The End

This will probably be my last post in this blog. I feel that if my India Experience is coming to an end, so should this thing! I just finished packing and talked to my family in India for a bit. I did just realize that I don't have enough of a balance on my cell phone for the cab driver to call me, doh. I guess I'll just go stand by the gate around 11. These past 4 months have gone by so fast. So much frustration and at the same time so much excitement with the new things I've seen here. It's kinda funny, there have been times where I couldn't wait to go home. I was so sick of everything and I just wanted to go back to the familiar. But here I am just a couple of hours from leaving India and I find myself a little sad that I have to say good bye to this country.

Well India, it's been fun and I'm sure I'll be seeing you again, but probably not in the way I saw you these past 4 months. Goodbye.

Almost over

So tonight will be the last night I sleep in this bed. It's kind of weird thinking about my last two days in India. Today they had a farewell party for me at work. It just a small thing but it was nice of them. Even though work has been a major point of frustration for me here it's been a good experience overall.

On the train back to Chennai from Pondicherry (which is a great little town by the way) I was looking at the passing rice fields and palm trees and thinking "this time next week I'll be freezing in the onset of winter in America". All I have left to do now is some last minute shopping and some currency exchange. Hopefully it goes well, the currency exchange guy sounds kind of sketchy. I have to bring my money to the mall and he'll do it for me there, kinda weird. Hopefully I can finish everything and have some time to sit on the beach one last time before I leave.

I never thought I'd be a little sad packing to go back home, but I do find myself feeling that way. This country has been so much fun and an amazing experience. It's also my country, it's where my parents grew up and what they were used to as kids. I never really thought of it back home but my parents must have gone through an incredible journey to leave India and raise a family in the U.S. because everything is so different between the two countries.

Well I'll be home soon and like I said, I will miss this country and the feeling it exudes. The functioning chaos mixed with spectacular natural beauty and a rich culture of this place is what I'll miss the most. I'm sure India will be in my future again so I'm not too worried, but it has definitely grown on me these past 4 months.

I look forward to my last day in India, I'll be really excited to be going back home but at the same time a little depressed because I'll miss India. It's crazy to think I've been here for 4 months and how much I've seen and experience in that time.

Remember Remember the 5th of December

So after a day and a half of mayhem I've confirmed my return date to the U.S., December 5th. About two days ago I was asked if Richmond Virginia would be ok for me to work from. Richmond is ok, it's just 2 hours from DC (A hell of a lot closer than I am now) and what was really enticing was that when I asked what my return date would be I was told "December 1st weekend". Now, I may be crazy but "December 1st weekend" sounded like this coming weekend (the weekend that has December 1st in it). Naturally I was really excited about that as I wasn't expecting to go home that soon.

So the next day I eagerly went to my Manager hoping to hear his confirmation of this date that seemed so unreal and exciting for me. I should have learned from being here for 4 months that things are rarely as they seem. Apparently "December 1st weekend" means "The first weekend in December" and while that is still this coming weekend, my manager thought the first weekend of december was the Dec. 7th weekend so he apologized and told me I'd be going home December 7th. So, a little disappointing but it's still pretty soon. Later on that day I talked to the other guy from the US batch that came with me to Chennai. Apparently our manager said he could go home on December 5th and he would be able to wait in the US until an opening in Reston was available (I was not made aware of this option before I said yes to Richmond, interesting). So I went back and asked my manager to also send me home on the 5th as it is only fair. He agreed and told me I could put in travel details to have a flight booked on December 5th.

I did in fact get my flight details today, I will be leaving from Chennai at 4:00 a.m. on December 5th and I will reach Washington D.C. at 1:10 p.m. December 5th (there time of course). So I'm glad that is over with and this is my last week in India before I go back home! The fight for details doesn't end here though.

My manager told me they didn't need me in Richmond until January. We all get two weeks off when we get back to the US to look for apartments and what not. So my reporting date after the two weeks would be December 20th. December 20th is not January, so I'm still confused as to what I would be doing until it's time to go to Richmond. I was told maybe I could work at Reston during that interim period...but then why not just let me work in Reston for good? And I am still kinda mad that I wasn't even given the option of waiting for an opening in Reston in the U.S. because I was willing to be a little flexible with my location, almost seems like I was taken for a chump because I said yes to Richmond. Now I could probably go argue that I'd like that same option and I won't have it any other way. Honestly though, these past two months in Chennai haven't really been all that engaging work wise, and I'm getting tired of wasting time just sitting around. So if Richmond offers me real responsibility and the true start to my career then so be it. Richmond is pretty close to DC anyways so it's not terrible in that sense either.

So all in all it's been good news. Even though work here has been really frustrating from time to time I will miss India, but more on that in another post.

