Genuine Indian baking bread machine

First elephant spotted...

Working with IBM

We made a movie about Arla Foods with special focus on IT.
This to learn our offshore vendors more about Arla Foods...
Sneak premier at the IBM Noida office...

Now listen carefully.....
Arla Foods CIO, Torben Fabrin talks about IT strategy and our top priority focus areas

After the movie, I did a small evaluation and test of the knowledge about Arla Foods being presented in the movie.
Girish was the winner, making 18 out of 20 answers right  - CONGRATULATION from Sandeep and Adam :-)
(The price is the book: 'How Matrix Organisation works'  )

Some of our SAP system landscape presented to me by Romy and Dinesh.
Very informative - those guys know what they're talking about....

Sitting in an open office sometimes is a noise experience - also in India.
Headset with mic at one of many CAB meetings.
Wearing an IBM ID card is mandatory at the office.

Orphanage visit

Many children in India are having a hard time, byt luckily some people care about them.
Together with some other expats, we visited an orphanage just outside Gurgaon.
The ophanage was started up by Indian volunteers, and today is the home for about 10-12 children.
Dominations were of course welcome, and one of the most wanted things (which they could not afford) was an electrical drilling machine. A few days later, we bought a fine Black&Decker, and handed it over to the people running the orphanage. A small gift to help doing practicalities on a daily basis...
I also should add that electricity just recently was installed....

Welcome brunch the Indian way.
To start with, the children was very shy - but they lightened up quickly.

The kitchen - all food served from here...
All done by volunteers

We brought some pearls to play with...
Childrens creativity is an international language :-) 

This little girl was left at the riverside by her mother, not having the resources to raise her or take care of her daughter. She was found by some locals, and lived for some time in a local village before she was brought to the orphanage some months ago.   It's only a few weeks since she started to talk a little bit..... Anne by her side, helping with the pearls.

 The orphanage takes care of the children, gives them food and pays for school. For some reason all off the children at the orphanage are amongst the best upper third in their classes. Maybe they had a tough start of their lives, but they now have a future and will get proper education to (hopefully) get a job later on....
The 'operational' costs for one child is about 2.000 rs per month (equals 20 £ / 200 DKK). Many of the expats decided to make donations to support the future of the children we met that day.

September-October updates II

 

AGF-Brøndby - a must see game. With a little help from Denmark, 

we Skyped-up and got a decent video/audio signal. Unfortunately AGF lost 3-0 :-(

The corncobs were great with Lurpak butter.....

Anne doing great as macro photographer...

Jack in the box - India version.....

Merete, Anders and Anne - visiting Pune

View from holy Temple in Pune

School children visting Aga Khan Palace (Mahatma Gandhi Museum) in Pune

Anders and the tree - Aga Khan Palace, Pune

September-October updates

Sorry for the late update....
Going to Denmark next week on a business trip, I thought it would be the right time for a Blog update...
Starting with the last August update

India Independence Day - 15th August 2013

Independence Day is a national holiday on 15 August. It celebrates the day in 1947 when India became independent from British rule.

European traders had been settling in India since the 17^th Century. In the 18^th Century the East India Company, a British company trading items like silk, cotton, tea and salt, won many areas of India and soon claimed it as its own.

After World War II, it became apparent that Britain could no longer hold its power in India. Originally, the handover to independence was to be in June 1948, but violent activities between religions caused up to 1-million deaths. Lord Mountbatten, the British Governor General of India, was forced to bring the date forward to 1947.

British India became two dominions: on 14 August 1947, Pakistan became a country, and 15 August 1947, India became a country and held its first Independence Day celebration in 1948.

Nice sunset - seen from our apartment.
The two yellow signs below is our local supermarket LeMarch

 

Anne riding - it's hard to find good riding school facilities in India. 

Above you can see one of many lizzards in India - they are everywhere....

Milk testing - unfortunately no Arla products. The winner was Danone, which is now our preffered milk in India. 

We will of course shift to Arla whenever possible :-)

Long term parking in Delhi and to the right a typical traffic situation - screaming, pushing, honking and light-flashing

Bring out the Cobra.... (Our Driver Bharat in the background)

A little bit of this and that...

Some 'situations' from the first five weeks in India....

At the Hard Rock Cafe, New Delhi.
Upcoming Guitar Hero, Anders at the stage.

Cybercity, Gurgaon.
Population of Gurgaon is aprox. 1.8 Mio

One of the 'dangers' of India is 'Electrificution'.
It actually means the danger of being killed by loose hanging power cables. Electrical installation in India are extremely poor and totally out of control. The last month we read about two cases with people being 'electrified' by opening their car door towards an iron fence - unfortunately sending 10.000 volts to the car. So we avoid going under loose hanging cables and touching any electrical installations.
The tree on the picture  has been hanging there for more than a week - taken from the newspaper 'Times of India'

Interesting reading from our hometown....
(The Galleria is a shopping mall near our apartment)

'Times of India' front page article about the government
doing nothing the last 30 years, to prepare for monsoon rain.
One day in July, 123mm rain came within few hours.
The 3rd highest in 10 years 

I think I'll find my old Supertramp album...   (Nice video)

Agra and Taj Mahal

Last weekend we went to see the Taj Mahal.

A 3-4 hour drive from Delhi to the city Agra.

Taj Mahal is a white marblemausoleum located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".

Taj Mahal is regarded by many as the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Indian architectural styles.

In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We came to Taj Mahal early morning at 08.00.
Few people and only 32 degrees

Taj Mahal is symmetric.
Looks the same from all sides

Amazing shapes....

It's hard to see on this picture (but easy on the top picture). The four towers are build with a 2 degree slope away from Taj Mahal. This to protect the Taj Mahal against earthquakes.

Should an earthquake occur, the four towers would collapse away from the Taj Mahal, without any damage to the buidling. Smart thinking.

The construction of Taj Mahal began around 1632 and was completed around 1653.

Beautiful stone inlays - all done by hand work.
The black stones are from Belgium
(Noir Belge)
The red stones illuminates when
exposing light to them...

A skilled guide told us all
about Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal has many optical illusions. Look at the middle column....

Picture from Google explaining it...

Seen from the side... the surface is flat, but seems not to be from the distance.

Definetly worth seeing...

Ceramics and shopping

We stopped by a roadside ceramic shop.
The family lived there and were very kind and helpfull


















Local made handicraft is cheap in India.
About 300 rs for a Flower vase (aprox. 30 Dkr).

House of the family

India made food, ceramics, handicrafts, clothes and stuff are usually cheap to buy. 

Imported foods and stuff however is pretty expensive. So don't belive India is cheap country to visit or live in - it is not. Unless you turn into a vegetarian and only eat Indian food. 

650rs for a pack of Lurpak (65 Dkr)
Worth every rupiee...

Tuborg gains market share in India
150rs per bottle (15 DKr)

Great Danish cheese - 580rs (58 DKr)

Still searching for our favourite:  Castello....