Woke up at 6:30. Probably should have slept in longer, but I didn’t want to sleep in and miss my ride into work in a few hours. Still not hungry yet, but will head down to Citrus and have breakfast in an hour or so. Breakfast is complimentary and they put on a massive buffet, 10x what I’m used to seeing at the Homewood Suites back in North America. I’m not sure when people normally eat lunch and dinner, so I plan to have breakfast before heading into work. I expect in a few days, breakfast will become the final meal of my day – rather than the opening meal – as we’re working hours to mirror North America and 6:00 IST will be approximately 21:30 CST, if I’ve understood the time change correctly.
From the balcony, I can see cows grazing in the alley again. There are 2 in the alley this morning. A few stray dogs have surrounded them and some people have stopped to throw rocks at the dogs. When the dogs run off, the people leave the cows to their grazing.
It’s amazing how quiet it is outside now that the dogs have been shoo’d off. There are no bird singing, or sounds of cars on the roads at this time in the morning. The few people I can see outside are hanging out their laundry, walking down the street, or hotel employee’s going about their business on the restaurant patio. According to the newspaper, there are massive congestions caused by drivers on the roadways, but I see very few driving around from my vantage point in the hotel.
I watched a woman walk her dog down the alley. This is the first dog I’ve seen on a leash since I arrived.
They sky seems hazy – similar to Toronto in the smog – but it is not yet overly warm. There is a nice breeze which makes it quite cool on the balcony. I’ve been warned that the weather is unseasonably warm at the moment, and there doesn’t seem to be a cloud in sight. I’m not sure when the monsoon season is supposed to start, although all the guidebooks mention that this is the time of year for it. I will have to remember to ask someone what the weather is normally like at this time of year.
I will have to ask Anand to bring additional business cards for me when he arrives. It appears to be accepted practice that you exchange business cards when interacting with people and I have only brought a small number of them with me. Since I’ll be here 7 weeks, I expect I’ll need 20-50 more before my visit is completed. In the meantime, I will have to use them sparingly and make the remaining 13 last until I can verify if Anand can bring extras with him when he arrives.
90 minutes can make quiet a difference in the outside noise level. For the last few minutes, the sound of car horns honking has been continuous. It’s not a few short beeps, people seem to lay on their horns for 10-30 seconds at a time. I don’t recall seeing many street lights when we were driving to the hotel yesterday, but I was very tired and not paying too much attention to my surroundings. I’ll pay more attention during the drive into work today.
– Break for work –
I’m back at the hotel and still in shock and awe from the traffic and driving in the city. See the Culture Shock segment of the site for a better description of the experience. I could try and spend days describing what driving is like in Bangalore, and I doubt I could do it justice even then. Over the next few days, I’ll try and take a few pictures of the roadways and traffic before I leave and post them on the site to assist with the explanation.
I’ve always maintained that Canadians are the worlds’ most arrogant jaywalkers. Obviously, I was mistaken. Pedestrians routinely wander across 2-4 “lanes” of traffic without blinking. They weave in and out of traffic, walking the wrong way down main streets in the inside “lane”… I’ve witnessed this phenomenon for a number of days and I still can’t seem to completely comprehend it.
Across the street from the hotel is the Intel office. Oracle and IBM are located a short jaunt down the road from the Convergys centre. The city is filled with IT related positions, and I can easily understand why Bangalore is considered the ‘Silicon Valley of India’.
Asked Faisal and Manish about the cows, and they told me that they were likely let out to graze by a farmer. I will need to get used to seeing cows everywhere I turn, since they seem to have free run of the city!
I met Yasho this afternoon and have discovered that, thanks to Manish, she will be my ‘shopping buddy’. Manish assures me that Yasho loves to shop, so I’m not to be worried about the inconvenience. Her only complaints about shopping surround being with someone who isn’t interested in browsing, seeing new things, and checking out sarees. Manish announces that as long as I’m interested in shopping with her, we’ll have a great time. I will have to get together with her sometime tomorrow and find out when it would be convenient to arrange our first outing.
Before I came to India, I was asked to bring chocolates with me. Since it’s Halloween shopping season back home, I brought 170 mini chocolate bars along with bags of Clodhoppers for Faisal and Manish. Chocolates were passed around and Chitra and Yasho warned me that it’s not safe to trust Faisal with the chocolates I’ve brought for the trainees. I want to ensure everyone gets at least 2 bars, so I’ll have to keep a careful watch on the stash to make sure Faisal isn’t poaching. I think I’ll ask Anand to bring some extra bags of Halloween snacks with him when he comes to make sure there’s enough to go around.
I remembered to ask about the anticipated rainy season this afternoon while Faisal and I were on break. He advised that Bangalore isn’t really affected by monsoons and while it will rain, it won’t be the downpour I was expecting. This is great news, since Jaspal (a co-worker from Winnipeg who has recently relocated to Edmonton) was warning me that the rains in this section of India can be severe and will easily destroy a basic North American umbrella. He had recommended I bring a golf umbrella with me, but I had settled on purchasing a new raincoat and expected to be soggy most of the time.
In India, most people do not have their own transportation and public transit in many areas of the city is sparse, if available at all. Most companies provide free shuttle service to their employees in order to entice workers to stay with them. Manish took me to the parking garage in the building basement this evening and showed me the lines of cabs. They have 70+ cabs at their disposal, each able to carry 9 passengers and the driver. The cabs pick up each employee at home before the beginning of their shift, and drop them off at the end of their working day. A list is posted in the parking garage which indicates the cab number and the name of the employee’s assigned to the cab. It indicates pickup and drop off times as well. According to Manish, the list changes on a weekly basis, so employees have to continually refer to the board in order to ensure they’re getting in the right vehicle. Manish suggests I visit the garage after shift change one evening to see what it’s like. The ordered chaos is supposed to be astounding. I think I’ll see if it’s ok to take a few pictures of the mass exodus before I leave India.
On the drive home, Manish pointed out a number of local sights and attempted to explain the driving habits of the city’s occupants. Manish also explained that when Linda, Bill, and Anand arrive, we will be visiting a few Hindu temples. However, while I am here I will be able to experience two of the most important festival days in the Hindi religion. Manish equated them with Christmas in North America and has told me I will really enjoy the celebrations. The first holy day is on the 5th of October and I’m already looking forward to it. I will have to see if I can learn more about it before the day arrives.
Religion trivia: Aproximately 80% of Indians are Hindu. The other 20% are Muslim or Christian. India has the 2nd highest population of Muslims outside of Indonesia.
As you can tell, today was a day for learning new things from Manish and Faisal.
Made arrangements with the driver to be picked up at 13:00 to return to work.
*ugh* The hotel internet connection is presently down and I’m not able to ftp the files to my site as planned. Hopefully the connection will be back up soon, since I’d hate to have to wait until I’m back home to upload the files. That would defeat the entire purpose of the journal ;(
Apparently the connection has been down since 17:30. I wish I’d know that before signing up for access today, since it would have saved me time, $$, and frustration. Ah well, these things can’t be helped. I wonder if I can request an additional day’s internet access since I’ve paid for a service I can’t use at this time? I’m not sure how situations of this nature are addressed in India, but I guess it won’t hurt to ask.
