Pre-script... sorry, but I am just too tired right now to put pictures in this post, so it will be a bit dry, but the pictures are all uploaded in the Bangalrore Part 1 album, so check them out. There are also a few videos.
So there I was... I woke at 9:30 AM on my first day here, and made it through the whole day without dozing off. I went to sleep at 11:30 PM, exhausted, and thought I would get a good night's sleep, wake up at a normal hour, and that would be that. In short, I thought I had beaten jet lag. Silly Benjie. You should have known that you can't travel 11 and a half time zones and expect your body not to reject the fact that you are awake when you should be asleep and asleep when you should be awake. That's right, it is 5:30 AM on Sunday and, though tired, I am wide awake. Lucky you, you get a blog entry!
What's that Benjie? Something about half a time zone? Yes, it's true; India's one time zone is offset by half an hour from the entire rest of the world. I guess that is something you get to do when you have a billion people. It’s kind of like how China has just one time zone even though it should be 5. It’s the kind of thing you get to do with a billion people. Jealous? Start having more babies.
OK, onto the real fun. For those of you who don't know (and are thus properly confused), I (Benjie) am in Bangalore, India for 6 weeks of training for my new company, ThoughtWorks. (Side note: there is something whistling outside my apartment. I thought it was bottle rockets, but I just realized I think it is a bird. There are others too... it kind of sounds like a jungle out there.) So ThoughtWorks sees fit to send all of their new hires, worldwide, to ThoughtWorks University (TWU) in Bangalore, where our India office is located. You might be wondering why, just like all the other people that I’ve told. A few reasons have been posited to me. They want to have everyone together in one place, and it is cheaper here than elsewhere; they want us to get to know the worldwide company culture and people; they want to help support the Indian economy… etc. It’s also a nice perk for people like me who thrive on travel!
Anyway, so here I am, trying to soak in the culture around me while my body thinks it is just about the opposite time the world thinks it is. There has been so much to see already that this could be a monstrous post, even though I’ve only been here approximately 30 hours. Holy crap… I can’t believe that is really true!
This wild ride started Wednesday in Chicago, where my fellow US-based new hires met for orientation. There were 9 of us, but one is sadly sick and couldn’t join us in Bangalore. I hope he is feeling better soon! Another 2 are more experienced hires, and they are coming to Pune, India for just 2 weeks of brainwashing—I mean corporate culture and methodology orientation. And Dad, don’t worry, A) that was a joke, and B ) there are no restrictions on blogging about ThoughtWorks (good or bad).
So the 8 and sometimes 9 of us got oriented in Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday. We learned about expenses, travel, benefits, etc. while the snow fell. It was a pretty view from the 25th floor of the Aon Building. The wet snow made it all the more exciting to be heading to somewhere nice and warm and sunny! Then on Thursday afternoon we hopped into cars and headed to the airport to begin our looooong journey. Add a few more “o’s” in your mind.
Happily, we had no real travel snafus the whole way. We were supposed to leave at 6:00 PM Thursday. Our first flight was delayed half an hour or so, but thanks to our friend the jet stream, we landed on time in Frankfurt, Germany at something like 10:00 AM local time. It was my first time setting foot in Europe, and even though I was just in the airport, I’m going to count it, damn it! Those of you reading this who are Jewish, please raise your hand. Those of you who have been to Germany will know what I am talking about, when I say that I think our entire people probably has some sort of a cultural PTSD. I had no negative experiences in my 3 hours in the Frankfurt airport, in fact, there were barely any signs to remind me I was there… most of the signage and advertisements were in English. However, somehow I was extremely uneasy. Not someplace I plan to go back to. Maybe once I have been everywhere else… twice.
Anyway, one funny thing that happened there: Of the 6 of us heading to Bangalore (the others were on a separate second flight), two needed boarding passes, and a few wanted aisle seats etc. So we headed to the ticketing area, where the line control lady (though another word came to mind), told everyone to give their tickets and passports to me “since you are the man” and that I should go deal with it. Ok lady, whatever.
