First IPO
So exciting - the first company I started (
NeuroMedix Inc.) through my employer
BioQuest recently closed its IPO and just today started trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol
NMX.
Neemrana Fort Palace
About two hours' drive south of Delhi is the Neemrana Fort Palace, a beautiful old fort built in the 16th century by a local monarch. In the mid-90's, the ruins of the old fort were bought by a couple of entrepreneurs who spent millions turning it into a remarkable hotel.
The image to the right shows about half of the fort-palace. The entire hotel has about 50 or so hotel rooms, each of them unique and each meticulously restored to maintain the feel of the original 16th century structure.
The image to the left shows part of the hotel at night, with the Greek-style amphitheatre in the foreground.
More Orissa
There were a few things about Orissa that I liked, one of which was the buddhist temple built by some Chinese worshippers somewhere between Bhubaneswar and Puri.
Taj Mahal
Not much need be said here. The requisite photos of the most amazing monument to love ever built. Interesting that while his grandfather Akbar chose to build a monument to celebrate the birth of his son, Shah Jahan chose to build his monument in honour of his wife's death.
Fatehpur Sikri
During the first few days here in India, we took a car ride down to Agra and Fatehpur Sikri for the day. Fatehpur Sikri (which I'll call FS) was built by the Mughal king Akbar, who was the grandfather of Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal. Akbar built this amazing monument in honour of his one son, borne by one of his 3 wives - a Hindu, of all things. He was very open and accepting of all religions, and symbols of numerous religions - Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism... - are scattered throughout the remarkable fort and monuments. This picture shows one of the exterior walls of the masjid, along with the main tower of the masjid in the background.
Almost as interesting as FS was the car ride up there. We went through some beautiful farm country, tiny old villages, and even stopped at a railway crossing to watch a train go by. This old farmer had taken a break in his morning work to eat a little mid-morning snack and have some tea, by the looks of things.
In this picture taken in a tiny village, we stopped briefly next to a few men sitting on a cot by the side of the road. I'm not sure what they were doing (what are most men sitting by the side of the road in India doing?), but they were thrilled when I pulled out my camera to take their picture.
Hello from Jaipur
Rajasthan is absolutely gorgeous, but Jaipur is quite rundown, and the traffic is ten times worse than in Delhi. Still, the forts and palaces are incredible, and I've probably spent too much on a couple of wall hangings for my place and a couple of shirts for friends in Toronto. I haven't done a ton of shopping, but have done some in Delhi.
Orissa was very strange. I'd always heard good things about it, but I didn't really like it much. There are a ton of temples, but the really famous ones are swarming with fake priests who grab tourists and force them through the throngs of worshippers to the front of the crowd; it was pretty overwhelming, but the temples themselves are just incredible. There's a Buddhist temple halfway between Bhubaneswar and Puri, on top of a hill, that really took my breath away. But the people of Orissa are really unhappy and kind of strange/mean. Service at hotels and restaurants is unbelievably bad. We stayed at a top-notch hotel and had dinner at one of their restaurants one night, and even though the waiter assured us that all the dishes would be 100% mild, I accidentally ate the hottest chilli pepper I think I've ever had. The waiter just stood there laughing, and said "it's completely mild, sir, except for the chillies.". LOL. Took me 30 minutes and half a pound of sugar to be able to feel my tongue again.
Sent from my Blackberry handheld.
Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle
