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.

Diwali trip

I went up to my uncle's house in Gujurat for diwali recently. I just got back today. Diwali is a heck of a lot more fun in India than it is back in the states for sure. Lighting fireworks in the middle of the street and just celebrating with everyone is great. I think the real problem back home is that you celebrate diwali individually, not everyone in your neighborhood is lighting fireworks and divas in their windows (Unless you live in Edison New Jersey or something). It's no fun celebrating in isolation. I guess Christmas in India must feel like Diwali in America though. The last time I celebrated Diwali in India was 10 years ago so it was nice to be back for the occasion after such a long time.

The feeling of Diwali is a lot more festive than it feels back home, so I think that's what makes it more fun. I also saw the hindi movie Saawariya while I was up in gujurat too. That movie sucks by the way for anyone thinking of watching it. Another thing that sucked was that I forgot to bring my camera! I was bent on remembering it to take pictures of a Diwali of the likes of which I probably won't see for a while now. I did have my cell phone though so I took pictures with that. The quality isn't the best, but it's something.

Today is Sunday, this past friday marked week four in Chennai. Before I left Mysore they told us we'd be in production (office work after the training in Mysore) for about four to eight weeks. I'm going to try and get an exact date of return from the people here this coming week. As I've said before, there is a whole lot of things I want to see in India but I am ready to come home. I probably couldn't see all the things I want to see if I had 3 months to just travel so 4 months with having work interfering with traveling is definitely not enough time.

The new India

Picture of some random big building I took while waiting for the bus near the mall. A good visual of the new India.

Just some observations

So my whole excursion into the city was pretty fun as I found there's things to do other than sit in my room and watch t.v. all day on the weekends. It was also weird because I saw more of the dichotomy of old and new India that I've been seeing since I got here. I would go on the bus in the heat and the pollution from cars and what not from the outside would be choking my lungs and burning my throat. And there would be people on the sidewalk asking for money or asking to shine your shoes. Then I walk into the mall with big clean shops and air conditioning. It's so strange at first to go from one extreme to another. After a while you get used to it though and you don't think much of it, but it still strikes me as weird if I think about it.

The road that infosys campus is on is where a lot of big tech companies have their offices. The likes of Accenture, Cognizant, Tata consulting, Wipro and Satyam computing have huge office buildings here. The weird part is that you see these enormous buildings with their bright and shiny logos on them in the background and in the immediate foreground you see run down shops and huts. It's a strange site for sure, but it's kinda cool to see a country growing up like this.

The other day at work one of my co-workers asked me if there were any villages in the U.S.A. I thought that was such a weird question, ludicrous almost. But then I realized how ignorant I was being in not realizing that for someone who has lived in India all their lives, it's a perfectly legitimate question. So I told him no there wasn't but there were small towns.

I was talking to my friend Aarthi, who is from Chennai but she was training in Mysore as well. I was telling her how in all the hindi movies and stuff the only parts of the US they show are New York or LA with beautiful women everywhere. I told her that was the America I wanted to go to, Pocomoke Maryland is a far cry from that. She told me how a lot of the younger generation in India wants to be "American". Not as in get a citizenship and move to America, but dress and act like what they see as American on t.v. And I thought it was weird because a lot of people in America want to be more and more Indian (or embrace Indian culture with the growing popularity of yoga and what not). Pretty strange how that works.

Chennai

Chennai a.k.a Madras is actually a pretty cool city. I decided to get off my ass and explore the town a little. The most comfortable way to get into town from Infosys campus is by booking a cab. It's also an expensive way to get to and from town. I decided to fore go comfort and take the public buses into town. My destination was the biggest mall in Chennai, called Spencers plaza. I also heard that the best movie theater in town, Sathyam Cinemas, was close to the mall so I decided to try and find that as well.

I walked to the closes bus station (not too far from campus luckily) and caught a bus. Of course I got on the wrong bus. The route I was supposed to take **Big unpronouncable foreign words ahead** was Sholinganallur -> Adyar Bus Dept -> TVS bus stop in front of Spencers plaza. Instead I got on a bus from Sholinganallur -> Thiruvanmiyur. So from Thiruvanmiyur I had to catch a bus to Adyar Depot and then to TVS. It took me about 2.5 hours to get from campus to the mall with traffic included. The buses there weren't too bad, they did get crowded from time to time and of course the Chennai heat only makes things worse. But it's also 50 cents to take the bus compared to 10 dollars (yeah, I know 10 dollars isn't much but 10 dollars goes a long way here!).

I finally got to the mall and when I walked in I didn't really know where to begin. I didn't really need to buy anything, I had just come to check it out. That place is massive though, there's so many stores and the layout isn't very logical so I found myself making circles in a lot of areas. I'm sure for the experienced mall rat it's not a big deal, but for the first time it was like a big maze. I found a store I had been to at the Forum mall in Bangalore, the store is called Landmark. It's pretty much a book store plus wal-mart put into one. I picked up this book called "Life of Pi" from there. I had heard a lot about it from people back home and decided it would help me stave off the boredom in my room from time to time. I also looked for Chamillionaire's new album "Ultimate Victory". It was definitely a little awkward asking for it. "Excuse me, do you have....Chamillionaire?". The guy didn't know what I was looking for so I spelled it out for him as he typed it into the computer. Apparently they had it but it was out of stock.

After walking around that huge place for a while I got hungry. There was a subway that caught my eye so I decided to go in and check it out. It was great, just like subway back home. I was eating subway and on the radio they were playing Timbaland's The Way I Are. If I closed my eyes I could've sworn I was back in America, strange.

Then I decided to find this Sathyam place. The person I had talked to at work said I could walk from the mall to the theater so I decided to try that. I got some directions at the information desk and started walking. Walking out in the heat and humidity that's only magnified by the pollution is no fun task as I found out. The distance wasn't too bad but it was still a chore in the heat. I got there and decided to buy a ticket for this hindi movie "Bool Bhulaiyan". As I was waiting around for the movie to start I realized I had nothing better to do after the movie. There was another hindi movie, "Chak de India" playing right as this first movie ended so I went ahead and bought a ticket for that as well. Hindi movies usually play for about 3 hours or so, so I was in the theater from 3:30 p.m. until about 10 at night, it was a great way to kill time though. The movies were actually pretty good too so that was a plus. I did chicken out on the way back and took a cab. I decided the bus was too much of a hassle to deal with at night.

That was saturday, sunday it was raining all day so I just sat in and read the book and messed around online. The book is ok, it hasn't caught my interest enough yet so I'm hoping it does soon.

Trouble's Abrew?

I was talking to some people that are in the long cycle back in Mysore and apparently a lot has changed there. The long cycle is the training schedule for non computer science people. As the name implies, it's a longer schedule so their Mysore training ends in December and then they will go into production for a month or so. A lot of the non CS people were complaining that the material was too difficult

Last week

So last week I took some time off to visit my parents, who were visiting relatives in India. It was a nice break from having to sit in front of a computer for 8 hours a day in a dress shirt and pants. I was glad to see my parents again, it was a nice peice of home that I haven't gotten the chance to experience in a while. I also visited my relatives with my parents so we did a lot of traveling within Gujurat (the state that my family is from in India).

I haven't seen my relatives here in about 2 or 3 years, some I haven't seen since 10 years ago. So it was nice to see them again and catch up. It's much easier to catch up and talk to the relatives that are my age, it's a lot easier to relate to them even though they've grown up in India. All in all it was a great trip. My parents did take me to "see a girl" once though. It's a pretty funny story now but at the moment it was the most awkward point of my life so far.

We were driving to Ahemedabad and my parents told me we were going to these people's house. I asked them how we knew them and why and they said they were family friends and we were just going to stop by since we were in town. So we get there and we were all sitting in the living room. They served us tea and snacks, a standard Indian hospitality move. The girl (I dunno her name) came and sat down in the living room as well. I thought she was just being polite because guests were over so I didn't pay her much attention. Then after a while her mom says "So does he want to ask her any questions?" It took me a minute or two to realize why she would be asking me that question. And then I just looked at the ground and sat there feeling super awkward. The only thing I could think about after that was when we were going to leave. My parents idea is that if we see girls now I may be interested in one and we could get to know eachother and when we're both ready we could get married. I don't even want to think about that stuff at this point in my life much less go to see a possible bride?? That just sounds strange.

I told my parents they should've at least told me, I think they understood why I would be upset with that. Sometimes it does feel like I try to understand my roots and where I come from, but my parents, along with most of my other uncles and aunts in America, don't really understand the culture that I was brought up in. And not just me, all first generation Indians that grew up in America. I can't completely be American because that's not who I am and I can't completely be Indian because I've been brought up in America. I guess it's hard for the older generation to understand that because they didn't have to experience it. Oh well, I guess the most I can do is keep trying to explain to them how it is for me at least. My parents do understand that I dont' plan on getting married for a while, I think they were just trying to be good Indian parents.

On another note, work is starting pick up but only slightly. Tomorrow Andrew, the other American guy that came to Chennai with me, is going on a trip to the Himalays with some other guys from the American class. So I'll be here by myself for a week or so. I think i'll take that time to travel around the city. It's a lot easier to travel here when you're Indian and you don't have a group of white guys with you for people to harass and try to sell stuff to. Although that can be a different type of fun in it's own regard.

Yesterday my newest sister-in-law, Archana, called me. She married my cousin Harpal back in April. My cousin has been brought up in America too and he had an arranged marriage with this girl. She's still in India, she'll probably be in the US by december. I'm glad she called me while she was in India, she hasn't been tainted by the family drama that usually ensues back in the states. She seems like a pretty cool person, I can't wait to meet her in person.

Time for me to go to the gym and stuff, it's all I have to do around here right now haha.

P.S. they finally opened a store near the gym where they sell juice and cookies and stuff like that, pretty exciting times. That means I don't have to get a cab into town just to buy some juice.

P.P.S Listen to Jay-Z's Minority Report from his latest album if you haven't already.

Gujurat Trip

I came back from my trip to Gujurat last night. It was week long trip and a nice break from the office. I got to the Bhuj airport last saturday on Oct. 21st. It was nice seeing my parents and my other relatives here. I haven't seen my relatives in India for 3 or 4 years. Some even more than that. It's always a little awkward because it's hard to keep in touch while i'm back in the US but after a while we get talking and have a good time.

My parents took me to "see a girl" in Ahemadabad. That was pretty awkward and plain weird. they didn't tell me about it so we got to the people's house and we were sitting in the living room. The girl comes in and sits down, I thought she was being polite because guests were over. Then after everyone's talking for a bit the girls mom is like "so does he want to ask her any questions?" And it didn't click immediately why she was asking me that. After a minute or two it hit me though and then things just got really awkward. I couldn't believe my parents took me there for that!

Afterwards I was talking to them about how weird and messed up it was that they didn't tell me at least. They know I don't even want to think about marriage and what not right now. They said they should at least look for a girl so when I do want to get married

Lazy Lazy Sunday

Yesterday (Sunday, October 14) was really really really boring and lazy. The internet wasn't working and that was pretty much my only salvation from boredom. I sat around most of the day watching old hindi movies and eating oreos and milk, which I had bought the day before. I did pick up the book I had bought when I first came to India and never got around to finishing. It's Khaled Hosseini's second book after "The Kite Runner" entitled "A Thousand Splendid Suns". I finally finished it yesterday and it's actually a very good book. I never read the Kite Runner but everyone said it's amazing so I'll have to find that and read it sometime. If my social life in Chennai doesn't pick up, I might have a lot of time to read a lot of books in the next month or so.

I've been trying to book my flight tickets for this weekend and I can't seem to do it. The site won't accept my American credit card, even though there's an option for "Non-Indian" cards. I guess I'll try later or think of some other way to get them.

I'm going to go work out now, it's another one of the few options I have on campus besides sitting in my room. I bought some protein powder when I went grocery shopping so i'm gonna try and drink that and then go work out more often. Chennai could be the best thing to ever happen to my physical fitness level haha.

Chennai

So Chennai is now my new home for the next 4 to 8 weeks. It's not too bad here, better than I though. The campus isn't as big as the one in Mysore but it does have a gym and a pool. It is really hot here though, people were right on about that bit of advice. I haven't done too much exploring outside of campus yet, but from what I've read online it looks promising. We're in the guest houses so they're a lot nicer than the dorms we were in back in Mysore. I like it because it's bigger and nicer but I just found out I could get a roommate! People usually stay in the guesthouses for short periods of time, but I'll be here for at least a month. So I'll probably be seeing people go in and out of here. I can't really complain about having a roommate, it's just how things are done, that's why there's two beds in the room.

Also, I accidentally blew out my speakers when I plugged them in :-(. I'm pretty upset about that one. The one constant thing I had was my music and now I lost the only decent way I had of listening to them! I do have my laptop speakers and what not but they're obviously not as good as the external speakers. On the brighter side I guess it's one less thing to carry back home to the US.

Last night I was watching t.v., VH1 to be specific, and they were playing a bunch of new rap music videos. I realized something really strange about listening to rap music in India though. Back home a majority of rap music glorifies poverty and the ghetto way of life. Here, only the people with a certain amount of money can listen to and enjoy rap music. Only the people with money are the ones "cool enough" to be able to watch VH1 and MTV and listen to rap.

Well, I'm going to try and fix up my iPode as well, it stopped working in the middle. The internet here is great, it's unrestricted so all my applications actually work.

It's been a while!

It's been a while since I updated this thing. Since my last update, I went on a trip to Rajasthan, finished the little bit of soft training we had here, found out where I'm going next in India for work, and I even found out that I could possibly not end up in Reston when I go back to the US.

The trip to Rajasthan was awesome. We rode camels all day in the desert, we saw a gorgeous sunset while sitting on sand dunes and spent the night in a little place right next to the dunes. We also saw the lotus temple in delhi and some old forts built by kinds in towns like Jodhpur. There is a lot more I want to talk about but I'll write that in a later post.

There are a lot of updates actually, but there's one thing in particular that's been on my mind. I'm going to Chennai tomorrow for production. So this is my last night in Mysore. I'm gonna miss this place actually. It seems so weird that I'm moving on to production now. I'm about to leave all the people behind that I came here with and start real actual work. I feel like just the other day I was in DC talking to some of the people that I've built friendships with over our time here.

My project manager in Chennai e-mailed me today asking if going to Denver rather than Reston would be appealing to me. I declined because everyone and everything I know is around the DC area! If there is no project to do by January in Reston they could move us to wherever business needs require us to go though. Initially I was thinking "oh, i'll just quit if they ask me to move somewhere far from the DC area", but then I realized that's not really the right attitude if I want to succeed. I want to be successful and if that's something I really want, I'll have to leave what I'm comfortable with sometime and take on new challenges. Of course, it all has to align with my priorities in life, but I have to be willing to make sacrifices if I want to get truly ahead.

I don't want to move so far away from everyone right when I get back to the US though. It's already hard enough being away from everyone for the 4-5 months i'll be in India. So for now I'm still going to be in Reston, if that needs to be changed in the future then I'll deal with that when the time comes.

I guess there's two ways to view this so called "real world". It can either be brutal and take you away from everything you're comfortable with, or it can be a place where you see new things and have new experiences to add to this thing called life.

ALSO, my parents are in India! I'm still waiting for them to call me and let me know they got here safely. I gotta talk to my project manager when I get to chennai and discuss taking some leave off so I can go visit them in gujurat along with the rest of my relatives. If I can't take off then my parents can always come down to chennai, but i'd rather go up there and see everyone.
Well, I need to start packing now, I need to update this thing more frequently I always have a lot on my mind. I forgot how nice it is to put stuff out on this medium.

Exciting times

So today we had a meeting with the head of HR for my business unit. That unit happens to be Communication Service Providers (CSP). They handle business for the various telecommunications companies that work with Infosys. We asked questions like where we'll be after Mysore, what kind of work will we be doing, when we'll be going back to America etc.

They haven't told us for sure yet on where we'll be going in India, but they said it would be either Pune or Chennai. I'm hoping it's Pune rather than Chennai just because it's so close to Mumbai and I've heard better things about it. I'd also be closer to Gujurat so it wouldn't take me much to visit family while I'm there.

One of the most interesting tid-bits of information I received today was concerning our return to the US. Apparently, production training is supposed to last for 4 to 6 weeks. And that's suppposed to start after we leave Mysore, so it will start on or around October 10th for me. Four to six weeks from October 10th would land me somewhere around mid-November. So I could be coming home by mid-November! Although the people did say this was tentative and the length of production training depends on a lot of things, it's an exciting prospect. I know in my last post I said if Infosys offered me a chance to leave early I'd think twice, so it's ironic that this happened today. I don't think I'd take the offer to leave in November though. I can't leave without having visited relatives first of all, and I still have to see things like the Taj Mahal before I leave! I asked if we would be allowed to stay longer in production if we wanted, and they said it wouldn't be a problem (obviously it wouldn't, it's a hell of a lot cheaper for them to keep me here than to send me back and pay me in dollars).

So I have to see when the time gets closer, if I want to go back then or stay a little longer here. Also, we booked our travel plans for Rajasthan this weekend. It should be a blast, we're gonna be traveling a lot and our sleep for the trip will either be on trains or a tent in the desert, no hotels this time. We'll really be roughing it, I wonder how we'll shower haha.

I'll be glad when the end of friday rolls around because it will mark the end of this post project, the beginning of our trip to rajasthan, and the beginning of the next phase of work in India. This project we're doing is really very tedious. Soooo much documentation for such a simple project seems a little absurd, but I suppose it's for the sake of mimicking a real-life project.

Just two more days to go ahhhhhhhhhhhh

P.S. the two people we met with today for our business unit meeting are probably the most straight forward people we've talked to here. If they didn't know something, they said so, they didn't say they would get back to us and brush it under the rug. It was nice, if those are the kinds of people running my business unit then working for Infosys should be an even more rewarding experience.

Insomnia

For some reason I can't seem to fall asleep tonight. I had a great plan of waking up early and starting some work for our project a little early, I dunno if that's gonna happen now.

The great thing about being up late here is that all my friends from back home are now awake, so I always have company online. I do miss home a lot though. I miss all the people, the food, the family and everything. This place is super nice and I am having a great experience and what not, but it's still not home! It's kinda funny, all the rap music makes me miss home more. The general attitude that rap music exudes makes me want to throw some dubs on a rickshaw and ball out.

I do miss the conversations I could have back home with people though. I can have similar conversations with people in the US batch here, but it's not the same because I haven't known them for nearly as long as my friends back home. I still can't seem to have any kind of conversation with any substance with the Indian trainees though. I guess it's the cultural difference but everytime I try talk about something like my experience here or how crazy it is that I'm here, all I get is "yeah India's great right?" AHHHH it's so frustrating some times!

Even though I have a lot of India that I still want to see, I'd think twice if Infosys offered to let me go back home tomorrow. I don't know if I'd actually take the offer though, I'm trying to ride a camel in the desert and maybe check out the himalayas before I go back.

Well, it's 1:20 a.m. and I guess I should try to sleep before I fall asleep at work tomorrow. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll have a dream about eating a half pound cheesy bean and rice burritto....yummm

Time to relax

So now that taking tests, stressing over completing assignments, and sitting through long lectures are over there really isn't much to do. That post project is going along but once the documentation phase is over, the coding should go by fairly quickly.

October 2nd is Mahatma gandhi's birthday, so we have off that day. Naturally, we look for when we have off and try to take days off before or after to get 4 or 5 day weekends. This time it happened to work out for us. We'll have a 4 day weekend if we take october 1st off. A group of 4 of us are planning on going up to Rajasthan that weekend for some camel riding. We've planned out most of it so it seems good to go. The only problem is it's impossible to find train schedules and road routes unless we're actually at the place. We need to take a train from Jaiselmer (where the ride will begin) to Jaipur to catch our flight back. We have no way of knowing when the train is and how long it takes though, Google can only do so much if no one uploads the information online!

I'm looking forward to that, it's something I always wanted to do in India but never got the chance to. We spend the night in the desert with tents that the trekking company provides for us.

Now if Infosys would just tell me where i'm being placed after Mysore, I wouldn't have any worries at all!

Daler Mehendi

For those who know him, (he sings the infamous tunak tunak song), he has a new album coming out and yes, it's still horrible.

Just some stuff

I was watching t.v. just now and I realized that maybe not all Indian t.v. is bad haha. Usually the things I see are the usual corny dancing and singing. I was watching this channel called "V" and I guess it's supposed to be a channel like MTV or VH1. They do show music videos on there but in between they have pretty cool things. There's this one project they're going to be showing called "My India Report" . It's about a group of people about 21 or so going around India and just reporting on it. I think the main theme is supposed to be how westernization and the tremendous economic growth have effected the youth of India. It seems like an interesting theme, the India that my generation is growing up in is completely different from the India of the previous generation. It sounds interesting, I'll have to tune in. Each of the participants has a blog online too, you can check it out at http://www.myindiareport.in/

They also have pretty neat commercials about HIV/AIDS. One commercial shows a family sitting in front of the television and a commercial on their t.v. comes on about AIDS. The father of the family, obviously uncomfortable with the subject matter, asks his kids to get something from the kitchen while he changes the channel. The commercial then goes on to say "how can children learn about AIDS if the parents don't give them a chance" and then the commercial goes blank. I thought it was a good way to convey the message, especially in a country where the number of people with AIDS is exceptionally high.

Of course right after the commercial for that there's a beef cake of an Indian guy with sunglasses two sizes too big for his head splashing in the water for a beautiful woman that he "imagined" seeing in the water. Seriously, he looked so sad that he couldn't find her...IN THE WATER.

Hope?

I had always heard that hope was really all that humanity had left really and truly. I never paid it much mind though, until I came here. I sometimes forget that India is still a third world country, being in the Infosys bubble and what not. When I go out into the country I'm reminded of it though. Things are so messed up here, bad roads, poverty, corrupt government, overcrowded areas, it's enough to make someone go crazy. It's also strange because it's not ALL poor. There are elements of a more prosperous nation mixed in within the third worldliness. This company for example, kind of like a glimmer of hope for a better future. I think this country can be economically and politically successful, if only the leaders of this country leverage the numerous advantages this nation has and utilize them successfully.

I'm a bit overwhelmed by it all and I've only been here for close to two months. I can only imagine how people who have lived here all their lives must feel. Yet they still go on living their lives and trying to make the best of whatever situation they've been placed in. It's inspiring to say the least. I do wish the youth of India that have been educated (like my co-workers) cared more about the political situation in their country and were more proactive about things though. I wish I could help in some way, but even though I'm Indian by heritage, the politics of it all keep me from being able to do much.

This country is still 60 years young though, it has a long way to go for sure, but I'm sure it can grab a hold of the economic success that lies just out of reach if the leaders of the country get their act together and the people voice their opinions more (easier said than done, for sure).

