So I just realized that I was originally scheduled to be home by now. Funny thing is that it doesn't seem like 4 weeks has passed. I guess you could say I'm over the "newness" of being here and into the everyday life. I know where to go to get groceries, fresh mango juice, which street vendor (sorry Kunal) has the best deserts. Even the people on MG road trying to sell watches, fake sunglasses, and pipes for less than legal use have begun to leave me alone. I've gotten used to the way of life here...eating everything with my hands, the yummy pani puri (who would have thought that puff balls filled with spices and spiced water would be so good), the random drumming and singing at 2am in the morning, the craziness of the traffic, not understanding a good 75% of what anyone's saying.
I'm pretty sad that it has to end after this week. Going back to the peace and quiet of Nashville feels like it's going to be as much of a culture shock as arriving here was. I'm actually a little nervous about going back. Granted I do miss my car and the convenience of being able to drive anywhere whenever I want...but on the other side I love being able to walk most places and all the sights, sounds, and smells along the way. If only Nashville had one or 2 streets like they do here to give it more life.
I do have to say that I'm pretty sick of living in a hotel...living in a box where they freak out if you're not up and out by 11am (and working the night shift that's prime sleeping time). Now that I've been here and know what to expect I would definitely look at a service apartment next time so there's more room and not the constant barrage of people trying to do things for me. Oh yeah...and I can't eat the hotel food any more....whenever I try I loose my appetite. The interesting thing is that the best food I've had has been from this place near the office called Food Zone. Vineet and I went there one of my first days here. It's nothing to look at, there's no way you'd walk in there to eat if you hadn't been there before, but it's so darn good. We've been ordering from there almost every day last week, we haven't had the same thing twice, and I have yet to have something I didn't like.
I guess as I enter the last week of being here I feel like I'm not quite ready to leave the colorful liveliness of Bangalore for the blandness of Nashville.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Monday, April 9, 2007
let's try this again
So I was trying to post a picture and I don't think our VPN liked that so here we go again....
a quiet weekend...sort of
So I was planning on having all these adventures this weekend...but it didn't quite turn out that way.
Friday was a holiday so Shrujal, his wife, Vineet and I were planning on going to Nandhi Hills...a place about a 45 minute drive outside of Bangalore. Well at about 8am I get a call from Shrujal, he had been at work until 4am...and Vineet had no water...so that trip was off. Shrujal and I did got for a HUGE lunch around 1 and then had the best Mango Milkshake I could ever imagine having. I now have a new favorite juice...Mango...it's so yummy!!!! We had such a large lunch that as soon as I got back to the hotel I passed out...until it was too late that evening to really do anything. Still being full from lunch I didn't even have the desire to go downstairs to eat dinner.
Saturday I had made plans with Tijo to teach him how to install some of our application since he had to do an installation at a customer site and had never actually done it before. So I was waiting downstairs for him to pick me up when one of the drivers from the office showed up. Since this wasn't our plan I called Tijo and let him know to just head to the office. Apparently someone had told one of the managers that I was planning on coming in so they sent a car.
So I've been talking to a lot of people here about how I want to get a set of Tablas before I leave. One of the guys working Saturday is a drummer so when Tijo and I were done I went off with Sourev in search of Tablas. We used one of the office cars and they thought they new a good place to get Tablas so we stopped at one of the tourist trinket shops. No Tablas to be found, so they suggested another place. One set of Tablas to be found...really expensive, and not great quality. Sourev and I decided that the drivers didn't know what they were talking about (and were trying to make a buck by getting us into these shops) so decided to go with the original plan and go to an actual music store. We showed up and the music store and asked to see some Tablas. They brought out so many to choose from and of course I have no idea what to look for. I went with Sourev's judgement, he took care of negotiating a price, and off we walked, me the happy owner of a set of Tablas. Now I feel pretty good about this purchase having just looked up some of the prices on Amazon. Mine, based on appearance and what I saw in the store, are just as nice as the expensive ones and I got them for less than the cheapest ones. YIPPIE :)
So Tablas in hand we stopped by Sourev's place for a beer. It very much reminded me of a NYC apartment...but smaller....much smaller. We walked up 3 flights of stairs and went through a door onto what I first thought was a porch. Turns out it was the porch/Kitchen/Living room. Off this Portchen room were 3 bedrooms for the 3 roommates. With one bathroom...no shower...or bath...but a toilet, 3 large buckets of water, and a drain in the floor. Some things I don't think I could ever get used to.
