Mix of rich, poor and everything else

I have stayed the first two weeks in the backrooms of the office, because the office is actually in a really nice apartment with four bedrooms not in use. Several long walks have helped me to learn more about the surroundings of our office. The longest was over 15 kilometers yesterday on Saturday, when I headed to Hauz Khas area.




Piknic in park in Hauz Khas area

 

  



Pigs here and there, this one 400 m from Basant Lok
market in Vasant Vihar



The sights, smell, noice, heat, people, cars, bikes, trash, auto-rickshaws, dogs, pigs, parks, houses, slums, clean streets, dirty streets, new stuff, old stuff. There is tons of dust in the air, but surfaces are in surprisingly clean condition. Everywhere I have looked, poeple have been sweeping dust and dirt away from their path to the slum hut, front yard made from marble, or any other piece of surface that gets its load of dust daily.




They live in presiden't estate

 



Kids having fun with a rubber ball





Green and flowers everywhere





Indian Gate and visitors are well quarded

Tried to walk slowly here but got a little scared

Gurgaon, south Delhi or some other area

The key question: Where to live when my office is in Shanti Niketan, boys will attend the American Embassy School, we like to have space, and look for as little noice and dust as possible? Luckily I have time to learn more and look for options, as the family will move in the summer. I have walked around in Shanti Niketan, Vasant Vihar and nearby areas.

Most of the stores are small and
you have to know about them to find them

I made a scouting trip to Gurgaon with help of my colleague Parikshit who lives there and Juhani, who lives with his wife there in Pinnacle tower. Driving times for us would be 25-40 minutes. Driving from Gurgaon to Delhi in the morning and driving to Gurgaon in the afternoon or evening is not bad, actually the traffic flows well. Traffic is bad the other way around.

Only bottleneck was at the exit from highway to Gurgaon

Gurgaon is about new buildings and construction sites

Nice view from the 18th floor apartment

Dust gets also into high rise apartments because
of the holes, gaps, and chimney effect of the building

Driving in Fri 5 pm light traffic to Gurgaon

View from Taj Mahal hotel

Still more than 10 areas to check out before I will start the real home hunting.

DSDS 2011 event and Cleantech Finland press event

Piece of Minister Paula Lehtomaki's opening remarks at Cleantech Finland press event in Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2011 http://dsds.teriin.org in Feb 3rd. Cleantech Finland http://www.cleantechfinland.com/ is a cluster and network of hundreds of Finnish companies and thousands of experts to solve today's problems.

Started in New Delhi Feb 2nd 2011

I started to work in New Delhi, India, in the beginning of February 2011. Winter and spring will be about new job, daily Skype video sessions with my wife and sons in Finland, many trips to Finland, and looking for place to live after my family moves here in late June or early August.

Three pieces of luggage to India
(the white one was for a colleague in Helsinki)