Hello there stranger

It's been a while since I've written in here huh. Let's see, last weekend we went hiking in an area called Coorg. It used to be it's own state but now it's part of Karnataka. It was really beautiful there. We went hiking on this one mountain trail. When we got closer to the top there were these nice looking flowers everywhere with the fog as a backdrop for the greenery. We made it up to the top through the rain and leeches (eck). It felt good to be up on top after the enduring hike, I felt like I accomplished something.

When we came back it was the same old classes/module tests though. We had our last module test this past friday so no more classes woo hoo. But now we have a Comprehensive exam starting tomorrow. There is a practical part tomorrow and on wednesday we have the written theory part. The written part is the one I'm worried about the most. As long as I pass I'll be happy, I don't have high ambitions obviously haha. We also have a Post project after the exam. We're in a team of 8 and they give each person a job description and a set of responsibilities. I'm the project manager for our group yayyyy. They pick the roles based on where you're sitting, no qualifications needed really. I'm curious to see how that'll go, it'll give me good experience if nothing else.

That's all for now, I have other things I want to write but they would be bettter off in their own post. Bye for now

Campus Sunset

I happened to catch a nice sunset on campus the other day.

A small update

The last week or so hasn't really been eventful, hence the lack of posts. This past weekend I saw transformers on campus again. I watched it once back in America and I really liked it. Also, it's free for us here so I figured why not. I think the amazement of being in India is starting to wear off now. It's just become so routine to go to class, learn about something, take an exam, move on to the next module. We've also been around everywhere in Mysore now so there aren't many new things to see in town anymore.

I am getting a little annoyed with the whole taxi thing though. We have to take taxi's out into town, we're (the US batch) not allowed out of the gate unless we're in a taxi that is booked through the travel desk on campus. I understand they're concerned for our safety and all, but if I want to buy a bowl from in town I don't want to have to book a cab and round up 5 other people so I don't have to front the cost myself. I think I personally could get away with walking out of the gate on foot because I'm Indian, but it still sucks for everyone else and it's dumb how I have to "sneak" outside campus. Thankfully that only lasts until we get the magical black lanyards once training is over.

We only have about a month of training left in Mysore, and then it's off to Bangalore hopefully. Unless they place me somewhere else in India. Needless to say, this next month is gonna be pretty hectic with a final exam and a final project as well.

I should be getting to bed now I suppose, maybe tomorrow will be the day I start waking up early to go to the gym before class...probably not.

Insane

I never thought a class I took in the 10th grade (computer science) in my tiny little high school would land me on the other side of the world training for a job with a giant outsourcing company.


It's relatively insane.

Panoramic sunset

A nice panoramic picture of the sunset we stopped to see, taken by Messay. (click to see a bigger version)

Sunset

The sunset we caught on the way back to Mysore from Ooty. (click to see a bigger version)

Tea Leaf

A tea leaf amongst many we saw at the tea plantation in Coonoor. (click to see a bigger version)

Weekend trip to Ooty (Day 2)

Waking up in the morning was rough. I woke up two or three times during the course of the night so my sleep wasn't all that great. My back was also killing me from the bed being so hard. Anyways, we got up and decided to get some breakfast. They make breakfast for you in the kitchen. We went down and ordered some food. We were supposed to head out of the place by 9 but because of breakfast we didn't end up leaving until 9:45.

The first thing we wanted to do was book the train from Coonoor to Ooty. We drove down to Coonoor (about 45 min. drive) and went to the station there to get the tickets. We decided to go with the 4:30 train so we would have enough time to see things in Coonoor. We reserved the tickets and luckily they had room on the train for us.

Next we headed for the Sim's garden in Coonoor. We heard they had a lot of nice flowers and greenery over there. The garden was really nice, much better than the botanical garden we saw in Bangalore. Inside the garden they had a little lake with paddle boats as well. We didn't ride them because of the lack of time but it looked like it would've been fun. They had a lot of old trees there and gorgeous flowers. The fog started coming in a little bit as we were so it stayed nice and cool.

After we finished seeing the things there, we went to go grab a quick bite to eat and then check out a tea plantation. The tea plantation was really amazing. From where we were, all you could see up and down the hill was tea leaves. We decided to walk through the tea leaves for a little bit. We took some funny pictures of us hiding behind the tea leaves. The driver then gave us this fake gun he got from the owner of the plantation to take pictures with. I got a great shot of Mohammed pretending to shoot it. When we got there the fog was pretty thick all around the hill we were on. Slowly the fog started lifting and we saw some awesome sights. There was a huge hill being hidden by the fog that started to show itself. We could also see Mettupalayam from where we were once the fog cleared. The scenery was really stunning, especially the hill being uncovered by the fog.

After taking it all in, we had to go to the train station to make it in time for our train. When we got to the station, our train was on the platform on the other side. I figured there'd be some way to cross the tracks to get to the other side, but no there wasn't. We had to walk across the train tracks to get to the other side! It wasn't so bad, just weird because I never crossed train tracks at a station before. Once we got on the train we didn't really get the seats that were reserved for us, we kind of just had to find seating on the train somewhere. Matt, Dave, Richard and myself were in one row of the train while the other guys were sitting in the next row down. Also with us was a couple and their child. The scenery from the train was really nice, we saw a bunch of small houses and little towns on the way up to Ooty. Everytime we passed some children outside they would wave at the train. The couple that was in our row let us sit on their side so we could take pictures since the better view was on their side.

We reached Ooty after about an hour train ride. It was just about time to head back to Mysore then. On our way down the mountain we stopped one last time for a gorgeous sunset. All the pictures I took and any description I give of it here won't be enough to do it justice. The sun was setting behind the clouds and there was a cloud making it's way between two hills in the distance. It was the most beautiful sunset I've seen to date. Take a look at the pictures I put up to see for yourself. It was a great end to a great trip.

Now i'm back in Mysore and I have an exam tomorrow! I decided to take a little break from studying and write this up, but I should get back to it.

Weekend trip to Ooty (Day 1)

We had a three day weekend so a few of us decided to go down to Ooty for a nice little vacation. It takes about three and a half hours to get there from Mysore. The ride over wasn't too bad at all, we stopped at this restaurant and I ate some south indian food on a banana leaf. Our main goal for this trip was to take this special train that goes from a town called mettupalayam (at the bottom of the mountain) up to Ooty (at the top of the mountain). The scenery along the way is supposed to be amazing. Since there was more to do in Ooty than Mettupalayam, we figured we'd take the train down from Ooty to Mettuplayam first and then just take the train back up to Ooty.

When we were almost to Ooty our drivers took us to a nice scenic spot almost at the top of the hill where Ooty was. There were numerous valleys and all sorts of foliage visible from up there. We took a little trail down to a small waterfall. The rain had been falling recently so all the flowers were covered in rain drops, they made for beautiful pictures. We walked around the stream that was formed by the waterfall and took in the scenery for a while. When we were heading back to the cars the fog started rolling in. Everything slowly started getting covered by a thick cloud, it seemed like the view opened only for us to see, and now that we were leaving the scenery was going back into hiding.

When we got to Ooty we decided to pay a visit to the train station to book the tickets. Unfortunately, all the seats for the train we wanted were completely booked. So with a little disappointment, we decided to plan some other way for us to take the train. We decided we'd stay in Ooty and see the rest of the town that day, and the next day, sunday, we'd get our drivers to drive us to Coonoor (half-way down the mountain) and from there we could take the train back up to Ooty.

