10 June 2008

In the morning I took an auto to Palace Rd. to try to find the Aikido studio. I succeed after going around for half an hour trying to find it. An Indian from the US even tried to help me out, and I eventually got it. The Addresses here can come in fractional notation. So 15/3 Place road meant go to where you would expect house 15 to be, and go into the alleyway to find the 3rd property in this alley. It is a heck of a system, and no one seems to know directions much here from me. I missed class but found where to go for the evening practice and went back home for breakfast. At work we ran the 2nd day processing of samples but the results were quite weak, especially for the A-type response. Vandana believed that the type A antigen was old and not as reactive, so we would increase the concentration next time we tested. I edited her resumé and sent it to my friend as she was interested in a job in the States. Vibha came to work and hung out for a bit. We went to lunch and she told me about how her stay at the vet hospital was going. We ate at the canteen where we’ve taken most of our lunches and I’ve been having breakfast as they are all quite cheap there (25-75 cents). After work I asked how to get to the Art of Living place which did not exist according to the directions I was given. After calling some people, I found that they were not supposed to meet this week anyways so I would go some other time. I thought I could make it back in time for Aikido. I tried the bus with a bit of help and managed to get off in the right neighborhood…but it took some work to get to the right place. I ended up walking through some parts of town that looked pretty shady, but when I had to ask for directions I was treated very nicely. It was certainly new walking through streets filled with auto shops and tent villages. People tried to be helpful, but no one could understand the website’s address they listed and so I did a lot of wandering to try and find this place. After ignoring about 5 people who told me I was in the wrong place completely (that followed 4 people telling me I was close bye but they didn’t know the address), I found the building a block down the road. It seems people don’t walk around their streets very often. Aikido is in a French cultural center called the Alliánce de Français. It ends up this isn’t a far auto ride from school so I need to figure out if it is worth the $2 to take the trip or if the 12 cent buss ride isn’t as bad when I know where I’m going. This time I even made it in time to train some! After missing aikido morning class and art of living, it would have been discouraging to miss another class, especially after such a long bus ride and walk. The Aikido group is cool as they always seem to be. It is a nice group including Stan from the Bronx who has lived in India for a good portion of his life and is settled there. Some familiar advice I got while training was to not dance by taking larger steps, and allow extension to encourage flow. I shared an auto back with a man living in Hebbal (Near where I live). I ate dinner in a place that unfortunately was a smoking bar, but not much was open at that hour and I was starving. After eating I found an ATM and talked to a guy at a sweet shop for a while. He was working on getting his MBA and is living in Bangalore with his brother who is in IT. His sister and parents are in Los Angeles and he plans on moving out with them eventually. He was a pretty easy going guy and fun to talk with. He says the pubs in town are petty fun places to hang out if I have the time to check them out. There seems to be several types of people with views on alcohol in India from traditional non-drinking to drunkard, with apparently more and more people partaking in alcohol as time progresses. I also met a friendly dog on the way back to school but had no leftovers for it on me.

9 June 2008

I went to collect serum samples today with Nagaraj Sir and Hedgre Sir. There were several adult cows and one baby calf that was kept separate. They were looking in good condition and the collection went fast. We returned for the afternoon and ran the Day 1 lab work on some samples. I went to my second day of art of living and hung out with Bayer for the evening. I learned a lot about him that night. He is an interesting guy and is willing to go to pretty far extremes for a good joke if he gets enough of a kick out of it. He had one go one for 6 months leading on a guy. I saw some photos of his family and he showed me some videos he had. He’s a big fan of belly dancing and some of the other Middle Eastern dance styles. It didn’t hurt that the women in them were pretty hot.

8 June 2008

D. Nagaraju took me around to see some of Bangalore today. We visited Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, and a museum of Science and Technology, which interestingly has one of the first exhibits as the Wright’s Brothers plane. We also visited some shopping districts. The major streets are similar to any major city with shops as you would see on a corner in New York with some fashionable goods. Mixed in the more expensive neighborhoods are KFC, McDonalds, Ruby Tuesday, and other fast food/American joints. The major shoping districts are on Commercial St., MG Road, and Brigade St. Some interesting sights also included a stand for Fish Curry and urinals built into the wall along the sidewalk so people don’t urinate on the walls as much.
I met with Dr. Nadeem in the afternoon and moved my belongings into the Scientist Home which is the designated International Hostel. The room is a bit of a cut in luxury with no A/C, a leaky faucet and bucket instead of a shower, and some pretty worn beds, but I had okayed all this as it was also 1/5 the cost of the other room and I’m not a picky person. I also met my neighbor, Bayer Darmel. He is an Afghani Pharmacy Masters student with his BVSC already done. He has been at this school a year away from his wife and child and has another year to go. He is very social, has a good sense of humor, and is great company. He is even coming to Purdue when he is done in Bangalore to continue his studies. He keeps a pet bunny named Angel that is an adorable white rabbit with blue eyes. A woman flagged me down in the road and told Dr. Nadeem and me that an Art of Living meeting was going to take place that afternoon. This is the same group that teaches yoga to the vet class at Purdue so I thought it would be fun to see what the course is like. Their meetings are pretty lively. There is a lot of singing and towards the end people get up and dance. Smiling is also strongly enforced. Definitely the most lively meditation session I’ve gone to. I signed up for the basic weeklong course later in the month. I went to Sapna Delight for dinner and had the tomato black pepper soup and paneer tikka (one of my first dry dishes since coming here). Paneer tikka was paneer cheese sandwiched between onion and bell pepper with spice. It tasted best with some sauce (Ketchup). While leaving I saw my first rat, which seems as though it took a while for being in a city. It was a cute brown one, a bit smaller than my pet female one.

7 June 2008

I didn’t have to work today but had nothing else to do. I jogged in the morning then collapsed for a bit before going in. I showed some of my coworkers some wrist stretches as Nagaraj sir was complaining about having a tight wrist since a motorcycle accident he had. I even amused them with a few rolls. I met with Dr. Nadeem briefly who just got back from a conference in Iran and is setting up my housing. I failed at finding a cyber café in Ganganager but not signs for them, so I think I just went while they were not open. It was interesting to wander around the town a bit though. All and all it was a fairly uneventful day though.

Back in Action

So, I kinda got caught up in, taking care of business, relaxing, and other such things since getting back, and so you might of noticed that I haven't done anything with my blog in a few months. Well, by popular demand (Mike/Captain) I'm going to try to get a few more entries in more often than never. It's going to switch up to, hopefully, a bit more interactive blog, as I go through professional school. I am having trouble figuring out what the heck I want to do with my life. So now, I'm going to add some influence to the hands of my adoring public...if anyone reads it and responds. So I'll get a bit of my problems out there, and what my dilemma's are, the pros and cons on my list, and the cool things I'm up to and want to be up to. So, for now, I'm gonna peace out and study up for my exams this coming week, but stay tuned for more adventures in the life of Nelson. Cheers.

5/6 June 2008

I began working at the Institute of Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Biologicials (IAH&VB) in the FMD lab running ELISA tests. I’ll give a procedural rundown of what we do at some point, but mostly we pipette bits of liquid from one tray to another and incubate it, wash it, and repeat. Work went pretty smooth. I show up around 10:30, work at a relaxed pace, and get to sit around while plates incubate, which is a lot of the time. We can have about a 2 hour lunch if we don’t need to take plates out, and we can leave by 5. It’s really a pretty sweet deal if not a little one-tracked and repetitive. The lab breakdown is as follows: Boss- Dr. Hedgre who I met before and our group decided reminded us of Dr. Snyder from home. He’s quite friendly with me but he is a boss for everyone else, so the dynamic is a bit different. I know technically he is my boss but I’m not getting paid and only work one month so there’s no real worry.

