It seems fitting I am writing this now in Changi airport.  I've spent some time here over the last year or so - and it was only 1 short month ago I was sitting here in a bar with Dan, with a heavy heart at the thought of going back to India without Jac, and facing an uphill battle with our client (even though we lost the battle, we will win the war suckers). 

Now I still have a heavy heart at what I've left behind, but I am on top of the world at what's ahead - Jacki, Jada, a new house, an exciting job on a $4.8 billion project with a government client who WILL pay us - and all in the best city in the world, Brisbane (although I have promised Jac if she finds a job in Dubai or somewhere else I'll go with her...)!

The blog has been a great outlet for me.  I've written over 100 posts in 6 months, and there have been more than 2,500 hits at an average of 14 per day.  What a great family I have!

But all good things come to an end, and this will be the last post.  And so my final thoughts - for what they're worth - on India.

• It is a land of contrasts - from the TV dish on the slum, to the war talk from some of the loveliest people you could meet, I have never been challenged by so many outright contradictions.  Seeing our drivers every day in their one threadbare uniform - ironed to perfection - is a perfect example.

• It is a land of barely hidden anger - I believe this is a massive undercurrent which comes through in the constant mob violence, such as setting vehicles on fire when there's a car accident - and with the Maoist situation it seems a lot of the country is basically in civil war.  Rich v poor, Hindu v Muslim, communists v congress, taxi v cow - everyone has a side.

• It is a land of family - kids stay with their parents all their lives, although I also believe that there is "big family" syndrome (understandable in a land of 1.1 billion people) - to get anything you have to force your way to the front, and this comes out in everything from the stampede to get off a plane through to the chaotic traffic (to slow is to falter, to brake is to fail, to stop is defeat)!.

• It is a land of bureaucracy (thank you England, you bastards) - it hasn't been able to find its way out of the over-the-top systems introduced by the British, and is beset by greed and corruption at high levels at the expense of the majority poverty-stricken population.

Reading back through that list it seems a bit negative, and maybe I'm a bit bitter and twisted over the way our company was treated.  I think that's unfair though - I had an unbelievable experience that I wouldn't swap for anything, and met some of the most genuine, lovely, ego-free people I will ever meet in my life.  There's a child-like quality to a lot of Indians that is endearing and that I can personally learn a lot from - a bit less cynicism Brent, okay?!

So anyway, time to go.  I promise I'll have a couple of Singapore Slings for us on the way home. Thanks for everything, keep in touch (bstowers@thiess.com.au) and keep it real. 

Love ya's! 

Brent.

Last day in Kolkata today.  Writing this from my house, where the local movers have turned up an hour or so late - because they walked here.  God knows how they're going to get everything out - I'm waiting for the bikes to turn up.  And although Deepak is on top of them, I have no doubts the company microwave will end up in Australia and my PlayStation will end up in Delhi.

Highlight of the week - the opening of BBQ nation.  For 6 months the sign showing the worlds best looking kebab and the "opening soon" sign on the door has tormented us as we have struggled with the limited lunch options in Salt Lake.  The other day, as I was struggling with the thought of another second-rate brown-lettuce, chicken-loaf subway, Genan and Dan ran breathlessly into my office.

"It's open, it's open!!"

"Lets go - Challo!"

The manager was wrapped to see us - 4 rich white guys - and after learning we worked across the road he told us our first meal was on the house.  Hah!  About 30 prawn, chicken, lamb and vege kebabs later - washed down with Kingfisher - the thought of repeat business must have been the only thing cheering him up.  To paraphrase George Bush, he misunderestimated us.  With a fixed price of 275 rupees for all-you-can-eat, I think they might be in trouble.

 

Health check.  Woke up with gout - not surprised.  Cardio at the gym this morning followed by final buffet breakfast with Marcus, who is looking much better after spending 48 hours relaxing in hospital.  After BBQ nation for lunch and a big Indian farewell dinner last night, I didn't have the chutzpah's to weigh myself.  Feeling good - will feel so, so, much better when I'm on that plane.

Will write more from Singapore later tonight.

