India – Page 12 – David Kotz

Diwali at CIS

School performance day.

Mara and the 4th grade — Mara and her classmates performing during Diwali festival at CIS.

Our kids go to the Canadian International School in Bangalore [location], and the whole school put on a show on the Friday before Diwali weekend. Mara and the 4th grade, Andy and the 2nd grade, John and the 6th grade.

Andy and the 2nd grade — Andy and his classmates finish their performance of “Rama and Sita” for Diwali, at CIS.

John and the 6th grade — John and his classmates performing during Diwali festival at CIS.

This post was transferred from MobileMe to WordPress in 2020, with an effort to retain the content as close to the original as possible; I recognize that some comments may now seem dated or some links may now be broken.

Chennai, IIT-M, and MIT

We took the train and spent a long weekend in Chennai, formerly Madras, on the east coast of India.

I wanted to visit IIT Madras [location], one of the original five Indian Institutes of Technology. Madras, recently renamed Chennai, is a large city of 6-7 million people on the east coast of India.

We decided to try the famous Indian railway system, one of the largest (39,000 miles) and busiest (18m passengers daily) railway systems in the world. I booked our tickets online, a fairly easy process once you learn something about the different classes of service. The only snag was that, 6 days in advance, we were waitlisted for our outbound tickets. The process is remarkably efficient, bumping us ever closer to actual tickets as previously confirmed passengers cancel their reservation. In the final two hours on Friday night, we squeaked in and finally had confirmed seats for Saturday morning. The 6.5-hour train ride was comfortable, though not luxurious, in the air-conditioned reserved-seating coach. Every few minutes one of the train’s kitchen workers passed by, selling great-smeling dosas, samosas, chips, tea, coffee, bottled water.

Chennai itself is, like Bangalore, a bustling and traffic-congested city. Although we were lucky to have arrived on a “cool” week (with temps in the high 80s), it was thicky humid and thus very sweaty and sticky.

There are few sights of interest to the tourist, we discovered, so we headed south along the new East Coast Road to a resort property called Taj Fisherman’s Cove [location]. Wow, what a treat! We talked our way past the concierge and the kids spent the day swimming in the pool or playing on the beach, and we ate the most fantastic meal we’ve yet had, Tamil-style seafood recipes, in a shady cafe right on the beach.

A pleasant lunch at the beach on the Bay of Bengal. (Taj Fisherman’s Cove resort)

I walked across the beach to the water, dipping my toes into the Bay of Bengal. Incredible. The rip tides here are so fierce that everyone recommends against swimming – the guidebook, the hotel, and acquaintances all warned us about it. There were red flags along the beach warning against swimming, and indeed the surf looked somehow fierce. Sure enough, the next morning I read in the newspaper about three swimmers who drowned on a beach near this one.

A view across the cove at Fisherman’s Cove, outside Chennai.

A fisherman casting the surf along the beach outside Chennai.

I chatted with a local fisherman. He was casting into the surf, but really he was casting about for passing tourists. In broken English he explained that he was a fisherman, and that after the tsunami of 2004 there were no fish for months… and that he was poor, and wouldn’t I buy a small trinket. Sigh. It is estimated that between 12,405–18,045 people died along the coast of India that day. Fisherman, out to sea on their simple fishing boats, rode easily over the swell only to return to washed-away homes.

We spent an enjoyable evening reconnecting with David Grubman ’84, who I knew from my days in the DOC, and his family. He manages a large group of programmers for A.I.G. in Chennai.

On Monday I visited the Madras Institute of Technology in the morning, and then the Computer Science and Engineering department at IIT-Madras in the afternoon. Unlike my previous IIT visits, I did not stay on campus, and it was raining, so I have few photos from either campus. I had wonderful conversations, however, with the faculty and students involved in wireless-networking research.

I visited the Madras Institute of Technology, part of Anna Univ. in Chennai.

If I had a chance to return, I would spend more time in some of the outlying areas: Puducherry (a coastal city to the south) and in Kanchipuram (famous for its silk and for ancient temples).

See my gallery of photos.

Mysore weekend

Mysore is more than Dasara.

Mysore [location] is perhaps one of the most interesting places to visit within an easy drive of Bangalore, and we took advantage of the kids’ four-day school holiday to make the trip at the tail end of the Dasara festival. Dasara is the biggest event of the year in Mysore, and I describe the parade in my previous entry. But the rest of the weekend (see photos) was also fun and interesting. Read on!

Ramesh picks us up for a weekend trip to Mysore.

We hired a car and driver for the weekend, an extremely convenient (and surprisingly economical) way to travel. Ramesh had decorated the car when he arrived to pick us up, with garlands strung across the front, a banana-leaf stalk on each front corner, a sprinkling of flower petals, and symbols of Shiva painted on the windows.

Dasara in Mysore

Dasara is the most important festival in Mysore; we attended the famous parade that includes colorful elephants and dancers.

It was 100˚ in the shade. Gosh! After four hours, I was wishing that we were sitting in the shade. After six hours, when the parade had come and gone, I was nonetheless glad that we staked out good seats early in the day. Read on, and be sure to see the photo gallery.

A group of elephants in the Dasara parade in Mysore.

Wonder la

We attended a birthday party for Andy’s second-grade classmate at Wonder la, a nearby amusement park.

Andy was invited to a birthday party for one of his second-grade classmates. The party was held at Wonder la, a new amusement park 23km outside Bangalore [location]. The kids had a great time, because park admission gave them access to all the rides. Pizza, rides, and then cake and presents, on a hot sunny day… what could be better? See photos.

At the ‘Wonder la’ amusement park, outside Bangalore.

