Dave was so excited about going to work in India, it was hilarious. We both puttered around the apartment getting ready this morning, then settled in the living room around 8:45am to wait for Suresh. By 9:15am, we were still driver-less. Ranjeet, the CEB guest house caretaker, came by—clearly confused that we were still home. I tried to see if he would take us on his scooter, but he just laughed and walked away. I'm fairly certain he had no idea what I was saying.
Eventually, a driver (not Suresh) came for us. He spoke no English, which was rather unexciting. However, he did have some excellent Bollywood music playing in the car, so Dave and I jammed out on the way to work. Traffic was heavy today and a herd of cows made for some difficult maneuvering. I honestly don't know how people drive in this country without getting plowed over.
The days go by so fast here. Before I know it, it's noon and then all of a sudden it's time to go home. I don't know how I'm going to get anything done. Working with the designers is so fantastic. They are amazingly hard workers. After seeing some of the edits from this end, I am not very surprised that things sometimes go wrong. I'm enjoying talking to them about being confident and the similarities between their problems and ours in the US.
Around noon, my favorite person in all of India, Arjun, came by the office. I got so excited and jumped up with a huge smile on my face and then he started laughing and held out his hand to shake mine. I just stared at him like was insane and then hugged him. Of course, then I realized that Dave and I read a guide book yesterday that basically said any form of touching between a man and a woman is considered very sexual. I probably looked like a tramp to passing CEBers. (Side note: The men here hold hands ALL the time. I mean, seriously all the time. It's apparently a sign of brotherhood. They are like walking around, holding hands and staring at me. It's so disconcerting.) Arjun and I chatted for a minute before his meeting and then he promised to go to lunch with me after. I'm actually shocked I did not force him to take a picture with me. So uncharacteristic of me!
Arjun, Adi, and I went to grab pizza at Dominos. They urged me to try the thin crust, as many people have found the dough a bit too heavy. I had a pepperoni and cheese thin crust and it was great. We brought our food back to the cafeteria to eat and I continued to make fun of Arjun for breaking girls' hearts all over India. Ha, at one point he smiled and waved at a girl in the cafeteria and I said "Did you break her heart?" he laughed and said "No, girls are too sweet. I would never do that." And I said "I can hear them breaking everywhere. That girl will be calling you and crying in about five minutes." He seriously cracks me up.
The rest of the day passed by pretty quickly. I spent most of my day proofing, talking to Shweta, and coaching designers. We had our first team pull up, which consists of an ice breaker (talking about our weekends), a project pull up, and either a reading or proofing exercise. I also spent some time today talking about what my plan was while in India: mentoring, creating onboarding schedules, India–US partner relationships, and communication/feedback/confidence.
After work, Nidhi and Vikram took Dave and I to Ambiance Mall for some shopping and food/beer at Rockman's Beer Island. Nidhi took me to a shop called FabIndia and I was like a kid in a candy store. I literally just started throwing clothes on the counter and still my bill was only Rs. 4700 (yes, that's $102). Then Nidhi and I met the boys at the beer island for some home-brewed wheat beer (I actually think it was a German–Indian restaurant, if you can believe it). As we were looking over the menu, I brought up the restaurant Barbeque Nation, which I had heard from others was great. Nidhi insisted we out our menus down and leave the mall to go there immediately.
We had a very late dinner, but it was well worth it. Barbeque Nation is amazing. It is all-you-can-eat for Rs. 500 ($10) and for the starters they put a grill with kabob holders on your table and just start setting veg and chicken and shrimp kabobs on the grill with all of these sauces you can brush on. then they also continuously refill and bring other side dishes for you to sample. Once the starters are done, you move on to he main course which is buffet style. At that point, I don't think I could eat another mouthful. Of course, then they set down some garlic naan on the table and I managed to get that down my throat fast enough.
We headed home around 11:30pm, making a quick stop at a roadside stand for cloves. Literally, the stand was on the highway and you just pull over and yell at them in Hindi or something. It was awesome. Despite my quitting smoking two years ago, I just couldn't pass up the chance to have a drag of an Indian clove cigarette. It burned my lungs like no tomorrow, but the sweet scent made the car smell delicious.
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