Beach Resort

yed is a joy. I am staying in a spacious fishermanshut with AC. In basic it is a wooden hut with leaf roof, but inside the bedroom & living area are closed. The bathroom has the open roof though.
Dinner here was ok, buffet again but as said: I was not up to traveling again. Was pretty tired so went to bed early, hence was awake at 5 am. Dozed off until it was light, and went out running. Saw some restaurants for this eve to get myself some grilled fish. And then it almost is over.

I have stayed all day in the area of the resort: in front of the house watching the water, on the beach, back to the house. And now it is almost dinner time, so will find myself a place to go in the little village here.

For some pictures, look here

Kerala trip 23-27 March

Long drive (5 hours after our 2 hour flight already) to get into the mountains. Very green and beautiful area, but also hardly any network connections ... not mobile nor wifi. But a great time. Nice temperatures at 1500-1600m hights. In the Tue & Weds evenings sitting on our Munnar balcony and having to wear our long sleeves and trousers, but still very comfortable. We are amidst tea gardens, so we have to visiting a tea garden and museum. This is followed by a flower garden, the church, mosk and temple in one village just by walking distance separated. Weds eve an Ayurvedic massage and off to diner at our balcony.

Thursday a 4 hours mountain drive (on the slicks the car already had when it picked us up from the airport btw) to get to Thekkady: Periyar park where the monkeys stole our lunch, martial arts show and typical local dance show. We had a boat trip, and all wildlife was at least 2 kms away. We saw buffalos, some more waterbuffalos, a deer, and some birds. We all had expected a bit more. But we had fun to see how an Indian complained about overbooking the ship. He and his family did not have seats allocated together (free-choice for seats), and he was highly annoyed because of that.
We have a room in the Ranger Resort with wildlife view. We only get to spend their way after sunset, so no wildlife to be seen just monkeys to be heard. In the morning, while having breakfast we were hoping to be surprised... and yes ... we see some wildlife .... in a hurd, nicely walking as they are being chased ... and of course the shepard follows. They were buffalows or cows, but nothing more specific or exotic. Thekkady actually requires for a person to stay for a few days and to do a 3 day hike into the darkest areas of the park to even have the slightes opportunity to see some wildlife.

Another 4 hours drive (4 hours = ±100-120 kms a day, so many curvy roads, a lot of traffic, you name it) to get to Allepuzza (Allepey) and to get onto the houseboat. We have to speed up, as the boat departs 12.30. We make it in time, but then a 1.5 hours stop is introduced for grocery shopping. Then we move a bit, see people washing themselves, washing clothes, get to a fish market where we buy our appetizer and then be lazy and enjoy the views.
The next morning checkout at 9, and then anther 3 hour drive starts to get us to the beach resort that I have booked to stay my last 2,5 days. On our way, our driver wants to sightsee, and we are not in the mood. we have spend days in the car already, we just want to enjoy outside. But we get to see some of Allepey and old city part of Cochin. We later learned it took 20 mins to get into the old city, now we had to get out again around 12.30 because we wanted the beach resort !!!!! 30 kms.... busy roads, so again 1.5 hours. Just give us the beach NOW. Stefan has to leave the beach around 3 pm to catch his flight. So he gets to enjoy 1 hour on the beach only and then off to shower and get ready. Of course I stay on the beach as long as possible, have a shower and see sunset over there. The evening I will spend at the resort, I am not up to another drive now and all seemed to be at east 5 kms away from the resort. Maybe tomorrow. I will get up early and go out running along the beach, and maybe I find a lunch and/or dinner place for that.

Have to stop, my hours webaccess is expiring. Just find a quick selection of the pictures to get you a flavor.
Love

Golden Triangle

We are having vacation now. First trip: Golden Triangle, meaning Jaipur, Agra with Taj Mahal and Delhi. From Hyderabad a direct flight to Jaipur was a good decision. On Saturday Michel joined us by train from Delhi, so he had to get up at 4 am, where we got to sleep until 7.30. All day tour in Jaipur, including Elephant ride, visit to the Amber Fort, some other stops and sunset at Sun temple, a.k.a. Monkey temple. We had us dropped at a nice restaurant for dinner and got back to the hotel by 11pm, long day. For Michel a bit longer: his return flight was cancelled due to strike, so he had to make arrangements to change ... took him about 1.5 hours and a lot of frustration.

