India – Fall 2017 | Chris Couture

Greetings of the day!

Following the same approach as prior trip I picked a pic from each day that represents a theme of this trip. Below the daily pics is the entire set of trip pics. Enjoy!

December 01 – 17, 2017

01 Dec: This was a work-related trip so many of my stops were a mix of go-here-and-work energies. Starting the trip, I spent time in the Lufthansa Lounge having a couple calls.

02 Dec: Although I’ve been to India many times, there were multiple new aspects of the same old same old. Here I got to fly in a 747, in business class, on the upper deck. There’s always something new to experience if one pays attention 🙂

03 Dec: and of course, some things are just as they need to be, familiar and friendly. Like a cow roaming the street in Bangalore, or heading to a movie, or A2B with Mohan. Some familiarity makes India feel like home.

04 Dec: Even though I’ve been part of CherryRoad India since it began, this was the first time I’d been in our office with it officially “open for business”. Lot more life in there now with team members on board, our logo and signs, good energy all around. Excited to meet our team members in person again, some familiar folks and some meeting for the first time.

05 Dec: Great restaurants abound, but nothing tops home cooking in any country. I am fortunate to have great friends who invite me home for mealtime – thanks to Nimi and Jaya for once again treating me well in their homes 🙂 Even out to a restaurant, I enjoyed good cheer with friends and colleagues.

06 Dec: Like said earlier, I worked and worked. Two presentations during this trip. one being a remote webinar for PSUG at 4pm Eastern, which is 230am India time. Went well, thankfully! My 3rd time presenting at AIOUG Sangam went well, too, and I enjoyed heading to Hyderabad for a second visit. I love working in the Oracle community, meeting end users, consultants and architects, Oracle folks. Good group!

07 Dec: I continued my pursuit of learning both Hindi and Tamil. Am grateful for team members aiding my pursuit, correcting the subtle nuances between textbook and colloquial use of language. I’m even picking up some Kannada!

08 Dec: I am so fortunate to have met, work with, and develop friendships with absolutely amazing humans being. The entire journey is filled with wonderful folks at all stops along the way, but those moments where I get to learn more, share more, with folks I’ve gotten to know – priceless!

09 Dec: I noticed many American thing while in India this time around. Given this was holiday season I think I was acutely aware of the various Christmas items that I’d not expected. I mean, I know Christmas is a worldwide holiday but I hadn’t expected a tree in the hotel! I also noted some other American-leaning curiosities (like Prajith’s two visits to KFC during our Hyderabad trip).

10 Dec: I worked to not work all the time, just “be”-ing in Bangalore. It’s a beautiful place and stopping to chill out once in a while was definitely a plus.

11 Dec: I love taking pics from the 15th floor of the hotel

12 Dec: The office being so close to the hotel afforded me a new mode of transportation – feet! I got to experience walking from the hotel to the office and back several times.

13 Dec: Getting to explore Whitefield in different ways I got to see some local spots previously off my radar.

14 Dec: In the end, though, it was and is always people who make this an awesome journey!

15 Dec: I am grateful I get the time to see the beauty of Bangalore and it’s citizens, be they born and raised here or from somewhere else. It is called the Garden City and underneath the symptoms of uncontrolled growth the garden still seems to grow.