Drive Dead Slow

I just saw a sign along the side of the road saying "accident prone zone drive dead slow". I'll have to see if I can dig up a picture.

Driving

I wish you could experience the roads in Bangalore. The newer roads have lines, but drivers ignore them, drifting from lane to lane without a thought. There are traffic signals in the more densely populated areas, but if people are forced to sit for too long, they decide it is their turn to go anyway. It can be a little frightening how close they get to one another...

Good Night and Good Luck

Well, the driver got here 45 minutes before I asked him to, and I've already made him wait a half hour while I phoned home to say g'bye to my family. I will be incommunicado for about 27 hours while I go to the airport, wait for my flight, yada yada yada. Most international flights leave Bangalore between 10 PM and 3 AM; I'm in the "late middle" of that, at 1:55 AM. But been reading the paper this week, and the new airport has had its share of hiccups. Yesterday they lost all computers at checkin and had to manually check everyone, ~10 minutes per person. Lines backed up something fierce. I'm willing to leave waaay early to avoid missing this flight. I am eager to get home.

So, this is the last entry until I'm stateside. Probably. They have wireless at the airport... :)

FYI

I've added some posts with pictures in their chronological position, so you may want to scroll through things again looking for pictures you've not seen before.

Just 3-4 hours before I leave for the airport...

The Compound

It's my last day in India, at least for a while. Since I didn't have anyone to go with on an adventure, I've stayed at the house all day and studied GWT. I took a break in the afternoon and walked around Prestige Ozone, the "premier community" in which our Whitefield guest house is located. It's a charming community, obviously catering to transplants from other countries. I saw many different types of families, and I recognized English and German. There are probably other nationalities located here as well.

The amenities here are very nice. It's immaculately kept up, there is a large pool, a sauna, multiple play areas, multiple ponds like the one shown, an amphitheatre, and a big field where the kids were playing.

I walked around for a while to get some sunlight on me before the rains came (they come every afternoon during "pre-monsoon" season). I stopped and sat on a bench for a while to get some sunlight before I resumed my studies. It is so very different here in the community when you compare it to what is less than a tenth of a mile away...

And they don't want it coming in easily...

India is a Service-Focused Country

Every morning, I usually have two brand new 1 liter water bottles waiting for me in my office, along with a glass on a coaster. It definitely makes me feel special. :)


I believe I've mentioned that they take good care of me at the guest house. They serve me at the table, bring me glasses of water on trays, even open the doors for me when it is time to leave. They are very service oriented.

When Indians move to the United States, this is one of the sacrifices they have to make. Here, having maids and cooks at your house is very cheap. Amardeep told me that there is a man that comes to clean his car every day, and Amardeep pays him ~$8.50 per month for this service. Per Month! We cannot even get a single car cleaning in the U.S. for that kind of money. But it is only a matter of time for the edges of that dichotomy to start to blur. As more and more money trickles down from those who have to those who do not, expectations will change on both sides and things will begin to even out.

How do you think the U.S. got to be the way it is?

A long week, a bright future(?)

This second week has been very busy, with me working 12 hours a day just about every day. Add commuting time on top of that and it makes a man tired. But I've gotten to know the people in the Bangalore office a lot better and know that Manhattan's Architecture is in good hands here.

We've had a lot of resignations in the Bangalore office. We've lost 6 of the top 15 people since the beginning of the year, and there are rumors that others will go as well. While it is definitely a blow, no one can tell what the future holds and whether the people that step into those positions can and will transform the India operations into the center of our organization. Not that I'm saying that's what we're trying to do, but one never knows...

The Dichotomy (Part II)

Maturity takes time. Rapid growth has a way of confusing things. It is interesting to see the ways in which this manifests itself. Amardeep took me to see the second location that Manhattan Associates set up shop in India.The International Technology Park - Bangalore (ITPB, or sometimes ITPL) houses many, many companies. It is truly HUGE. The number of workers it takes to service this many people brings a lot of the uneducated people from the surrounding areas into this area, among those with very advanced technical degrees.

