Season One Finale

Well Diary,

After visiting Chennai my tenure at TIFR rapidly came to an end.  My research visa was to expire May 25th, and so I needed to go back to the states and work on my next visa.  I had been starting to go to cafes with Arnab in Mumbai, such as Kala Ghore and one at Naraman Point.  The two of us have a little math project going.

But soon I had to figure out how to move my stuff.  The idea was to store most of it in boxes in IISER.  So, I would need to pack up my stuff and move it.  It's an interesting question, what is that best way to do that.  There were some online "packing and moving" services, which I understood were by the same companies, but I could order them separately.  My idea was to have them come and pack things, and then I would put the boxes in a taxi and move them myself to Pune.

Evidently an efficient way to arrange for such services is to fill out a form on the internet, including your phone number. Well I did that and ten minutes later I was flooded with a deluge of calls.  Most of the calls went as follows:  they would ask for both addresses, and give me an estimate.  I tried to communicate that I only wanted the packing part, and they didn't understand what I meant and thought I was trying to bargain.  Another service asked me to text them my address, multiple times as I hadn't done it quite right.  As previously noted, texting was a pain on my phone.  So, I eventually just started telling them that I had "made other arrangements".

And, in fact, I scrounged around TIFR and got some boxes (I'll spare you the tedious details), and packed things up myself.  I took the taxi to Pune and dropped off my stuff.  While I was there I talked to the Registrar about my visa.  Now prudence dictates that I refrain from dictating official conversations regarding my employment, but I left the conversation quite concerned about one of the particulars for getting a visa.  We'll talk about this shortly.

After that I said my goodbyes, dropped off my keys and such.   I had to pay 15000 rupees for my 10 months of (subsidized) accommodations.  That's really cheap, and in the spring included housecleaning and breakfasts.

I sat next to a woman and her young daughter on the plane ride back to the states.  Neither of them spoke English or Hindi, but by listing names of states I gleaned that she was from Kerala.  I flew United, and the American staff was plainly flustered by having so many customers they couldn't talk to.  When we finally arrived in Philly, the captain said, "Welcome back to paradise."  Which is odd.

Okay let's talk about visas.  When I was at TIFR I had a Research Visa.  While the application for this last took a couple days to prepare, in the end the application went through with no problems and I had it in about ten days.
To work (and teach) at IISER Pune, I need an Employment Visa.  The exact qualifications for this are not well known.  The best way to find out what they are, it turns out, is to apply for the Employment Visa.  There are a couple scary-sounding qualifications involved.  One is that a company cannot hire more than 1% foreigners.  Another is that to get the employment visa, you need to make $30,000 USD a year.  Yes, the rule is in terms of US Dollars.  There are exceptions which don't apply to me, like for chefs, Bollywood extras, foreign language teachers (not English), and people working for NGOs.  This rule was particularly scary, because the rupee was going down compared to the USD as my visa application was being processed.

I was pretty worried about this my last day in India, but Gerald told me that I shouldn't be intimidated by harshly-worded rules on the internet.  Alright, so because of prudence on a public blog, let me simply report that I followed Gerald's advice, sent in my application, and in about ten days had my employment visa with no problems.

So that's my year.  For old time's sake, let me finish the season with one final look at my original intentions.

1.) I will never get sick of Indian food.

So, I need to get around to cooking for myself at some point.  Yes, I'm sick of too much spice.  But otherwise it's great.

2.) I will never get (seriously) sick, period.

Success!  None of my ailments were particularly serious.

3.) I will learn the Hindi alphabet, and some Hindi.  In this regard, I will limit the time that I hang out with expatriates.

Yep, can more or less read the alphabet.  At least if an English word is written in Devanagari, I can usually figure it out.  Pronunciation is something that is never quite perfect.  Yep, I know some basic phrases.  Oh, and I did indeed make non-Western friends.

4.) I will find a local juggling group, if there is one, and try to get something going if there isn't.

Yep, the latter.  I'll have to start over in Pune (sigh...)

5.) I will see about being an extra in a Bollywood movie.

Nope!  I guess it's hit or miss.

6.) I will be delighted if a monkey steals my groceries.

Well, this hasn't happened, but I suspect I wouldn't be so delighted.  I'm told monkeys will steal your groceries by slapping you in the face first, and I'd rather not get scratched by a wild animal out here.

7.) I will take some yoga classes.

Yes, but not consistently.  I'll try again in Pune.

8.) I will get a lot of math done.

Yep, that's the main reason I'm here actually.

9.) Things to do: camel ride on Chowpathy beach; eat Indian ice cream (the good stuff not Haagen Daz); check out Elephanta and Ellora (massive caves with beautiful hand carved rock); visit Bombay University the main building, an architectural dazzle etc etc.

 Oops.  Well, I saw Elephanta, at least, and maybe some etc's.  Always more to do!

 See you next season!

 END PART ONE