So next we decided to find a place to stay. We had heard about a nice, easy on the wallet place called Refelections. We told our drivers to take us there and they seem peculiarly adamant on taking us to this other hotel. We had the number for the place so the driver said he would call them and see if they have vacancy. He stepped out of the car to make the call, which I thought was a little weird. The driver came back and said there was no vacancy at the place. Rizwan, another guy from the U.S. batch on the trip, suggested we called the place for ourselves and see what's up. We did that and the lady on the phone told me our driver had called and asked if they give commission to drivers for bringing passengers there. The place didn't give commission to drivers and so the driver had told us they were booked, so we'd go to the other hotel where they did give commission. So after unsuccessfully trying to make a quick buck at our expense, the driver took us to the place we wanted to go.

Reflections is a pretty decent place. It's cheap so it's no five star hotel, but it's a nice hostel kind of environment where they make breakfast for you in the morning. We went in and dropped our stuff off. After that we decided to grab some food. We ate at a place called "The Sidewalk Cafe". The food was excellent, it was recommended by the travel book we had. The only problem was I didn't get my food until everyone else was done eating! Afterwards we went to a place called Doddabetta. It means "Big Mountain" according to a nearby sign. It is the highest peak in all of south india. The view from up there was great, we could see all of Ooty down below. We met these guys that were all dressed in matching bright yellow jackets, we dubbed them the Indian N'Sync and decided that we had to take a picture with them. (check out the photos on picasa)

We had heard from some guys that went to Ooty the week before that the tea factory there was pretty cool so we decided to check it out. They had a little exhibit there that talked about the history of tea and then they took us on a tour of the factory and showed us how they made the tea. The tea leaves are dried and then grounded up and processed through a bunch of machines before the tea is bagged and ready to sell. At the end of the tour they gave us a taste of the tea and they had a small shop where they sold all kinds of tea. They sold white tea there, I might have to go back in buy some before I leave India.

After the tea factory we decided to do some shopping. We found a store where they sold knock-off U.S. college sweatshirts. They had Virginia Tech, Ohio State, and a bunch of others. They didn't have any Maryland though, I would've definitely bought one. We walked around the town for a bit and went to dinner. I wasn't feeling very well for some reason that evening. I felt like I was getting a fever but I couldn't really tell. After dinner we were all pretty exhausted so we went back to the hotel to sleep.

There were a lot of foreigners at the place we were staying at, so when we got back there were a lot of people just sitting outside talking. We joined them for a while and got to know them a little. One of the guys is from Boston and he's working in India for a real estate company. The other people worked for the same company but were from Europe.

We stayed up until around 10 or 11 (ooo rebels, I know) and decided to call it a night. The bed was really uncomfortable though, but I was tired enough not to mind it.

My family

Today I think I've found another beneficial aspect of my stay here, it's that I can become closer to my family. Not my family back in America, but the rest of my family here in India. I didn't really keep in touch with a lot of my family here seeing as how I lived so far from them for all my life. The last time I came to India two years ago, I tried to keep in touch with them more once I got back the U.S. but it proved to be too hard. It was just difficult because I would get caught up with school and what not and it wouldn't ever occur to me to call all the way to India.

Now that I'm here, I have the opportunity to call them and keep in touch. It would be a shame if I didn't keep in touch with them when I lived in the same country as them, so I try to talk to them as much as possible. I'm learning where I come from besides the fact that I'm Indian. Admittedly sometimes it's hard for me to keep track of people because there are people I haven't talked to in a really long time, but I want to try as much as possible.

Indian families are big to begin with, and when a family is spread across the world, it's even tougher to keep the bonds a family has strong. It's not like we can exactly set up a family reunion once a year or anything. The coolest thing, I think, is talking to my relatives that are close to my age. It's nice to know that even though we live on different sides of the world, they're my people, that's my team!

Of course the burden of keeping in touch doesn't lie just on me, and it hasn't been that way at all. Hopefully by the time my stay in India comes to an end I'll be closer to my family here than I ever have before, and I'll keep in touch with them once I go back as well.

It might sound corny but it is a good feeling to know that your family is close to you. It's just strange calling someone your relative when you hardly know anything about them, so I'm working on that and I've had a lot of fun conversations with my cousins here especially.

It's great, I'd have to say it's one of the biggest benefits I will get out of my stay here.

Naryan Murthy Talk

Today the chief mentor of the company, Mr. Murthi, came to talk to the trainees. He is one of the original seven founders of the company and was the company's first CEO for about 20 years. He's pretty well known in the business world obviously for Infosys. I was hoping I'd get to meet him at least once during my stay here and I got to today.

He first addressed all the trainees at the multiplex. He gave a talk on the corporate values at Infosys and how important they are. WAY better than the talk on the corporate values we had during the beginning of training. When he speaks you can tell it's from the heart. Also, infosys is his brain child, so when he talks about the company there's a much greater feeling of care and obligation for the company.

After the talk with all the trainees, he wanted to meet just the US batch. He wanted to talk to us about our role in the company and making sure we're safe and comfortable during our stay here among other things. He told us Infosys plans to really step up the recruits from the US starting next year and wanted to talk to us to get some feedback as the program for hiring US trainees started just a year ago.

One of the guys in our class asked him how we should respond when someone asks us why we work for an outsourcing company, since a lot of people in the states might see us as traitors of some sorts because we're working for a company that might have been responsible for the loss of American jobs through outsourcing. He told us that basically when a company outsources to infosys they usually get a better competitive edge in whatever their domain of business is. So once those companies that outsource grow as a result of being the best competitors, they usually hire more people as a result of the growth so the jobs are back in America anyways. There were a lot of other responses he had for outsourcing and they all made sense, he's very passionate about the work Infosys does.

He talked about a lot of other things with us, I took a video of the whole talk he had with just the US batch, but it's too big to put online. Sadly I couldn't get his autograph like my mom had asked me to but I got a lot of great pictures haha.

One cool thing he did was get rid of this stupid rule that HR placed on the US batch. We had to take a bus that left at regular intervals from the campus into the city. It was for our safety so we wouldn't take rickshaws and get mugged or something like that. It wasn't such a great idea though, there would be a bus that could seat 50 people and only two people would be using it. Also, we'd have to plan our timings around when the bus left campus. One of the guys in our batch, Jeff, brought it to Mr. Murthy's attention. After that Mr. Murthy talked to the HR guy that was present and said to get rid of that rule because it's a waste of resources. Instead we now have taxis we can book from the travel desk that will take us into town and stay with us until we're ready to go back. It was pretty funny, Mr. Murthy was like "yeah, just take care of that by this evening, call up the taxi companies we know and get it done" and the HR guy just said "yes sir" and it was pretty much done. It's the fastest I've ever seen anything get done here! It was good though, at least he's level headed, and he was nice about it too so kudos for that.

Visit to Bangalore

This past weekend me and four other guys from the US batch. It was our first time in Bangalore so we were all pretty excited. We left campus around 6 a.m. on saturday (august 18th) and headed out in a taxi. Normally we would've taken a bus because it's a hell of a lot cheaper, but this taxi stays with us the whole weekend and takes us wherever we want to go in town.

The highway between Mysore and Bangalore is actually pretty smooth. There were a few bumps here and there but overall it was a lot nicer than any other roads i've been on in India in the past. People here drive around 80 Kms on the highway, that's not even 60 miles per hour, I think that's why it takes so long to get to Bangalore from here.

Once we got into town you could definitely tell. The traffic just packed on and everything got really congested really quick. We were all pretty hungry so the first stop was food. We went to a place called "The Only Place". It's aptly named as it is the only place in Bangalore that serves steak. While I'm a vegetarian myself, the other guys were pretty excited about eating steak since it's such a rare thing. From what they said the steak was apparently really good, so I'd recommend it for any beef lovers that ever go to Bangalore.

