Live and direct from Abbotsford......

Colleen Bell, UFV Librarian, visited Chandigarh today to present a library resources orientation to our Business 100 students.  She wasn't actually here but, through the magic of technology, she was able to guide them through the online resources that will help them with their major projects.

Colleen worked a bit overtime, starting at 8 pm Monday night, and our students came in early, 8:30 am Tuesday morning.  We had only a few little Skype glitches but the session was a success.  Pretty amazing!  Thank you, Colleen.

Our fourth year student, Reekrit Serai, presented us with a very nice gift today.  It is a copy of the first book he authored, "As I Turn Twenty."  He wanted to say thank you for our comments on the rough draft of his third book which has just gone to the printer.  It is called "Master of Failure."  Very powerful writing from such a young man!

A bit more about Shimla--while it is still fresh in memory.

What do you call a 108 foot tall Hindu god who stands high above the city of Shimla?

Hanumanji!

At 8000 feet,  the highest point in Shimla, is the Jakhoo Hanuman Temple.

This was a stop on our Shimla tour last Saturday.

Hanuman is the god who was able to move a mountain.  He was sent to find an herb that would help someone who had fallen ill.  When he couldn't decide which herb to choose, he picked up the entire mountain and carried it back with him.

Sometimes I use a similar technique when shopping!

One can reach Hanumanji by taking the challenge of walking up from The Ridge, starting just by this church.

We rode in a van.  That was a bit of a scary ride, though.  A few hairpin curves were so tight the driver had to back up to manoeuvre his way around the corner.

We did go into the small temple built on the site where Hanuman is said to have first stepped on earth.

Hanuman is known as the monkey god.  Interesting, because the one warning we had before going up the mountain was, "Watch out for the monkeys!"  They can be very aggressive and are known to steal glasses right off your face, jump on your back and pick pockets.  Adi and our driver both came equipped with big sticks to protect us.

We didn't witness any monkey incidents.

A visit to the village......

Today we spent a good portion of the day in Chhat Village (not a typo but the actual name).  It is about a 1/2 hour drive from our home in Chandigarh and is the village where Paul Wadhawan grew up.

We travelled to Chhat with another of Paul's friends from Abbotsford, and started with a visit to his family home, now the home of his sister and brother-in-law.

The home has a traditional enclosed courtyard surrounded by various rooms.  There is a rooftop deck where Paul says he often slept in the summer when he was young.

Oh the food!  We were served a cold beverage, fruit, and delicious parantas--with melted butter.  These were like two roti with fried onions in between.  Yumm!  I ate three and George would not disclose how many he had.  And, of course there was tea.

It was all necessary fuel for our walk around the village.

This water buffalo was quite suspicious of some stranger wanting a picture taken with her.

In addition to milk, the water buffalo provide another necessary item.  Their dung is formed into paddies (about 10 inches in diameter) and laid out in the sun to dry.

The dried paddies are then stored in silo structures.  These are scattered throughout the village and keep the paddies dry.

Then, they become the fuel that is used in cooking on  traditional outdoor fire pits found in the courtyards of many homes.

On our walkabout the, we met these students on their way home from school.  We are impressed with the uniforms worn by all elementary and highschool students. There is an whole variety of colours and styles, and it is easy to identify groups of students.  They look very smart!

This is the beautiful white village gurdwara.  The gentleman in white is a retired military man who lives in the village.  He joined us on our walk after we were invited into his home for a cold drink.

Across the street was the Hindu temple and in the distance we could hear the call to prayer at the mosque.

This is one of the schools in the village and is the one Paul attended up to grade 10.  He continues to offer financial support to help maintain and upgrade the facility.  Unfortunately for us, the students weren't in class when we visited.

A few kilometres away, we stopped to look at the Wadhawan farm property.  Currently, it is rented out to other farmers who now have a maturing crop of rice.

Chhat Village is located in the state of Punjab and is surrounded by this rich farmland.

Village life is another facet of fascinating India.  How great it was to hear about it from someone who grew up there.

Did he really ride his bike all the way to Chandigarh?

Amazing! Unbelievable! Shimla-rific!

It is difficult to find words to describe our amazing adventure travelling to Shimla this weekend.  It is such a different view of India than we have seen so far, and every bit as exciting.

The sporadic internet service disconnected us from our everyday life, so we were able to experience enough sites, sounds, tastes, friendships, etc. to fill a book!

 

Our journey of only 100+ kilometres took us about three and a half hours despite beginning on the new Himalayan Expressway.  After leaving the expressway, we were on a narrow, winding road as we climbed higher into the Himalayas.
The road surface was good but the going was slow because, even there, the vehicle and pedestrian traffic was heavy.

Adi was our skillful driver so we cringed only slightly when he had to pass a loaded truck with only a small window of opportunity.  Lots of tooting of horns!

There is a continual array of picturesque villages (hill stations) along the way, some very large.  All have buildings that are clinging to steep mountainsides.

 We saw markets filled with the fresh produce that is grown in the valleys--tons of apples at this time of year.

And the monkeys!  They joined the cows, goats and dogs to entertain us as we edged along, sometimes at 30 km per hour.

