19 May: An Infant Brother's Grave - So What *is* Life all About, Anyhow?

Today, my mother and I drove to Brandon, Manitoba, to visit my infant brother's grave.  Darren James Weiten was born 23 October, 1967, and died 2 days later.  He had a blood hook-up condition, was a "blue baby", and in those days, did not have any prospect of survival.

19 May 2013 - putting the toys back onto Darren's grave

Sandy and I stopped and found the grave last summer, when driving back from a ham radio swap meet at the International Peace Gardens.  It was her idea to put a toy car on the gravestone - and artificial flowers - to celebrate the tiny life that the stone is a monument to.  I salute you, Sandy - only a mother could have any understanding of the pain of such a loss, even if you have not felt it yourself.  Later that same day, she decided that pinwheels would be appropriate to add, but I didn't get a picture of them on that day.

17 August 2012 - Sandy and I initially put toys on Darren's grave

Two months later, while pondering my personal future, I drove alone to Brandon and back.  I went to the gravesite, and discovered that all trinkets & toys & things would be cleared the next day, as part of their fall clean-up.  I took the articles and put them away to put back this spring.

14 October 2012 - I go for a drive to think things over, pick up items just before fall cleanup

I've often pondered the meaning of life.  Why does one child get lucky, survive the problems of infancy, and go on to live to an adult?  Why is another stillborn?  Why is another born, only to die a few short days later?  And why would a child be taken from us while a teen, or an adolescent, or...?

This just seems to be somehow unfair.  Just like it is unfair that some are afflicted with mental illness; others with tumours and physical ailments; and some of us just hurt each other with our words and actions.

I've decided that such questions will never be answered while we ourselves are mortal.  When we've met our infinity, our maker, hit the singularity (as engineers like to say), then perhaps we shall understand.

Epilog for Trip to India: Of Foreign Lands, Good People, Different Cultures

What an amazing time I had in India.  The people were wonderful.  Oh, it's not all wisdom and light, but it certainly was enlightening, overall.

There are so many people, and wages are relatively low, so there are people to do everything.   You do not clear your trays in the fast food restaurant, there are people who rely on a job doing just that.  There are elevator attendants in some places.  There are often four people working a sales counter when one could likely do the job.

Yes, there are people in desperate straits, and they would no doubt like to better themselves, but as long as they aren't in physical pain, they are relatively happy.  They are accepting of their situation, and they make the best of it.  Here in North America, people in a similar situation would generally be bitter and grumpy.  Not so here - they work hard, and accept their situation as it comes.  Wow, we could learn from that.

They drive like crazy here - cutting in and out, beep-beeping to let each other know where they are, and to warn that they are changing lanes, etc.  But, nobody gets upset!  You have an opening, you pull in, they slow down, no problem.  They are so patient!

Even at intersections - the cross traffic often starts nosing into the intersection six to ten seconds before the light turns green (often there is a countdown beside the traffic light).  When they nose in far enough that the traffic has to stop, it stops - even though they have the green!  Then the red light traffic noses further... and further... and soon they are going right through.  Folks beep-beep-beep away, but nobody gets hot under the collar.  Amazing!

Some things are inexpensive here - food from the supermarket, for example.  Some are quite expensive - electronics like televisions and computers - by my estimation, about 10% to 20% more than in Canada - but that's just a quick estimate.  Restaurant food seems to be less, too - fast food is about two thirds the cost as in Canada, while higher end restaurants seem to be about half.

Telecommunications is very inexpensive in Bangalore.  Pay-as-you-go mobile telephone costs only a few dollars per month.  That's right - a few dollars a month.  And satellite television is also only a few dollars per month.  You have to wonder how they do it. 

There is far more litter in India than in Canada.  Far more.  Did I say far more?  Ugh.  We would not put up with the amount of litter that I saw in India.  Unfortunately, the problem is so huge that it seems intractable - so culturally they are not driven to stop littering.  We saw a fellow on the highway toss out a pop bottle, quite intentionally, waiting and aiming for the water while driving over a river bridge.  Now, if that was someone in my family, they would be walking back to pick it up.  But nobody here seems to notice.  Too bad.

It's hot in Bangalore.  It was 33 to 37 degrees Celsius every day that I was there.  It was dry for the first few days, but then it rained and the humidity went way up.  It's the humidity that gets to you. 

Manikandan tells me that Chennai, where he and Srinivasan are from, is far hotter than Bangalore - about 4 degrees Celsius, on average.  Ugh. 

In spite of the heat, they do not have air conditioning in their houses.  When they built their houses in Hosur, some five to ten years ago, it was not as hot then, and they decided against putting air conditioning in. 