Sunday: breakfast at 6.30 and leaving for Agra. On our way, the driver stopped at a Palace. A nice intervention after 3 hours in the car. A car a little to small to carry 4 passengers and the driver, so the backseat was packed an uncomfortable. Then another 1.5 hours to Taj Mahal. Very impressive buildings and tombs. BTW: very contractdionary event at the Taj Mahal: I had to throw away food and candy as it was not allowed to get that on the premesis, whereas half the country here is suffering from hunger I was forced to put it in the bin.
By 5 pm we started the drive to Delhi. A difficult route was said ... 200 km only, but 5 hours drive .... it appeared to be 6 hours in the end - without dinner. Very busy road and heavy traffic. But we got there, and into a nice hotel: Hilton. So comfortable bed, bathtub, shower, you name it.

Monday morning: Michel got up early to get his luggage from his other Delhi hotel, as he did not want to go there and stayed with us. I got up when he left, got myself some Dutch coffee that I still have, and got into my 5 kms running again. After breakfast, we relaxed a bit and got ourselves a car again to explore Delhi a bit. We had to wait an hour for the car to arrive, and only had until 6 pm as Michel needed to catch his newly booked and planned return flight. So we saw some highlights, unfortunately not all. But hey, we got a flavor.

*** Pictures here ***

March 19: days of finalisations, goodbyes and vacation start

The last day already. Yesterday evening we had team dinner and we all pretty tired, hence quiet. Many appetizers appeared, and we know that now so skipped a lot of these already as dinner was supposed to be served one hour later. We talked a bit, shared somereflections, and then to bed. No more workouts for me at the gym from now on

Friday, 3 out of the 5 teams had to work. So do we.

First packing the bags, then up to the 7^th floor for a last time. We still have to try to complete our deliverables A1 and A2 (critical mass and where to get funding), B3 we already had to skip due to lack of time (B3 is reviewing the 165 page document Sundara gave us at the end of week 1). In contrast of these items not being ready, we worked on two additional items this past week and a half as these requests came in from Sundara. In the end, he seems happy with the things we did, even though it many times appeared to be “yesterdays newspaper” … I started to call items we brought up and of which he immediately said he already tried that “yesterdays newspaper” as our creativity seemed to be old news to him. He laughed when I was saying that again and again … it definitely reduced the tension a bit regarding the high expectations, the lengthy list of deliverables we had to work on and the pressure that was being built between the 3 of us due to communication mismatches. Michel and I were more tired than before, so we endlessly had to try to understand eachother. Also, where I had to let go in the beginning due to man-woman understanding in India, I wanted to deliver and make my points as well. By now, Sundara seemed to better accept my contributions, so I wanted them to be in.

Lunch in one of the places nearby…. And the food was too spicy for me. I only could complete half the fish dish that they cook so nicely. Sadly enough, now I have to stay hungry the afternoon.

Then, in the evening we had to get ready for the airport. Stefan and I were completing some logistics regarding our Kerala tour package. I decided in the last half hour to stay in a beachresort near Kochin after Stefans return to Hyderabad on Saturday the 27^th. So that day we can relax there and I will return to Hyderabad airpot on Monday the 29^th to return home end of morning 30st. And then the goodbyes in the lobby. We will meet some again in Delhi, but some are returning home now. Stefan, Jinjun and myself are off to Jaipur for our Jaipur-Agra-Delhi trip. Upon arrival we learned it is a small militairy airport where no pictures can be taken –also no “welcome” sign-. Off to the hotel, and the taxi driver had to call the hotel to ask for the route twice. That whereas the guy just befor

e offered his services for both Saturday and Sunday telling us that he knows the routes and the places to visit. The hotel is a basic hotel in a dead-end street. The painting however are beautiful: on the walls ant the circle on the ceiling in my bedroom.

The bathroom reminds me to some places I visited when being a student. The mattress is almost like a rock … luckily this only is for two days :-)

PS: the hotel does have wireless though ....

March 17 & 18: last few days

The last few days are here already. We still have many things to do. Wednesday was dedicated to get as far as possible regarding all deliverables. Michel was very edgy and impatient, he is tired. I skipped lunch, as we have had to cancel dinner with Sundara and his wife due to the deliverables AND last minutes work on the press event on Thursday ... so teammeeting at th 7th at 6.30 pm. We kept on going, I did some 5.5 km running on the treadmill again and 9.30 dinner time in the hotel. Joined a group of 4. Handed a gift to the travel desk guy, who has been really helpful in making all kinds of car arrangements. He was so happy ...