Late Note:  BBQ Nation refused admission to 6 of us for lunch today!!  Manager who was so nice yesterday said they were full, but less than half the tables were occupied.  We smashed them in only 1 day!! 

Todays Kolkata headlines:

• Hooch claims 5 lives on Tuesday (who knows how many it got on Republic Day)

• Half-hour panic in city skies as 7 in-bound planes lose contact with air traffic control

• Goons shot dead a tribal leader on Saturday night, hours before he was due to attend a meeting of the Committee against Police Atrocities

• The kingpinof an arms racket busted on Republic Day-eve is a Kolkata municipal employee

• The superintendent of the city's central jail was slapped with a showcause notice after a police raid found mobile phones and other items in the cells of undertrials

I wonder if I'm going to miss the chaos and violence of Kolkata.  Hmm,  I don't think so.  I will however miss the chaotic and occasionally eloquent journalism that I read every day.

Health update:  Last weekend was up and down.  Okay, mostly down.  We went out for dinner on Friday night and had a few beers, wines and caprioska's.  We went sightseeing on Saturday night and had a few more beers and some celebration (the world's worst rum) at the Spring club.  We recovered slightly on Sunday, and then on Monday we had the Australia day blowout.  While recovering we hit the gym pretty hard, particularly as there's no decent shower at home - but probably didn't eat that well. 

So feeling pretty ordinary - didn't do too much at the gym this morning - but it could be worse.  Marcus, my neighbour, gym partner and dinner buddy for the week, wasn't feeling well yesterday and went to the doctors where he got a lecture on binge drinking (even though he's the healthiest of all of us) and kept in overnight.  I'd say the binge drinking probably helped to manage the stress of sacking 20 people, trying to find work for many more including yourself while single-handedly relocating your family back to Australia - but hey, I'm no doctor.  Obviously.

Meet Deepak's parents, Mr and Mrs Subhas and Subdra Das.  About 30 years ago they fell in love and got married, completely at odds with the tradition in their caste of arranged marriages.  Mr Das is a plumber and Mrs Das is a home maker.  28 years ago they had a son, Deepak, and 5 years later a daughter, Dipta.  They are very proud of both of them. 

Deepak is a driver for Europecar on contract to Thiess, and the main income earner in the house. He is the only member of the family that can speak English, which is completely self-taught after he left school at the age of 14.  Dipta is completing her honours degree in philosophy which Deepak is paying for.  Her parents will arrange her marriage next year - the completed degree will ensure a better class of husband.  Deepak cannot marry until his sister does, but his mother has promised to take him to back to their homevillage as soon as Dipta is sorted out.  He can then select some girls from which his family will try to arrange a marriage, depending on the dowry.

15 years ago Mr and Mrs Das saved enough money to buy a plot of land in an undeveloped part of Kolkata.  3 years of hardwork and savings went into constructing a 2 room house on the plot, made of earth bricks.  One room is the kitchen and living area, and has a small table with 4 chairs and a gas cooktop.  The other room is a bedroom, with a queen size bed that the whole family sleeps on, a small TV, a number of idols with their own hand-knitted winter woolies and a small screened bathroom area.  Water comes from a pump outside the house.  The walls are decorated with photos and drawings.  It is very cosy.

I was very honoured that Deepak invited me to his house, and smiled and bowed and did my best to be unobtrusive - not easy - the house was not designed with 100kg Samoans in mind.  Mrs Das made a lovely chai tea and insisted I sit on the bed.  Deepak showed me the family photos and heirlooms.  Dipta gave me a photo of her to keep, which I politely declined ("ummm...already spoken for, but thank you").  Mr Das stood in the corner, bowing to me and crying.

"Deepak - why is your Dad crying? "

"It's because not only are you the first foreigner to visit this house, but you are the first foreigner to visit this area.  My Dad is very proud."

A humbling experience.

       

By one of those strange quirks of fate India and Australia celebrate their national days on the same day.  Because it was Republic Day I was having a great sleep in, when at about 8 o'clock the security guards started singing the national anthem, followed by a 21 gun salute that got me out of bed quick smart.   The boys had also decorated the complex with Indian flags (good chance to take a photo showing the power pole that sits in the middle of our driveway which Deepak has almost cleaned up a dozen times on foggy mornings).

