hyderabad pt. 4

in order to prevent anybody from thinking this is all work and no play...this post will be about sightseeing...

i went into the office on sunday to check emails and catch up on this blog (the wi-fi at the house was down...another thing going the way of hot water)...ken came by to see what i was doing in the afternoon and let me know that steve was going to go to golconda fort...seeing as i hadn't done any sightseeing...and that the fort was somewhere i wanted to go...i gave steve a call...we called up ismael and a driver was waiting for us as soon as i got back from the office (i had decided to walk home to practice my hyderabady shuffle)...

about half an hour into the trip...we spotted a tipped over stake bed truck on the side of the road...apparently...the water that was rushing down the street that crossed where he was driving had softened up the road so much that the truck lost its footing and the rushing water tipped it over...i immediately grabbed for my camera...and the driver was kind enough to slow down...unfortunately...i didn't notice i was still in playback mode and that the camera hadn't fired...with several cars behind us honking like a flock of geese...i didn't have a chance to take the picture...i did notice though that my camera battery was almost dead and didn't realize till much later that i had left the camera running after i had downloaded photos for the previous three blogs...no worries...i thought...i'll just grab my backup battery...much to my dismay...the backup battery was in the pocket of my backpack that was comfortably napping back at home...crap...i'm gonna have to shoot quickly and turn the camera off after every picture...


after several detours due to the minnesota-esque series of lakes we had to cross...we arrived at golconda fort...made arrangements with the driver to pick us up in about an hour and stepped out of the cab...now i understand why it was such a great idea to have a pre-arranged guide while krissy and i were traveling through northern thailand...i'm the type of person who appreciates history...but sometimes i just want to go look at places...read the signage along the way and take pictures of the buildings/ruins...no matter how many times we told the gentleman that attached himself to us like a conjoined twin that we didn't want a guide...he kept reminding us that he would "tell us the story of the fort real nice and make us feel real happy" and if we didn't accept him as a guide all we would see "is a bunch of rocks"...he kinda had a point there...after haggling about the price for a bit...we were on our way...

golconda fort was started over 800 years ago and changed hands between indian and persian dynasties...the majority of the construction happened during the qutub shahi (persian) dynasty around 500 years ago...the last of the shahi kings...muhammed quli qutub shah...was a highly suspicious king (you would be too if you had 360 wives) so he built many "enhancements" into the fort...because golconda was the center of the diamond trade in india he had to worry about invaders from all sides...he created these domelike structures (as pictured in the middle) that would amplify loud enough to cross the whole complex and echo the sound of someone clapping (if they were standing directly in the center)...muhammed also used this technology to spy on the citizenry by placing these domes throughout the complex...there is an area outside the king's chamber however where if two people stood kitty corner from each other (back to back) and whispered into the corner...it would amplify the sound just enough so the other person could hear...get caught speaking too loudly about the king and it's off with your head...his speaking chamber was set up in such a way that when he came out to address his citizens...they could only see his head from the square below...making it much harder for the daggers that were thrown at him on fairly regular intervals to strike their intended target...steven's and my sense of the stories about this king was that if you were hated so much and people were constantly talking shit about you or worse...TRYING TO KILL YOU...wouldn't it be time to find another line of work???...

another interesting architectural feature was found in the queens' chambers located (coincidentally) 360 steps above the floor of the main chamber (one step for each wife)...they had developed a series of breezeways that keep the area quite cool...i was pretty amazed at how people came up with such things so many years ago...there was also a hindu temple (pictured on the right) that had been built before the fort itself...even though shahi was muslim...he liked the temple so much that he let it stand...


after golconda...we headed to the tombs of qutub shahi...this time we were able to actually convince the guide that we didn't want a tour...the tombs are for the seven kings of the qutub shahi dynasty along with the daughter of muhammed and the builder of the charminar (another site i hope to see before i leave)...structurally they were very beautiful...each tomb had a solid black granite tombstone that was intricately carved...unfortunately...i didn't think it would be appropriate to take photos of the tombs themselves...the last tomb that we came to had a group of guys playing cricket on it (right)...i thought...wow...these guys are into cricket so much they'll play on someone's grave...

this weekend...jihad...greg and i are heading off to bombay (mumbai) for the long independence day weekend...pooja warned us to stay away from large crowds as indian independence day has been a particularly busy day for terrorists in india...our goal...to sneak on a set of a bollywood movie and become an extra (that would be sweet!!!)...pleasant dreams...

hyderabad pt. 3

i know this is kind of out of chronological order...but linear time is just so...linear...as promised...this post will be about our offices/google...and...as luck would have it...be significantly shorter than the previous two...

to start...it appears that bangalore and hyderabad are locked in a guitar and trumpet on a pole, steel cage match to the death (wrestling fans will get that reference especially the guitar and trumpet part) to be named the "silicon valley" of india (luckily without the overinflated housing prices)...the google offices are located in the aptly named "silicon towers"...architecturally speaking...it's quite an attractive building that would fit seemlessly into downtown san jose...google occupies several floors in the building and have elevators that specifically go to the google floors (although these operate much like my hot water...sporadically at best)...pooja and i were sharing an office until i showed up this morning and only my stuff was still there...it's got a nice "view" (in the right hand picture...the roundish building in the upper left hand corner was the first "call center" in hyderabad)...unlike our operation in mountain view...they actually have cubes for their operators as opposed to our bullpen style...