Thursday press event. Clients present as well, 10 am dress rehearsals started, 11.40 the real thing started. After an intro by IBM Communications VP, all clients spoke, and lastly our own team presentation was given by selected spokespeople John and Nana. After lunch: work with Sundara until 5 pm, find a hotel in Delhi to stay Sun - Tue and then ... Kochin.
It seems that we will be able to leave our luggage in the hotel after 3 times a "no" .... we just have to confirm by phone when they need to drop what luggage at Hyderabad airport to initiate our return flights after our vacations. I will going home on March 30, 1.30 am .... Up to then: vacation and relaxing. Friday eve: off to Jaipur. Looking forward to relax a bit now, after all these long days - especially this last week. Early rises (usually 6 am now) and late bedrest (1-2 am). But no complaints, this is a wonderful experience. We even now know what it is to be a real minority type of group. The "white guys" are famous in the immediate surroundings of the hotel, but a few blocks away ..... we are the exotic creatures again. Great experience, and I would do it again if I could.

Chennai, March 15 & 16

Michel and myself went to Chennai. The alarm was earlier than the Sunday as we were to leave the hotel at 6 am now. We got into the Chennai Taj Connemara hotel by 10 am, worked until 1.30, had lunch and went on to a 4 hour tour through the city. We saw some of the hotspots so to say. The evening we worked during dinner again, and early the morning up to 11.30 as well, before we could allow ourselves to enjoy the tour to the Mamallapuram Temple complex about 2 hours drive outside the city. It was a beautiful complex, and we we spent almost 3 hours getting over the entire ground and climbing on the "rocks"to get to the top of most of them. A quick selection of photos can be found in the Chennai album.

Magnificent views, and then my camera decided to quit due to high humidity and salt I am afraid. I just could not motivate itself to allow me taking more pics, so have to revitalise and clean the camera ... all dust and heat is no good to things here in India. I already have two broken necklesses, a zipper of a pant that no longer works, you name it and it has stopped funtioning by now. Michels razor also suffers from the same problem, so he had to ask the hotel to get him a new one as we are so busy in getting as far as possible to finishing our deliverables.

5.30 am: the alarm goes: visit to FARMERS

It is dark when I get up, the imman is silent up to 15 mins later: sunrise. 7 am at the Secunderabad trainstation, we eat some of the breakfast the hotel prepared for us and wait for Sundara to arrive. 7.30 in the train normal class (no A/C, no windows so natural A/C actually), 10.15 we arrive in the mandal (± province in NL) where we visiti the kiosk. We are picked up by a mandal-coordinator and get into a mini-bus (6+2 in the back seater) for 45 mins, and then an autoriksja to take the last stint of 30 mins.

Roads are surprisingly good, houses are brick houses to our surpise. The kiosk looks very good, the guys are friendly as well as the farmers we shortly meet. Telugu is their language, so we are challenged in communications. The “largest” farmer with 20 acres speaks some English, the 10 acre or 7 acre men a lot less. Simple questions help, as we drink the generously offered warm milk (yep, not my thing but very impolite to refuse so I have to swallow). Up to 2 pm no power supply in the village, so we cannot charge the battery of the laptop nor can we see the demo prior to that time. So we walk around in the village –pretty warm-, get some lunch (rice with curd (karnemelk) and white bread. The safest prepackaged food we can get, so this is our lunch). A discussion on Sundara’s –not-profitable at goup level- business model and than: power so demo.

Than route home starts. Autoriksja and bus as the train does not run within the next two hourse. A good 3.5 hours in the bus, and muscles hurt allower. Ears even more because of the horn that sounds LOUD & CLEAR.

We have learned a lot again today; and more ideas to market Janani. Of course, this again requires money so that is the explanation to clarify our observation that it all is very silent. The even not is a Janani sign on the building, only e-Sagu. How to build and grow a business with lacking communications and marketing mechanisms, let alone being it a somewhat profitable construction within one pyramid … and we need 50-100 pyramids. What a job, what a challenge!

Krushi Home: Mission Accomplished

Saturday a group of three (Jinjun, Michel and myself) went to Krushi home to deliver the projector. We got to hire ourselves an A/C car with driver, and left the hotel by 9 am. Luckily the driver spoke both English and Telugu as the map we got from Krushi home was not always intuitive to read. We arrived around 10 am and the kids were all excited. After some first interactions with the kids, we got into a nice conversation with Koshy, the manager of Krushi home with his wife Grace. We learned about the history of the conception of Krushi, the former location being Secunderabad near the old airport, about 100 streetkids being housed there now and the availability to house 120 actually. Of course we handed over the projector: our puspuse for getting there in the first place. Besides that, we also handed over some treats, pencils, post-it, and some IBM merchandise.

