The Ettiquette of Unlocking Doors [Jim]

Since the visa in my passport attests that I am here on business, I suppose an update on said business concerns would be in order. Things are still going quite well at work. Many of the things I will be doing have been finalized. Next week, I will start teaching a five week course on Western Civilization—basically an overview of the Western Mind via a tour of the development of Western thought. It is largely an exercise in convincing Indian students, whose education has been highly specialized since they can remember, that the liberal arts are something worth studying. I am looking forward to seeing how it goes.

At the beginning of September, I will begin a course on microeconomic theory for the students in the Master’s program in retail management. That course will run about five weeks. Afterwards, I will do a similar course on macroeconomic theory for the same students. And then in January, I will do a topics in advanced economics course for them too.

I will also be giving a few lectures on macroeconomics in the seminar series for the MBA students—the exact topics of that are yet to be determined.

The Director of IISWBM is also arranging an visit to the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur—no date has been set yet. The whole family will go over there for a few days whenever that is arranged.

Today, I spent 2.5 hours in meetings. Both of the meetings were largely discussions of curriculum. The interesting part was that that discussions were about what courses people were going to teach in the term which is starting in two weeks! Yes—two weeks before the start of classes and nobody yet knows what will be taught or when it will be taught. It is amazing to me but nobody else seems to think it is odd at all. Oh, and they were also deciding about vacation days during the term at one of the meetings too.

On the whole, the people at the school are treating me extremely well—indeed, I may have a hard time adjusting to life back at Mount Holyoke (what do you mean I have to fill up my own coffee cup???) On the other hand, I can tell that I am seriously disturbing the guy who waits outside my office whenever I unlock or lock my office door all by myself—the norm would seem to be to have me hand him the key so that I don’t have to do this myself and then he can return the key to me after he is done. At times I realize how deeply American I am. I also carry my own briefcase to my office, but the staff member in charge of such things doesn’t seem to mind too much.

Appendices:

1. As to the matter of pictures: by previous arrangements, all blog entries entailing pictures are the sole responsibility of the Long Suffering Wife. And since we are in India, the prior division of labor simply cannot be altered until several centuries have passed. So, pictures will have to wait until Janet gets around to posting something.

2. Emma doesn’t hate home school as much as she says she does. I know this because I am her father and Fathers Know These Things.

3. On Tuesday, Clara and I went for a walk and stopped in at the local coffee shop. Wow! Once inside, it was exactly like a Starbucks clone. “Dani California” was playing on the satellite radio being piped in through the speaker system. I had a cup of truly excellent coffee (50 cents!!). Clara had a strawberry smoothie ($1) which she loved. The whole experience of sitting in there, drinking coffee was surreal—unless you looked out the window, there would be no way to tell you were in India.

4. Book Reports: Tom Clancy’s *The Bear and the Dragon* was finally finished—I started it on the plane. The book divides nicely into an introductory part, in which the scene is set for the Story Proper, and the Story part (the reason people read Clancy books). The Introduction part was not terribly well done—a bit tedious to put it mildly. Fortunately, the introduction to the Story Proper was a mere 800 pages long. At about page 801, the Story started and it was…OK. The first bit of the Story was fine, but the last part was downright silly. Sigh. *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof* on the other hand was much, much better—awfully good as a matter of fact. By all means read the original version and not the stage adaptation. I haven’t seen the movie—if anyone has, do let me know if it is any good. Trollope’s *The Warden* was the best of the lot, though. I have decided to read the entire series while here—there are five more books. I enjoy Trollope, but he demands to be read at a very leisurely pace—India thus makes the perfect place to read him.

5. We went to an excellent Chinese food restaurant tonight for dinner. Two of the best Chinese places in town are within walking distance of our apartment.

6. Clara and the little girl from the apartment across the hall from us have become quite the playmates.