Birthday

It was already the second time I was celebrating my birthday in India - and the day was pretty special again. Similarly to unforgettable train journey from Varanasi to Gaya on my last birthday, I will be probably remembering the most crowded bus ride I've ever taken that I had a chance to experience this year. Apart from transportation, the day was pretty special in terms of celebration, too.

Group picture with some of my colleagues.

I was given a cake - but unlike what I've been used to, everyone was supposed to grab a portion and either smash it all to my face, or smash part and eat the rest. The smashing is just inevitable:)

The cake...

... and the smashing part! ;-)

As a matter of coincidence, there was a big company lunch held on this day, on the occasion of successful completing of other quarter of the business year. They served a non-veg buffet in one of nice restaurants in the city centre. I was also allowed to have a beer (most of people do not drink, the rest is not expected to drink during working hours, and actually everyone was invited for the lunch by the management, therefore ordering an extra beer would not appropriate - but I managed to get an exception and enjoyed a chilled Kingfisher.

The left wing of our table: me, Nisha (my coworker in multimedia department), Rosy (intern), Meeta (we used to share a cabin/office in May and June)

In the evening we went for the dinner, I had my favorite dish at that place (paneer footlong) and Rosy gave me another cake - brownie with candle... nice surprise!:) Before the dinner I also managed to get a power nap, to eliminate the sleeping deficit I was suffering from during previous weeks. So at the end, it was pretty efficient day as well! Thanks to all who got involved and celebrated with me!:)

Chandigarh - City beautiful

Chandigarh, officially referred to as the City beautiful, is situated less than 300 km (5 hours by car, 35 minutes by plane) to the north from Delhi. When it comes to administrative division, it gets fairly complicated - Chandigarh is an union territory, which means it does not belong to any state (is governed by federal government), but at the same time it is technically the capital city of 2 other Indian states: Punjab and Haryana. A good thing is that it apparently works.

The Open hand, symbol of Chandigarh.

Map of Punjab (state) & India, including Chandigarh.

The city is said to be the cleanest, best-planned and wealthiest city in India. Let's have a look.

1. cleanest
The city is undoubtedly the cleanest Indian city I've seen so far - unlike in other cities, they use dust bins and waste containers, which helps a lot:) However, it still doesn't look like a typical European city - the "problem" is in an inconsistent landscape. In Europe there are shops, office buildings, apartment blocks, detached houses, malls, squares etc. In Chandigarh it is the same (I mean it is a proper city, not just a big village, as you could say about some other Indian cities), but whereas in Europe these structures are usually surrounded by paved areas or gardens, here you can also find uncultivated fields, cow yards, slums, meadows etc. Yep, it is India.

Main square, sector 17 market.

Uncultivated fields randomly appear between houses.

As far as a pollution is concerned, it is kind of OK. On the one hand, the city is definitely more polluted than for example Prague, but on the other hand, it is within acceptable limits - you can notice it only when driving in a rickshaw (especially when waiting at the traffic lights), or crossing a street.

The city is clean, but waiting at the traffic lights in a rickshaw makes you realize that could be cleaner, and "more green".

2. best-planned
The city was entirely designed by a French architect in 1950s. Although it doesn't look French, it also doesn't look typically Indian. What makes the biggest difference is the sector structure. The city is divided in many (ca. 60) sectors, which are organized in a way of structured rectangular grid. Every sector has its outer market (at the sector-dividing road), inner market, school and some other standard facilities. There are couple of major roads going through the entire city, connecting all important sectors. One of them (connecting Panchkula with the center of Chandigarh) is called Madhya Marg, a significant landmark, my favorite one (I'm spending ca. 40 minutes in rickshaw on it every day).

Map of Chandigarh. Check out the interactive version.

Sector 17 - there is the main city market, as well as my office.

All the houses have their specific house number, unique in respective sector. To make it easy to locate specific house, sectors are usually divided into 4 segments (A,B,C,D), and on the other hand, clustered in sector areas (e.g. northern sectors etc.)
The system of streets is also interesting - there are usually round-abouts at the intersection of sector dividing roads, from which you can enter the sector and continue your ride on inner roads that go along with dividing streets. At first it seemed to be just a complication preventing you from entering sector in convenient locations, but the intention has probably been to reduce the traffic within sectors and rather keep it on wide dividing streets. And it works.