Getting there was half the fun!

 Shimla is the capital city of the state of Himachal Pradesh.  It has a population of about 200,000 people.  It was established during the British rule as the summer capital of India.  In the days before AC, this was the way to escape the searing heat of Delhi.  It must have been quite a trek but at an altitude of about 2100 metres, the cooler temperatures made it worthwhile.

We escaped 32 degree Chandigarh to 20 degree Shimla.

Above is the Viceregal Lodge built in 1888.  It was here that the agreements were signed to create the independent India in 1947.

The building is now home to the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies that attracts post Phd students from all over Asia to do research.

We didn't qualify to stay there, but we were treated royally at the Himland East Hotel.  It was much closer to Mall Road where we found the world's longest pedestrian-only market!

 The Himland East Hotel is owned by the Akre family.  It was built in 1969 when there were only three hotels in Shimla.  Now, there are 600!  Yes, tourism is big in Shimla and throughout Himachal Pradesh.

Adi (Aditya) is on the right in the photo.  He is our roommate and does Marketing for UFV Chandigarh during the week then drives to Shimla on the weekends to help Dad, Mr. Akre, run the hotel.  Adi's twin, Akshay, also works at Himland East.

Mr. Akre was born in Shimla as were his children, and has a real love for his community.

 Here is Adi with his Mom and his sister, Akanksha, who is visiting from Delhi.

Mrs. Akre prepared us a wonderful Indian breakfast before we left (sadly) this morning.  She, too, works for the hotel and does volunteer work in the community.

This is beautiful baby Prithvi.  He is only three months old and visiting from Delhi with his Mom, Akanksha.

We were all so fortunate to enjoy the warm hospitality of the Akre family!


More Shimla in posts to come.....

Good company, good food!

Our work week ends with a very pleasant evening out.  Paul Wadhawan invited us to dinner with two of his very longtime friends from his university days and their significant others.

Left to right - Raman Chadha, Jaspal Chawla, Arvinder Chawla, and Paul.

Left to right - Arvinder Chawla, Paul, Suresh Chadha.  Both Arvinder and Suresh are university professors.

George is next to Ishani Chadha.  Ishani is +2 (grade 12) student who plans to become an engineer.  Her Mom is a physics teacher.

We enjoyed meeting them all and hope to visit them before we leave India.

Our dinner was at Barbecue Nation, the trendiest restaurant in Chandigarh.  We,  being trendy people, had actually been there before.

Tomorrow it is off to the mountains--to Shimla for the weekend.

A lesson in social responsibility and a ride on an elephant.....

Today our classes were visited by Stacy, Adam and Kathryn, and their colleague from DIR, Jaspreet.  Developing Indigenous Resources is an NGO led by an American, Dr. Fredrick Shaw, that is working in the "bustee" or slum area on the outskirts of Chandigarh called Janta Colony.

The focus of Dr. Shaw's project is preventative medicine.  The three UFV Abbotsford students spend time each week in the bustee visiting homes with the healthcare workers, mapping the area, helping to develop gardens, etc.

Of course, money is always an issue for projects like this. After watching a short video and hearing from Jaspreet, our classes were asked to volunteer at a fundraising concert for DIR which will be held on October 6.  The majority of students have signed up!

A ride on an elephant?  Well, I didn't mean a real elephant.  These elephant slides can be found in playgrounds all around the city.  And, there are so many parks and playgrounds!

On a walk in a different direction in our neighbourhood today, we discovered one just around the corner.

I didn't ride down the slide, but our grandkiddies would have loved it!

This neighbourhood is so safe and away from busy streets.  There were several children out playing, and a local entrepreneur on his bicycle (bit hard to see in the photo) was selling balloons and other small toys.

(Sadly, not many blocks away, we would have found children of the same age begging for money to buy roti.)

Not to be outdone by my elephant, George insisted he have a photo on the dinosaur!  I am sure the ladies on a nearby balcony were shaking their heads.

Week three and the real work begins for the students.....

The Business 100 students are still smiling--although today they launched their big group project work.  In teams of four, they will be doing an indepth study of a Canadian company.  They have chosen some interesting companies:  Bombardier, WestJet, Rona, Tim Hortons, Metro, Air Canada, RIM, and Canadian Tire.

Next week, the big test of technology!  Live from UFV Abbotsford, the librarian will do a session for them on using the online resources UFV Library has available.  It will be a late night for her and an early morning for us.

After the students worked so hard, we treated ourselves (staff not students) to this wonderful lunch of Indian-style Chinese food!  Delicious as all food is here.

A Visitor from Abbotsford.........

Paul Wadhawan (with his brother-in-law) found us at UFV Chandigarh today.

We hope to see him again and visit his village before  before he heads home to Canada.

Storm season is not over yet!  This sight greeted us as we set out for our morning jog.  We did hear the rain, thunder and lightning in the wee hours of the morning.

Another example of the entrepreneurial spirit of the people of India.  This salesman was out early on his bike, riding up and down the streets, calling to customers.  The straw brooms are great.  In our house, we only have one of these and a sponge mop to clean the floors.  You have to get down low and swish it on the side.