Thursday, July 19, 2007

At least the commute is short!

Walk out the office, turn right, bump into this:


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More random photos

A tomb...






Old woman roasting and selling corn...



Open air market. I walked around thi sone for about an hour. Pretty cool.

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More walking around the office

I was surfing a nice 102 degree fever when I went for the walk (it was 100 degrees outside and humid, but the power was out in the office and the a/c was down)



Trash heaps and construction debris everywhere



"new construction" - note the squatters already living in nooks and crannies
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ere is behind the office

Not 75 feet from the entrance to the office is this back alley. Muddy, smelly, wet.




Here is a restaurant/shanty/living quarters





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Outside the office

Live, with John Bryant!

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Inside the Bentley office in Delhi

Looks like a normal hi-tech office. Except that the power (and a/c) can go out a dozen times a day!

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Thursday, July 12, 2007

Indian urinals

Continuing my worldwide exploration of pissers, I direct you to this bathroom in the Bangalore airport.

First off, the urinal height is the highest I've ever seen. I'm much taller than the average Indian man, but I'm sill shootin' uphill.

Secondly, notice anything else a little strange??











Yes, that's correct, the urinal cakes are in the drain on the floor, not in each urinal. What does this say about the aiming skills of Indian men??

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Jugal, my colleague and guide in Bangalore

This was in the elevator before our last meeting, at 5pm. It was a tiring day.

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Light switches on a wall

So this is interesting:

We met with the people building the Bangalore Metro, the much-needed subway system in Bangalore. We were discussing (selling) Bentley products... very high-tech, 3-D CAD software. So in the midst of all this technology, here is a representative sample of the office conditions I have seen: Dirty, crooked, re-used electrical controls.


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Safety first

Entire families passed us on single motorbikes. Here's a family of four. I also saw women sitting side-saddle (like this one) cradling infants in their arms on the back of bikes, in intensely heavy traffic.

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More Bangalore

Western shops, busy streets, schoolgirls in uniform...




This is government housing for employees of the Indian Government:




This, I'm guessing, is not government housing. Across the street from the locaiton of oue of our business meetings:




And then there are the cows... Wandering freely in the streets, oblivious to traffic

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Bangalore

Tuesday night we flew 2.5 hours south to Bangalore, one of the IT hotspots in India...

Business adress in Bangalore...




Countless small food shops are all around, this one selling roti bread, for Rs5, or about 12 cents.



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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Airport food stand in Delhi domestic terminal

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Delhi contrasts

Click on this photo to get the full sized image and have a look.

In the foreground is a beautiful Taj hotel pool. Across the road there is a shanty-town/mini-slum. Contrasts like this are everywhere.

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Indian Traffic

It's all traffic, all the time in India. I spend 3-5 hours each day stuck in Taxis in traffic like this. It never ends...
There is no visible traffic law enforcement. Though, things generally move so slowly that I hear major accidents are rare



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Adventures in ironing

Perhaps harkening back to the days of the Raj, Indian irons seem to get incredibly hot very fast.

So, I brought 2 pairs of work pants with me for the week, and promptly burned a hole in one pair on my first morning.

Do they know "oy vey?!" in India?



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