rickshaw driving in pune

karilyn, paul, stacie and i rented a car and drove out to pune yesterday.  stacie's friend anji heard about our rickshaw run, and absolutely insisted we come to pune for rickshaw driving and maintenance lessons.  anji has a business with his son, giving enfield motorcycle tours of india.  we happily obliged, and found ourselves stalling all over the busy roads of pune this morning.  eep.  i have to admit i was freaked out at first.  it was definitely scary, but we had a great teacher.  although he was not exactly a master of the english language (if he wanted us to speed up he'd say, 'more race!'), he was able to ease our fears and we're all very excited now ...  to get to pondicherry and hit the road!

(thank you stacie, for being such a good sport ... organizing all this for us, even though you've broken your wrist and now can't go on the run!)

pune has pugs and nice light!

how to keep a karma kab healthy

things learned:  child labor is alive and well in the pune rickshaw world, it takes at the very LEAST 9 rickshaw-walas to teach 3 foreigners rickshaw maintenance, and the necessary tools include scissors, plastic, 'nipples,' and duct tape.  oh, and a tree.  if we get a flat, we have been instructed to tip the rick and lean it against a tree in order to replace the tire.  i love efficiency.

in pune for rick lessons

gross

a desperate solution to the roach invasion of the new flat ... the ant graveyard, or the kitchen sink ... the color of the water, day one in the new flat.

the 'we have internet' happy dance

 ... only, we didn't, and wouldn't for almost another week!  if you look closely, you can see the internet guys negotiating with the old man who lives in the building next door, who didn't let us string our wire around the outside of his building.  jerk.

moving day

the byculla flat that was not to be

although i loved the old, colonial style of this flat, we didn't like where it was located.  the old man told me it was next to a nursery.  i thought, 'sweet!  plants!' ... i was wrong.  it was directly across the hall from a different kind of nursery.  

this was the same old man who, when stacie and i went to see the place, had a huge screaming match in front of us with his wife, who clearly hated me ... about how desperate they were for money, and how she should shut the bleep up and find him the keys so we could look at the place.  she kept screaming in hindi, and he would yell back, 'we need cash in our pockets NOW!  now fetch me the keys!'  it was highly dramatic.  our friend richard orange suggested the place to us, after he saw it.  they hadn't liked richard and his supposed (well, there was NO WAY they could have known) swinging bachelor lifestyle, and she certainly thought no higher of me!

rickshaw run!!

early this year, karilyn told us about the rickshaw run.  it's an event held twice yearly in india (and other countries), in which 70 or so teams of randomly selected people buy new rickshaws and drive them across india.  the point is to raise money for charities, and at the end the rickshaws are donated to families (i'm sure there is much tuning up and repair work, first!) who can use them as a source of income.  well ... we thought at the time that this sounded like an excellent adventure, and entered our names into the lottery.  sadly we were not chosen, but karilyn's group was, and last week one of her team members broke her wrist so hey!  i get to go on the rickshaw run!  wheeeeeee!  (at least i think i will ... there's still the pesky issue of obtaining my international driving permit, and a few other details to work out.)  but provided those kinks get ironed ... yes, i am going to drive a rickshaw, along with karilyn and paul, roughly 2,000 miles from pondicherry to shillong.  in two weeks.  it's going to be INSANE.  

if you would like to donate to the cause, you can make a donation (as small or large as you'd like) by going here or here.  OR, you can help sponsor me personally in this endeavor.  i've joined at the very last minute, and have until now not done any fundraising at all!  if you'd like to donate to my own sponsorship, drop me an email.  (nixonb@gmail.com)

out of touch

sorry for the lack of update.  i've been without internet for almost a week.  it's still not up and running, but i've finally been able to get out of the house to an internet-equipped cafe.  yay, bagel shop!

so ... yeesh.  the last week has been insane.  terrorists attacked downtown bombay, and m was there shooting for almost all of it.  on friday we had to move out of our old flat, and since there was so much happening downtown, i ended up doing it on my own.  m's assistant and our friend sara helped, and we had a crew of semi-useful movers, but it still took aaaalllll day and most of the next.  at the end of it, my feet looked like they had tan lines from my sandals.  but no, it was dust.  gross.  and then ... BAM ... bombay belly!  and how!  i spent saturday night through monday mid-day in major pain and in a most unpleasant state!  it's now wednesday afternoon, and i'm feeling somewhat better.  we FINALLY have a fridge, a bed, a sofa, and hot water, but they certainly did not come easy.  

so, that's my super quick, detail-lacking update.  i'm off to meet up with karilyn and attend a peace march at the gateway.  more later, with photos.  hopefully later tonight ... IF the internet actually is operating when i get home ... that's a HUGE if.