Did you catch that?  Their estimate is that in the past ten years, it has risen about four degrees Celsius in the past decade or so.  Chennai as well, apparently.  Ever hear of this thing they call Global Warming?  Well, let me assure you, they believe in it in Hosur.

In India: 09 and 10 May: The Longest Day, TGI Friday's again, Cattle Cattle Everywhere, Yay Kabob, Fly Dean Fly, Sleep Dean Sleep!

I was up early (6 AM), finished my packing, checked out of the hotel and headed in to the office.  For something like 19 days, plus dinners and taxi rides, the cost was amazingly low.  They didn't appear to have a locked concierge room at the hotel, so I took all my luggage to the office, so I could keep control of it.

Little did I know that this would be the longest day, ugh.  Long way before I sleep.

I met with ERL management in the morning, and gave my opinion of the products, the projects, and what they should be doing.

It was my last day with them, so Srini & Mani let me take them back to TGI Friday's for lunch, at the Royal Minakshi Mall.  They were good sports!  The food was foreign to them, so they let me help them with the menus.  The mushroom soup was spicy but great, they enjoyed it too.

On the way back, just outside the mall, on the boulevard, there was a family of cows & calves just hangin' out.  Wow.  Further down, on the back road trail, there was the bull!  It was obvious that he was the bull.  The picture doesn't capture it, but, um, he has hangin', yikes.  The boys walked well clear of the bull, and hastened to make me do the same.  "The bull, he is angry, he will hurt you."  Well, I don't know about angry, but he sure didn't look happy.  Then again, he looked rather gaunt, and in similar conditions, I might feel the same (refer to pictures above, I'm not gaunt :-) ).

Oh, a cute little cattle family...  on a boulevard outside the big city mall!

...and here's the daddy-O - the bull - leave him alone!

After lunch, I wrapped things up and got ready to head out.  Srini and Mani had insisted that I come with them down the block to Kabob Masti for a 6 PM "snack".  Wow, was more like a meal!  What a fantastic meal, too.  Kabob pita wraps, popcorn chicken, wow.

Well, the skies were threatening to open up on us, but we made it back to the office without getting wet.  Ramu, the manager, wanted to take me to dinner, so we called a taxi, and headed out an hour or so later.  We went to a beautiful upscale vegetarian restaurant in the heart of town.  The food was wonderful, the ambiance was great.

The taxi dropped Ramu off at home at around 10 PM.  By this time, it was pouring rain.  As we made our way to the airport, the rain got heavier and heavier.  There was up to a foot of water in the street!  In some spots, the driver had to keep the car in low gear, and keep the engine revving to ensure that it didn't stall.  And all the while, we were passing and were being passed by motorbikes - those poor folks were soaked to the bone!

After what seemed like a long, long time - about 1-1/2 hours - we made it to the airport.  A 3 hour wait with 300 of my close friends :-) and we were off to Frankfurt, a 9 hour flight.  The plane was nice, the service was good, but the plane was packed.  I was sooooo bored.  I watched TV, read a book, but could not, could not, sleep.  Maybe 1/2 hour, that's all, ugh.

Then a 4-1/2 hour layover in Frankfurt.  No sleep.

Then an 8 hour flight to Montreal.  Fortunately, I had 3 seats to myself, yay!  The flight was relatively empty.  Again, very little sleep.  I don't know why I can't sleep on planes.  Oh well.

We were late getting in to Montreal, which put us behind on getting to our next gate.  I was supposed have a two hour layover in Montreal, but most of that was eaten up by waiting for our luggage!  My bag was tagged through to Winnipeg/YWG but I was getting stressed standing in line waiting to check it through.  When we realized that we could just dump our already tagged bags onto the belt, we did so, and ran to the gate - getting there only ten minutes before boarding.  At least we were on Canadian soil, yay!  That's when I felt like kissing the ground :-)

Again, no sleep, so sad.

By the time I arrived in Winnipeg, I felt completely wired.  My mother and son were waiting there for me at the airport, and I just wanted to get home.  Eric, the rat, diverted us over to a certain Tim Horton's, and...  my brother was there, from Red Deer, to greet us!  Of course, had to sit and chat with him for a bit.  It turns out that he was in town to purchase a new Jetta TDI to replace the one that was totalled in a collision last month (not his fault).  It was really good to see him.

I finally got to bed around 11 PM.  My math might be faulty, but I think it was about 53 hours between getting up on Thursday morning in Bangalore, and finally hitting the sheets back home.  One word: ugh.

