So I spent the Saturday following the late night of beer drinking touring Hyderabad slowly at my own pace.... meaning I slept in and didn't do much of anything until about 1 in the afternoon. Yeah, that's right I'm in a foriegn country on the other side of the world being lazy and wasting time.... did you guys really expect anything different?.
Anyway. I started off my day with a trip KFC, India
style! I know I know I know. I didn't fly over9,000 miles just to eat fried chicken, but sometimes you just really need some good friend food. Anyway the check was good and greasy and delicious. I also saw some of the first white anglo saxon's I've seen in Hyderabad. That was fun.
After this gluttony, I decided I should start shopping for all you people back in the states. So, I headed across town to the big IMAX theater with attached shopping center. This place is really unique, it has three floors of stores, fast food restaurants, and even an arcade. Needless to say, I spent the next hour to hour and a half getting my video game on in the arcade. Turns out, I'm pretty good at House of the Dead 4. It's a really good game by the way... nothing like the movie in other words. Turns out that i didn't really want to buy you guys anything.... yet hahahaha ;-)
After my fun at the arcade, the sun was getting low in the sky so I decided to go over to Husain Sagar and visit the Buddha statue on the lake. It was pretty much sunset when I got there and I had to take this picture with a slow shutter speed in order to be able to see his face. That's why it looks like he is glowing.
I hung around on the little island for quite some time. got some good pictures of the sunset... sunsets are amazing here by the way. The sky lights up like fire. I have a couple more of a 
different night where it is more intense. The only thing i can't stand about this photo is the stupid billboard right under neath the sun. kind of dectracts from the whole thing. ehhh can't always be perfect right? hehehe
After this outing, I made a quick stop over to a "handicraft" store in hopes to get an idea of some of the merchandise to purchase. They have some really amazing stuff. Some of it is worth every penny, while others just make you say "huh?!?!?! you want how much for that hunk of wood". This place did have some amazing shawls.. there's another word for it, but I can't remember. lots and lots of hand stiching and embroidery. I actually saw one that cost 40,000 rupees.... that's about $1000 for those of you keeping track. It was simply amazing to look at. The stiching was superb and you could not see a loose thread anywhere.
Ok, I must bid you adeu for now to get some MUCH needed rest. I wish you well from India!
Out and About on My Own...
I'll have a beer please
I started out the weekend of the 27th going to a pub with Nitin and Venkatesh. We decided to go to a more restaurant style pub where we could sit, drink, and converse. This was my first taste of India beer. Apparently there are two main Indian beers: Royal Challenge, and Kingfisher. This night, we chose to drink Kingfisher... I think that may also be because they didn't serve Royal Challenge at the pub we went to. This place was very .... posh. It felt like a fancy American 
bar actually. Two large LCD tv's that were showing the Pakistan vs India cricket match. We had ... a couple pitchers, some chicken drumsticks (i think they were tandorri style), Apollo Fish, and some really great roasted cashews.
We had a fantastic conversation through the course of the evening, discussing topics such as the caste system, differences in communication styles between cultures, and even arranged marriages. It was an awesome evening. It wish it could have lasted longer, but simply put.... I was exhausted. So I headed home around 1 to catch some zzz's before my first day out in Hyderabad by myself. YIPEE!!!
Apollo Fish - This is my first fish dish and man was it good. It was the second spiciest dish I've had here in India. I wish I could describe the taste a bit better for you... It's basically fish which they batter then fry after which they stir fry with some spices and then serve it with curry leaves. It's delicious. I HIGHLY recomend trying it. Be prepared, it is spicy... about as spicy as really hot salsa.
The Charminar
You may be asking yourself "What's the Charminar?" Well, literally translated Charminar means "Four Spires". Fitting name huh?
The Charminar is actually pretty cool. It was build in 1591 by then sultan Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah (pronounced Cooly Ka-tube Sha... I think) to commemorate the eradication of plague that was devastating his kingdom. His kingdom was that of Golconda (see post titled "A little bigger taste of India"). He was the fourth sultan of the Qutb Shah dynasty and founded Hyderabad. The city was named after his favorite dancer who, according to legend, was his lover and eventually became his wife.
There is actually, or was rather, a secret tunnel from the Charminar to Golconda Fort some 10km away. Sorry folks, I would have walked it, but the tunnel has been blocked off for some time now. Oh well. You also can not go any higher than the first terrace level (where you see all the people). It is actually a lot higher up than it looks in this picture. Check out part of the spiral stairs we had to climb to get to the top. Say hello to everyone Dayakar. He is part of the QA team here in India and had the pleasure of taking me on a mini tour around Hyderabad that Sunday.
From the terrace you can see over top of all the surrounding buildings. If it hadn't been overcast, you can actually see the top of Golconda Fort (You could see it, but the picture I took doesn't look like much) and Birla Temple. There is also a really good view of one of the most famous mosques in Muslim faith; Mecca Masjid. It is named such because according to legend, some of the bricks used to construct its main arch were brought to Hyderabad from Mecca.
Construction of the mosque was started by the same ruler that built the Charminar, Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah in 1617. However, it wasn't completed until 1694 by the Mughals who had taken over Golconda. So, for those of you with poor math skills, the mosque took 77 years to build. It was a really inspiring place. Just stepping through the gate and standing next to the pond in front of the mosque, you feel as if you are standing on holy ground.
All around Charminar is a bizzaar filled with handicrafts. This area is actually very well known for it's pearls and bangles and pearl bangles hahaha. I'm actually planning to go back here to do some shopping. I wasn't able to go around very much to really explore all the buying possibilities while I was there. Partly because of how unbeleivably tired I was from travelling all around the previous two days, and partly because I was still adjusting to the new timezone, eating habits, and schedule. The third part was 
the traffic around Charminar. Because it is the most popular tourist spot in Hyderabad along with all the shops in every direction, the roads are PACKED with cars and "autos." Autos are the three wheeled yellow vehicles you see in this photo. As busy as this photo looks, just think.... I went on a holiday. On holidays, everyone heads home to be with their families, so this is light traffic since there are so few people in the city. I think Ryan saw it during regular busy times. As bad as it was, I can't imagine it being worse than this. I nearly got run over 15 times and I only crossed the road twice!
After the Charminar, Dayakar and I tried to go to the Salar Jung Musuem. We fought our way through all the traffic only to be denied entrance due to the musuem being closed for the holiday. DANGIT! It's ok though, we were able to go the next weekend WOOHOO! We also tried to go ride a camel on the Necklace RD, but were denied that as well... but guess what "we were able to go the next weekend WOOHOO!" hehehe You know you love me and my humor!
You know the best part about ending this post.... I finally finished writting about my first weekend in India WOOOOTAAAAAH!!! Go Matt!
Closest I've been to Hollywood...
Ok, I know this is really late, but i'm finally able to sit down and write up my activities from last saturday... yeah ... I mean 10/20/2007 hehehe.
I only had to travel 9,000 miles to finally make it Hollywood. HAHAHA. So I spent the day in Ramoji Film City. It was described to me to be similar to Universal Studios. At 1666 acres, it is the "largest integrated fim studio complex" in the world.
The setting was simply magnificent. It is about 25km(~16miles) outside Hyderabad to the South. However, I am staying in the North end of Hyderabad, so combining that distance and the traffic, the drive took about an hour and half. It didn't seem to take that long especially with Chanti, his wife, and her brother as company. 
On the way, we stopped at a fruit stand just outside the city since I had not eaten breakfast. We picked up a couple apples and an umma granite (see picture to the right). This was an amazingly interesting fruit. Each "cell" that you see can be pulled out whole and is filled with juice. The guy told us this one was seedless, but it clearly wasn't. Each of the little cell's also has a seed. They aren't super hard, taste a little like sunflower seeds. Not sure I can come up with a good comparison for the juice other than it was delicious.
Ramouji Film City is set in an area similar to the Hill Country in Texas. 
hehehe ok, now some real pictures of the gardens and backdrops
Like those better? Just after we went through some of the gardens we entered a mock cave where they had built a replica of several different caves around India, 
including one with a rather large statue of Buda (the snake picture was taken inside of this cave replica). Inside the cave they had employees wearing gray robes so they would blend in to the cave and not intrude on the guests experience. Lots of people found them scary and started screaming. YAY for 12 year olds!! When we exited the cave, it had started raining heavily so we ducked back inside the cave to stay dry. Imagine 100 people crammed into a 10x10 room and you'll know what it felt like. After the rain stopped, we caught the bus back to the main area of RFC only to find out we had missed the Western Stunt Show. Either that or it had been canceled, I'm not sure. So, we caught another bus out of the park and headed back to Hyderabad.
This was the same weekend as Vijayadashami (aka Dussehra). It is a celebration of good over evil when the Goddess Durga vanquishes the demon* Mahishasura. I was really lucky and Chanti took me to her temple to see the decorations and so they could briefly worship. It was an amazing thing to see. There were lights EVERYWHERE!!
Inside there were strings of flowers hanging from the ceiling and draped to the walls. Yellow and red were the main colors with smatterings of white here and there. In this photo you can see a young girl about the age of 6 or 7 dancing one of the classical dances to the diety. In the background you can see an example of the 
strings of flowers being draped through out the entire temple. I apologize for the exposure... it was near impossible to get good photos because of not using a flash and all the yellow and red flowers everywhere. We stayed and watched three dances and then left. It was an awesome experience and I'm really glad Chanti and his family were willing to take me to this temple and show me around and explain everything that was going on. The next day were the main festivities and the line to get in to the temple we visited extended around the temple and filled the quarter mile 4 lane road leading up to the temple (this temple is a very popular one for Durga). That night they set off several fireworks in different places around the city. I was not expecting this and started to get really nervous at the first couple "explosions". So I went up on the roof and saw that it was merely fireworks going off on the corner.
Next up: The Charminar
*demon merely means "evil not god" it does not have such a powerful negative conotation as the english meaning behind the word "demon"
Work Posting!!
The Southern Division IT group met in San Antonio to discuss Vision 2010. We came up with a Vision 2010 for the IT group. One of the main items in our Vision is to increase our percentage contribution of the Southern Divisions Net Profit from 4% to 10%. This is a huge jump in profit for us meaning we will need to over double our size (all things being equal).
I was discussing this with Jay Pandya over the weekend, and he had a fantastic idea. Instead of struggling to hire 30 new people in the Southern Division, we hire 3 or 4 very experienced people that want to lead a team of developers in our Weston India office. For every 10 people in India, we should hire atleast 1 person to manage the projects being sent to those new developers.
One possible way to handle projects in this manner is as follows: When we begin a new project, have two leads; project manager, technical lead, etc, at the project kickoff and requirements gathering meetings. One of these two leads would then head to India to be the initial point of contact for the team in India, while the other lead stayed in the states as the primary contact for the client and the development team. This way, the development team being in India is transparent to the client.
The benefits of this method is that we would not have to handle all the overhead of employing 30 or 40 new people or the cost of hiring that many new employees. Jay said this is the structure that others companies he has worked for use to manage projects in India.
I also spoke with a gentleman from another company on the plane that briefly described how his company manages their projects in India. He said that they perform UI and kernal development in the states, and use their India team to develop all the rest.
There are a myriad of other ways to utilize our group India, and I will keep you guys informed of other ideas I come across including pros and cons for each. Please feel free to post comments discussing these ideas as well.
A little bigger taste of India
So after walking all around Shilparamam Crafts Village (which is one place I'm going to visit when I decide it's time to buy a bunch of stuff) I came back home for a quick lunch (food discussion to come at the end of this post). Jaye then came back to we all went to Golconda Fort. There is a ton of history here and would take way too long for me to tell it all. Sooooo, here is a real quick brief history:
King built the fort out of sand...muslim king took over, tore down the fort and re-built in stone that they mined from the actual mountain that the fort is built on. When he did this, he left the original temple built at the top of the fort to show that the fort was a blending of
the two religions (hindu and muslim i beleive). Also, when kings died their bodies where taken out through the back entrance to the burial tombs; the big round things you see in the background of this picture -->
The reason for this was after the death of a king, the city/state/nation would go 40 days before the next king was named. During this time they were very succeptable to attack because of the lack of power (power vaccuum). So, when a king died, it was kept a secret until the successor was named.
The fort itself encompases about 7 square kilometers (that's about 2.7 square miles) there are a total of 14 entrances through the first, outer ring wall. The main entrance is built in similar style to european style castles, with the faux main entrance before the main gate. The main gate has a boiling oil/water chute to soak would be attackers (i know it has a name, but i can't remember it for the life of me). Also, directly behind this main gate area is a large domed supported by four pillars (and connected to the gate house). When you stand in the very center and clap, you hear a really qicked echo. If you pay super close attention, the sound is actually echoed 24 times due to the 24 "divets" or vaults in the ceiling around the central dome. Wait there's more... when you step about 3meters in any direction, the you no longer hear the echo even when someone else is in the center clapping, or you clap. The coolest part, i know that's pretty friggin cool right? wait till you hear this, when someone claps the sound can be heard at the very top of the fort at a listening station. this area is nearly 300 yards away and elevated about 
+100yards. Also, apparently you can communicate from the top of the fort back down to this area in the same manner.
No, this isn't the spot. But, this does show some of the really cool architecture they used. Instead of Completely tearing down the "mountain" they would carve away some of the rock to make bricks and then leave others as foundation supports. Did I mention that the fort took 62 years to build? and that is just the rock version. It was a really cool trip. TONS of walking. It has to be atleast 2 miles round trip from the gate house to the top of the fort and back down. But I will only say this once....
