Story: Culture hurdle for media outsourcer

From Sunday's paper, a feature story on media outsourcing.

Long weekend in Little Lhasa

After writing a brief piece on Independence Day last Friday (see two posts down), I took the overnight bus with Michelle and Olga to visit Dharamsala for the weekend. We stayed in McLeod Ganj for two nights before heading back on the overnight train Monday night. While we did visit the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, which is probably what the area is best known for, I spent most of the weekend relaxing and riding a horse in the mountains and such. Olga had her master's project published on the front page of the Sunday New York Times, so we celebrated that as well.

Here are some photos.

A poorly planned trip to the best planned city in India

Two weekends ago (yes, I am falling behind in the posting), I made a weekend trip to Chandigarh, a three-hour train ride northwest of Delhi. I went alone and, unfortunately, did not have a room to stay in Saturday night -- there was a "pest situation" in the room I originally booked, and none of the other hotels had a vacancy. So I stayed up all night, in Chandigarh, which is not all that exciting a place when it comes to nightlife. I ended up staying in a Cafe Coffee Day all night watching drunk people eat pastries. It was like college! Except I was in a coffeehouse, and not drinking.

By the time I got to what I came to see -- the buildings and monuments planned and executed by Le Corbusier -- I was so exhausted and bleary-eyed that it was something akin to a religious experience. Enjoy the photos! Facebook album can be seen here.

Story: Manmohan Singh or Cyndi Lauper?

A brief write-up about my first Indian Independence Day. Nice to get a byline for something I would've attended anyway.

Story: Dalrymple, Rushdie & a book on AIDS

Here's a day story from Wednesday. Mukul Kesavan was supposed to show up but didn't. Dalrymple was really entertaining, though.

Story: Myanmarese mark 20th yr of "8888"

There is text-message speak in the headline of this story.

Very wow Jaipur

It took me two months, but I finally completed the Golden Triangle (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur) with a visit to Jaipur this past weekend. Michelle and I stayed at a hostel Saturday night, which meant that Sunday was far less rushed than on our trips to Agra and Amritsar.

Pictures can be seen on this Facebook album.

Highlights included:

Amber Fort, located 11 km north of Jaipur
An elephant ride
Hawa Mahal, the facade of which was built to allow royal ladies to people-watch undetected
Jantar Mantar, where, unlike at the one in Delhi, we hired a guide so as to understand what the instruments actually do
An Italian restaurant that served Kingfisher in teacups to get around obtaining a liquor license

The trip reminded me how much I enjoy getting out of Delhi, so I plan on doing more of that over the next few weeks. I think I am heading to Chandigarh Saturday.

Story: Tibetan hunger protest enters ninth day

Never go to report on a hunger strike without first having breakfast.

Story: Fledgling Delhi acting schools get mixed marks on placement

Although online it looks like it ends at the end of Page 1, there are two pages to this story, which was arguably the most fun to report out of the ones I've done so far.