Manhattan's first venture in India was in the early to mid 1990s; I know a person or two who hired into that office, which is now closed. Their second shop started around 2002 or 2003. I know some people here who worked in that office before our first wholly-owned building was opened, back in 2005(ish). But there's been so much turnover in the India office that people with that kind of tenure are few and far between.

Construction next to the MA-India Building

The Dichotomy

India is a place of many dichotomies. As I've said before, it's strange to see hovels next to skyscrapers. Here is a picture of Sri Satiya Sai Institute for Higher Medical Studies, which is both a learning institute for doctors as well as a hospital for the poor. Many poor people come here every day, and they are not charged for the services. Because of this attraction, at night, you will find many people sleeping around the outside, such as at the bus stop across the street.

It is a beautiful building; pictures do not do it justice.

Word Gets Around

(It's actually Tamil Nadu, not Tennessee...)

MG (Mahatma Ghandi) Road

Mike Foley and I went to MG Road today for lunch and shopping. We traveled down Brigade Rd for a long time, looking for a restaurant Mike wanted to eat at, but we never could find it. All along the road guys followed us trying to sell us their handcarved wares, which consisted of (1) a chess set, (2) a backgammon set, (3) a pipe, (4) a segmented snake, and (5) drums. (Note: all street vendors sell the same things.) We finally doubled back then cut across to avoid the most annoying of the vendors, and found Mike's restaurant. Unfortunately, it was closed for lunch "due to goverment regulations". We ate at 20 Ft High, attached to the entertainment area Amoeba. It was good, but slow. We then travelled down to Cauvery Handicrafts, a shop filled with different small stores, each selling furniture or decorations or fragrances or, the most important item, toys. Mike and I both bought presents for our children, authentic Indian things. Next, we travelled down to Cafe Coffee Day, the local version of Starbucks, for an iced coffee before calling the driver to come get us. He said he would be 30 minutes arriving, so we visited another toy store (this time with typical toys) as well as a clothing store. We then waited by the drop-off spot, where another street-side hawker pestered us for 15 minutes. We had fun with him (well, I did, anyway) since we knew we weren't going to buy anything. It took the driver a lot longer than 30 minutes from when we called - but that's not his fault. As you can see, the traffic on MG Road is very bad.

I've Given Up

I've had it with Manhattan Associates. I've started my own firm here in Bangalore, just off MG Road. As you see, we're already doing well enough to have our name on the building. Now if I can just get rid of that sport shop that is stealing all of my business...

Guest Room

The Guest House is nice enough. It's a far cry from a resort. :) I've included some pictures of my guest room and attached bath room. In addition to what you see here, there's an armoire for my clothes and a small desk. The power goes out occasionally, as well as the circuits tripping. Last night, the air conditioners were broken until about 10 PM or so, but everything else was working.

Below is the bathroom. You can't see the sink; nor can you see the water filtration tank way up near the ceiling. All the water is filtered at the bathroom. Because of that, there is no hot water. The shower stall is quite large, and has two buckets, one small and one large.

Below is the flush button I was talking about earlier. The small part is for small flushes, the larger part is for large flushes. I don't know why all toilets don't look like this! It's brilliant!

Pictures from the Commute

(Sorry about the quality. I was trying to take pictures without being obvious.)

Water, Water, Everywhere

The water in Bangalore is dangerous. Westerners can get seriously sick if they drink it. One of my coworkers bought a salad in the cafeteria at work and get very sick. Why? The lettuce was washed with tap water! So, everywhere I go, there is bottled water. Even the locals drink it at lunchtime. Amardeep, one of the leads in the Architecture team, says he never drinks the water- not at home, not at work. Must be an expensive habit. It's definitely a big business here in BG.

The Morning Commute

Did I tell you how different it is here? There is a four-lane divided road near the Sri Satya Sai Institute for Higher Medical Sciences (it's a hospital), and these cows were standing on the median. Perhaps they were waiting for a bus.

Breakfast

The guys at the guest house take very good care of me. They provide breakfast and dinner each day, clean up my room, and today they are doing my laundry. Of course, the company is paying them, but they are still nice. Only one of them speaks English; the other knows a few words but usually runs for the main guy when I start to talk.