4 June 2008

I took a flight back to Bangalore this morning. On the plane I saw a new eye color in a child. Now, this might not seem like much, but I kind of thought I’ve seen plenty of eyes to get more or less all the colors there are. This is the first time to see coal colored eyes though. They were not the dark black that loses the pupil, or brown that commonly surrounds it, but a smoky grey that highlights both the black pupil and white cornea as an intermediate of the two. The flight wasn’t bad, and I’m much more confident traveling now. I took a cab that ripped me off huge for the trip to the college. I learned the area we are staying in is called Ganganager which is a good direction to give people who are driving me. I also found that there is a techno remix of ‘We Will Rock You.’

3 June 2008

I think we just hung out at the apartment this day. Mostly we rested but in the afternoon Uncle gave us a talk on a topic in philosophy he has studied extensively. He grew up on the principles of Veyda that is the philosophy of the way of life through Hinduism as an ancient way. Scientology, apparently is based on the same principles as Veyda and more or less adapted the old principles to a modern lifestyle. In America, other than the legitimate reasons, Scientology catches a lot of flack for talking about non-Christian principles that are actually based in quite ancient philosophy such as the union of a single soul with the source of all souls. It was an interesting presentation that he had apparently been approached by the heads of scientology to prepare and give at a college. I think they were looking for a way to take some of the heat off their criticism, as this is very strong. While I don’t agree with Scientology’s methods of business, and they come off as used car salesmen, it was nice to see they have some deeper roots and are doing some good in communities worldwide. Some people might write it off for this reason too, claiming it just stole another philosophy’s principles, but to put the time and energy to research and revive those principles for modern day society is a notable accomplishment in my eyes still.

2 June 2008

Today we visited several of Vibha’s family members. We started taking a bus to her Uncle (Momma) Krishna’s house. This bus was on IST and took an hour to get there, but otherwise wasn’t so bad. We met her (new to the family) Aunt here who she had not met since the marriage. She was a wonderful hostess and had a lovely well kept home. She is a friendly energetic young woman that served us some ice cream. She speaks English very well like most people in Mumbai. Afterwards we went off to another Aunt (Vijaya Pati)’s house. Here we were served food. Lots and lots of food. Lemon rice, rice with sambar and ghee, curd rice, sweet rice, eggplant and chutney. All of it good, and piled high on my plate till I could feel it climbing back up my esophagus. She apologized this was all she had prepared…. I don’t know why people are not massive here. The heavy use of rice might have something to do with it, as rice has a lot of air and water that makes up the bulk of it while still tasting delicious. I noticed I actually ask for curd rice now. It is a taste I took to be polite earlier, but have grown quite fond of, and it can help cool you down (I didn’t buy that at first either, but the more I buy it, the more it works). Try to imagine cottage cheese, rice, leaves (taste a bit like basil), and some fruit (usually pomegranate seeds). We decided to leave before we could no longer move and so went to another Pati and Momma’s house. This was an older couple (as was the Pati we just visited). They were quite friendly and showed some old pictures painted by Vibha’s Pati. Her uncle was really friendly and made an effort to talk to me. Mostly the family just talked about family things in Thamil though. They have three children dispersed to Dubai, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. We left after some tang, tea and cookies. The Uncle took us to the bus stop where we took a bus back to the house. While waiting for busses today I learned the Hindi symbols for 0-9. As we went and came we passed by a Mosque that was built on an island in the Arabian Sea. It was quite beautiful and is a well-known sight in Mumbai. The city is one of the most built up I’ve been around here with lots of skyscrapers and more going up. The city is pretty clean other than the smog that is in every city. For dinner we had pani poori. Pani poori requires construction. You get hollowed out crispy puff shells. Fill them with potatoes and spice. Add some turmeric sauce, and dunk them in a broth. They are pretty good, though I don’t know how I ate more. After this I got the basics of Hinduism from Uncle that will get a section later. The houses here are usually really open with large windows open with no screens though often there are metal bars. It is not strange to have a bird hop in the window from the sill. Even the construction reflects this. Some buildings have a tree growing through one side and out the other, or right through the middle.
I was talking with a friend and pulled a good quote I’m just going to insert here: “It is amazing to see an Eastern Culture face Westernization and a strong drive of Economic Growth while it is in the middle of so much change.”

1 June 2008

We were both tired and took the day to rest. For lunch we had the best bean dish ever. I was told it had all three pulses in it, which I took as a good thing. Uncle (I refer to her family members and Auntie and Uncle), is a healer in homeopathy and studies veydic philosophy as well as other things. He sporadically meets with patients at the house, and gave me some throat pills as I had been having some difficulty. Anyone who knows me back home knows my nose runs all year, but people are still trying to fix it here. His homeopathy medicine consists of dilute residues in sugar pills you place under your tongue. In the evening we watched a really exciting Cricket match between Chennai Superkings and the Rajasthan Royals. The entire game came down the last pitch when the Royals pulled out a run to break the tie and win. I learned most of the rule for Cricket in this match and I’ll give a breakdown in a talk later for those interested.

31 May 2008

We went to a bazaar today but I wasn’t feeling it. I have to know what I want really badly before I will go through arguing to the bone about price on something I’m being sold. Chandni Chowk is the name of the bazaar we went too, and it could have been a lot of fun if I was in the mood. Several people got some good items there like shoes. We ate a big lunch before Vibha and I skipped out to the airport for our flight to Mumbai. We found some delays here too, and so played hang-man and sat in the airport. We met her family and had a truly delicious dinner. Afterwards we relaxed watching Indian Idol with some very lenient judges. I did some email and helped Vibha remember our classes from last year as she e-mailed her little sib that had contacted her.

30 May 2008

We found Shinee though she is not as helpful as we hoped. We get a car though, and wander the city a bit. We wanted to go to an outdoor bazaar, but the driver just kept taking us to normal shops. Not a bad day though. It ended early and we simply relaxed at the hotel for the evening.

29 May 2008

So we boarded the bus to Agra, which was accented by the smoke of incense filling the bus. My lungs don’t take kindly to smoke weather it be exhaust, cigarette, or incense, so in spite of the aroma, it was a less than enjoyable way to start my day. After this I basically slept on the 3 hour trip down. The first stop was Fort Agra. This was a fortress built by the Mughals and then used by many other inhabitants to follow. The fort was never taken while it was used as originally intended. Now tour groups invade it every couple hours. It was beautiful architecture with red sandstone and marble sections. It is surrounded by a dry moat that would have been filled with poisonous snakes and lions. There is a photo of the sign that gives the history of the fort for those interested. Moving on, we made our way to some shopping where we got some of the same stuff we have been used to seeing for those who wanted to pick any elephants, or Taj Mahals up. From here we went to the actual Taj Mahal, or Crown Palace. The pictures you get of this place don’t do it justice as you might imagine. The larger than life creation is an amazing sight filled with nuances of detail that are truly wonderful. We paid our IRPs 750 while Vibha paid her IRPs 10 to get in. Foreigners really get ripped off. Luckily our fee came with a free guide that showed us around and showed off the wonderful alignment of the palace’s symmetrical gates, echo-enhancing double dome structure (the dome of the Taj Mahal actually has another smaller dome inside it to cause echo to reverberate), and optical illusions built in to the palace. After this we took some lunch (thali is apparently a sample platter or meal) and left for home. On the way we hit up the birthplace of Krishna (One of the incarnations of Vishnu) which was actually a prison. Krisha is one of the most well known Gods of the Hindu religion and is recognizable by the flute he is almost always playing. He is renowned for his charm, good nature, and as the most beautiful person on the planet. Most people seem to add on “in spite of also being very dark skinned if you can imagine.” The Indian culture is not one that is so proud of dark skin, and products such as ‘fair and beautiful/handsome’ are mainstream skin care products supposed to give fairer complexion. There is usually surprise when they find we often believe dark skinned people are beautiful, and fair skinned often are not. Krishna has a nice temple here now too. Unfortunately pictures in temples are forbidden, and so I have none to show, but there are some of the outside of some temples. We boarded the bus and slept most of the way back. In the morning there was a movie we watched about brothers who grew up boxing for India that was pretty good. There was drama in the family, reconciliation, humor mixed in, and good values all around. The movies are long here though, with 3-4 hours not being strange.

