Mr SAHMIND takes a turn........

Hello everyone Mr SAHMIND here.

My week here so far has been taken up with meeting various people at work and getting oriented to the way this subsidiary company does its day to day business. Security here is a lot tighter than back home. I have to carry a written pass to get my laptop in and out of the facility. There are uniformed guards everywhere. Folks are generally cordial though and would you believe that we get tea (chai) breaks provided twice a day. (And this is for everyone, I was out in the factory yesterday at about 2 pm and the servers where out passing around the chai and the workers get to stop and take off their shoes for break....all out in the assembly and machining areas all over the plant.......OSHA would have a screaming fit....)

Its really funny how much I stick out in a crowd over here. Their are a few other westerners on site here, but I have only rarely bumped in to any of them. To say that people stare as I go by does not fully communicate how surprised these folks are to see me.

I have been eating in the company cafeteria all week for lunch. While I am sure the setting is nice by Indian standards the closest desription I have that will get the picture across to Americans is think school cafeteria meets prison cafeteria. All the tableware is steel. Steel plates, steel spoons, steel cups, steel pitchers, steel tables......
The local cuisine is all vegetarian, but don't let that fool you, there is really quite a variety to chose from once you get use to the options. For instance, there are 4 service lines to chose from at lunch time. Bland (non spiced), Low Spice, Hot Spiced, and the Fasting line. The fasting line, of course, is there to accommodate folks during their local religious observances(i.e. Hindu). Yesterday the manager with whom I have been working chose to take food from the fasting line (partially for his observance, but I think partially to suit my curiosity). To be honest I think the Indians are cheating on this. For starters there was more on his plate than mine. The foods acceptable for fasting include boiled potato, fruit, and a little white grain called Subadana (it looks a lot like tapioca). If you know anything about Indian cuisine (real, traditional Indian cuisine) then you understand that dal (beans) and rice are the staple. So that has been constant in every meal, and the variety has come with regards to sides, deserts, and condiments - various pickled and powdered chile relishes, lime slices, sweet buttermilk, sweet corn soup, sliced apple, curried vegetables (so far they have had cauliflower and okra). Speaking of sticking out in a crowd. I am the one guy in the whole place that has to have bottled water ordered up for me daily. Everyone else drinks from pitchers provided at each table. On Wednesday, they really wanted to impress me, so they ordered me a Pepsi. So here is the only white guy in the whole cafeteria with his bottle of water and Pepsi sitting here eating his dal under the glare of 200- 300 Indians...many of whom who looked like they might want some Pepsi to...... When you are finished with lunch you have to set your tray on the return cart (which is fairly normal practice of a cafeteria), but then you go through the wash area. Keep in mind that traditional Indian is eaten by using pieces of flat bread to pick up your rice and dal. So after lunch you should rinse off well, especially if you are rather messy American.....

So far I have been in some meetings with the electronics folks here talking about some the things they need immediate help on. I have also toured almost the whole local facility and we also got to go see the location of one of our contract firms. The Contractors actually have a nicer office space than I do back home. Today we are supposed to go see one of our largest Indian customers. More to come soon.....bye for now

Update as of Wednesday

After 3 days of being cooped up in the hotel - I finally got out today. Scott got off work early and we went to a mall. The entire mall had clothes, a small household section, and a grocery store on the top floor - almost a superwalmart - well not quite. They had quite a bit of stuff and mostly I was just looking to see what they had so I wouldn't have to buy it. Ragu was the equivalent of $6 a jar - but that is an US import and probably not as much demand as for basics. Their produce section was quite varied.

After that we went to the house of some Christian Americans that have a ministry over there. Another family joined us for Pizza Hut. They each had 3 kids (2 boys and 1 girl in each family). The girls were 7 and almost 4 and they loved to dress up. They wanted to know all about our girls and couldn't understand why we didn't have a boy. On of them said she would pray that we had a boy.

