To the GMRT

Security check in through Jaipur is slow and inefficient! They have different scanners depending on your airline and sometimes there is a huge lineup at one while the others are completely free. Possibly due to all the commotion around me to get through security I forgot my laptop in the plastic bucket after it went through the scanner.

Trees with unusual roots coming out of branches.
For Jacob's Tree Collection.

I walked away from security with Mark and Connie up to the bookstore and finally to boarding thinking I had everything. I should have found it odd that my bag was lighter or that while mark was using his laptop I wasn't. Apparently they called over the paging system for me (though it was probably in Hindi). 

I realized once we landed in Pune and midnight that I had forgotten my laptop in Jaipur and suddenly a whole ordeal began that would end up last for days before I finally got it back. The lady at my airline counter in Pune called Jaipur and confirmed that they still had it. She gave me a handwritten note saying I had to send scanned documents to Jaipur airport in order to get it back. I was happy with that and so I cleared my mind of worry and we searched for a taxi.

As we try to find a taxi.

That's not such an easy job apparently. We were supposed to have a taxi already booked for us but that didn't happen. All the normal taxis were busy and we didn't want to take a tuk-tuk (auto-rickshaw) because we had too much luggage. We found a pre-paid taxi service that over charged us. We paid 450Rps but didn't care because we were tired and it's not that much in CAD.

We were going to the NCRA or National Centre for Radio Astrophysics where they had a guest house (70Rps/night) and from where we could take a shuttle bus to our final location in the morning. The taxi, when it finally arrived, smelled like rotten fish.

Stray dogs who chased me.

The guest house at the NCRA was nothing special. Bugs everywhere as expected and a tiny bar of soap on your pillow. We finally checked in and were asleep by 02:00 and had to wake up at 06:30 whence I got chance by a stray dog probably with rabies. We paid of night fee and took the free shuttle bus to the GMRT or Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope. The trip was about 2 hours though it was only 80km away. The average speed of drivers in India seems to be around 70-80km/h.

When we finally got there we found the atmosphere significantly better than previous accommodation. The campus was secluded and there were no honking cars. There were next to no stray dogs. There was free drinking water in most buildings and almost everyone spoke English well enough. There were also massive antenna cover the country side that could be seen from anywhere! Those were the antenna that we would use to observe to universe as an infant.

Our guest house has a square courtyard inside it.

We still hadn't seen very much rain. It was supposed to be the rainy season in India right now, from June-August, though the worst hit the south. It was however a lot cooler than Rajistan. Off in the distance a mountain loomed over us. It clearly marked an adventure to come. Me and Mark would climb that mountain before we left the GMRT (still haven't as of writing this).

The first day consisted of orientation with the technicalities of the software and hardware. The GMRT is a working, constantly updated/modified apparatus designed over 15 years. The professor I was studying under was one of the co founders and he wrote much of the software.

Me and Mark share a room at GMRT.
(Mark is a slobby gremlin)

My side of our room.

Also on the campus I found a gym, ping-pong, and cricket, as well as various reptiles and amphibians. There are also somethings to watch out for: 4 types of poisonous snakes, leopards, and scorpions. Of these dangerous things I have only seen scorpions.

Also after losing my laptop (which I still had not recovered) I did not take very many pictures. I'll take more once I get it back.