This morning we got up relatively early because Raj needed to get to college. We have become lazy, or at least I feel I have. One of the most important things I wanted to do while im out here is find a healthy and sustainable routine. I guess that will be easier once we have a flat.

After a quick juice (pomegranate for me), we headed back to the hotel. We stopped short for a light snack at the local eating parlour. We'd walked past it many times on our way into the hotel but never ate. They cook paratha on the street outside on a giant hot plate fired by wood. It really was local. No setting encountered so far gave us stares like we recieved there. Pune is a town torn between heavy westernization and pockets of poverty. The area surrounding the station and our hotel is one of the poorer areas, and when two well dressed westerners walk into a local joint where bread is less than 3p and a hearty meal no more than 30p, it is no surprise heads turn. I enjoyed sitting in a more humble surround and eating genuine and amazingly cheap food. The owner asked us where we were from and said he'd noticed us walk past many times.

In the afternoon I went back to the I-cafe while anthony went to view another few properties. Finally getting some good work done, I was happy when Anthony returned to take a break . I rested for a short while and Anthony read, before we headed out for a bit of a 'change of food': pizza. It felt oddly wrong walking around a western mall. I can't quite work out how or how the whole 'westernisation' theme I see everywhere here fits into life. I get the feeling that many young people aspire to an idealistic notion of life in Europe and America. Brand names are everywhere, asverts portray happy looking western looking indians using the latest phone or sportsware. An idea I had a few days ago actually was to take a series of photos of all the huge billboards, because some are quite interesting, others funny, and just the sheer numbers of them and the general message they portray says a lot. I think ill spend a day doing that some time in the next few months. Another series of photos I'd like to take, in contrast, when I have a bit more confidence with my camera in public, is of the poverty and perhaps even life inside a slum. Although I am still paranoid of being stolen from in one form or another, my trust in the people here, even the poor and desperate, is building. It stems from a feeling about people here that I can't really explain, but it may have something to do with what one writer describes as 'indian love', without which, he says, this relatively small country of over a billion people, would have anihlated itself a long time ago.

We ate in Pizza Hut. It wasnt that filing, or tasty. It was expensive. 'Western' through and through. They do play 'cool' music rather loudly in the mall area though, which despite giving it the touch of being a club, we quite liked. We wandered home via a nearby 5 star hotel, in order to admire the view. Unfortunely the pollution and darkness made it difficult to see much. Perhaps we'll return one day. On our way there we had to pass through the station and surrounding poverty again. It was our daily reminder of the stark contrast in living standards here. A few ideas about something I'd like to do myself to 'help', somewhat, has been brewing in my mind. It may be best to simply find a local charity, and donate my time.

I spent an hour on the Internet while Anthony spent two, and after watching some hilarious Indian adverts, I hit the hay. It was just past midnight, and finally time to start to sleep at decent hours, in preparation for that all important routine.

Monday began hideously late for me after a late and largely unproductive night in the Internet cafe trying to get trac to work. I got back at 5:30 am and slept until the afternoon. Anthony got up much earlier to meet a guy about property. By the time I had dragged myself out of bed, showered, collected our beautifully clean and pressed clothes, and sorted out my stuff in the hotel room, it was 5pm.

I got to work again, for a few hours, again not really getting anywhere, and was about to pay for a third hour when Anthony came in. He showed me some property photos, and I packed up - we were heading out with Raj and Yash again. I ate my first food of the day (bar a very strongly flavoured banana that I don't think my stomach agreed with too much), almost 24 hours after my last, at 8pm. Going so long without food probably wasnt the best idea. The small pastries, one egg, one chicken, from the roadside, which coat less than 30p together, were good.

It took almost 10 minutes to find a ricksha willing to take us-even some empty ones refused to stop, and when one did, he shook his head upon hearing our destination. Eventually found a well dressed young driver, who although he didnt know exactly where we wanted to go, agreed. We sped along the streets, donning our now obligatory wetted-hankerchiefs over our faces because of the terrible pollution. Raj told us Pune is has the most polluted streets of any city in the world, due to its large proportion of 2-wheelers, and its not hard to believe. I have a suspicion it's more than just the motorcycles though. There are a lot of rickshas, cars, and larger vehicles, few of which would pass any western pollution check, and tied with the fact Pune is located in a bowl of hills and so far we have experienced barely any wind, it makes sense. The taxi driver tried to charge us almost double what we were used to for this particular, now common journey, and we refused, giving him more than the usual fare but 2/3 of what he suggested. I've heard a lot about getting ripped off here, being a westerner, but in retrospect he did say it was a night fare, and it seems silly to have denied an amount that means so little to us and so much to him.

