the traveling tshirt blog

1st International Business Trip…..con’t post #7

Back at the hotel, I spent a good portion of my time eating the local fare.  There was this great buffet in a restaurant called the Deccan Pavilion.  I love to eat. Once again, I was an attraction.  I was a stranger that had an unwavering appetite.  Trip after trip, plate after plate, I would make my way back to the grand buffet.  The aroma and appealing spices that make up Indian food really sat well with me.  This was food that prior to my trip to Hyderabad, India had never filled my plate.  Amazing! No other way to describe foods like Tandori Chicken, Chicken Tikki Marsala or Biryani rice.  I could not get enough.  Sometimes, I would break my routine and order from the menu.  I often tried the Deccan Pavilion’s hamburger.  Always ordered two.  These were not your typical burgers.  I believed they were mutton which is meat from mature sheep..  Mutton or not, they were good.  The wait staff found it so interesting (and funny) that I would consume two hamburgers at one sitting without any difficulty.  A normal occurrence back in the States, but apparently not in Hyderabad, India. 

The ITC Kakatiya was considered a five star hotel. It was common for political dignitaries, senior business leaders and Bollywood movie stars to be among the guests.  Many times, I would step outside of my hotel room and be met by gun toting security guards standing in the hallway.  I am not talking about a shouldered rifle or a pistol in a holster; I am talking about sub-machine guns.  Pretty intimidating and un-nerving when a man points it in your direction for simply opening your door.

While in Hyderabad, India, it was not uncommon to be asked to join other people while dining in the hotel restaurants.  Often, I found myself eating alone so I actually enjoyed this experience.  Sometimes, after the meal ended and my dinner company parted, I would be approached by either waiters or new friends and informed that the person I was just sitting with was famous.  I still remember being asked if I had any idea who my table guests were.  Sometimes, they would be respected businessmen or even beautiful bollywood actresses such as Amisha Patel or Aishwarya Rai.  Glad I often found out after the meal or I probably would have been nervous.

1st International Business Trip…Con’t Post#6

I may or may not have mentioned that I live by the mantra “good attention…bad attention…it’s all attention”.  Well, I got attention; People were coming out of everywhere to take a look at the strangers walking through.   Everyone was professional and maintained their composure but it was clear that something or someone was new.  I was just as excited as everyone else…I mean, I never got this kind of attention and I liked it. We were taken directly to security and issued our badges.  We were now official and would be part of the daily landscape for the next few months.

So, I arrived in India to 100 degree weather.  My luck, I must have caught a cold right before leaving the US.  When it is 100 degrees and you are congested and wheezing you are miserable.   However, you have to maintain that cheerful, upbeat disposition so I faked it the best I could. 

So we had a meeting with this company’s senior management to discuss the “as is” process that we were outsourcing.  My ass was dragging and I needed some medicine to maintain my cheery appearance.  This company actually had these medical stations with cabinets full of pills.  Medications like ibuprofen, decongestants and antihistamines.  The only problem was that I could not read all of the labels as they were not all in English.  I asked for assistance deciphering the meds.  However, I may not have listed carefully and was too embarrassed to let on that I missed the explanation of what was what.  OK….So, I overdosed on antihistamines.  I was able to attend my meeting.  I was able to explain my process maps and give a complete overview but that was it.  First came the yawns…then the heavy eyes and then the confusion.  I was screwed.   I managed to explain it away as the flu and went back to the hotel.  I slept for hours.  I was a mess.

1st International Business Trip….con’t…post#5

We would be working at night to mirror the work hours back in the US.  We would arrive at Cyber Towers in HiTec (Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy) City on the outskirts of Hyderabad at approximately 6:00pm each night.  The drive in was organized chaos at best.  Traffic was everywhere…I mean everywhere…there are no defined sides of the road.  If you are not from India, you are best not to look outside the windshield.  You had cars, trucks, motorized rickshaw cabs, bikes….cattle (yes, cows) and scooters that sometimes were piled high with complete families balanced carefully on top …yikes!

HiTec City was this emerging business park that was spread out on 150+ acres.  When I was there, Cyber Towers was the primary (I think…only) structure.  It housed companies like Oracle, HBSC, Microsoft and GE.  It was GE that I was there to work with.  What I found amazing was how the buildings were being built in and around this business park.  Men were using wooden, stick scaffolding and I mean stick….trees that looked like they were stripped of their branches and leaves.  This makeshift scaffolding held men, equipment and building materials high above the ground. They would set up these forms and fill them with concrete to build each floor and wall.  One man would take this large wooden bowl filled with concrete and hand it up over their head to the man above.  Amazing to watch (may sound boring) but was simply hard to believe that corporate buildings could be built like this.  We are talking about constant work in constant heat like 104 degrees plus.

My first day arriving at HiTec City laid the ground work for the rest of my trip.  As I mentioned, I stood out. …no blending in.  Remember, Hyderabad was just developing.  By the looks of the traffic, you would think otherwise but not everyone had transportation or reliable transportation so companies would supply either buses or car services for the employees.  However, you had to wait for your ride.  When we would show up at 6:00pm, employees were leaving for the day and they would be in huge lines of people just waiting.  I stepped out of the car and eyes were on me.  I looked different and at 6’4” stood above almost all.  As we walked towards the building, crowds of people would follow us all the way to the elevator.  Now, the interesting thing about these elevators was the lay-out.  For the most part In the US, elevator’s are basically square….not very deep.  In Cyber Towers in Hyderabad, India, the elevators seemed like they were 10 feet deep and 3-4 feet wide.  In the US, most people enter the elevator and turn to face the doors…..watching the floor indicator.  Here at Cyber Towers, people walked in and stared at the rear of the elevator.  Being a guest, I was let in the elevator just about first; I turned and looked toward the floor indicator.  Everyone else stepped in and stared at the back of the elevator and at the tall blond guy.