Barking dogs have been waking me up at
Breakfast has been my favorite meal time thus far because it's buffet-style and has a lot of foods that I'm used to. The Indian food that I have tried hasn't been bad, but I'm sure I haven't tried the best yet. We've paid a visit back to the local food court again and had some naan with a couple of sauces, one lentil-based and one cheesey-tomato based. It was good, but I found myself feeling pretty hungry afterwards.
Today we tried the IBM cafeteria, which, believe it or not, is much worse than the IBM Silicon Valley Lab cafe. It almost looks like a bazaar of some sort, with carts spread out on cracked concrete and aluminum dining tables placed haphazardly all around. Ordering proved to be quite interesting. Mike and I picked a cart that didn't seem as crowded and we waited there while, watching two gentlemen prepare some wraps. They were frying tortilla-looking things and laying down various ingredients. The only one I could recognize was onion. The sign had two little menus, one veggie and one non-veggie (chicken) with prices ranging between 20 and 30 rupees (~50-75 cents) . Mike and I waited their patiently while they prepared food for a grouping of 5-6 people. Soon a few more people showed up and handed money to one of the vendors. Mike finally stepped in and said, "Can I get one with chicken" After a while of acting as if we weren't there, the vendor looked up and said, "non-veggie is on the other side". So we walked a couple feet to the other vendor, who gave us the same routine, barely acknowledging us. One guy came around and tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Two veggie". I guess we need to be a little more aggressive in this country. Mike poked his head in and repeated, "Can I get one with chicken". Again, this ridiculous hestation happened and the dude said, "We don't serve chicken" Hello? Mike tried another option, which seemed to be available, but the vendor tried to get him to try something else. "We have paneer", he said. Paneer it is. He started cooking Mike's, while I waited a little more.
I had had enough of that cart though and walked over to counter where I saw bags of potato chips. Ahh, good ol' wholesome American junk food. Now you're talking. At the counter I saw a menu for three wraps, "Veggie", "Paneer" and "Chicken". Let me try chicken again. "We don't serve chicken", he said. Hmmmm. "Ok, let me have a paneer". Whatever that is (I think it's a fried cottage cheese). "We have veggie and paneer". Yes, I can see that. "I'll go with paneer". "Paneer?"..."Yes". Finally, my order was placed and I did receive it, a little wrap with some paneer in it. I splashed some red sauce on the plate that everyone seemed to be using and gave it try. Not too bad, actually. The red sauce, whatever that was, was somewhat sweet like ketchup and surprisingly not spicy. I added a bag of potato chips to my order and it came out to a grand total of 33 rupees (~75 cents). The chips seemed less greasy than American chips, but they went down pretty well.
Probably the most interesting and exciting part of my days so far has been the ride to and from work. Granted I haven't done a whole lot outside of work thus far, but I can't get over the cast of character that we pass by and almost run over during the mile-or-so journey that we take both ways each day. Last night we drove by this sidewalk where there was a guy standing beside some fixture that was on fire that we thought may have been burning effigy. People walked by semi-curiously, trying to avoid the flames. Some of the buildings that we drive by are barely more than shells of their former selves and peeking inside of one as we drove by, I actually saw what looked to be a family sitting on a rotted couch, looking towards something. Was it a TV? I wouldn't have believed that electricity could still be flowing there, but who knows. Regardless, the poverty I'm seeing is a thousand fold of what I see at home in the homeless that I encounter on the streets of
Meanwhile, I carry on within the safe and friendly confines of IBM. I'm impressed with how friendly people have been and the sense of humor that they display. I think the resounding quality that I'm witnessing, is patience. There seems to be a zen-like calm within the corperate walls.
The only thing I have found bothersome is a few security nits. You need to a badge to get into any closed off area and despite getting access to my building the first day, this doesn't mean I can go everywhere that says IBM. Three times now I've had to ask for clearance to enter another area where I've had to go for meetings and presenations. The other weird thing is that some doors that require a badge cannot be left open for more than 5-10 seconds before a siren goes off. The cubicle room that I go to can barely get more than 3-4 people in or out before that happens. So sometimes, that zen-like calm is disturbed. :-)
The last few mornings I've been hitting the treadmill, which has left me absolutely drenched in sweat due to the heat and humidity in their workout area. They have these high-end machines with live TV's on the console, which has been great because I can watch the news every day. I've been watch the BBC, some sort of world news, which has been interesting to me. I'm generally not a news watcher, but it's been fun to follow some of the stories, such as labor protests coming from the youth in Paris and people protesting the election of the prime minister of
So that's about all for now...Nothing too exciting to report because a good portion of my time is spent at IBM, at the hotel and in cabs, fearing for my life as I take in this show called "Bangalore". More text and pictures (I hope) should come as I get to the weekend.
Until then...ciao my friends.
tidbits -
It's been difficult to buy things from smaller vendors (e.g. coffee counters, food carts) due to the odd demoniations that they use and due to the fact that ATM's only tend to give out 100 rupee bills (~ $2.50). Even 50 rupee bills seem to big for some people. For instance, on Wednesday when I bought my paneer wrap and chips, the cost was 33 rupees. I figured I could just give him a 50, but then he gave me two 10's back and asked me for 3 rupees (ahh, I just have a couple 50's and all 100's, dude). He ended up saying, "You can pay me 3 rupees another time" Thursday, getting a "chicken kabob roll" from a coffee/sandwich counter in the food court, that was a wopping 15 rupees (~35 cents), they told me they wanted something smaller after I took out the 50. They weren't even that pleased when I gave in and showed them two 10's, but comprised as well and gave me a 5 rupee coin. PEOPLE OF INDIA: How am I supposed to get smaller denominations when you won't let me use my bigger bills? I think I'd better find a way of getting smaller bills or I'm going to be out of the market quickly.
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