28 May 2008

We tried going to a bank, after meeting with the members of the Institute (IAH & VB) led by Director Renukuprasad. The group was definitely on IST though, and we had to do a mad dash after this to get to the airport for our flight…which by this time were running on time. So after failing at the banks across the street which were actually just ATMs, we had to simply leave and have people trust me with the money to get to Dr. Nadeem when I returned. We rushed to Dr. Nadeem’s house where his wife and daughter had made us lunch that was AMAZING! Now I like Indian food and all, but this was spectacular. 5 of us then managed to pile into a car with ALL the luggage and a driver to meet the others at the airport. This involved 1/2 of the car to be on someone else’s lap and no way to see out the back. The ridiculousness of this all resulted in lots of stares (more than the usual) towards our car. We made it…barely getting through security due to a 15 minute delay and flew to Delhi. We knew we had to find someone with a name that sounded like ‘shiny’ that worked for Panicker’s travel agency. While the name of the agency did not instill a great sense of security, Dr. Nadeem had faith in them, and he has let to lead us astray. We would not find ‘shiny’ for two days, but a small bus got us to a hotel and all was good. A brief debate over room cost, we settled in to rooms with cable TV, toilet paper stocked, and a shower that had a curtain. We slept then…till 3:00am for our 4:00am bus to Agra.

27 May 2008

We had another clinc day and I spent the time in internal medicine. We saw an endoscopy done on a dog and found minor mucosal ulcerations in the stomach. We had a meeting with Dean Yathiraj to discuss the program likes and dislikes for the following group.
Pros:
• Zoos
• Weddings
• Temples
• Silkworms
• Shopping
• Cultural programs
• Village Visits
• Movie
• Babies
• Elephants
• Wildlife
Cons/Wants:• Did not get to see actual fisheries in Mangalore
• Travel should be reduced and we can take or leave the sleeper bus.
• More clinics wanted with less Bacterology/Virology.
• More student interaction wanted.
• More Internet access needed.
• More Large animal experiences-perhaps split group by interest.
• Know money upfront
• Learn about the school earlier on.
We went and rested up at the KVC after clinics to pack up for the trip tomorrow to Delhi.

26 May 2008

Actually spent the day at the veterinary college. We saw several presentations on animal disease and what India was like. Over 70% of the population is in the rural sector here. Ownership of livestock is evenly distributed among landless laborers and marginal farmers. The school was inaugurated in 2004 as the 5th Veterinary school in the state. Some breeds of animals endemic to the region are the Malnad Gidda cattle, South Kenara Buffalo, and Bandur sheep. Institutes under the college include dairy science, toxicology, vaccine research, and wildlife veterinary medicine. The school runs regional diagnostic centers and health camps for training as well. There are BVSC+AH, MVS, and PhD degrees offered by the school. We saw one Dr. do a flank spay in a stray dog with amazing time. He says he slowed it down for us and can do them in 5-6 minutes. We went home and cleaned up a bit before going to a building where some students did some Indian cultural dances. At the end we got up and they taught us some popular dances and had an all around good time. We finished the night eating Domino’s Pizza at KVC and some of the girls had Henna done by Dr. Nadeem’s Daughter.

25 May 2008

We started the day@ the beach where we found shells, crabs, and the usual ocean stuff. It is cool to see a whole new ocean though. Now, I’m at very least an amateur entomologist, and I’ve seen big horse flies, and other flies before; but here…here is the fattest, largest fly I have ever encountered. I only saw them hovering around, but I believe if one were to desire, it could of given me a nice piercing…say though my liver. We left and headed to the zoo when people had their fill of long walks on the beach. The zoo here is very well kept with good labels which has been a problem in some of the other places we have visited. Labeling seems to be skimped on a lot, but not here, even lots of the trees are labeled which is cool for me as a tree lover. I learned that the crazy red squirrels seen earlier at the zoo are called Giant Indian Squirrels, and a cool cute bird I saw at the hotel in Shimoga is called a Red-Whiskered Bul Bul. Also, many of the birds I called hawks were Kites. There were 10 month old tiger cubs that looked almost full grown and an army of snakes and lizards of varying degrees of toxicity. A zoo worker even jumped in the porcupine pen to get me a quill. One of Dr. Nadeem’s friends in the Poultry Industry, took us out to a buffet lunch in an extremely fancy hotel. The food was delicious and followed by a trip to get giant mango special ice cream, which about exploded us. He showed us the church at the catholic school he went to growing up. It was incredibly well painted, crafted, and designed. We went around some and looked at temples where Vibha showed us some of the ropes and told some of the stories. It was a fairly good time. Our flight was grossly delayed (about 8 hours), and we stayed at the house of the man who took us out to dinner before. We got to watch TV, use Internet, and we taught him and Dr. Nadeem some card games. We got some pictures with him, and enjoyed some ginger-lime juice, which was a new experience I recommend to try if you want a refreshing drink.
We went to the airport and waited…a lot. Dr. Nadeem is not the guy to make wait when you claim your plane is on time and ready. He called the press. Luckily for us (as No one wanted to deal with press as we were all half asleep) the airport found us a plane and sent us to Bangalore before they got there.

24 May 2008

We arrived in Bangalore in the morning where we repacked and moved out to Mangalore. This was the first day the new Domestic Airport was open in Bangalore, and it took some waiting, but we made it eventually. We stopped at a fisheries college where we learned about various aquaculture diseases. Whitespot is a hughe problem for shellfish here, and the college developed a quick test to diagnose it, which is cheaper and more specific than the PCR alternative. An oral biofilm vaccine for EUS seems to be developed here as well. The college actually had some really great research papers out and I was quite impressed with the material they tackled here, especially in the areas of molecular biology and antibody diagnostics. The area of the country is beautiful in Mangalore with great hills, and forest lining the ocean. Our hotel also turned out to be a surprise as it was also a water park! We rode water slides, swam around, and rode a giant Ferris wheel. We then were treated to a very nice dinner by one of Dr. Nadeems associates. We then went back to the hotel where we failed to have a dance party due to lack of music and energy. While I was restless I took some time to see what pictures of the night sky I could get with some exciting results.

23 May 2008

Today was a crazy day. We woke up early to wash elephants in a river, that’s right. After this we took some rides on the elephants. Some of the babies were still breast-feeding which was something I never imagined I would see. The elephants ranged from 3 months to 76 years old at the camp. Not a bad range for a group of maybe 15. This was followed by stopping off at a very decorative temple of Shiva. Shiva is one of the main Hindu gods, recognizable by the snakes he wears, trident, and river (often spouting from a woman’s mouth) that springs from his hair. He is the god of destruction and recreation, or change. I’ll summarize my Hindu mythology lessons later in a piece, but for now I want to mention that after visiting a Shiva temple, you are to dust yourself off or you may carry the dust of the temple that can carry destruction with it. We moved on to a wildlife safari on a bus. On the way back we saw a ritual going on in a nearby village as they were celebrating Durga puja. Music was playing and people watched on as a man in a trance pulsed to music while kneeling on the floor. Afterwards several goats were decapitated and had their left forearm severed and placed in their mouth. It is safe to say no one in the group had seen this before. Dr. Nadeem had been wanting pictures of this for a lecture on comparison of slaughter methods used. The whole process was done in one stroke for each head with a very large curved knife, similar to the ones used to cut our young coconuts we’ve enjoyed. The villagers were very nice and the children liked to say hi to us in English like most places we go. We ended the day with dinner at the hotel where people wound down to absorb the day’s events before going to board a sleeper bus we took back. I use the term ‘sleeper’ lightly, but I am sure I managed to get a few hours in.

