My days this week have been pretty full. I get collected at 08:30 from the hotel and start doing practice labs as soon as I get to the training centre. At about 10:00 our instructor Mohsin starts teaching us new concepts and technologies. Lunch is at one and we get chance to do more practice labs after 4:30 or so. I generally get back to the hotel around 19:00 and then have a meal and that’s my day pretty much done. Earlier in the week I’d asked Kichu to help me get an Indian SIM card for my ‘phone to help reduce my telephone bill. This turned out to be more of a mission than I thought it would be . . . . We called in to the mobile ‘phone office at the end of the road that the training centre was located in. I had copies of my passport and Indian visa with me, thinking that they would be sufficient, but apparently they also needed proof of my address in India and proof of my home address in the UK. The training company wrote a letter to confirm my address and status in India, but they needed a copy of my driving license (both parts!) to prove my address in the UK. Kichu kindly took my licence back to the office  to make the necessary copies.

When he returned the lady at the shop filled in the application form which was about one and a half sides of finely printed A4. Once complete I had to sign the form in four places and also every photocopied document and the letter from the training company (nine signatures in all). A total of eight signatures. I don’t think I signed as many signatures to buy my house and this was only for a pre-paid mobile SIM!

Once the forms were complete I was given the SIM, but it was (a) not yet active and (b) not the right size as I needed a mini SIM and the shop only had standard sized SIMs. Kich knew where there was a place that had a cutter than made mini SIMs from standard SIMS, so he arranged for one of the training company employees to get it cut down for me.

The following day the newly created micro SIM was given to me, but it was still not active. I had to call and confirm that it was really me that had the SIM (they’d already called the training company to confirm that they had really written the letter). I called and finally got through to them but had to put Kichu on the ‘phone to confirm the address he’d given for me in the letter as I didn’t know the street address. About an hour later the SIM was activated, but still didn’t have any credit on it!

Kichu had promised to put some credit on it in the evening but, as I wanted to use it straight away I asked the hotel if they were able to top it up (they say recharge in India). They didn’t but a bell boy took my money down to  somewhere that did and topped it up for me, earning a tip off me for doing so. Finally my mission was successfully completed and I had a working Indian mobile ‘phone!

Thanks must go to Kichu for all his help in this, and I should point out that the bureaucracy is down to the Indian Government, not the mobile phone operator.

Buoyed up by my success I went out for a walk and to explore a bit and called in at a bar for a drink. I’d been into the bar at the hotel, but it was a typical hotel bar. The one I went to was a ‘locals’ bar and rather different. It was very dark and the beer was a lot cheaper than in the hotel. I was eyed up by the other drinkers as I looked rather out of place there being the only European. I think they were just curious, though no one came and spoke to me.

I finished the evening with a meal in the hotel restaurant. The previous evening I’d been to the restaurant across the road and had Karimeen Polliatchu ( a local fish dish I’d tried before). It was delicious and something I’m growing to love.

Today I had a traditional India lunch dish consisting of rice, chapatti, popadom, rice, sambar (a veg curry), fish curry, spiced chicken, a vegetable dish and several pickled and condiments. I ate it in the traditional Indian way, with my fingers. making a great mess of myself and the table, but practice makes perfect and I can only get better! It was very nice, but also very spicy. Also there was so much of it that I only had a snack in the hotel bar for dinner tonight. I couldn’t face a full meal!

The course is going well and we’re now covering more interesting topics at a prodigious rate. I’m definitely enjoying it and feel that I’m learning something in the process.

Only one picture today – our Red Hat Certified Engineer training classroom (with my Red Hat on the desk) !