Sunday I just felt like crud...I was really tired, got a head rush whenever I stood up, and just felt pretty terrible. I decided to spend the day in bed and try to get better for Monday. Turns out that was the right plan because I'm still not 100% today.
Anyway....it's time to go to bed. But I will leave you with a picture of my new toys...or not because it keeps timing out :)
Friday was a holiday so Shrujal, his wife, Vineet and I were planning on going to Nandhi Hills...a place about a 45 minute drive outside of Bangalore. Well at about 8am I get a call from Shrujal, he had been at work until 4am...and Vineet had no water...so that trip was off. Shrujal and I did got for a HUGE lunch around 1 and then had the best Mango Milkshake I could ever imagine having. I now have a new favorite juice...Mango...it's so yummy!!!! We had such a large lunch that as soon as I got back to the hotel I passed out...until it was too late that evening to really do anything. Still being full from lunch I didn't even have the desire to go downstairs to eat dinner.
Saturday I had made plans with Tijo to teach him how to install some of our application since he had to do an installation at a customer site and had never actually done it before. So I was waiting downstairs for him to pick me up when one of the drivers from the office showed up. Since this wasn't our plan I called Tijo and let him know to just head to the office. Apparently someone had told one of the managers that I was planning on coming in so they sent a car.
So I've been talking to a lot of people here about how I want to get a set of Tablas before I leave. One of the guys working Saturday is a drummer so when Tijo and I were done I went off with Sourev in search of Tablas. We used one of the office cars and they thought they new a good place to get Tablas so we stopped at one of the tourist trinket shops. No Tablas to be found, so they suggested another place. One set of Tablas to be found...really expensive, and not great quality. Sourev and I decided that the drivers didn't know what they were talking about (and were trying to make a buck by getting us into these shops) so decided to go with the original plan and go to an actual music store. We showed up and the music store and asked to see some Tablas. They brought out so many to choose from and of course I have no idea what to look for. I went with Sourev's judgement, he took care of negotiating a price, and off we walked, me the happy owner of a set of Tablas. Now I feel pretty good about this purchase having just looked up some of the prices on Amazon. Mine, based on appearance and what I saw in the store, are just as nice as the expensive ones and I got them for less than the cheapest ones. YIPPIE :)
So Tablas in hand we stopped by Sourev's place for a beer. It very much reminded me of a NYC apartment...but smaller....much smaller. We walked up 3 flights of stairs and went through a door onto what I first thought was a porch. Turns out it was the porch/Kitchen/Living room. Off this Portchen room were 3 bedrooms for the 3 roommates. With one bathroom...no shower...or bath...but a toilet, 3 large buckets of water, and a drain in the floor. Some things I don't think I could ever get used to.
Sunday I just felt like crud...I was really tired, got a head rush whenever I stood up, and just felt pretty terrible. I decided to spend the day in bed and try to get better for Monday. Turns out that was the right plan because I'm still not 100% today.
Anyway....it's time to go to bed. But I will leave you with a picture of my new toys...or not because it keeps timing out :)
Friday, April 6, 2007
A few more pictures
So people have been whining that I haven't posted in a while. Well working 12 hour days doesn't leave much time for fun. At the end of this weekend I'll have some more stories to tell I'm sure...when drinking with Tijo and Sachin is involved there's always something interesting.
To keep you tied over until then here are some more pictures. The first 2 are from Brigade Rd, one of the other main streets here. One is from this small temple I saw while randomly walking around seeing how lost I could get and still find my way home. This last one is for my Mom....
Friday, March 30, 2007
what a busy week....and Bangalore Cops SUCK
Well that should get your attention....keep reading for the full story
I've been getting some flak for not posting all week. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I've been working so much that I haven't had time for many interesting activities. Although I did have a conference call with a SAM and HSBC in Hong Kong in my pajamas at 8am today (long story, don't ask).
