India Entry 2 - 7/21/07
India Entry 2 – 7/21/07
We started our journey to India on Thursday night – departed at 6:50pm – and ended Saturday morning – landed 12:30am – then a 3 hour buss ride to the Mysore campus. Approximate total travel time from point A to point B: 34 hours.
Was it worth it? Definitely. The campus is beautiful. The pictures online don’t do any justice to experiencing it in person. This training facility is like a resort. I just got off of a bike and excited about it, so I must write about the bike scheme they have here. There are thousands of bicycles on campus. If you see one and you are the first to it, it’s yours until you reach your destination wherever on campus that may be. Just park the bike and leave. It is a fascinating system. I have only been here for 5 hours and already see how during peek times during the work week this bike system will really prove efficient.
A little about my experience on the bike: It was beautiful. Imagine a large spread out campus with well maintained grass throughout, small winding narrow roads flowing around 72 buildings with a cool breeze in 80 degree weather wearing long paints and not even breaking a sweet. Paradise! I now know why all Indian travel books have Incredible India on the cover!
Being American on this campus only has advantages. Because of the American lavish (in comparison) way of life, the company has tried to accommodate accordingly. They have given us the suites reserved for “higher up” employees. We have extra vacation days, American foods on campus, and more. I kind of feel guilty now that I think about it.
People are very friendly around here. Conversations are struck up at random places and times, and not only from the Indians but from people all over the world. Whilst waiting in the omelet line, a person from the Malaysia batch started talking to me. The chef from the restaurant we ate at on campus came up to me and asked what kind of food I would like to see for breakfast.
There are so many opportunities to have a nice work out here. Just today on my way to lunch I got an invitation to play basketball, I accepted – didn’t play – basketball that is. The group of guys quickly switched sports to volleyball where I joined in the competition. It was a lot of fun and a nice work out. We drew a nice sized crowd around us. I don’t know if it was because we were Americans playing or if it was just fun to watch.
I have only been on the campus half a day and we have already experienced the evasiveness of the Indian culture. A lot of us are having trouble connecting to the internet, including yours truly. I and numerous others have called in asking if it is something we are doing wrong and the lady on the other end of the receiver tells us all it will be back up by the afternoon. It is three o’clock and still no internet. What a vague word: afternoon. Could you imagine the wall-mart point of sale system going down and the consultants working on getting back up tell you it will be up by the afternoon?