Once you go through the gate, you feel as if you’re in a spotless amusement park that might be anywhere in the west – although with women in saris swimming in the water park, it’s still India. Teenage Indian boys seemed to enjoy all the rides, even those intended for young kids, highlighting the novelty of such a park.

At one point, the park lost power – such is the infrastructure – and although the power resumed a minute later, we watched as some workers had to push one of the rides up a hill to get it started again.

Andy’s CIS classmates are very international. The birthday boy is the son of a Finnish father and Portuguese mother, though he was born in Sweden and now lives in India. Andy’s best friend is from Japan; his father works at Kowasaki. Others were from all over Europe, and even from the US.

Kolkata (Calcutta)

I endeavored to “see” Kolkata – a steamy, teeming city of over 15 million people – in a single morning tour by taxi.

It is, of course, foolish to hope to visit and properly understand a city of 15 million people, once the capital of British India, in a single morning. After my visit to IIT Kharagpur, however, that was my plan. Read on and check out the photo galleries!

Kolkata to Kharagpur

A long but fascinating drive from Kolkata airport to IIT Kharagpur.

I flew SpiceJet airlines today, from Bengaluru (Bangalore) to Kolkata (Calcutta). A reasonable flight, though perhaps because it was Sunday there were many children and screaming babies. A driver met me at the airport and drove me to Kharagpur, where I am to visit IIT Kharagpur [location].

I didn’t realize it was so far! Three hours, 122km through the outskirts of Kolkata and then out the National Highway #6. It’s impressive to see an overhead highway sign tell you that it is 2,049km to Mumbai, and to imagine that this road crosses the entire Indian subcontinent. Once out of the city, the landscape was rural. We passed through some tiny roadside villages, but mostly we passed rice paddies: huge rice fields a km across. Lots of piles of dried straw, which appeared to be used for roofing thatch houses. Many truckloads carrying bundles of reeds – at least, they looked like dried reeds – that again I think were used for construction.

This astoundingly overloaded truck carries reed mats. Uttar Pradesh.

For the most part, the road is a smooth four-lane divided highway. On the other hand, the median is usually occupied by cows and goats, which sometimes stroll across the lanes at a whim. 100kph is the speed limit, except in little villages and when oncoming traffic decides to use the wrong side of the highway. Yes, when the eastbound lanes were jammed up for miles (er, kilometers) for what maybe was an accident, our near-empty westbound lanes must have looked oh so tempting. Thank goodness it was daylight, because then at least you can see the humungous overloaded truck barreling toward you at 60kph. A little unnerving.

When the other side has a traffic jam, trucks use our side. Yikes!

In several villages, they seemed to be building a large, temporary structure of bamboo and wood; some were as large as a two-story house. In Kharagpur I saw craftsmen making dozens of life-size figurines out of clay and grass. These are preparations for the upcoming Durga Puja, which “is widely celebrated in West Bengal and Tripura where it is a five-day annual holiday. Not only it is the biggest Hindu festival celebrated throughout the State, but also the most significant socio-cultural event in Bengali society.” [Wikipedia] (More on Durga Puja, including music and video, at durgapujas.com) [Editor’s note: as of 2021 that site is gone.]

Life-size clay statues of Shiva and Parati for Durga Puja.

I was puzzled by a road sign, as we approached a bridge over a very broad river, that said: “Drive slowly, weak bride ahead.” Looking down at the swirling monsoon-swollen river, and looking up at the large trucks that barrel across this bridge, I really wanted to read the sign literally; however, I encountered no wedding party.

Once in Kharagpur, I think we took a wrong turn, because the driver kept stopping to ask directions. We ended up on a small but busy street, with two-way traffic. Well, two-way traffic for the cars, trucks, bicycles, and scooters, but the cows, goats, and people pretty much went every which way. And that steamroller, heading slowly toward us in our lane, trying to flatten 3” crushed stone into the mud. Behind it, workers turned (by hand) the recalcitrant stones so they would fit better.

Kharagpur is a small city of 207,000 people, and IIT Kharagpur was the first of the Indian Institutes of Technology, founded in 1951. (There is more on IIT Kharagpur in wikipedia.)

I took some photos from the car, and a brief video, of the many interesting things we passed.

IIT Kharagpur

IIT Kharagpur was the first campus of the Indian Institutes of Technology, founded in 1951.

Today I visited the School of Information Technology (and met some people in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering) at IIT Kharagpur, in north-east India (location: 120km west of Kolkata).

The School of Information Technology. IIT Kharagpur.

IIT Kharagpur (see also wikipedia) is the largest of the IITs, both in physical size (2,100 acres) and student population (about 2,700). It is also the first IIT, founded in 1951 on the site of a prison camp used by the British to detain dissidents who were arrested during the non-cooperation movement for independence.

I spent my time in the School of Information Technology, although they have significant overlap with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (indeed, both are chaired by the same professor). I enjoyed meeting MS and Ph.D students who were engaged in research on security, cryptography, ad hoc networks, and sensor networks.

In a walk around campus, I took some photos.

Kanpur

A few photos of Kanpur, India.

Not much to say about Kanpur; I just passed through. I enjoyed IIT Kanpur [location], and found its campus beautiful and its academics impressive. The city, though, had little to inspire.

I took some photos while driving through, which show an interesting slice of life.

Lucknow

Lucknow is an ancient city, now the capital of Uttar Pradesh and bursting with nearly 3 million people. I spent a fascinating morning exploring some of the palaces and mosques of the nawabs.

I spent a morning visiting a few historic sites in Lucknow [location], before hopping a plane homeward. I have many photos in a Lucknow album. Read on!