The view from the top of the fort was simply UNBELIEVABLE! You got a 360° view of the city. 
This picture wasn't even taken from the top of the fort. the building in the middle with all the lights is the room right behind the gatehouse that I was telling you about earlier.
The "listening station" is about another 100yards directly behind me ... well not straight back, it's up about another 100 feet or so. I wasn't able to take any pictures from the very top because it was getting too dark and my camera doesn't take very good night shots. However, this area was well lit and we were able to take a couple good shots with the cannon hehehe.
Food
And here begins my first entry about food in India. This first dish is actually the left overs from my first dinner out with Srikanth. I honestly can't remember the names of either of these two items, but the bread is just plain white bread from the grocery store. The green curry is a chicken based curry with pomagrenite and other veges. It was delicious, even after it was reheated. The second item is cauliflower dipped in some type of herb batter and then deep fried. At the restaurant we tried three different types of bread... two naans and another type of bread that was super thin, thinner than a tortilla. They actually call it handkerchief bread.
This dish, phew man was it good. It's a tomato based gravy with chicken, onions, and red peppers. This was the first really spicy dish I've had since I've been here. It was fantastic. The bread is just butter naan. I think this is my favorite bread. The only problem with it is all the butter makes your hands really greasy. We also had Hyderabad Biryani. You can get it made with any type of meat (cept maybe beef). We had it made with mutton which isn't my favorite meat consequently, this wasn't my favorite dish. I'm gonna have to try it again with another type of meat. Let me knwo if you have any questions about any of the food or anything else I've told you about.
A little taste of India
I woke up about 6 am and couldn't go back to sleep. So, I decided to go up to the roof of the apartment complex and watch the sunrise. Aparently I was a little too late to catch the sunrise, but I did take in the fresh air and the ... quiet of the early morning. When I looked down from the roof at the back of the building I saw a group of shacks where people apparently live. This is rather disconcerting to have such object povert living mere feet from 
So today I was finally able to get out and go around the city. Jaye came and picked me up about 11 this morning and we went over to Shilparamam Crafts Village. While i didn't buy anything, I definantly found a great place to go and pick up a bunch of stuff later. mainly we just walked around and looked at everything in the park/village. apparently lots of companies hold their annual meetings in the park in one of the several open areas. ... like this one
There is a stage off to the left and additional open area where they usually have bands play and can set up tables for people to sit and mingle. This is also a great place to take pictures of High Tech City in Hyderabad. You can see in all directions. We took some good pictures. I'm going to put all the pictures up so you can see them once I get them all organized.
Off to see more of the city.
First Day
YAY I got the pictures to work finally!!!
But, after reading the post again, I fear I have made a mistake. When I said “began my trip to Hyderabad at 7am this morning” I meant 7am SUNDAY morning not Monday. To make sure you know how long the trip was, my first flight left Austin at 11:40 am Sunday. I arrived in Hyderabad at 11:20 pm Monday. If you add it up, I spent about 22 hours in side of airplanes. That doesn’t take into account the amount of time standing in lines at the airport, wandering around the airports, waiting for luggage at baggage claim, travel time to and from the airport, and time change as I traveled east. If you take all that in to account, I was travelling for about 32 hours. It was AWESOME! 32 hours, 3 bad airplane meals, 2 airplane changes, 1 good meal with family, 1 long cab ride, 3 movies (that I was awake for), 2 magazines (I’m a slow reader… plus I slept a lot), 1 confused ticketing agent in Germany, 3 passport stamps and you too can join me in India!
It actually wasn’t nearly as bad as that sounds. Not once did I even feel like I was stuck in a plane. I think I was just so excited about getting here that I didn’t mind being stuck on planes for 10 hours at a time. I especially didn’t mind after I walked into my hotel room. I didn’t get any pictures of the front of the hotel, but to get to the hotel, you have to drive around this pond out front with fountains. Looking at the pictures I took of the room, it defiantly doesn’t look spectacular, but I have to say it was one of the nicest hotels I have stayed in. Of course it was the first hotel room I’ve ever stayed in that had a mini bar hahaha. When I finally woke up on Tuesday, I looked out the window at the country that is going to be my home for the next month…
I didn’t see much. So I took some pictures at the cool entry way of the hotel. 
