First day in the Noida office − 13 May, 2005
I'll update this later to give you a feel of the office environment. After a long day in the office and my presentation to the top brass, I was taken out to dinner by one of the vice-presidents. We went to a 5* hotel... I must get the name because it was fantastic. Traditional turbaned (is that a verb?) officers salute you as you enter!
What a fantastic meal… and how guilty do I feel? I have been to “the best Thai restaurant in Delhi” – which I suspect, translated, is the best Thai restaurant in India. After 3 courses; starters, a soup and a main course, a fantastic bottle of Indian wine (yes, it’s true, they have even outsourced that and it’s really getting there) and several hours of good conversation, we returned to our car. I suspect that the driver had been waiting for us to finish our dinner; at least 3 hours waiting. The roads, for once, after midnight were almost clear. The middle of the road is separated by enough of an area for a cow to stand. On the way home I noticed bunches of discarded material, rags, or bits of cardboard strewn on this dividing area; not unlike a blown-out tyre left on the division between a northbound and southbound carriageway in the UK. Upon closer inspection I realised that these seemingly random bundles had feet and were actually people sleeping rough. I have just filled myself on food and wine, got transported back to my luxury hotel where I will sleep in a bed that almost completely subsumes me and is about 3 times wider and 4000 times softer than a concrete divider in the middle of a motorway.
Number of power cuts: 2
PS. The meal got its own back... water tomorrow.
What a fantastic meal… and how guilty do I feel? I have been to “the best Thai restaurant in Delhi” – which I suspect, translated, is the best Thai restaurant in India. After 3 courses; starters, a soup and a main course, a fantastic bottle of Indian wine (yes, it’s true, they have even outsourced that and it’s really getting there) and several hours of good conversation, we returned to our car. I suspect that the driver had been waiting for us to finish our dinner; at least 3 hours waiting. The roads, for once, after midnight were almost clear. The middle of the road is separated by enough of an area for a cow to stand. On the way home I noticed bunches of discarded material, rags, or bits of cardboard strewn on this dividing area; not unlike a blown-out tyre left on the division between a northbound and southbound carriageway in the UK. Upon closer inspection I realised that these seemingly random bundles had feet and were actually people sleeping rough. I have just filled myself on food and wine, got transported back to my luxury hotel where I will sleep in a bed that almost completely subsumes me and is about 3 times wider and 4000 times softer than a concrete divider in the middle of a motorway.
Number of power cuts: 2
PS. The meal got its own back... water tomorrow.
