Hard Bargaining

We had a special party event tonight. There were dancers, puppets, stalls, even someone selling magic tricks (I bought three). The atmosphere was great.

Party night

There was a chap selling small bags. Since I've not got anything for the ladies back home I thought I'd take a look. I picked up a couple of likely looking specimens.

"How much" I asked, handing the bags to him.
"You want?" he said, putting them into a carrier bag ready for me to take. Then he named a price.
"I've not got enough money" I said. This was true. I'd blown it all on magic tricks. Story of my life.
"How much have you got?" he asked. I opened my wallet to show him. He deftly removed the notes he wanted, left me around 50 rupees which I could use for tipping purposes, and let me go on my way.

What a salesman!

Taj Mahal

OK. Let’s try a few words out for size. Huge. Beautiful. Awesome. Blimey. Hmm. Let’s start again. In England we think we can do impressive buildings. We’ve got a few lying around which are pretty cute. I’ve been to some of them, Castle Howard, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Millennium Dome, etc etc. But now I’ve been to the Taj Mahal and, sorry guys, this one caps you all.

It is not just the scale, the colours, the materials, but it is the design of the place. This will probably seems bonkers to you, but if you want to look at something where design is everything, go see the Taj Mahal. The design of the place is doing things with your mind before you even know it.

When you arrive the only way you can get your first view of the Taj is through a particular gate in the redstone courtyard. The arch is carefully proportioned to give you the perfect view of the dome which unfolds before you and then recedes slightly in a way which seems magical, but is actually some very clever manipulation of your viewpoint as you move through the gate.

When you get your breath back you can begin to take in the shape and proportions of the dome and the balance of light and shade as it falls on the carefully positioned marble and semi-precious stones laid into it. If you stand and watch, as the sun moves through the sky the shadows on the surface change slightly, so that it looks different.

Look away for a few minutes and then look again and you will see a yet another Taj Mahal. When the mists roll in from the river at the rear of the Taj Mahal it appears to float above the ground because of the way it is built on a platform above the grounds. In the moonlight it is said that it appears to glow. (we didn’t get to see this unfortunately, but one day I’m going to go back and check).

The redstone buildings around the Taj Mahal are apparently designed to be the imported “ugly sisters” that you would place around your daughter so that she is the one that gets picked by a calling suitor. I must admit the guide invented this analogy, not me. Of course any one of them on its own would be pretty special, but next to the Taj Mahal…

The architect has used every trick in the book to make a building just look beautiful in every sense. By design.

Of course I took a bunch of pictures and of course they don’t do the place justice, but here they are anyway.

The money shot

One of the “ugly” sisters

Side view

Another ugly sister

View of the river

Akbar’s Tomb

Today was the big day. Taj day. Been looking forward to this for a while. It isn't every day that you go to see one of the seven wonders of the world (and if it was, the following week would be pretty lacklustre I guess). Anyhoo, today is the day that we were see the Taj (which I think means "crown" by the way).

Now with any great dish it is important to have an appetiser, to get things started. It just so happens that the Imagine Cup organisers had set one up for us. But we would have to work for it. Just outside Agra, where we have been staying, is another mausoleum called Akbar's Tomb. The tomb was built in the 1600’s and word was that it was in need of a little restoration, so to speak. Microsoft had volunteered the services of a whole bunch of students and mentors, i.e. us. So after breakfast we piled onto busses to drive out to Sikandra and the tomb, to go and give a hand.

I was a bit concerned about this; a place can get a bit overgrown and dusty in 400 years. However, I needn’t have worried. When we arrived the group was split into four teams, sweepers, gardeners, cleaners and restorers. The sweepers team looked a little depleted, so myself, Andy and Mark joined up with them and off we went.

Andy and Mark hard at work. Or something

It took me back to my days of vacation work in a frozen pea factory, where I arrived at sunrise, was given a brush and told to sweep up, spent most of the day hiding from the foreman and then returned my still clean brush at the end of the shift. It seems that I still have those skiving skills and they have now become a kind of reflex, and so I was able to give the appearance of doing something useful whilst probably not achieving a great deal. The problem was that I had to keep stopping and taking photographs (not something I used to do in the pea factory). The place was beautiful, and on a scale that was breathtaking.