 

We'd planned a combined Australia Day / farewell party at Brad's place at Videk Village.  Great location - you may remember we were thinking of living there at one stage, but it was just a bit far out of town.  As we got there we saw a great dangerman - I always wondered how they mowed the lawns on the side of the eco-houses - turns out you just need to tie a rope around yourself, and have a strong bloke on the other end to make sure you don't go A over T on the way down.

 

So anyway, Brads place turned out to be the ideal spot for an old fashioned beer drinking, cricket playing, drunken dancing, aussie day get together.  We got stuck into the fosters and the rum, played nothing but aussie music all day, did our best Midnight Oil impressions and generally ran amuck.  The highlight was our cricket match.  We started with just 6 of us, then a couple of Indians came along and we got them involved.  Before we knew it there were 30 odd people playing, multi-lingual sledging going on, spectators on the hill and lots of cheering and laughing. 

Not much cheering and laughing today in the office, funnily enough, even though we finished up by midnight.  It's very quiet...

                 

Last Sunday we left Murshedabad early so we could stop at the International Centre for Krishna Consciousness - kind of a training centre for orange people.  It's absolutely huge and consists of temples, dormitories, a hotel, fountains, gardens and so on.  We spent 2 hours wandering around and had the tastiest and freshest salad roll I've ever had.  Some of the marble and art work was amazing, and although we weren't supposed to take photos I snapped a few - and then dropped a couple of hundred rupes into the donation box on the way out for my sins.

We saw quite a few westerners roaming around in orange robes and with funny haircuts.  Probably a cheaper alternative than therapy.  Funnily enough while the Indians walked around the massive grounds, most of the westerners were on bikes.  As Dan said, where do they have to get to in a hurry??  Some habits must be hard to break.

We left with a feeling of calmness and at peace of the world, which had all but disappeared when we got to Kolkata 8 hours, 3 truck accidents and 600 cow scares later.

                           

Last Saturday we drove to Murshidabad, about 200k north of Kolkata, for Deb's wedding reception.  The trip didn't get off to a good start - we only covered 13km in the first hour, and that included 2 chuck stops for Ross who'd copped a bait at home the night before.  Luckily he had his driver following us just in case, and at the 2 hour mark he pulled the plug and headed back home.

Once we were out of Kolkata we averaged about 30km an hour.  The roads weren't too bad, just chock full of the usual bikes, cows, trucks - you know the drill.  Of course Dan and I both had stomach issues before we left (jeez we're a soft bunch aren't we?) so we had to make a couple of roadside stops on the way - but 5 and a half gut wrenching hours later we were there.

       

The national guys had all gone up on the train the night before and had lined up the best hotel in town for Dan and I.  600 rupees for the night (less than $20) so we splashed out and got a room for our driver Deepak as well, who thought he'd won the lotto as he'd planned on sleeping in the car.  The bed was harder than 12th grade algebra, the shower flooded the whole room and the mosquitoes were the size of B-52's, but overall it wasn't too bad.

We rocked around to Deb's place - another 45 minutes in the car - to a house he'd built for himself, his parents, his wife and her brother.  Great 3-story place - obviously we're paying these blokes well (or the ones we kept anyway).  It was all lit up, and when we arrived we got the usual rockstar treatment, although we were given chai tea instead of the beer we were expecting.  We then wandered down the road to the local hall, did a few presents (being the senior white guys we got to present the company issue microwave) and sat down for a big Bengali meal. 

                 

This is going great we thought...although a beer would be nice.  Which was when we were asked to leave.

"Wtf??  Already??  But we've only been here 2 hours???"

"Ahhh, yes, but now its the brides families turn.  We must go!"

And so we left!!  As Dan said, it was a hell of a long way to go to give away a microwave and have a greasy feed.  We asked about singing and dancing etc - after all we were expecting a bit of Bollywood action - but we were told the whole 3-day event is very serious in Bengali marriages.  We asked if there was somewhere we could go for a beer - we were dressed for action - but again the boys politely turned us down.  So off we went, with the realization that our cultural differences are even greater than we first thought. 