22 May 2008

Shimoga is a nice town but a bit dustier than Bangalore, Our hotel is pretty choice with colored lighting on each floor at night and pretty cush rooms. We had a meeting with a vet director we met randomly at breakfast that helps fund Dr. Nadeem’s programs. They invited us to a groundbreaking ceremony for the boys hostel at the new vet school going up. It was a bit more involved than a guy with a shovel in America. Rather, a priest chanted and blessed the earth involving several rituals. We took some photos, schmoozed a bit and took off to the elephant camp. It is interesting though that classes are being taught at this school before there are even buildings up for all the classes and students (and this one is scheduled to be finished in two years).
The elephant camp is pretty nice. The elephants are gathered every morning from the forest, brought to the river and washed, fed, and had oils put on their forehead. Not a bad deal if you are an elephant I’d imagine. The elephants have been trained, if you stand in front of them, to bless you. So you can go and pray in front of them and they will place their trunk on your head as if adorning you with holy water or some such (in this case holy drips of mucous). It is pretty cute to watch, especially when even the babies will do it. We would visit back again tomorrow, but we left to see a cattle ranch that has all India Native breeds of cattle. These cattle come in many shapes and sizes from small cows that are so friendly they will meet you at the gate and nuzzle you (not that any of the cattle are any more mean, just not so actively affectionate) to the giant cattle with horns longer than your legs. Most of them are medium sized gray cattle with a hump though that I cannot tell apart. These are often divided by the state from which they originated and some less superficial traits than I can observe in the hours we are there.

I think this is also the night we saw a movie in a theater. Jennat was a Hindi flick about getting caught up in the game of match fixing for Cricket. I don’t know that I’ve mentioned it yet, but Cricket is huge here. People play everywhere and I have no idea what is going on yet. I know that runs are good, wickets are bad, bowlers pitch, and you can get up to six runs with a good hit. I’ll figure it out later and perhaps enlighten my readers who care.

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Thanks Dad, Mom, and David for the support!

21 May 2008

Early morning we went on a safari in a bus. We saw 2 elephants, 1 peacock, 1 Langur monkey, herds of spotted deer, several wild boars, 2 mongooses, and one eagle. I came back and saw a cool ascilid and an antlion adult while a few of us watched some of the other jungle inn visitors played cricket. I played a few rounds of badminton with LaTisha and relaxed for a while.
The day was relaxing with a long car ride delayed by rain back to Bangalore. We re-packed our bags once we returned for 4 days of washing elephants and hitting the beach. I cracked open Matt’s coconut from the wedding with my hoof pick (as of yet the most useful it has been to me at vet school) and we left for the train. As we purchased some food at the train station, a barrage of beggars met us. This has not been an unfamiliar sight thus far, but we were waiting for Dr. Nadeem and had no place to escape to this time as women with babies and small children would give us the gesture for food and perhaps even the children would attach themselves to a leg. Here there was even an extra element of a terrible smell. None of this was so disappointing as the way we talked about them. The shock or disbelief that they would resort to such tactics to get some money from us is ridiculous in itself. I don’t know how we can be so close in proximity to poverty and so removed from the situation of it. I knew I would be face to face with the impoverished when I came to India, and I was thinking this would be a part of the society that I would like. I would rather have death and poverty be in the open where people know it is a problem, instead of behind closed doors and swept under carpets as I feel it can be in America. While I most always ignore beggars, I will always wish them well and not dehumanize them. Their pain is far more distressing than any annoyance they could impart. I can only hope that society around the world can advance to a point that allows them a more noble, useful, and healthy position in life. The train was a fun trip. The compartments each had six beds: Top, middle that folds out, and bottom that is a seat normally on each side. I was on the middle bunk between Libby and Ms. Matthew. Somehow, Dr. Nour and Dr. Nadeem messed up the roster and Matt was marked as a female. We saved the paper to document this. I slept more or less well, and in the morning it was cool to get to hang off the side of the train as it moved along. I recommend this to anyone as a method of waking up.

20 May 2008

Some sight seeing around Mysore today was scheduled. We visited the Golden Temple and a Giant statue of a cow called Nandi. With all the temples and spiritual icons, the trip can really make you think of religion at times, or at least has for me. It may be the lack of religious upbringing that has inspired the surge recently, but I think anyone could appreciate the mixture of spirituality. It can make it difficult to interact with people who are religious in a strict sense at times, but usually this is a rarity at least. I think mostly I do not like the restrictions in life choices that either having religion or not offers you, as so much of the world will be different from your view no matter your choice. Either way, there is no use worrying over such matters when I have wonderful opportunities available to me either in spite of or due to my life choices. Mysore Palace is a beautiful place with incredibly ornate carved wood and stonework. Windows and stones pieced together in ornate patterns and religious icons along the walls and ceilings give the palace an epic feeling as you walk by icons of the royalty that stayed there. Unfortunately they don't allow cameras...so there's the front gate. We make our way to Nagarhole, which is a cute eco/cultural tourism spot near Bandipur Park. Butteflies abound and other wildlife as well. A cute skink even let itself get caught for a few minutes. We visited a nearby village.
The people are friendly, but it is definitely impoverished with the children looking bloated and filthy. There is a school and many houses. Some of the families even pose for pictures for us with some of the animals wandering around. As night comes, we get a tribal dance from a local group that is quite lively and then some dinner. Most of the dinner is Indian but French fries and potato chips are a sight for sore eyes for lots of the group.

19 May 2008

I woke up praying my clothes dried over night as washing and drying is by hand and air. Mostly this worked out but my towel could stand a few more hours. Regardless everything went in a bag and we had a 1-hour trip to Mysore which was mostly taken trying to get out of Bangalore which has a sprawl stretching pretty far out. There is graffiti everywhere, and posters plastered along the city walls so much that the bear walls seem out of place. Ornate temples spot the scenery with bright colors accenting the ornate sculptures of deities. It is a strange place but pleasant at the same time. The only thing I worry about are pickpockets, but I am bound to lose (and have) more than they would ever be able to take from me. I do not feel out of place or uncomfortable around here, it is nice (aside from the smog).
Mysore zoo is very well kept and organized. I got to help feed elephants with the group, which was extremely exciting. The mouth of an elephant is a really strange sight, as the teeth seem to be only in the back. We are told the digestive tract is exactly the same as if they were a large horse. We also got to hold a baby leopard cub, which was precious. A blind leopard was an interesting sight as well. They had captured a wild tiger that killed 30-40 head of cattle in a town, and said it was “well on it’s way to being tame.” Most of us were skeptical as it lunged the bars of the cage roaring. Apparently a few weeks ago it was basically climbing the ceiling of the cage it was in, so had calmed down much. We met Wally, a chimpanzee that would drink from a bottle the zoo keepers held and hit Matt, Tamika, and Myself with a good spit. Better than some others that got some urine on their shoes from a nearby chip that has pulled out all his hair, giving it the very haunting appearance of a strange old man. It has been a good day so far, and it is about to get better. We went to help with a vasectomy of a Spotted Deer. So the Deer populations at the zoo over produce themselves for the enclosures they have, and they must be controlled.