An extensive tour over the property followed, where several means are available to supply themselves such as vegetables for one meal a day, waterwell and watercleaning system, classroom, computerroom kitchen, boys bedrooms, the guest house was shown: a very nice place where four people comfortably could stay overnight.

kDiscussion took place on whether Krushi could maybe be included in the ABV- IBM CSC program. I think the conclusion would be no as it is a very remote area. So maybe some more local IBM On Demand Community (ODC) volunteers could be found to help out on specific areas.

The kids were all gathered in the local classroom.so that we could hand out the candy. In a very well organised manner, the kids came forward to each receive some candy from us. After the candy, we decided to sing some songs. Frere Jacques quickly was sang in Dutch as the kids had been thought that in the past.

After Krushi home, we visitied DholarRiDhani, a Rajestan village nearby. It appeared to be kids fun-park. We took the camel ride anyway, but were not that hungry to stay there for lunch. Instead we moved on the oldest Chinese restaurant in Secunderabad. Upon consulting this manager, the driver seemed to know where to go. Nearby Paradise Restaurant he however confessed not to know so got us to BBQ 36 instead. A very nice restaurant, somewhat spicy food, but raita and lassi helped a lot.

Back “home” for a little siesta, 5 km run on the treadmill for me, and prepping for dinner with Sundara and his wife. They took us to a very nice vegetarian place up in Secunderabad again. We had a lovely dinner and handed over our gifts as we weren’t sure if we would meet them together again. At the end we however were invited for lunch or dinner on Wednesday … a home-cooked meal was offered.

We were back in the hotel by 10.30pm. Quickly get ready for the next day and order early breakfast as we are off to the country side to visit a kiosk and farmers.

Work done 10-12 March and plans up to March16

Tuesday all day working on the deliverables: presentation preparation on my side, for Michel translations into french: presentation, emails, other info ... whatever is needed to get African countries in the loop. During the eve and night: downloading a trial version of the software needed for the brochures .. have to learn a new tool in a day or so.

Wednesday meeting with DCB bank to see if they possibly could fund at kiosk and/or mandal level. They have a CSR (corporate social responsibility) unit, which is beneficial in our case. We had a run of the new presentation; that actually went quite well. Just some adjustments needed, and another review will highlight some more adjustments I am afraid. For lunch (±2 pm), we explored a restaurant nearby the hotel (Dine Hill, just after the curve on Road 1, other side than Paradise take-out ... also a good place to visit). The restaurant is Indo-Arab ... so we had very nice kababs. Post lunch, I worked on the adjustments per the meeting in the morning, in the evening all eve. I was busy to install the downloaded software: nearly 2 hours for a trial version. Of course after, a little playing and testing to explore the options. Kept on going till 2 am.

Thursday all day work on the brochure instead of visiting the villages and farmers as was planned for all week. Somebody got murdered, causing a lot of rumour in one of the places we have to cross to get to our destination. This visit now is moved to Sunday. All of this morning (up to 1.15pm) was spent on page 1 of the brochure, all afternoon (post lunch ie. after 3 pm) on page 2. The result is surprisingly good I must say. In the eve all group wanted to come to the restaurant we "tested" for lunch: Fusion 9 on Road 1 across City Center (a local shopping mall). We had a very pleasant dinner: steak for me ... pretty unusual in India since the cow is a sacred animal.

Friday will be IBM 11-3 ... depart @ 10 from the hotel. In the eve we plan to see a local play at the theatre.

Saturday I will be dropping off the projector at Krushi home. After the drop-off I am recommended to visit Dhola Di Rhani (http://www.hyderabad.org.uk/excursions/dhola-di-rani.html) which is supposedly nearby. So am organising the Saturday trip for a group of 4 now. Upon return, a visit to THE pearl market is planned for.

Sunday: the farmers. Leave hotel @ 7 am and return in eve

Monday - Tuesday: with Michel to Chennai as we get to work this weekend (yes also on Saturday somewhere) and Michel could not take that planned trip. Of course I will be joining him with this new opportunity :-). We will return "home" on the eve Telugu (or Hindi ... I have to look it up) year is celebrated.

So I will try to blog...but given the schedule it might be lighter. My apologies for that.