Now the only question that remains is where will I be living at the end of December, Richmond or some place else? (Seems kinda important huh)

Friday

So i'm sitting here at my desk at 3:20 p.m. on a friday afternoon. The weather is great outside and guy next to me keeps shaking his leg and the vibrations are making my monitor shake at an annoying frequency. I'd tell him to stop but the shaking screen provides a slight distraction from the dull work day. I did get SOME work today but not much. It's not due until Wednesday and it won't take long. I did find this interesting chart that sums up my procrastination almost too well: http://i13.tinypic.com/6k5at1c.png

I'm going to try to go to the beach this weekend and see what all the rave is about. I've been talking to Andrew about MAYBE going to Singapore next weekend. We'll see if it works out though. So a while ago my manager said I'd be here until the first or second week of december. I'm hoping it's the first week of december. To be home before my birthday (dec. 9th) would be nice. If I do go back the first week of december, that would make next week my last full week of work or "work" in India, woo hoo. Judging by my luck here so far, I wouldn't be surprised if they asked me to stay through the first or second week of January!

I'm thinking of starting another blog once I go home, you know, to chronicle the exciting tales of my life. I'm thinking it probably wouldn't be near as eventful as this blog has been though. Plus I'd probably be too busy procrastinating to write in it ever. Hmm I also need to check out a performance at the kalakshetra dance academy here, I'll have to give them a call.

Woohoo it's the weekend

Work

So let's see, I think the last time I was complaining about the internet not working properly. Which, by the way, did get fixed but it stopped working again yesterday. This time I'm going to complain of having a roommate! Well it's not so much the roommate himself that's a problem, it's just more frustration. We were told we wouldn't have roommates during our stay in India and that was true until about last week. For some reason I got a roommate here in Chennai. I tried to deal with it with the guy in charge of housing here by myself for a week but that proved pointless. Then finally I e-mailed the HR in the US and they got it resolved for me. It's a little ridiculous that I literally have to get the world involved to solve such an issue. I should have my own room again after today...hopefully. It's just the icing on the big peice of frustration cake I've been tackling since we got here.

Anyways, I did do some shopping this past weekend. I picked up a bunch of Kanchi silk sarees. I heard Chennai was famous for kanchi silk so I decided they'd make good gifts. I went with a friend I had made back in Mysore who happens to live in Chennai and is working here now. She helped a lot because I obviously don't know much about Saris.

Work is still boring, I haven't had much work to do yet so I figured I'd update this old thing. I'm still waiting on my location back in the US, there's a chance I might have to work out of Philadelphia for a little bit. I need to know so I can start looking for apartments online. It's hard to imagine, with what little knowledge I have right now, that two or three weeks from now I'll be back home ready to get an apartment in some city in the United States.

The past week or two have been really frustrating for me so I've been wanting to go home even more. I'd be ok with not seeing whatever is left on my list of things to see in India, I just want to go home! A lot of us share that sentiment.

Whack

For an IT company that's out to "win in the flat world" Infosys sure does have some of the worst internet connectivity I've ever seen. In the office it's fine, it's just this wireless internet they have us set up on in the rooms we're staying at. It works seemingly according to it's own whim. Sometimes the connection is "excellent" sometimes it's "very low" even if the computer has not moved an inch. It's very frustrating especially when it is my only means of communcation with people back home. But no one here would understand that.

I've sent e-mails complaining about the internet but no response. It seemed that they fixed something one day as the internet wasn't working at all for a few hours. But even then it sucks. My room is the only room that seems to have the weak signal however. The other guy from the US batch here has great connectivity. Even just outside the hallway the signal is great, wonderful, spectacular but once you enter the void that is my room, it suddenly dims. My next plan of action is to request a room change so I can have a better signal. I've been practicing my abilities to see into the future and let me break down the exact steps that will happen as I request for this room change:

I send an e-mail to the head honcho in charge of these things asking for a room change explaining that the internet signal in my room is weak but stronger further down the hallway. I also explain that the internet is my only means of communcation with people back home and I need to get in touch with my family through skype regularly

I click send

I wait for a reply

I wait some more

IF he replies it would be a miracle

That's the thing, people rarely reply back to e-mails here. They were good with it when I first came to Chennai but now it seems they don't want to anymore. Even though it's JUST the internet it's VERY frustrating when I can't make a decent call to my parents using Skype without sitting in the lobby with a microphone and headphones like some kind of ghetto call center employee.

At times I feel like this company makes itself seem process oriented and having "it" together but on the inside it feels totally different. Things that are not deemed "important" (like my internet in the room) are ignored or passed on to someone else who passes it on to someone else who then passes it onto someone else like a hot potato game. This game of hot potato or the act of ignoring a request is what makes me most angry. The internet is a fairly small thing to complain about when there are people who don't have beds to sleep on right outside the campus gates.

Just do your job and stop ignoring e-mails, send an e-mail saying you can't get to this certain task today or SOMETHING stop keeping me and a lot of other people who have these communication complaints in the dark.

It's not a "cultural difference" it's down right irresponsible.

Shakti holding a sparkler

Picture of my cousin Shakti holding a sparkler up in the air.