Unfortunately if you castrate them, they lose many of the traits that make them so attractive (such as antlers). One of the Doctors shot the deer with a dart rifle while they were feeding the herd. They were after a subadult male, and got him right in the back leg. In about ten minutes he was out, and they went to place him on a net and tarp to carry him to the front. They scrubbed him in, removing the hair with an actual hand razor, not an electric one, and did the vasectomy. Some time through the surgery, the jugular IV fluids blew. The asked someone to place it in the cephalic, and I obliged. Unfortunately, this too blew, even though it went in fine…twice. After this, Matt had a chanse to put it in the jugular on the other side. He hit it fine too but it rolled out, and so the doctor stuck it straight in at a perpendicular angle. We have never tried this before…but it worked pretty darn well for the deer. It seems our labs with cattle helped us find the right anatomy, but didn’t give us the right technique for a new animal. We then helped carry the deer to the isolation area so it could recover well before joining back with the herd. After this we went to Brindavan Garden, home to the famous musical light show. It was like an extremely packed carnival that you crossed a bridge loaded with people to get to. The fountain light show was pretty exciting, and all the people in the crowd knew every song they played. We spent the night at a golf club that one of the zoo veterinarians was a member of, and watched Kindergarten cop in our (Matt and mine) room with Vibha and Tamika.

18 May 2008

We stopped quickly at a veterinarian’s house that raised dairy cows. They were lined up outside and perhaps some of the cleanest animals I have yet to see. They almost looked ready for show. Even as we were there, as soon as an animal defecated, someone would run up and sweep it into a pan to discard. These cows are kept in the back of his house where he and his family live. Families are quite large here, with the husband, wife, and husband’s parents living in a house with their children. The house is quite nice too, and we are offered some Indian soft drinks. Glass bottles of Limca (lemon lime soda) or Thumbs-Up Cola were quite refreshing. Several of the cows had an extra teat, which seems to be somewhat common. He has sold some cows for about RPS 55,000.
We were traveling now outside Bangalore to see how silk was manufactured. Perhaps one of the earliest bioreactors, the silkworm caterpillars have been harvested for many years to produce their valuable fiber. We saw the process in reverse order, but for sanity’s sake, I’ll rearrange it from start to finish for the reader(s). Male and female Silkworm Moths are placed in small containers where they mate and the female lays her eggs. The eggs are laid on the bottom of the container, which is actually a sheet of paper with disk outlines where the container fits over. These papers are hung up until the baby silkworms hatch. The hatched eggs are placed in a basket of shredded mulberry leaf where the young caterpillars eat to their hearts content. The livestock is kept organized by the number of molts it undergoes. They are generally kept in dark cool rooms. The leaves don’t seem to be changed, even when they dry out, but the caterpillars make it through just fine. After the caterpillars mature, they are placed in large boards with concentric circles of woven plant forming compartments where the caterpillar will form their cocoon. The cocoons are harvested and sold at market by the thousand. The cocoons are bought and brought in baskets to a room where they are placed in boiling water. A spinning wheel catches the fiber that is released in the water, weaving together a thread of silk to a large spinning wheel. This silk is then brought to another machine that spins together three of these threads into one single thread. The discarded cocoons can be used as cattle feed after they are dried in the sun. The silk threads are then treated with dye to take color. This also seems to have a softening affect on the fiber, creating a truly wonderful feeling tread. The thread is then woven by semi-automated machines that follow a pattern dictated by punched holes in wooden blocks, much like a player piano, or old computer. The thread can be mixed with other fabric threads and have metallic accents added to create spectacular vibrant patterns. The finished product is six feet of material suitable for a saree.

17 May 2008

We traveled to Bannerghatta Zoo and saw the lions, tigers and sloth bears. Most of the cases the veterinarians treat here are lacerations from animals playing too rough or getting in fights. There was one mass on a tiger that was undergoing liquefaction from a necrotic center. A lion with a swelled ankle was receiving prednisalone. The animals did not have species specific dosing charts, and were simply dosed as a large housecat. Most of the bears were happy, and friendly with relatively few injuries. All had holes through their noses where they had rings placed while they performed in circuses. India has a ban now on all use of wild animals for performance in circuses and such. (I do not know if this applies to snake charmers.) There was a surgery suite next to here where some animals have been treated. A big-cat or bear surgery must be quite the experience. One lion with a hormone imbalance had lost his mane and looked more feminine. The Siberian tigers were kept separate and were larger in size. These cats were fasted every other day as they would not find food every day in the wild, this was more natural for them. The Dr. expressed how she wished all animals could be fed more naturally, opposed to what is convenient, but the animals were healthy and there is a lot of beaurocracy to go through to change anything in the zoo. She even has had to stop them from keeping all the animals completely isolated from one another, because the zoo thought there would be less injuries, but did not account for the mental well being of the animals. Most food was proportioned based on the sex and age of the animal, and not actual weight. Special needs animals that might have a sore mouth were switched from beef to chicken, liver, and milk. There is a tree with bright red flowered all around here, and Vibha showed us how to make a pop sound with the petals that she used to do when she was young. We toured the zoo, seeing the giant red squirrels, king cobras, hornbills, monkeys, hippos, and other animals. The zoo had a small diagnostic laboratory that was a satellite of the institute we were being trained at. They could run blood work and pathology there. The on call vet that took us around was an energetic, fun woman named Dr. Roompa. We had a nice dinner out with to Dean of the College and got to use an Internet café even, for 20 minutes, as some of the girls were measured for their sarees.

16 May 2008

Virology lab covered infection of chicken embryos as a diagnostic and culture practice. This allowed for specific lesions to form that might help identify a virus. We also learned how to subculture in the afternoon. There was a presentation on wildlife disease and epidemiology that was interesting. The presentation gave a good perspective on the variety of diseases affecting Indian wildlife. After relaxing a student (Ishmael) drove some of us to commercial street so the rest could fit in our rented car more easily. The girls all picked out sulvar suits and sarees. Matt and I traveled around and bought some knick-knacks and recharged my phone minutes. I learned that the “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” was a symbol of Mahatma Gandhi. Afterwards we ate some Chinese food with the driver at a pretty classy restaurant. A few people even got a few drinks for the occasion. Outside here we met a girl that was frantically trying to sell roses to us. The fear in her eyes was truly terrifying to witness in such a young girl. She could not even take out money or candy when I offered it until I put it in her hand and closed it around the coins. Most people in the group did their best to ignore her. I only gave her the seven rupees change I had, but I hope she finds kinder crowds than us in the future. We drove back to the guesthouse with people piled on laps and good times were had all around aside from the one incident. The girls were about as giddy as possible after getting the chance to shop.