Deliverables become clearer, opportunities arise

Tuesday all day was spent to refine the Executive Overview presentation by myself, Michel focussed on translations into French for the country reps we met last Thursday. To be honest, I am not sure this translation effort is worth it, as Sundara will not be able to provide any consulting or PM services that he plans to sell ... given the fact he does not speak / understand french, nor the french guys speak english. Dead end lead in my view, but hey ... the men would like to go ahead and pursue so ... meaning I have not been able to convince them otherwise.

During lunch time, we visited local printshops to inquire for cost to print brochures and business cards. These two items have to be created, as they are out of stock or non-existing at present time. The hotel had suggested a printshop nearby, and the address ... yes that is not used here. So we got Indian directions: find xyz (we could not understand what they were saying); continue until police station, turn right at lights. Of course, somebody else has a somewhat different view, so we collected 3 more directions, and surprisingly we found the place by ourselves by combining all hints & tips. It only was a ±2kms walk in 43° ; quite a challenge actually. But ... we got a pretty good offer -after we explained it was meant for a local business :-) - so we seriously consider to both invest a bit to get the Janani Group back on track with some tangible company items.
On our way back to the hotel, we found a nice Indian restaurant (is called Maks ...something, but can be found using Indian directions: passed the mosque, left side of the street, before police station reach; 3 steps up). We had a good meal there, for 100 Rs each.

Back in the hotel, we learned Sundara had passed bye to visit us -while we had asked for an IBM working day-, so instead he came bye in the evening. He entered while we were having dinner in the hotel resto to exchange some files we both had been working on. It was an early dinner (7.30-8 pm) as our team meeting to exchange all projects started again @ 8 pm. We continued until about 10, then I merged some files to be ready for the next mornings invite --we were kindly informed at 7.50 pm the next a meeting was scheduled for and that the Exec overview file should be in ready to use state @ 9.30 the next morning. Every day a surprise I would say :-)

Weekend in Mumbai (6 & 7 March)

First shock when leaving the Mumbai airport: imagine an old Simca 1000 - for those who do not know how it looks, type Simca 1000 on Google and you'll see how it looks- ..... This car is the taxi over here; in fact "our" Simca 1000 is dirty and dented like all its cousins around us and has to carry 5 people (including the driver). The front seat is one piece coated with a "pretty" red fabric with large black flowers. The important thing is that the driver takes us via an Indy-car type race to the hotel which is located ar the southern tip of the peninsula -- if only the driver had heard of the hotel we would get there in the regular 45 mins giving ignorance of speedlimits and red traffic lights. Now it took nearly an hour because the driver got lost. Finally, our driver asked his way several times.
Second shock: many people are lying on the side of the road over several miles, sleeping on their "matrasses". This is a facet of India that you cannot avoid, but seems to be more visible in Mumbai than in Hyderabad.

After a quick drink in the bar that is about to close, appointment is made for 8: 15 for the little breakfast. The breakfast lasts for an hour as we are dwelling into all types of foods - and for me cheeses and very nice fresh fruits all over the place. I cannot have the cruesli as well, safe that for Sunday morning.

Saturday: we decided to explore on foot the most interesting sites near our hotel (called Taj President, it is part of the Taj chain of hotels whose boss is TATA, a huge industrial group in India who also owns a car brand telecom, a services company, etc., in short TATA is present everywhere here in India). One of us adventurer at heart, has already prepared the itinerary. We therefore leave the hotel towards the Gateway of India, it is the India Gate at the seaside which was built in 1911 to commemorate a visit of George V and Mary lrene ; it resembles a triumphal arch of yellow basalt. A large crowd crowded here as it is also the place of rendezvous for the departure of vessels traveling to the island to the cellars of elephants (our plan on Sunday morning).

Just beside this gate is the Taj Mahal hotel (and yes, TATA again, as all TAJ hotels are), a large old-style grand hotel, where we do a tour (we got ourselves into the entrance, the white skin is a pass here, we realize once again the privilege of Western), hotel for less luxurious, a shopping arcade as you can see in old films with propeller fans, overlooking a beautiful swimming pool built in a lush garden. We stop at the restrooms, it is also worth a visit as there was a lady to turn on the faucet and the sink ... and we were offered a towel. I told you luxury, it's really the case here.