Afterwards we went to a mall. It's called the Forum. There are a lot of malls in Bangalore and they're all pretty big. The malls look just like the ones back home and have a lot of the same stores. We went to this store called "The Landmark". It's kind of like a barnes & Nobles mixed with a Target. They sell books and stuff on the bottom floor and on the top floor is pretty much everything else you could want. I got a black t-shirt that says "This t-shirt was outsourced in Bangalore" in white text. I plan on wearing it on casual friday, it should be a good time. Afterwards we went to the nike store and the reebok store to check out shoes. I bought some dress shoes from a store there since the ones I had didn't really fit well.

Once we finished with the mall we thought it was time to check in to the hotel. There were 5 of us but we booked a room for two people, so we had to sneak the other three guys in. We didn't successfully, the room was pretty nice so we all fit pretty comfortably.

After dropping off our stuff we went to Mahatma Gandhi Road (M.G. road). That's apparently the happening street in Bangalore. They have all kinds of stores there and it's all packed onto one street. That's also where a lot of the good restaurants are and the clubs and stuff. We walked around for a bit, some of the guys bought some Old Navy clothes from this store there. Messay bought roses from a girl that was selling them and tried to get the girl to give the roses to these two Indian girls on the other side of the street. That didn't work out too well, the girl just refused to do it haha.

We went to this store called Spencer's. It's not like the Spencer's back home at all. It's a grocery store and a pretty nice one at that. We walked around there for a while, got haggled by the street vendors as usual, and then left to go out for the night.

We went to this place called Fuzion. It was a nice place, the DJ was awesome too. It was hip-hop night so it was a good escape from the rock and bollywood music they played at other places. The only thing is, you can't get on the dance floor or to the other side of the place unless you're a couple. So unless you bring a girl with you, you can't go on the dance floor. That was kind of whack but at least the place was nice so it redeemed it a bit.

Afterwards we just went back and slept for a good amount. The next day we woke up and had lunch at Ruby Tuesday's. I was so happy to finally eat an enchilada. I've never been so happy to eat one before haha. It was pretty delicious. The food there was kinda pricey by indian standards but I would say it was worth it.

We also tried to go to the Bangalore palace. From the outside it didn't look all that impressive so we figured we'd just go in and ask how much it was to see it. If it was free we would've done it. The lady said it was 200 rupees for the other guys and 100 rupees for me. Apparently it's only 100 rupees for Indian people, sweet. We decided it was too much money for a not so impressive palace (especially when compared to the Mysore palace).

Finally we went to this garden place where they had a rose garden, a really really big tree, fountains, and more flowers. It was a pretty nice place, Messay took some great pictures of the place. I forgot my camera back in Mysore so all I had was my cell phone.

Afterwards we decided to head back to Mysore. It was a pretty fun trip though. I ended up having to translate and talk to the driver in Hindi, he understood english but it wasn't all that great of an understanding, so Hindi definitely helped.

I wouldn't mind being relocated to Bangalore after our training is done here, it's a big city and there's tons to do there. I could eat enchiladas everyday.....

More about our Chamundi Hill visit

Our trip to Chamundi Hill was really nice so I think it deserves a little more description. I went with 5 other guys from the US batch. We took the bus up the hill to the temple and walked around it at first. We already saw it from the outside from the first time they took us our first full day in India. We wanted to go inside but the line was huge. Then we found out you can pay 100 rupees and get into the mandir without waiting in line. It's kind of a weird concept for a temple but that's what we did. We had to take our shoes off a little bit outside of the temple, so we had to cross the street barefoot. It was kinda crazy, they let us in the main prayer area for literally five seconds before they pull you to the side out of the line. Then you continue to the back of the temple where they have another murti (statue of the goddess). I did some praying there and then we continued outside. We got our shoes back on and started walking down the hill.

The walk down was great, you could see all of Mysore from up there. There were other younger people walking down too. Friends go to go the temples on the weekends to pray and just to have a good time with their friends here. So on our way down there were other people our age just running down laughing and having a good 'ol time. People kept laughing at one of the guys with us, Sloan. He's really white so I guess he stuck out more than everyone else. He was a good sport about it, he laughed along with them. On the way down there was a group of kids our age resting. They saw us and just started saying hello and stuff. I think one of the guys said the girl was trying to hit on me or that I was hitting on the girl (even though I wasn't saying anything). I dunno, we laughed it off and kept walking.

There were also monkeys all over the stairs on the way down. They're cute to look at but they're a little vicious too. I wouldn't get too close to them.

We finally made it all the way down and took a rickshaw back to campus. I was beat after the climb down the stairs so I took a nice nap afterwards. I like going out and having a good time like that without having to spend too much money. I actually prefer doing things like that than going out at night to a club or something. I can go to clubs and in the U.S. too, I can't climb a hill with a thousand stairs to go to a temple in the U.S. though.

All in all it was a great trip, I want to do things like that more often so I'll try and plan something with the other guys that are interested in things like that as well.

Past few days

This past weekend we went into town again to pick up those clothes we got made a while back. I have to say i'm pleased with the way they turned out. They first great! I also got some glasses made, seeing as how the ones I have right now had to be welded together just a week before I came to India. On sunday we went up to Chamundi Hill and visited the Chamundeshwari temple. It was pretty nice, hoards of people though. There are a thousand stairs from the bottom of the hill up to the temple. We took the bus up because we missed the stop for the stairs but we did climb down the stairs. It was nice, there's a gorgeous view from the top of the hill of all of Mysore. I figured you'd be able to see that fake-me-out epcot center on campus from up there but I didn't spot it anywhere.

I made a new friend last week as well, her name is Deepa. She's pretty cool, she's my first real Indian friend so I'm trying to figure things out like what most Indian people think about the U.S. batch and stuff. I did find out that they get paid a lot less than us, more so than I originally thought. It makes sense though, we had to fly across the world and a lot of us have bills to pay in dollars back home. Deepa is from Bangalore so she tells me a lot about it, I have yet to go. She complains about Mysore a lot, I thought this place was really nice so that was a little shocking. I'm also afraid of seeming like "that guy" that spends ridiculous amounts of money on stupid stuff in front of her or any other Indian trainees in general. So I try to eat the cheaper Indian food instead of opting for domino's pizza or something. She told me that some people stopped talking to her because she made friends with people from the U.S. batch. I thought that was a little weird, I wonder that it's all about.

We have our second exam tomorrow (yeah, already). This exam is going to be about the Infosys Quality Systems. It's just an exam about how their processes work and what the normal process of a project are within the company. It should be easy but there's a lot to memorize. I hate big corporations because they have to many acronyms, it's crazy.

Also, Wednesday (Aug. 15th) is India's Independence day so we have off from work. It should be pretty sweet, I wonder what kind of celebrations they have here. Apparently they have a big celebration at the palace here in town so I might check that out. In that regard I'm glad the exam is tomorrow and not after the holiday, that way I can relax on wednesday. Our next module (class) is RDBMS (Relational Database Management Systems). Now it's getting into the part of the training that I was looking forward to. I've wanted to learn about database stuff forever, I've never done it before. Hopefully this time around i'll learn something, unlike our first module that was just about C.

Well I should be getting to bed now, good night

p.s. Suicide Bounce by Nas is a great song, check it out sometime.

An Observation

When I began my training here, I thought for sure that the Indian students in the class would perform much better in the academic setting than us from the American batch. I figured it's Infosys, one of the biggest and best companies in India so they'd hire only the brightest kids. A lot of the U.S. guys felt the same way too. However, now that I'm somewhat into the training, it's actually quite the opposite. It's the American kids who are outperforming the Indian students.

We're usually done with our assignments for the day around 5 or 6 while most of the Indian students are still there working late. When the teacher asks questions a lot of the Indian students don't know the answer. I'm not really sure why this is, the things we've learned so far are pretty basic Computer Science fundamentals. They should all have CS or Engineering backgrounds if they're in the fast track so it doesn't make too much sense.

