Work? Really, we have to do that? :D

So, I just registered with the State Department. Forgot to do that before we left, and that's probably a good idea considering recent events. Thanks for the reminder, Vasant!

Just getting ready to start week #2 at work in Bangalore. Got to meet the whole team last week, and put faces to names and personalities to voices. Had a couple different ice-breaker meetings, and a few "stop by the desk" ones. I prefer those, as Vijay knows  :) Met SOOO many people, and also recognized many that I used to work by or with, some from a few years ago in I&A, others from IPS, more from Service Mgmt, some from Data Mgmt and others. I've been walking down a hall, see someone and say "hey, I know you!" and they smile and say, yes, you do! Often need my memory jogged for the name, but have yet to run into one who doesn't know mine. Very weird. Nice, but weird :) It'll take a while till I get all these names.
Day #1 was meet and greet, and find our way around. Food court below is amazing. Not just a food court but shops and a gym and a spa being built, pharmacy with a doctor, all sorts of services. Holy cow, is Alphonso Mango ice cream good!! Next door a huge building is going up and that will be a Mall! and multi-plex theater and apartments. One would not have to leave this International Tech Park. Ever. That could be the goal. Most of these guys travel quite a ways and even longer times to get to work, and the Bangalore traffic is a lot of stopping more than going. It's not uncommon for daily commutes to be 1-2 hours each way. Let's hope the new Metro system helps. Over 4 million people in this city.  The whole state of MN has just over 5 million. !!

Day #2 we were invited to visit a school which is sponsored by TCS, the Immadihalli Government High School. TCS employees volunteer to do fund raising for supplies, tuition and do volunteer work there weekly. It's nearing the end of the school year here so they are winding down with a cricket match for the boys and a throw ball match for the girls, each with a team of TCS employees against students. Throw ball was similar to volleyball except one has to catch it without fumbling, and then immediately throw it back over the net, and only the hands may touch the ball. Lisa jumped in to play, and by the time she was done, she was the red girl rather than the white girl out there.  ;)  While she's playing the game, I'm being surrounded by little girls introducing each other to me and laughing when I pronounce the names back. But they were also practicing their manners and were delightful!

After the throw ball game and while the cricket match was going on, we were sitting in the shade under the portico of the school.  With 100s of kids. There were a couple groups of girls, and a couple girls in particular that got my attention, most of whom are in the above picture. These, joined by many others, were sitting all around me and one group asked me to sing a song.  I declined, but asked them to sing me one. They did.. new version of Yankee Doodle I had never heard  before...some of the lines were "shake it  baby shake it". In Yankee DOODLE??  ;)  Then we heard other songs, then we had dueling choirs as the group NEXT to them chimed in with their own renditions.  One was giving me Bollywood film songs, the other Yankee Doodle-ish and Kannada language ones. Thankfully, one of the leaders who spoke the language got them to sing 1 song at a time, but they were still competing for attention. Was pretty fun, but VERY claustrophobic as they crowded closer and closer!

That one in the middle there?  Brave, with an attitude and twinkling eyes.  She's trouble.  The good kind of trouble  :) I recognize her!

Back to the office later that afternoon, feel like I'm full of dust and dirt.  But, was a good day.

It's amazingly quiet in this office, which really surprises me due to the noise I hear in the backgrounds when we are on conference calls. Really quiet. When I laugh, I see a whole buncha heads turn.!  Hey,  I know I'm loud.  Just louder when it's really quiet  ;x.  But, quiet doesn't last. One day while there's a production issue with ETL (no, really? :) I see why when I'm on conference calls from the US I hear background noise. Speaker phones. Freakin' speaker phones, in close quarters. Well, no wonder. And there are people gathered around those speaker phones and the whole room can hear what's going on. I could NOT concentrate on what I was doing, way too distracting to listen to that. But, at the same time, informative. And really strange when I'm recognizing voices in the room and realize it's Beth and James and Karen and other people I know, but they are 9000 miles away!.  I can see the value - all the people who needed to know were close by and could offer input when needed. But still.. not good to be across the aisle from the speaker phone. 
I don't quite get the phone setup here. I'm sure it's a money saver, but it doesn't seem very efficient. They have to share phones, and only certain ones have speakers. So, it's either that with the probable background noise and realizing the whole room can hear the "onshore" people talking (not cool for this blabbermouth), or they go into conference rooms and use a speaker phone there and we in US hear echo, echo, echo.  Not ideal, by any stretch, but it is what it is. For now.
The week whizzed by, meeting wonderful people, throwing paper snowballs in a conference room (ice breaker), watching wariness turn into openness (best part!), and finally meeting my PM who was out of town until Thursday, so got to see him again. We met once, at Geo's house in MN right before he left to come back to India. A few weeks later, I was awarded him as my offshore PM, and knew I had a winner! And now I get to meet him again. My whole team are winners, so I'm quite fortunate.
Saturday, we went shopping to Commercial Street. Oh my.. what a dangerous place!  And I mean that in a good/bad way.  Good that we got our bonuses on Friday. Bad that we got our bonuses on Friday.  :D

We went with 3 people from my team - Naveen, Lydia and Aparna.
Shopped a bit, then had lunch at a fabulous Chinese place. Buffet, but they serve soup and appetizers/starters before the buffet, then you go to the buffet, then dessert buffet. NOT like buffets back in the US, AT ALL. Very good!
We will definitely be making a few more trips to Commercial St!
On the way home, we stopped at a place called the Metro, the Walmart of India or something. Huge store, one of 3 or 4 Metros so far, offering clothing, food, housewares, electronics, all sorts of stuff. But so much of EVERYTHING was plastic! We did buy a few things like some beach towels, glasses, bowls and silverware, just a few things we can call our own. Bread. Jam. Ice cream  :) Crazy wild place, though, too too busy. Produce was out of the question. Seems you have to have it weighed in the produce section before you go to check out.  We didn't know that. Went back to produce section and couldn't even get near the weigh station. So forget it. We'll get the fruit later.
Sunday, we took it easy. Well deserved after a whirlwind week in Chennai, then a whirlwind week at work in Bangalore. We did venture out to see our neighborhood, but made it about 2 blocks when we hired an Auto to take us to the air-conditioned mall.  Yikes, it's hot in the midday sun!!  Very pleased to find a nice grocery store inside, so we loaded up on a few things. Like fresh fruit! 


So, week number 2 down. It's President's day in the U.S. it's Monday here.  :)  But a quiet one, as HQ is closed. Nice day to catch up and just hang out with the team.

See you next time!