We met the boys and found a small restaurant nearby for a late dinner. After we ordered I began to feel bloated. We ate a mixed platter after tomato soup but I felt worse by the end. The boys were planning to take us on the bikes to see the full moon by a lake (it seems half the romance here is between men, until you have a wife!). I said I'd rather lie down, so we rode with them to Raj's place and I lay on his bed for a few minutes before promptly and without warning falling asleep. After dozing for an hour and a half my stomach was better, but I could feel a cold, probably Anthony's, setting in. They had not gone out, and we chatted for a while, I showed them my sites, before we headed to bed in Raj's flatmate's room.

I knew I wouldnt sleep. All kinds of thoughts and anxieties buzzed around my head. I felt a bit lost. I wanted to be back somewhere, but not home, because I needed to move on from home. I was ill in a strange bed, and as anyone who's been to hospital knows, those first few nights are haunting. Worry about finding a house, about our business direction and associates, and about my lack of productivity in the past few days. Longing to be back, perhaps, at an un specified time, but a time were things were more sure and I knew where I stood. I wonder if we will meet any girls here, if even just as friends. Girls and guys don't mix much, and I know I'm not going to feel great in 2 or 3 months if there are no girls in my life save echos of the past and long distance friendships. Eventually, after an hour and a half of haunted thought I resorted to browse the web on my iPhone: a luxury in itself. I sent an email, and wrote Elizabeth a message, and searched for 'westerner in Pune' on google. I actually found some interesting articles from that search, including one about a barcamp here, and ruby on rails. I think this city has a lot to offer us, we just need to settle down and get under its skin. Writing to Elizabeth, expressing my mood in writing, made me feel better, and after 3 hours of insomnia I finally drifted off.

After our first long overnight sleep in Pune and what seemed like days after left Mumbai, we rose. We didn't do much, because of how late in the day it was when we left the hotel. We went for a bit of a wander, and found a street market nearby. After food we went in search of some residential areas to give us an idea of where we might stay here. Unfortunately the ricksha we picked had a driver who understood little english. Fortunately, the first man the driver picked and grabbed to help translate was in the property business. Anthony is meeting him now, and will tour some of the places he has available. We have read some horror stories about foreigners setting up in India, but I think if we have some locals on our side that will help. We know people in both Pune and Mumbai now, which is great.

So we had a look at some of the places he recommended, including walking around a bit, and then caught another ricksha to meet Raj and Yash again. This time we had Dosa - very nice. The four of us ate with drinks in a packed family restaurant for under INR 300, which is about £4. When we got home, we headed back to the net for the night, Anthony turning in about 3:30am and myself around 5:30.

Of course, Saturday, as it was, arrived without a natural break, because we took a cab to the train station at 5:30 in the morning after swiftly packing up. At the station, after Anthony had scouted to check we could travel from there, we bought what we thought were1st class tickets and sat to wait. Hundreds of people slept and lay on the station floor with their belongings. I assume they wait for their connecting train overnight. Since our arrival in India we have seen a great number of people sleeping in the street and out and about.

The train journey began for us in first class, which was almost empty. The first incling I got that there might be a problem with our journey as when I bent forward to the row of seats in front of me where Anthony as seated to talk to him and found he had been replaced with someone I didnt know. I looked around but couldn't see him anywhere. I knew he wouldn't have left without saying anything. After a few anxious moments I spotted him sitting a few rows in front on the opposite side if the carriage. I changed places to sir next to him. 2 stops later, we were sitting in a much fuller car, and the inevitable happened: we were sitting where a family had reservations. After 30 minutes of standing in the vestible areas it was apparent that we would not get seats. The train was full.

But one of the best experiences you can in India have is riding a cross country train with an open door, and were it not for the full train, we would not have had this experience. Countryside flashed past - women working at the river, farms, power lines, hills. We met a guy called Ashwin, who works in civil engineering for the railways. We had a good chat about education, life, and living in Maharastra. He and his father have property in Mumbai so they could be useful in finding something there if we decide to stay.

As we arrived in Pune, a man jumped from the train a good 5 minutes before it eventually came to rest in the station. It was obviously something he did on a regular basis and he did not make the mistake of jumping off when the train was going too fast. Children played in between the trains while we passed them. My first impression of Pune was that it was much more like the India I had envisioned when I left the UK. It was a bumbling mass of people going about their business - with a lot more people on the streets, a lot more poor people it seemed too. We found our hotel and checked in, and promptly had a long sleep, even though it was the middle of the day. In the afternoon we walked to central town, in search of internet and food. We found the latter, as it is a much more common than the former in this country! The pollution is much worse here than in Mumbai.