This was confirmed when we saw a massive idol made of straw on the drive home.  Again, wtf??

Health check - down to 94kg, probably because food is passing through me like Cyclone Tracey passed through Darwin.  Loving the gym though.  Had a strike on Thursday so couldn't get to work, and Marcus and I went for a nice long run around Sanjeeva town which felt great at the time, but I think I overextended something and have a bit of a limp today.  Will stop at Big Bazaar and buy a can of harden-up on the way home.

Today has been an ordinary day.  We retrenched 19 of our 34 national staff.  Some of them are people I've come to know very well over the last 6 months. 

Mukharjee, the mining engineer with the coke bottle glasses and the crazy grin.  Also the best bowler on our cricket team.  He was one of the first to meet us when we got to Murshidibad a few days ago, and at the wedding reception I learnt he was nicknamed "Turbo" by the Thiess guys in Australia because he dug a trench quickly or something - his English isn't too good and I was calling him "Tivo" for a while. Our 7 mining engineers are very close to each other - this was evident at Deb's wedding, with all of the other engineers taking a 10 hour train to be there.  Deb and Arghya are the only ones staying in India.  Moushan, a smart young guy with the best English, won the lottery as Marcus jagged him a new job in Australia.  The other 4 - Mukharjee, Prashant, Birendra and Sujib are looking for work.

Starvin' Arvind Singh, the project manager we dragged around Indonesia.  I still remember him missing about 3 feeds in a row on that trip.  Yeah, he was a pain in the ass, but he was our pain in the ass!  Although he was paid out today, including a sizable notice period, he has said he will keep coming in until he's cleared everything on his desk.  Not necessary, but a mark of the man.

C.S. Gupta, our Hindi tutor.  Devendra, who bribed the guys doing our foreign registration.  Tej, the cricket captain who got liquored up on the sponsors product at the draw.  Sanjay, who shaved his head when he had his first child a month or so ago.  Superman, the solar powered Indian love machine.  The list goes on.

Of the 7 ex-pats, 3 of us have secured work in Australia, 3 will stay here for now, and one may have to rejoin the Serbian mafia in Melbourne - although I'm sure he'll find something soon.  Personally I'm looking to leave next Friday, although I'm still waiting to confirm a few details.

Of course, this is the reality of business, and is going on everywhere throughout our industry at the moment.  Can't get too down about it.  So we'll have a couple of beers this afternoon and reflect on the great fun we've had over the last 6 months. 

       

Went to my first Indian wedding ceremony last night.  What a spinout.  I won't go into too much detail as I'm not feeling the best (See below) and my typing is pondro...pander...slow.  Needless to say there were hundreds of well wishers, lots of mutton and rice, Deb and his bride were dressed to the nines, and we stuck out like the Brady Bunch at a Fifty Cent concert. 

We were treated like royalty when we arrived and made to sit with the bride while everyone took photos etc.  Turns out we were just the support act - when Deb turned up at about 10ish the crowd went wild.  The bride and groom then sat in separate rooms receiving visitors while everyone else ate and made merry, albeit without alcohol.

The ceremony was about 2 hours out of Kolkata and was planned to go all night - in fact vows would not be exchanged until at least 3am.  We packed it in just before midnight after getting some subtle hints along the lines of "fantastic you came, but you're stealing the limelight, so go home now please".  However we've also been invited to the reception on Sunday night, which is at Debs home city of Murshedibad, about 4-8 hours drive (depending on who you talk to) north of Kolkata.  Ross, Dan and I decided we're here for a good time, not a long time, so we've taken Monday off to go check out another part of the country.  Look forward to telling you about it next week.

                                                                   

Health check.  Picked up a stomach bug a few days ago - last night I started getting chills and today I have a force 10 headache and a terrible taste in my mouth.  Affected my workout yesterday - have decided to rest from the gym this weekend.  On the plus side I reckon I've lost a few kg, mostly liquid if you know what I mean.  Have been invited to a BBQ at the Hyatt tonight - food and beer included - must...make...effort to get there!

Will blog again Tuesday...if we make it back.