15 May 2008

We switched over to virology lab for the second day and learned about 1˚, sub and 2˚ cultures of cell lines, trypsinization, filtration, tools, media, and labeling of virology . After this I got my first use of internet since coming here which was nice to have. Dr. Chandranaik is an interesting teacher. He talks a little fast, but we follow ok. We are asked if we understand every few minutes, and if he doesn’t believe you he asks what you understand. When he asks questions, he gives you his answer, independent of the correctness of your answer, which I can’t tell if it is just for repetitions sake or not. We have a chicken burrito type thing for lunch, then visit a pug breeder. He says his business peaked after Vodaphone (a popular cell phone company) started an add campaign featuring a pug that followed a child around helping them have things they forgot. It is an extremely cute advertisement. The breeder imported some of his males from across the world, including one star from Florida. The Puppies can be sold for $400-$4000. The breeder is a Veterinarian who has us at his nice house. We get tea or coffee and some biscuits before heading off. The Indian standard for pugs is more compact and round in character than their American counterparts. In the afternoon we finished our morning lab and I saw my first wild Indian Monkeys! They walked about 2 ft. away from me actually, which was awesome, though I was a bit more excited about it than the monkey. In the evening we toured Bangalore. Some gorgeous botanical gardens were visited that was massive, but it was only myself, Matt, Tamika, and LaTisha that got to see it with Dr. Nadeem as the others were shopping. There was even a bonsai garden and lotus pond, with a glass house in the center of the park. The town hall was nicely made with a beautiful park in front that many people seemed to enjoy picnicking on. We drove by the largest Mosque in Bangalore and a huge race track with over 1000 horses housed there. Just driving around has been an adventure with the ox-pulled carts through the streets and amazing agility of our vehicle and driver. Following this, we joined the rest of the group to attend a wedding reception. Sitting near the front row, we watched as a seemingly never-ending line of people went to congratulate the bride and groom on a stage that was ornately decorated. There they posed for pictures and video, which was taken by people all around. Traditional and non-traditional music played in the background or was performed. Even we went up to congratulate the couple and were videoed and photographed with them. The wedding was for a sister of a veterinary technician Dr. Nadeem knew threw Dr. Shivaprakash. There was a teacher that talked to us there and was fun to speak with. He first attempted to introduce his grandchild to us (who wanted nothing less than this and squirmed away to play with other children). He said it was an inter-caste marriage but people were quite happy supporting them. These events are more frequently occurring now. This was followed by lots of really good food. Spicy tomato soup, a bunch of rice, curd rice, some bread stuff, a desert that is like a donut hole soaked in sweet milk, and one that is like a lemon/lime sugar rope. There was also fruit, ice cream, and betel pan. Everyone in the group tried the betel pan this time, weather they enjoyed it or not. One unfortunate incident involved salt being placed next to the fruit…which Lauren and Erin believed was sugar. Lauren took the brunt of this as she took the first bite of the startling food. Most of the girls ogled over the beautiful clothing, as they were already planning out their own sarees and sulvar suits. The girls also got marked foreheads and garlands of Jasmine in their hair. We each got a coconut for a parting gift. I was thirsty when I got back so cracked my coconut open and had a drink and snack. A bunch of us hung out talking till 1am, mostly talking about school and whatever else life is for us.

14 May 2008

After Breakfast we went to the Bacteriology Lab. While it moved slowly for some of the students yesterday, they seemed to take the response into account and move it along at a good pace with more involvement today. We ran a PCR and electrophoresis, and looked at several bacterial cultures. There is a photo of the Bacilis anthracis colony that causes Anthrax, also Clostridium tetani (tetanus), and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB). We were given a slide show of various diseases that helped us differentiate between Blue Tongue, PPR, and FMD in the field setting based on oral lesion location. Some pamphlets on various diseases were given to us which the 3rd years told us would be invaluable to us next year. One doctor gave us a brief astrology talk as he has studied almost every type of healing modality on top of having a veterinary degree. Following this we went to the Clinic. We looked at past radiographs taken of GI abnormalities. Some pictures can be put up later. It seems pica is a big problem here, and a stomach full of mud is not too unusual. We saw how to run a reagent standardized creatinine blood test which was interesting. The automatic chemistry panels most clinics have back home make life much easier than this.

An interesting case of a Yellow Lab with Osteosarcoma in the Left hind femur. The leg was massive for the already obese dog. Even with amputation the dog would have a grave prognosis, and most treatment is supportive. A Napoleon Mastiff came in with a bite wound that had turned gangrenous which reminded me of that familiar smell from the veterinary clinic I worked at 5 years ago. A female cat came in with a bite wound they presumed was due to post-mating aggression. Also we saw a Roti that played a bit too rough with his St. Bernard housemate and formed some small stress fractures in his leg. There was no need to really treat this, We went home and I still wasn’t eating much so I had a mango for dinner. For some reason I think I’m allergic to something in the room as I’m breaking out in hives on my arms at times, but who knows. I saw an add for the Morning After Pill asking “Afraid you might be pregnant after last night?” For some reason I still didn’t expect this in India. The close families and living situations did not seem to be conducive to needing it as much. Like I said though, India needs a close look. There was news report in Delhi about a man being put in Jail for 10 years for forcing his wife to abort a child. This was the first I had heard of a crime like this. Some of the more obvious things that seem big here are 70’s clothing (big collars, bell bottoms, mustaches, etc.). Also there are adds for Foster’s Beer all over the place for some reason.

13 May 2008

I woke up earlier than my alarm again, feeling ready for a solid day of work. Soon after this my body decided to go on strike. I was dehydrated, cramping up, and nauseous. I don’t know if this is due to anything big, or just because I took my anti-malarial after my meal last night and so it did not process well in my system over night. I also hypothesize that I have literally filled the capacity of my system with food to be processed, as we have been filled up to the brim. Just as I feel like I can get ready for the lab trip in 2 hours, another wave of stomach cramps begins and I’m out. I’ve always felt bad for women on their periods, and I feel this is pretty close to what a bad day feels like. And so I take the day to rest. As my stomach and rest of my body work itself out, I have lots of time to myself. Mostly I sleep, as my energy level has plummeted. A student of Dr. Nadeems brought me over some Mango Juice and a liter of water, which helped give me some vitality back. Every 15 minutes or so I would awaken with lots of energy, ready to learn about ELISA at the lab, and would quickly find myself in pain, hobbling back to the bed. Around 2:30 I could move around a bit, and at 3:45 a student (?Sandeep) from room 67 at the student hostel checked in on me. I walk over to the hostel with him to see where he lives in case I need help later. It was pretty cool to see the hostel. It is a big circle of room around a central field area. People have their clothes drying on the balcony around the circle, and a cricket match is going on in the field. Guys are walking around joking with each other and giving quick looks as to who this sickly looking new guy is walking around the place. The rooms are pretty small for doubles, and only have one window. The building is 50 years old. There is a jack fruit tree in the center too, and I would really like to try one of these spiky watermelons before I go. I head back to the room to nurse my mango juice and water. My CRT is still slow, and I’m pretty weak, but I’m feeling better at least. The group returns and I get the chance to go with them to the private practice. We see a bunch of cases at Dr. Shivaprakash’s offices. Here is the synopsis:
Brownie- 14 yr. Mix breed canine, post-op wart removal recheck and fluids
Choco- 15 yr., Male yellow lab, post-op laparoscopic needle removal from gut recheck
Stray- with severe mange was given sub-cut ivermectin injection.
Unknown- epithelial carcinoma in Inguinal Lymph node that pushed on the hip joint causing a hairline fracture. The right Femoral Artery and Nerve were also compressed and the femur was abducted. Antibiotic treatment seems to help reduce the mass
Golden Retriever- Allergic hot spot formation on Right Caudal Medial Dorsal position.
Pug Puppy- DACPP Vaccine
Stray with Distemper- learned a cool way to check for this. Placing pressure on their temple region causes the eyes to close, and if prolonged for 5-8 minutes should cause spasms.

