Greetings from India

[bajajoaquin]

Thought this was a spam post with that subject line, didn't you?

I am in India this week for work, and although exhausting (34 hours of travel getting here, 14 hour days, including dinner meetings), I'm really enjoying it. Indians are very hospitable, and their level of education (at least those that I work with) is intimidatingly high.

One of the interesting things (car content) is that there are no old cars here. There was an opening of financial policy in 1992, which is the origin of the tech boom here. As wealth came in and started spreading downwards, people could afford cars, and they started to replace the motorcycles and smaller vehicles. There might also be regulations about old cars without pollution controls. There is a bit of a language barrier, so I'm not quite sure about that.

I'm in the middle of a city of 10,000,000 people, yet I still saw a cow in the middle of the street. There was also a guy rebuilding a scooter transmission on the side of the road outside a mechanics stall. He was using a hubcap as a workspace.

Sorry, only picture of the cow.

 

[tallhair]

At least the cow appears to be using the cross walk

 

[commando1]

Interviewing for a call center position?

Posted via Topify on Android

 

[bajajoaquin]

At least the cow appears to be using the cross walk

If so, he's the only one. Like literally. The car/truck/tuk-tuk/bicycle/pedestrian interaction is considerably more fluid here.

Interviewing for a call center position?

Posted via Topify on Android

Not sure I could get one. I don't work directly with any call centers, but some of the entry-level workers we employ have post-graduate degrees. A BA from the University of California may not cut it on the phones here!

 

[tallhair]

 

[70NPORT]

Is it safe to drink the water?

 

[bajajoaquin]

Oh, totally. As long as it's bottled, comes out of the in-room filter system, or is boiled for tea.

One of my co-workers here came out to the US last year for a business trip. He was staying at a hotel in New York, all the salesmen went out and got piss drunk. He's back in the hotel room and couldn't find the bottled water to drink, so he called room service to have some delivered. The next morning, he told the other guy who was out from India (an Englishman), who informed him that the water was safe to drink in the US.

It was a novel concept to him.

 

[bajajoaquin]

I just noticed: the guy on the bike in the cow picture has a Rams helmet on!

 

[rexus31]

Aren't cows considered sacred in India?

 

[bajajoaquin]

By Hindus, yes. India is a secular state, but the majority Hindu population ensures that cows are given wide latitude.

On the way over, I flew a Muslim-owned airline, Emirates. Their menu had neither beef nor pork. I thought to myself: poor chickens and sheep: no god is looking out for you.

 

[patrick66]

^^^The Arab world is big on goat meat. Really big on goat meat. In a really baaaaad way.

They consider pigs, cats, and dogs to be "unclean"; and therefore subject them to the most horrible treatment you can imagine. Not much to like in the Middle East at all.