In short, we find the streets bustling and rather dirty (but less battered than any of Hyderabad mm and at least here there are sidewalks like we have in Europe, othewise it is expected to walk on the street and we wander from street to street along the route provided by our "guide". We end up with a beautiful circular space surrounded by buildings that keep track of the passage of the Portuguese in the 16th. We are entering a library, and there we find a system of classification of books that our grandparents have probably experienced a whole row of drawers furniture scrap gray with small cardboard postcard on which are inscribed by hand details of lending books.

We are here in a cosmopolitan city with many cultures have marked the history of the city, many tourists. So less "exotic" than Hyderabad that we can walk without being disturbed for pictures with the "white people".

We seek a place for lunch and everyone voted to go to sea, the breeze makes us feel good because the temperature is well around 35 degrees. This place is on the "Walk of English" of Bombay, is the avenue from the sea here is called the necklace of Queen Victoria as at night the streetlights illuminated along this avenue arc is reminiscent of a pearl necklace. Huge bay on the Arabian Sea. We had some famous pizza "Veggie" (and yes it is in Indian culture, we often eat vegetarian, very good in general).

Thereafter, down to the Hanging Gardens the other side of the bay, taxi, we are made in minutes instead : beautiful gardens with plants and trees that we do not like here eg mango tree, eucalyptus, palms course and others whose names we know, bright colors and varied palette of colors, beautiful, plus we perceive overlooking the sea.

We decided to visit a house where Gandhi lived. It appeared a large square house with 3 floors of galleries. Rather exciting to visit this place where we find many photos and writings of this amazing character. The proclamation of independence is framed here (1947), many photographs of Gandhi with all the great world of the time. And to complete our exploration of the city, Jain's temple by taxi. -taxi drivers don't speak english here, so a challenge to get anywhere near the destination of choice, but after this 3rd ride we get to understand the pricing mexhanism here ... we have been overpaying the other guys for sure :-). Anyway, the temple: beautiful paintings and a dome of very ornate sculptures. Upstairs, a gallery overlooking the Shrine's main square, makes us realize that there are several places of worship. The gallery continues outside chance and oh, the end of the day with a sunset over the bay. Pollution does not yet appreciate the beauty of the landscape!

Back at the hotel and dinner with candles around the pool lit (what a treat after that day despite the hot sea breeze, it could be worse ... ).

Check out Sunday morning to the basement of the island of elephants, 45 minutes by boat from the loading dock near the India Gate. Very enjoyable trip, it's really hot on this island, we find some rock carvings of Shiva, Ganesh and others ... and very large columns with fluted capitals crown. We decide for a group photo, trying to imitate the carvings on several arms around us, guided in this by an Asian woman very friendly and insists that we show how we have, great moment of laughter!

After the boat return we realise this weekend ends, head back to the airport to get "lunch" at 6 pm and then after a quick flight to the Golkonda Hotel. We arrive "home" at 22.30 and head to bed as work early starts again on Monday.

Work on Deliverables has started - March 5 & 8

Following the meeting on Thursday, more clarity has come to the deliverables of our project. One of them being an executive overview of the presentation, the other being a french version of it to possibly serve African countries. Friday morning, Michel and I drafted a layout for an Exec overview .. of course increasing the number of slides at first. This to great joy of Sundara, who already has guessed we would not be able to condense .... wait and see. Unfortunate to say, not much capacity building goes into rebuilding slides for a person. But hey, on the other if it helps to get on track. Some other soft skill capacity building can be done as well as we have identified some soft skill areas that could be improved. Friday afternoon we worked with Sundara to review our progress. And we had to stop in due time to pack bags to leave for a weekend trip to Mumbai -more about that in another blog-.

Monday we were off to ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics). ICRISAT a non profit organisation that does innovative agricultural research and capacity building for sustainable development with a wide array of partners across the globe. Their mission is to help empower poor people to overcome hunger, poverty and a degraded environment in dry tropics through better agriculture. (http://www.icrisat.org/).
Very much in line with what Janani Foods is aiming for.


The ICRISAT meeting went very well. Both IBM Hyderabad and Janani were present to outline their respective objectives for Rural India. Basically it comes down to the message that ICRISAT may have a "slot" for some funding. Of course, some more conversations are needed to come to a final statement, but lobbying now has started.

It was very good and meaningful to have experienced both the Conference last Thursday and this ICRISAT meeting, especially to identify the areas where support is needed. For example, many organisations have a clear and short slogan on their business cards, in their presentations and brochures, on their posters ... you name it and it has a slogan. This is one of the things Janani has not at present, so we suggested to start including this.

