Thank you, come again

So tonight I went bowling here at Infosys with some friends and had some fun.  My first two frames were left open which was kinda depressing, but what are you gonna do when it is your first time bowling in over a year.  After that I picked up a spare, then a strike, and I had a decent second half winding up with 134.

The second game, however, I was on fire.  I was setup for a turkey (three strikes in a row) two times and on the third roll I left one pin each time.  I only left two open frames, my 4th and the 10th.  I ended up with a 182 which beat out the day’s previous high of 174.  So I got my name on the board for the remainder of the day, which was about 15 minutes since we got there late.  I did at least get a picture of the score and with me next to it.  I’ll put those up when I get a chance, it was a moment of victory in my book.

Tonight, Infosys celebrated its 25th anniversary. In attendance were the CEO of Infosys, Chief Minister of Karnataka, which is the state Mysore is in (only the Prime Minister of India is higher than this guy), Financial Minister of Karnataka, and other government officials. They had some speeches, I left when they were done, and then they had a concert of sorts for its employees. It was a very big moment for the country and for its employees.

An official article can be read here.

Tomorrow evening (9:00 am EST) is when the NASDAQ will be opened from here. In case you didn’t read the previous article, this will be the first time the NASDAQ will be opened from a foreign country and only the third time outside of NYC. It should be very exciting.

So on Thursday night myself, along with two other guys, decided to go into the town of Mysore to pick up some electronic equipment, shoes, and a watch.  While in town we stopped at a shoe store and were pleasantly surprised at the selection that we had to choose from.  The other two guys managed to find some shoes for around Rs. 500 each, while I bought a pair for Rs. 900.  One thing I learned quickly here is that the “suggested retail price” can be bargained down with some ease.  One was as easy as saying, “No, how about 500 instead of 550.”  By the way, right now Rs. 1000 is equivalent to $20.  The exchange rate is Rs. (Rupees) 45 to every $1.00.

After we bought some shoes we headed for the electronic section of town.  I say section because the part of town we were in is very segregated by the items for sale.  A whole street was “reserved” for shoes, while we found a cluster of streets with only electronics.  I will be honest in saying that I’ve never seen so many electronic stores in my life and yet still be disappointed.  These stores basically had the same of everything.  However, unlike the shoe stores, the prices were comprable to what we would pay in the U.S.  Needless to say, I didn’t go all out on anything here.  In fact my only purchase was Rs. 40 (An S-Video to Yellow RCA to output my laptop on my TV).

As far as finding a watch goes, we had some troubles.  We asked many people where we could find one and all told us to go to a place that was miles away.  However, we weren’t looking for that kind of milage.  While at the shoe store, a second time to get my shoes as the owner had to go buy my size from another store first, my new friend Z asked the guy where he could find a cheap watch.  The guy says “Just a moment”, walked around the corner and says a few words, and then comes back in saying right this way.  Just outside, right were we came in from, appeared a watch stand.  They were what Z asked for, real cheap watches.  But he was happy and bought one for Rs. 100.

After this we got our taxi back and headed to a place called Park Lane.  Upon entering we heard alot of laughter inside and found out that there were around 20 fellow Infoscions that had just arrived before us.  As we were sitting down with them, another group of 8 Infoscions arrived and we had ourselves a nice big Infosys family meal.  I’ll be honest in saying that I wussed out and ordered Chinese (Sweet & Sour chicken) while the rest ordered traditional Indian food.   It was, however, the best Sweet & Sour chicken I have ever had though.  I learned that the best Indian beer, or at least favorite, is called King Fishers.  It comes in a 650 ml bottle and tastes amazing.  It comes as either regular (5% alcohol) or strong (8% alcohol) and the strong has a more dark color and leaves a stronger after taste.

That pretty much wraps up my first night out on the town.  On the way there the taxi ride was more thrilling than the bus ride to Mysore (hard to believe, I know).  They get 3 vehicles wide in a space some Americans couldn’t even keep their one vehicle in.  None of the cars have dents or scratches and everyone utilizes the “honk get-out-of-my-way” move.  I will say that I am very impressed with their ability to drive in such conditions and not get in a wreck or hit pedestrians.  I have pictures and videos of this style of driving and will post as soon as our Internet condition is fixed here.

Oh, almost forgot, there is this four lane road, that is very busy, with a fence type of divider in the middle (it is about chest high) that had a calf tied to it.  Each car was within inches of hitting it, but it didn’t move a muscle.  It just stayed there laying in the road.

The campus here at Mysore is nothing short of a resort in the south of the United States.  It is, almost, always sunny and warm here.  Even while we are technically in the monsoon season (early in it) the weather is great.  I have some amazing pictures of the campus but I have yet to post them as I can’t due to some of the limitations the Internet guys here put on us.  Basically the only thing we can do here is look at web pages, kinda dull if you ask me.

At our campus, as with all of their campuses, we are not allowed to walk on the lawns.  People at Purdue would flat out cry if this was enforced there.  Because of this the landscaping is gorgeous as well.  All the lawns are the same length, there are palm trees, tropical looking flowers, and wild birds in the trees.  These birds sound like monkeys at first and look almost as big as one when they fly away.

All of the people that work here are incredibly polite.  I don’t know if it is because they are paid to be or what, but either way it makes me feel very welcome here.

The food, in my opinion, has been mediocre.  Then again, if you know me then you know how picky I have with certain foods.  One thing is for certain though, the food has a big lack of flavor.  This is even true for the people who enjoy the food here.  The chef is apparently from France and owns 5 (soon to be 6) very reputable restaurants in Bangalore, India.  He also owns a hotel there from what I hear.  He has come out to the tables a few times to talk to us one on one and seems like a great guy.  He checks to see how the food is and likes to apologize and tell us it is due to his low budget.  I can see where he is coming from as we haven’t had to pay for a single meal yet.  One thing is for sure though, I have grown accustomed to Cocoa Puffs and coffee for breakfast.

The campus has many extracurricular activities to take part in.  They have a rock climbing wall on the side of the Employee Care Center, a gorgeous pool (waterfall and fountains included), exercise rooms, soccer fields, badminton courts, squash courts, around 40 beer-pong (I mean ping-pong) tables, basketball courts, volleyball courts, and of course, the cricket fields (known as a cricket pitch).  I was actually approached by one of the locals and they said they love to stand around and watch us play basketball, “it is like watching the pros.”

They have a dome that very much resembles the Epcot “ball” at Disney World.  Inside there are 4 movie theaters with one even having a balcony section.  I don’t know the number so I won’t guess, but I will try to get a picture to put it in perspective.

I don’t have too much more to say about campus right now, as I find out more interesting things I’ll let you know.

Infosys Technologies Ltd will be the first company to open the Nasdaq from an international location and this will be the third remote opening ever.

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