Monday, July 21, 2008

Mussoorie: LBSNAA part I

Jenny was still too tired this morning to go to breakfast. I waited for her to maybe change her mind and did some yoga. I was all dressed in Sara’s salwar-kameez for the interview she was going to do with IIP in Dehradun. Eventually, I went to breakfast alone. It was delicious, and I met one person, whose name I’ve already forgotten unfortunately. He was in Phase II, and was very nice. It’s always easy to start conversation by asking “What’s this?” about the food (it was coconut chutney, incidentally). It happened that we were sitting next to each other, too, by coincidence, although we’d met in line.

I’m nervous about all the “networking” I’m meant to do in this week. I’m feeling pretty low because of the altitude, though not as bad as that one afternoon in Leh when I ran out of my medication for it. But I just feel headachy, and generally achy. And tired. That weird all-over tiredness from altitude sickness. But luckily, not much nausea, and eating seems to help the other symptoms. Eating and drinking water. So I’m doing lots of that. Jenny wasn’t feeling well (maybe the altitude’s getting to her too) so she rescheduled her appointment with IIP till tomorrow. So I changed out of my salwar-kameez into something more warm, because it’s rather cold up here. There’s so much fog, it’s really like being smack in the middle of a cloud.

Anyway, Rakesh came to take us around the grounds and show us things. We might be able to ride horses some time while we’re here! I’d have to get my stuff from the WII, because my jeans and sneakers are in there. But it would be cool to do. The rest of the tour was great, too, although we found out Kalpana, our original contact here, had left the academy entirely. She had just asked Rakesh to take good care of us, which was really nice of her. We also met her more-or-less replacement, who was similarly nice and helpful, so at least we aren’t left hanging here. The replacement’s name was Arti Huzar, or something like that. I’m trying to remember all these names without the benefit of cards—just hearing the name said once, and it’s hard. But she said I would benefit most from sitting in on the Phase III people’s classes because they’re the mid-career people, and would have more contacts for me. She also said she’d try to introduce me specifically to some people from the states I’m interested in (Punjab, HP, and J&K).

Rakesh said we’d be able to borrow some books from the library, which would be great because I’m really comfortable in my room, and wouldn’t mind taking out some books on water resources, and just curling up to read, as unfriendly as that sounds. I need some time to do that if I’m going to be spending the rest of my time networking, I think. At least both things will be productive.

We ended the tour by sitting in on part of a phase III class, on e-governance and service. We’ll have to check the schedules to find classes more suited to us. So far, no luck on finding a class called “Governance issues and the Indus Waters Treaty.” Dang it.

I was going to go to the library to see about catching up on a little current events (there’s a reading room that has The Economist and other such publication), and also see about checking out some of the water resource books I spotted last time I was here. But by now it was drizzling pretty hard, so I decided to come back to the room for a bit, since Jenny was already anyway. She has to work on some article for her “other” work here. I just wanted to catch up on a few days of this journal. Hopefully the rain has let up by now.

We did work out how we’ll get down to Dehradun for the rescheduled meeting tomorrow. Bus, or share-taxi, and then rickshaw. We’ll do a few other errands in town if we’re there too early, like get our phone minutes charged, and I might just go get my stuff from WII, even though it means lugging that stupid suitcase with me to Chandigarh. I wish I could take it to Delhi and leave it at Jenny’s, and then take the nice train from Delhi to Chandigarh. As it is, I’ll have to take a bus from Dehradun to Chandigarh. But maybe I can take a train back, since I’ll be doing my Delhi interview directly after that. Depending on what central government contacts I can make, I might skip Simla so I have more time in Delhi. I can’t believe Delhi is the last leg of this trip! Then home, blessed home, and Virginia, blessed second home.

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