India – Fall 2014

I’m ready to roll…er…fly!

Lufthansa lounge @ Dulles International. Lufthansa lounges are comfy!

Namaste Seat 31K

The theme of wings carried forward to this trip. Heading out of the USA.

Heading into Germany.

Having one’s own seat entertainment center is nice. I watched lots of movies ,most of which I’d probably never pay for. Who knew there were four “Ice Age” movies?

My seat says we’re here in Bangalore.

My phone says we’re here in India.

After maybe 30 minutes of sleep in two days, everything looks kinda fuzzy like this!

I could read that, at least the Hindi parts (and, well, the English part, too!)

Marriott, my home away from home. This hotel is awesome.

I can read that. Not sure what it says, but i can read it!

Friday is here! Let the Bangalore good times begin!

Bangalore on a fine Friday morning

Lobby at the luxurious Marriott Bengaluru Whitefield

The staff at hotel helps me prep a gift for my buddy Mohan. They went and found tape, a box, wrapping paper, then did a wrap-job that would make Santa Claus weep.

I think that’s Kannada for “Marriott Bengaluru Whitefield”

Hotel

Radha Hometel – YUM

We have parking! Not so amazing, except at home I have no official office and park in my driveway.

Bangalore has traffic.

Mohan!

View from the Elite Lounge terrace: Bangalore at night.

This will someday be my heli-pad. Can I expense a helicopter?

Just like last time, we had a meeting on Friday night. This time with the ever charming Mr Holleman, back in Atlanta.

Chariot fit for a king…especially when said king is me and I have my own dirty but comfortable SUV back home!

Bangalore has traffic.

ye accha dosa hai. (this dosa is good 🙂

I had a favorite restaurant going into this trip. it was not A2B. That may, however, change…

Bangalore awakes to day three [“tina”]

My view from breakfast in the hotel.

Bangalore is a city with lots of construction going on.

Time for Lunch [dopahara ke bojana ke]. We ate at Malgudi, which is in the middle but has the smallest sign. And, in what is apparently old fashioned tradition, no TP in the loo. Just a hose with sprayer.

Kannada. I think the entire hippie movement of the 60’s was inspired by this script.

Ciber India Cricket Tournament. Fielding is “Business Consulting”. I was grateful to be added to the Management Team. Batting from our team is Kishore. I scored a couple runs.

Unfortunately, we lost. Since we lost rather quickly, the management team played it’s own game (we’re managers, we can do that!). I was on the winning half. I scored two boundaries before being run out by Mohan. For those keeping lifetime stats, note that I maintain my 1.000 lifetime batting average against Mohan. Also, I’m still awaiting my Sunrisers jersey…

Management team celebrates a victory at SBX.

This is a parking garage with lifts. I am thinking this won’t catch on in Vermont, since nobody’s 4WD is fitting under one of those.

Campfire, I think.

Cricket – a “test” match. Which is as actual game, not like a warm up. You can tell it’s a test match because of the traditional white uniforms. Ah…cricket 🙂

Bangalore, day four [chara]

Espresso, which when spelled in Hindi, sounds like… espresso! And tastes about the same, when done right, and has the same effect.

This is a mall, which I found interesting except the awful presence of SickDonalds. McDosa, anyone? boohoo!

View from the second floor of the Peacock Restaurant. Mohan knows people here. Mohan knows people everywhere. If you need something in Bangalore, just say “Mohan sent me.” Best baby corn starters in town, in this guy’s humble opinion.

Phoenix Mall theater. Time again for a movie in a language I don’t understand, with no subtitles.

Move is in Tamil, this time. Action flick, there were guns, car chases, …

… and the requisite dance scene! Really good movie, actually, and once again I enjoyed the experience.

Unlike that previously mentioned American fast food bastion, I welcomed Starbucks.

Starbucks, in my opinion, knows user experience. You know what to expect, they follow convention. This looks like any other Starbucks. It acts like any other Starbucks.

On the outside, just like any other Starbucks in any other mall. Excepting the “Tata” sign in top right, which is pretty much the parent company of any venture in India.

What do I order? Quad venti soy vanilla latte. Looks like my drink in any other country. Even spell my name right (phonetically, anyway). Sadly, the coffee sucks. I expected an average drink, like every other Starbucks provides. Nope, it sucked. Had to nix it. My buddy Mohan got me a straight four shot espresso. Blah… dumped it. Starbucks in India failed on the most critical part of their delivery.

My new favorite dining spot in India is – Mohan’s house! I was a welcomed guest at Chez Siddhan, courtesy of (l-r) Aperna, Anu, Mohan and Nimi. Channa masala dinner, with lots of other stuff and amazing dessert, from Nimi’s kitchen, was A W E S O M E! Dhanyavad 🙂

Cricket. Yay! This is T20 format, and is the Champion League version with four IPL teams and four other International champion teams. I loved having a cricket game on every night, especially when I can listen to it in Hindi.