on wednesday...after the 22 hour flight and 40 or so hours of no sleep...i went into the office to meet with pooja and found out that we were going to spend the afternoon interviewing 45 candidates...let's just say that interviews in india are much different than in the u.s...for starters...no question is off limits...in fact...it's encouraged to ask them questions about their families...age...marital status (all the verboten topics in american interviews)...another difference is that all companies must use the same type of interview questions as their responses were completely memorized...there was no way i was going to throw my usual “if you could be any type of animal what would you be?” question at them because i would be answered with a blank stare and much head bobbing (and no one has been able to tell me where the indian head waggle came from...i still think it has to do with ganesha as it reminds me of the way elephants shake their heads)...there is also a significant difference in the i/me culture of the states and the more deflecting culture of india...by deflecting i mean that they struggle answering questions about themselves...for example...if you ask them about their schooling...they'll talk about the quality of the school as opposed to their own experience there...all in all...these were quite possibly the most difficult interviews i've ever had to suffer through...luckily...we were able to complete the interviews in 4 hours (including a 10 minute coffee/get our heads together break)...because most of the applicants were “freshers” (folks just out of college who had never worked before)...we went primarily by school background and overall attitude...if they were so robotic that they couldn't elaborate on the simplest of questions (most of them simply recited the information that was on there resumes) were out of luck...we're hoping to promote our leads and supervisors from this first batch so they needed to show me something other than good grades...i hope that my instincts were right...

ok...that should wrap it up for now...i'll start posting pics of sightseeing and my thoughts on my india trip so far in a little while (i promise!!!)...till then...pleasant dreams...

hyderabad pt. 2

i've just gotten back from my first chance to explore hyderabad (more about that later...much later) and am back in my room watching olympic swimming...as mentioned in the previous post...this post will focus primarily on driving in hyderabad...thankfully...we have a team of drivers at our beck and call so we don't need to drive ourselves...unfortunately...there's absolutely nothing of interest in the area surrounding the google offices and the city center is a 20 minute drive from where we are...

as a passenger in hyderabad...you notice early on that the indian government could've saved themselves potentially millions of dollars by not painting lines on the roads because nobody pays any attention to them anyway...lanes are entirely negotiable...between the cars...the auto-rickshaws (tuk tuks in thailand) with anywhere from 2 to 15 people (and sometimes furniture) in them and motorcycles with families of 5 making like chinese acrobats...traffic in hyderbad is a ballet...nay...modern interpretive dance of metal sheathed combustion to a symphony of randomly honking horns...one would think that there would be a plethora of accidents...but surprisingly we have seen very few...as one of our drivers said...all you need to drive in hyderabad is good brakes...a good horn...and good luck...

the skill of our drivers became readily apparent yesterday...its has been raining non-stop here since friday afternoon...and i'm not talking cats and dogs...i'm talking water buffalo and camels...needless to say the aqueducts in rome make for a much more sophisticated water system than india has...within the first day of the mini-monsoon-like downpour...the roads were completely flooded...ken (another googler from the other project) and i couldn't do the sightseeing we had hoped to do on saturday so after a half day at work we went into town to check out "the mall"...during the drive to "the mall" we had to traverse rip roaring rapids in our nissan sentra...oftentimes...the water was fender high and it didn't feel like the rubber was actually making contact with the asphalt...only on one occasion did our driver sayeed (who was impressed that i knew how to spell his name) falter...but with a "let's go for it" we plunged ahead...ken and i had gotten sayeed engrossed in conversation so he missed the turn...in hyderabad...missing a turn can tack on at least another half an hour especially with flooded roads...he took us through the back roads which turned to be similar to driving through rural areas of west virginia...plantation house...shack...plantation house...shack...plantation house...you get the picture...after about ten minutes of this...we rounded a corner only to find a felled tree...gandalf-like...silently saying "you shall not pass"...he decided to change route yet again...but this time we were on the wrong side of the road to be dropped off at the front door...ken and i told sayeed...hell...we can walk from here...we only have to cross the street...oh from the mouths of babes...aside from having to walk through ankle deep water (which was actually rushing down the street at high velocity) we also had to do our best impression of the hyderabady shuffle...these involves crossing the street in a herky-jerky fashion with an outstretched hand aimed at the oncoming traffic as the only shield between you and certain injury...we were able to dodge the squeaky braked buses and psychotic auto-rick drivers long enough to get to the mall...i won't bore you with the mall...but the reader's digest version is large...loud (especially with the heavily english accented woman telling shoppers that they only had 12 minutes to take advantage of whatever buy 2 get 2 free specials that were being offered) and claustrophobic...i couldn't wait to get out...

