corporate office. I work here.

Company
I work for the ITFT Education Group. ITFT stands for Institute for Technology and Future management Trends, and as you can read at the website, its educational division (ITFT India) if affiliated with (not only) Punjab university and provides courses in higher education focused on future employment of students. I don't have to stress out the population of India (1.1 billion people) and the overall competitiveness of local job market, to make it clear that students are interested in these courses.
Besides, there are many other divisions, e.g. Centre for Media & Entertainment Studies, Centre for Integrated Rural Development, Centre for Integrated Security Services, International Punjabi Chamber for Service Industry and couple of others. Even I'm just slowly revealing the complete organizational and division structure of the ITFT Group:)
Because of the strong educational focus and its general profile, ITFT is publicly known as ITFT College.

The front office.
Obviously, purple & pink are the corporate colours.

Office & campus
ITFT has a corporate office in the very centre of Chandigarh. There are 2 floors in one building, and 1 more floor in another one. The main office, where I work, resembles an open-space office, as you can see from one end to the opposite one, but in fact there are 5 separate cabins/offices, a meeting room, COO's office, and a small kitchen - everything divided by glass walls.
In another floor there are spacious modern classrooms (conveniently located in the very centre of Chandigarh for the purposes of short term courses), faculty members' offices, CEO's office, and other organization departments.
Also, ITFT has its own campus, where most of classes take place. It's situated in Greater Mohali district (Mohali is the 3rd city close to Chandigarh and Panchkula), approximately 10 km far from Chandigarh. At the moment, the campus comprises of 3 modern buildings, but the parcel is much bigger and many more buildings and other facilities (e.g. sport grounds or gardens) are to be constructed in a near future.

My desk. Notice the little Ganesha I mentioned before.

People
Although the team is relatively small (ca. 50 people, out of which approximately half is working in the campus ), it is pretty diverse - you can meet old gentlemen from the advisory board, art teachers,hardware specialists, as well as young ladies from the front-office on a corridor very easily. On the other hand, it still it preserves a pleasant family atmosphere.
The relations between people are little bit different from work collectives I know from home, sometimes more formal (e.g. greeting everyone in the morning, huge respect towards the management), sometimes less formal (e.g. sharing meals during the lunchtime, or the way we tend to joke:)), sometimes just different (e.g. there are people who serve me water, order and serve lunches etc.)
Especially the lunchtime provides a great space for social interaction and at the moment I can say I managed to find many good friends within the team, and I share good relations with everyone else.

Performance of arts students in the basement.

Performance
In my opinion, the company is doing very well. The main focus could be summarized as 1. providing high quality courses and 2. attracting the right target group to enroll for these courses. I have no doubts about the first one, as the faculty are highly capable and intelligent people, as well as the classrooms are well equipped to enable an efficient and profound learning experience.
As for the second point, it's mostly a marketing issue. And I have to admit I'm fairly impressed by the pace the company is interacting with the public - TV spots, radio commercials, newspaper ads, and general performances, and partner events held regularly in Chandigarh. Every day there are new leaflets, brochures and banners coming to the office from print to be distributed among people. New and new young students come to the office every single day, I even can say a each half-an-hour, to get more information on the courses, or to go for a screening interview straight away.

It's flexible. Sometimes I'm alone in the cabin, sometimes not.

Job description
During the first half of the internship I've been working in the IT department, together with my boss (head of IT). My task was to analyze the portfolio of all 13 company's websites and suggest improvements. During the first 2-3 weeks I completely redesigned one of them, and since then I revise and edit the remaining sites with a goal to visually unify them and make it obvious they all belong to the ITFT group venture. Not that easy as it may seem:)
From 1st July onwards I'm going to move to the multimedia department, and give classes on video editing and camera handling. The company decided to go for a Mac platform, that's why they already ordered a Mac computer and software (Final Cut Studio) - it will arrive to the office this week!
Also, I should be involved in designing the first company newsletter, so let's see how it all goes.