In the evening we took a riksha to the MIT campus where the cousin of a uni friend, of ours goes, called Raj. MIT here is not, of course, the world famous USA university, but the Maharastra Institute of Technology. He took us briefly around the central campus and we headed to his friend's flat. I commented that there was a slum a km or two away to the west, and he asked how he knew - I had checked the satellite image of the area using my phone. Then came the highlight of the day - we took their bikes to dinner and shisha - so had the chance to ride on the back - speeding through the crazy Indian streets with no helmet! We had a great chat with Raj and Yash, and shared some of our ideas about where things are going and where we think the value lies in the software industry. They had some interesting things to say about what they want from the next few years, and about how, although having a degree is useful, it doesn't guarantee you a good job, and without it you can't find anything. Anthony and I are dreaming up how best we might capitalise on the student population, should we stay here and Raj and Yash's story be common. They both seemed keen on the idea of working for us if things work out for us in Pune.

Finally we rode back to central town to grab a delicious strawberry milkshake (they don't seem to eat chocolate here) before being dropped off at our hotel. The bike rides were exhilarating and dangerous - Anthony wants to buy a bike but personally I wouldn't. We spent 4 or 5 hours with our computers in the Internet cafe, before heading to bed.

Today began, like yesterday, around 2 pm, when we left the hotel in search of food. In a local cafe we picked up some traditional food for both of us for less than £1.5, but not before having a woman and her child sit next to us to beg. The waiter moved her on, eventually, though she tried to explain her story. There are not as many beggars on the streets as I had expected, but the overall level of development is still lower than I had envisioned. Yet the poverty has not had a marked effect on me at all. Perhaps its because I was mentally already prepared. Perhaps its because I'm with Anthony; maybe he sees things differently. Perhaps its because the people dont seem to be too unhappy, and thay most have found their place and some sort of purpose despite owning so little. Perhaps its just because in the back of my mind I know one day I'll be able to do more to help than worrying and giving donations now. Or perhaps I'm just a little too hardened to the world. I'm sure the truth is complex, as it always is, so right now ill just live it, and continue loving it, this, an amazing country.

After a long and scenic taxi to the Mosque on the other side of the peninsula, we stopped to catch our breath by the sea. It was an amazing day: a brisk notherly wind banished the ever present Mumbai pollution, and made the 30 degree heat very tolerable and pleasant. We were relieved to know that there would at least be some days when the smog and the hear would relent, days which we could truly enjoy being outside. The sight was amazing: below us rubbish on the shore and a man pushing a large boat by hand through the sands; on the horizon the mosque, with a stream of colorful people walking the causeway out to it; on the busy street, people from everywhere...and all ages. Children - a small group approach me and my abnoxtious camera, beckoning for me to take their photo. For 20 minutes Anthony and I play with them, taking photos and delighting them with the images they can then see on the back of the screen. At the end we head off to try and find a place to have them printed off so they can keep copies, but to no avail.

After taking some photos of the mosque from a closer vantage point (I didnt want to walk out to it without a hat), we caught a taxi back to Chowpatti beach. We spent the remainder of the beautiful day's sunlight lying on the beach, watching the locals, and watching the sun set. I phoned home, sent some emails, and listened to music. Anthony almost got more than he bargained for with a massage, and ended up paying quite a lot because no price was agreed before hand! We sampled some local food - a liquidy type cold soup in crispy puffed rice shells - and wandered down the beach.

When we got back we took an hour's sleep, knowing we wouldn't get to bed again that night, as we would journey to Pune early the next morning. We sample a local open air kebab joint that was very popular with the locals, and for good reason. After ordering lots of food, we headed to Leopold's for a last drink. We met one of the waiters who had been interested in the iPhone on the first night, who had subsequently shown us videos of Lin on his mobile. Anthony checked out some local girls, who I couldn't see from my position. The girls are less beautiful than either of us had imagined they would be, which is something I'll return to later. After a wander around the exquisite Taj hotel, sea front, and a local residential area (containing some very nice looking apartments) we headed home. We were talking about business as we wandered past a woman on the street. She was sitting up in front of a fire, fast asleep, and clutching a young child in her arms. The poor light fires everywhere it seems, which are uncontrolled by the police, and gather around them at night. During the day you often see smouldering embers from the previous night's fires.

Our day began well into the afternoon, when I emailed Vaibhav to ask if he might be interested in meeting. I phoned him, and agreed to meet at 4, so we set off almost immediately, it being almost 2pm. I had spent the time since waking up writing and sorting photos. The first thing we did after leaving the hotel was to change some currency on the street. I got a better rate than at the airport, as expected. Next stop was Victoria Terminus - the central station in Mumbai.

