Vapi & Mumbai

Everyone is preparing for the nearing monsoon. Along Gunjan Road, all the trees have been trimmed -- of sorts.

I've only seen a few tools in India: an adze (over-sized hoe) used for digging, an ax used for chopping large branches, and a large machete-type knife used for everything else. This tree was "trimmed" -- hacked would be a better term -- to remove lower branches. This leaves lots of jagged and torn edges. I've never seen anyone using a saw or pruning shears, so all the cuts are very rough.

Moving on to our day in Mumbai:

Powai is a fairly new section of Mumbai. This is the view from the MWV offices.

The more I looked at the buildings, the less attractive they became. No matter what you do, poured concrete retains something of a utilitarian vibe. Then I noticed the building in the background.

It's really quite a cantilevered marvel.

Finally, at the end of the day, our driver, Sachin, invited us to his house for dinner.

Sachin's family and us. As far as I can tell, everyone in India is a good cook!

MWV Puja

MWV is moving their Indian headquarters from Pune to Powai, a northern suburb of Mumbai. To officially open the office, a puja was held yesterday. It was quite the event. The ceremonies lasted about four hours.

The entrance was decorated with marigold garlands.

A rangoli was prepared at the reception desk.

Puja - round 1 of 4.

Puja -- continued.

A highly-decorated coconut.

At one point, the smoke from incense and lamps actually set off the smoke detectors.

Towards the end of the puja in the middle of the office.

After the puja in the middle of the office, a smaller ceremony was performed in side office. This puja involved invocations to the nine planets. (According to a sign I saw in a museum, the nine Hindu planets are the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, and Ketu.)

Setting up the puja platform.

Ready to start. The brown nuts represent the planets.

Before (left) and after (right).

Now that the office has been properly blessed, it's time to start doing business!

Baby Stuff

Our first grandchild is due in August. What an opportunity to go shopping!

I've been admiring these cradles for some time. Now I have an excuse to buy one.

I'm sure this violates all sorts of American guidelines for safe parenting, but it's so-o-o-o Gujarati!

The structure is very solid -- solid tropical hardwood of some sort. Very heavy!

The cradle part is like a mini-charpoy (cot) with side rails. Unfortunately, it's only really appropriate for the first few months.

For longer use (up to age two or three), it can also be used with a hammock. Babies in India are quite frequently put in a hammock made by tying a sari between two trees or two posts. Baby hammocks are also seen in cars and trains.

As a further benefit, this hammock includes mosquito netting.

If you look carefully at the photos, you may have noticed that the set is not entirely put together solidly -- I haven't tightened everything in place because at some point this will need to be shipped in pieces.

And for mama and papa:

A porch swing for David and Maria's front porch. 

Now all I have to do is figure out how to get this stuff to the U.S. The porch swing will wait until we ship all of our household goods home this fall, but the cradle has to get there sooner! Originally I had hoped it could be my second bag on our flights, but I have two domestic flights before I get to Virginia, and logistically and financially it doesn't make much sense!

Around Vapi

Not much new this week. The heat has moderated somewhat -- only getting up to about 35 or 36 C (upper 90's F). But the humidity is oppressive. I don't do much walking in this heat and sun. Monsoon should start in the next few weeks, then the temperatures will moderate considerably, but the humidity increases -- as if that's possible!

Vapi has "excellent" water service -- it runs 2 hours each day -- most of India is lucky to get one hour of water each day. But a huge amount is lost to leaks like this one spouting from a relatively new pipe. What you can't see is that it's also spraying all over electrical lines running along the ground.

Three dogs at an appliance shop. The two black dogs have collars and are chained in place as guard dogs. The white dog is a street dog that looked to get in on a seat off the street.

Surrender

I give up. E.O. Wilson (noted Harvard biologist) is right: Earth belongs to the ants.

The ants here have always been relentless in their pursuit of food, but the last few days have gone beyond my patience -- although there's really nothing I can do about it. (See a recent post.)