BTW, the official website seems to be well-planned, too... which cannot be said about the website of Transport department.

This is how all orientation signs look like - sectors all around.

3. wealthiest
There is supposed to be the highest average monthly income of citizens in the whole India. It sounds good, however, I'm not sure how this can be measured, as there is obviously too many people without regular income - both, slum people and poor class in general making their living on daily basis, as well as the elite class with literally unlimited funds. In either case, there is really a lot of people from middle class, and they do have money. Therefore, you can find many European-style facilities in the city, e.g. cinemas, malls, shops of world-known brands, fast-food chains, bakeries.

You can come across people from the middle and upper classes very easily (not only) in the city centre.

At the beginning of my internship, I was told I could find everything in Chandigarh. Despite the previous paragraph, it is definitely not true. I'm not speaking about beef and pork, which is not available in the whole country, but you cannot get even a proper cheese or proper baguette (except for Subway), or find a reasonable choice of pasta or fruit yogurts. And I'm particularly missing all of these. To be precise, it is probably available somewhere in Chandigarh, but it is only 1 or 2 shops in the whole city that are not reachable without car or bike - unless located close to your home or office (which is usually not the case).

The only fridge in the whole Chandigarh where you can find European-style baguettes (no beef, no pork, of course).
Unfortunately it is too far for me to go there.

Rock garden & Sukhna lake
... both located in the outskirts of Chandigarh, are the major attraction for local people as well as the tourists. Rock garden is a leisure site/park with many sculptures and other different pieces of artwork made from garbage. Sukhna lake is situated just next to the Rock garden, and is a common weekend pastime destination. Both places definitely have their specific atmosphere.

Me and Rosy (2nd intern in my company) in the Rock garden.

Rock garden - sculptures made from garbage.

Some Indian guys posing.

Another Indian dude posing.

Me posing (trying to catch up with the Indians).

Young Indians having fun.

Indians at the Sukhna lake.

Treadling seems to be popular even among Indians.

Trip to Shimla

On Sunday 28th June we went to Shimla, former Indian "summer capital" (the British were governing the country from here during the hot season only). Shimla has a reputation for being a cool place, both the temperatures are really cool (below 30°C, and not so humid, which is significantly milder climate compared to Chandigarh and neighbouring cities), and that's why the city is just "cool".
The official website is not very appealing, so you may want to check another one for more information on this region (or just go to travel wiki). Big attraction is a traditional train that is going from/to here, but it is always impossible to get in without a reservation - so we went by bus both ways (2x 4hours). Despite bumpy and maybe a little bit dangerous journey, we had nice relaxing time in Shimla! Now, let's see some pictures.

Annika, Lia, me and Colins in the cab. Going to a coach terminal.

In the bus.

Street people on the rails.
This is where the traditional train is going.

In Shimla. British influence is fairly obvious.

Yeah, right... this really is not typically Indian building.

Lunch.

The Ridge. Notice the catholic church.

People enjoying the cool climate.

Shimla, the "Queen of hills".

Indian handicrafts.

In the bus, on our way back. It was a tough ride.

Our bus had a big wheel.

Indian cinema

I would have never imagined how much of my attention could a cinema in a shopping mall attract. But everytime I go there, I'm either really amused, pissed off, or am just not getting the point. Therefore I just have to share my observations:)