Also, when they answer questions they usually just regurgitate whatever was on the power point slide. I don't think the school system here really advocates much of the independent thinking that's pushed so strongly in the U.S. It's really fascinating how different we even act compared to the Indian trainees. I'm not saying the Indian trainees are inferior or anything, it's just interesting how much the cultural difference has an impact on the way we learn and think.

That's just my observation, there are a lot of variables that I don't know about so I could be totally off base, but from a surface inspection that's what it seems like.

Senator from Nevada

Yesterday we had a special program during our lunch break. The U.S. Senator from Nevada, John Ensign, was at the Bangalore Infosys campus and he held a video conference with the U.S. batch from here in Mysore. He wanted to see how business was run at technology companies in India and he wanted to talk to us to find out why we chose such a divergent path right out of college.

We asked him a bunch of questions about things like outsourcing and the state of science and math education the U.S. It was a pretty good session. He answered like a politician though, a lot of his answers were a little drawn out and beat around a bush some but good nonetheless.

I thought it was cool of him to come all this way and talk to us, he didn't have to by any means. Some of the things he said I agreed with as well. He was talking about how many Americans have this close-minded view of the rest of the world because we're so far apart from everyone geographically. He said Americans really could use a lesson in humility and I agree completely, even for myself.

Gym

So I just check out the gym here on campus. It's not too bad, but it gets really crowded in the evening. It smells like no other in there from time to time too, it goes back to that whole Deodorant deal. I had to do some conversion from Kilograms to pounds and what not. I suck at working out though, Since I was sick yesterday I only worked out for a bit today. Now I'm looking for some Domino's pizza to be totally counter-productive but luckily (depending on which way you look at it) I don't know the extension for it and I can't find it!

That's all folks, see ya next time for another exciting episode of My Blog.

Miscellanious activities

It feels like forever since I wrote in here, even though it really hasn't been. I think I should clarify, in my zealous typing over the past few posts I've forgot to clear something up. As I said earlier, I'm in the fast track, and the other track is the long cycle. Basically you take an exam at the beginning of training to see if you know enough of the basic computer science information to be in the fast track. Usually people with degrees in Engineering and Computer Science are placed in the fast track. The main difference is well...it's fast. We get right into coding and our modules (classes) go by much faster. To put it into perspective, our whole training program ends on October 9th, while the long cycle doesn't end until sometime in November. After the training here we go on site to work with a client somewhere else in India.

It's pretty nuts, today we started our project. It's a little tedious since it's all stuff I've done before. I'm sure it'll go fine. I finally got a cell phone as well. At the cell phone store here on campus they don't have all the phones right there, if you want one they don't have they order it for you from town and get it to you the next day. I wanted the Sony w200i and I asked her if it came with headphones. She didn't know anything about the phone so she called her manager and for some reason, she asked him to send it into campus that same day. I guess she thought I was being a pushy american, I wanted to tell her it was ok if the phone came the next day, but I figured what the hell. So the phone got there the same day. No one takes a card here for big purchases. I had to get 6000 rupees out of the ATM and walk over to the store and drop a wad of cash on the table. It was a little weird holding so much money in my hand, even though it's like 150 dollars.

I also was sick the other day for the first time since I've been here. I feel like it's almost a rite of passage to get sick when you come here. It wasn't so bad, it only lasted for about a day. For that day though, pepto bismol was my best friend and the toilet was my throne, yup.

When I did get sick, I found one of the best hindi songs I've heard in a long time. It has beautiful music and the lyrics are amazing too. Here is the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7EE6cIFGo4

At work I feel a little bit like a college student/corporate monkey. College student because I live on a campus and eat a ridiculous amount of pizza. A corporate monkey because they're "training" me to work well in a group (read: cubicle) and adhere to the corporate culture (read: brainwashing). The corporate monkey business (ha!) is the same with any big company though so it's not just an Infosys thing.

Bye for now, I know my posts are long, I should work on that huh.

A flower (don't know what kind) after the rain. It grows outside my door on the balcony area. Click the picture for a bigger, better picture.

Lazy sunday

It's sunday, and it's raining outside so I figured I'd write in here. Yesterday I went out into Mysore for a little bit of shopping with some of the other american guys. It was pretty nuts, I haven't been out in an indian city in a while. I knew what to expect but it was still really crazy. All the people, rickshaws and motorcycles flying inches past you honking, and most annoying of all, people trying to sell you crap on the street. I think they pestered us more because the other guys are white, they didn't really bother me but it was still annoying to have them follow us around. They just don't quit even after you tell them no 500 times. Besides that it wasn't too bad. To make up for that though, we did buy some nice things.

We went to this cloth shop to get custom fitted clothes made. I ended up getting a white sand washed silk shirt and some half silk half cotton pajamas. We have to go pick them up on thursday, it should be nice. The guy there offered us all tea, he was pretty nice. He knows how to work with Americans for sure, he wasn't too pushy and because of that we all want to go there again.

We also went to this guy that sells incense. He also offered us this black tea with lemon, it was amazing. He also knows how to deal with Americans, he wasn't pushy at all. He also kept the other people that were trying to sell us stuff away from his shop. He invited us to sit down and he told us how everything worked. He had incense, colored powders and various kinds of oils. All the stuff he had smells amazing, it's what Mysore is known for. I bought some incense from him. I bought some naagchamp incense (smells like regular agarbatti) and some lotus incense, it smells like well...a flower on fire pretty much. I lit them in my room to get rid of this weird smell. I should be lighting them for the pictures of god I have on my desk as well though.

After all the shopping and walking around we went back to the cave restaurant for some more awesome food. We then took the bus back to campus. In my experience so far, the bus is the cheapest way to travel into town. It's 7 rupees to go into town and 7 rupees to come back. The bus stops right outside campus so it's convenient too. The only thing is, it's not the smoothest ride and you might have to do a little pushing to get on the bus on the way back.

It's been raining pretty much everyday now. It rains hard but only for a short while and then it stops. I don't mind the rain here though, it's not like a downer or anything. I like it, it feels like everything is being washed clean. It's nice seeing the flora on campus after it's done raining, it's refreshing.

Also, yesterday on this channel called Star World, they were showing an episodes of the Simpsons. It was kind of ironic actually. The episode they showed was where Homer takes a job in Bangalore to train the employees of Mr. Burns' new nuclear power plant over there. Mr. Burns outsourced the jobs from Springfield to Bangalore. Homer goes there and thinks he's become a "god" of the workers there. I thought it was funny because it's pretty much the same thing I did, except I'm the one being trained and not the trainer. I guess I'm not quite a god here yet either haha.

P.S. I kinda suck at haggling, I need to get better at it for sure.

First day of real training

Today we started the first day of training. I'm in the fast track because I did CS in college and what not. If things keep up the way they went today though, i'm gonna start wishing I was in the long cycle! All the people from America in the fast track missed the first half of class today because most of us had to go see the Police Commissioner to get registered to stay in India. When we got back it took about 5 min. to catch up on everything we missed, since it was the first day and all. But soon after, we got our assignments for the day. We had to do 11 assignments before 9 a.m. tomorrow. The assignments weren't hard, just very very tedious.

It took us a while to finish them, a few people decided to come back later in the evening to do it. It wasn't soooo bad because it was easy stuff, but I can't imagine having to do so many small programming assignments when things get tougher. We have to do about 10 more tomorrow, but they're not due until monday at 9 a.m. I don't want to do anything over the weekend though, so I'll try and knock them out tomorrow. It's interesting though, it was all review stuff from a basic C programming class but just tedious as all hell.