Czech corner
S tou vykonnosti to neni uplne jednoznacne, a je jiste zajimave to sledovat, zejmena v evropskem kontextu. Skutecne mam z toho co se tu okolo deje velmi dobry pocit, velkou merou za to muze sef, ktery je velmi otevreny a zkuseny clovek (mj. zil v mnoha zemich v zahranici), coz mu pomaha skloubit indickou moralku a kulturni specifika s konkurenceschopnosti na mezinarodni urovni. Problem je, ze cas od casu maji veci tendenci sklouzavat k "indickemu pristupu", tedy ze se hledi spise na to co se dela, nez proc a tedy jak se to neco dela. Detailum, ktere jak vime mohou mj. firmu vyrazne odlisit od konkurence, neni prikladana valna pozornost. Navic to, ze to tak vidi spravni rada jeste neznamena, ze to tak vidi i koncovi pracovnici (napr. navrhnout a zavest novy antivir bylo relativne snadne, nicmene presvedcit lidi, aby nalezene viry mazali je casto ukol nadlidsky:) a podobne to je i v jinych pripadech).
Stestim je, ze i konkurence je (zatim) indicka, a tedy vyse uvedene handicapy se jakoby nepocitaji/stiraji. Ale kdo vi. Ja nastesti vim, ze alespon sef "vi". Tak budu drzet palce!

Street animals

Chandigarh has a reputation for being the cleanest Indian city, so one could expect there would be no wild animals on the streets... Luckily it's not that boring!:)

Cows
Right after my arrival to Chandigarh I noticed something was wrong - there were no cows in the streets. What was more, I was explained there are none in Chandigarh. What an Indian experience would it be without cows, he? But they were right - although I keep looking for a cow every single day, I haven't spotted any so far.
However, as soon as you cross Chandigarh-Panchkula city boundary, it is a different story! :)

Cow staring into space. Maybe a cow-gardener.

Cow feeding itself & chilling cow.

Sucking cow & cow being sucked.

Cows having a feast.

Cow observing its shit.

Dogs
Street dogs are everywhere, and especially in front of our house gate in Panchkula. They look everything from normal dogs to poor crippled/perishing animals. It's not fun sometimes. However, local people don't care - street dogs have truly low social status.
On the other hand, the concept of pet dogs is relatively common, too. It was just a couple of days ago I saw two German shepherds, which was the biggest pet dog I've seen in India so far. Again, especially around our house in Panchkula, which is situated in a nice residential area, you can often see people, who are walking their pet dogs & feeding the street dogs. And cows. They all obviously love a toast bread.

Pet dog & street dog.

Cats
I have not seen, nor heard of any cat in India:)

Horses / donkeys
I hardly can distinguish between these two in local conditions, but you can commonly see them pulling a trailer on the streets, as it is pretty legitimate means of transportation here.

Horses / donkeys.

Camels
Yep, there are some camels, too. However, I've only seen 2 so far.

Cockroaches
There definitely are cockroaches in Chandigarh, but I was lucky enough not to face an alive one yet.

Czech corner
Kravicky se tu skutecne maji jako prasatka v zite. Dlouho jsem nevedel, k cemu jsou ty hlinene misy ci osatky pred vraty mnoha domu, nez jsem jednoho rana procitl: muz stredniho veku jede na motorce do prace, kdyz v tom zastavi, z igelitky vytahne toastovy chleb a naplni jim celou osatku. V tom se na rohu objevi krava. Asi ma hlad, tak aby nemusela az k osatce, popojede pan az ke krave, vytahne druhy toastovy chleba, a rozhodi ho na asfalt. Dba, aby se dostalo zejmena na telatka, ktera se na snidani dostavila se zpozdenim umernym delce jejich nohou.
Vecer je pak mozne videt, jak zbyly chleb v osatkach "dojizdeji" poulicni psi, aby byly ostaky pripravene opet na rano. Dokonala symbioza.

Kravicka se rano nasnida, a poulicni pes to vecer dojede.
Funguje to jako dobre namazany stroj.

Trainee flat

Some of you asked me to write more about people featuring my pictures from the previous post, so it seems it is the right time to present the trainee community in Chandigarh.

Basic facts
On Friday May 22nd, 2009 in the evening I moved to a trainee house "180, Sector 17, Panchkula" (I had my home stay up to then). As you can easily notice, I'm not staying in Chandigarh, but in Panchkula, which is a neighbouring town closely adjacent to Chandigarh. If Cerny most in Prague had 900 000 inhabitants and was a town on its own, we could call it Panchkula - in terms of accessability and geographical position to the centre of Chandigarh/Prague. Just check the map...

There are mostly very nice houses/mansions in the neighbourhood, which makes the area a nice play to stay. However, it doesn't mean there would be no noise and cows on the streets, but at least we don't have problems with water supply.