1) The first thing you notice is that the whole mall (although it is actually a pretty small one - just 2 floors, ca. 10 shops, food court, gaming corner, washroom, and multi-screen cinema) is secured like a military base. Three to six security guys at the entrance, metal detecting frame, tables to clear backpacks, handbags, bags, jackets etc. Pretty much nothing cannot be taken inside - helmets, food and cameras are probably the most annoying black listed item. Once they confiscated small bag of chips... why?!? They even were not able to explain the potential security threat or financial loss caused by 70g of chips, but confiscated it anyway.
2) Although there are 3 doors available at the entry, only 1 is opened at a time (security check; see the previous point), which generates considerable queue. New experience... I have never stood a line to a shopping mall so far:)
3) One more thing - you cannot exit the mall by entrance doors. You need to use an emergency exit at the back side of the mall. So you rather do not set a meeting point with your friends inside the mall, because once you get in, its pretty tedious to get out. And cinema cash desks are outside. :)
4) A funny one - despite all the fuss at the entrance, there is usually no one guarding the exit door! We often consider to enter by the exit, rather than stand the line at the entrance and having our chips confiscated, and cameras taken into depository.
5) After our cameras were not allowed in for couple of times, some girls started to smuggle cameras in their bras. It works:) However, after one such successful action, we just noticed there is a cheerful Indian family taking pictures with McDonald's clown, less than 10 metres from the entrance security ...never mind.
6) Getting into the cinema is also tough - if the mall is a military base, the cinema is the headquarters. There is a small metal gate at the entrance - the one, that is always wide open in ordinary cinemas. This one is closed all the time. Only when you are entering the cinema, a porter opens it. But just a little bit (not to let the crowd through!) - you need to kind of crawl. And the others queue, again.
7) Not to be forgotten that the porter checks your tickets. And they check them once more before you enter the hall. Sometimes even in the meantime. This is especially welcome when you are late...
8) Also, because you cannot enter the cinema without tickets, you even cannot check the timetable (you need to go 2 floors downstairs and leave the mall via an emergency exit to check it at the cash desks outside the mall), nor buy those typically expensive "cinema drinks". Not very smart, is it?:)
9) They have 3 price classes: silver, gold, and business. "Business tickets"?
10) Getting around the cinema is a little bit complicated by metal fence barriers that sometimes block entrance even to the hall in which your movie is playing. Well, as soon as you remember that we are actually in a military base, it makes much more sense.
11) European cinema: advertisements, movie trailers, cinema intro, movie
12) Indian cinema: cinema intro, movie, intermission, cinema promo, advertisements, movie trailers, 2nd part of the movie
13) Local people ignore final credits, as it was not part of the movie (many people in Europe suffer from this as well, but definitely not that much) - as soon as the first credits line appear, everyone stands up and leaves. This is particularly awkward/entertaining when the movie continues during the credits. They stand in the aisle, not knowing if they should sit back, or leave:)
14) The intermission, which completely disturbs the flow of the movie, and the "credits thing" make me feel that viewers expectations from the movie are to watch changing colorful images only. At least it is not easy to find another consistent explanation.
15) Despite all "security precautions", they let 4-year girls watch movies that have been rated as restricted, or almost NC-17. You should have seen her face (hiding behind the head rest) when they were shooting Terminator's flesh off...
16) And a positive thing:) - you can "book your popcorn online"!

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to assess what is smart and what is not. This is just how it works.

I don't have any cinema related pictures (see the camera-confiscation points above), so let me include picture from one of bye-bye dinners.

Czech corner
Prestoze jsem puvodne zamyslel chodit do kina alespon jendou tydne na bollywoodske trhaky, prvni 4 tydny jsem se tam nedostal ani jednou, pak jsem jakz takz nasadil tempo 1x tydne do kina (celkem 3x), nicmene pouze anglicke snimky. Posledni tyden nebyl cas (viz minuly post). Tento vikend, pravdepodobne v patek, by to konecne melo klapnout - v planu je New York (Youtube trailer). Mel by to byt trochu netradicni snimek (bez tradicnich bollywoodskych tancu a happyendu, tak jsem zvedav.

Half way through the internship

Almost a week ago, on Monday June 29th, my 7th week (out of 12) in India began. Since then I have a feeling the pace of my life here doubled. And it actually kind of did. As I've already outlined in the previous post about my job, since July 1st onwords I've been giving classes on video editing, as a part of a movie making course for students of bachelor degree of Media and entertainment program ran by ITFT College (see the job post for further details on my employer). And I'm spending a lot of time on preparation - even outside working hours.
If there is time, I'd maybe write few lines about the course, not only because it completely over exceeded my expectations in terms of attitude of students and college management, but also because I have a chance to learn something I probably wouldn't have a chance to do back home. Just in short: the course will last throughout the whole July and comprises of video-editing class (by me), graphics & animation class (by Rosy, the 2nd intern), and camera handling class (by faculty guest).
This also explains why I didn't post anything during last week. First of all there were some evening activities/events almost every day, secondly I had to carry on my class preparation afterwards (for ca. 2-3 hours), which made me struggle with sleep deficit and overall apathy towards blogging:) Now I'm hopefully back to the old habits and will try to keep posting for at least 3 more weeks.

Me with a KFC Zinger sandwich.
Zinger menu proved to be the best choice - it comprises not only of a chicken sandwich, but also a reasonably big piece of fried chicken.

