A home cooked meal in Coimbatore

On Monday evening Sandra and I were invited to dinner at her friend's place in Coimbatore.
We visited Karthik and his wife Amutha.  They have two lovely Daughters, Srindhi who is 6 yrs and Srinila who is 18 mths.  The evening was great - a real homely event. Talking, playing with the kids and having a wonderful home cooked Indian meal.
Thanks  Karthik & Amutha for the evening and your hospitality :)

 #ibmcsc #india 15

2012_03_07: The final countdown!

This week has been spent finalising the client presentation which we delivered today.  The presentation was extremely well received. Bernd, Valery and myself were delighted with the outcome and the client interaction during the presentation.

Today was the collimation of 4 weeks activity. I have felt a mix of emotions ranging from the adrenaline rush prior and during the meeting to feeling absolutely spent this evening. Also the realization that the 4 week assignment is concluding brings on those melancholy feelings :(

Thursday will be spent finishing off a few administrative tasks (IBM & Client surveys, reviewing documentation prior to handover to the client, etc).

#ibmcsc #india 15

2012_03_03 & 04

On Saturday we went on a field trip with Sankara Eye Hospital to a town called Salem.
Sankara run a monthly eye clinic for the poor villagers.  The clinic performs eye tests
& basic health tests to determine suitability for eye operations. If the patient is suitable, they are then processed and taken via bus to the hospital in Coimbatore. The next day the operation is performed. The patients remain at the hospital for 3 days and then they are returned to their town.

Approx 100 patients are taken for surgery each month.
This is a totally free service and is part of the community 'give back' which the hospital performs.

We received a tour and an explanation of the entire process. It was a very rewarding experience :)

We also had a tour of the local school which operated out of the community hall.
The school practices a value based education system. This basically means that they

focus on educating the kids to be good community citizens - something which is sadly lacking in many communities all over the world.

On Sunday Sandra, Aya & myself traveled to Ooty which is about 3 hours drive from Coimbatore.  Ooty was a hill station and is the highest town in southern India.

They say that everyone has 15 minutes of fame.  Well, we got our 15 min in Ooty!
We must have been the flavor for the day because we had so many people coming up to us to have ask to have their photo taken with us.

The one thing we have found in southern India is the warmth and genuine interest people show to us :)

#ibmcsc #india 15