I am planning on going back tomorrow - one of the ladies can't go out with her kids - but another lady from their ministry is coming for lunch - and I will be able to meet her. Scott has an appointment at 3:30 with a person from HR - so hopefully we will have some answers tomorrow.

I will post more as I have time. Please leave comments and questions - I would love to hear from you all.

Dawn

Feet on the ground in Pune as of 10/21....wait or is that 21/10.....

Sorry this has taken so long to post. We have departed the land of the FREE and now have to pay by the minute for internet access. I’m typing this up and my husband will post it from work.

Thursday Oct 18 – Indianapolis to Detroit to Amsterdam

Airport in Indy was no problem. While we were there we realized that our tickets were first class. Never ridden in first(business) class before. There was nothing special about the trip to Detroit – just over an hour long. When we entered the plane in Detroit – first class was huge. I couldn’t even touch the seat in front of me with my feet. The chairs almost fully reclined. I think I’ve been spoiled because the thought of several 8 hour flights in coach with 2 kids does not thrill me. There was video on demand and we watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as well as Die hard. The service was excellent and there were like 4 courses to our meal. It took forever to finally get to dessert and I felt like I ate the first half of the trip. Who can complain about eating constantly? J

We arrived in Amsterdam at almost 6 in the morning local time. We also discovered upon further examination of our tickets that we had just over 24 hours in the Netherlands. Our hotel was about 15 minutes from the airport. We slept the first 6 hours and then went to explore. We were pretty far from the historic downtown tourist section – and after walking for 30-45 minutes just to find a place that had food – I decided I was too wiped out to continue – but we did find out the lay of the land and know how to use the busses and train. We hope to do some more sightseeing on our way back. We ate dinner at the restaurant hotel – very nice and European. I had pasta and my husband had venison. I teased him that he had to leave the country to actually get deer meat. J

Friday October 19 – Amsterdam to Mumbai

We left Amsterdam at 10 in the morning and arrived at Mumbai (Bombay) at 10 PM something local time. We cleared customs rather quickly. Just showed our passport and visa and we cleared immigration, our bags were x-rayed and that was customs. The Hyatt had a driver waiting (not necessarily for us) and the hotel was about 5 minutes away. I was expecting horrible smells – but haven’t experienced anything as of yet. India is a land of extremes. We were in a hotel with marble bathrooms and a clear glass sink (I told my husband I don’t EVER want a glass sink – every water droplet shows) and across the street are shanty’s with people with no electricity and no running water. I didn’t sleep well that night and the next morning sickness decided to kick in full force. I skipped breakfast and our driver came at 9 for our 3+ hour trip to Pune. We saw many new things on our way. my husband said he saw several people going in the street and I looked to see a little boy peeing out his front door. I saw kids my girls’ age playing in a trash heap. I saw several families plowing their fields with a pair of oxen and a wooden plow. It reminded me of listening to “Little House on the Prairie” on our Branson trip.

{note added by SAHMIND's hubby: Mumbai (Bombay) is a city of 30 million people, Pune is a small town of only 4 million. everywhere is far more crowded than you will feel in Indiana, but you do get the sense that Mumbai is larger. }

Traffic in India can only be described as organized chaos. Everyone is cutting you off – but everybody yields as well. Many of the truck said “Horn OK Please”. Horns are used to let people know you are there and to get them to yield. I was not nearly as freaked out as my husband thought I would be.

We arrived at Pune around lunch time – for which I was very grateful. We got room service and I ordered a Philly Cheesesteak sub – yes I got beef my first meal in Pune. We are on the 8^th floor and our room overlooks a train station. Once again we are in the height of luxury and we can look out our window and see utter squalor. Our hotel has 5 restaurants: an Indian one on the rooftop (by the pool), an asian/Thai one, a multi cuisine bistro and a bar. We chose the Asian one and it was very nice. The servers hold your chair for you and put your napkin in your lap. If you leave your seat – they will re-fold your napkin next to your plate. We felt like royalty and not the middle class we are used to. Everyone is constantly asking if we had a good trip and if we like our rooms.

P.S. we will try to post pictures soon