Pind Balluchi | India trip

Vinni arrived in Delhi from Houston last night. We had planned to meet up for lunch today with Ruchir. Both Ruchir and Vinni are vegetarian, so they picked a place that had good vegetarian food, this time North Indian, called Pind Balluchi. The apetizers were particularly good. We spent a good two hours catching up in a relaxed setting.

This trip did not allow for much sight seeing because the whole time was packed with work. I need to head back to the US quickly so I could not make time for a longer trip. But my big takeaways were how much the Indian society and economy has progressed in the last several years, how bustling and large our company is in India. It is also the age of the free agent here because of how fast the economy is growing. None of these things are visible from Houston. Hearing about it does not give one the same appreciation as soaking it up by being there.

I am going to the airport shortly to head back home. The first leg of the journey is a 20 hour flight from Delhi to Newark so I will need to get some sleep. I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse into my trip. I will write again on other topics in the future.
Cheers.

Indian breakfast | India trip

This morning I decided to have an Indian breakfast. It was so good that I ended up eating too much.

Getting more done | India trip

The second day of the workshop was even more productive than the yesteray. As a team we hit a stride, and although at different times it felt like we were jumping around the topics a lot, the conversations actually converged into a set of decisions. There was some serious out of the box thinking and we tested our ideas again real-life scenarios of the past as well as some future potential scenarios. We had filled all the whiteboards along the 3 walls of the room several times over. The work day ended with a checkpoint with Alan.

Some of us decided to unwind at the Punjabi restaurant right across the street from the office. The kebabs were incredible once again, including the vegetarian ones. We stayed there until they closed at 11:00.

Getting down to work | India trip

Wednesday was the first day of the two day workshop that brought me to Delhi. Yesterday afternoon, the jetlag had hit me hard, so I was hoping that I would be better adjusted today. After breakfast at the hotel (this time they had fresh watermelon juice) I got in the car which was waiting for me out front. Every ride is an adventure in Delhi - the sights, the traffic (families on motor bikes, overloaded buses, ...), and all the little events along the way like a divine cow trying to cross the highway in rush hour.

Late afternoon, the jetlag hit me again, but not as hard as yesterday. We took a break to get some coffee and continued with work. Dinner was set up at a restaurant called Caraway in the Grand Hotel in Delhi. Caraway is known for its amazing kebabs. I had dined there before, three years ago, so I had some idea of what to expect. The kebabs are some of the best you can get anywhere in the world, but the overall quality and finesse is not quite like the Tamarind in The Mayfair, London.

Saravana Bhavan | India trip

About eight years ago a colleague, ST, worked with me for six months in San Francisco. Apparently those six months was quite impactful. ST looked me up and set up a dinner meeting for Tuesday night. He is from South India and is also a vegetarian, so he recommended a great South Indian vegetarian restaurant in Delhi called Saravana Bhavan. The owner of this restaurant has also recently opened another restaurant in Decatur, Atlanta.

Saravana Bhavan is a dive by Western standards. We decided that we should order many different things in small quantities. I let ST do the ordering. We ended up with a 5 course meal but we had none of the usual items we order in a South Indian restaurant in the US (e.g. masala dosa, etc.). Most of the items were completely new to me and dinner was absolutely delectable.

Over dinner we had many years of catch up to do. ST and I went through very similar events in life over these years, we both had two children, had our fathers pass away, relocated a few times, grew individually and so on. Even though we had not talked for almost seven years, we did not miss a beat - it felt like we had known each other for a long time. After dinner we took a stroll in front of India gate in Downtown Delhi to finish our conversation before returning to the hotel.

Breakfast 2 | India trip

The food was quite amazing. My favorites were the dragon fruit, the
scrambled eggs with asparagus, and the tall glass of lychee juice (I
had to go for seconds on the juice).

Breakfast | India trip

As I walked into the restaurant at 7:15 am, I saw that in addition to
the tables with white tablecloth inside, there were a few tables out
in the courtyard. A waiter approached me and started leading me to a
table. I asked if I could sit outside and his response was, "it is not
very nice out today." I was thinking it would be muggy and hot, but
the waiter proceeded to that, "it is too cold outside." I stepped out
to check it for myself. The temperature was just perfect - mid to high
60's - there were birds singing, and the tables were under the shade
of trees (see the bird's eye view of the courtyard). I could not pass
this up for the fluorescent and cool inside.

Visiting India

It has been over 3 years since I have been to India. A lot has changed during this period. Gurgaon, where the Sapient office is located, has become an even more bustling part of the city with several new glass and concrete towers in the skyline. Sapient now has a new office located in one of these buildings - new since summer 2004.

The last time I visited, I was traveling with Alan, Bob and Frank, so a lot of the logistics were already taken care of by Alan's assistant at that time. This time I was traveling alone, so I had to make sure everything was lined up. After I landed, I went through immigration and customs quickly, specially since I did not have any checked luggage. After customs, I walked out into the arrivals area with some trepidation because I wasn't sure if the car that was supposedly arranged for me would actually be there, since it was arranged so last minute. Sure enough, there was a guy holding a sign with my name on it - there were hundreds of other people holding signs too, so I had to really squint and make sure I did not miss it.

The car ride to the hotel was comfortable. There is a new highway in Gurgaon, but the area between the airport and Uppal's Orchid Hotel was quite barren with the exception of the Radisson Hotel about half way between. When the driver dropped me off, I told him to pick me up at 8:00 am the next morning.

I checked into the hotel and the receptionist walked me to my room and showed me all the facilities available. He told me that breakfast is served from 7:00 to 10:00 am downstairs, and is included in the room charge. It was a very comfortable room and although not a large room, it had all the amenities. Right then I remembered that I left the power adapter to convert the US plug to fit the Indian socket at home in my study. I decided I would ask the concierge for an adapter in the morning. I caught up on the urgent emails using the battery power. Before going to sleep, I called the receptionist for a wake up call at 6:00am, and she asked if I would like a cup of tea with the wake up call!

The next few entries until Friday, October 12, 2007, will be from my trip in India.