So why has it been such a busy week. Well...we got the lab fully installed. I have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself for working out how to install and configure Oracle. I did have one issue I had to escalate but found out it was due to the lack of a patch. Which in turn I screwed up and had to start from scratch all over again. So I've managed to install Oracle 6 times, on 3 VMs, and got it right once (hey, that's all that matters right). I've had a team of developers randomly descend upon my desk to install an RTA server for them and help them test an integration to ECS that they are customizing for a customer. On top of planning how to cram 6 weeks worth of information into a 5 day training. Oh, yeah and the HSBC installation which kept me on the phone with one of our Consultants for at least an hour each day troubleshooting (we told them at the beginning it was permissions...and guess what....yup, permissions).
So now for the fun. After work today, Friday, at about 8:30pm Vineet and I went out to grab some dinner and take a spin around Bangalore. The place he wanted to take me was closed so we found this really neat outside food stand. The first thing we had was....crap...now I can't remember the name...oh well I'll just describe it. It was a fried, break like, hollow sphere that they put something solid in along with some spices. Then they put it in mint/spiced water to fill the rest of the sphere. They then hand it to you and you eat it right there at the counter. So yummy and nothing like I've ever had before. It was a nice change from the usual Indian food I've been eating. Wow, so I say usual and yet it's nothing like Indian food in the US. When we were walking back to Vineet's bike we got harassed by this child begging...he decided to attach himself to my leg...so he was firmly removed. We hopped on the bike and started going around Bangalore...this is when the fun began. Bangalore has more road blocks that I've ever seen, looking for drunk drivers and the such...so I thought. Actually they just pull over anyone and everyone driving down the street they happen to be on. Needless to say we got pulled over. Unfortunately Vineet did not have his License, Registration, Insurance, etc. on him. One cop told him to walk over to another cop and as he was doing so took the keys from the bike and handed them to yet another Cop. Vineet came back and I let him know where his keys were. Off vineet goes to start talking to the cop with his keys. While this is going on another guy is pulled over right behind us and the same thing happens. They take his keys and give them to the same cop Vineet is talking to. Now this cop has both Vineet and this random guy tugging on him to get their keys back...and this cop just keep walking away from them. Vineet comes back over to make sure I'm cool and says that he probably wants a bribe but doesn't want it to be obvious with me standing there. So off they go again to keep bugging this cop for their Keys, or a ticket, or something to actually happen. Well after about 15 minutes of this the cop comes over and appears to be writing a ticket...I say appears because when I watch the interaction they are actually haggling. Now during this 15 minutes some random guy sitting on the side of the street comes up and stands right next to me, in my personal space bubble if you will. I see him kind of eyeing me and I figure he's probably trying to work out where my wallet is so him or his friends can grab it while everyone is haggling with the cops. I shoot him a pretty mean glare (bet you didn't think I could do that did you) and he walked away. So Vineet comes back with his keys and off we go. No ticket, but it did cost a 200 rs. bribe to get out of there. Now I've had my fair share of less than stellar interactions with our oh-so-fine public servants, I did have long hair after all, but in the US we would have been most likely in Jail, or with a hefty ticket and a court date. Here it was 20 minutes of frustration and cost $5, off the record. Now yes, Vineet didn't have his paperwork with him, but this other guy did and there was no chance of speeding down this road so I've decided this is the best scam ever. They set up an official road block....pull everyone over just for the heck of it...then grab your keys until you can reach a mutually agreed upon price to get them back. With no recourse because they're cops...and they're all in it together.
Well after we got out of there we kept cruising around Bangalore and ended up lost. This is when I had an interesting revelation. We stopped to ask for directions and I found that I was pretty much understanding where he was telling us to go. I also realized that I'm starting to hear the same or similar "sound" combinations. I say sound because I have no idea if it's one, two, or more words together. I asked Vineet what one of them meant and it was "have you done that" or something to that effect and that it was about 3 words together. So we got a little lost and asked again. This time armed with some knowledge I was able to understand these directions much more and think he was saying "after you do that" based on some of the words he was saying. I could be completely wrong, but it makes sense to me and I thought it was pretty darn cool.
Well, it's about 12:15am and I'm tired so it's time to watch a movie and fall asleep. oooo...the HBO movie is about vampires...and has Parker Posey...gotta go :)
I've been getting some flak for not posting all week. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I've been working so much that I haven't had time for many interesting activities. Although I did have a conference call with a SAM and HSBC in Hong Kong in my pajamas at 8am today (long story, don't ask).