Srikanth came to pick me up about 10am to take me to the apt I’d be staying in and then on to the office. Upon his arrival, I realized that I did not have any breakfast and was famished. So, we took a couple minutes to partake of the complimentary breakfast buffet in the hotel. It was really good. I highly recommend the breadcrumb fried eggs. It’s half a hard-boiled egg battered and deep friend. It was excellent. They also had friend fish and soup as breakfast offerings. Intriguing, to say the least. We finally left the hotel and drove over to the apartment complex. This is my first encounter with traffic in India. Wow. Wow. Talk about interesting. It’s almost as if the rules don’t apply. You drive however you feel like as long as you stay on the left side of the road. If there is a strip of pavement, there is a vehicle on it. No unused shoulders in this town. Stop lights? Yeah, they are good suggestions and a good warning, but few are followed. I think the most interesting thing is how aware everyone on the road is about everything that is going on around them. There are people, bicycles, motorcycles, mopeds, cars, busses, three wheeled cabs (they call them autos), trucks all weaving in and out of each other and no one is hitting each other. It’s pretty amazing to watch actually.
The other thing of note is how much construction is going on around the city. You can’t go 10 feet without coming across another construction site or work on the roads and sidewalks. One of the coolest things about the buildings they are erecting is the scaffolding. It’s all made out of wood. It’s pretty unbelievable
“I just can’t believe it Cotton.”
When we got to the office, I was greeted by the receptionist with a bouquet of flowers. They had also put up a sign in the front office welcoming me to India. Needless to say my face turned as red as some of the flowers. After this embarrassing moment, was taken around and introduced to everyone in the office. So, so many names. I’m sure you all remember what it was like when you got hired and introduced to everyone on your first day. Just a little bit disconcerting that’s for sure. By the time I finished meeting everyone, it was time for lunch YIPEE! Lunch is provided for everyone and is excellent! There are these rice chips that look like wagon wheels that are awesome. I have no idea what all of it is called, but I have yet to have something that I despised. I’ll try to get the names of some of the dishes for you all from now on … and more pictures.
Other than traffic, the most notable thing about India is how helpful everyone is. Since I met the driver at the airport, I have not had to carry any extra bags. I have actually had to demand to carry my own bags in some situations. I demanded to carry them do to the fact that I have no idea when it is appropriate to tip and how much. Though, I’m learning thanks to Satish, Srikanth, and Curtis. I’m sure I’ll be an expert by the time I leave in November.
Travel Time
Once in DC I had a little over 3 hours before my next flight to Frankfurt, Germany, so my parents came to have a late lunch. That was fun. I had what I believe is my last taste of beef until November. L I’ll make do. I’m really looking forward to trying all the new food in India. Apparently Hyderabad is well known throughout the world for its cuisine. I’ll definitely have more information on this subject as my trip progresses. In fact, I’ll try to include a quick snippet about what food I’ve been having on each of my blog entries.
The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful. Ate some bad chicken dish being served. Though I think I did give myself some amazing travel karma by giving up my aisle seat for one in the very middle of the plane. Yeah, I went from total free access to no access. Luckily I didn’t have to get up for anything. The food was pretty good… Ok I’ll be honest … it was edible. The Frankfurt airport, now that was an adventure. I arrive knowing that I need to check in to my flight and get a new boarding pass, so I find the counter and get in line get my ticket and directions to my gate. I end up having to go through TWO passport checks and security to get to my gate. Apparently, unlike the US, there are two levels of security at the airport in Frankfurt. I don’t know if that is common place in Europe, or I’m just lucky. So, after the passport checks and security screening, I walk all the way across the airport to my gate proceed to mill about the shops near the gate. Lots and lots of unlocked cell phones, I think I may end up getting a new phone before I get back. When I returned to the gate, everyone was standing in this giant circular line getting “checked in” to the flight. It was really interesting, instead of doing it as you went down through the gate, they check you in to the seating area. Then we rode a bus over to our GIANT plane and got all ready for the 10 flight to Hyderabad, India YIPEE!The flight to India was really uneventful other than the TV in Hindi, all announcements done in German, French, English, and one time I could’ve sworn they were speaking Spanish. All the stewards spoke German which was cool. This time I got two meals… man they were barely edible. I made it out alive though.
The two coolest things that happened on this flight was the sunset as we were entering India. It was awesome. I took two pictures (didn’t have a window seat otherwise I would have taken a bunch more), but I don’t think they really captured how amazing it looked. Everything was black and then there was this really bright streak of color across the horizon that looked like a rainbow except brighter than you’ve ever seen. And if you looked up slightly to the left you could see the crescent moon. It was awesome. I couldn’t get the moon in on the shots of the sunset… sorry guys. The other cool thing was as we were nearing Hyderabad, the flight was a little rough. Not bouncing all around, just some serious vibrations and then suddenly everything went perfectly still. It was hard to even hear the engines. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced while flying. I felt like we were on a giant paper airplane floating through the sky.Ok, that’s enough for the first entry. I’ll tell you about the hotel room and my first impressions of India in my next entry.