I will add at this point, that there are few things more demoralizing than finally getting off a plane after 8 hours only to have to get on another flight of the same length. It was pretty brutal. But I tried to sleep most of the first flight, and stay up most of the second, because that seemed the most “natural” as far as trying to adjust once we finally landed in Bangalore at 1:30 AM. Sadly, it took hours to get through immigration and get our luggage, and when we finally got to our new digs, it was 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning. Blech. We were dropped off without any information about what to expect, which is my one big complaint so far… we were never given much of anything in the way of cultural orientation or even a map of the complex we are stying in, Bangalore etc. I didn’t have any local money, no phone… It could have been a little scary, except that my two roommates (who were naturally asleep) had already been here for a couple days.
So I checked my email, sent a couple ‘I made it’s and went to sleep.
5 hours later, at 9:30 AM, I was wide awake. I figured “this is good… normal schedule.” So I showered and wandered up to the ThoughtWorks offices, which were hosting a DevCamp. It is kind of a geek-fest free for all where all the local techies come and talk code for the day, listen to semi-impromptu lectures, and generally geek-out. There were about 250 people there. That may seem like a lot, but it is only .00000023 of the population. I poked my head into a few talks, and then enjoyed the cafeteria style (Indian) lunch that was provided. It was delicious, and what I can expect daily at the office. Yum! At lunch I met a couple Indian ThoughtWorkers who were very nice and explained to me about the food and other useful stuff, like how to get a cell phone.
After lunch I ran into one of the trainers that had picked us up at the airport, oh those few hours ago. He said he was taking a couple clients out for lunch and some sightseeing, and did I want to come along? I said I had just eaten, but would love to join them anyway. The clients were from the UK and were here to work on the project first hand that they have “offshored” to India. The older of the two has been to B’lore 7 times, and the younger one was on his first time, but they’ve been here for a week. It was nice meeting them and hearing their perspective on India, TW, and other stuff.
So we all hopped (or should I say squeezed) in the cab. The two of them, another TW guy, and me. Our “host” followed on his bike. I sat in the front, which is a bit of a trip, because they drive on the “wrong” side of the road. It felt like I was riding in the driver’s seat of a self-driving vehicle. It seems impossible that the roads exist the way they do, but somehow it works. Depending on the road, there may be no markings (including a center line) on a road that I would consider 6-8 lanes across. On any given road at any given time, there might be any or all of the following: Trucks, busses, vans, cars, auto rickshaws (autos for short, like a motorcycle with a covered passenger seat in the back), bicycles, horse-drawn carriages, people walking in the street and, of course, cows.
The only rules of the road are 1) There are no rules. 2) Might=Right (or the bigger you are, the more right of way you have). Finally, and most importantly, cows have the ultimate right of way. I am not joking. No matter what other chaos there is, all traffic stops while a cow crosses the road.
Speaking of crossing the road (sounds like this is going to be a joke)… There is no such thing as a cross-walk, or a sidewalk for that matter. Anywhere there happens to be a sidewalk is more of an accident, and it is used for selling food or other wares, or for sitting, napping, or drying laundry. Walking is properly done in the street. If you want to cross the street, you better believe in a god, because that is the only one who will help you. There are few stoplights, and they are mostly suggestions, and anyway there are people turning, so you have no clearance. So you wait for something of a gap. Sometimes you wait a minute, sometimes five. Then you hold out your hand and jog. I’m not sure if holding out your hand helps, but it’s what the locals do, so I give it a shot. Then you stop halfway and do the exercise again. Unlike Frogger, which I’m sure now was written by someone in India, you don’t get three lives.
It seems like drivers don’t really try to avoid you unless they are actually about to hit you, and then they might ease off the gas a bit. It is really your responsibility not to get hit. And not just crossing the street, but also walking in it. You have to constantly be aware of not only what is in front of you and to your right and left, but also behind you. Walking in groups of more than 2 is not a good idea.
The one good thing is that everyone is driving in the same direction on any given side of the road. Except that not too rarely, someone is going the wrong way. And then there are the U-turns. Don’t get me started on the U-turns.
So anyway, I was sitting in the front seat gaping at what I saw, taking videos so I could convey to you all the insanity of it.
Oh. The honking. Honking is a way of saying “I’m here” or “Here I come” or “There is space in front of you… Move!” or “Pedestrians beware.” It is pretty much a constant sound anywhere in the city.
Just about the only good thing about the whole scenario is that there is so much traffic that the fastest it ever went, in the rare instance when there was an empty road, is 25 miles per hour. The general pace was more like 5-10 miles per hour, if it moved at all. You definitely spend minutes at a time not moving at all.
