Saturday, May 12, 2012

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Our room in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala sees different guests. We've seen this spider at night time, checking out our kitchen. We decided to go to sleep and about an hour after waking up we saw it walking around above our bed.


To our rescue came the owners' kid with a broom. Using the broom and my tanktop he took the spider out to walk on the grass.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Saving the Sabbath in Dharamkot

This pseudo heroic story seems amusing enough to be written here. Dana and I live now in McLeod Ganj in a very nice room overlooking mountainous view with a snowy peak. Nearby are Bhagsu and Dharamkot, both very nice villages with good vibe but perhaps too many signs in Hebrew and Israelis for this part of the journey.

Now as the background is set, let's go back to last Friday afternoon. For some unexplained reasons, the known heretic Amir convinced the devout sinner Dana to go for Sabbath dinner in the Jewish Heart. But Ron, a friend we've met in Rishikesh told us we should join him and go to Bet Chabad in Dharamkot, where he stays. We were too easily convinced and made the short trek up Dharamkot, enjoying the monkeys and views on the way.
Monkeys picking through trash
Rich place where no homeless people pick through the trash so it's all left for the monkeys.
As we've entered Dharamkot, a call out "RON!!!" was heard. It was Hanan in the picture below calling out Ron to help him unload the food shipment from the truck. Keeping Kosher, Chabad import loads of food from Israel and this shipment has been about a month late as there apparently was a storm in the sea. Chabad managed to get some passover food and live through the holiday using Israeli travelers as their couriers.
The truck driver seemed quite pissed of and as the three of us helped the nice Rabbi unload, the truck driver started closing the cabin and aggressively suggest we stop helping. At first we didn't understand what's up and then Hanan told us that the driver is asking for more money than what was initially agreed as the road took him much longer than expected.
Rabbi Hanan and the Angery Truck Driver
Hanan did the mistake of paying him what they agreed on before and now the driver wanted more. After closing the cabin with the Rabbi inside still didn't stop us from unloading, he went into the truck and started driving. Hanan begged him to stop and promised him more money. The money came from us righteous helpers as Hanan didn't have any more on him and finally the driver allowed us to continue unloading.

Yes, we were at the right place at the right time to make Dharamkot a better place for Jews that evening. Dinner was pretty yummy as well :) Jah bless :)

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Consulting NewsGeek Readers

Banana filled Papaya on a mountainous McLeod Ganj background
My column on NewsGeek, Entrepreneur Around the World, is still alive and kicking. The latest post requested some suggestions from readers on how to increase conversion from visitors to registered members. There are nearly 300,000 people visiting Colnect every month, yet only around 1,000 collectors create an account. I thought that having a post with some question may create a discussion and, although with a very minor chance, bring about new ideas. You're welcome to read it.