Here in Pune

It’s about 1 week since I arrived in India.  Things are going well, though nothing happens terribly fast here.

A big milestone was registering the lease for my apartment.  I arrived at the proper office, with my landlord, my real estate agent and my relocation specialist – someone IBM retains to help coordinate everything – and things started off quickly.  There was a flurry of stamping of official documents – an example is to the left.  Just when we thought we’d finish in 15 minutes or so we hit a snag – the lone printer for the registrar’s office was not working.  A troop of 4 or 5 men scrutinized it closely, prodding the recalcitrant device with pencils and rulers, occasionally attempting a disciplinary tap.  Despite these efforts it was a few hours before the critical printer was printing again.  But print it did and I am now a duly registered licensee of an apartment.

In case you are wondering, the 3-headed lion (4-headed, actually – the 4th is behind the others) is the national symbol of India.  It comes from the Lion Pillar of Asoka, which was erected around 250 BC.

I don’t have too many photos yet … among the things left back in the US was my camera USB cable, which is now on its way to me here.  Here’s one photo, of the view from my new place:

The facility you see here is the Army Sports Institute, where many of India’s 2012 Olympics athletes did their training.  One of the things we liked about this apartment was this unobstructed view, something we did not find in many of the places we looked at.

On my agenda for today is taking delivery of a mattress, and maybe doing some shopping for household goods.

All for now.  In my next post: Getting a cell phone, bank account, “foreigner registration” and fully moving into my new place.