House #180, sector 17, Panchkula. 8 trainees live in the first floor.

View from the balcony. Lobby.

General description
The flat has 3 double bedrooms, 1 living room & lobby, 2 bathrooms & (European-style) WC and kitchen. There is 1 refrigerator, 1 messy sofa, 8 metal-frame beds, furnished kitchen and a fan in every room. That's it. Oh, we also have a wifi router, originally a broken one - it took us over 1 week to fix it. Eureka! So the flat is pretty empty, and airy. Which doesn't mean the same as "cool" - when there is 45°C outside, it can easily be around 30-35°C inside. But that is OK, who would expect something different in a trainee house in India in the middle of June, right?:)

Me in the living room.

People
I started with people but still didn't get to the point... so who is in the house? I share a room, a living room:), with Collins from China, then there is Anika and Georg from Germany, Katy from Colombia, and Gisele, Megan and Fred from the United States. There is actually many more trainees in Chandigarh (and almost hundred more is expected in summer - these AIESEC guys really mean it seriously with becoming the best local committee worldwide... but let's talk about AIESEC later) and because our flat is pretty empty and airy, they often gather here for whatever occasion. Therefore we sometimes welcome Lia and May from Malaysia, Sachiko and Taka from Japan, Magda and Justina from Poland, Gisele from Brazil, Rafael from Colombia, Davi from Singapore, Al from Indonesia and two more American and Canadian girls who arrived recently. Last but not least, there is Rosy from Mexico, who arrived ca. 5 days ago, and who is my co-worker - in another words she is the second intern in my company! And we expect the third mate - a girl from Russia to join us in July.

Playing jungle speed, without a stake.

Sounds familiar?
Attentive reader must have noticed the situation is pretty similar to Prague, at least regarding the number of trainees and flats, and high ambition in AIESEC exchange. Just add to it, that Chandigarh has the same population as Prague, and AIESEC in Chandigarh has approximately the same number and profile of members as AIESEC Prague. It's really hard to avoid any kind of comparisons:) To be continued...

Around the house.

Czech corner
Zatimco nekteri trainees vypravi zdesene pribehy jake to bylo strasne, kdyz jeste tyden pred priletem nevedeli, kde budou bydlet, zvladal jsem celou situaci o poznani klidneji (zejmena kdyz jsem jeste 2 pred odletem nemel letenku). Zamerne jsem se na ubytovani ani poradne nevyptaval, protoze jsem vedel, ze i kdybych bydlel nekde v "guesthousu", nechalo by se to. O to vetsi bylo me prekvapeni, kdyz jsem zjistil, ze budu prvnich par dni (oficialne 1, ve finale temer 5) zustavat s Indickou rodinou a pak jsem se prestehoval do vilove ctvrti rekneme Chandigarhskeho predmesti.

Soukromi po indicku
Rikal jsem si, ze takhle by to bylo cele prilis jednoduche, takze abych opet trochu posunul hranice komfortni zony, usidlil jsem se v obyvaku (v dobe nastehovani to byla jedina moznost, nicmene po cca 2 dnech jsem se mohl prestehovat). Ma to svoje. Vyhody (nic mi neunikne; docela dobre klima; kazdy den jiny program) i mouchy (nic se neschova; hluk; az 20 lidi) ...ale zajimava zkusenost za kazde situace, kazdopadne zde chci zustat, alespon prozatim.

Velky bratr
Pravde cela tato konstalace mi od sameho pocatku pripomina Big Brother:) Jen tu nejsou kamery. Kdyz jsem doma (temer vyhradne pouze po 20:00) tak jsem vzdy v obyvaku a lze sledovat jak lide vari, bavi se spolu, chodi do koupelny, zase se o necem bavi, pracuji na pocitaci, pak se zase bavi s nekym jinym, relaxuji na balkone, kde se taky s nekym bavi... no sranda:)

The Sims
Vzhledem k tomu, ze kazde rano prijde uklizecka (ktera me kazde rano vzbudi, a ktera mi nastesti jeste neukradla ani jeden ze 2 mobilu a ani jeden ze 2 pocitacu, ktere mam volne pristupne okolo sve postele), nasledne zacina boj o koupelnu a lide postupne odchazeji do prace... nemohla me minout ani paralela se hrou Sims.

