2 August 2000

Maybe I should just give up. It’s still three weeks before I leave for India and they can smell me coming. Yesterday, a film star got himself kidnapped on the Tamil Nadu – Karnataka border. Now if this were England or America I wouldn’t worry but it isn’t. The guy has been kidnapped by a perpetual criminal called Veerappan who is apparently some sort to Robin Hood figure to the locals. So they should just sort it out with the police getting no help from the populace? Well yes, but it would seem that film stars are almost deities in India and riots have sprung up in Bangalore to pressure the police to make haste with negotiations. And what’s happened? They’ve put a curfew on the streets of Bangalore instead. Just great.

So besides trying to establish a new magazine with only a few pairs of hands, I now need to avoid the mob roaming the streets baying for blood. It’s not something you really expect when you're in the UK. Police investigations yes, a repeat of the Brixton riots, no.

7 August 2000

Two weeks left. It’s amazing when you're moving, or in my case, trying to lose baggage, exactly how much useless junk you always seem to accumulate as you go through life. Managed to give one bed set, fifteen t-shirts, two pairs of trousers and assorted other oddments to charity. Still have huge amount to store at the folks place, besides what’ll stay here to vouch my room safe while I’m gone and the actual stuff I’ll be taking with me.

14 August 2000

Should have been nine days and counting. Got back from the folks place, left the car there for store and planned out what’s left to find that I’m probably not going for another month. And I’m really going nowhere thanks to now not having a car. Budget cuts and the prospect of sharing a small flat with JohnF’s entire clan until they furnish their own place is not my idea of fun. Still, I can do more stuff usefully from here.

16 August 2000

Finally got my Visa after trying for six weeks to get the necessary documentation and then myself out to the consulate with the documents. Once there, waited around for six hours, give or take, to fill in forms, be interviewed to the satisfaction of the official that I was indeed going to be working out in India (that part takes about 30 seconds), them to endorse the visa and finally collect it. Visa collection in particular is like an extreme form of waiting for the bus—you wait for six hours and then twenty or so are handed out in about two minutes flat.

17 August 2000

Gas man came to check to meter. Was told between 8.00am and noon. Of course, he came at 11.59 and took about fifteen seconds. Went and saw X-Men movie. Will definitely stand repeated watchings, that one. The characters are almost true to the comic book and Cyclops is a total heel, but aside from that and one over-gratuitous SFX, it’s a very slick movie. With friends around, certainly the best night I’ve had for a bit.

31 August 2000

One of the more surreal fortnights. Plans all changed as I’m not currently in Bangalore as was supposed to be. Instead, two weeks of intensive cram on Java and Wireless technologies. as with Windows and Linux, a lot is centred around the concepts of XML, Performance, App Design and E-Commerce. Wrote editorial based on Bill Joy's ’Six webs‚ keynote speech at JavaOne with respect to India. Rescheduled all the tickets out as well so there's almost no going back this time around. Learned that compiling a cover cd is pretty simple as long as you don’t mind drowning in different license agreements. Leaving celebrations will now coincide with that of another guy at work who is leaving for good. Very large sesh ahead then.

It also rained a bit in India this week. Approximately 10 inches of rain fell on Hyderabad in 24 hours, and did it flood? Oh yessir. Don’t think it hit Bangalore as much. Bombay certainly got its own fair share though. Oh, and watched with incredulity as a toy clanger was hung from a curtain rail by some network flex. Just don’t ask.