12 May 2008

I woke up early due to a four-hour nap the previous day (pretty good trade off). I took the opportunity to read about FMD before our site visit. Vibha was also up and had the same plan. Before heading off, we had a buffet-style breakfast at a hotel that Dr. Nadeem struck a deal with to let us come to without being guests there. This would be a common place to eat, and the food would be pretty standard in the future: Dosa, Idly, Vada, Omelet, Chutney, Sambar, Bread and Jam, water, maybe some noodle dish, and 2 types of Juice (either Grape, Nimbupani, Watermelon); pretty good selection for us.
After Beakfast we drove directly to the Bull Semen Collection Facility. We had the opportunity to draw blood and do intradermal injection with an auto dosage syringe for Tuberculosis on a herd of cattle they kept that was recovering from a bout of FMD. These animals were no longer shedding virus, so we were allowed to go freely from this to the Semen Collection section. Here we saw a bull ‘collected’ from twice and the semen was kept for STD testing. Here they give the bull two false mounts before the real deal, and have him do the mounting on another bull. The collection tube is the same as the ones I’ve seen in the States too. The semen collection facility is focused on supplying semen of quality genetics to farmers in India and provide training for veterinarians to help encourage proper care and breeding of animals. From one semen sample, 146 cows can be impregnated. I will write-up more on this later for those interested.
After our exciting morning of semen collection, we drove to a village where we met with a veterinarian that has a case of FMD she has found and is treating. While waiting around the village, we got some good stares which would become all too familiar for 9 Americans traveling around rural Inida. We took some pictures with the children around the town and one goat that was riding shotgun on a bicycle. The group headed over to the house that had the cow that was being kept in isolation from others by being moved inside a room. We could see the erosions on the tongue and dental pad, some flies attracted to the lesions on the feet, as well as a lot of salivation from the irritated mucous membranes. It was pretty cool to see, especially since the cow should recover fine. FMD is rarely fatal, but reduces production. This cow had decreased its production about 3/5 what it used to. While leaving, one of the townsfolk was an Albino, and did not look to healthy otherwise. The androgynous ghostly form was a bit strange to have around, but it must have a very harsh life, in an area where life does not look so easy as is. Vibha told us about the Banyan Trees which are large wide trees, and almost always have a small shrine under them.
We returned to the Institute where we learned the process for a Sandwich ELISA for the 4 Strains of FMD that might occur in India (A, O, Asia-1, and C which has not been seen a few years). For dinner we had a dosa stuffed with potato masala and a chickoo milkshake (apparently called Naisberry in Jamaica). We headed back to the KVC (our home away from home) and Matt and I lay down while Vibha watched TV pointing out the good and bad music to us, as well as actors and dancers, which are all inherently linked in Ballywood. I pass out pretty quickly when the day is done.

11 May 08

I hope my anti-malarials are working better than my bug spray…. I found about 20 mosquitoes this morning to kill. Almost all were blood filled, which made them slower and easier targets. Walking around I got to enjoy the not so irritating aspects of nature. I think parasites are fun and all, I just prefer the ones that don’t itch so much and have the good possibility of causing death…
There seemed to be butterflies feeding on aphid milk, lots of ficus/fig trees, acacia looking trees, and sensitive plants along the ground, as well as some of the plants that are thought to of evolved to look as if they were eaten away at so insects would not lay their eggs on the ‘taken’ plants. It seems to of worked too. Very little caterpillar damage other than a few micros in shelters. I did find a ‘cute’ animal for Joel. The chipmunk/squirrels are numerous and dart around the trees and fences. Aside from nature, there are people everywhere. People are on the road, in huts, the woods, holes, digging holes, in houses, and anywhere else you might expect or not to find people. There seems to be a large number of hawks [I found that kites are popular birds here too] and ‘House Crows’ that fly around mixed in with just a few songbirds.
A student took me out to breakfast and I had my first (but by no means last) Idly (rice cake) and Vada (plain donut) that we dip in either a chutney (nothing like chutney I have seen before and is a spiced creamy but thick sauce with I think mustard seed) or sambar (lightly spicy sauce). People started to come today, everyone but Vibha (who I presume is already on Indian Standard Time- IST). People are already worried about money, as it seems most of what we have to pay for cannot be by credit card. The flight to Mangalore will be the biggest expense (though it is half as much as we thought it was at this point, which brought much relief to the group when learned later). The Mangalore flight seems like a lot, just to see a fisheries college and a beach (thinking we had to dish out $400 cash). We were promptly stuffed again as people came over. We also went to a fruit stand and got 4 mango’s a piece, plus a chickoo fruit that LaTisha recognized from Jamaica. I still have not tried Jack Fruit, which appears to be a spiky watermelon that grows on trees.
I met this guy Devaray and his 3 friends in the hallway today. He is a poet and a singer, and has given over 1,000 autographs. I think this might be because he goes around offering people his autograph, which I have one of. He uses the local language (which I still don’t know how to spell but sounds like Canada and has to be related to Karnataka, so I call it Karnata. This seems like a good guess as Tamil comes from Tamilandu). Dr. Nadeem explained that lots of people had their own agendas in India, but while they might have good intentions, we have our own agenda to stick to already. Devaray is a pretty good guy if not a bit full of himself, he’s at least eager to meet lots of people. Either that or he wants to be around Americans.
Dr. Nadeem told me a bit about his work looking at flock management. He thinks it might be better to spread out lower amounts of feed for a longer period than to feed animals and then have periods of starvation when food is sparse. This could have a large impact on feed conversion as gut microflora will have to rebuild itself. The goal is to train a farmer from every village to build interest from the other farmers when they see the success and then have interest from other farmers for training. When this happens they can hold seminars to train more people in groups.

10 May 2008

So sleep didn’t work out so well, but I’m feeling good after a shower and order some breakfast. Aloo Palak sounds good, a nice plate of puréed spinach with diced potatoes starts the day off well. I tried to leave early, however, a fake front desk thwarted this attempt. This was actually a back desk that I found was closer to the staircase I descended, and makes it appear from someone trying to find the door, that the hotel is both closed and you are locked in a by a steel grate (a little unsettling to a traveler in a new place). I found out later that this was just the back and I met my cab to head back to the (domestic) airport. As the cab left I saw a holy man that lived in a cart being towed by a cow. Not a large cart, barely enough to fit in, but it is what he did. I haven’t seen this before and it was quite interesting.
I happily made it to the airport to find out that my ticket was for the day before which did not please me to spend another IRS 6,000 ($150) for a new ticket. This did not make me as upset as the thought that someone was waiting for my flight yesterday and I did not arrive. My flight was delayed on top of if, and so once again I was in the middle of a strange airport not knowing if anyone could speak my language. My worries subsided by the time a week of the trip was up if that, but it is unsettling to be in a foreign country alone for the first few days, and perhaps longer if you never find people you find to be friendly. My adventurous attitude helped me make it through just fine though. I read my book some more and looked at the fish tank in the terminal, which had especially one very beautiful starfish that was deep blue with red highlights. The flight was smooth and had ok food enough. Apparently cheese-cake means short cake in India though…but maybe just on Kingfisher Airlines. Apparently this is a new airline that was bought by a man that has had a prosperous company in India. Kingfisher water, beer, airlines, and other products are often available.
After getting my luggage which all survived checking, I found a gruff looking man holding a “PURDUE” sign, who when he noticed me gave a warm, energetic, large smile that would be a common sight throughout the rest of our trip. Dr. Nadeem got a cab for us to go back to campus. In this case, it was more of an active effort to remain calm for the car ride, but manageable (I would like to thank my parents at this point for being terrible drivers, and never wearing seat belts, as the knowledge of their survival I am sure has helped me cope with the no-seatbelt secured insanity that is an Indian car ride). He told me about some of his work with small ruminants and that we would be visiting a real live case of Foot and Mouth Disease as one of our first events. He also explained the “lack of traffic” (which was by no means a clear road) being due to the holiday going on this weekend and that elections were taking place. The roads are not only filled with normal cars, but auto-rickshaws (stay tuned for pictures), motorbikes, people, cows, and anything else. Elections appear to be an amazing experience here… There are over 200 seats for the state of Karnataka open, and 5-28 people running for each one of them. This is just one state too. I feel maybe 3 Americans in 100 might be willing or able to vote for something as in depth as this (but then again that might be not far from how many vote anyways). The main road we are on is Mahatma Gandhi Rd. and the school is on Bellary Rd. in the Ganganagar section of Bangalore.
The hospitality has begun wonderfully (and will continue for the entire trip to the point of being almost unbearable). I also learned we will get to do TB testing on some cattle which we just learned how to do at Purdue this year (or last year for the three third years in the crowd). Many veterinarians appear to be Corporate and others Government based. The Karnataka Veterinary Council is head of the government appointed vets, and I am staying in their guesthouse. The room has two twin beds, a desk, bathroom with a western toilet, a flatscreen TV, nightstands and cabinet, fans and A/C. Not a bad set up; much like a nice and large college dorm with a private bathroom. My room is the marveled Dr. Willie Reid and Dr. A. Nour Suite. Well at least they stayed in the same room too. I unpack a bit and wander around the building to find a wonderful level of diversity and life that is exciting to my ecologic side. More than 15 morphs of butterfly in just a few hours, with vespids, bees (some male apis I took photos of for John though they are the only bee I’ve seen since coming here), cicaidas, ornate caddis flies, dragonflies, and gorgeous tropic plants have made for some fun findings. I also found that darkness falls quickly here. It takes about 1/2 hour to go from a bit dim to pitch black.