After ICRISAT, where we had a great lunch, we moved on to IIIT to give them feedback on these last two appointments and progress. A constructive discussion took place on the African "lead", and it was decided Michel still should translate some core materials into French just to see if maybe some consulting and project management services could be sold to these 20 odd countries ... an income generator though not necessarily the one Janani would like to see.

On our way home, we got to try the coconut on the street ... this after the bananas in Mumbai. Yes, we dare to try more things as no one as of yet has been suffering from any stomach issues. And that while we are here for 2 weeks already. So we try more local restaurants, and now slowly move on to safe street food :-)

Indian - African exchange

A day in one of the best hotels: Taj Krishna. A hotel run by the Tata Group - what is not in this country?. Africans were collected to hear about Indian experiences to build up the country in order to learn. Indian agri stakeholders were present as well, the reason for attending for Sundara. He was so kind to take us there. We have learned a great deal on the current way of marketing and communications at Janani Foods compared to other companies, we have heard about companies trying to do the same kind of things more or less, generated ideas on fund raising, and due to Michels speech in French for these African countries with that background we also got 3 requests for information to market Janani in Africa. This besides 4 requests of local companies. So ... all excited we got back to the hotel at 4 pm to work on setting agendas for meetings, discussing what to sent upfront and what later, what to get out of a meeting, putting yourself in the shoes of the other "what do they want to get out of this" and where could we possible meet and partner? Prioritisation made whom to address first with what, and Friday will be spend to creating these tailored presentations and documents as part of the marketing plan deliverable. It seems we can start breaking the cycle of chikcen - and - egg conversations

In the evening, Michel and I had arranged for an appointment with IBM. We were picked up in a very nice familiy car, and were brought to a luxereus restaurant. We had Western style of food, meaning we could recognise our food, it looked the way we would cook it, had some vegetables, desert and wine. All was very overwhelming to me, as our living standard is pretty low compared to all of this. The cost of my main course already was a full days allowance, the wine 3.5 days allowance ...an excessive eve for me. And really, we are in a good hotel with internet in a nice area by the way, but this was up to the extremes. I got to experience part of the upper class life here. Concluding the eve, we even an invite for the entire CSC group to go out to a more out of town friend was done.

March 3

After mostly working with Sundara from the Hotel and being overwhelmed with information that had to be shared with us, today we moved on to a different way of working. This Wednesday an appointment was arranged for Michel and myself at YES Bank - a subsidiary of Rabobank. We had requested interviews at financial institutions as money is needed at 5 different "layers" in the pyramid we drew. A "layer" represents a group of people with each different monetairy needs in the expansion of Janani Foods. A farmer is the bottom layer and only needs 300 Rs to hook up to the system that enables the farmer to receive crop advise to increase the yield using the right amounts of fertilizers and pesticides (F&P) etc. Of course working capital is needed for the F&P, and seeds, and those things a farmer usually uses. A kiosk is at village level and resells the goods, but also transfers the specific crop advise by IIIT. A kiosk franchisee hence needs to buy some equipment like PC and camera to have some working capital to open up a shop and have a stock of F&P, seeds, etc. This goes on like this up to the highest level in the pyramid.

We had a very open discussion at with a agri consultant at YES Bank to understand what may be improved in the present materials like business case, business plan and the way the markets and stakeholders are approached. Some issues have been identified, and after the 2.5 hours meeting, we stopped for lunch (only 50 Rs a meal) on the way back to the hotel where we worked with Sundara going over these issues, sharing thoughts and ideas and brainstorming on KPI (key performance indicators) for one of the levels.

Upon return in the hotel, we learned a plane crash had been taking place in the area where we were - the old Begumptet airport where an airshow was held -. We had not noticed the crash, but only been stuck in traffic jams - an unusual thing in Hyderabad as traffic always keeps on moving despite the number of cars, mopeds, trucks, temples, cycles, etc etc etc on the road.

We have learned that brainstorming is not a known method, as each topic was discussed and explained at length so for us it felt rather unproductive. Sundara was showing similar body language, so we called it a day around 17.15. This enabled us to get some fresh air and rest a bit before the 8 pm team meeting started to further discuss our projects.

Evenings March 1 and 2

March 1st we held our first team meeting in the evening to discuss all projects. John, Michel and I tried to have a quick dinner, but because of Holi -celebration day of the colors- the nice vegetarian restaurant (Bikanervala) was packed. Downstairs a very nice sweets and candy shop is present, and I got the opportunity to do the unusual: build myself a box full of different types of treats. At first I only could get a box of one type, but soon it was okay to go ahead with my wishes as long as I was willing to pay the average guestimated price per piece. To make a long story short, business wise we have been able to discuss 3 out of 5, so Wednesday evening we will continue on this story.