Nevim, zda se toto necha rici o kazdem trainee byte kdekoliv jinde, nicmene v tady to tak je, a prozatim je to zabava:)

Day in the hills

The plan for last Sunday was to visit Shimla, supposedly a very nice British-style city, that used to be a "summer capital" of India in past times. But it all got a little bit complicated, as some of us went to a party day before, and not all of us were actually ready to set off the next morning.
So at the end we were different people going to a different place. We went to Morni Hills situated somewhat at the frindge of the Himalayas (see the Wiki article for more details), and the trip was definitely worth it.

Enjoying VIP care - waiting in the enquiry office.
Notice the stylish "bench":)

In the bus. Me, Lia, May, Davi, Georg.

In the village. Waiting 2 hours for a jeep driver to come.

In the jeep. May, Lia, Georg, me, Megan.

Countryside. On our way to Tikkar Taal.

At Tikkar Taal chill-out resort.

Indians posing in front of the adventurous park.

Me in the jeep.

Dinner in Pizza hut.

Home stay - 5 days with the Indian family

As in a life of a man there are certain periods, even trainee in Chandigarh goes through different phases. The first one is called home stay and is provided to most of arriving trainees for first few days (generally 1 to 3, but as I got to know later, even 3-week home stays are not exceptions). The purpose is simple and nice - to make trainees experience how is the life of Indian family.

Me and Rahul on the bike. Emotional flashback to Fatal trip:)
BTW we both wear helmets, because it is forbidden to drive without them in Chandigarh. You can be fined for driving in more than 2 people, too...

I was staying with Rahul's family. Rahul has been a member of the local branch of AIESEC since autumn 2008. He is about to finish his bachelor in engineering soon. And is a cool guy:), who has played important role in my traineeship. According to the Indian customs, the whole family was living together in the house: Rahul, his brother Rohit, parents and grandparents. Parents spoke basic English, grandparents spoke only Hindi - so the same as in my family. Probably I was too excited about the home stay that I forgot to organize a family photo shooting session, so I don't have any common picture at the moment.

Rahul, me and Rohit in a fine bar/club (with DJ!).
First picture taken on timer here;-) Third try.

The overall atmosphere was excellent, I really felt like at home. I used to have Indian dishes for breakfasts and dinners (all strictly vegetarian), Rahul or his dad gave me a lift to work every day. I got also in touch with cricket rules, went out for beer couple of times, and was assisted when acquiring fundamental orientation skills within the city.

Local AIESECers playing cricket.

The house was cosy and neat, walls painted with light shades of bright colors, equipped with 2 European-style toilets, a fridge and an Internet connection - pretty much everything a university student might need for living. Of course, a TV cannot be omitted - where else would a cricket be watched! The living room and bedrooms were also equipped with coolers - a truly noisy (in Europe they would definitely fine you for violating silent hours:)) and large appliances supplementing ceiling fans to ensure a maximum sleeping experience.

Another remarkable cultural observation was that the staircase leading to the first floor wasn't actually roofed, however, it was "inside" the house. The only concern I had (besides winter temperatures approaching 0° C) was a security question. But it is not supposed to be an issue here. Respect for unspoilt society.

Me at a religious performance.

It wasn't communicated very clearly at the beginning, so for first couple of days I wasn't actually sure to what extent am I "the extra guy", or how much am I actually welcome even the 5th day of my stay. As I got explained, a guest to Indian family is to be treated as God, therefore it eventually wasn't a reason for concern. When I was moving out, I was given a small Ganesha! Lucky me:)

Czech corner
Nemam to zatim moc v oku, vzdy zacnu psat nejak pozde (napriklad dnes jsme se spolubydlicim z Ciny resili otazku enviromentalni politiky, coz nam dalo docela zabrat, jak se ostatne nechalo tusit) a pak uz nemam silu na ceske okenko. Snad jen doplnim anglicky prispevek komentarem, ze pobyt v rodine jsem si skutecne uzil, navzdory limitovane mobilite ktera byla dana moji zavislosti na nekterem z dostupnych dopravnich prostredku (auto/motorka), protoze sam jsem jeste nikam netrefil. Rodina byla udajne ze stredni tridy, coz bylo vlastne pomerne dobre patrne - meli uplne vse, co bylo potreba pro pohodovy zivot (vcetne sluzky:)), ale napr. kapesne pro kluky bylo drzene v relativne omezenych relacich, coz mi prislo z vychovneho hlediska sympaticke.
Mam tu jeste jednu prihodu s tavenym syrem a rybou, ale tu uz ted nedavam...