India

Better later than never

2005-12-01T21:30:00.000-08:00

Hi guys after quite some time I am writing again. A lot of things have happened during the last few weeks. I moved into a different apartment, which is much nicer than the one I was living in before and I even have my own room with AC.
Then there were heaps of religious festivals going on to praise one of the hundreds and hundreds of Indian gods.
Last week was the wedding of my boss. It is quite impressive. They have all those traditions dances etc. It is like they are having fairytale game.
On Indian there are always between 300 and 1500 guests. Its crazy everybody that has some sort of relation to the family or the couple gets invited and provided with food drinks etc.I also went to Goa some time ago. In Goa you can find this relaxed beach backpackers lifestyle but if you expect Hippies LSD and wild parties you are 30 years to late.
In Goa it really depends on which beach you go to there is a beach with package holidaymakers and 4 star hotels (Colongatta). Than there is Ajuna famous for its rave parties even though they only do them between x mas and New Years nowadays as the police cracked down on them. In Ajuna you would also find some old long-term stayers and Hippy type guys. Than there is palolem the nicest beach here you can chill with other like-minded travelers.

Goa is definitely different to the rest of India. It is way more liberal there is no tax on alcohol and girls in bikini are as common as cows on the beach (no joke there is cows everywhere) you can get western food like beef and some really really good fish. The reason for that might be that Goa used to be a Portuguese colony and most of the people here are Christian.

I will go back to Goa for Christmas and New Years with a group of 30 other trainees.
Will be heaps of fun for sure and I also hope that I can make it to one of the infamous Goa Parties in Ajuna.

Here in Mumbai everything is still the same a lot of garbage, pollution people cars, cows, beggars ,pigs, dogs, rats and dirt.

I really don’t like this city and to be honest it is by far the worse city I have ever been to and I have been traveling extensively. The only cool thing living here is having all the other trainees around so there is always something to do.

For instance yesterday we had a Kenyan night with some food prepared by Phylyz our Kenyan trainee. The day before we went to see an Italian movie called into the light.

As a white person I am really VIP here we always get invited to parties and special events with stars and business people. At home people wouldn t even consider letting me attend such events. But here the western community kinda sticks together.
I also made the decision to quit my traineeship at the end of December as I am not learning anything and don’t have anything to do.

I plan to spent January to travel through India. The spiritual pass of enlightment .
Anyways I need to get out of this city even though I accepted and got used to a lot of things that I thought I would never get used to.

It is impressive when I have to tell the rickshaw driver that he did wrong turn at the last crossing and that this is not the right way to the office. They always think that I am a stupid tourist and that they can rip me off.

When there is one lesson I learned living in Mumbai than it is patience. Here it is always tomorrow everybody always says tomorrow even when they know that it will take at least one weak.

I must admit that I can’t see Indian food anymore. There is some really good food but the usual staff is just not my type, especially the vegetarian staff that we get in our canteen.

After traveling during January I will be back in Hamburg at the beginning of February.
Sorry for being that lazy updating this blog.

I try to make it more frequent for the rest of my journey.

I am still alive

2005-09-29T01:19:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody after a long time of not actualizing my blog, it is time to tell what I have been doing lately. First of all I think I adjusted to a lot of things over here. I can hardly hear the horns of the rickshaws anymore breathing through my nose became a novelty. (Cause of all the smells). One week ago there was the Ganesh Festival. That’s where all the people praise Ganesh (the Elephant god) what they do is they have statue up to 7 meters high on the back of some trucks and drive with them to the beach while dancing to some drum beats throwing red paint in the crowd and burning tons of crackers. After that the statues get thrown into the sea. We went there with a group of approximately 15 Trainees. The weird thing was where ever we gathered we were surrounded by at least 50 Indians that starred at us if we were all naked. But that is surprisingly a thing that is quite common over here whenever they see a white person it is something special for them like meeting Michael Jackson (who is quite white too now). Having worked here for just over 4 weeks, I got to say the Indian work culture is strange. They are really inefficient as there is a really strong hierarchy in every company, restaurant or shop which is defined by position age and cast. Whenever you go to restaurant and you say you want a drink. The guy you told that would go to the waiter and he would go to the guy responsible for the bill that guy would go to the bar and that guy will tell somebody to get a beer and the than the same thing happens into the other direction so I as a customer end up waiting 15 minutes for a beer. Within our company it is not as bad but comparable. Everyday I have to report to the person that holds the position above me. Also Indians would never disagree with their boss, what results that there is hardly any exchange of ideas that could improve some processes.
Anyways apart from working we (me and the other trainees from pretty much every county that you can think of) are partying a lot. Usually they play Hindi Pop here which is something like R & B or Top 10 Hip Hop with Hindi Lyrics. Lets talk about women over here. Some Indian women are really beautiful but most of them are very traditional.
This is the county of arranged marriages and sex is an absolute No issue over here. Most of the women are dressed in Saris that pretty much cover every cm of skin. Not as bad as the Muslim dresses but still. My colleague tried to explain me the whole arranged marriage thing. He said that nobody knows you as good as your parents do and that they are the best people to pick the person that is good for you long term. It is so funny there is heaps of contact notifications in the newspaper every day and also agencies that are specialized in finding the right partner. The second step is a gathering with parents women, men at the women’s parents house. Than both parties decide if it is a match or not.
Let s get to Indian food. 60 % of the Indians are vegetarian, so it is reasonable hard to find meat her( well at least much harder than in Europe). Indian either eat spicy or sweet food. Everything is quite greasy and served with rice dal and naan. Dal(like a bean soup)
Naan (really thin bread)
A thing that is still really amazing is huge gap between the rich and the poor. 60 % of Mumbai’s population lives in slums and it is not just unemployed people it is cops teachers and waiters as well. The rents are ridiculously high compared to the average income and it is the costs for some other things as well.
Tonight will be another Farwell party for Marco a guy from Ecuador.
So got to go back to work. Keep you guys informed.