It seems my plans to lose weight in India are off to a terrible start. I have been stuffed on several occasions already, and have not even felt hungry since America. Dr. Nadeem and his student-helpers have brought me to restaurants and wished me to try everything. Unfortunately, my own curiosity fueled this and so I have eaten as much as possible on several occasions. My last meal consisted of Gobi Manchurian (a favorite of spicy Cauliflower aka Manchurian style), Curd Rice (rice with curd and light spices almost like basil flavor), and Naan with Paneer masala(diced Cheese Curd in curry sauce). After dinner Nithin treated me to some betel paan, which ‘helps with digestion’ and also makes you feel pretty good too (but I never got many answers for my questions of what was in it). All I know is that it has betel nut, dried fruits, some sort of paste with gold and silver foil in it, and is all wrapped up in a betel leaf. I learned that Baliwood movies are almost always based on their songs, and the popularity of the songs determine the popularity of the movie. There is one preview I saw for a horror movie called Anakima that stood out.

May 8/9

International airports are a great place to go people watching. Everything about traveling abroad to a new place can turn into an experience. The opportunity for miscommunication arises at some of the most unforeseen times. As I checked in airport attendant, whom I’m sure was trained to never break a smile, was being harangued by a man who could not believe she could smile while he was distressed. To him, it was the rudest gesture possible, and it seemed that she was taking pleasure in his upset, prompting him to demand why she was laughing at him. Honestly, his over the top attitude was amusing enough to get a giggle or two. I feel bad for customer service though. The mixture of people in an airport is fun to watch, from the relaxed veteran traveler to the flustered newcomers that can appear frantic even with hours till their flight leaving. Having taken the only train from Lafayette to Chicago allowed me a healthy 9-hour wait at the airport for my 7:10 flight to Delhi. This time was well used reading the book my Histology TA Abeje suggested I read, The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. I figured I had to at least read the chapter on India before leaving, and so I did. I also managed to read some of the beginning, write some thoughts down, take a nap, eat $10 of airport food (a burrito and soda) which inspired me to dream of the amazing amount of Curry and other good food I would be enjoying in the months to come. I also wandered the airport till I found a watch and some earphones I could buy that were as close to reasonable I could manage at O’Hare. I was impressed my mp3 player made it though my entire waiting for my plane. This unfortunately meant it did not make it past this. I looked around at some of the characters nearby. I like people, especially uninhibited ones. I think that’s why I found some of the children in the airport and their parents so fun to watch. One child and his mother I were inspiring in their joint cuteness. This kid was still a crawler and I think his head was still beating out his body for weight. His eyes were some of the deepest azure blue I have yet to see. There is something about parents interacting with their children in fun ways that always lightens my heart. I was walking behind a family to my terminal, and the daughter of the bunch would, every few steps, do a little shimmy skip dance thing. Just once her mother mirrored her as if they practiced for hours together and the girl’s whole body language lit up as if she just found out she had a superpower. I think these moments are fun and important. As the boarding time approaches, the number of women in Sarees increases. I wonder though if this is an older tradition as most of the women donning this attire seem to have a few years on them. For the amount of skin they have the opportunity to show, I think the saree is far more tasteful and elegant than much of the revealing clothing worn by people I wish wouldn’t in America. The saree seems to do nothing but improve one’s appearance, and is often tastefully accompanied by an ornate matching shawl. There is also a large crowd of westernized attire that is generally business or college casual. The bright colors of the more traditional clothes help them brighten the normal airport crowd. The only thing that stands out perhaps more is a man with a kiwi-sized growth on the top of his head, as he waits with his wife, or so I will call her. His accessory is the only reason for him to stand out, but it is something I have not seen before. I notice the look on the faces of the crowd is not a happy one. The majority of faces appear to be downright irritated, as if they are just unimpressed with what life is giving them at present, and are waiting for it to get interesting for them. I don’t know if that is the case, but the book I just read says that India is full of contradictions, so maybe I just don’t know how to read the Indian countenance yet. Besides, I don’t think many people are happy to be getting on an 18 hour plane ride.
On the plane, I was seated next to Harish Arora. He’s a banker for a credit card company in Dallas Texas going for his annual visit to see family in Delhi. He was quite friendly and even offered a phone number in case I didn’t make it in Delhi or had some difficulty. This was my first taste of Indian hospitality, and worrying. The flight was tough on my body and mind between the odd hours to be served food, and the odd alternations of light and dark when the cabin crew seemed to think night and day should be. This did not match my rhythm, and the sleep I got on the plane did not make my night stay at hotel Lohmod in Delhi that pleasant. Partly, this was also due to a nervous impulse that ran through me since my arrival. I was suddenly alone in a country with hit or miss English speakers, and everyone looked irritated and unimpressed which did not seem like a good combination if I was in trouble. I had attempted to prepare myself for my first real experience as a minority, but there is little you can do till you are actually one. First of all I was nervous being in a new city, period. This was then amplified by the problem that I did not know if I would be able to find people speaking English. I am sure part of it even had to do with being surrounded by such unrecognizable culture and people. Luckily I had another gut feeling, aside from the worry, was a feeling like I was in a friendly place. The only familiar faces I saw were the moth-flies in the sink at the hotel that flew around some of the apartments’ sinks in Connecticut. I had a good feeling that I would find friendly faces in Bangalore the next day too, which gave me a goal. After a thorough skewering from the government’s tourist booth that helped me find an overpriced hotel and cab, a new day was ready to begin.
While in and around the hotel, I tried some tea (and did not die even though it was not burning hot); discovered Indian music videos (which are all kinds of sexy and make me want to try a club while I’m here); found that alcohol is not as common a commodity here as America, but drunk people can be viewed in a humorous light; cab rides are not necessarily as scary as I was warned; and while there is noise, what I noticed first is the air, which is thick, heavy, and (at least here) polluted. I would later find that some of these things I ‘learned’ were pure coincidence. I also found a channel on TV that had “A flying monkey man in a red loin cloth and gold bangles [actually a Hindu God] with music in the background and what appears to be a stock exchange crawler on the bottom of the screen.” The outside of the hotel window is a picture out of any national geographic page. Piles of trash and rubble are around buildings with alleyways between them made of dirt, stray dogs, and people with some appearing crippled. With the two distinct sides of the hotel so different, I feel India might need a pretty close look to help understand it.