Day in the Life

One of the reasons I love foreign work trips, other than the obvious benefits, is a chance to see some real life action on location.  It is great to see the highlights like the Golden Temple, but real life is equally entertaining.  For example, yesterday we headed out for our farm tour at about 9:30 from Chandigarh.  In theory it was supposed to take us 1 1/2 to get to Ludhiana, a distance of 100 km.  We have a driver supplied by a company that caters to business travellers.  What could possibly go wrong right? Especially since we drove from Ludhiana to Chandigarh the night before.  Well we take off and within about 20 minutes we realize we are not on the same highway we came in on.  We question the driver, who doesn't really speak English, why we are on this road.  The answer: it's faster.  Ok then and we settle back into our discussions.  After about an hour, we are in the middle of farm country with no sign of the highway.  The driver stops for directions for about the 5th time and the person points to a dirt road headed to a very small village.  Since our farm tour begins AFTER we get to Ludhiana, this is not a good sign.  We head down the kidney busting dirt road to the little village and after several stops for directions, complete with scraping against the car that just stopped to help us, the driver finally pulls onto a main road with the signs stating it was 61 km to Ludhiana and 34 km to Chandigarh.  After 1 1/2 hours we managed to get 34 km from our original destination. To add to our delay, the driver managed to pick a road that was lined with grain trucks pulling up to the grain depots at harvest time AND the towns along the way had parades to celebrate the Guru Nanak's birthday. To add one last complication, there are no hotels to stop at for a bathroom; a must for women travelling.  Men, it appears, can just pee by the roadside, which has been demonstrated numerous times throughout the trip.  Finally we roll into Ludhiana, 3 1/2 hours late and dying to find a hotel before our meeting.  Turns out the poor driver isn't even from the area, he was dispatched by his company from Delhi and despite the official language being Hindi, we are in The Punjab, so he appears to have difficulties communicating. 

Fortunately, the people in this area are gracious and hospitable, forgiving our late appearances and treating us to food and drink upon our arrival.  Tons of food and always chai.  We did get our farm tours in.  Small plots of land, three crops a year, heavy reliance on irrigation by pumping water from the rivers.  The problems arise with power to operate the pumps since summer brings with it a high power demand with spotty supply.  Good opportunities perhaps for alternative energy pumps in the region.  The area produces high yields of grain, mostly wheat and rice, but due to inefficient shipping and storage, a lot of food is wasted.  So certainly opportunities to improve the system as long as it fits with the realities here.  All in all, it was an educational day out and about.

Wheat being transferred to the grain terminal

The Grain terminal

Planting - wheat mixed with phosphate; hand bombed