that evening...an hour after a snafu between myself and the transpo coordinator ismael about when we wanted to get picked up to go out for dinner...we found out from ismael that it was too dangerous to be on the roads and he was calling his drivers back...this left all of us essentially stranded and not looking forward to a dinner of pringles...oreos...and pb and j...the closest restaurant to our compound was a little over 2 miles away...certainly not walking distance in what was now knee high water in parts...luckily...another googler was being brought home from a day of sightseeing and could swing by the restaurant on his way back...jihad (a particularly unforunate name to have considering the current political climate in the u.s. and in india) phoned our order into a proprietor who was becoming increasingly doubtful (as evidenced by his repetitive call backs confirming that someone was going to pick up the food)...as promised frankie picked up the food and arrived with sustenance and a 12 pack of 24 oz. budweisers (which the restaurant had wrapped in foil to keep cold)...after dinner...jihad suggested that we watch his...shall we say "back up copy" of harold and kumar go to guantamo bay...instead of starting the film like a normal dvd would...it opened a screen of subfolders containing...shall we say photos of intimate interracial relations...needless to say we had a great laugh at jihad's expense and his none-too-believable explanation that it was his "friend's copy"...

that concludes part two of our programming...stay tuned for part three...pleasant dreams...

hyderabad pt. 1

ok...i've been in hyderabad, india for almost a week now...so i guess it's high time that i actually wrote something (and i'm writing while watching the olympics on the internet...god i love technology!!!)...i have a lot to cover so i'm going to do this in three parts...part one (this one) will cover the trip across the pond and the house...part two will cover the office...part three will talk about driving escapades...after that...i'll try to be a little more diligent about blogging (yeah...right)...

btw...the pics will open up my gallery in picasa (another wonderful google product) in their own window/tab...

i guess i should hit rewind...i've only been at adecco/google for 2 and a half months and they're already sending me places...pretty cool i must say...like many high-tech companies...google has decided to move one of the operations i supervise to india because a) duh and b) so our operation can run virtually around the clock (12.5 hour difference between the u.s. and india)...my job is to work with the site manager (pooja) to train her on how to manage this specific operation, set up/test equipment, and hire/train new staff...

for the most part...the trip was rather uneventful...this was my first time flying klm and the service was excellent...not amazing a la singapore airlines...but they were very attentive and the food was certainly better than most airlines...unfortunately...i got stuck with one of the worst seats possible...middle section...middle seat...in the row against the lavatory...i had no elbow room or leg room on the account that we couldn't recline our seats...i was a) the only american in my row and b) the only male...to my left was a lady from russia...to my right was a lady from holland (actually an employee of klm)...and to my far right a lady from sweden (who is apparently some sort of tony robbins motivational/how to attain your dreams speaker)...biggest letdown of the flight...finding out that my ipod is not compatible with our kick ass portable dvd player so i got stuck watching movies on the baby screen...one thing i learned...if i ever make this trip again (and there's a chance i'll be doing this again before the end of the year) i'm going to take a one-day layover in amsterdam...not for obvious reasons (i LOVE wooden clogs!!!)...but because this soon-to-be 40 year-old body just can't handle 22 hours of travel...however...while in amsterdam's airport...myself and chris (another googler from a different project...even though technically we're not "googlers"because we're contractors...but addeco-er doesn't have the same ring...adecco-ite...adecco-an...so i'll just call us googlers for simplictiy's sake) stopped by the casino...i plopped down 40 euro (70 american) on the blackjack table and doubled my money in about 5 minutes (i walked away of course)...

non-sequitor...it's about 11am on sunday here and i'm having oreos and water for breakfast...yum!!!

twenty-two hours after leaving san francisco...we arrived at hyderabad airport...i won't bore you with customs as it was rather uneventful...chris...myself and two other googlers from chris's project decided to hit up the duty free store to pick up "supplies"...i wearily stumbled to the scotch section and my eyes locked in sniper-like to racks overflowing with vat 69 scotch...the official scotch of the 101st infantry screaming eagles...anyone who has seen band of brothers knows that this is what kept capt. nixon sane through the war...needless to say i bought myself a bottle and it's not likely any of it will return home...we piled into the two cars that were waiting to take us on the hour long drive to our residences...

google rents rooms in a series of cookie-cutter "american style" homes for folks traveling to hyderabad...they are two stories, with four bedrooms and a living room, and are loaded with some sort of stereotypical representation of american snack foods (pringles...oreos...sweet breakfast cereals...p.b and j)...my room has marble floors, a television, a king-sized bed, running water (it's even warm on occasion), and wi-fi!!! (they can't heat water but i can check my email)...and while i'm on the subject of the showers...apparently they don't believe in cleaning the shower heads...in the twelve odd rooms google is occupying only one has a shower that actually sprays the water toward where a person would be standing....instead you have water drizzling in a loose circle around you...i've basically given up on showers and have gone "native" using the bucket and pouring cup method...we have a property manager, two "house boys" (who sleep on the marble floors), an entire army of drivers, and round the clock security (two guards at the main entrance and 1 guard covering our three houses)...they are building an apartment complex down the road from us and the folks working on the complex (and their families) live on the bottom floor of the incomplete structure...

and thus concludes part one of our program...please stay tuned for part two...pleasant dreams...