Here's what I have for breakfast every day: two runny eggs, four pieces of toast, butter, and a drink of some kind. Usually it has been papaya or mango (I'm not sure); yesterday it was pineapple, and this morning (for some reason) it's Coke. I usually don't eat all four pieces of toast, but they bring it nonetheless. They also bring fruit jam and some pickle stuff, but I typically ignore those.

The General Area Where I Am

Google Maps

By the way, the maps in Google Earth are more up-to-date than the ones on Google Maps. Or so I'm told by Arunava...

I Gotta Hit the Can

Here's something I didn't expect: toilets are different, but just a little bit. The seats are thin plastic, not the thick wood typically used in the U.S. And all the toilets I've seen so far - at work and here in the guest house - have the "two-button". You know, a button for #1 and a button for #2. You might be able to see it on the top of the toilet above... the circular button is actually divided into a big part and a little part. Get it? A big flush and a little flush!

And then there's the "native" toilets. The local tradition isn't to sit - it's to squat! They believe it has health benefits, but I believe it is sustained more by the long-time social acceptance of public defecation. (Yes, you read that right.)

Indians do not have an American sense of scale

The people in the cafeteria call this 4" tall cup a "Large" coffee. Ever heard of "Vente"? Ha!

Jet Lag

Boy, second afternoon in the office and I am still sleepy. Yesterday was terrible - I literally dozed off four or five times in the middle of an email. I finally succumbed and just leaned back in my chair and dozed for 10-20 minutes. It didn't help, though. Today is not as bad as that, but I did find my eyes closing a couple of times as I tried to reconfigure my laptop to have speedier email (the secret - cached Exchange mode). They tell me that tomorrow I shouldn't have any real effects. But from my perspective, the real test will be tonight. Last night I was awake from 1:30 - 3:30; I was so awake I decided to read. I sure hope tonight is straight-through...

Commuting

The drive from the guest house to the office is quite exhilarating, bordering on harrowing. Drivers are extremely aggressive here. The roads are built for two or three lanes, but there are no lane markings, and people drive like it. Cars honk at each other all the time, as if to say, "get out of my way". Trucks, bikes, and cars all jockey for position - oops, don't forget the pedestrians! And intersections -wow! Everyone trying to move at the same time, no stop signs, no traffic signals. It's amazing there aren't more accidents. American drivers would never survive over here.

Oh, and I saw three oxen on the side of the road on the way to work this morning. I'll have to see if I can get a picture of that tomorrow...

I'm Here

The plane landed at old Bangalore Airport at 1:05 AM IST. It was 1:30 before we were off the plane because the electrical system died when we arrived at the gate. We sat in the dark for 10 minutes before we were able to leave.

Immigration and Customs was a breeze, as was finding my driver.

The drive to the guest house was interesting. The city was pretty much asleep, except for the packs of wild dogs and people building fires along the side of the road. For the latter, I can only guess they were living there.

I was at the guest house about 2:20 AM. It took a while to unwind and fall asleep...

In Paris

The pilots were able to make up some of the lost time in flight, so we arrived around 9 AM Paris time. That gave me about two hours before the connecting flight left. Well, that was before it was delayed 30 minutes, changed gates, and then had an equipment problem. Yes, another problem with the plane, again while we were sitting on it. This time, however, they made us sit and wait for it to be fixed - without any air conditioning! We finally lifted off around 12:20.

Paris had a lot of duty-free shops. I'll have to look around during my return flight. :)

Leaving ATL

I said goodbye to my family at the security checkpoint in Atlanta around 2:00 EDT. Everyone was sad.

The first plane we were boarded onto was supposed to leave at 3:35, but at 3:25 they announced we would all have to get up and leave the plane and proceed to gate T01 for an equipment change. When we actually left the plane, they were telling us to sit down in T04 and wait for more information. (That was fine for the ones they caught, but some people had already gone down there!) We sat at T04 before they confirmed that, yes, we had to move to T01 and wait for a new plane. We sat there until ~6 PM, when we finally got a fresh plane and boarded. To compensate us for our time, alcohol was free during the flight.

We finally left the ground at 6:40 PM.