Today on campus there's a DJ night. You can hear the techno music blasting across the campus. I'm gonna go check it out in a bit, hopefully it won't be a bunch of Indian guys standing around while the music blares. It should be fun, we'll see how it goes. Good opportunity for the camera huh.

Last night I found myself missing home. Well, I've been missing it since I left, but last night it was more than usual. I'm not really sure why I missed it so much. I miss the comfort, being able to wake up the next morning and know that all the people that I care about aren't too far away. I'm gonna miss my college experiences for sure, I've come to terms that they aren't coming back. I hope once I get back home things won't have changed too much, I'm already looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Although, I see my trip over here as a new opportunity to see new things and meet new people. So far I've been doing just that. I wonder if I'll be able to tell my kids (assuming I ever have any) that I worked in another country right out of college. That'll give those little punks something to live up to haha. The people here are really nice and every day there's something new to see, to learn, to eat, or to be frustrated with. It's great, I'm out of my comfort zone and it doesn't feel too shabby.

It's great here, but it's not like back home at all. I think today may be the beginning of my professional career, kind of an interesting start I think.

View from my new room.

That's the multiplex (epcot looking thing) and the Origami building in the background. The little building is a hostel building.

Stuff

Yesterday something funny happened. After dinner I decided to get ice cream. The guy didn't have 3 rupees change to give to me, so instead he gave me a piece of CANDY. I guess it's equivalent but I thought it was odd. Today I was getting some coffee at the indian version of starbucks, Cafe Coffee Day, and I was one rupee short. The guy just let me go so I thought that was cool. It's interesting, rules aren't written in stone here, everything is fluid and there's always room for adjustment. It's good in some ways but it sucks not having anything set.

Today we also "snuck" into the girls dorm. It wasn't hard at all, we just walked on over. Of course we just went there to hang out after a session of bowling. They scared us saying it wasn't possible and what not, but it's not so bad.

I went to Domino's for dinner, I met Miho and Joanna there, two girls from the US batch as well. We all had dinner there along with Sarah and Debby. Yes you guessed it, two other girls from the US batch. After dinner all 5 of us went to the bowling alley for some bowling. I paid for all the games on my credit card and they paid me in cash, so now I finally have money again! A bunch of other people from the US batch came to bowl as well and afterwards we went back to the girls dorm because a lot of them were planning a trip for Bangalore this weekend.

I think I'm going to meet up my friend from Maryland, Akhil Rao, in Bangalore this weekend as well. He's in my fraternity and he knows Bangalore so it should be a good time. I think by then my bank account will be opened as well so i'll have enough cash to enjoy myself. I finished filing my reimbursement and salary advance too, so now I just have to wait for those to clear.

I found out today I'm probably on the fast track for training as per the results of that test. The only thing is, it says we're not supposed to meet up until August 2nd, so tomorrow I don't know if it's a day off or what. They didn't communicate where these lists that told us what track we are on are either. They just kinda told us to check our e-mail and that's all. I figured knowing what time and where our training was going to be held would be a priority for them but I guess not! Oh well, just something else we have to get used to I suppose. I've found that if you actively pursue what you need to get done, it'll get done for sure. I feel like in America people kind of hold our hand and show us what to do and how to do it. Here we're kind of on our own and it's up to us to get things done. I don't know if it's good or bad, just different.

Also I moved into my new room today. It's not so bad, I posted a video of it on picasa. Last night I got the letter to move so I packed up and then called the front desk for them to send a car over to move my bags. The guy says he'll send one over and hangs up. 5 min. later he calls back and says I'm supposed to move tomorrow and not today. So I was a little frustrated since I had just packed all my stuff up. I also missed out on going out to dinner with some friends because I had to move out. So I called the guy back and told him I needed to move out right then because I already packed up and didn't want to unpack. So he finally sent a car over and I was able to move out and move in to my new room.

The weekend

As a result of insufficient funds, I didn't really do much this weekend. I really wonder how long it takes the bank here to open an account. We learned in one of our diversity seminars here that India is very process driven. I figured "eh it can't be that bad" but man was I wrong. To do any little thing there's some overly long drawn out process that has to happen. I think one of the quotes they shared with us from one of the earlier US batches sums it up pretty nice. In the quote the person said that any minor deviation from the norm throws the whole process off and it takes even longer to get something done.

I guess it's a different country so we have no choice but to play by their rules huh, but man is it frustrating. I just want them to open my account so my uncle and put some money in it! Ohhh well. But yeah, this weekend I pretty much relaxed on campus and in my room. I saw the hindi movie Guru on t.v. yesterday (saturday). I had already seen it once back home but figured I'd watch it again. Today hasn't been much different. I just went biking for a bit around the campus and now i'm back in my room. I'm wearing shorts today, and it's funny the way people sometimes look at you when you're wearing shorts out here. The way some people stared you'd think I was walking around naked or something.

Tomorrow we take the screening test to see if we're in the long cycle or the fast track. Since I'm computer science it'll be mandatory for me. I kinda want to be in the long cycle so I can just relax a little and not have to worry about studying sooo much in such a short amount of time. I want to travel around India during my time here as well, I don't want to spend the whole time studying!

On Friday we went to Planet X, I had heard a lot about it from the previous batch. It's a really nice place. there's a restaurant, go-karting, and a club/houka lounge. We only went to the restaurant and the club but i'm sure we'll be back for go-karting. The food was ok, liked the cave restaurant way better though. The club was ok, it was egyptian themed. They played hip-hop for once though, Opium was only rock music.

Well bye for now, I'm gonna try and find something to do online I suppose.

Today

Today we had some more cross-cultural training I think. A lady named Smitha was talking to us about how the previous american batches perceived the cultural differences and we shared our own experiences thus far. A lot of it was very interesting, like the Indian Standard Time of always being late. Being an Indian myself I've experience that many times. If you want indians to be on time to a party, you have to tell them to get to the place an hour before the party is supposed to start, and they will get there on time. A lot of it I'm not accustomed to though. There's no concept of a line here sometimes. If you're in line, someone might just cut in the middle like it's normal. We've been told that if you tell them nicely to get to the back of the line they do listen though.

I felt like in today's session though, we were acting like the Indians should be acting like us, and because they weren't we found it weird. I think, especially on this campus, it's easy to forget you're in another country with a different culture. The saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans" applies here as well. Yes there are cultural differences but I think if we approach them with an open mind it should be fine. Also, I feel like some people make the assumption (unknowingly probably) that Globalization == America. In other words, the assumption is that the world revolves around America. I'm sure if you went up to any one of us and asked "Do you think the world revolves around America?" the answer would be "Of course not" but I get the feeling that there is a hint of this idea in some people's minds. Don't get me wrong though, everyone here tries to understand and be open minded, that's why they decided to take this job in the first place.

Like I said before, being an Indian myself I can understand some of these cultural differences. At the same time however, I did grow up in America and that's the culture i'm so used to. So many things here do seem foreign to me as well. It's a weird feeling, going to the country where your entire family and heritage is from and still feeling like an outsider. Although I've been to India before, i'm still amazed at it all. I don't want to act like an outsider because along with the United States, this is also my country. At times though, it can't be helped I suppose. For example, I think it so strange that they don't say hi a lot of times when you say hi to them walking down the street. From their persepective, they haven't been raised that way. Someone saying hi to you on the street is just not what happens here so they aren't accustomed to it. Also the whole standing in line thing shocks me too. We learned that they grow up with a different sense of time than we do. For us things happen sequentially, only when one task ends do we start another. Here it's more fluid, if the guy at the cell phone store is talking to you, it's completely normal for him to interrupt you and serve another customer.

I'm sure if we stay open minded and remind ourselves that we are in another country with different customs, we'll be fine. Who knows we might even get acclimated to the culture and start doing things their way.