One Geek

Today I had a run in with a mad auto-rickshaw driver.

I was at Defence Colony markets and looking to get a ride home. I asked for 30Rs and I am sure the rickshaw driver said 40Rs. I felt I was being ripped off but I wasn’t feeling in a bargining mood. Then we got near home he pulled up next to a bus making my exit difficult. Then when I gave the 40Rs he started demanding that I give him 80Rs. I told him no.

I started to walk away and the crazy driver tried to chase me. Thankfully my apartment enterance is in a alleyway not accesable by autos or cars. So I continued to walk away.

This is the only time that I have had such an experience in a rickshaw and I have travelled in a lot of them.

I found out that someone I meet recently has just been diagnoised with TB. She works for an AIDS project and works really hard to support her children as a single mother.

TB is treatable there is a program by the World Health Organization called DOTS. Yet 1000 people die from it in India alone, that is really depressing. This should not be.

We have the drugs and the knowledge to do something to stop TB why aren’t we doing anything?

I wonder if it’s patent protection from the big drug companies, stopping cheaper Indian versions of the drugs entering the market place. Is it like Anti-retrovirals that help people with AIDS, where people argue that these ignorant villages wouldn’t be able to maintain there treatment.

I do not know, but I am angry. I don’t know what I can do for these people. I don’t know what I should do either. So many worth wild causes in the world.

So I sit here in India, next to my AC in my nice middle class flat. And reasure myself that I am already doing enough… Pretending that there is such a thing as enough.

I brought the DVD of the Lion the witch and the wardrobe the other day. I watched it tonight.
I really enjoyed my second watching. The DVD has lots of little treats on it too.
Looking forward to getting into the special features soon.

In other news the gas for our gas burners arrived tonight so we were able to cook up some dinner for the first time. We did however call up Nirulas and get them to deliver some ice cream. Oh and we had mangos with our ice cream.. I like mangos and at just over $1/kg not bad value.

Also went and saw the pink panther today lots of fun.

I now have an Australian phone number that people can use to call me here in India, care of skypeIn. Leave a comment or send an email if you want the number.

The Airtel wallas came today and now we have a home phone and broadband connection. So nice. Now all we need is our gas burner.

I like my new appartment.

In my local coffee shop for breakfast. It is playing old Bryan Adams.. Quite funny. I’ll be uploading pictures today check out here for a quick look.

This is my first post from my new home. I don’t actually have internet here. I am using dial up on through bluetooth on my gsm phone. Not even GPRS so quite slow access.

Anyway Wes and I have moved and got the essentials for the first night. Had a mysore dosa tonight after shopping at one of the local market places. I can phone up and get fresh dosa delievered. I might have some fun with that.

I’ll post some photos when I get to some decent speed internet :-).

Last night there was the funnest storm outside in Delhi. Lots and lots of thunder and lightening nice and close to where me and Wes are staying. It was an awesome showing of the power of nature. One bolt struck within 100 meters of where we were. Nice powerful rain too on a hot night. Today it’s going to be 42 degrees.

In other news I should be moving into my new house today.. I’ll post some moving in pictures tomorrow I think.

Today Wes and I are going to inspect the appartment we are going to move into. Out of the 5 appartments we have looked at I have been happy to move into 3 of them.

1) The first one we looked at was in Khanpur South Delhi. It was a nice big cheap unfurnished place 8000Rs. However numbers of my Indian colleagues suggested that it was not a good/safe area to live in. It ended up being vetoed. Although I still would of been okay about it. It’s about 40Rs auto rickshaw ride from the Nerhu Place where the office is. Though we will be working from home.

2) The second place was very cheap at about 4500Rs but it was out in West Delhi. It was in a bit of a run down building and was just too far away from South Delhi and Neru Place. 1 hours rickshaw at about 100Rs.

3) The third place was near South Extension a very central location in South Delhi. About 30Rs from work and close to two cinemas. It was a small two bedroom for 10,000Rs a month. It would of worked. However there were some problems with technicalities like water that meant that we were moved away from this.

4) The fourth place is a 15000Rs + Tax place also near South Exention in South Delhi. It is a bit bigger then option 3 and is being furnished by the landlord. This is the one we have chosen. Tonight we go and inspect it to see if we can move in tomorrow. We have payed our deposit so it should go ahead now.

5) The fift place was just across the border in Faridabad. About 20 minutes by car to the office. The problem aside from being far away from everything is that the power out that way is very unrealiable.

Anyway so as you can see I’ve been keeping busy looking for houses. I think when it comes time to find a house in Sydney I am doing 95% of it online. Have to go inspect the house now.

I’ll post some photos when I move in.

Finally after one month of trying I have acess to wireless internet in Barista.

A nice cool change has swept through Delhi. It’s only mid 20’s at the moment though of course I’m inside anyway so it doesn’t matter much. The top temperature is only 34 degrees today much cooler then the usual 36 degrees.

Yesterday was the first bombing that I can remember happening in a city when I’m living in it. However I didn’t even know about it until this morning. Thankfully I don’t frequent mosques so I am safe from attacks on them.

Now to post a comment you need to be able to answer a question like 5+10.

There are so many blackouts in Delhi every day. I’m getting rather bored of them. The funny thing is that in my first few weeks I didn’t really notice them much as I was only using things connected to inverters. So most lights and fans stay on during blackouts but the AC dies :-(.

I’m home sick today with Delhi Belly. Not much fun.

I did have a fun dream last night about a plane crash landing on Edgeworth David Avenue back home. It was rather weird. Everyone was ok. Though the side panels with the window was not on the plane. I asked a rescue officer if I could help and was told to go away.