So… on to the restaurant. Sripad, who will be one of my trainers, had gotten “tickets” earlier in the day for lunch at 2:15, which is lucky, because it is the most popular restaurant in B’lore, and waits on the weekend can be in the hours. It is a family style all you can eat place. You sit with a big tray in front of you, and people come around every minute or so and slop different foods down on your plate. They keep doing this till you tell them to stop. I tried some of the food and it was delicious. I was bummed I had already eaten! After the meal they gave us these things called "pan" (pronounced pon or pawn) that are spices wrapped up in a bitter leaf. It is supposed to help your digestion (and breath), but it leaves your mouth bright red (some sort of reaction with the leaf). It was quite an experience, and was almost too much to eat in one bite. That and the taste tested my limits, and the Indians enjoyed watching my face… but not as much as the younger Brit who put it in his mouth and promptly mumbled “napkin!” and spit it out. Good times.
Only after I had eaten it did I realize anything leafy is at the top of the “Do-not-eat” list. Oops. Thankfully all is well on the not-getting-sick front so far. In fact, I don’t think anyone has been sick yet.
After the restaurant we had to cross a couple streets and walked to the botanic gardens. It is a very peaceful and tranquil bit of nature in the middle of this hectic city. Large bit. In the hundreds of acres range. It includes a very picturesque lake. What is interesting is that there were TONS of people there. Mostly couples. All of the benches (especially in the shade) were taken by a couple, and some were sitting on the ground or just walking around. I was told that in India you really have to work to get some privacy (and even then it isn’t so private).
We had a nice walk around, saw some interesting plants and flowers and some VERY large trees that must have been hundreds of years old. It was quite beautiful. Then we came across a drumming group that was practicing and had attracted a crowd of a couple hundred people. One young kid was very into the drumming and the spinning of his sticks. (See video)
From there we went to a few temples, which were all very different and interesting. You take off your shoes when you get there, and then enter and walk around the shrine in the middle. The first one was the Big Bull Temple, which appropriately contained… a big bull statue. You pay a variable fee for various levels of religious ceremonies. There was another temple I am forgetting right now, and then he took us to the Hare Krishna temple.
All I can say is wow. The Indian that took me there thought it was a scam to take people’s money, but that it was interesting to see. It is nothing like a hippie in the street chanting, there are hundreds of people chanting and walking by shrines and making motions and giving money at every step of the way. The temple itself was huge and elaborate, and on a big hill. Everyone files through in a single file line past the numerous shrines (minor and major), and then sits to chant in the big room. Then on the way out you have to walk through a maze of stands (there must have been dozens and dozens) selling books, tapes, knick-knacks, food… it was like a flea market. All proceeds going to…?
Then it was time for the long cab ride home. I was so exhausted by that point. When I got back I checked my email and everyone was meeting up to go out to dinner. So we all hopped in Autos (the little mini-cabs), squished in three to a cab, and headed to MG road, short for Mahatma Gandhi. We went to a nice restaurant in a hotel and had a buffet of traditional Indian foods. I ate so much! What is really nice about being here is that there are so many vegetarians that all the restaurants have at least half of their menu, if not more, devoted to non-meat items. I am eating so much! So we had a nice relaxing meal, and I was able to meet some of my fellow ThoughtWorkers from the UK office. Then we headed back… well I headed back with a couple guys while everyone else was out till 1:00 or so just hanging out. It was late enough for me, and I went to bed so that I could try to get on a good schedule.
Silly Benjie! There is no such thing as a good schedule when your body is 180 degrees out of synch with the world. I woke up at 5:30 AM and was wide awake. Silly as this may sound, I can’t remember what I did just then. Oh yeah, that was when I started writing this blog entry! So I think maybe I will call that that and send this off into the world before it gets any longer!!! Can you believe it took this long just to get through the first 30 hours?!?
As I finish this up, it is now Monday night. I will try to get to Sunday and Monday soon, and then I don’t think there will be nearly as much to write about, since today started classes.
Anyway, thanks for reading, enjoy the pictures and videos, and let me know what you think. Please excuse me if this was totally incoherent, as it was started at 5:30 AM, and then finished in parcels!
Hi Rachel, I miss you!
Cheers everybody,
Benjie