So why has it been such a busy week. Well...we got the lab fully installed. I have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself for working out how to install and configure Oracle. I did have one issue I had to escalate but found out it was due to the lack of a patch. Which in turn I screwed up and had to start from scratch all over again. So I've managed to install Oracle 6 times, on 3 VMs, and got it right once (hey, that's all that matters right). I've had a team of developers randomly descend upon my desk to install an RTA server for them and help them test an integration to ECS that they are customizing for a customer. On top of planning how to cram 6 weeks worth of information into a 5 day training. Oh, yeah and the HSBC installation which kept me on the phone with one of our Consultants for at least an hour each day troubleshooting (we told them at the beginning it was permissions...and guess what....yup, permissions).
So now for the fun. After work today, Friday, at about 8:30pm Vineet and I went out to grab some dinner and take a spin around Bangalore. The place he wanted to take me was closed so we found this really neat outside food stand. The first thing we had was....crap...now I can't remember the name...oh well I'll just describe it. It was a fried, break like, hollow sphere that they put something solid in along with some spices. Then they put it in mint/spiced water to fill the rest of the sphere. They then hand it to you and you eat it right there at the counter. So yummy and nothing like I've ever had before. It was a nice change from the usual Indian food I've been eating. Wow, so I say usual and yet it's nothing like Indian food in the US. When we were walking back to Vineet's bike we got harassed by this child begging...he decided to attach himself to my leg...so he was firmly removed. We hopped on the bike and started going around Bangalore...this is when the fun began. Bangalore has more road blocks that I've ever seen, looking for drunk drivers and the such...so I thought. Actually they just pull over anyone and everyone driving down the street they happen to be on. Needless to say we got pulled over. Unfortunately Vineet did not have his License, Registration, Insurance, etc. on him. One cop told him to walk over to another cop and as he was doing so took the keys from the bike and handed them to yet another Cop. Vineet came back and I let him know where his keys were. Off vineet goes to start talking to the cop with his keys. While this is going on another guy is pulled over right behind us and the same thing happens. They take his keys and give them to the same cop Vineet is talking to. Now this cop has both Vineet and this random guy tugging on him to get their keys back...and this cop just keep walking away from them. Vineet comes back over to make sure I'm cool and says that he probably wants a bribe but doesn't want it to be obvious with me standing there. So off they go again to keep bugging this cop for their Keys, or a ticket, or something to actually happen. Well after about 15 minutes of this the cop comes over and appears to be writing a ticket...I say appears because when I watch the interaction they are actually haggling. Now during this 15 minutes some random guy sitting on the side of the street comes up and stands right next to me, in my personal space bubble if you will. I see him kind of eyeing me and I figure he's probably trying to work out where my wallet is so him or his friends can grab it while everyone is haggling with the cops. I shoot him a pretty mean glare (bet you didn't think I could do that did you) and he walked away. So Vineet comes back with his keys and off we go. No ticket, but it did cost a 200 rs. bribe to get out of there. Now I've had my fair share of less than stellar interactions with our oh-so-fine public servants, I did have long hair after all, but in the US we would have been most likely in Jail, or with a hefty ticket and a court date. Here it was 20 minutes of frustration and cost $5, off the record. Now yes, Vineet didn't have his paperwork with him, but this other guy did and there was no chance of speeding down this road so I've decided this is the best scam ever. They set up an official road block....pull everyone over just for the heck of it...then grab your keys until you can reach a mutually agreed upon price to get them back. With no recourse because they're cops...and they're all in it together.
Well after we got out of there we kept cruising around Bangalore and ended up lost. This is when I had an interesting revelation. We stopped to ask for directions and I found that I was pretty much understanding where he was telling us to go. I also realized that I'm starting to hear the same or similar "sound" combinations. I say sound because I have no idea if it's one, two, or more words together. I asked Vineet what one of them meant and it was "have you done that" or something to that effect and that it was about 3 words together. So we got a little lost and asked again. This time armed with some knowledge I was able to understand these directions much more and think he was saying "after you do that" based on some of the words he was saying. I could be completely wrong, but it makes sense to me and I thought it was pretty darn cool.
Well, it's about 12:15am and I'm tired so it's time to watch a movie and fall asleep. oooo...the HBO movie is about vampires...and has Parker Posey...gotta go :)
Sunday, March 25, 2007
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