Yesterday, I went to get one of my individually wrapped cookies. (I have one for breakfast everyday to help keep my fish oil pills down. If I don't have some starch with the fish oil, my stomach reacts violently. It's not pretty.) It was completely empty, just a few tiny holes in the foil-lined package where ants had chewed their way in.

A tiny (1 mm) hole chewed through "protective" packaging. This packaging can keep out humidity, but not ants!

Two more small holes

Today they had attacked my vitamin pills -- again -- they love the sugar coating. (See this post for last year's version of this issue.) I keep my pills in zip-lock plastic bags, but they are too flimsy to hold up against these ants. Like the cookie packaging, a plastic bag is no barrier to determined ants.

This time, I did get a bit of revenge. They also got into my baggie of fish oil capsules.

Holes chewed by ants into the baggie that holds my fish oil capsules. You can see some oil loose in the baggie as well. Yesterday, the capsules were intact.

But ants don't do well swimming in oil.

Ants and oil don't mix.

There was a huge black clump of dead ants, and bits of vitamin pill cover (the pink spots above) on the fish oil baggie. The photo above shows a small portion of this.

I don't want to keep my pills in the refrigerator, because they will get too soggy in this humidity when I pull them out to get one. So I have found a small Tupperware container that should keep them safe.

[All of the photos on this page were taken with a Proscope MicroMobile lens on an iPad.]

Mangoes

May is the prime season for mangoes. Alfonso mangoes are at or near their peak. Kesars will be following in about two weeks.

The highways are lined with mango stalls. An equal length of mango sellers is behind me. There's at least one stretch like this every few km along the highway.

More mangoes.

Everyone is serving "aamras" or "aamras puri". "Aamras" is "mango juice" -- not really juice, but blended mango pulp. Just put ripe mango pieces into a blender or food processor and blend into a thick puree. Maybe add a small amount of sugar if needed. It's served as a dessert or snack, traditionally with puri -- fried flat bread. When you dip the puri into the aamras, it ends up tasting very doughnut-y. Delicious! But it requires Indian Alfonso mangoes. No other variety really works as well.

This Week in Vapi

It's been another hot and dusty week in Vapi. With the heat, I haven't been doing as much walking as when it's cool, and so there are not as many pictures. Here's what I have this week.

One of my favorite trees in Vapi -- a peepal tree growing atop an old wall. The peepal is also known as the "Bodhi Tree", as it was under a peepal tree that the Buddha attained enlightenment. It's considered a holy tree by Hindus as well, and this particular tree frequently has offerings at its base. These two figures were particularly colorful.

The Indian alternative to a "cherry picker" or a "bucket truck". This man is working on a street light -- the bed of the truck has a number of lighting units in it.  I didn't see them extend the ladder-like structure, but it must collapse in some way for the vehicle to negotiate Vapi's underpasses and low-hanging wires (of all sorts).

The wedding season is coming to an end -- no one gets married during monsoon! Yesterday we traveled to a reception in Surat -- a two to three hour drive, depending upon traffic. Formal occasions always call for a sari, and I'm (slowly) learning how to wear one. It takes lots of practice!

And finally a note about Vapi "in the news". Chemical and Engineering News ("C&EN", a weekly news publication of the American Chemical Society) had India as their cover story last week. This included a two-page spread on Vapi, as a one-time "most polluted" city (in the world). It's now been "upgraded" to simply one of the most polluted cities in India. (Thank you, China.) You can read the article here: http://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i18/India-Under-New-Management.html

When the reporter came to Vapi, the head of the local industrial association was very concerned. C&EN's Asia bureau is based in Hong Kong, as is Greenpeace's Asian headquarters. So the local industrial head was convinced that this must be part of a Greenpeace effort to get underground information on Vapi. It never occurred to him that "Chemical and Engineering News" actually covers the chemical industry, and is generally pretty friendly to it. Not to mention that India's national government has essentially thrown Greenpeace out of India by freezing their bank accounts and revoking their NGO status. Doesn't matter. Guilt by association.