The outside of the station had a different feel to it to the areas we had been used to thus far in central Mumbai. It felt more 'local'. There was a sporadic market, and many more people. Anthony and I remarked that it was more as we imagined India to be. I'm sure it won't be the last of that kind of buzz and energy we see. As we walked into the the station, Anthony sprinted ahead to take photos of me in the crowd. He took one which manages to emphasise my height quite dramatically among the Indians! We wandered around for a bit trying to find out how to buy a ticket to get to Vikhroli, the station nearest Vaibhav's office. The station was buzzing with people. We found an information booth, and had our first experience of the Indian que. The Indian que is not a que. It is a semi circle, and you have to shove a little to ensure justice is done. After being pushed in front of, I learned, and we got the information we needed about where to get our ticket. The que for the ticket was a British que, and not a long one at that. As we walked along the platforms a train pulled away, to be chased by a number of people who grabbed onto the outside to get a place. We found our train and went to the top to find a seat, before observing the scene with interest. The trains are wide, to carry as many people as possible. On the tracks, workers make repairs and carry metal while trains roll past. Children play on the tracks. People live by the tracks. It was an amazing sight. As we stood watching, a train rolled into the station alongside ours. People waved as they passed.

The train journey was long but the view just as fascinating. We had a seat, because we were on the train from the beginning, but most people from the first stop on stood. Many people looked and stared at us, probably having never seen foreigners on the train in the second class before. As I looked at photos Anthony had taken on his camera, a few men looked over my shoulder, interested. Riding with the locals on a commuter train was a wonderful and humbling experience.

We arrived in Vikhroli, and waited for a few minutes for Vaibhav to arrive. We picked up some vegetable samosas on the street side, risking food poisoning to combat our hunger, as we had not eaten yet in the day. I sat down on some rubble and waited, acquiring a little sun in the process, despite the late hour. Vaibhav arrived in a taxi, we said our hellos, and rode back to his office. The office was in quite a messy building, but it was nice inside.

Anupam and Nilesh were immediately very accomodating. We were invited into their office with Vaibhav, were we chatted about why we are here and what our goals and hopes are for the next few months. Later, when having a break with Vaibhav, they joined us to chat. We talked about business, starting up, tech and services in India, and the future. Anupam mentioned something which confirmed my thoughts about the IT services industry in India. He said the future is reliant on making sure that the workforce and businesses continue to climb the 'value chain'. What he meant by this is that currently India's IT services, in terms of skills, are mainly focussed on simply coding. In due course, maintaining the growth rate will rely increasingly on more valuable skills such as interface design, project management, idea conception, and overall system design.

We got on with them well, and they even offered their offices to work from. In fact, I took them up on it after our 'break' chat, taking the opportunity to use their fixed Internet for some tasks I'd been needing to do on my computer. Then all five of us went our to dinner.

At dinner we talked more about life and software. They seemed very enthused by our ideas and motivations. Anupam mentioned how surprised they were that we had taken an ordinary commuter train on our first visit. So we talked and bonded our way into the night, and I was happy that on only our second day in India we had met new people who I'm sure will be valuable contacts and friends for the duration of our stay in India. We has already 'got under the skin' of our surroundings, so to speak, and were learning a lot from the experience.

They kindly paid, said their goodbyes and we headed back to Vikhroli station with Vaibhav in a riksha. The tiny vehicle had serious trouble climbing the not insignificant inclines that are common in the north end of Mumbai. We enjoyed a big cheer of joy after one painfully long ascent during which the driver tried to overcome the limitations of his engine by zig zagging across the street, including making full use of the wrong side of the road as oncoming traffic beeped its way around us!

Finally we caught the last train back to the centre, which was of course empty. I managed to make a mockery of myself when, even after Anthony had actually commented on how easy it might be to do by accident, I jumped from the train while it was moving too fast, causing me to fall over and slam into the carriage. I grabbed the side to stop myself falling, and the fact then train was still moving caused me to be dragged a few meters is a comical and absurd fashion before I eventually alighted. One lives and learns.

We rode a taxi back through the night from the station, and talked our way to bed not long before dawn. Our body clocks are still on uk time, which suits our lifestyle just now perfectly.

When you don't sleep much on a flight, even if it's overnight, it's hard to see the separation of days. This has happened a number of times to me in the past few years, and not only from flights. Staying up all night gives the same feeling. It is an odd one, of time rolling together, and gives mixed emotions, always, probably partly because of the inherent lack of sleep! Our first day was memorable though, even if it was hampered by both this lack of sleep and, in my case, a bit of anxiety and the kind of strange 'homesick' feeling that comes from a feeling of stepping into the unknown, alone.