The entrance to the mausoleum

There were lush gardens, peacocks, monkeys, a beautiful courtyard, etc ,etc. It was truly wonderful. The heat was quite oppressive though, and I was glad for the chance to take a break from my non work and get a drink. The restorers had been really busy, you could see the stonework where they had dug out the old mortar and replaced it with new. I felt a bit guilty about not doing that task, I’ve a feeling that the wind has  probably already undone most of my brushwork, but now a little piece of an Indian monument is forever Imagine Cup thanks to them.

Monkeys finding shade

One corner

View from the top

After the break we climbed wearily back into the bus for the ride back to the hotel. I lay down on my bed for a couple of seconds of rest. Two hours later I woke up and it was time for the Taj.

Some you win....

Well, today was the day when we found out whether Team 3 Pair had made it into the final 12 students. After spending the morning presenting their idea in the expo part of the competition we all went in to the large hall to find out who had been picked. Sadly, 3 Pair was not one of the names that was called out, so for the UK the 2006 competition is over

Rather sad really. This evening we were in the bar pondering life, the universe and everything,  I did feel it necessary to remind everyone that life hasn't been that unkind. Staying in one of the best hotels in India, drinking free beer, with a trip to the Taj Mahal tomorrow, if this is hard times, give me more...

Team 3 Pair did a first rate job. The code they wrote, the presentations they gave, the passion that they brought to the project all do them enormous credit. I am soo proud of all of them. But they didn't make it. Such is life. For them and all the teams that didn't make it today I give you a couple of lines from If, a poem by Rudyard Kipling, one of my favourites.

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same...

Great Presentations and Food Theft

After a really good nights sleep, I got up and staggered down to breakfast. Today is the day that “Team 3Pair” from Hull got to strut their stuff on behalf of the UK. So it was on with the “Team Supporters” shirt and off to their first presentation.

The first part of the contest is the called the “Lightning Round”. This is because the rounds are short, and does not involve any high voltages or bolts of thunder. The idea is that the teams are given a seven minute slot to introduce themselves and get across the gist of what they are trying to do. Team 3Pair give good lightning, they were on shockingly good form and their presentation really made the sparks fly (that is all of those jokes out of the way, I put it down to the malaria pills I’m taking).

After that, feeling it was time for some rest and recreation, we headed across to the “Leisure Mall”. As we were one of the first teams to present, this was just about deserted and so we had the pick of all the attractions. As we waited for the bowling alley to warm up (I didn’t know they had to warm these things up, but there you are) we played pool. I can’t play pool. After committing a couple of miscues which cost me and my partner the game we moved onto the bowling lane. I didn’t think I could do bowling either, but my first attempt made all the pins fall down (which is apparently a good thing).

Pop quiz. How many pins did this ball from Andy knock down.

As the game progressed I managed to make the pins all fall down a couple more times. I put this down to the “magic pink ball” that I (and pretty soon everyone else) was using.

..and what is wrong with this picture of James bowling….

After that we went off to prepare for the second presentation, which was much longer, at 20 minutes, and is where the team had to deliver a proper description of the system that they had made, and why they had made it.

Perhaps we should call them “Team Three Prayer”….

Good to go.

After twenty minutes of presentation and a gruelling bunch of questions it was time to eat. So we went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. And I committed one of the gravest social faux pas that I have ever managed to achieve (and that is saying something). As we went around the table I noted that my wimpish colleagues were all going for dishes from the non-Indian part of the menu. After a sequence of requests for Arabian, Japanese and Italian dishes went down I thought I’d show some support for the locals and ordered an Indian chicken dish which sounded nice (although I have of course now forgotten what the name was).

When it came, artfully arranged around the plate, I tucked in, feeling very smug – even though the meat did not actually seem very chickeny. Only when the waiter brought the final dish to the table did the awful truth emerge. I had of course been eating the Arabian lamb one dered by Mark. Mark was very good about it, and swapped my proper dish for his half nibbled one.  However, I then compounded my bad behaviour by eating all the nan bread, even though it was meant to be shared amongst three of us. The good news is that my meal was delicious. The bad news is that I am now known as "food stealer Rob" and people don't like sitting next to me at meals.

For the rest of the afternoon we hung around the bar, checked our email and talked to some journalists. Tomorrow lunchtime the team will find out if it has made the next stage of the competition, the top 12.

Local music

In the evening we found that our meal was accompanied by some local musicians. I wanted the chap on the right to be playing a very small instrument, so I could use my "baby sitar" joke.