Hyderabad, First Day In the Office

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Bill Goode, Travel Advisor Extraordinaire

 

I woke up around 3:30 in the morning and could not fall back asleep. Between my nap and six hours of sleep, I was done. Since a quick scan of the channels revealed nothing I could recognize or understand, out came one of my DVD treats- Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century. I had time to watch a few episodes while relaxing and preparing for my first official day of work in Hyderabad.

The 7am wake-up call came from a live human. Very refreshing, considering most of my hotel stays the last few years featured automated calls for wake-up service.

I dashed downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. If you read the last blog entry, I mentioned the hotel has a buffet.

The buffet is not a big one, and is split in half between Indian dishes and more mainstream food. The more mainstream features chicken sausage, cereal, waffles and pancakes, fruit, eggs, pastries, bacon, a hot chicken dish, mushrooms, and an omelets station. I am not sure how to pronounce or spell the Indian dishes, so I will carry my camera to breakfast and snap some photos if they let me.

After chicken sausage and a bowl of cereal, it was time to get cleaned up and ready for work. Kishore promised to pick me up at 9am, and I needed to move if I was to be ready.

9am comes and goes, no Kishore. Same thing at 9:30.

I called him, and he was stuck in traffic. He promised to send my driver over then meet me at the office.

The driver, Moiz, was there just a few minutes later to take me over to for what so long has been only in my mind and voices at the other end of online audio calls.

Again, I cannot stress enough how glad I am to have someone drive that knows how to weave around the place. Adding to the list from the airport, the trip with Moiz included all of the obstacles in the road and cattle laying in one lane of the highway, and even more rickshaw scooter drivers! It is a blessing and a curse to see how transportation works in Hyderabad!

The Firm in Hyderabad is in a giant office park called Hi-Tech City. The main road through the complex is named for the Firm, named so because it occupies a giant chunk of real estate in the heart of the area. Each “block” is a building, and there are four buildings. The block is located a short distance away and the only one I have yet to see. The buildings are connected in a campus fashion, easy to walk around to each one.

The Firm logo is on everything in the park, and with good reason. Wherever one sees the Firm logo along the street, it becomes parking, a sort of “visitors” space. Entering each building, it is in lobbies, over doors, on promotional signs in the building lobbies. If you are in a Firm location, you will know it.

The Firm does have company in Hi-Tech City. Motorola has a building, and Dell is across the way. Other companies with a lesser presence include banks, internet companies, wireless carries, and others I do not recognize.

Trying to gain access to any Firm facility starts from the street. Security is incredible here, and a Firm badge means something more than just “swipe-and-enter”. You must display it to enter parking areas, buildings, anyplace Firm has a presence. There is lots of security both inside and out, ready to handle whatever happens at a moment’s notice.

I met Kishore in the lobby. He escorts me up one flight to the back of the building where he and coworker Srinivas B spend their days in much the same way we all do.

On this day, they are in a restricted area where they are giant stack of Dell laptops to be issued to the ever-growing workforce.

We discussed their typical day in the office…

On Deployment: Dell is everywhere in the Hyderabad offices, but one of the items they hear from their end users is a preference for HP products. Kishore’s and Srinivas’s perception are HP makes a more robust product, and they seem to hold up better.

On Support: There are walkup desks in several areas. They show me their areas, and the support desk is just hammered on this day! The tiny space has so many techs and end users, there is hardly room for us.

After a trip down the street to get my photo ID/badge, it was time for lunch. Kishore and Srinivas took me to a local place called Hyderabad House, and ordered for me a favorite of theirs, Chicken Biryani.

This was a funny lunch. They ate with their hands while I used a regular fork. The server served the chicken, brought us Sprites and water (I avoid all soft drinks, sorry), and all I could think about how was eating with hands reminded me of the Imperial Fez back in Atlanta, a Moroccan place that serves multiple courses and all you have to use to eat are your hands.

Srinivas kept asking me if I was all right. Sure, I was! No problems on my side of the table. I kept stuffing my face with the chicken, occasionally putting some curd on the side, and both Srinivas and Kishore kept looking at me in amazement. As it turns out, I am one of the first Americans they had brought there that did not get sick from the food. I have a secret weapon, don’t know if it helped, but…

Some time ago, my wife and I were eating at a place where there was what looked like a giant green pepper/pickle on my plate. My wife said it was a garnish and should be left alone, but it looked so green and inviting, I was not going to hear that it was just for looks and took a GIANT bite of it. That was a mistake! I spent the next 45 minutes wondering if I was going to have to run off to the emergency room and have my face unfrozen, my stomach pumped, my tongue iced down from the swelling, and eventually just be shot to be put out of my misery.

Since the “pepper” incident, I have yet to find another food that can lay me low in that way. Even with curry on the chicken, I was still able to eat and enjoy it, bringing a puzzled, yet delightful curiosity to my new lunch buddies, let alone me.

I also mentioned they had curd on the table. The hotel has had this on the buffet, but I avoided it like the plague. To me, curd is short for “curdle”, something I have been known to make milk do by seeing how long it will stay white-colored in the fridge past the expiration date. Only, this time, there was no getting out of it at lunch. I put a little bit on the edge of the plate and mixed a few noodles with it. When I tasted it, it seemed cool and a little sweet, almost soothing, very similar to what sour cream can do after eating a gallon of hot salsa. I’m still a little gun-shy about it, but did ok with my first curd encounter. It’s not for me, but at least I know it will not make me sick if I need to have it.

After lunch, Moiz packed us back in the car and took us back to the office.

I touched briefly on security, and there seems to be a lot all over the place. As one pulls up, they must show ID, have their trunk opened and inspected, and have a mirror placed under their car. Most places in town have these checkpoints, and there are lots of police in the streets directing traffic as the few signals I have seen do not work. If anything were to happen, I doubt it will be here, given all of the security.

Anyway, back to the office. After lunch, Kishore took me on a tour of the campus. I met most of the staff, got a good tour of the area, and settled in to do some work for the afternoon.

About 6pm, BAM! Jetlag starts to set in, so Kishore rings Moiz and asks him to come get me.

We ride back to the hotel, discussing dinner options. There are several Chinese restaurants in town, an Italian one he says I should try, but sadly discover there are not any Japanese hibachi places around. It does not matter, all I can think of is BED, LAY DOWN, SLEEP, NOW! Moiz understands and we make arrangements to meet at 9am to head into the office.

I blew off dinner in exchange for extra sleep. Once back in the hotel, I put in a 7am wake-up call, pull back the covers, and call it a day, or so I thought…

About 10:30, the phone rings. It’s Donna, asking why she has not heard from me. I was so tired, I forgot to call her!! L

After some late-night chit-chat and an episode of Buck Rogers, I finally settle in for the night.

Tomorrow is another day, and I want to be awake for it.