When we finally cleared the airport, which, incidentally I didn't really see as belonging to a India as all airports are more or less the same, our first experience was taxi. We booked a taxi to take us to central town, the 'tourist' area, were we would find food and shelter. Leaving the airport we were greeted by a sea of faces waiting for others to come from the plane - the arrivals lounge was outside! We were approached a few times by offers of 'taxi', but eventually found our way to the pre-paid taxi rank. We had one guy refer us to another guy who referred us to a group of about 5 guys, who seemed to have a discussion about what to do, before referring us to another group of guys who seemed to joke and argue about who would take us, before being lead to the closest taxi, driven by a young man. The taxi rank was a vast ocean of old style, narrow, seatbeltless vehicles which looked like they were from the 70s. I think they are.

Our ride sped us through the heart of the city to Coloba, the city centre. On the road vehicles honk loudly and consistently, to the point were it sounds comically like everyone is doing it for fun, whenever they feel like it. In fact, it appears the horn is a vital part of what keeps traffic moving without crashing in India, as cars weave wherever they please, squeezing through impossible gaps, reversing up one way streets and undercutting trucks. Without the horn this style of driving would not be possible, as the horn is used to alert other cars of your presence; other cars cannot rely on you adhering to any kind of orderly code. So hop in, rev up, and beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep - here we come, round the side of.... ooo that was close... beeep... watch the old man... I've already worked out a clever way of telling which taxis to avoid getting into. Some taxis ride at an odd angle with their noses are pointing into the ground, even on a level road. The ones were this is noticeable are the ones to avoid. I am sure the odd slope is because of consistent, hard breaking. I wouldn't hedge my bets on having a comfortable ride in one of those, though perhaps one day I'll find one at a ridiculous incline and ride it just to test my theory.

Life on the street is as described and expected, though it is in general much less westernised that I had been lead to believe. We passed people on the streets everywhere, selling things, cooking things, carrying things. Slums and shanty towns are frequent and easily recognisable from the densely packed array of precarious looking roofs. Children squat in the street playing games inches from fast moving traffic. There are stray dogs everywhere. And at night, when all goes quiet, many people, sometimes whole families, lie down to sleep on the pavement. Reading Shantaram, I was aware of how big the rats can be, so was not surprised to see a few as we walked about at night. Their bodies are about 12 inches in length.

So we found a hotel, right next to Leopolds, a cafe which forms the focal point of much of Shantaram, and as a result of the book and now the upcoming all-star movie, has been made quite famous. In the afternoon we bought sim cards, walked, and ate. We had a snooze for a few hours in the evening before heading out again to eat at Leopold's. It was quite surreal eating in drinking in a place I have heard described in such detail, and where many a conversation happened between Lin (David) and friends only 25 years ago, when, most probably, the place still looked exactly the same as it does now. The decor and technology inside India's buildings all seem to come from times long ago, repaired and occasionally washed when needed, but never replaced.

Last week when we met Matt, one of the marketing themes he mentioned was that you should aim to produce different stories for different audiences, about the same topic, in order to captivate them in their arena of interest. Anything we ever communicate in life is, I think, an extension of this idea. Every time we speak to a person or persons, we are telling the same story in a different way. Our stories, and the way we choose to tell them to the world, shape the images we have of each other, and in time and history, who we end up being. This is my story, and I will to take bits, chunks, or wholes from it to share with the rest of the world. If you are reading this, expect nothing no less of the story than I have the energy to share.

I just came from the shower, if you can call it that. It is really just a trickle of cold, undrinkable water from a tap placed halfway up the wall. As I stood there, taking time to get used to the temperature before starting to wash, I suddenly felt lucky, as someone in this city who actually has water to wash with, and a private room with a bed, albeit one as hard as a rock with no top-sheet or covers, to sleep in. I think your life is always whatever you choose to make of it in your home city were, most likely, almost everyone faces similar or worse challenges than you do. And the feeling I had this morning, one of slight loneliness and anxiety about the future, I have conquered almost completely this evening, finally reducing it to a mere flicker of emotion by a second shower revelation. It was the realisation that the feeling of facing challenges in a city, one of which is a certain loneliness of the heart, was one I've felt before, in August last year. That time quickly gave way to a new energy, positivity, and resourcefulness that blasted me all the way through a brilliant final year in London, and that thought now gives me great hope for my future here. As I prepare to go to bed for the first time in this new land, I am excited again, and less worried. Here, we, go...