Day 3 - Testing the Dish, Practice, Prep, and more Testing

Alex, Reuben, and I picked up Darin at the Hyatt and headed to the Teleport. Our dish was already set-up by Essel Shyam on the roof. Nothing can defend the heat. We tested for awhile, then pizza and a tour. This teleport outputs more television stations than any other in India, 48 to be exact. Flat screens mesmerized us with all the programming. Some shows exactly mimic US Tv…

Fast Forward – Day 9 Already!? Feels like weeks.

Whew, I can’t keep up daily because we’re working too much, or eating, or editing video.

It’s 10:30 am. I’ve showered, shaved, and we transmitted our 2^nd broadcast at the Ohkla Mari fruit and vegetable wholesale market. It seems like days have past yet this one is not half over. The liveliness was incredible. Going through the front gate is a gauntlet of tank-like men carting burlap sacks on their backs. I was looking at this teenagers backpack, also sewn burlap. It was flat in the middle and came down to a block of wood and sack at the bottom. I thought it was just a cool backpack, something you could take a small lunch in for a hike. It didn’t represent fun at all, the wood and packed pouch was really to keep the heavy vegetables they’re lugging from sliding down their backs. They would just balance them, hunch over, and go. We had to be careful not to get a corner full of onions in the head. I was told they make 5 rupees per carry. It’s 45 rupees to the dollar.

We feel good such a chaotic broadcast was pulled off. We stressed and waited after arriving at 3am because two big trucks were parked in our promised spot. The parking master, a Muslim man about 45 years with a long white beard and white traditional garb, found one driver sleeping on top of the truck, but couldn’t find the other. At this hour the market is already awakening with deliveries and set-ups. Yesterday we negotiated with the master for an area. Nothing is guaranteed in India and changes by the rupee-second. That means you can get anything you want at any time, for the price. A man who appeared to be some boss scuttled up to Phil and Darin yelling and screaming, protesting our presence. No one really knew what it was about, but he was visibly angry. We scrambled for a backup location outside the wall. Not ideal because it smelled of urine, but we were up and live on-time at 6:30, but not without unseen disaster.

Our Honda generator we brought from the US conked. Five people worked on it but nothing happened. Phil and Darin rushed again. It was fouling the plugs with the bad gas, and we bought high-octane. Our back-up was a power converter from the cig lighter in the van. The first van’s died after 20 minutes. We switched to our other van, but hooked up jumper-cable clamps directly to the battery. Poor Alex, the van’s exhaust faced our home base and he had to smell fumes during the broadcast. He said it was better than the urine. That’s the nature of these productions, prepare as much as possible, but have a back-up. In Orlando while testing, we never thought we would use the jumper-cable connectors.

Indians are a curious people. We, especially Dawn, get a lot of looks. They will just watch us intently, not shy at all and generally polite. Since there is so many, we are surrounded frequently. The boys and girls just hang out, shadowing our every move. In the market I made friends with some teenagers and twenty-somethings. Dawn would walk by them and dozens of little heads would track her. Some would make comments to their friends. Walking a few feet behind here, the attention then came my way. I would gesture toward her, then give them a thumbs-up. They would crack up laughing. One kid, about 17, said, “Your wife?” I said, “No” He said, “Your sister?” “No… YOUR wife”, I said. He pointed to his chest, “My wife?!”. “Yeah, you marry her, your wife”, I replied. He was holding his stomach laughing so hard.

A few minutes later we walked through the covered part of the market. A string hung down from a worn and tired blue tarp. I jokingly started wiggling it on the heads of people passing by to create some more goodwill with the kids at a jackfruit stand. I tickled Dr. Rani’s ear and she waved her hands all around as if to swat a fly. They were dying laughing.