Also tweeted this, but I haven’t posted about Henri in a while, so I wanted to let everyone know he’s doing well. I’m putting him on a little bit of a diet to recover from my parents’ overfeeding of him while I was in India. I think this might be making him a little aggressive. Right after our prolonged battle (I won), he went to his food bowl and moved it across the living room floor. Don’t worry, I gave him more food.

Rotofugi, a really cool Chicago toy store that I frequent, recently created this great advertisement that everyone should watch. It tells the story of toys who collect various types of humans and even features the Wee Ninjas that you’ll find around my desk at work. Watch it, and collect something.

Inspired by this post, here’s the packaging redesign for Kinley water. For those who didn’t know (I didn’t until a couple weeks ago), Kinley basically has a monopoly of the Hyderabad bottled water market. Recently, the bottle design changed — the label lowered, the shape got more curvy (easier to hold), and the cap changed to blue. I like the changes. Also, everyone I asked prefers the new version too. I even overheard people discussing the benefits of the new design in the elevator at work.

I went to see the Taj Mahal this weekend. It was amazing. However, aside from the Taj, there’s not much to see/do in Agra. There is a movie theater though, so I decided to go see a Hindi movie – my first ever. I settled on Phoonk – said to be the ultimate Indian horror movie; it turned out to be entertaining, but not scary. Also, there was no singing or dancing. My ticket:

Some things to note if you ever plan to go see a movie in India:

• They have different pricing levels for tickets based on the seats: silver, gold, and ebony. Not wanting to be stuck with a bad seat and also not wanting to watch from a sofa, I settled on gold. This is a mistake. Go with the silver.
• Be prepared to stand up for the National anthem before the film. (though I’m told this only occurs in small towns) I was given curious stares when I stood up noticeably later than the crowd as the music started.
• There will be an intermission. Do not fret. If you’re feeling adventurous, order the masala peanuts.
• There will be a happy ending. :)

Watching the Olympics in bed has made me feel lazy. So, upon returning from Charminar earlier today, I decided to go to the gym. Moments after I entered, they switched the music from Hindi to Top 40. Good news is I was able to finally run a 5-minute mile, from mile two to three on the treadmill (the treadmills here use English units, to my surprise), with Rihanna singing me along. I haven’t tried this in a while, so it was nice to know it’s still possible. Watch out Usain Bolt!

I tried to see all of the famous sites of Hyderabad this weekend. On Saturday, I went to the seven Qutb Shahi Tombs and Golkunda Fort. My first stop was the tombs. From what I understand, they are tombs for seven Qutb kings, who ruled the area about 500 years ago. Someone also told me the fifth king is the one who built Charminar, which is where I went the next day. Anyway, the tombs are now mostly falling apart, but they are still pretty impressive. While I was walking around the seven tombs, I could see a big fort up on a hill about a kilometer away (functioning on the metric system these days), so that’s where I decided to go next.

The neatest thing about the Golkunda fort is the acoustics — you can clap at a spot near the entrance gate and hear it at the very top of the citadel, and the other way around works too. This would seem to be handy to help ward off invaders, but apparently not handy enough; emperor Aurangzeb conquested the fort in 1687.

Climbing the 380 steps to the top of the fort (and back down) sure worked up my appetite. Hyderabad is famous for its biryani, so I decided to go get some at a place near the fort. Most people eat it with their fingers, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that. Here’s a picture of a spoonful of my chicken biryani:

On Sunday, I visited Charminar. Here’s how it looks from below:

I really like the combination of square and curvilinear forms in the structure, but the best part about it is they let you climb up to the top. Upon hearing this, I went straight to buy my ticket:

There are really narrow, spiraling staircases in two of the towers. When you get to the top, you have a really great view of the streets below. It’s pretty scary because there are no railings, but luckily nobody pushed me.

I posted a lot of pictures here already, and I plan to keep updating that album during my trip. I must say that India is beating my expectations so far. Keep the Palak Paneer coming.

They are good. My memory, however, is not. Anyone have a good technique for remembering names? I already have pictures of everyone with his/her name posted on my cube wall, and even though I don’t like it so much when people repeat your name when you meet them, I tried that too. These tactics don’t seem to be working for me. I called one guy by another’s name today. Upon realizing this a couple minutes later (he didn’t correct me!), I emailed to assure him it would not happen again. When he came past my cube to say goodnight, I called him yet another person’s name. I’m horrible.

I just made it to Hyderabad. Here’s a picture of where I am right now:

It has been raining constantly here for the past day or two, so a lot of the streets are flooded and our internet is down. (Thanks to WLAN for letting me steal their signal!)

I’ll try to post all of the exciting news here. Also, thanks to everyone for all of the tweets.

Today, my passport with visa was shipped back to me from the Indian Consulate in San Francisco. (Interestingly, FedEx shipped it from San Francisco to Memphis, Tennessee(!), and then back to Cupertino.) Tomorrow, I have the first of two doctors’ appointments to get me all vaccinated up. I’m already starting to miss Henri.

First video with my new camera: