8 Cups of tea

This morning started off early at 8am so that we could finish an interview that ran over from yesterday because the company officers were somewhere between incompetent and combative. Eight cups of tea, and ten hours later, we were drinking fresh coconut water with the proprietor of a small chemical company and commiserating about command and control regulation, globalization, and margins. He was a great addition to the plywood VP who decided that talking about Indo-American relations took precedence over gathering data. (We rescheduled the interview for Tuesday). Some people here are evasive, which is not helped by the Pollution Control Board setting our appointments, but so many of the managers are amazingly open and eager to find out ways to be more environmentally responsible. I am inspired by how willing and adaptable people here are when it comes to environmental progress. I only wish that I could say the same for Americans.

Discovered a new kind of mango yesterday! The parrot mango is crisp and slightly sour, but completely delicious. Add in eating the best dhal I've ever had last night at a local restaurant, and I am in heaven.

Like I said before, despite some very modern facilities and globally integrated companies, Nanjangud is still very much an Indian industrial estate. Cows wander the roads, while others draw carts, and people beg me for money. Most comically, perhaps, is the continuing presence of the Communist Party here: a state MP staged a rally outside one facility that I visited and then drove off in his posh SUV (see photo above).