First day of work

2005-08-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

After a more or less pleasant flight with Swiss airways (now I can understand why they almost got bankrupt) I arrived at Mumbai international airport.
A guy from AIESEC (the organization I do the traineeship with) picked me up from the airport and we took one of those taxis. They are all the same brand quite old and small but cute in a way. Somebody told me that people in India they have to pay a high luxury tax on imported cars. That is probably why you mostly see old cars and always the same brands. After leaving the airport area the first adventure began. INDIAN TRAFFIC
Having been to Bangkok and Taiwan I thought I have already experienced chaos on the streets, but traffic here is pure anarchy. I don t even know if they have any traffic rules.
Everybody just drives wherever there is some space left between all the other cars, rickshaws, people, cows and pigs. I don t even think I have seen a traffic light yet but the cows on the highway (if you can call that partly destroyed road a highway) probably wouldn’t care anyway if the traffic light is red or not.
Another thing I recognized is that the whole city is not really structured, as we westerners know it. There are Office buildings beside huge hills of garbage then there is modern beautiful apartment towers beside slums. There are no areas no city center there are little shops just about everywhere even in the slums. My flat mate put it the right way you can do and buy everything you want here in Mumbai you just have to know where you have to go to.
And that is a real challenge sometimes. My apartment is all right not what I would consider luxury but the only time I will go there is to sleep anyways. I live together with a few other trainees. 1 Japanese, 1 Romanian, 3 German and 1 British.
Today was my first day at work even though I wasn’t able to do much work I was able to get a broad overview about what the company does and has done ….
They were growing on a rate of 50 % last year and the number of employees in the IT sector increased from 2000 people in 2002 to 4500 people today.
That is just crazy if you compare that growth rate to the average growth rate of European companies. The office I am working in is located in a brand new office tower next to a lake with really great facilities like a gym and a cafeteria delicious Indian food.
I honestly really love Indian food all those strange spices and tastes.
A thing I have to get used to is the Indian English. Even though I would consider my English really good it is sometimes quite hard to understand the Indians. On Saturday I will do some sort of advertisement with all the other trainees (30 from about 12 different countries). There are Movie shootings, Ads and Promotion Jobs on for Westerners pretty much every week. I think it will take one or 2 weeks until I get used to my life here but at the moment it is just soooo weird and overwhelming. I will keep you guys up to date and by the way thank for all your E-Mails and comments on my Blog.
I will answer them as soon as I find the time.

Bollywood here I come

2005-08-26T02:48:00.000-07:00

Only a few more days and I will be on my way to Mumbai, Bollywood , Bombay or however you may call it.
I will live in this melting pod for 6 month to do a traineeship with Larsen & Toubro Infotech.

A 3.6 billion $ IT service company. But who knows I might become a Bollywood Movie star.

Just kidding…

The last few weeks were quite stressful as I had to organize heaps of staff like getting my visa processed, health insurance, booking a flight, moving from my apartment in Cologne back to my parents place in Hamburg…..

A endless list of things I had to do and as the acceptance for that traineeship came really short term there wasn’t much time left to get all those things done.

Well finally I am well prepared for my trip and have a few days left to chill with my friends here in Hamburg/Germany.

I might have told some of you that I will do a Traineeship somewhere else. Well all I can say is that I wrote heaps of applications to companies in Vancouver/Canada, Mexico City/Mexico and Melbourne/Australia and also had some telephone interviews with some of them, a Job offer with Ernst & Young in Mexico and a lot of rejections. But as India was on my mind from the very beginning of my application process it all went back to were it started from.

Sorry to my German speaking friends but I think as most of you are fluent in English or at least understand it, it the best way is to write one blog that everybody can understand.

That makes it much easier for me and I can also practise my English.

So I will keep all of you informed what I will be up to in India………..