Daily routine
Some of you were asking how my day here looks like. Now, after almost 7 weeks, when it seems no big changes are on the horizon, I feel ready enough to answer this question.

- 7:45-8:00 - wake up
- then - bathroom stuff (as there is usually 1-11 more people in the flat (depending on who is traveling, who already left to work, who just moved in/out, and who is just staying over), the bathroom experience is fairly limited from time to time)
- around 8:15 - breakfast, usually toast bread with cheese spread and tomato (nothing else reasonable is usually available; in either case I need to make sure I bought everything before 9pm the previous day as all shops are closed after that time)
- before 8:30 - set off to work
- after 5-10 min - get on a rickshaw that takes me (and Rosy) to the Housing board (5-minute ride), big junction in between Panchkula and Chandigarh
- another 0 to 15 min - waiting at Housing board for another rickshaw or bus or whatever else that would take us to Chandigarh, sector 17, where the office is (15-minute ride)
- another 1 to 10 min - walking to the office, depending where we were dropped (sometimes it is necessary to take 1 more rickshaw to reach the office, however, such situation is rather exceptional)
- 8:45-9:55 - reaching the office (exact time depends on unpredictable elements of Indian transportation system; some of them have been described above)
- 5 more min - getting my water, just chilling at the AC (or trying to turn it on)
- then - working
- at around 13:00 (sometimes at 16:00) ordering a lunch at the reception desk, or leaving the office if eating out
- following 30-90 min - having lunch
- between 5:30 and 7:30 - leaving the office
- evening...

Evenings are pretty flexible, and of course cannot be generalized. However, we often go for a common dinner with other trainees, which usually takes up to 2 hours. From time to time, we go for a coffee, ice cream, or dinner with some colleagues from work, sometimes we go to theatre or cinema, sometimes we hit a club, or travel to (relatively) nearby places.

Rosy from Mexico, 2nd trainee in my company, in the morning bus.

What I enjoy
I enjoy the whole thing, being here, talking to people, observing cultural differences and trying to understand the country (so far I bel ieve I'm on the right track), and last but not least, I truly enjoy my job, having fun with my colleagues, and chilling with other trainees.
I hope there would be time to write a post about Indian culture, people and all these things related to a daily practice. There are things I really enjoy, but there are also things I don't like at all, or just cannot get grasp of.

Me in my bedroom/living room.

What I lack
I definitely miss a desk. That's it. I can't efficiently work just on the bed, without a proper chair and table. Of course I have these facilities at work, but I don't have time to get to my personal stuff there. Right now, I'm preparing for the September eastern European trip, am about to start looking for a flat in Prague, deal with my job engagements back home, and am trying to prepare for writing my diploma thesis this autumn. None of these is a big deal - it just takes triple time in these conditions.
And some more things, but not the substantial - maybe I'll share them later on.

Oh, I forgot to mention that after 6 weeks in the living room (see the previous post for more details), I eventually had a chance to move to a double room.
We can say that now I have the best bed in the whole flat: 1. it is the only double room (all 3 other double rooms were converted to 3- or 5-bed rooms); 2. it doesn't adjoins with bathroom nor balcony (as all the other rooms do), so no one transits through; 3. the metal door of the "safe" provides ultimate privacy:)
PS: I share a room with Collins from China (notice the feet).

Czech corner
Jak se nechalo tak trochu ocekavat, dostal jsem se do tradicni faze, kdy prestoze je jeste daleko do konce pobytu, je jasne, ze nestihnu dokoncit vse co jsem planoval. Jeste cca 10 dni zpet to tak nevypadalo, ale pote co jsem se zacal vice pripravovat na zminovany video kurz, a zejmena pote co tento kurz zacal, jsem s casem skutecne na stiru a mam pocit, ze jsem se stal "full-time trainee" - tedy mam dost casu venovat se praci a dalsim trainee aktivatam, ktere k praxi patri, nicmene to je tak vse. (Nutno podotknout, ze 90% vsech ostatnich trainees jsou "full-time trainees" a presto stihaji tydenni cestovni vylety a mnoho dalsiho ...ale kvalitu praxi nyni nechme pod poklickou.)
Rozhodne nechci ukrajovat z atmosfery internshipu, nicmene zaroven vim, ze pro ostatni veci zminene v anglicke casti tohoto postu take musim najit cas. Takze si udelam nejaky plan:)