Coverage: zero

Current location: Leh, Ladakh

Latitude (DMS): 34° 10' 0 N

Longitude (DMS): 77° 34' 60 E

Elevation: 3500m

A rare moment of connection to the world wide web: woohoo!
No cellphone coverage whatsoever...
No connection to the outside world.

Previously on "Passage to India":

Monday September 7:
Meeting with all 5 partners at the hotel.
A true "checking each other out" ritual. They introduced themselves and the projects again, we presented ourselves, everyone dressed up as if it were the first day of school.
No second chance to a first impression right.
Mr. Ramesh, IBM Vice President General Business for India, provided some insights in IBM's presence in India and doing business locally. And that got our appetite going. So: anyone care for lunch?

OK, enough work for one day, on to Mumbai's city center. By taxi. An experience in its own.
Rain pouring down + hole in the taxi door/floor = soaked seat and wet dress/behind.

There's no rules in traffic here. Karma rules. Karma and the almighty horn.
No signaling, no marks on the roads, no giving way. Just horn when you want to make a point or let someone else know you're about to hit them.

Tuesday, September 8:
Everyone off to their brand new clients.
Destination Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) for Clai and me, about an hour's drive (and of course pushing our luck in traffic again).
The campus is an oasis of peace and quiet compared to Mumbai's roads.
We met with the Director, Professor Parasuraman and Sonam Jorghesh for one of the most elegant meetings I've ever had.
Ingredients:

• a couch in a serene Indian office
• a very wise and eloquent Professor
• English sandwiches
• water (the drinkable kind)
• tea and coffee.

After getting our very own room with a view, the campus' canteen called.
Nice food, unfortunately the belly did not agree.
No time to go into details though as we needed to pack for our next trip: Leh, Ladhak to meet our friend the renowned Seabuckthorn or Leh-berry face to face.

Arriving at the airport: sheer panic in Clai's eyes. The kind of panic that says: I think I might have forgotten my passport.
(I thought the same but didn't dare to say it out loud, I was wrong though: experienced packer right?).
A minute later, Clai was sitting in a puddle of chips, IBM pens, money belts, flashlights and panic sweat.
All in all, the passport made it to the airport in time (thanks to CDC-Kabi).
1-0 for Clai in the screwing up department. At least that cuts me some slack.

I'll probably need it...