Bangalore Shopping Adventures

This is going to have to be a quick post, as it's 9:45 and I am trying my latest approach for how to get more than 5 hours sleep in a night.  Tonight it was:  drink hot tea instead of wine, eat a light supper, avoid the massage chair, and start early.  We'll see how it goes.

The last several days have been busy with work, and of course, getting to work.  I was able to video our commute Wednesday morning, but the file is little large to upload.  So you will have to wait until I get home to get a feel for the craziness.  However, I have included a picture of Allah who keeps our driver, Reddy, safe (us too I guess).  I've noticed that every driver has a religious talisman on their dash.  I've seen Allahs, rosaries, and one Buddha.  They need all the help they can get.  We've not seen any motorbike riders crushed in the street, but today was our first dead dog.  It was sad enough.  


As a reward at the end of our last couple days of work, we have headed out to a few of the shops.  Last night was Commercial Street.  It wasn't the most relaxing shopping trip ever... as you'll see below, it resembles a long, narrow, Times Square/China Town combo.   There are side streets in all directions filled with every type of shop you can imagine.  Souvenirs, shoes, fabric, ready-made clothing, bedding, furniture, sweets shoppes, bars, even shacks selling cardboard (which I guess people buy to build their own shacks).  Like everything else in India, it's impossible to explain.  Here are a few shots from the shopping bonanza. You can see my happy face saying goodbye to Buddha at one store we really liked.  Followed by me almost getting hit and everyone laughing.  Julie nearly got smushed by a motorbike as well.  Luckily we both have quick reflexes.

As I mentioned, I am very excited to share my videos of our driving with you.  They are quite entertaining.  Our Cerner driver, Reddy, is awesome.  Julie took a picture of him and our security escort, who is conveniently also named Mr. Reddy.  They are quite a pair and we have given them a name - Reddy and Reddy - Transportation & Safety.  We may have a sign made for them to put on the car for our next visit :)

Until next time... 

India Day 2 - Manyata

Today was the first real work day in the office.  I woke up at 4:30 am thanks to my time zone adjustment, worked out, did some e-mail, caught up with Julie (who had just arrived at 5 am on a flight from London) and Melissa for breakfast, and hopped in the fancy Toyota SUV with Julie's driver (name unknown) so he could drive us to the Manyata Tech park.  We didn't get far because the 'head of security' was chasing us down wanting to ride with us to make sure that Julie (aka the Queen) was safe.  He stuffed himself into the 3rd row of our SUV and we were off.  I couldn't take pictures on the ride out (my backpack was stuck behind our (#2) protector and I felt bad asking for it).  But I did manage to take these on the way home.  Scenes from the craziness that is India/Bangalore.  Before we leave, I am going to be super brave and sit in the front seat and try to video the adventure here that they call driving.  You need sound (for the cacophony of horns) and moving pics to fully capture the number of near death experiences that happen.

I won't bore you with the work details except to say that my brain hurts from all the new info I was absorbing.  Everything from details about the growth of our India operation (now nearly 1000 people), our recruiting effectiveness (or lack thereof), and the talent market here.  All interesting enough, but frankly the most fascinating info came from one of our newer female associates, who escorted me to a meeting mid-day and gave me the 411 about arranged marriages, the India version of 'Match.com' (very popular with the progressive female crowd), and the huge differences in culture between the various India 'states'.  She talked about how she did her own research (dare I say shopping) for a future spouse but did so knowing the minimum requirements of her parents (no sense in bringing someone who would never get approved).  Boys, it is a VERY DIFFERENT world.

I also learned a bit about dowry differences (from a different informer).  Amounts vary based on the groom's occupation (possibly other things too, but this was the example he provided).  A basic Software Engineer might command a dowry of $5mil rupees.  But add 'manager' to his title, and suddenly the dowry value goes up significantly... to ~$8mil rupees.  No wonder the culture here seems fixated on a management career path.

I am sure there are equally unique aspects to western culture, but it's hard to recognize them when that is all you know.  Here's the view from the 8th floor of our office building.  Note the giant construction site, with construction worker shacks conveniently located on the plateau to the left of the hole.  When I have a chance, I will take a close up picture of the scaffolding they build up the side of some of their construction sites.  It's made of sticks.  The scaffolding on these buildings was a little sturdier, I am happy to report.

and a view the opposite direction.

