Working in India

Trip Start Feb 16, 2007
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Trip End Mar 18, 2007


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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Back to the hotel and time to prepare for work the next morning. The typical work day goes something like this. Get up about 6ish have coffee in bed and a read and watch the sunrise out of the hotel window. Hit the gym in the basement if I'm feeling energetic. Head down to breakfast with the complementary newspaper left hanging on the door. Have some burnt coffee, fruit juice (typically pineapple, lychees, apple) , fruit (including pineapple, watermelon, strawberries, pomegranate, cantaloupe melon and grapes, kiwi and papaya) with some natural yoghurt and toast. There are plenty of other option including pastries and cereal and of course the Masala ommlette. I'd meet Irina and Wendy down in reception at 8:45 where we'd get the hotel to order us a taxi and chauffer us to work. It was a nice quick 15 minutes of frayed nerves as you wondered if the driver would manage to stop before the car coming from the left drove straight onto the roundabout. Coming from England where people seems to know the rules of a roundabout I though nowhere could the roundabout experience be as bad as the USA, how I was wrong! The offices at Cyberpark were spotless with open planned low walled cubicles- some may even argue fairly successfully they beat the Scrum room. We'd normally work though until about 1pm when most of the team would go for lunch together. I thought this was nice way to have lunch. India buffet for lunch (apart from Fridays when it was Chinese buffet!). The lunch was decent enough though normally a dhal (lental stew), something with potato (aloo) and another dish with chapatis and rice to mop it up with.  We were warned to stay away from the raw salad though as there was concern for our delicate western stomachs. The other bonus as lunch was free - a perk of the job in most Indian firms, although many of the locals preferred to eat food brought from home! A small walk around the office park after lunch passed the Fidelity, ABN Ambro ATM and United Heathcare buildings to mention a few. When we were done in the evening we'd call the hotel and have a cab sent over to take us back to the hotel. Some nights I'd head up for a swim of the roof top pool and do a few laps while listening to the constant horns honking down on the street - the pool was a fresh water pool which meant no nasty chlorine smells on you skin afterwards, but I was extra careful not to swallow gobs full of water. Next a read or surf on the internet before Irina, Wendy and myself would normally go and get some food and a beer in one of the hotel restaurants before hitting the sack.
 
I have to say I did have a bit of guilt staying in a $200 a night hotel, where early morning you could see workers from the construction sites would be getting changed into their work clothes from where they had slept on the building site overnight. The funny thing was though I always thought I would never like staying in an upscale hotel. But now I think I could get use to the convenience of having everything I needed within the hotel and been able to get driven to work within 10 minutes.
 
A few things I noticed about the office that were different to the US include cleaners who come around polishing everything up all day. One guy who it seems like his only job is to hangout in the restrooms all day making sure things are clean and to hand out paper towel once you wash your hands. There is also a tea boy who will bring you tea and coffee when ever you want some! But woe betide anyone who goes into the kitchen and tried to make their own drink while he is there! I guess that's one way to protect your job. For those of you who know how much tea I drink you'll also realise that not having to go to make all those cups of tea all day must have doubled my productivity! One thing I picked up from some of the developers was there had been a bit of a property boom in this area and it was difficult for most regular people to get on the property ladder - some things don't differ from country to country!
 
A few things I noticed at the hotel were big blue sparks flying out of the plug socket every time I plugged in - this probably wouldn't bother me too much in the US with 110v but here in India with a 240v system you really don't want to be getting an electric shock! Last time I was in India I'd give my laundry to some of the local who would take it to the local washing place and beat the crap out of it until even the white stuff came back spotless. They would charge a couple of bucks for this. Park Plaza laundry services charged $40 for the same service but probably with a washing machine!
 
Our hotel had 2 restaurants, the thing that puzzles me the most was out of all those great Indian beers the hotel sold none, preferring instead to sell Fosters, Oranjeboom, Tiger beer and the likes! Wine on the other hand could be Indian, but in all the places we tried $70 was the cheapest we saw for a bottle. We found it hard to justify putting at $70 bottle of wine on the expense report and only did it a couple of times. We could actually justify it a bit more at the hotel as it constantly has a 2 for one offer. A sure root to alcoholism! One of the restaurants in the hotel was Indian buffet - If I never seen an India Buffet again it will be too soon (I'm obviously only joking on this one!). The food was of a decent variety here and they had some nice a salads and they mixed it up every now and again with a bit of Chinese food! The other restaurant was the 'Kebab Factory'. It too was decent enough, although not the sort of place you'd want to eat at more than once a week as there were only 2 choices, veggie or non-veggie. The food here also had a tendency to be spicy and the portions where rather large. The best part about this place was the selection of deserts. Gulab Jamon (donuts soaked in sweet syrup), some other donut things soaked in a milky mixture, some carrot desert that actually turned out to be peoples favourites and the ice cream sticks, I tried pistachio and mango saffron mix. Oh and carrots in India for some reason are red and tend to be a bit sweeter than their western counterparts.
 
When we wanted a break from masala omlettes and indian buffet we'd head to the mall. My first visit was to the Metropolitan Mall was a real eye opener. The place had more lights than Time Square, NY! The mall was full of western shops mixed in with Indian shops. There was a Ruby Tuesdays, TGI Fridays, Pizza Hut, Subway and Mackie Ds. I think the shop that surprised me the most was the Bose Stereo shop - given the prices of those things I would find it hard to justify buying anything Bose even on a western wage! I'm sure these non-Indian dinners where good for my work collegues, I had got to the stage when 30 minutes on the exercise bike would result sweat with a lovely curry aroma to it!
 
The first night we visited the mall we decided to plump for the TGI Fridays. We made a good choice for ourselves and the companies expenses, they had 2 for the price of one beers! The food was decent and we had a nice evening. The menu was definitely a mix between India and western food. I took the 'beef' burger, which of course had no hint of beef in it at all and was made up of lamb (cows are holy in India and are definitely not for the dining table). As we hung out at the mall entrance for our taxi we had an old Sadhu who kept coming and bowing at out feet in the hope we'd give him some money. I'm never too sure what the best policy is in India, I've always said if I gave money I'd like to give it to a charity who helped the less well off rather than encourage begging, but I'm pretty sure none of these people get any help from recognised charities and all their money comes from charity from Indians.
 
On the Friday night we went to Galaxy Mall, this place was not a patch on the Metropolitan Mall but they did have a decent Chinese Restaurant called Monks.
 
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