old city al-balad

Last week I visited the old city Al-Balad the first time. It was really interesting. The houses were amazing, not gorgeous but were very historically rich and fertile. The balconies were mostly wooden, some precariously balanced, delicately put together by many small wooden chips. From what I read, when they build such balconies wood was hard to come by, so they had to piece together small ones. The other main attraction was the market -- a sprawling bazar with variety of items being sold. This market, also known for the gold/silver bazars, we re covered with rows of gold/silver stores. I have to go back to this part of the city again. Once we figure out a good way to travel back-forth between campus/city.

More soon, hopefully.

moving to the campus

I got the apartment. Lot of things to be fixed, but a big step forward. Also moved to my new office with a stable network connection. Classes have started too. Still managing to get some time for reading, the campus library for fiction/non-faction has started, so a good source for now. Should be able to settle down by this week.

Got a glimpse of the climbing wall. Its ok, but not as much as I expected. But optimistic but that we can move things around to get a better one, more entertaining one.

Did I find any gems yet? No. Haven't been to the old part of the city yet, but tomorrow evening is the when we go there. I am looking forward to that. Gems are getting to know the local people, how they live, how they go about with their life, their aspirations and joys, ... more later.

setting up office machine

It turns out that setting up imac is a breeze, provided you have a working mac setup. Here is what I did:
-- install winclone on old and new mac (to copy windows later, working with intel mac)
-- put the two macs on the same network, and run migration assistant on both. follow on-screen instructions and in about 2 hours I had my old mac settings transferred to the new system!
-- next ran winclone to mirror my previous win installation, copied the file over using a firewire cable (boot old laptop while pressing T), and restored win partition on new machine using winclone again. Done!
-- if win partition needs to update driver, use the macos dvd from windows -- bootcamp does the rest.

I realize that I wrote this in a bizarre style -- alternating between instruction mode, and note to myself or experience mode.

settling down

I have not gotten around exploring the city or the campus yet. The first week was spent more to get some administrative stuff out of the way. I hope soon I get things sorted so that Tuhin can join me here. It will be a strange country for him, maybe. It is amazing to see the level of activity out here. Right now the high activity level is mostly focused on construction, and a constant battle to get all things functional by the opening day. Once we go through this stage, the real fun begins when we have a stable environment and get to focus on our work. One of the rec. centers will also open by early September, or rather that's what all of us are hoping.

Last few months have been all over the globe -- china, hong kong, london, stanford, new orleans, and ofcourse jeddah. What was really nice was the few weeks I spent back in my home town -- after a long long time. It was very relaxing. On the other hand, having not being at the climbing wall for months now, I on some weight. I got myself a new pair of climbing shoes, which I hope to be able to use soon. Meanwhile my calluses are quickly disappearing. I hope the wall on campus turns out to be nice, and I am sufficiently motivated to hang out there often.

Short list of what I got done last week: get all things packed/shipped, apply for iqama, get a first tour of the house, hopefully fixed a place for office, and got a quick meeting with the students. The current commute is long -- 3hrs/day :(

back again, hopefully

Months later, another country, another nation, another adventure starts ...

imf again

Had a good time at IMF -- this is my third visit for the week. Towards the end a storm moved in, was a nice feeling to reach the top with nice cool breeze blowing all around. It is going to be almost a week before I can head back -- I think the break will do me good. Still couldnt get past that move. Well not really, got a little past, but not enough though.

imf at 42C

It wasn't fun to start with, the humidity was taking its toll, the place was silent as the birds and dogs were busy finding a hiding place and forgot to cry out once in a while. There was definitely a lull in the air when I reached IMF today around 5:30pm. I didn't meet anyone for the first 30minutes or so. It was definitely a day for swimming and not outdoor climbing. But since I was there what else could I do? The holds/rocks were stuck to their usual places, maintaining disinterested poses. A bit of self coaxing and I had put on my climbing shoes (which are torn by now, should get a new pair at some point). I started easy, but then slowly got into the mood. Having a book to read helped to take mind off the heat, and focus on the sequences. Soon, like most other days in Delhi, the temperature started dropping with occasional breeze trying its best to help. After some interesting sequences and a some success on a few bouldering tasks, it was time to put on the harness. I topped a few times, and made one more move on the sequence I am trying for the last two sessions. Maybe next time I will powerful enough to pull through the sequence, though I feel it is more a question of having enough positive vibes, rather than power or technique on that move, or sort of dyno.