Finally Here in India

After 26 hours of travel, I arrived literally on the other side of the world.  I could probably tell a few stories about the travel part, but suffice it to say I have put it behind me.  A few observations:

• I'm a product of US - and particularly Midwestern US - culture.  I like my personal space and there isn't much in economy class anymore.  Every plane was completely full.
• I don't care what you say, using insect foggers after we've all been loaded and locked into the plane stating that they are 'proven' safe does not make me feel better.
• I am forever grateful to my french seat-mate who did his best to stay shrunk into his 17 inches and let me borrow the arm rest once in a while - I think he could see that my african seat mate on the other side was literally twice as broad-shouldered as the seat allowed.  Not overweight, just BROAD.  So I used him as a doorstop when (trying to) sleep upright, breaking my own personal space rule.  But I had no other choice.
• Food on AirFrance is actually pretty good, but do we really need to eat every 6 hours?  When we have done nothing but sit?

We arrived in Bangalore at 1:00 am, India time, on Sunday.  I left KC at roughly 1:00 pm, KC time on Friday.  ECustoms was not difficult.  We were met by Swami, our driver for the week AND Sudjit, from our hotel.  The drive from the airport to hotel was a full hour, and I will be very interested to see it again in daylight.  There was plenty of traffic, lots of honking, vehicles of all make and purpose army-type trucks carrying construction materials, one that looked straight out of Indiana Jones carrying mostly bags of grain and at least one person hanging on the back, taxis, minivans, and the very occasional luxury car.  No painted lanes to speak of, though the road did resemble a freeway  a couple of times - then we would veer off through patched pseudo pavement to a 'frontage road'.  It's impossible to describe.  Along the way you'd see lots and lots of buildings on the side of the road - all heights, many with graphics, some falling down.  Some looked newer but mostly it looked like a patchwork quilt of structures.  I read in today's paper that there is a (new???) rule that apartment structures with more than 25 houses are required to have a way to treat sewage and water.  Yikes.

Then we have our hotel.  It's truly gorgeous... here's the lobby.  It's open air because as far as I can tell, the weather is beautiful here year-round.  Maybe a little hot in April, but otherwise 80 and sunny.

 I'm on the 12th floor, in the 'Eva' wing which was designed for women and is supposedly extra-secure.   I have an on-call butler and a security guard (not always, but sometimes, outside my room... they mostly smile a lot and speak little English).  My maid is Kavya.  She's very sweet, young, and anxious to help.  She drives an hour+ to work each day - I asked her if she liked it and she said it goes from being super-hard to boring depending on how many guests they have.  Evidently not much in the middle.  Went to the pool where of course there was not one but two pool boys anxious to make sure we were well-attended to.  They asked for our sun preference and then dragged our chairs where they would get maximum sun - even though it totally blocked these other people into this garden-courtyard area :)  Spread our towels on our chairs, brought us water.  Here's one of them checking on another guest.   

Had the Sunday buffet brunch complete with live music which Melissa and I found rather hysterical... Indian singers doing everything from George Straight to 80's mix music.  Seriously.  Brunch was $50 though - can't afford that every meal, American or not.  People were quite well-dressed for what I expected, but then I realized it was sunday.  Hard to have a buffet and have to be careful what you eat, but we decided we aren't taking any chances so we skipped the stuff with fresh fruit and stuck to the cooked items. 

Tomorrow we head into the office - it is at least an hour drive away supposedly, which blew my mind.  The issue is not distance but traffic and roads (or lack thereof).  Julie picked this hotel though so I will assume she knows what she's doing.  I included one more picture - it's almost impossible to see the outside world from anywhere in the hotel, and that's intentional.  It's gated and guarded.  But we did find a wall in the pool area that we could peek over, here is what we saw.  You can't see it very well but there was a woman working in a little side yard area of the apartment? building doing her wash - BY HAND.  And hanging it on a clothesline.  It's probably a good indication of the paradox of wealth, caste, etc.  here.

Hope everyone is well.  I'll post more pics as I have a chance to take them.  I need to take some of my room - did I mention my massage chair??? Oh well, another day.  Love you - Laura