March 2nd I have skipped dinner to get myself some local gifts: 2 local suits.

For the pics, pls. have a look in the albums "meetings" and "local treats"

Weekend outings

Saturday 27^th February 2010 - Local Hyderabad Tour with places of great historical interest. A tour between 9 AM to 6 PM was the plan - we got back by 8 pm as these "white guys" have to be chased down for pictures as soon as they are released from the tour bus ... we are the local exhibition immediately. Of course we like being the center of attention, so we pose and we think to be published on the web quite often now :-)

Pre Lunch: Salar Jung Museum/Charminar/Chowpal Palace. This really was a wonderful experience. The Salar Jung museum was not open due to a several celebrations in the city, so we went to visit a temple instead. All locals were running bye the temple as well to do their prayers and worshipping. Charminar was madness; a muslim celebration with green / white flags took place and we just mingled in (and did our poses for the shots again). We went up a tour via very small steps but as high as my knee: it felt like a kid getting up the stairs but then in the dark by lack of lighting. Then this view and soundings:



And Chowpal Palace: we could almost say like any other palace you may visit, but the size .... 6 buildings, numerous cars; an old Harley; a British clock that still works and we got to see the special built-in theater when the electronic curtains went up to announce noon.

Lunch : We went to the famous Paradise restaurant in Secunderabad ... on the other side of the lake. It took a while to get here as we got stuck in traffic for the first time -it is busy but normally keeps on moving-. We already had heard so many times of "the Paradis" (take-out version is next door to our hotel: that already was a good experience), but it was worth it.

Post Lunch: Qutb Shahi Tombs/ Golconda Fort. We got to see the 7 tombs of the Hyderabad kings. The tombs are located on a hill, and are not crowded by people as Hinduism actually does not worship or honour the death. We only got to see the outside of the tombs, but impressive they are. A Rajestan (New Delhi area) family wanted to be photographed with us again, and we told them in 2 weeks time we plan to be in their province for the weekend. This lead to an invite, which we per Indian habit vaguely accepted -no worry, we don't have to show up, we even did not exchange addresses.

See the Saturday Feb 27 photo-album

28^th February 2010 - Nagarjuna Sagar Tour - 165 KM from Hyderabad and is very scenically situated on the River Krishna. A tour to take place between 7 AM to 9 PM. Early breakfast or no breakfast ... I took the risk to get down by 7 am to grab a bite and not entirely surprisingly a phonecall came in to inform us of a delay in departure as the bus was not yet ready; I had 45 mins for breakfast :-) Upon departure a person can sleep well on a full stomach and it actually is a good means to kill time for the 3 hour busride :-)

Pre Lunch: We saw the Nagarjuna Dam on the way. All sand and mud is black and the dam is pretty lenthgy. We arrived in another town to get tickets by 11 am; to do local site seeing in a "stone by stone" transferred amphitheater with a magnificent view on lake Krishna. Very nice and quite, and refreshing to be able to breath non-polluted air for a change. The tour bus stopped for lunch nearby the boating area, where we only had 30 mins to get food before the boat would leave. Ordering already took 15 mins, and then we read the small font that each meal takes 20 mins to be ready ... no lunch for us we thought.

Post Lunch: But hey, the 30 mins appeared to be 45 mins ++ (Indian time) so we had some and were the last ones to get onto the boat that was ready to leave but not with 10 people missing ...... Nagarjuna Sagar Boating took us to the Buddha datu Museum. A museum totally dedicated to old Buddhas and their graves. After some speedwalking across the island, we returned at the boat to for the 45 min return trip. "Grandpa" Michel was covered with little kids and we chatted a bit with them. Dawn and Enric were more in front of the boat and were involved in conversations with locals. When getting off the boat, a local tv station was present to interview these strange white people, so John and I gave a few sentences. It will be aired twice on Monday: 13 and 17 pm.
The topping of the day was the Ettipothala waterfall at sunset. The fool moon arose, the waterfall was ligthed and next to a peoples attack for pics with us, the musquito attack started. Luckily I had brought my repellent so I was safe. A quick bite at local resto and upon departure the Holi fesitval got started: a festival of colours where the faces get coloured... of course we were the chosen victims :-) we all got pink faces.


See the Sunday Feb 28 photo-album