It’s pretty cool to see the organic food movement making its presence known on the other side of the world. Yay food!

Bangalore, day five [panca]

This is what happens when your phone experiences a lag between hitting the button on camera and actually taking the picture.

That lag got really annoying….

Vanakkam (one of the three words in my Tamil vocabulary. Means “welcome”)

Bangalore has temples in seemingly random places.

Lunchtime again? Why not!

Really close up picture of the nightstand at the hotel, about 3am IST.

Bangalore has traffic.

Thin Louis, Mohan, and the Fat Chef

This restaurant name and icon seems like it belongs anywhere but here.

Nice atmosphere. Weird menu options. Food was…”meh”.

Bangalore is colorful.

Not sure what to call this picture, but I saw images like this a lot. It’s not “dirty” as much as it is like where you’d yell at your kid – “Go clean up the back yard!”

My driver, Kamalesh. This is how I saw him most of the week.

Bangalore at night.

A2B for dinner. Yum!

Oh yea… my favorite (and 2014 India Premier League champs) Kolkuta Knight Riders take on Mohan’s Chennai Super Kings, tomorrow night. Bring it on!!!

Bangalore, day six [chaha]

Bangalore has pot. In the hotel.

There’s little trees along the road protected by these cement fences. cool idea. Seems overkill, maybe it’s because people drive crazy?

I have never seen a dump truck this ornate outside Bangalore. Check out the face painted on the axle gear cover.

Another ornate heavy truck.

Bangalore has traffic.

Town Hall meeting. Mike D joins us live from the UK to speak to the team.

The team on the right side of the room.

The team on the left side of the room.

I tried quite hard to get a picture of a heavy truck fuel tank. Most of them are this ornate. Unfortunately, this one doesn’t have English script, but I know what that word is – “Diesel”.

If I ever buy a motorcycle, it’s going to be a Royal Enfield.

Indijoe, our restaurant for lunch with Vivek and Srikanta before the afternoon of festivities.

Ornate coolness abounds in Bangalore.

No idea what the bottom part says, but it looks ornate.

This was a picture resulting from the previously mentioned lag in my camera. The content is not all that interesting, but I liked the picture. Call it a jazz moment, a “happy accident”.

The India military is following us to our party.

A rarity – NO TRAFFIC!

On way to Club Cabana.

I saw this sign, and braced myself to learn how to say “Toll Gate” in Hindi. It’s… “toll gate”. So… with the words for “car” and “truck” sounding near exactly like “car” and “truck”, it seems I can navigate the basics of driving and ordering my favorite drink while on the road.

Monkeys!

Ciber India’s Oracle Practice magnificent managers – Mayur, Ankur, Nagaraj, and Ugandhar.

Team Event at Club Cabana. You can do those when you have a team in one place, like an office. Here some of the team surfs the wave pool.

Others volley while monkey’s heckle from the trees.

The team. Yay Oracle Team!

Team Building Event: divide into two groups, blow up balloons, then run around and try to break the other team’s balloons. Ready…set…CHAOS!

Team Building Event: pass a ball from one end of a line to the other, using your feet. This was a good one, the teams were pretty close and figured out how to pass the ball with some creative spot solutions.

Team Building Event: pass a hula hoop down the line, without letting go of your neighbor’s hands. This took a while, and in my humble opinion the mere physics involved undermine the intent. The best part was when the MC got upset that the teams disassembled his hula hoop. I laughed 🙂

Time for cutting loose. Dance party, India style.

Subhiksh makes the portal team proud with his smooth moves 😉

India’s answer to blah Starbucks coffee – Cafe Coffee Day!

Entry to the building housing Ciber India.

KKR vs CSK. Go team!

With expected outcome. Yay Knight Riders!

Bangalore, day seven [sata]

A cinder block shack. Correction, a high tech cinder block shack, with two – TWO – satellite dishes. I bet they get better internet than we do in Vermont.

Nandhana. Yummy!

Do people really want Papa John’s pizza in India? With so many other options, why bother?

There are some slick looking buildings in Bangalore.

And…. CRICKET!

Upon return to the Marriott I found a Towel Elephant, courtesy of my room attendant Raquib. Awww…

And a towel puppy! Awww…

Bangalore, day eight [ahta]

Bangalore has traffic. In specific, Bangalore has our mini van, a motorcycle, two busses, and a tractor.

Global Domination is on our horizon!

Last day drive back to hotel photos.

We need a bus with a Ciber logo!

Motorized Mohan.

Kamalesh, smiling driver of the week.

The sun fades on my second trip to Bangalore.

Troublesome kid. Trust me on that 😉

Goodnight Bangalore.

BLR at 1201am IST on Saturday.

Home –> that way…

Namaste, Bangalore!

Several movies later I touch down in Frankfurt.

Auf weidersen, Lufthansa!

Frankfurt airport, awaiting to board UA988 for Dulles.

Time to be home.