In India: 08 May: Dean Visits a Temple and One More Trip to the Lab

On Tuesday, Ramu, the Product Development Manager for ERL Relays & RTUs, asked if I had been to a temple yet.  No, I had not.  He was astounded, said that I had to go!  Why had I not gone to the one right across the street from the hotel?  I had walked past it several times.  Truthfully, I was concerned that I might, in my North American ignorance, be disrespectful of the spiritual nature of the temple.  After all, someone from a Hindu culture might not realize the rituals and customs associated with our Christian churches, and how would we like that?  Well, Ramu told Srini & Mani to take me to the temple on Wednesday morning.

So here we are, going to the Minaksha Temple, basically across the street from the Royal Minaksha Mall.  Another humbling experience.

There was a large courtyard where you had to remove your shoes and socks.  There was a "shoe check hut" staffed by a clerk, where they put your shoes into an organizer cube and gave you a chit.  Then you crossed the threshold and entered the temple, underneath the temple spire.

This particular temple spire was being renovated.  Wooden scaffolding and workers doing masonry high above your head.  You could see splats of material on the concrete & brick courtyard floor.  I worried that one of the workers could fall and go "splat" as well.  None did, as far as I know.

This temple was dedicated to a husband-and-wife pair of gods, so there were two central shrines, each tended by a holy man (not sure what to call them, monks maybe?).  Each came out from the shrine with a tray of burning incense candles, a pot of paint, and a basket of flower petals and packets of the same colour paint - you waved the smoke from the incense into your face, and the monk put a dot of paint on your forehead, then gave you select petals and a packet of the same colour paint to renew the dot later.  You optionally put a small donation in the basket.

The first monk put white paint on my forehead, but I was sweating profusely, not sure you can see it in the photos.  The second monk put red paint on my forehead, and that you can see in these photos taken after we emerged from the temple.

We were not allowed to take photos in the temple - in fact, cameras were entirely banned, so I can't show what it looked like inside.

Srini & Mani led me around the walls of the temple, where likenesses of the other gods were placed.  We stopped at each one, and they explained the significance.  There was then a larger fenced-in area with eight gods, each looking in different directions - they were not to be able to see each other - and represented the sun, moon, and stars.  Srini & Mani walked eight times around this area, and I joined them.

We did some meditation and prayer back in the centre of the temple, at the main shrines.

Then, back to our shoes and back to work.

On the way out of the temple, there were several very elderly and very crippled women sitting, begging.  I had not brought enough money with me, had nothing to give.  But, Srini & Mani, both of whom of course knew about these things, had a little bit left, and gave some to the women.  Charity is part of the culture.

We ate in the lunchroom one more time.  Although the food is very different, I'm getting used to it.  Yes, the customs are different, but the lunchroom staff try hard to treat me very well.

In the afternoon, we went back to the lab, this time from the ERL office (other times had been VIA picking me up at the hotel), so we went on a private toll road.  Wow what a difference!  Very smooth, wide open, and empty.  Not many can afford it, I guess.  Back home in Canada, they would call this a "P3 partnership" because I think the local government participated in the toll road as well.

Contrasted with the smooth open fast toll road, back onto the city streets for the last few kilometres, ugh.  I was watching around, and looked up at the under-construction metro.  Yes, they are in the process of building a metro elevated train system all around Bangalore.  When it is completed in a few years, they will be amazing, and relieve the congestion, I'm sure.   Anyway, we drove right under one huge concrete section, probably 15 metres long by 5 metres wide and 2 or 3 metres thick, just suspended above us on some kind of a gantry crane machine machine.  Now, it was a large sturdy machine, but it still made me nervous... back to my old tricks, worrying too much?  You would never know what hit you, I guess :-)

Anyway, our purpose in the lab this day was different, as mentioned before.  We were no longer trying to fix things, just getting a baseline.  We took the much-modified unit with us, but also a new unit, modified to (supposedly) the same level.  We did our tests, very efficiently, then bid our friends at the lab adieu, and were off again.

This being our last trip to the lab, Mani wanted to stop for a snack, so we stopped at a McDonald's.  McDonald's and KFC are huge over here, quite a delicacy to the Indian palate.  I think I mentioned it before, but let me reiterate - no beef.  Nada, zip, none.
The boys dropped me off at the hotel.  I did some paperwork, and zipped out to the flea market the Nobert and I had visited while he was here.  I picked up a few trinkets - the shopkeeper had already closed but opened "just" for me, nice.

Traffic in front of the hotel was, well, ridiculous.  Crazy.  At 9 o'clock at night!  I cannot describe it any other way.  I tried to capture some of it on video using my tablet.  This is me, trying to cross the street.  Sorry for the bit of bounce - I was trying to keep out of the way of the traffic!  What you do is, watch the locals - when they go, you go.  When they look nervous, you start looking around for a place of refuge!